Berman had hardly anything to do with DS9. The Dominion War is the best thing ever to happen in Star Trek in my opinion.
Yeah, it's on my radar Benjamin, however it's not something I want to rush out - it's a pretty sensitive topic. Very unlikely, but not impossible. In a lot of instances, they could be reused. But it's not quite as simple as plugging and playing the old scene files. There are so many different aspects to consider, most of which surround completeness. No, not to my knowledge. And I don't think that's what CBS is looking for. They'd be cutting off revenue streams from network sales and home media. Depends on the episodes! Throw in stuff like "Sacrifice of Angels" and absolutely not. CBS-D's dream team was largely recruited for TNG. Now the project's over, they're left with a staff surplus. These folks all have bills to pay and families to support, so they can't continue with no work indefinitely. Yep, the money. TNG cost $9m. Now take DS9 and multiply that figure by 2 or 3. Now factor in DS9's popularity and do the math. It's as cold and simple as that, sadly.
I don't want everyone to give up hope, rather adjust your expectations. I've had so many emails asking me to confirm wildly inaccurate information ("Is it true DS9 Season 1 is coming in February 2015? Is it true CBSD are secretly doing DS9? I heard there's a DS9 trailer on the TNGS7 set!"). All of this is untrue, and I hate it when these rumors gather traction and people start believing and expecting them. CBS haven't totally given up on DS9 (or Voyager for that matter). Of course they'll try to find a way. But at the moment, things are stalled and it's not happening. 2, 3, 5 years down the line? Who knows.
I suppose. But with physical media declining, and, obviously, the shows getting older with each passing year, the odds don't seem to be ever in our favor. If they let the Trek rebuild dream-team at CBS-D disband, I can't say I'm optimistic it'll ever be done. They have such a wealth of talent right now about how to do a Trek rebuild quickly and efficiently. Even at double the cost of the TNG remaster it still seems like a such a good value to save these programs for today and for the future. The pilot of DS9, Emissary, was itself a quite ambitious Star Trek movie when you come down to it. To just leave that, as well as the rest of this wonderful series, in dreary SD, seems to doom it to increasing irrelevance in an HD age. Bonanza now looks much better than DS9, which is rather painful.
See, that's what I don't get. Star Trek has been around for such a long time and is going to be around for a lot longer still. TOS and the others shows are still being watched today and propably will still be watched 10 or 20 years from now. Sure future proofing it now is expansive, but why not invest in the long term and not just hope that it will make a quick return investment. I know CEOs always have to look out for the bottom line, but surly given Star Trek's longevity, even the most stingily investor should realize that an investment such as this will make profit for years to come, even if it takes a few years to get the initial money back.
I think that DS9 trailer rumour comes from the wording that CBS used on the packaging of TNG's Season Six Blu-Ray. The wording makes it sounds like there are DS9 clips in HD on the set, when it is just the TNG episode that the station appeared in. But right now I'd say that from networks there's more interest in Star Trek Voyager getting an HD remaster than Deep Space Nine, as here in Canada, aside from TNG, Voyager is the only other Trek property currently airing on SPACE, and while I haven't tuned into SPACE in a while, I would assume that they are still upconverting Voyager (and if they are still using the old TNG tapes TNG as well) to 1080i. Otherwise, as far as I am aware, here in Canada DS9 is only available on DVD and iTunes.
Well to add a bit of hope, after physical media there will be a wealth of streaming and on-demand services. If anything there will be a greater demand for content than ever before because the new "channels" are streaming considerably more than one show at a time. I'd imagine that was the first wake-up call. "Holy crap, this space battle is the FIRST SCENE? This was supposed to be the easy series, what the hell are we going to do with that big Klingon battle in season 4, those Xmas tree ornaments won't hold up in HD..." and that's BEFORE the Dominion War. At least no Blu Rays saves you a big pile of money.
Regarding network interest, I'm not sure if interest in either show is enough to warrant them petitioning CBS to remaster in HD ASAP. The networks seem content to show upconverted SD stuff, as evidenced by the ridiculous number still showing TNG upconverts. Voyager has been looked at by CBS in the same light as DS9 has - both are technically very demanding (just in different ways). Analysis has mainly focused on DS9 because it's next chronologically.
VOY might be even more expensive than DSN to remaster. Sure they both used a lot of CGI, but heavy CGI use didn't start in DSN until the later seasons. There is also the possibility that the original CGI models (or those that exists) due to being over build are good enough for HD and there is the possibility that some CGI models created for TNG can simply be used for DSN. Remastering DSN and VOY would have to be a long term investment.
How is it a shitty way to do business to invest in something now, that has paid for itself a great many times over since it came out and will continue to do so for a long time, if it's future proofed right now?
Sure they do. Every film they make is a gamble it'll make money. Sure they might have done research, focus groups etc.. But even with all that it doesn't mean it will all work out. Sure some films that were flops at the box office have ended up turning a profit after years of DVD/BR sales, TV deals etc...
At $60-$70 per season for a show that's on TV most days of the week, who the hell can be surprised the TNG sets haven't been selling well? $30 and a few more people might buy them. If Amazon can afford to sell these sets for a few days at half price only a few months after release, it can afford to sell them at that lower price from the start. The sets are barely below $60 now at Amazon. It's disgusting.
Well, right now with DS9, from what I can tell, not even airing in either the US or Canada, there is a very low level of interest in the series. So it would be more likely for CBS to redo Voyager as they are currently receiving payment for the SD versions, which they could use to their advantage when renegotiating broadcast rights with the different stations already airing the Voyager episodes. It could even be something like "if you continue to air the episodes in SD, when we have all the episodes remastered in HD you can air the episodes for the price of the SD versions for one airing through the entire series". With DS9 they would have to restart from scratch in terms of selling the HD versions. But with TNG, do we know that CBS has, besides Blu-Ray, released any of TNG on HD tape for stations to air. Right now TNG only has it's first 6 seasons on Blu-Ray --- networks might want all 7 season's in HD before paying the price for the HD masters. So it might be that CBS themselves are holding up the HD versions from the airwaves until all 178 episodes are in HD form (especially since stations like SPACE are airing the series 5 days a week). Remember TNG Remastered is not like TOS Remastered where TV stations could bank on viewers tuning in to see what the new graphics would look like on a week-by-week basis.
Really, you're still complaining about the price? You've brought this up countless times and it's been discussed to death. The amount of work warrants the additional cost of the sets. Take a look at Amazon, the vast majority of comparable current TV shows on bluray retail for $40+ (shows with lower production value, shorter episodes, or fewer episodes per seasons may be closer to $20). These shows involve little/no effort to release on bluray. The episodes are HD to begin with. The special features, if any, are part of their standard promotional material. For the Star Trek remastering they're going back to the original source material and reconstructing it from scratch. We're getting hours of interviews, commentaries and roundtables from people who haven't been involved in the franchise for at least a decade. There's a lot of cost involved, and the difference in price ($20 or less, in many cases) is nominal, especially when you consider what you get compared most sets. If you don't like the price, and don't think the HD remastering is worth it, the DVD season sets are available for $30, which is the number you're wanting.
It doesn't matter how much extra work they put into it. The average consumer is not willing to pay that much for a single season of television. The Blu-ray market has moved to a point where the expected range for a new release television season is in the $30-$50 range. This is the same ridiculous arrogance that had them pricing the original DVD releases at $100 per season.