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Season TWO OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

As the conversation turns to specific content from the season two DVD, I'd like to follow-up on what others have said about the release in terms of the disappointing effort and decision-making by CBS.

It's been my experience lately that, more often than not, complaining will actually get you somewhere as far as 'change for the good' goes. Personally, from what I've read (and I've been reading everyone's comments with a lot of interest these past few weeks), I don't think CBS has really learned all they could from this.

It's my understanding that CBS is still outsourcing seasons 4 and 6 to another company. While I'm with the people who want to criticize HTV, it's been reassuring to read comments from people who see that CBS is definitely the main problem. They are the ones who originally chose to outsource. Several people have summarized where CBS have failed with season two - including the lack of quality control as HTV worked on that season - so I just want to join in with those who have suggested that fan opinion can make some kind of difference in what CBS is doing.

I'll be very disappointed with CBS if they don't end up amending the release schedule so that the people involved with season one can work on all of the seasons. No matter who the company is, an outsourced company's work will be different (i.e not consistent) from what CBS has already done. I was surprised that more comments weren't made when we first learned that season two would not be handled by CBS directly.

I'm reluctant to use the word 'petition,' but I'd support some kind of write-in to CBS which showed the kind of disappointment some fans have had about season two.
 
DostoyevskyClone said:
As the conversation turns to specific content from the season two DVD, I'd like to follow-up on what others have said about the release in terms of the disappointing effort and decision-making by CBS.

It's been my experience lately that, more often than not, complaining will actually get you somewhere as far as 'change for the good' goes. Personally, from what I've read (and I've been reading everyone's comments with a lot of interest these past few weeks), I don't think CBS has really learned all they could from this.

It's my understanding that CBS is still outsourcing seasons 4 and 6 to another company. While I'm with the people who want to criticize HTV, it's been reassuring to read comments from people who see that CBS is definitely the main problem. They are the ones who originally chose to outsource. Several people have summarized where CBS have failed with season two - including the lack of quality control as HTV worked on that season - so I just want to join in with those who have suggested that fan opinion can make some kind of difference in what CBS is doing.

I'll be very disappointed with CBS if they don't end up amending the release schedule so that the people involved with season one can work on all of the seasons. No matter who the company is, an outsourced company's work will be different (i.e not consistent) from what CBS has already done. I was surprised that more comments weren't made when we first learned that season two would not be handled by CBS directly.

I'm reluctant to use the word 'petition,' but I'd support some kind of write-in to CBS which showed the kind of disappointment some fans have had about season two.
Click to expand...

Season 6 hasn't been decided yet (it may be that CBS-D is able to do it, depending on release schedules) and CBS Digital are hoping to give guidance and influence to the company working on Season 4 to ensure quality is kept high and more consistent.

I understand that for "Best of Both Worlds", both parts are being done by the same company for consistency.
 
DostoyevskyClone said:
As the conversation turns to specific content from the season two DVD, I'd like to follow-up on what others have said about the release in terms of the disappointing effort and decision-making by CBS.

It's been my experience lately that, more often than not, complaining will actually get you somewhere as far as 'change for the good' goes. Personally, from what I've read (and I've been reading everyone's comments with a lot of interest these past few weeks), I don't think CBS has really learned all they could from this.

It's my understanding that CBS is still outsourcing seasons 4 and 6 to another company. While I'm with the people who want to criticize HTV, it's been reassuring to read comments from people who see that CBS is definitely the main problem. They are the ones who originally chose to outsource. Several people have summarized where CBS have failed with season two - including the lack of quality control as HTV worked on that season - so I just want to join in with those who have suggested that fan opinion can make some kind of difference in what CBS is doing.

I'll be very disappointed with CBS if they don't end up amending the release schedule so that the people involved with season one can work on all of the seasons. No matter who the company is, an outsourced company's work will be different (i.e not consistent) from what CBS has already done. I was surprised that more comments weren't made when we first learned that season two would not be handled by CBS directly.

