Season TWO OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' started by JJ-R, Sep 5, 2012.

  1. Borjis

    Borjis Commodore Commodore

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    THATS what I'm talking about.:cool: (490.jpg)

    When I first saw that in the sampler disc, the first thought was for once the Excelsior looks great again like it did in ST III.

    It never looked good on the DVD sets.

    Grain aside the problem in particular with Excelsior is that it wasn't color-corrected. (005.jpg)
    Plus we know the Excelsior is not green/yellow cast. Unless it just paid a visit to that Tholian weird space territory.
     
  2. MiKE42

    MiKE42 Ensign Red Shirt

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    That sucks Patrick! But I feel your pain! I pre-ordered from Amazon late last month, but even so, they now estimate a shipping date which is two days AFTER it is released here in
    Australia!

    Hmm...think I`ll be cancelling this order ;)

    Hope Amazon do a better job for Season 3.

    Cheers
     
  3. MiKE42

    MiKE42 Ensign Red Shirt

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    Ugh!
    What were HTV thinking?
    That shot of the Excelsior-class from S2 is rubbish.
    Hope it doesn`t stick out so much with its crappy lack
    of color correction and grain in the actual ep.

    But I sure won`t be using that S2 screencap as my wallpaper
    (as I have been for months for the above shot for S1...of the Ent-D and the Hood, love that shot!!)

    Thank goodness HTV-i is gone after this season!
     
  4. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Just started watching some of the features and here's some thoughts, even though I haven't watched a lot.

    Making it So: Part 1

    I can already say this is living up to the standards set by Stardate revisited from Season 1. One thing I'm really picking up though this time around is how candid and open Rick Berman was. Like him or hate him (And man I remember the days when I first joined where he was literally the most hated man ever to be associated with Star Trek), I'm appreciating his candor here, especially when he admitted his mistake of maintaining a distance with the fans. I didn't like what he did with Star Trek in the Enterprise years, but I respect him for the good that he did do.

    A lot of this part seemed to be mostly from the screening I went to last week. You had Malinda Snodgrass talking about writing Measure of a Man, Rob Bowman on how he got his start with Elementary Dear Data and Q Who? and it's just really well done.

    I think the thing I like about these special features over the ones from the DVD is that they feel a whole lot more conclusive. Here I think half of season 1 was featured or clipped on, while in the DVDs they only talked about 2 or 3 episodes. I hate to use the word because it's become one of the most overused words this year, but the "Narrative" feels like it's flowing a whole lot more here. Also, the footage of Phase 2 and that segment was really really interesting as I've never really seen any Phase 2 footage before other than the Motion Picture special feature of the Director's Cut.

    Reading Rainbow Segment

    It's been a long time since I saw Reading Rainbow, but man this segment was awesome. You really do go behind the scenes and understand what it took to put this show together. Sometimes I feel like I learn a whole lot more if you hear it on a child's level (I feel the same way at Mass too when it's like a school mass and the Homily is targeted towards children) and it was just neat. I'm sure it's easier today (With a much bigger budget too) but I do really wonder how much this process has changed. Other than CGI, I'm not sure it's changed all that much.

    Season 2 Tech Update

    Not much to be said here. You had Dan Curry talk about the restoration process and through it all I was kind of rolling my eyes.

    I know there were talks about Boycotting this set because of the issues involved, but I can't boycott a set that gave me more inside footage of my favorite show, really providing that Narrative from the birth of the series to it's continuing development, and the crew being able to get Diana Maulder and John De Lancie to be interviewed. I'm hoping part 2 covers more ground in terms of why Gates McFadden left (Which is what I've been hoping for) and why Diana Maulder left at the end of the season never to be heard from again. I hope they talk more about the writers strike (They even talked about Shades of Gray in Part 1) and get deeper into behind the scenes of Season 2. I know I won't be disappointed because I'm already grateful for what this crew and CBS have brought already. I keep saying it, this is what I wanted on the original DVD release.
     
  5. Phily B

    Phily B Commodore Commodore

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  6. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    I'm watching the various extended features right now, loved the cast reunion.

    Oh, and even though they're mostly meaningless graphical sprites, I'm glad the large "dead area" in the menu was filled in with SOMETHING.
     
