Season FOUR OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

*Tries to make out face at left of cover*

What the heck? Is the GUINAN? When was she ever a main cast member? I guess we will be getting Jellico on season 6, and Q on the season 7 cover?

 

Very glad to hear Max Gabl was involved to make the planets! Cant wait for this!

 

Yep, that's why CBS-D is trading off with another VFX house. So they can keep the schedule that CBS management set. CBS Home Video wants all 7 seasons out in 3-years. So that means 2 in 2012, 3 in 2013, and 2 in 2014. So Season 5 should be released for the holiday season this year.

 

I feel ya, I've been going through the two released seasons (as I have time) by eliminating the lamer episodes (unless I have a soft spot for it) by following Bernd's rankings on Ex Astris Scientia, which I generally agree with, and skipping episodes that get less than a 5.

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/tng.htm

 

What the heck?

Silicon Avatar is NOT the worse TNG episode ever!

 

Yeah that's the only questionable ranking I've seen. I mean it's not great but Shades of Grey is far worse.

 

Modern Video has pretty good credentials. Were it not for the cronyism with HTV, they might have been in from the beginning. Either way, all seems to be well now.

With CBS-D handling the conform, Gabl doing the planets, and CBS-D consulting on the visual effects, this should be a slam dunk.

 

Guinan on the case, interesting. They cycled through the whole cast, but skipped Wesley. Then of course, they didn't put in Yar and Pulaski while they were on. I bet we'll see Ro Laren on season 5.

So four seasons in, Picard has made the cover each time (obviously), with Riker twice, and Guinan, Troi, Worf, Data, Crusher once.

 

A well that's different then I say watch 'em all and take as long as you want with 'em

 

Feature length Redemption? Yeah, I'm down for that. It'll sell far fewer than BoBW, but I'd be happy to grab any/all feature length versions. A pity the mid-season ones will probably be ignored, I'd love for Chain of Command and Unification.

 

But aren't you cheating a little by skipping ahead and watching BOBW in theaters this week?

 

I hope they don't go overboard with the standalone releases. I'm all for BOBW and Redemption, and probably the other season cliffhangers, but I will draw the line at stinkers like Gambit. No thank you.

These standalone releases only make sense for season finales/openers, because it gives the diehard fans an opportunity to have the season premiere months early. Releasing in-season episodes with exclusive features will only piss off the fans. It would look like CBS was withholding features from the season set to force the fan to buy it twice, much like with Day-1 DLC for a video game.

 

I really can't support the "double dip" argument that comes up around the standalone releases - yes, the BOBW disc has exclusive features, but you can take solace in the fact that because of all the other good stuff on the Season 3 set (90 minutes of documentary, a new 10-minute gag reel, and the 75-minute writers reunion), the features on the BOBW disc literally would not fit in the S3 set without adding a seventh disc, which would create a whole bunch of issues.

There's so much new content that they didn't have room for everything, and I'd rather them go all out and make that extra content available than not produce it at all.

 

I'm a bit concerned about the episode "Identity Crisis".
You may have noticed the jerkines in "We'll Always Have Paris" in this long panning shot when Picard first enters the Holodeck. This scene was shot in 30 fps for some reason, which was no problem in NTSC. The Blu-Ray however is 24p and this particular scene has applied a very ugly frame rate conversion making it that jerky.

Now the episode "Identity Crisis" has all the scenes on the planet and the holodeck simulation of it shot in 30 fps as well.
Please, don't make half that episode judder like this particular scene in "We'll Always Have Paris"! There must be a better way to do it properly. This issue is far worst than a 3:2 pullup, imho.

Other than this special case episode, some ship fly by scenes are also in 30 fps ocasionally throught all TNG, DS9 and VGR. I guess, the later CGI shots could be simply rerendered at 24fps, but how to tread the physical model shots?

Indeed. They could be easily done with seamless branching with little effort as only the credit parts have to be included twice on the disc. Maybe Trekcore should point that out to the staff in charge.

 

I'm no expert, but I would bet that the WAHP shot was done that way so that the film speed would match up with the frame rate of television monitor playing on-set.

 

Enterprise HD masters were made that way, they didn't change anything for the Blu-rays. TNG, DS9 and VOY need new masters, so they'll recreate anything that isn't HD, including digital effects.

Incidentally, some of the "Space Baby" and its mother was a physical model, some of it was CG. They'll have to rebuild the CG bits, but the model should hold up ok as is.

 

Those ratings are bizarre!