Has TNG Been Remastered?

[Harvey]

Trekker4747 wrote:

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It really depends, re-editing all of the episodes from the original film negatives would be an enormous undertaking. Every episode would pretty much need to be redone from scratch. That's even assuming the negatives are in any condition to undergo the process and won't need fixing/reproducing themselves.

CBS/Paramount isn't stupid (unlike, say, the way Warner Bros. treated Babylon 5). I'm sure the negatives have been well-preserved. They're almost certainly in better shape than the 35mm film of the original Star Trek, since they were edited on video and thus subjected the film negatives to less wear and tear.

AriesIV wrote:

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Instead of doing the entire show why not hold a vote and remaster the all-time ten fan-favorite episodes for special release. Odds are "shades of gray" will NOT be one of them.

Hold the vote on Star Trek Online keep the voting open for six months then make it so.

True, although "Shades of Grey" would be one of the easiest episodes to remaster, since it's mostly composed of clips from other episodes and stock shots.

[Trekker4747]

BlobVanDam wrote:

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Would it be that much harder than TOS? I would think the TNG film would be in better condition than TOS, being 20 years newer (assuming it was stored well). Or did they not need to re-edit the footage together for TOS?

They didn't need to edit the film for TOS since TOS was edited on film. So it was a simple matter of running the film through the process of cleaning it up and "remastering" it.

For TNG they have to go back to the editing process and put the episodes back together again from square one.

[BlobVanDam]

Trekker4747 wrote:

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They didn't need to edit the film for TOS since TOS was edited on film. So it was a simple matter of running the film through the process of cleaning it up and "remastering" it.

For TNG they have to go back to the editing process and put the episodes back together again from square one.

Gotcha. I wasn't sure if they might have recut TOS anyway, just to clean up transitions and whatever else. So that does make it a lot more time consuming if they have to recut it.

But if it helps them make up their mind, I'll gladly help on doing some of the CGI (I believe the software they used on the TOS remasters is the same one I use)

[BillJ]

Harvey wrote:

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CBS/Paramount isn't stupid (unlike, say, the way Warner Bros. treated Babylon 5). I'm sure the negatives have been well-preserved. They're almost certainly in better shape than the 35mm film of the original Star Trek, since they were edited on video and thus subjected the film negatives to less wear and tear.

I wouldn't be so sure... we've seen Paramount make short-sighted decisions before, editing the 24th century shows on video tape to save money and only rendering the TMP Directors' Edition effects at 480i resolution.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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If a uniform is worn repeatedly and washed, over and over, it will fade. This is why characters like Beverly, who wore the same blue uniform for the series run, seem to wear a much darker blue than, for example, Picard in "Tapestry". In that ep, his uniform was brighter, because it had never been worn before.

Nope. For one thing, fading from washing would not cause Beverly's uniform - which was not "the same uniform for the series run" or probably even for a single shooting week - to be darker than a new costume.

Different dye lots and the use of different materials (wool for later male uniforms, Spandex for the first uniform designs for both sexes and for women throughout) accounted for most color variations.

[williamsto]

I would love this to happen, because when I watch the older episodes, I sometimes shake my head on how dated the effects look.

[Trekker4747]

See, I find myself watching the show and find myself impressed with how good the effects are! The S2 episode "Time Squared" when the ship is over the vortex struggling to stay stable is a beautiful shot and to think it was done with very primitive, by today's standards, effects and little to no CGI is impressive to me.

The "hokiest" things to me are minor things that are just a product of the limitations of the time, like when the Enterprise is near a much smaller sized ship but both ships look pretty much the same size (For example, the Stargazer isn't likely to be much larger than a Constitution-class vessel but when the two are near each other both ships look about the same size) or when the limitation of choice when comes to guest ships means that we see the same ship over and over again. Oh, this time it's a different color, or upside down or whatever.

But mostly I think the TNG effects are good, the problem is they're not on a material that can survive an upgrade to HD resolutions and still produce a very good looking product.