  7. Beatnik

    Beatnik Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Ended up cancelling my unshipped Amazon order, as my Best Buy had it in stock. It was nice to be treated to the Season 3 trailer right off the bat. Damn, those sets got bright in S3!
     
  8. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Ditto. Here's the main quote from Dan Curry (I cut out the hypothetical bit about 17K and 3D):

    Uh huh. Their dedication to excellence and never saying "that's good enough, just let it go" resulted in this:

    [​IMG]

    But he was right. This is how season 2 will live for an indefinite period of time, and that's what sucks.
     
  9. Dick_Valentine

    Dick_Valentine Commander Red Shirt

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    Season 3 trailer looks EPIC, almost makes me want to forget season 2 completely and move straight on to the season 3 thread!

    (Although....was the Enterprise ALWAYS firing phasers at the Borg ship from it's NACELLE struts? Seems an odd angle and not something it ever did before or since, though I'm sure I'm just mis-remembering rather than doubting the work of CBS-D )

    Disappointing they didn't improve the flat BOP explosion in Yesterdays Enterprise though, but maybe that's just a trailer goof.
    (And I look forward to seeing it AGAIN at the end of Redemption and AGAIN in RASCALS among others.... ;) )

    Back to S2, I can't believe they didn't do anything about the 2ft model.
    The thing looks damn unwatchable at times. Particularly the scene in the wormhole in Time Squared....honestly, even CGI would've looked better than that debacle.
    It doesn't even make sense within episode either.
    The Enterprise goes from highly detailed surface textures to suddenly a wormhole appearing completely flat.
    Maybe it was a 2-dimensional wormhole but the interior scenes showed no evidence of the crew being crushed inside their own quarters/ten forward nor were there any reports stating as such, so for it to suddenly appear flat and lifeless is just wrong.
     
  10. BrEnDoN

    BrEnDoN Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Which explosion are you talking about? I can't find a bad looking explosion in that trailer...
     
  11. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    In BOBW one of the times Picard orders Worf to "fire all phasers!" and, yes, Worf does fire from the phasers that are on the nacelle pylons.
     
  12. Dick_Valentine

    Dick_Valentine Commander Red Shirt

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    Odd. In my (admittedly probably wrong) mental picture of the Enterprise's firing arcs It shouldn't be able to do that, those phasers are rear defenders rather than forward attackers aren't they?

    If they are indeed able to do that, why don't they always do that when they need the firepower?
    They certainly needed as many arrays as possible fighting the husnoc ship among many other possible scenarios ;)
     
  13. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Being so used to season 1 and 2, I forgot how much brighter the photography was in seasons 3-7. That will take some getting used to.

    Thank goodness the black cardboard on the rear of the bridge sets will be gone going forward. That gets pretty distracting in HD.
     
  14. Joanna McCoy-Kirk

    Joanna McCoy-Kirk Commodore Commodore

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    Madame Mail-lady brought my copy from Amazon today. I haven't watched it yet because of inclement weather in the area; I'm looking forward to seeing the extended version of Measure of a Man.
     
  15. Ghostface1701

    Ghostface1701 Commander Red Shirt

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    That Season 3 trailer was beautiful. I'm hoping that some of those shots are work-in-progress though, as they could still do with some work. I was hoping they'd correct that shot of phasers coming from half-way up the inside of the nacelle pylons, as there are no emitters there.
     
  16. Who1

    Who1 Commander Red Shirt

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    I do wish they'd get EdenFX involved for these sets - their experience with the best CGI of the last three Trek series would be invaluable. Their Enterprise D model is ace, and surely they would have done well with wormholes and planets etc.
     
  17. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Well, I watched the rest of the special features tonight and "The Child." The only thing I'm going to say about the Child is I think it's the exterior shots that are the biggest issues (The ship itself still looks too washed out) but the interior shots are impressive. While "The Child" isn't one of my favorite episodes, I do think when it comes to visuals, it's underrated and there were two shots (relatively close together) that I really thought were enhanced. The first was the camera panning outside Ten Forward and we see the Mural behind Guinan and that was a great shot. It's so clear and shiny now. That green providing the background came through really well and it's something like that I wish we had seen on Q Who. The second was the warping effect, still inside Ten Forward. Again, great shot back then, better shot now.

