Watched a large part of Farpoint in HD last night, admittedly from a huge sized download rip. While being impressed for the most part with the picture quality, I found the whole thing suffering from the general awfulness of the script and much of the acting, particularly from Denise Crosby and Marina Sirtis, the latter having to come out with some of the worst dialogue ever written. Now, I know that has no bearing on the BR quality, but anything that makes me cringe tends to detract from the overall experience.
Frankly it looked horrible in 4:3 on my widescreen LCD. Luckily my HD media player stretched it to letterbox and it filled the whole screen for a much better viewing experience. So little picture was lost, CBS really should remaster the series in 16:9 for those who want it and don't have the TV facility to stretch the image.
I hate to admit it, but that for all the increased clarity and colour depth, I miss the fuzz. OK, the first few seasons have looked terrible for years, but season 3 onwards are still very watchable upscaled at 720p.
The first two seasons were pretty ropey overall, and with the DVD quality being good enough for the seasons I watch from time to time, I think I'll be passing on the BR sets, and just obtain a few select episodes in HD.
) they built a wedge of set which you can see Scotty walking on and sitting down in. The first shot when the doors open is a still from a TOS episode which featured the bridge empty, and the shot of the viewscreen is footage from a TOS episode. (Pre-remastering, naturally. You can even see a hair on the footage.) So hopefully, they'll use the remastered TOS footage for the still and the viewscreen. Surely they will.
