The OFFICIAL STNG Next Level Bluray watch and review thread

[Scotty]

I received my copy yesterday and I watched EaF with a friend and fellow Trekker. I was gobsmacked and giddy with excitement. The episode looks fantastic, the detail is staggering, the picture quality is superb and it's easily the best BD release in a while.

Liitle has been said thusfar on the new soundmix. i compared it with the DVD mix (which was pretty good) and noticed some changes. The DTS mix of course has more clarity, deep LFE (especially in the musical score by McCarthy) and some great ambient sounds. The sounds of the geothermal energy mining in the Bandi city sound fantastic, something I never noticed before. The audience during the trail is now heard distinctly from all speakers. And of course the rumble of the Enterprise engines sounds superb. But I was a bit disappointed by the lack of directional sounds, like the Enterprise fly-overs in the opening credits. With the DVD mix you could clearly hear the Enterprise fly overhead. With the DTS mix I didn't get that.

 

[Sho]

To mention it again, my favorite thing about the new sound mix is how I finally noticed how the music blends over into the sound of Picard stirring his tea with a metal spoon when EaF transitions from the saucer sep into the conference room scene. Lovely detail.

 

[22 Stars]

I think the new sound mix is almost as impressive as the picture quality. Can't wait to have more than 3 eps to watch. This is really a great project, they are doing it right and it shows.

 

[LitmusDragon]

Aside from Encounter at Farpoint, I'm not sure they could have picked two episodes more devoid of Deanna Troi. She's barely in Sins of the Father and I don't think she appears in The Inner Light at all. This isn't a complaint exactly, more like an observation (though I do like the character).

 

[davejames]

Man, after finally seeing this show in HD, it's almost painful to go back to the old DVDs now. I tried watching Where No One Has Gone Before last night, and I swore the picture looked worse than ever.

That is one I'm definitely looking forward to seeing remastered. Especially with all those incredible nebulas, starscapes, and warp effects (and that shot of Picard almost walking out into space should be cool to see in HD as well).

 

[Flake]

It is a shame CBS didn't release the Star Trek film blu-rays because Paramount didn't even go to the trouble of rescanning the negatives of the movies for the blu-ray release so they could save a bit of money. Instead of a new scan they chose to use old DVD masters that where scanned at 1080i and run them through a digital cleanup that removed the film grain from the picture and turned the crew into waxworks, only TWOK and Nemesis escaped this.... whereas CBS are going to the trouble of putting an entire show back into post-production and ensuring every last pixel of film information is untouched and perfectly presented, well done CBS! Shame on Paramount :P

It felt like watching Generations on the big screen at some points, it all looks wonderful. FYI I thought the CGI flyby at the beginning of The Inner Light to be ok and an acceptable alternative to the stock 4fter flyby

I watched a DVD afterwards and my god... they will never be watched again! Season 1 can't come soon enough.

 

[Nero's Shadow]

Just watched EaF and I'm so glad how's it's come out love how the series looks , such bright colours never noticed how yellow data eyes were.?? The opening credits are well more convincing now the planets and star fields look almost real.

This is a defo buy when the 1st season comes out , and having a fiver knocked off 1st season even better !!!

Just started on sins of the farther !! Pity they show S1 then a S3 episode i would have gone with the 1st three episodes of S1 IMO

But apart from that ST TNG welcome to blu ray HD !!!

 

[Trekker4747]

Well, by showing an S1 episode a S3 episode and a S5 you get to see 3 "eras" of the show. I do sort-of wish the selection of episodes had been better, and more than three. I mean they could've done "Yesterday's Enterprise" or "Best of Both Worlds" both of which would've been great at showing off the work they are doing. I can see picking "The Inner Light" since it's an acclaimed episode but Sins of the Father is an odd one to pick other than it showing off how well the make-up is going to hold-up to HD.

 

[RAMA]

Tried getting through a few more old episodes, a few Netflix ones, the episodes are always fun to watch on some level, but I watched part of the bluray afterwards because the old picture felt unclean!

Things I can't wait to see: Where No One Has Gone Before..oo ahh
11001001-wondering if they are allowed to use the mushroom
Lonely Among Us-A beautifully photographed gem with great music, should sound and look great
Homesoil-Planetary changes?
Datalore- HOW will they make that beautiful shot of Data's planet eclipsing the sun.
The Big Goodbye-There is no reason to NOT insert the planned Jarada in the scene with the planet placeholder now that they have the time and the tech.
Symbiosis-Lot of star FX...
Conspiracy-I dont think theyll replace any stop motion

RAMA

 

[davejames]

Well, by showing an S1 episode a S3 episode and a S5 you get to see 3 "eras" of the show. I do sort-of wish the selection of episodes had been better, and more than three. I mean they could've done "Yesterday's Enterprise" or "Best of Both Worlds" both of which would've been great at showing off the work they are doing. I can see picking "The Inner Light" since it's an acclaimed episode but Sins of the Father is an odd one to pick other than it showing off how well the make-up is going to hold-up to HD.

