Season FOUR OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' started by Savage Dragon, Apr 24, 2013.

  1. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2001
    Location:
    Sac, Ca
    Shame they couldn't find the correct footage, because that was always one of my favorite shots of the 4-footer. :(
     
  2. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2003
    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    Does anyone else watch the trailers before the episodes? I've been happy to get them with the episodes, so I usually go with the option to play the promo before the episode, and it's amazing how these trailers have evolved over the seasons so far. We got the bland trailers in the first few seasons, and now they usually end with kind of the theme of the episode, followed by "On the next exciting episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation". For example, the promo for First Contact makes the episode about Starfleet in Crisis, yet that's not entirely what the episode is about but there are elements there. It's actually quite fun revisiting these trailers.

    Also, I still don't like Troi, but I think I found my third favorite Troi episode, Night Terrors. It was creepy as hell, and seeing Troi's ass as she says "I need to find you" is not all that fun, but the rest of the episode, and the theme of REM sleep is. Also, I'm watching these episodes, and I'm thinking why can't we have special features on episodes like Night Terrors. Why can't we get a commentary track from Marina Sirtis talking about what it was like to be floating for half an episode, or the elements that went into making that episode. It's a whole lot better than listening to the writing staff talk about the conflicts that went on behind the scenes. If we're not going to get media/fan footage of what Trekdom was like when a season was going on (In this case, season 4), than can we have a features that shows us how to make an episode like Night Terrors or Galaxy's Child with the creature?
     
  3. Langenscheiss

    Langenscheiss Ensign Newbie

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2013
    Yep, watch the trailers as well. Quite nice indeed, but I also liked the ones from the first three seasons. I'm not entirely sure, but I remember seeing one trailer from an episode of the first two seasons where the glow of the warp nacelles was yellow and not blue. I might be mistaking though.

    And I agree with you about the bonus features. Writing staff was interesting for one season, but I am really much more interested in the production of the actual episodes. Shame they did not have a moderator for the creative team reunion. I was really looking forward to that VAM. But I guess they are just running out of money to produce more interesting features.
     
  4. Doug Otte

    Doug Otte Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2003
    I have been watching the trailers before the episodes, but mostly to see the dramatic difference in picture quality between them and the HD episodes. I don't think the trailers look quite as good as the original episodes on DVD (but I haven't done a side-by-side comparison), but it still gives a good idea.
     
  5. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Nov 27, 2012
    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    The episode trailers are much worse than the DVD episodes. They look VHS-quality. But that makes the HD comparison all the more striking.
     
  6. Nero's Shadow

    Nero's Shadow Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2009
    Location:
    Into Darkness !!!
    Yeah I've done it since season 1 love them cheesy adverts but the best one is BOBW part 1 Brillant !!!! Seen that advert for the 1st time must have been edge of your seat stuff !!!!
     
  7. Nero's Shadow

    Nero's Shadow Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2009
    Location:
    Into Darkness !!!
    Forgot how scary Night Terrors was !!! Good episode !!
     
  8. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2001
    Location:
    Trekker4747
    I really like Night Terrors too and think it does the eerie/scary well.
     
  9. Nero's Shadow

    Nero's Shadow Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2009
    Location:
    Into Darkness !!!
    I'm loving Identity Crisis as well !! I've never seen this episode before ?? It's cool when you haven't watched a episode. I've watched all of TNG on BBC 2 as a kid in the uk must have been doing my homework lol and I have them on DVD so why did I miss this episode !!! Lol great stuff !!!
     
  10. Aatrek

    Aatrek Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2001
    You should go check out our piece at TrekCore about the crazy makeup process that went into that episode.

    http://trekcore.com/blog/2013/08/exclusive-a-look-inside-tngs-identity-crisis-makeup-process/
     
  11. Nero's Shadow

    Nero's Shadow Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2009
    Location:
    Into Darkness !!!

    Thanks I will !!!!
     
