TNG HD coming to Syfy (UK)

[DrBeverly]

I never saw S1 til after I'd seen most of the rest of the series, so I knew what was going to happen, and specifically I knew about Denise Crosby's wave in Symbiosis. I therefore recorded Symbiosis from the TV so I could go back and freeze frame it to see it.

This did have the unfortunate effect of meaning that Symbiosis was one of the very few ST:TNG episodes I had on video (along with Where No One Has Gone Before, for some reason), which meant that I ended up watching it again and again.

[Kegg]

DrBeverly wrote:

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This did have the unfortunate effect of meaning that Symbiosis was one of the very few ST:TNG episodes I had on video (along with Where No One Has Gone Before, for some reason), which meant that I ended up watching it again and again.

While the only Tasha Yar-featuring episode I recorded on VHS was "Yesterday's Enterprise."

Although for some reason one of the half-dozen VHS tapes of Star Trek I did own were three first seasn episodes - "Lonely Among Us", "The Battle" and "Justice", so I've watched those over and over and over to the point I am weirdly and inexplicably fond of them.

[Rarewolf]

I kept reusing the same tape for season 1, but I kept Farpoint and ended up with Skin Of Evil right after it. Kept everything from season two onwards. Some how missed Q Who - must of been on holiday!

I did buy the tapes of Arsenal Of Freedom/Symbosis and Conspiracy/Netural Zone, as the first of each of those two tapes really stuck in my memory.

So in a funny way Shades Of Grey was great for me at the time, I had loads of the better clips from episodes I no longer had.

It wasn't until the BBC got to the end and started again I found out I'd had an edited copy of Farpoint all that time. They had a weird feature length cut for the first broadcast, from the two part version. I can still just about spot what scenes seem newer. But as it was on a week after the flashbacks in All Good Things, it was and odd viewing the first time!

[Kegg]

Rarewolf wrote:

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I did buy the tapes of Arsenal Of Freedom/Symbosis and Conspiracy/Netural Zone, as the first of each of those two tapes really stuck in my memory.

Good picks. Last I watched the first season Arsenal and Conspiracy were two of the (very few) episodes I put in the 'good' column. I think it's basically just that and maybe the Minuet episode, but we'll see how I feel at the end of this rewatch.

[DrBeverly]

Rarewolf wrote:

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It wasn't until the BBC got to the end and started again I found out I'd had an edited copy of Farpoint all that time. They had a weird feature length cut for the first broadcast, from the two part version. I can still just about spot what scenes seem newer. But as it was on a week after the flashbacks in All Good Things, it was and odd viewing the first time!

I did exactly that, watched All Good Things then Encounter at Farpoint - very confusing!

By the way, it looks like Syfy have fixed the episode description problem now - which annoyingly made today's recording fail, as it was The Battle, and TiVo thought yesterday was The Battle too.

[Nero's Shadow]

I use to rent the videos from a video rental shop called video park two episodes per tape they were on nstc but luckily I'd my uncle had a video from the USA !!!

[Kegg]

Anyone notice Syfy's description of "The Big Goodbye"? Whoever wrote that seems to think it's a time travel episode.

[Kegg]

I had thought this was just going to be season one, but they're starting season two this coming Tuesday (after "The Neutral Zone" wraps up the first season on Monday) so there's that.

[DrBeverly]

Yeah, I noticed that too. Surprising if so... Obviously, it could be that they also have the rights to the non-HD/remastered version, so could be that they'll shove that on from Season 2 instead.

But I hope not!

[Kegg]

^
Since they're billing the entire thing as the first HD broadcast (and since the HD boxsets of season 2 already exist) I'd assume not. It's already been possible to view non-remastered TNG on HD channels (chances are you can still find it airing on Sky Atlantic).

I know I'm looking forward to it. Season two may not, overall, be one of the show's good years, but it has more good episodes than the first year ("Contagion", "The Emissary", "Elementary My Dear Data", "A Matter of Honor") and, of course, two of the best episodes of the series run ("The Measure of a Man", "Q Who?").

[DrBeverly]

Yeah, you're probably right - I was just surprised it would be broadcast so close to the blu-ray release date (hell, I was surprised we had Season 1 already).

And indeed, looking forward to S2. It has some very good episodes, and it's probably the season I've seen least. S1 has more clunkers than I remembered... Too Short A Season - so dull!

[Kegg]

^
It truly is. I'm more surprised that I don't hate "Haven" and "When the Bough Breaks" as much as I used to, although both are truly pretty bad hours of TV. I guess it's the chance to just hang out with these characters again that's disposing me so well to them.

Interesting note: Remmick's famously graphic and combustile death was edited out of the broadcast for "Conspiracy", meaning if you want to see his carcass fry in glorious HD you'd better buy the boxset. This isn't that surprising as it's been edited out before, but kind of a shame as I was looking forward to that as it was one of the more elaborate effects shots of the first season.

[Phily B]

maybe the ratings are good, so they paid a bit extra for HD season 2?

i just wish DS9 still aired a few times, though i understand why they don't show that.

[DrBeverly]

I hadn't got to 'Conspiracy' yet - gutted to hear that Remmick's death's been edited out (much like it was on BBC2 back in the day).

I also enjoyed Haven and When the Bough Breaks, and several other bad episodes. They're the kind that are good-bad, with plenty of things to laugh at and snark on, whereas Too Short A Season is just... dull.

Next up is The Arsenal of Freedom, otherwise known as Beverley Falls Down A Hole.

[SoM]

DrBeverly wrote:

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Yeah, you're probably right - I was just surprised it would be broadcast so close to the blu-ray release date (hell, I was surprised we had Season 1 already).

Well, TOS-R started syndicating in the US well before the HD-DVD release. At least half the reason they're doing TNG-HD is to preserve the value of the syndication rights as more and more channels look for HD content over SD, in the same way TOS was so brightly coloured back in the 60s because they wanted viewers to feel they were missing out if they watched in B&W.