Yeah better episodes would have been nice, but at least they'll have perfected the process a lot more by the time they get to the good stuff.

Unlike last time, where Balance of Terror was the first one out, and ended up getting stuck with the cheesiest looking FX.

 

[Sho]

Yeah, there's that - they're going to have more experience by the time they work on the really challenging eps, and will have had more time to work on them. But also it makes the season sets more attractive if you don't put all the most popular eps on the cheap teaser .

 

[UssGlenn]

11001001-wondering if they are allowed to use the mushroom

I'd like to see the Mushroom with a bigger door and the D scaled properly, to put to rest all the talk of a identical but scaled up spacedock.

 

[davejames]

I hate to say it, but watching the 1st and 2nd seasons again, I'm starting to think Berman had the right idea by changing the music the way he did. As exciting as some of the early themes were, they DO make the show seem awfully corny and dated now.

The quieter, more classical music of the later seasons somehow made the show feel a LOT more sophisticated.

 

[beamMe]

11001001-wondering if they are allowed to use the mushroom

I'd like to see the Mushroom with a bigger door and the D scaled properly, to put to rest all the talk of a identical but scaled up spacedock.

I'd rather like to see Probert's idea realized: to have the Enterprise-D docked outside under the mushroom-section of the starbase.

 

[Sho]

To take a tangent: I think Berman takes a lot flak from fans undeservedly in general. The guy managed the production of hundreds of hours of television, many of which you love, and they're great also because of him, not just in spite of him. Berman was heavily involved in creative aspects like editing almost all episodes, and even wrote a bunch of good scripts. Yes, you hear him getting blamed for certain choices by others involved in the making of the shows, but I think a large part of that is because it's a thankless job to be the guy who has to say "no" from time to time because he has the big picture to keep the ship afloat - it's easy to ruffle feathers and make enemies in that position. Certainly many others have also hailed him a wonderful producer over the years, anyway.

Go watch e.g. the oral history he did for the Archive of American Television. This wasn't a studio shill, he did love working on Star Trek and I'm grateful he did.

 

[davejames]

11001001-wondering if they are allowed to use the mushroom

I'd like to see the Mushroom with a bigger door and the D scaled properly, to put to rest all the talk of a identical but scaled up spacedock.

I'm sure if the footage was already used and inserted into a 25 year old TNG episode, they would be allowed to use it again. I can't see something like that being overlooked when the contracts or whatever were drawn up.

And yeah, it would be cool to see the size upped a little more. Just a little bit though, because the station already seems kind of ridiculously big.

 

[RAMA]

I can't wait for my 1st season review thread...

RAMA

 

[Dac]

I hate to say it, but watching the 1st and 2nd seasons again, I'm starting to think Berman had the right idea by changing the music the way he did. As exciting as some of the early themes were, they DO make the show seem awfully corny and dated now.

The quieter, more classical music of the later seasons somehow made the show feel a LOT more sophisticated.

It may be repetative, but Ron Jones' work in episodes like The Defector and Booby Trap I completely adore. It does exactly what a TV soundtrack should do - add tension.

 

[Sho]

I'm sure if the footage was already used and inserted into a 25 year old TNG episode, they would be allowed to use it again. I can't see something like that being overlooked when the contracts or whatever were drawn up.

There was some speculation in the other thread that they redid the BoP for Sins due to rights problems with sourcing the STIII imagery again, that's what RAMA has on his mind.

 

[Ryann866]

11001001-wondering if they are allowed to use the mushroom

I'd like to see the Mushroom with a bigger door and the D scaled properly, to put to rest all the talk of a identical but scaled up spacedock.

I'm sure if the footage was already used and inserted into a 25 year old TNG episode, they would be allowed to use it again. I can't see something like that being overlooked when the contracts or whatever were drawn up.

And yeah, it would be cool to see the size upped a little more. Just a little bit though, because the station already seems kind of ridiculously big.

To remaster and re-comp that shot they'd need the individual ILM elements from TREK III which might be hard to get so we might see a CGI recreation of the spacedock.

Makes me think about all the effects elements they pulled from the features and comped in and how they'll deal with those for this HD release (Klingon ships from TMP in Heart of Glory, Regula I station used in a bunch of places, more Trek III &Trek IV BOP shots from Redemption, the V'Ger explosion from Tin Man)