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TNG Remastered Blu-ray Set Reviews
Season 1 - Season 2 - Season 3
Blu-ray facts
Image and sound quality The whole first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) was reconstructed for the Blu-ray set using the original 35mm negatives that were newly scanned with 1080p HDTV resolution. Only "We'll Always Have Paris" includes a tiny amount (2 seconds) of upconverted footage according to the disc menu. Since I browsed quickly through much of the episode, I didn't spot it.
The aspect ratio of the remastered (TNG-R) episodes is 4:3 as in the original SD release. I am glad that CBS Digital didn't go for a wider format, because that would have meant cutting off elements at the top and/or the bottom of the filmed frame, and still in some takes the frame may have been too wide and could have revealed set borders, sound or lighting equipment. Widening the whole frame as was done for the re-used TNG scenes in ENT: "These Are The Voyages" was no serious option for the whole series either.
 TNG effect shot: blurry (screen capture by Jörg) |
 TNG-R effect shot: crisp (screen capture by TrekCore) |
I'm new to the Blu-ray world, and I actually bought a player just to view TNG-R. It took me a couple of tries to find out an image setting on our LCD TV that would include just the right amount of noise reduction to remove all the annoying white pixels and leave a decent graininess while not blurring the image too much. After that adjustment the image quality is superb, with little noise even in the dark scenes. I noticed a few occurrences of compression artifacts per episode, which I think is absolutely tolerable (well, we have digital satellite TV and perhaps we have gotten used to it too much already). Comparing screen caps that we took from the old DVD with stills from the Blu-rays, we can see that the resolution has doubled not just nominally (due to the 1080 lines of the HDTV standard) but also in our perception. Moreover, the contrast of the Blu-ray scenes is much better, especially in overall rather dark scenes and in effect shots.
 TNG bridge: pale salmon (screen capture by Jörg) |
 TNG-R bridge: ochre (screen capture by TrekCore) |
What I find even more remarkable than the increased resolution is the new color fidelity of TNG-R. The old TV episodes used to have generally pale colors with a purplish hue. The bridge appeared to be salmon on TV when it was in fact predominantly ochre as the remastered version reveals. TNG-R shows that aliens such as the Selay from "Lonely Among Us" are in fact far more colorful than we remember them. And even the gray sack that Michelle Phillips is wearing in "We'll Always Have Paris" comes across as a bit more attractive in its original light blue color in TNG-R.
 TNG Selay: toned down (screen capture by Jörg) |
 TNG-R Selay: colorful (screen capture by TrekCore) |
The newly mixed 7.1 sound of the remastered episodes is quite good as far as I can tell by turning up our measly two TV speakers. I noticed an inexplicable tinny and noisy sound only in "Haven", unfortunately throughout the whole episode. I have no idea what went wrong with this one episode, and whether it's perhaps just our sound system.
Episode content I don't think I have to introduce Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) in any fashion. It is widely recognized as one of the best science fiction series, and arguably the most successful sequel series of any genre ever made. It outperforms its predecessor, The Original Series (TOS), on a couple of accounts. Characters such as Picard or Data have become almost as iconic as Kirk or Spock. That being said, overall the first season of TNG isn't exactly the most compelling and the most original one of the series. Several of the first-season episodes try hard to put a fresh spin on old TOS stories instead of exploring the new possibilities of the 24th century. The introduction of the Ferengi as new villains fails, and they end up rather as comic relief. On the other hand the holodeck, which appears in the two arguably best episodes of the season, "The Big Goodbye" and "11001001", is successfully established as a defining technology of the 24th century and a new means of storytelling. For much more on the stories of the first season, I recommend my episode reviews.
After checking out all remastered season 1 episodes at least in "fast forward" mode, I am pleased about how little was altered. TNG is my favorite TV series (not just of Star Trek), and I would have had a hard time accepting changes relevant to the course of the story, even in the rather unexciting first season. Nearly all scenes involving starships were reassembled from the originally filmed single passes. All new light effects closely reproduce the look of the original. The arguably most obvious changes are those to the planets. As far as I can tell, only Deneb IV in "Encounter at Farpoint" as well as Haven in "Haven" and its reuse as Bynaus in "11001001" are still represented by the old models. All other planets were digitally rebuilt, obviously because the original material was not good enough for HD. I appreciate that all new planets closely resemble the old ones, in their color as well as in the shapes of the continents, something I may have wished for a couple of the reimagined TOS planets too.
