Paramount working on DS9 HD?

[Michael]

IF this is really happening (and I refuse to get excited just yet) I'd hope that almost everything stays approximately the same. The TNG approach was mostly perfect, respectful recreations with the occasional "touch-ups".

The one thing that would be cool is if after all these years Terry would allow them to put a few shots of Jadzia in the finale montage.

Agreed. It's interesting how quickly this has people jump to “I hope they replace ships”. I'm not a purist by any means, but I would hope goal number one for this sort of project – if it did happen – was to preserve the show as it was originally produced, only with higher resolution. But oh well, at this point I'd be happy if they did anything with the show.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Hope they completely redo the battles from 'What you Leave behind" and give something that wasn't pieced together from other episodes.

I'd settle for fixing obvious errors, such as the new Defiant still having the same NX-74205 registry. Surely fixing THAT wouldn't be too much of a bother?

 

[Dukhat]

Agreed. It's interesting how quickly this has people jump to “I hope they replace ships”. I'm not a purist by any means, but I would hope goal number one for this sort of project – if it did happen – was to preserve the show as it was originally produced, only with higher resolution. But oh well, at this point I'd be happy if they did anything with the show.

No offense, but the reason I am pro-"I hope they replace ships” is because the VFX personnel at the time were hamstrung as to what they could use. There was no artistic integrity involved there. If they had the time and budget back then to make new ships and not have to rely on stock footage, believe me, they would have. Now, they would have that time. Of course, there will probably be an entirely different crew working on the VFX for the remaster, so they'll still probably just do it in the quickest and cheapest way possible, which is to either upscale the existing footage or make new FX by mimicking what was there before.

 

[Michael]

No offense, but the reason I am pro-"I hope they replace ships” is because the VFX personnel at the time were hamstrung as to what they could use. There was no artistic integrity involved there. If they had the time and budget back then to make new ships and not have to rely on stock footage, believe me, they would have. Now, they would have that time. Of course, there will probably be an entirely different crew working on the VFX for the remaster, so they'll still probably just do it in the quickest and cheapest way possible, which is to either upscale the existing footage or make new FX by mimicking what was there before.

None taken. And I honestly don't begrudge you or anyone for wanting these kind of issues fixed. It's just that I'm genuinely astonished how this is one of the first things people bring up when they hear about a possible HD version of the show. I think it's just because for me the ship effects – and battle scenes in particular – never were that central to my enjoyment of the show. Heck, when I originally watched the show I didn't even realize they were reusing some shots from earlier episodes for these space battle scenes. I only learned of this when I joined this board, haha.

 

[Tosk]

Either way, if this does happen I am on record as being happy to pay an obscene amount for this. You hear that Paramount? I don't care how expensive the blu-rays are! Sorry to everyone who wants a bargain, but I just want this before I die. A few extra bucks won't kill me, but the wait will.

 

[Dukhat]

None taken. And I honestly don't begrudge you or anyone for wanting these kind of issues fixed. It's just that I'm genuinely astonished how this is one of the first things people bring up when they hear about a possible HD version of the show. I think it's just because for me the ship effects – and battle scenes in particular – never were that central to my enjoyment of the show. Heck, when I originally watched the show I didn't even realize they were reusing some shots from earlier episodes for these space battle scenes. I only learned of this when I joined this board, haha.

To be fair, there's not much that really needs to be changed for DS9-R, other than Odo's morphing effect, the wormhole effect, and the CGI ship shots. It's not like TOS-R where they changed entire establishing shot matte paintings or gave the Gorn blinky eyes for no real good reason. It'll probably be on par with what they did for TNG-R.

One of the biggest gripes fans had with DS9 was the aforementioned reuse of stock footage and footage of the old Defiant for the new Defiant for the series finale. The show deserved better than that.

 

[Ragitsu]

Lingerie Quark in High-Definition? I can hardly contain my anticipation!

 

[kkt]

None taken. And I honestly don't begrudge you or anyone for wanting these kind of issues fixed. It's just that I'm genuinely astonished how this is one of the first things people bring up when they hear about a possible HD version of the show. I think it's just because for me the ship effects – and battle scenes in particular – never were that central to my enjoyment of the show. Heck, when I originally watched the show I didn't even realize they were reusing some shots from earlier episodes for these space battle scenes. I only learned of this when I joined this board, haha.

