Season ONE OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

[bullethead]

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

Instead of coming up with any kind of original alien culture, they just trotted out some African tribe from a 1930s movie-- complete with African clothing and tribal music!-- and tried to convince us that they're "alien." Say huh?

The only reason the aliens were all black and made to look like a stereotypical African tribe was because the director was a racist. The damn episode is full of references to just about every pre-modern Earth culture but African culture.

 

[davejames]

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

The only reason the aliens were all black and made to look like a stereotypical African tribe was because the director was a racist. The damn episode is full of references to just about every pre-modern Earth culture but African culture.

True, but again the clothing and music made it pretty clear what we were looking at.

 

[Scotty]

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

Here's a comparison shot from "Where no one has gone before" that shows how the 2-foot model, which didn't have interior window lights, finally got those lights for the remastered version of the episode. Isn't that just excellent?

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/137586

That looks like a CG shot to me.

 

[trekker670]

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

The only reason the aliens were all black and made to look like a stereotypical African tribe was because the director was a racist. The damn episode is full of references to just about every pre-modern Earth culture but African culture.

True, but again the clothing and music made it pretty clear what we were looking at.

I don't think that he was denying that, he was stating that it wasn't the writers as you had stated before, but the director that added the aspect of these aliens being a stereotypical African tribe.

 

[Sho]

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

Here's a comparison shot from "Where no one has gone before" that shows how the 2-foot model, which didn't have interior window lights, finally got those lights for the remastered version of the episode. Isn't that just excellent?

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/137586

That looks like a CG shot to me.

Yeah, if you look really closely at the surface detailling and the outlines, it's not the same model. Damn close match though, great work. Very consistent with the shots of the 6-footer too.

 

[Scotty]

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

Instead of coming up with any kind of original alien culture, they just trotted out some African tribe from a 1930s movie-- complete with African clothing and tribal music!-- and tried to convince us that they're "alien." Say huh?

The only reason the aliens were all black and made to look like a stereotypical African tribe was because the director was a racist. The damn episode is full of references to just about every pre-modern Earth culture but African culture.

I think the writers, casting director and production designer also had something to do with it as well. The director is never solely responsible, not on a tv show like this in any case.

 

[BillJ]

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

Instead of coming up with any kind of original alien culture, they just trotted out some African tribe from a 1930s movie-- complete with African clothing and tribal music!-- and tried to convince us that they're "alien." Say huh?

The only reason the aliens were all black and made to look like a stereotypical African tribe was because the director was a racist. The damn episode is full of references to just about every pre-modern Earth culture but African culture.

I think the writers, casting director and production designer also had something to do with it as well. The director is never solely responsible, not on a tv show like this in any case.

This.

The episode didn't make it to air without Roddenberry's approval.

 

[trekker670]

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

The only reason the aliens were all black and made to look like a stereotypical African tribe was because the director was a racist. The damn episode is full of references to just about every pre-modern Earth culture but African culture.

I think the writers, casting director and production designer also had something to do with it as well. The director is never solely responsible, not on a tv show like this in any case.

This.

The episode didn't make it to air without Roddenberry's approval.

Check your facts:

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Code_of_Honor_%28episode%29#Background_Information

In this episode, the entire humanoid population of the planet is portrayed by African-American performers. In the teleplay, however, only Lutan's guards were specifically written as being African. It was director Russ Mayberry's idea to make all the planet's occupants African. Disgusted by this decision and Mayberry's attitude towards the performers, Gene Roddenberry fired Mayberry late in production. The remainder of the episode was directed by an uncredited Les Landau.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Russ_Mayberry

Russell B. "Russ" Mayberry (born 22 December 1925; age 86) is a former television director whose credits include the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Code of Honor". This episode is his only work on the Star Trek franchise. In the midst of filming the episode Mayberry - who was described as being offensively racist and treating actors poorly[1] - was fired by Gene Roddenberry and replaced by Les Landau (who went uncredited).

http://www.aoltv.com/2008/04/28/star-trek-the-next-generation-code-of-honor/

I've read that the Ligonians were not explicitly described as entirely African American in the script, but were cast that way at the behest of director Russ Mayberry, who apparently went on to be so offensively racist and treated the actors so poorly that Gene fired him before the episode was completed and handed the directing responsibilities over to then – First AD Les Landau. [Citation Needed] (Ironically, Mayberry went on to direct quite a few episodes of "In the Heat of the Night," which proves either that he learned something from this experience or that he's really good at directing stories about racists.)

 

[indianatrekker26]

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

Another thing i love about the BD release, were all the new bloopers i'd never seen before. I'm looking forward to getting into the next episode after work, "The Last Outpost." These episodes truly look and sound incredible. Ive been having a blast with them, and i'm only 3 episodes in.

 

[BillJ]

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

I think the writers, casting director and production designer also had something to do with it as well. The director is never solely responsible, not on a tv show like this in any case.

This.

The episode didn't make it to air without Roddenberry's approval.