 TNG Edo planet: not fit for HD (screen capture by Jörg) |
 TNG-R Edo planet: rebuilt from scratch (screen capture by TrekCore) |
Some bloopers were removed for TNG-R. This was occasionally done actively such as in the case of a flower pot in "The Arsenal of Freedom", which was covered by a digitally inserted piece of rock. Other imperfections, such as a visible set border in "Hide and Q", are gone because the scan area was shifted or resized. On the other hand, perhaps a little bit more could have been done to remove all bloopers. For instance, a few episodes still use reversed shots of the Enterprise on which the mirror writing is now more recognizable than ever. But speaking of writing, I find it noteworthy that Clare Raymond's family tree in "The Neutral Zone" was completely reworked and now reads far more realistic. All other displays in the first season remain unchanged, with one small exception in "The Naked Now" where the original Enterprise side view was inserted to fit with the dialogue, as Data is reviewing the records of the "The Naked Time" incident.
Extra content The Blu-ray set comes with two new special features. "Energized: Taking the Next Generation to the Next Level", on the first disc, shows how the HD version of Star Trek TNG was created. It has interviews with the Okudas and several other members of the team that created TNG-R at CBS Digital. Perhaps most importantly, the documentary demonstrates why 4:3 was chosen as the aspect ratio, rather than 16:9. The latter may have exposed lighting equipment and other stuff outside the safe action area. There is some insight into the painstaking process of recomposing effect shots with starships that consist of several separate passes. We get an impression of how Max Gabl created new planets such as Minos from "The Arsenal of Freedom" and how Niel Wray reconstructed the Crystalline Entity from "Datalore".
"Stardate Revisited", on the last disc of the set, is a three-part documentary about the show's inception 25 years ago. It features new interviews with the complete season 1 cast, as well as with notable people behind the scenes, such as Rick Berman, D.C. Fontana, Andrew Probert or Michael Westmore. There is Patrick Stewart, who says that he was convinced the series would not work, so he went and signed up for half a year or for as long as it would last. We see several camera test shots (all in HD) with not-yet-final make-up, such as Data with a pink or a battleship gray skin color. The secret of Counselor Troi's hair is uncovered (which is Marina Sirtis' real hair only in the pilot, according to the actress). We can witness how the "psychedelic" light effect of the engines of the Tarellian ship from "Haven" was created using a spinning color wheel in front of a spotlight. And perhaps most curiously, the people inside the Enterprise-D observation lounge in the main title are revealed to be a simple pencil animation. There are also some rather critical remarks about the role of Gene Roddenberry, who used to rewrite scripts in a matter of minutes and without consultation and who was generally hard to work with.
Something I miss on the Blu-ray set is any form of audio or textual commentaries on the episodes.
The Blu-ray sets include the old DVD features that pale in comparison to the new ones, technically speaking. Moreover, these 4:3 parts are stretched to 16:9 by default. Either my player didn't get this right or it should be corrected in future releases.
Conclusion So is it worth buying? Definitely yes, for TNG fans who will experience the best science fiction series ever in a so far unimaginable quality. Yes, for those who like Star Trek, who always wanted to buy a Blu-ray player and who now have the perfect incentive. Rather yes, for general science fiction fans who may or may not have a Blu-ray player and who may or may not have TNG already on DVD or VHS. Perhaps, for a next generation of fans who may come to appreciate their parents' favorite show if it comes in HD and brilliant colors. Rather no, for those who never cared for Star Trek anyway.
Blu-ray facts
Image and sound quality The second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) was not remastered by the established team at CBS Digital but by HTV illuminate. Apparently the two teams were working in parallel to allow a tighter release schedule of the Blu-ray boxes.
It is also noteworthy that the second season was shot with a different film stock than the first season. The second season film is commonly described as being more matte. I think this shows a bit in bright scenes, such as on the bridge, in which the first season in HD is somewhat more brilliant and with finer graininess than the second one under comparable conditions. Overall, however, a quality difference between the seasons is hardly visible after the HD transfer.
The biggest surprise about season 2 in HD is that the aspect ratio is not exactly 4:3, which would give us 1440 pixels per line at 1080 lines as it was the case with season 1. The frames of season 2 are 16 pixels wider. While the difference to season 1 is hardly visible (except to people such as me who use scripts to process screen caps) and we might welcome the extra resolution, I would have expected more consistency in the basic transfer process. There are some instances of incorrectly framed shots in season 2 (leaving black borders on the left or the right), most notably in "The Schizoid Man" and "Peak Performance". In a couple of shots the image proportions are not correct, which is particularly visible in "Loud as a Whisper" and "The Icarus Factor", where the Enterprise is clearly too narrow.
 TNG shot: good colors, greenish (screen capture by Jörg) |
 TNG-R shot: still good colors, more bluish (screen capture by TrekCore) |
Season 2 had a better color reproduction than the overly purplish season 1 already in the original SD release, which may or may not have to do with the different film stock. Maybe it was just a matter of an improved transfer procedure. Anyway, it is pleasant to see that in the Blu-ray release the two seasons are finally equalized in terms of color fidelity. At times, however, it seems that the color intensity was reduced on the season 2 Blu-rays compared to the SD release or shots turn out more bluish than I would have expected them to be.
