Season ONE OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' started by Mutai Sho-Rin, Jul 24, 2012.

  1. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    article about post production

    In this month's Post magazine on page 50 there is an article about TNG-R season 1 titled: CBS Digital 'makes it so' .
    It is a one-page article and currently not online at the magazine's site.
    You can see it here though. direct link via Google.

    Craig Weiss the TNG-R Visual Effects supervisor does most of the article interview.

    it mentions CBS Digital hired Autodesk compositing software Flame artist Don Greenberg who was also a compositor on the original production of TNG.
    So other than the Okuda's he is another of the original team brought on to do the work.
     
  2. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    I don't know. For me, the muddy picture and awful coloring before was always such a huge distraction, that it kept me from enjoying all but the very best of the episodes-- episodes where the writing was so strong, nothing was going to bring them down.

    But now, with the picture cleaned up so beautifully, I find myself liking some of the more average episodes a lot more. Episodes like Symbiosis, Hide and Q, and even Lonely Among Us, which I always dismissed before, actually seem pretty damn good now.

    Obviously the terrible episodes like Code of Honor and Angel One are still terrible, but for the most part I'd say the remastering has improved the season quite a bit.
     
  3. trekker670

    trekker670 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    I wouldn't say it makes the episodes themselves any better, it does make them more interesting to watch.
     
  4. Brikar99

    Brikar99 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    It goes by so fast in the actual episode. It's seriously just a quick shot of Riker turning his head.
     
  5. Jeyl

    Jeyl Commodore Commodore

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    I find it interesting how there are shots that look exactly the same that are in HD yet this one clip of Riker turning his head is missing. You think they used a different reel for his turning head from a take done before or after the reel we see in HD?
     
  6. Scotty

    Scotty Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    When you actually see it, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Even my wife noticed it. Yes you heard right... even my wife... ;)
     
  7. tomswift2002

    tomswift2002 Commodore Commodore

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    It could've been because the shot was not originally done on the same day as the rest of the episode. It might've even been shot a week or two weeks later when the editors found that there was maybe an issue with the film (such as the camera may've got bumped and for those two seconds the footage was extremely shaky). But I'm surprised that they couldn't find a similar shot from another episode to just splice in.

    But I was just rewatching the Binar episode, and it's too bad that the Blu-ray team didn't switch the shot of Quinteros and team walking hrough the docking port. It always looked weird, since they approach the Enterprise's door, and are right at it, but then they cut too the team walking out of the Starbase doors. I think those were originally suppose to be in the opposite order.
     
  8. Salinga

    Salinga Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    WTF!? I see it immediately! All the details are gone in the upconverted SD image...

    I often wonder, why many people dont see the quality encrease of an HD image. I hope, it's just my 130% eyesight sharpness... ;)
     
  9. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    I sort-of notice it but usually by the time I notice it the shot is over and I usually watch "Paris" with my eyes glazed over half in a coma anyway, so...
     
  10. Maxwell Everett

    Maxwell Everett Commodore Commodore

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    I'm pretty sure it was done on the same day... it's the same exact camera setup except for some cropping (mostly on the top, bottom and left) in the upconverted SD shot -- or you can say the new film scan actually shows too much of the exposed negative (you can even see beyond the extreme edge of the aperture on the right side). They could've used the previous shot when Riker first looks at Data and just reversed it so he appears to look at Picard. They could even have rotoscoped Riker's face from the upconverted shot onto the full HD shot, but that probably would've looked weird. He also puts his hands on his hips, so his posture changes.

    Here a direct comparison of the two shots:

    http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/142152

    In matching the frames, you can even see the lens distortion from the old telecine from 1988.
     
  11. Ghostface1701

    Ghostface1701 Commander Red Shirt

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    I know what you mean. I've finished the season now, and I was surprised at how tolerable most of the episodes were. The improved visuals really helped, as did not having seen many of these episodes in a couple of decades, if ever. For some reason, I'd seen Justice more times than is right, but even that seemed new and appealing this time round (maybe it was all that skin)...

    I'd held-off ordering Season 1 due to fear, but I had such a good time with it in the end, I'm now really looking forward to Season 2. I might even watch Shades of Gray! I can't imagine how I'll feel when I get my hands on the Season 3 set next year! :drool:
     
  12. gaghyogi49

    gaghyogi49 Commander Red Shirt

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    Here's the next EAS article in the observations series. This time: "Justice":
     
  13. FrontierTrek

    FrontierTrek Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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  14. NewHorizon

    NewHorizon Captain Captain

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    When I watched the episode I spotted it immediately. The screenshot does not convey the huge difference in quality. My wife also picked up on it right away.
     
  15. Jeyl

    Jeyl Commodore Commodore

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    Just finished Season One with "The Neutral Zone", and there's one line that has me conflicted.

    Picard: We've eliminated hunger, want. The need for possessions. We've grown out of our infancy.

