Clever step of CBS to release ST ENT on BD now?

Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by Beta-Z, Jan 24, 2013.

  1. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    :lol:That would be awesome.
     
  2. toughlittleship

    toughlittleship Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    DS9 did better than Voyager and was one of the top rated series of the 90s.
     
  3. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    True. But it never faired very well after its 'first run' ended. That may factor into any decision to update it for HD.
     
  4. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    CBS should remember that some peopel might way for the inevitable complete box set before buying TNg on BR.
     
  5. euphorik

    euphorik Captain Captain

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    i liked ENT a lot on first-run, and still like it a lot. while i wouldn't rank it in the holy trinity if TOS/TNG/DS9, it's held up - aside for the cringeworthy, horrific theme music - much, much better thna VOY has (though i have mellowed on that show quite a bit). i have always thought that much of the criticism leveled at ENT was unfair - they were right on schedule with all the other sequel shows, each trek show took 3 or 4 season to find its own unique style, and ENT was no different. sure, there were a lot of crap episodes in the first few seasons, but you can say that about any post-TOS trek, and season 4 of ENT is nearing TNG/DS9 levels of excellence and was far better than the derivative, technobabble-heavy VOY.

    i suspect ENT is coming iut on blu-ray now simply because, as previously mentioned, it requires the least work for blu-ray release, and also to serve as ST "product" to indirectly promote the new jj abrams crapfest.
     
  6. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    DS9 did better than Voyager, yes, but it didn't really do that well in the ratings. It only had a fraction of the viewers TNG had.
     
  7. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    Ten films and three seasons of TOS were released on Blu-Ray to coincide with the 2009 movie.

    Two seasons of TNG and two (?) seasons of ENT are being released to coincide with the 2013 movie.

    Doesn't look like market saturation to me. It also doesn't look that different in quantity.
     
  8. toughlittleship

    toughlittleship Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I think 7% was mentioned somewhere, with TNG having 11%. But come on, TNG had basically no competitors; DS9 had TNG and VOY themselves, as well as B5, Xena, Hercules, X-Files etc.
     
  9. Anji

    Anji Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Hey dude, don't do that. Buy what you like to watch. Take it from an old time Trekkie, they're gonna release DS9 and VOY anyway because IT IS STAR TREK. And anything Star Trek eventually gets released, and re-released and re-re-released.

    They want the money. They know were out here willing to buy. They're just waiting for when they think fandom is strongest for those shows before releasing the BDs.

    Until then enjoy your DS9 and VOY on videotape or however you watch them. Don't become a slave to Paramount.
     
  10. Joe_Atari

    Joe_Atari Commander Red Shirt

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    Damn right it's clever; somehow CBS & Paramount have people thinking if people don't buy every Trek video release there won't be any more! I am so in the wrong line of work...

    Seriously though, are people just assuming this to be the case or did an exec at CBS actually come out and say that future releases depend on everyone buying the previous ones?

    This x10. I can't believe it took 29 posts for anyone to say it (and Anji beat me to it by just a few hours). I'll take it even further; CBS's revenues from these BD releases are gravy in the grand scheme of things. The real money comes from selling the series into broadcast (or streaming or whatever) syndication, which the HD remaster enables them to do to a much greater extent. If anything hurts DS9 in this regard relative to other Trek series it's its then-novel serialized format in its later years; serialized shows tend to not play as well when stripped in syndication (i.e. people who can commit 1 hour a week to a series may have problems doing the same 5 times a week). Furthermore, the main market for the BD releases really and truly is the avid fan community, and I find it amazing (and gratifying) that it is large enough to justify the work that went into the supplements. Let's face it, Joe Sixpack who might have caught TNG at the height of its popularity when he was in college is not shelling out $60-80 per season for these sets; he's long since moved onto current flavors like NCIS, Vegas, etc. (not that there's anything wrong with those shows; of course TNG was a popular flavor at one time as well) and couldn't care less about Robert Meyer Burnett's (amazing) VAM.

    So I'm amazed at how many people around here bought TNG S1 & S2 even though they feel most of those episodes sucked (the questionable mastering job on S2 aside) and they couldn't wait for S3; as though if they didn't buy S1 & S2 there would be no S3 (OMG no BOBW!). By all means spend your money how you want, but for heaven's sake don't spend it on something you don't even like! Support DS9? Please...

