Season SEVEN OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

[Admiral Bear]

Remember Me is by far Gates' best episode.

Jesus wept. .Season 7 is $91 at Amazon.com. That's more expensive than the UK set. I suspect that Finnish seller selling season 7 sets for £30 must be raking it in.

 

[Maxwell Everett]

Jesus wept. .Season 7 is $91 at Amazon.com. That's more expensive than the UK set.

If the price fluctuations of the previous sets are anything to go by, then Season Seven should drop back down to about $60 in another week or so.

 

[tomalak301]

I'm on Disc 3 and I haven't seen any problems so far. In fact, I just watched Pegasus and the HD Enterprise with the Asteroid field in the background was absolutely gorgeous. CBS digital really did an awesome job with these sets and I really wish they would do DS9 just to see what kind of things they can come up with. That, and my DVD sets are falling a part, but that's another issue.

 

[Admiral Bear]

Jesus wept. .Season 7 is $91 at Amazon.com. That's more expensive than the UK set.

If the price fluctuations of the previous sets are anything to go by, then Season Seven should drop back down to about $60 in another week or so.

I would speculate it's just CBS and Amazon screwing all the real fans who've bought all of the previous 6 seasons.

But that's just me and my suspicious mind. Even season 3 is $66.

 

[jimbotron]

I would speculate it's just CBS and Amazon screwing all the real fans who've bought all of the previous 6 seasons.

All those who bought the previous 6 seasons bought it day one for $57.99.

 

[ChristopherPike]

I pre-ordered with Amazon UK on 3rd October, during a brief window in which it cost £37. It's currently on its way and should arrive later in the week. In months to come, I fully expect it'll be much cheaper than that. The ENT sets are currently £13 a piece. Almost a third the price I originally paid. And the previous TNG seasons nearly half the current price. But then I've had a year or more's worth of enjoying the episodes and extras up until now.

 

[tomalak301]

I'm rewatching Season 7 and one of the things I'm noticing about this season (Which I haven't seen all of in quite some time) was how repetitive it is. I'm not one to hate this season like others, but when you're watching these episodes, a lot of them are kind of the same thing, old family members coming back to reunite with members of the crew. I think everyone in the cast other than Picard has had a reunion story so far (Geordi in Interface, Worf in Homeward, Crusher in Sub Rosa, Data in Inharitance, Troi in Dark Page, Riker in Pegasus) and while Dark Page and Pegasus have been the most interesting, the others really have not been. I know Season 4 was the family season too but it seemed like they spread them out between Family time and TNG Mystery of the week/diplomacy time.

With that said, I've watched up to Sub Rosa (Yeah that episode is pretty bad) and I still have somewhat the same opinion on Season 7 as I've had before. It's not the best season, but it's nowhere near the worst. Actually, in watching the Blu Ray, I might put it above Season 5, which was the year of the children which was annoying.

 

[Tosk]

I think everyone in the cast other than Picard has had a reunion story so far (Geordi in Interface, Worf in Homeward, Crusher in Sub Rosa, Data in Inharitance, Troi in Dark Page, Riker in Pegasus)

Bloodlines and Preemptive Strike are both "Picard reunites with..." type stories. Sort of.

 

[tomalak301]

I think everyone in the cast other than Picard has had a reunion story so far (Geordi in Interface, Worf in Homeward, Crusher in Sub Rosa, Data in Inharitance, Troi in Dark Page, Riker in Pegasus)

Bloodlines and Preemptive Strike are both "Picard reunites with..." type stories. Sort of.

I haven't gotten to those episodes yet.

 

[BillJ]

Season six is now available on Amazon streaming in HD. Free for those with Amazon Prime.

 

[Servo]

I've been enjoying watching TNG on SyFy HD so much, I am extremely tempted by the Season 1-7 Blu-Ray set that released on Amazon today. Gonna wait and see if it comes down in price in January though, as £158.50 it a tad steep at this time of year.

 

[tcm121]

I've been enjoying watching TNG on SyFy HD so much, I am extremely tempted by the Season 1-7 Blu-Ray set that released on Amazon today. Gonna wait and see if it comes down in price in January though, as £158.50 it a tad steep at this time of year.

Luckily I chose to preorder. For about a day Amazon lowered the price to about £125 so their guarantee of charging the lowest pre-release price came in handy. But I would've thought there's a decent chance of it being in the Boxing Day sale.

For the first time I'll be watching TNG in order from start to finish though! In the past it has always been random episodes on TV or favourites I've fancied watching from the box set. Can't wait given the reception and the comparisons against SD I've seen online. I'm just hoping some of the season 1&2 episodes aren't as poor as I've remembered them being in the past when I've tried watching them...

 

[jimbotron]

Watching Genesis now. I notice that the cinematography is very different. The camera placement and angles differ from the more standard camera placement. It's noticeable early on in the bridge scenes. I guess Gates was changing things up in her directorial debut.