  12. Nero's Shadow

    Nero's Shadow Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2009
    Location:
    Into Darkness !!!
    Well I'm watching disk four and I'm loving it. Just finished watching The Nth Degree some really good screenshots of the Big E and the argus array. Just noticed that the enterprise seems to be a CGI version now on the four footer screen shots !!! You can tell with how flat the surface of the hull is !!! I'm assuming that why they used CGI enterprise for the latter part of the season as the four footer was putting out some right blurriness. ???
     
  13. tomalak301

    tomalak301 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 2, 2003
    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    There's been a lot of talk as we get deeper in the series that TNG doesn't feel like Star Trek anymore and that it just has the Enterprise going from planet to planet in Federation space. Well, an episode that doesn't get talked about very much serves as a great reminder of a Classic Star Trek feel. The episode I'm talking about is The Nth Degree. I know when I was reading Jammer's Reviews, both this episode and First Contact surprised me in the 4 star reviews. First Contact still does, but not this episode. It's classic Star Trek through and through, and could have made a really good original series episode. The fact that it happened to Barcley and it was a precursor to some great Voyager episodes makes it a plus. Nice bit of character development too.
     
  14. MickJo1701

    MickJo1701 Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2011
    Pretty much, the variation of this shot where the ship drops out of warp would have been practically unusable with the blur. I'm hoping CBS-D have added some polish to the replacement shot in season 5 to make it blend better with the model work, its terribly obvious its CGI in season 4.
     
  15. Makarov

    Makarov Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jul 9, 2013
    I was surprised to hear that Gene Roddenberry didn't want to do "Redemption" because he thought Worf didn't deserve his own episodes. I know he's applauded for his vision but jeez, he didn't want a bald captain or worf episodes... it seems Rick Berman and the rest of the creative team saved the day in that regards.
     
  16. trekker670

    trekker670 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Aug 29, 2008
    Location:
    Michigan, United States
    The more and more I read about GR, the more I think that, while he had good ideas, he really depended on the people around him to really make them great.

    If you look at the places where GR had little accountability to anyone (some of TOS, TMP, TNG S1-2) they were really pretty rough and generally perceived as being okay but not great.

    That's just my opinion though...
     
  17. Hober Mallow

    Hober Mallow Commodore Commodore

    I wasn't aware of that, but it might have had something to do with the fact that Roddenberry never wanted Worf in the first place. He didn't want Klingons, Vulcans, Romulans, or any reference whatsoever to the original series, beyond the nebulous idea of the show taking place 80 years or so after the original series. He essentially wanted a reboot.
     
  18. Flake

    Flake Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Dec 23, 2001
    Location:
    Manchester, UK
    I think the fact that Roddenberry was going a bit loopy when he made TNG made the show much better :)

    Making it fresh and different was the way to go, if they had gone with a different producer we would have ended up with a ripoff of TOS instead. He took a big risk because he believed 100% in his abilities and believed in his concept while all around him producers were stating he show would undoubtedly fail.

    Without the foundations that Roddenberry laid I think the second Trek series would have not been as successful. It is fortunate that people were able to build upon his work as he became more ill and made the show better.
     
  19. Hober Mallow

    Hober Mallow Commodore Commodore

    I tend to think the people around him -- Justman, Fontana, Gerrold -- were as much responsible or even more so for TNG having any chance. These were people who actually co-created TNG but were robbed of getting any of the credit by Roddenberry's massive ego. If it hadn't been for them, TNG may have been DOA.
     
  20. Makarov

    Makarov Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jul 9, 2013
    Definitely could be. Also in the special features they said the reason was that Worf wasn't a main cast character, and Gene Roddenberry didn't want episodes centered on non-main cast.

    I'm really glad TNG is so different from TOS, so maybe Roddenberry is to thank for that. Worf is one of my favorite characters though, I mean Birthright is one of my favorite episodes ever. It would suck to not have his centric eps.