45 Years of Trek ⚛
My first Trek Experience was with the Original Series when I was 10 years old, and since then I was hooked. In fact, it wasn’t until the premier of The Next Generation that I became a full on Trekkie. I remember reading about the new series on the back of a serial box while getting ready for school. There were factoids about the series and some photos of the ship and crew. but what really stood out was a large photo of Jean Luc Picard posing with Dr. Crusher and Wesley. I cut out that cereal box back and kept it for as long as I could remember it, but finally losing track of it several years later in a move. But that was my first TNG memory, and it was before the series actually premiered on TV. Going back and re-watching the whole series, I’m amazed at how much new stuff I pick up after the initial viewing of it.
Some links you’ll enjoy:
Cereal Box promo with Troi (Marina Sirtis), Wesley (Will Wheaton), and Riker (Jonathan Frakes).
Trek Infographic. Source: SPACE.com
Ars Explores 45 years of Star Trek
Wired: Liftoff for the Starship Enterprise (orig. Sep. 8, 2008)
Star Trek TNG is remastered for HD ⚛
The Digital Bits has confirmed from CBS that Star Trek: The Next Generation will be remastered for HD which in turn will provide a great source for a Blu-Ray release. Cost was always a concern, but it seems like the cost to do the remaster has finally been justified. Apparently TNG was all shot on 35mm film so the process isn’t as involved as it would be for series filmed in SD digital. Most of the effort is going to be in reproducing the special effects which will have to be done frame-by-frame, a time consuming process. CBS has been pretty tight lipped about this, so you’ll likely only have a little time before the release to pre-order.
Anthony Pascale from trekmovie.com had this to say back in 2010:
All three seasons of the originalStar Trek are now available in HD, but what about TNG? In a response to a question about TNG on Blu-ray, CBS Consumer Products VP John Van Citters told the crowd in Las Vegas that releasing Star Trek: The Next Generation on Blu-ray was much more “problematic” than the original Star Trek, due to how the TNG original effects shots were composited, and how that makes the transfer to HD “incredibly difficult without making them look awful.” However, he also said that there is “a lot of conversations going on” within CBS on how to convert TNG to HD, and Van Citters expressed optimism noting “It is being worked on and I expect it will happen, it is just a technical challenge.”
Following his talk, I confirmed with Van Citters that even though he is optimistic that the challenges will be met, as of now there is no specific plan or budget for the project within CBS. So this is still something that is a long-term project.
My hope is that eventually, we may get the other series in HD, specifically DS9 and Voyager. Enterprise was already shot in HD. You can already view all of the Trek series on Netflix, except for DS9 which will be available on October 1st.