    ....Does this mean I should return my BluRay set since I wanted it and now possess it? It feels weird buying something and having it call me infant-minded for wanting to own it.
     
  16. Patrick O'Brien

    Patrick O'Brien Captain Captain

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    ^Even in the future crew members have a few valued possessions, i.e. Picards books, Data's Hologram of Tasha, etc... You are allowed to own the entire TNG Bluray set, you just have to give away everything else;)
     
  17. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    Just watched Too Short a Season, and while it's watchable enough, I'm having a hard time understanding what the point of it all was. As far as I can tell, it was only to watch a guy de-age over the course of an episode.

    And that was a VERY strange and uncharacteristic music score they used in the episode. Sounded like it was from an entirely different series, and not even a scifi one at that. IMDB says it was by some guy named George Romanis, which I guess means Chattaway and Jones were busy that week or something.

    And I had no idea until now that the villain in this episode is the same "Garbage Scow" Klingon from Trouble with Tribbles! Looked almost nothing like him.
     
  18. Tosk

    Tosk Admiral Admiral

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    Let's work on eliminating hunger before you worry about buying a few Blu-rays, eh? :)
     
  19. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    I think you're reading way too deeply into it. By "eliminating want" Picard means that humans no longer always want more and more and more at the cost of their own financial security or at the cost of other's financial security.

    Everyone gets exactly what they need to live and can do exactly whatever it is what they want to do. There's no longer a "want" for more because you can always have everything you need almost literally at the press of a button.

    There's no longer rich people wanting to be richer.

    There's no longer middle-class people wanting to be rich.

    Moreover there's no longer countless millions living in squalor or on the streets wanting simply shelter and food.

    It's an interesting exchange between Picard and Offenhaus and I really wish we had gotten much more on the 20th century people AND from the Romulan sub-plot. Really I think both stories could warrant their own complete episodes. It'd have also been interesting to see how the later, more serious and solid, seasons would have handled these 20th century humans.

    Offenhaus also makes a pretty solid point when Picard recants the claim that Offenhaus' riches were for "control over his destiny." Picard says, "That kind of control is an illusion." Offenhaus quite correctly points out that his money DID buy him control over his future since money was enough to undo his own death and allow him to be revived in the distant future.

    It's also interesting that he points out how much he paid for this procedure, Sonny also seems to suggest it cost almost his entire net-worth (preventing it from going to his exes) yet the woman survivor doesn't seem like she's from a very wealthy lifestyle. (Further supported by the fact that her husband seemed flighty with their money.) So obviously the procedure was cheap enough for a middle-class man to afford.

    I will say this episode goes a bit far when it comes to "20th Century Human Bashing." There's times when Riker almost seems amused by these people but he resorts to bad-mouthing us when they're out of the room, wondering aloud how humans made it out of the 21st century.

    Seriously, Riker?

    I realize how they're so much more advanced than us not only technologically or culturally but today we're much more advanced than our 17th century counterparts, more civilized in countless ways and certainly better off in many ways. But we would hardly call them barbaric savages who nearly ruined humanity. (Even accepting the Eugenic Wars and WW3 in the 20th/21st centuries in Trek's history.) Riker, and Picard, should accept humans "are what they are" and couldn't change overnight. Bad-mouthing certainly the much "less civilized" 20th century humans could make a level of sense. But, sheesh, guys. Humanity wasn't going to change itself overnight.

    I know some EU stuff touched on what happened to Offenhaus (eventually becoming an Ambassador to the Ferengi) and somewhat to the woman, but I don't think much on Sonny. I sort of like to think his music and style was accepted pretty well given how it was likely something very different than what people listen to "presently."

    The interaction between Sonny and Data was fun and I do like how Offenhaus was able to read the Romulans so "easily." But he does act like a bit of a gigantic idiot. He's told he's on a starship, light years away from Earth and he keeps demanding a communications device somehow obtusely in the belief his lawfirm and bank have survived four hundred years worth of changes to society. He also says that whatever is going on on the ship "must seem important" to Picard but Picard couldn't really understand how much Offenhaus has to protect.

    Shut up, Ralph. You claim to be aware of the situation. This must not include the idea that you're on a space ship (what you considered a military craft) light years from Earth and that the man you're talking to is responsible for not only YOUR life but over 1000 others. When the man in charge tells you you're in a dangerous situation while in a huge piece of metal floating billions of miles from Earth you BELIEVE HIM!

    I also think it's funny the woman thinks she can tell the computer, "Johnny, he's four." when researching her family history and the computer's going to know exactly who she's talking about based on such scant information.
     
  20. Jeyl

    Jeyl Commodore Commodore

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    Re: The OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Season 1 Discussion Thread

    So... why not just say that instead of stating that eliminating "want" in it's most absolute form? Picard seems to have little to no interest in telling this guy that anything he wants he could probably get without the use of money or lawyers. But no, he just tells them that possessions are a thing of the past and he needs to grow up.