 

[mr.peany]

^It was good. Harked back to season 1 & 2. Did they change cinematographers in the latter seasons? The film quality in 5, 6 & 7 doesn't seem as good as the first four.

 

[tomalak301]

I still find Eye of the Beholder a little unsettling. Maybe it was because Peirce was freaking creepy, but that scene where Troi walks in on Calloway and Worf and they start laughing at her, and then the "You Know What to Do" was really quite the climax to that episode. I knew it was coming up so I actually skipped some episodes to get this one out of the way. It's one I don't really want to revisit too often.

 

[Servo]

I've been enjoying watching TNG on SyFy HD so much, I am extremely tempted by the Season 1-7 Blu-Ray set that released on Amazon today. Gonna wait and see if it comes down in price in January though, as £158.50 it a tad steep at this time of year.

Luckily I chose to preorder. For about a day Amazon lowered the price to about £125 so their guarantee of charging the lowest pre-release price came in handy. But I would've thought there's a decent chance of it being in the Boxing Day sale.

For the first time I'll be watching TNG in order from start to finish though! In the past it has always been random episodes on TV or favourites I've fancied watching from the box set. Can't wait given the reception and the comparisons against SD I've seen online. I'm just hoping some of the season 1&2 episodes aren't as poor as I've remembered them being in the past when I've tried watching them...

Yes, I spotted that price drop too, and seriously considered it. Fortunately, common sense prevailed, given how much money I've spent this past month, and I resolved to wait til January.

I live in hope that it will drop to a similar price in the New Year.

 

[Maxwell Everett]

^It was good. Harked back to season 1 & 2. Did they change cinematographers in the latter seasons? The film quality in 5, 6 & 7 doesn't seem as good as the first four.

Yes, TNG had three main cinematographers during its run: Ed Brown (S1-S2), Marvin Rush (S3-S5), and Jonathan West (S6-S7). Brown used Eastman Kodak 5294 & 5295 which were 400 ASA stocks and he also used a lot more light on set compared to his successors. Some of this is discussed on the Directors panel special feature on the Season Seven set.

When Rush took over, Kodak had just introduced one of their first partial T-Grain stocks: 5296, which was rated at 500 ASA (more light sensitive) and so the show switched to that and he was able to use less light (and those terrible photo black cards went away on the bridge's aft stations). West used the same stock, but again, as the show went on they used less and less light and opted instead to push process the film during development which brings out more detail in the shadows but also increases the amount of grain.

I think overall, West did a pretty good job of matching Rush's look for the show. The main difference is he added a diffused Kino light just below the camera lens to fill in shadows on the actors faces and to add a catch light to their eyes. You'll notice that they have a sort of flattering glow to them in seasons six and seven. Helps with wrinkles too.

West used this technique on DS9 as well. You can see the Kino light on the right in this shot here.

 

[jimbotron]

I notice that with Encounter at Farpoint, they did not have to resort to any of the black cardboard on the bridge set to obscure the reflections. I guess that's because they had so much more time to film the pilot, so they could better position the lighting. Production of subsequent episodes had to be done much faster. Why didn't they realize this when designing the set? The back of the bridge set is pretty much entirely glossy surfaces. I did like how they occasionally used extras to block the reflections rather than the cardboard.

Now that all 7 seasons are out, I'd like to see a comparison of bridge lighting, preferably with the same camera placement. It was the most filmed part of the sets, so I'm sure it can be done.

 

[mr.peany]

^It was good. Harked back to season 1 & 2. Did they change cinematographers in the latter seasons? The film quality in 5, 6 & 7 doesn't seem as good as the first four.

Yes, TNG had three main cinematographers during its run: Ed Brown (S1-S2), Marvin Rush (S3-S5), and Jonathan West (S6-S7). Brown used Eastman Kodak 5294 & 5295 which were 400 ASA stocks and he also used a lot more light on set compared to his successors. Some of this is discussed on the Directors panel special feature on the Season Seven set.

When Rush took over, Kodak had just introduced one of their first partial T-Grain stocks: 5296, which was rated at 500 ASA (more light sensitive) and so the show switched to that and he was able to use less light (and those terrible photo black cards went away on the bridge's aft stations). West used the same stock, but again, as the show went on they used less and less light and opted instead to push process the film during development which brings out more detail in the shadows but also increases the amount of grain.

I think overall, West did a pretty good job of matching Rush's look for the show. The main difference is he added a diffused Kino light just below the camera lens to fill in shadows on the actors faces and to add a catch light to their eyes. You'll notice that they have a sort of flattering glow to them in seasons six and seven. Helps with wrinkles too.

West used this technique on DS9 as well. You can see the Kino light on the right in this shot here.

Thanks for that info! I assume that's the reasoning behind the "aura" that's seems to permeate through a number of different shots. I preferred the look in the first 1-3 seasons.

 

[trekker670]

I'm watching Pegasus now and at eight around 25 minutes in, there's an aft shot of the Enterprise in the asteroid field that appears to be CG. I don't recall this being mentioned previously.