I think the difference being that no one had any data on how the 24th century shows would sell on Blu-ray. Now they do.
Unless you've got a subscription to Nielsen Videoscan, the sales information that's been made public has only been in bits and pieces (and, of course, even that doesn't account for how much the project truly cost). I'd be surprised if the rest of the Star Trek catalog wasn't upgraded to HD in at least some fashion. Whether it gets the full restoration treatment, or some partial measure, is the real question.
I agree. Everything will be will be upgraded in some fashion, eventually. I think it was Manny Coto on the Enterprise Blu-ray who said something about Trek being like no other show in that it doesn't simply vanish and is forgotten. Even if DS9 and Voyager aren't as big as TOS and NextGen, they will always be out there, generating interest and bringing in new fans to some degree. Just as they continue to make "some" collectables, models, figures, etc for these shows, it would only be right to upgrade the series themselves at some point.
un-upgraded on a dying media is definitely not good financial sense. Upgrading them for streaming outlets, cross-promotional sets and Blu-ray (and future media) purchases, not to mention DS9's upcoming anniversary, seems to me to make better business sense in the long run.
Yeah...some people were wrong there. However people who were correct weren't basing their prediction on "Oh, I just really like the show and it would be super cool if they did!" We have a metric to judge how well DS9 would do. The show has been off the air for 15 years now. It was NEVER as popular as TNG. Remastering it will take much more time and effort at TNG. DS9 isn't syndicated anywhere. People aren't watching it online. Outside of this thread and conventions there's zero talk of it. The Facebook campaign has generated almost 2000 likes. I feel your pain. I love DS9 (Voyager too...for what that's worth), but is just isn't going to happen. You know what's even worse? Upgrading on a dying media and then losing money. Why are people thinking this? Not every single show made before 2005 is going to get re-released in HD. CBS owes fans nothing. They didn't remaster TNG out of the kindness of their hearts because we all asked nicely. They did tons of market research and talked to vendors seeing if they could make money. TNG was and still is a viable product to the suits at Paramount, CBS, or whoever-the-hell wears the suits regarding Trek these days. It's been in constant syndication around the world since before it ended it original run. DS9 and Voyager? They ran a couple of seasons on TNN/Spike about a decade ago (usually overnight) and that was it. Believe me, if there was any demand to see these shows some network would pick up those rights. One could argue there wasn't that much demand in the first place. While it has a special place in our hearts - you need to try and look at this objectively. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a twenty year old science-fiction show that garnered a loyal but increasingly meager following and hasn't been broadcast in the United States (the money market) for over ten years.
I suppose I'm just more positive than you. I used to think this way on so many thing, only to be proven wrong - eventually. Being a huge Beatles fan, I remember back during the mid-80s holding the firm belief that things like "Two Virgins" would never see digital release. Eventually, they did. There are so many obscure films and shows I thought would never show up on DVD. The somewhat sequel to Rocky Horror, Shock Treatment, was a bomb. a VERY small group of people even know about it, even fewer enjoy it. I thought seeing that on DVD was hopeless since even getting it on VHS was nearly impossible. Eventually, CBS released it, with extras too. Maybe seeing things half-full is my nature. But I still believe if you're patient enough, things do happen.
Really right now in the UK TOS TNG DSN VOY ENT So it would seem at least in the UK there is demand. Now there might be little or no demand in the US but that isn't the same as there isn't any demand.
No I don't, because I'm not arguing any absolutes. You say it will never happen. My stance is that it might. We have 14 seasons worth of Trek on Blu-ray so far (counting the not-yet-released TNG S7) ...is it really that inconceivable that CBS might be a bit more forward-thinking than to say, "Good enough, let's stop there forever"?
Is it true that DS9 has not be shown on any channel in the US in ten years, or was that an exaggeration?
That would surprise me as well. In Germany and other European countries VOY and DS9 get shown as much as TNG. If anything its TOS and ENT that get shown less.
I wouldn't read anything into it. They know the fans want DSN in HD as well as VOY in HD but they might not have been able to confirm or deny anything regarding it. But as has already been pointed out whilst there was some CGI in the early seasons og DSN, heavier CGI use didn't come in until the later seasons. Which might mean the cost of remastering DSN is lower than remastering the more CGI VOY series. As for lower viewing figures, what really matters is how does that transalte to potential sales. Sometimes having a hardcore fanbase might mean the same or more sales than one with a more casual audiance.
In Germany Tele5 is showing VOY and TNG in HD. ZDF_neo is showing TOS in SD but from the HD masters. Both Free-TV channels. ENT and the movies are on Pay-TV. DS9 is currently not showing (but was on Tele5, like ENT).
In the United States, the only Trek shown on national syndication is TNG, and that's (inexplicably) on BBC America. Voyager and Deep Space Nine last aired in the middle of the night on TNN (The Nashville Network, later The National Network). When the network reformatted to the male oriented Spike TV, they kept the shows for a while. They were on until about 2006. At this point, the sorts of networks who would air DS9 as "filler" wouldn't spend the money - when they could fill those spots much more cheaply using low-grade reality television.
The only Trek that is showing in NE Pennsylvania, that I know of, is TOS which is on the new MeTV which is like a third-rate Nick at Nite showing series like Bonanza, I Love Lucy, etc. I can understand why DS9 and Enterprise, to an extent, aren't picked up by cable networks. They're serialized. However, that's the trend nowadays. Everything is serialized. And that's why Trek's future is on Netflix or something like that. Approx 8-16 episodes per "season", put on a streaming site, so people can binge-watch.
People don't want to watch reruns of serialized shows. If they really love the show, they would just buy the dvds instead of waiting every weekend. It is one thing episodic shows still have over serialized shows. Episodic shows requires lets commitment, which is a big reason those CSI shows do so well in reruns.