[Warped9]

To the best of my knowledge, no, TNG hasn't been remastered. But recently (as you can see in another thread in this forum) I've been rewatching TNG and I've noticed what seems to be an improvement in visual quality. Mind you I'm watching these on dvd through on upgrading dvd player onto a 32" Samsung LCD television, so I think I'm simply seeing detail, clarity and even hearing new sounds that weren't coming through when I saw these original twenty years ago on a CRT television.

In regard to the existing f/x I find some of them cartoony, but I ascribe that more to poor choice in how some of them were executed. The visible tractor beams and such look ridiculously overdone and very cartoony. Some space scenes and f/x look more like they belong in 2D cel animation. Some of the colour saturation in the f/x is too much and looks like it should be toned down.

That said on the flip side the uniform colours seem to be coming off better. Too often in the past I thought the command uniforms looked rather mauve than red and the science uniforms looked more teal than blue.

[trekfan69]

TOS is the only Trek show I will probably ever own on Blu Ray. I have TNG and DS9 on DVD and that's just fine with me.

[RAMA]

One day....one day....The only series I will own ALL of on Bluray will be STNG. I have a new Bluray player and 47" LCD ready for it when it comes.

RAMA

[RAMA]

Warped9 wrote:

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In regard to the existing f/x I find some of them cartoony, but I ascribe that more to poor choice in how some of them were executed. The visible tractor beams and such look ridiculously overdone and very cartoony. Some space scenes and f/x look more like they belong in 2D cel animation. Some of the colour saturation in the f/x is too much and looks like it should be toned down.

This is mainly a result of the resolution of video. Some episodes have a really solid selection of shots with good FX, others use some limited angles. I think the combination of redone HD FX as well as a greater variety of shots will not only "spruce up" the episodes it'll be a revelation.

Trekker4747 wrote:

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See, I find myself watching the show and find myself impressed with how good the effects are! The S2 episode "Time Squared" when the ship is over the vortex struggling to stay stable is a beautiful shot and to think it was done with very primitive, by today's standards, effects and little to no CGI is impressive to me.

The "hokiest" things to me are minor things that are just a product of the limitations of the time, like when the Enterprise is near a much smaller sized ship but both ships look pretty much the same size (For example, the Stargazer isn't likely to be much larger than a Constitution-class vessel but when the two are near each other both ships look about the same size) or when the limitation of choice when comes to guest ships means that we see the same ship over and over again. Oh, this time it's a different color, or upside down or whatever.

But mostly I think the TNG effects are good, the problem is they're not on a material that can survive an upgrade to HD resolutions and still produce a very good looking product.

Again it IS the resolution that ruins some of the FX. I noticed the lack of resolution on a 19" TV back in 1987!!! You can see how it would look now. The show is crying out for the Bluray treatment!

RAMA

[BillJ]

RAMA wrote:

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One day....one day....The only series I will own ALL of on Bluray will be STNG. I have a new Bluray player and 47" LCD ready for it when it comes.

RAMA

Better save some money for the next home video format... because that'll probably be when Next Gen makes the jump to hi-def (if ever). Enterprise will be the next series to make the jump to Blu-ray.

[RAMA]

BillJ wrote:

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Better save some money for the next home video format... because that'll probably be when Next Gen makes the jump to hi-def (if ever). Enterprise will be the next series to make the jump to Blu-ray.

I don't know...they've tested and worked on this behind the scenes for years now...the TOS-R was a surprise announcement, STNG could be too.

RAMA

[RAMA]

BillJ wrote:

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I wouldn't be so sure... we've seen Paramount make short-sighted decisions before, editing the 24th century shows on video tape to save money and only rendering the TMP Directors' Edition effects at 480i resolution.

It wasn't short-sighted, it was the only way to put a complex show like that on the air in 1987. Only two shows before STNG were anywhere near as complex technically on TV (Buck Rogers and BSG), and video solved a lot of editing problems.

It HAS been stated that the negatives are stored and in good shape by Paramount.

RAMA

[Borjis]

ok so I recorded some of these episodes on the WGN HD channel. (i also have the dvd sets)

Yep they look much better!

I think WGN has upgraded their broadcast hardware because months ago TNG looked washed out, very soft and sounded terrible by comparison.