    As for the remainder of the special features:

    Making it So: Part 2

    Again, CBS is living up to the standards they set in Season 1. It was great to finally set the record straight on why McFadden left, and it was a great interview with Maulder. I do think though that given another season, Pulaski would have been better developed. I think it was in Part 1 where Michael Dorn was considering leaving because it wasn't worth putting on the Make-Up 2 hours a day just to stand around. Well, he stayed because his role got bigger and we all know how he ended up. I do wonder what Pulaski's fate would have been had Mualder stayed. I was a little bummed we didn't get Maulder to talk about why she left and never came back to the series as a guest star though, but maybe that will come in later seasons.

    I will say though, I thought at the end they were focusing too much on the special effects, but it was great to see how Neglium and the Tunnel from Time's Squared came to be. I'm not sure we needed the Q Who explaination on both the documentary and the Tech Update though.

    TNG Cast Reunion: Reunification

    First things first, I think I was way way too harsh on Marina Sirtis. When I watched the screening and heard her say "With all due respect to the other Trek shows, TNG was the flagship show", I was actually angered by that statement. Well, watching it again and seeing it in context, I still disagree with her that TNG was the flagship show, but I think I understood why she said it. TNG was successful, and in the early seasons of DS9 and most of Voyager, they tried to emulate that success. Still, the flagship show featured Kirk and Spock.

    Another thing regarding Sirtis is she really let it all out during this hour. In fact, she made up for that flagship statement with her point about TNG providing a nice counterbalance to a lot of today's TV. I actually agree with her because, let's face it, a lot of Today's TV for one is really negative, and two, there are a lot of bad role models out there. It is great to go back to a series like TNG and think, yeah there is still hope for a better future. It would be nice if we had a TV show where the future was bright and not as dark as most shows have become.

    This entire hour was really really awesome. From the Madeline Albright story, to how fans have reacted to the series, I've learned a lot about my favorite show buying these blu rays and visual effects be damned, these special features make that $70 worth it. The story about the woman who had Aspergers, or the cop who has lost all faith in humanity but still holds onto the Trek future, I would love to meet these people. I'm glad the cast did this, and again, I'm sorry to Marina Sirtis for calling her a ditsy chick. I still don't think she was a good actress until First Contact and Voyager though. ;)

    Anyway, well done to CBS for putting these together, and I'll end by doing the same thing I did after Season 1 came out, what special features I would like to see for Season 3:

    -Gates McFadden coming back and what made her decide to come back

    -Denise Crosby having a significant change of heart and coming back and becoming a major player in the Star Trek Universe with the Trekkies movies

    -An Interview with Whoopi Goldberg done in 2012/2013

    -They say there is going to be a behind the scenes look at the making of Best of Both Worlds. I say awesome

    -Some kind of Archival interview with Michael Piller (RIP :( ) when he was first brought on. If there was one special feature I liked on the DVDs it was anything Michael Piller, North Carolina hat and all, said. I would love a segment covering him coming on to become kind of the new showrunner and how that ended up catapulting TNG into the successful show that it was.

    Whatever they come up with in the Season 3 special features, I can't wait.
     
  18. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    When watching The Schizoid Man, I notice a change to an often-used effect. It happens during that near-warp transport, when the Enterprise warps away.

    However, instead of the normal effects shot where it transitions to the 2-foot model after the flash, it remains the 6-foot model. Odd choice, as that forced them to essentially use a still shot of the 6-footer to achieve the warp effect.
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2012
  19. Tommunist

    Tommunist Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Same here. None in the Buffalo area. If I wanted to drive 50 miles out, I could pick one up. I will assume it's a distribution issue for now, and will check online again tomorrow. Should've gone with Amazon (which just gave me me "Federation: The First 150 Years" book!) but I am a Best Buy Rewards zone member, so like to rack up some points.

    This at least allowed me to finish the above mentioned book tonight (very cool, indeed), but was looking around online in various forms to see if other areas were also in a TNG drought thanks to Best Buy.

    By the way, first time post from a lurker. Hello, all! :)
     
  20. Salinga

    Salinga Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    There you have it: Season 3 Trailer
    [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n85J7KYOtAg[/yt]