    I'm really not concerned how fans spend their money; what concerns me is that when people buy substandard products (I'm looking at you, TNG S2 BDs) it tells CBS and Paramount that Trek fans don't care about quality -- that they really will buy anything with Star Trek slapped on it (this doesn't apply to JJ's "Star Track" films, which really aren't aimed at Trek fans anyway) and they can cut corners all day long. Why do proper remasters on the theatrical features (except TWOK) when we can slap substandard broadcast HD masters on the BDs and sell just as many... and repackage them and sell them again a couple of times over! Although with JJ's films taking center stage over at Paramount it might be a while before we see those remastered. And why properly vet the post facilities handling the intricate TNG HD remasters? Give the gig to the lowest bidder and if one of the former VFX staffers on the show happens to be an employee, investor, or principal, so much the better!

    Nothing against ENT, but the only reason I can see for it to be released now it that CBS must not think timing is very important for sales and best to make a few bucks (again, gravy) while BD is still viable and with streaming becoming more and more capable and prevalent. Even though theoretically it would be competing with future seasons of TNG for the finite resources (both time and money) of Trek fans in a tough economy, I guess they feel it makes sense.
     
  11. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I'm sorry... can't bring myself to spend the money on something I can get off Netflix just as easy enough. :p
     
  12. Frontier

    Frontier Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Trust me when I tell you: the folks at CBS really want to put DS9 and VGR out. The people doing the remastering and such are all big-time fans. A lot of the execs in charge are even fans. They just have to (for job security and basic business reasons) make sure it won't be throwing money out the airlock, you know? The money needed to fix the 90s shows up is significant. Enterprise coming out now is simply because it doesn't cost them next to anything to release on blu-ray now, where as a couple of years ago it would have cost a modest amount. It's all about the timing/expense of tech.
     
  13. Leroy

    Leroy Commodore Commodore

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    I know DS9 got less ratings than TNG on TV but how has is fared as far as media sales go like VHS and DVD? As far as the IDW comics go from what I heard 'Fool's Gold' was just a throw away story from the 4th season and wasn't that great it's not like it was a finely crafted Dominion war story from Alan Moore drawn by Alex Ross. A soundtrack CD? almost 15 years after the show went off the air? for the most part DS9 had Berman mandated backround music I doubt hardly anyone was clamoring for that, unlike a Ron Jones boxset.

    How did DS9 season 1 do on DVD? Must have done well enough to release the whole series though granted it didn't require any extensive remastering at the time. One could argue that TNG or TOS aren't commercially viable either based on the lackluster performance of STV and NEM at the time.

    Yeah but are the shows on Netflix in Hi Def though?
     
  14. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    So? IDW has plenty of Trek comics which are basically just throw away stories set in the middle of the TV runs of TOS and TNG and they still dols much better. Then there's their ongoing series set in the Abramsverse, which are essentially adaptations of TOS episodes with the characters drawn to look like the nu actors, yet they are bringing in some pretty decent numbers. And finally, there's Countdown, the Trek XI prequel comic, which is universally dissed as awful and terrible, and yet it and its graphic novel compilation sold so well it's been re-printed in a special edition hardcover graphic novel and it got a sequel series (Nero). In light of these statitics, Fool's Gold did do very poorly indeed.

    Exactly, it didn't require extensive remastering, it was a relatively cheap transfer. Mind you, I see the DVDs of DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise in bargain bins more often than TOS and TNG.

    The failure of Nemesis did make Trek movies not commercially viable for most of the last decade. Hell, the period between Nemesis and XI is the longest between two Trek movies, and XI was a reboot at that.
     
  15. LobsterAfternoon

    LobsterAfternoon Commander Red Shirt

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    Did people hate Star Trek: Countdown? I'm more plugged into comics than I am Trek, and in the comics world, it's not particularly noted for being good or bad. I have it and it's a basic but fine enough comic for devotees.
     
  16. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Just go look up Countdown discussions around here. You'll see what I mean.
     
  17. LobsterAfternoon

    LobsterAfternoon Commander Red Shirt

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    Ah. I looked it up on Memory Alpha and regular Wiki and they seemed to take the position that it was mostly well-received, but they probably just took 4 shitty comic book critics' reviews as proof of that. Still, I have a hard time seeing how someone could hate Countdown. It was pretty inoffensive and showed that the Prime timeline was preserved.
     
  18. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I don't think Countdown is at all universally hated. I enjoyed it. I thought most of the negative comments centred around continuity issues (the comic was written from a non-final draft of the script, as a result events don't quite allign with the mind-meld scene in the movie) and that the novelverse should tell it's own version of the supernova event.