Check your facts:

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Code_of_Honor_%28episode%29#Background_Information


http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Russ_Mayberry

Russell B. "Russ" Mayberry (born 22 December 1925; age 86) is a former television director whose credits include the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Code of Honor". This episode is his only work on the Star Trek franchise. In the midst of filming the episode Mayberry - who was described as being offensively racist and treating actors poorly[1] - was fired by Gene Roddenberry and replaced by Les Landau (who went uncredited).

http://www.aoltv.com/2008/04/28/star-trek-the-next-generation-code-of-honor/

I've read that the Ligonians were not explicitly described as entirely African American in the script, but were cast that way at the behest of director Russ Mayberry, who apparently went on to be so offensively racist and treated the actors so poorly that Gene fired him before the episode was completed and handed the directing responsibilities over to then – First AD Les Landau. [Citation Needed] (Ironically, Mayberry went on to direct quite a few episodes of "In the Heat of the Night," which proves either that he learned something from this experience or that he's really good at directing stories about racists.)

I don't doubt he was fired for being racist. But the fact that they were doing wardrobe, props and hiring actors at least a week or so before shooting shows Roddenberry would've known where the episode itself was going and he approved it. It's his show.

And you can't lay the "Planet of Pretty White People" on Russ Mayberry and that happened just a few episodes later.

 

[tomswift2002]

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

Yay, my season one box set was finally delivered and I've already watched "The Naked Now" and "Code of Honor". I don't know if anyone has mentioned this before, but there are two suspiciously SD-looking sequences in the latter episode. One where Yar and Lutan are entering the holodeck (which, I guess, is just the result of a digital zoom into the original negative, that was also done one the original cut of the episode), and the other later on the planet, in an establishing shot of the festivities Logan has going for Picard. The image looks VERY pixelated and you can see horizontal lines. Is this also upconverted footage?

The first shot of Picard is standing in front of the viewscreen addressing the crew looks very soft as well from Lonely Among Us.

I noticed that all the shots with people in front of green screen windows looked like the had been upconverted from SD tape. Just take a look at Singh in the briefing room; you can't even make out his face, and it's a close-up.

But I've got too wonder why CBS wasn't doing this in a K transfer and the down-ressing to 1080 for the final master. It would've given us a better picture and even allowed them to do a 16:9 presentation without getting soft.

 

[tomalak301]

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

the fourth disc was mistakenly labeled as Star Trek TNG S1 D5 although the menu says Disc four. Inexcusable really. Was someone asleep at the authoring controls? Wow.

I was wondering if anyone else might notice that!

I checked this last night and my set says disc 4 and the menu says disc four. Am I seeing something wrong?

 

[Sho]

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

There ... are ... FOUR discs!

 

[tomalak301]

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

I'm really looking forward to the brightness of those lights in HD. Man I wish CBS would bring these sets out faster but considering they brought out season 1 and are having audio issues, I'm just happy with what we have and hope that there is some kind of fix getting done soon.

 

[Maxwell Everett]

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

Here's a comparison shot from "Where no one has gone before" that shows how the 2-foot model, which didn't have interior window lights, finally got those lights for the remastered version of the episode. Isn't that just excellent?

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/137586

That looks like a CG shot to me.

Yeah, if you look really closely at the surface detailling and the outlines, it's not the same model. Damn close match though, great work. Very consistent with the shots of the 6-footer too.

This is the two-foot miniature. You can tell because the saucer phaser array is painted on and flat and the edge of the saucer is also perfectly flat with no windows. Tobias Richter's CG model doesn't look like that.

 

[Sho]

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

^ But then they did much more than just add in a window pass. Notice how the windows on the neck are patterned quite differently, and how you have those thick yellow panels show up on the bottom of the engineering section and elsewhere (not the flat ones, those are faintly visible in the old shot). Also those white squares below the nacelle.

 

[LastRideOut]

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

There are in fact, five discs. Look again. :-)

All kidding aside, I'm not talking about the actual printed label on the disc . I'm talking about the volume label that is displayed in software programs, or displayed as the name of the disc in your blu-ray drive on the computer.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

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

the fourth disc was mistakenly labeled as Star Trek TNG S1 D5 although the menu says Disc four. Inexcusable really. Was someone asleep at the authoring controls? Wow.

I was wondering if anyone else might notice that!

I checked this last night and my set says disc 4 and the menu says disc four. Am I seeing something wrong?

Somewhat poorly expressed - the volume label in the software, if you like, states "STAR TREK TNG S1 D5". The physical disc, of course states "disc four". You're not going to see the volume label unless you play the disc on your PC.

 

[Maxwell Everett]

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

the fourth disc was mistakenly labeled as Star Trek TNG S1 D5 although the menu says Disc four. Inexcusable really. Was someone asleep at the authoring controls? Wow.

I was wondering if anyone else might notice that!

I checked this last night and my set says disc 4 and the menu says disc four. Am I seeing something wrong?

My disc 4 identifies itself as "STAR TREK TNG S1 D5" on my PC. FYI, the folders have a date/time stamp of 5/29/2012 1:32 PM.

EDIT:

LastRideOut and Asbo beat me to it!

 

[gaghyogi49]

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

^ But then they did much more than just add in a window pass. Notice how the windows on the neck are patterned quite differently, and how you have those thick yellow panels show up on the bottom of the engineering section and elsewhere (not the flat ones, those are faintly visible in the old shot). Also those white squares below the nacelle.

It's definitely the two-foot miniature, trust me. It just looks better than ever before now! :-) There will be some more info about this in the article about "Where no one has gone before" at EAS, to be published soon.