I'm reluctant to use the word 'petition,' but I'd support some kind of write-in to CBS which showed the kind of disappointment some fans have had about season two.
Click to expand...

You're right that CBS needed to better oversee the work done by HTV. But that doesn't mean the decision to outsource is a bad one.

There are a lot of talented FX houses out there, not just CBS Digital. If they find the right one, and oversee the project better to main quality control, I'm confident seasons 4 and 6 can match the quality of CBS Digital. It's a little narrowminded to think they're the only ones who can do the job right...
 
Dick_Valentine said:
Trekker4747 said:
Dick_Valentine said:
(Although....was the Enterprise ALWAYS firing phasers at the Borg ship from it's NACELLE struts? Seems an odd angle and not something it ever did before or since, though I'm sure I'm just mis-remembering rather than doubting the work of CBS-D )
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In BOBW one of the times Picard orders Worf to "fire all phasers!" and, yes, Worf does fire from the phasers that are on the nacelle pylons.
Click to expand...

Odd. In my (admittedly probably wrong) mental picture of the Enterprise's firing arcs It shouldn't be able to do that, those phasers are rear defenders rather than forward attackers aren't they?

If they are indeed able to do that, why don't they always do that when they need the firepower?
They certainly needed as many arrays as possible fighting the husnoc ship among many other possible scenarios ;)
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The pylon phasers have very narrow forward firing arcs but they're there. They may not be used for forward offense often because of that reason, they're not accurate and they can only fire at so many places on the target. With the Borg ship (a giant cube) with uncentralized systems where you just need to hit anything to get your shots in the firing arcs don't matter.

With other ships where you need to hit specific targets (shield generators, weapons, engines, etc.) the pylon phasers wouldn't be useful.
 
Just watched part 1 and 2 of the "Making it So" documentary. Excellent work all around. That additional Phase II footage was incredible and I though J&G R-S gave an excellent explanation of how the writers modified the script to fit in for TNG.

Something else that hasn't been mentioned... how touching was the portion with former script supervisor Cosmo? It's amazing after all these years how much not only the cast but the crew enjoyed working on the show. I also never realized that Dennis "Danger" Madalone was the security guard who got jacked by the first Borg in engineering in "Q-Who?" I believe he was also the goofy crewman in "Lonely Among Us" who Picard told to focus his thoughts and who delivered the goofy "YES SIR!" line thereafter. :D


Edit: One other thing: Anyone else think to themselves what "could have been" when they interspersed certain bloopers throughout the documentaries in widescreen? Some were pretty extended scenes (one in Picard's ready room comes to mind) and widescreen would have really given the series a more modern feel if it was feasible to do for the restoration. Don't get me wrong, I understand all the reasons why they couldn't do it, but it was sort of neat to see some of the blooper footage of the ship and crew fill up all 55 inches of my tv for brief snippets of time.
 
For season 2, is the text (font) size of the main menu still ridiculously small (especially for the episode titles and the info below them) as it was for season 1?
 
Mott the barber said:
One other thing: Anyone else think to themselves what "could have been" when they interspersed certain bloopers throughout the documentaries in widescreen? Some were pretty extended scenes (one in Picard's ready room comes to mind) and widescreen would have really given the series a more modern feel if it was feasible to do for the restoration. Don't get me wrong, I understand all the reasons why they couldn't do it, but it was sort of neat to see some of the blooper footage of the ship and crew fill up all 55 inches of my tv for brief snippets of time.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be surprised if when it airs on tv it's cropped to 16:9, the Australian Sci Fi channel is doing that with the TOS remastered episodes and I quite like it. I'm currently watching DS9 on dvd cropped to that aspect ratio and it looks pretty good despite the drop in resolution. Hopefully there's more option for widescreen when/if they remaster DS9...
 
Reeborg said:
For season 2, is the text (font) size of the main menu still ridiculously small (especially for the episode titles and the info below them) as it was for season 1?
Click to expand...