As already mentioned in my season 1 review, owing to my limited equipment I can't really judge the quality of the remastered sound. Anyway, I couldn't find anything wrong with the sound so far.
Episode content I think most fans agree with me that TNG's season 2 was an improvement over season 1, despite the departure of Dr. Crusher who got replaced by the less popular Dr. Pulaski. While TNG initially rehashed too many TOS stories and failed to introduce the Ferengi as regular opponents, the second season most notably introduced the Borg and revived the Romulans, thereby establishing the concept of multi-episode arcs in the franchise. The writers moved the characters into the focus of interest again, rather than only using them for a generic "political intrigue" or "strange phenomenon" story. The pivotal episodes of the second season, such as "A Matter of Honor", "The Measure of a Man", "Q Who" and "Peak Performance", with accordingly strong involvement of the crew, are fan favorites still today. We only have to forget that the season ended with a major stinker, the infamous clip show "Shades of Gray". For a much more detailed analysis of the stories of the second season, I recommend my episode reviews.
 TNG scenery: matte of Iconia (screen capture by Jörg) |
 TNG-R scenery: CG matte of Iconia (screen capture by TrekCore) |
As already in season 1, nothing of importance was visually altered. Light effects such as of phasers or energy fields were recreated to be as close to the original as possible. With a few exceptions, all miniature shots of starships could be recomposited for the HD release, even those of the tiny probes in "Where Silence Has Lease" (whereas the Enterprise is computer generated in the TNG-R shots with the probes). We can see more newly created CG versions of ships in "The Outrageous Okona" (towing of the Erstwhile), "A Matter of Honor" (close-ups of the BoP) and "Peak Performance" (one aft shot of the Hathaway). Season 2 also reuses a number of planets, unlike it was in season 1 where nearly every planet was reconstructed from scratch. While some matte paintings are still the same or were only insignificantly changed, some new ones were recreated from scratch. I especially like Wesley's holographic space sceneries that he uses to impress Salia in "The Dauphin", the surface of Iconia in "Contagion" and the interior of the Borg cube in "Q Who".
 TNG planet: blurry (screen capture by Jörg) |
 TNG-R planet: still a bit blurry (screen capture by TrekCore) |
Regarding the quality of the new visual effects, I think while they overall look just as good as in season 1, in some cases HTV's work does not quite live up to the very high standard established by CBS Digital. Several of the new planets are too blurry. Some light effects are not quite consistent, such as a tractor beam that seems to stop ahead of its target. A few of the displays that had to be recreated are visibly different because HTV customarily used a new font. One of them, the medical data in "The Schizoid Man", additionally contains a couple of errors.
 TNG display: blurry but correct (screen capture by Jörg) |
 TNG-R display: crisp but with several errors (screen capture by TrekCore) |
Overall the team at HTV did just as good a job as CBS Digital in removing bloopers such as visible set borders or lighting equipment, which was most often a matter of simple reframing.
Extra content The Blu-ray set includes several new special features. “Making it So: Continuing the Next Generation” tells how season 2 of the show came to life almost 25 years ago, with some interesting insight into technical details of the production. For instance, we learn that Dan Curry created the effect of the Borg tractor beam using a laser and a beer can. “Reunification: 25 Years After Star Trek: The Next Generation” is the long-awaited reunion of the main TNG cast. This feature is quite entertaining for the most part, and besides the usual anecdotes it gives us a good impression about how the actors came together 25 years ago and how they feel about it today - with no one looking back with remorse.
The highlight of the Blu-ray set is arguably the extended version of "The Measure of a Man", including a couple of scenes that were cut from the original release and can be seen for the first time. In addition, the discs include 10 minutes of deleted scenes from “The Icarus Factor” and “Up the Long Ladder”.
Audio commentaries are available on "Q Who" (with Dan Curry, Rob Bowman and Mike Okuda) and on "The Measure of a Man" (with Melinda Snodgrass, Denise Okuda and Mike Okuda). The Blu-ray sets also include all the old DVD features. I am glad that the two issues of the "Departmental Briefing" (from 2002) are still a part of the Blu-ray set because they profit from fresher memories of the cast and crew and still don't appear dated today.
Conclusion Some fans criticize HTV for doing a sloppy job with season 2, usually citing the blurry planets as the main reason. I agree that season 2 does not quite live up to the very high standard of season 1 on the technical side, with the false proportions of the Enterprise, the repeated incorrect framing and the errors on the display in "The Schizoid Man" being additional grievances. However, if I were to rate HTV's work, it would fall short at most a few percent of CBS Digital's. And the quality of stories as well as the extra features of the season 2 discs more than make up for a few shortcomings.
