Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu Ray Sampler review

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

BLU RAY SAMPLER REVIEW

It’s hard to believe this but Star Trek: The Next Generation is 25 years old this year. Back then it big shock for Trek fans to see a new series that did not feature Kirk, Spock,McCoy and the original crew but the show not only won the hearts of Trek fans it became a great show in it’s own right. The characters of Picard, Data and Worf up there among the favourites of the fans.

Now following The Original Series having been remastered brilliantly onto HD, it is now the turn of The Next Generation. Season One is not out until the late Summer but in the mean time CBS/Paramount have released a Sampler featuring the feature length pilot “Encounter at Farpoint” and two fan favourites, “Sins of the Father” from Season Three and “The Inner Light” from Season Five. After watching these episodes on blu ray, all I can say is that I cannot wait for the next boxset. The picture has never looked so beautiful and it sounds great.

The remastering of Next Gen is different from The Original Series, with Next Gen being a show that was shot on film but processed onto videotape for editing means that they have to go back to the original film stock and physically reconstruct the episodes. It is a big job which will take a long time but after watching these episodes on the sampler it is definitely going to be worth it. The contrasts and the detail show up a lot better, detail that was blurred when it was brought onto videotape.

The colours are a lot richer than on video and DVD.

Unlike The Original Series new CGI shots have not been recreated for all the space shots. They have gone back to the original model shots and touched up the effects some with CG, especially the ones done previously on videotape such as phaser blasts. The Klingon Homeworld was redone with CG but matches perfectly with the original. It is basically the original effects as they should have looked.

Yet they are using the project to correct some visual effects errors. One such error was from “Encounter at Farpoint” in which the Enterprise fired a particle beam from the captain’s yacht but now is correctly emanating from the phaser array.

It should be noted that 13 seconds of film from “Sins of the Father” was not located so they had to be upconverted from the original videotape. There is a noticeable difference as it looks a bit blurred in comparison for those few seconds but if you’re not looking for it then you may not notice it.

But as another reviewer said it just shows how massive a task CBS have in store by going back and remastering this wonderful show.

The sampler was a only £6.99 and inside there is a coupon to get £5 off season one when it comes out. The sampler is simply a tease for what is to come and after watching it I am pumped for the boxsets.

The episodes themselves are not choices to showcase off the tweaked effects as they are more character based. “Encounter Farpoint” makes sense as it is the pilot episode. I cannot wait to see episodes such as “Q Who” and “Best of Both Worlds” on blu ray.

Make it so!