I agree. For me, the space battle scenes are just sort of there. I, too, would never have noticed the reused shots if I hadn't read about it on this board.

 

[kkt]

Either way, if this does happen I am on record as being happy to pay an obscene amount for this. You hear that Paramount? I don't care how expensive the blu-rays are! Sorry to everyone who wants a bargain, but I just want this before I die. A few extra bucks won't kill me, but the wait will.

Well, I dunno about an "obscene" amount. I'd pay a reasonable amount, but I do have a kid in college...

 

[Ragitsu]

Well, I dunno about an "obscene" amount. I'd pay a reasonable amount, but I do have a kid in college...

Those kidneys...that kidney isn't going to fetch fair market value on its own, you know ("it sells itself", is, in my experience, frequently a gross overestimation).

 

[Tosk]

Well, I dunno about an "obscene" amount. I'd pay a reasonable amount, but I do have a kid in college...

You have your priorities, I have mine.

 

[Ragitsu]

Hold on just a second. "A kid in college", you say?

SANDAL MAKER: I can no longer feed my family.
KOL: Same old song.
SANDAL MAKER: My wife and her mother, my five children, the baby.
ARRIDOR: That's seven employees. Eight, if you count the infant.

 

[Tuskin38]

I'd settle for fixing obvious errors, such as the new Defiant still having the same NX-74205 registry. Surely fixing THAT wouldn't be too much of a bother?

That wasn't an error.

 

[Ragitsu]

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

That wasn't an error.

Yes, it was. The only reason it happened was because footage of the NEW Defiant was reused stock footage of the OLD Defiant.

There was never any intent to have the two ships have the same registry number; they were just too cheap to make a new one.

 

[StarMan]

No offense, but the reason I am pro-"I hope they replace ships” is because the VFX personnel at the time were hamstrung as to what they could use. There was no artistic integrity involved there. If they had the time and budget back then to make new ships and not have to rely on stock footage, believe me, they would have. Now, they would have that time. Of course, there will probably be an entirely different crew working on the VFX for the remaster, so they'll still probably just do it in the quickest and cheapest way possible, which is to either upscale the existing footage or make new FX by mimicking what was there before.

I don't know the likelihood, but how about bringing in a consultant who worked on the original FX? They could work in with the new FX house and highlight where they were hamstrung and what they had in mind to do (if not for budgetary constraints).

But then, part of me would also love to see entirely new FX from the ground up, unencumbered by restraints from 25+ years ago.

 

[NCC-73515]

I don't have a problem with the old ships, but they do need to add in Ambassadors at the very least.

A Probert concept Ambassador!

 

[Saul]

One of the biggest gripes fans had with DS9 was the aforementioned reuse of stock footage and footage of the old Defiant for the new Defiant for the series finale. The show deserved better than that.

For a series finale it definitely deserved better especially when they gave us such great battles in previous seasons, there was anticipation that the finale space battle would be amazing. It did kinda spoil my enjoyment of the last episode. It's up there with the reused Klingon Bird of Prey explosion in Star Trek Generations.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I think anything that was fully CGI, like the big battles in the last couple of seasons, is going to be at the mercy of what digital models they still have available and can be upscaled.

Anything that featured a physical model is probably not going to be changed.

Star Trek Online has been supplying ship models for a while now, including but not limited to the Enterprise-F in Star Trek Picard.
I see no reason they can’t use STO models for the big battles either. Especially for the background ships.

 

[somebuddyX]

There's been some AI upscale on Youtube that have been pretty good. I don't think there going to change the stock footage and will keep it like TNG because otherwise you'll run into issue of where you draw the line. You have that classic Excelsior and Enterprise-D shot next to some planet and it's in a bunch of things but if you took that out of "The Best of Both Worlds" I know I would find it distracting and probably hate it. I know they did it with TOS but I feel with the distance there it was less an issue.
Anyway, I hope it does work out.