Blu-ray facts
Image and sound quality Unlike the second season, the third one was remastered by the established team of CBS Digital again. It was apparently possible to locate the complete original film for the HD transfer, including the 13 seconds from "Sins of the Father" that were missing on the Blu-ray sampler.
The third season was originally shot with yet another different film stock than the second season. The images of the season 3 HD episodes are a bit sharper than in season two, and with a fine grain that lets it appear a bit more vivid.
The frames of season 3 are 1438 pixels wide, which translates to an aspect ratio of almost exactly 4:3. More precisely it should have been 1440x1080 pixels, as in the first season.
Not only the resolution but also the overall image contrast was greatly improved by the HD transfer, as can be seen especially in the dark scenes in episodes such as "The Enemy" or "Samaritan Snare" that were hardly recognizable in the DVD version.
 TNG dark shot: poor contrast (screen capture by TrekCore) |
 TNG-R dark shot: improved contrast (screen capture by TrekCore) |
As already in the remastered versions of the first and the second season, the improvement of the color fidelity is amazing. We can notice a considerable improvement in scenes that were shot on location, in sunlight, such as in "The Survivors", "Who Watches the Watchers" or "Ménage à Troi", which used to be quite dull in the original release and look stunningly realistic now. Furthermore, there used to be a color discrepancy between the original SD releases of the first three seasons, as can be seen particularly well in shots of the bridge that sometimes had a purplish hue in season 1, was consistently beige in season 2 and became less colorful in season 3. In HD the colors of the third season are much like in the two previous ones (although I still have the impression that the beige of the bridge walls is somewhat less intense).
 TNG location shot: unnatural hue (screen capture by TrekCore) |
 TNG-R location shot: more natural colors (screen capture by TrekCore) |
I found no problem with the sound quality (at least none that I would attribute to the Blu-ray discs, rather than to my player).
Episode content Season 3 is commonly regarded as one of the best of the series. Although I think it is bettered by the three seasons that would follow, it includes some of the greatest episodes, such as most notably "Yesterday's Enterprise" and "Best of Both Worlds I" with its famous cliffhanger. Further highlights are "Booby Trap", "Sins of the Father" and "Sarek". Gates McFadden is back in her role as Dr. Crusher, replacing Dr. Pulaski who never gained a great popularity. Overall the characters are still more personally involved than in season 2, culminating in Worf's discommendation by the Klingon High Council and Picard's assimilation by the Borg. A few episodes don't work so well, such as "The Survivors" or "The Bonding", but really bad ones are missing. I think the writing has reached a remarkably high standard in the third season, one that the rest of the series has to measure up to. For a much more detailed analysis of the stories of the third season, please go to my episode reviews.
 TNG "Booby Trap": not bad (screen capture by Jörg) |
 TNG-R "Booby Trap": more rocks, changed lighting (screen capture by TrekCore) |
My only small beef with the content is that the set only includes the first part of "Best of Both Worlds". The second part will come with the Season 4 set, but I would have loved to get it as a feature-length episode. So I may have to buy the BoBW special Blu-ray as well.
 TNG Vulcan: brown desert planet (screen capture by TrekCore) |
 TNG-R Vulcan: still brown, with oceans (screen capture by TrekCore) |
CBS Digital continued the policy of keeping the alterations to the original material to a necessary minimum. While all light effects such as of the transporter or of phasers were newly created, the starship and matte shots were recomposited from the original film. Almost all planets were recreated from scratch, however, including Vulcan ("Sarek") and Betazed ("Ménage à Troi"). The quality of the new planets, most if not all of which were done by Max Gabl, is clearly better than in season 2. They are highly detailed and appear with the sharpness that we expect from HD.
Extra content The season 3 Blu-ray set comes with even more new special features than the two preceding sets. There are audio commentaries on "The Bonding", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "The Offspring" and "Sins of the Father". Also, the original footage of David Rappaport from "The Most Toys" was restored and a gag reel was composed in HD. Disc #6 includes no less than three newly produced documentaries: "Star Trek The Next Generation: Inside The Writer’s Room", "Resistance is Futile: Assimilating The Next Generation" and "A Tribute to Michael Piller".
Conclusion I am glad that CBS Digital worked on the recomposition of the third season, and I think the result is the best of TNG-R so far, both in terms of image quality and of mistake avoidance. This is the quality I expect from the remaining four Blu-ray disc sets too. The final judgment about season 3 may have to wait until we have reviewed all episodes in detail, in the course of which a few small errors may still become apparent.
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