It looks the same to me. The "buttons" for the menu remain in the LCARS-like graphics on the edge of the screen with the center and bulk of the screen being mostly blank. They have filled it in with a "scanning graphic" of the Enterprise. But, still, it's a large empty area that'd be better used for the menu or episode previews.

I've watched both Q-Who and MoaM with the Okuda/Director commentary. Both decent and all but would love to have the text-only commentary from the Okudas on most of the episodes like the TOS sets had or audio commentaries from them. I understand their work in the projects makes commentary from them impractical but it'd be nice to have.

I watched "The Dauphin." Not an episode I really like but I was curious how they did the shape-shifting of the character in the episode. In the original episode it was done by painted cells overlaid on the film. In this HD version it seems to be a CGI-recreation which looks better with smoother transitions between the creatures.
 
Mott the barber said:
Edit: One other thing: Anyone else think to themselves what "could have been" when they interspersed certain bloopers throughout the documentaries in widescreen? Some were pretty extended scenes (one in Picard's ready room comes to mind) and widescreen would have really given the series a more modern feel if it was feasible to do for the restoration. Don't get me wrong, I understand all the reasons why they couldn't do it, but it was sort of neat to see some of the blooper footage of the ship and crew fill up all 55 inches of my tv for brief snippets of time.
Click to expand...

I was hoping that the TV syndicated version would be 16:9 (like they did with TOS).

Syfy UK has been showing season 1 in HD for over a month now, I assume it's 4:3. Has anyone seen it?
 
I've watched the first two episodes

1) The inferior quality of the work is apparent. The main thing I noticed were the space f/x shots sometimes looking poorly composited. The other thing I noticed was a quite noticeable variance in the grain from shot to shot, something I hadn't really picked up on in season 1. I was aware of both of these things before I even watched the episodes, but my girlfriend who was not aware of these issues also commented on the grain in certain shots, so it wasn't just me noticing what I'd read about. To me, the grain is the bigger problem of these two issues. I shouldn't be watching the show and thinking about the variance in the grain. i am watching on a 60" TV, this issue may not be as noticeable on smaller screens. For the record, I'm not against grain in general, but I do think it's more important to have a consistent look to the episode. If you're going to DNR scrub, DNR scrub the grainy shots a little too so it's not as jarring. Or better yet, just don't use DNR.

2) SOME of the f/x work looks quite good, like when the Enterprise was launching probes into the void in Where Silence Has Lease. I thought Nageelum could have looked better though.

3) It's still a huge improvement over the DVD releases and I'm not sorry I bought it. I am however glad they are not using the same production house for season 4 and onwards.
 
BillJ said:
senten said:
This is a good example of grain in a VFX shot from season 3 trailer: http://tng.trekcore.com/bluray/images_s3trailer/s3trailer_hd_105.jpg

Compare with season 2: http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x01/thechild_hd_000.jpg
Click to expand...

For the comparison to work, you need to be comparing similar shots. Isn't the shot from season three used somewhere in season two?
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The 4 foot model wasn't introduced until season 3, but the shot from season 2 was used again when the Enterprise orbits Jouret IV in Best of Both Worlds I.

The prob in that particular shot for me is the super high clarity Enterprise against the shitty low res star field.
 
Watched the first two eps as well, and as before I'm completely blown away by the razor sharp picture. Seems like you can almost see MORE detail than in S1, whether it's in the actor's wrinkles or in the little scuff marks on the carpet.

As for the episodes themselves, ugh. I knew The Child was a dud, but somehow I remembered Where Silence Has Lease being a lot better than it is. But now it just feels like another one of those tedious filler episodes from S1, where the actors stand around on the bridge the whole time while random weird stuff goes on for an hour.

As for the effects, I didn't really have a problem with how the ship looked, but I do think the Nagilum cloud could have been improved a bit. It looked a bit too cheap and cartoonish against the star backdrop, and with the way it kept opening up later on.

And what was up with that Holodeck grid?? The lines were completely uneven and looked like they had been drawn by a 5 year old or something! Lol
 
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