Re: Pure Star Trek Discussion
1701I have to backtrack on one thing I said. Only the premiere episode is going to be broadcast; the rest of it will be streamed.
"Olorin I was in the West that is forgotten...."
According to Variety, “The creative plan is for the series to introduce new characters and civilizations, existing outside of the mythology charted by previous series and the current movie franchise.”
Does this mean yet another timeline for our new show?
So as they say, both good and bad. I'm thrilled that STII is getting the proper treatment for BD. I never bought the previous BD collection of the TOS movies, as knowing how poor they generally looked on DVD, I figured the BDs would look atrocious. So I'm glad to get a new BD of STII. I'm not pleased they're not doing the other TOS movies, and I won't be pleased a few years down the road when they finally do them and put out a box, which will cause me to have to buy STII again.Finally today, the part you’ve all been waiting for: I’m here to tell you something about Paramount Home Entertainment’s plans for celebrating Star Trek’s 50th Anniversary this year. A little bit of background before I continue… many of you will no doubt recall that, back when Star Trek Into Darkness was first released on Blu-ray, I was critical of the way all of the special features content was split up and given away as exclusives to different retail partners (see my column here), making it nearly impossible for fans to get all of the extras. A few weeks after our posts (in September 2013), I was invited up to Paramount to meet with the studio’s home video team to talk about the issue. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. They were honest, acknowledged that they’d made mistakes with the title (with the best of intentions, believe it or not – new people were in charge and they really didn’t expect the fan backlash) and they wanted my opinion on how they could make it up to Trek fans. So I told them: First I explained how to fix the Star Trek Into Darkness release, which they ultimately did with the Star Trek: The Compendium Blu-ray release (reviewed here).
I also told them what they could do to really make Star Trek fans happy with new Blu-ray releases. I gave them a list of things that included properly remastering ALL of the theatrical films (since only Star Trek II had gotten properly remastered for the previous Blu-ray release, and all the other films looked terrible on disc). I suggested that they finally include not just the theatrical cuts, but the various Director’s and Extended Cuts of the films and listed them. I suggested that an easy TV Blu-ray release would be The Animated Series, since those episodes had already been scanned in HD. And I also suggested that not only was it time to finally give Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition a proper VFX remastering in full HD, there was an easy and obvious way to do so. The VFX team at CBS Digital (at the time) was just wrapping up work on Star Trek: The Next Generation and they needed something to do. Paramount could bring the guys who supervised the original effort on The Director’s Edition in (who I said I could point them to if need be) to work with the experienced CBS Digital team and the work could be done quickly and much more affordably than if they had to build a team and facility from scratch. And if that project worked, you could even keep them busy by creating a new Director’s Edition of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (which had cut-rate visual effects) with all-new CG VFX. Paramount listened to all this and seemed to give my input serious consideration.
Fast forward a year: It’s October 2015. I’m contacted again by Paramount Home Entertainment to advise more new people at the studio about what Trek fans want from Blu-ray and what fans would consider a great way to celebrate Star Trek’s 50th Anniversary. And I told them all the same things again. So far so good.
Now we’re here and I’ve got a few details for you on what Paramount is actually doing with their Trek Blu-rays this year. I don’t have all the details, but I have the important ones for you. As is so often the case, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the studio did actually take my advice. The bad news is... they only took some of it.
Here’s what’s great: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is getting remastered again in full 4K. That remaster will be released on Blu-ray this year and it will include both the Theatrical Cut and the Extended Cut of the film. Director Nicholas Meyer has been involved, as you know from his recent press statements, and there may also be a 4K Ultra HD release this year, though that plan is not yet set in stone. Star Trek: The Animated Series is also coming to Blu-ray in time for the holidays. As you’ve also probably heard, both Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness are getting released this Summer on 4K Ultra HD format, and likely Star Trek Beyond will too later this year. There will also be a variety of Trek Blu-ray and DVD combo packs and box sets, in various configurations, all branded to the Star Trek: 50th Anniversary. Some may have new bonus content and might include new swag.
Here’s what’s not happening: None of the other Trek films have been (or are being) remastered. To the extent that those other films are getting re-released on Blu-ray and DVD, it will be the existing discs/transfers repackaged. No work has been done to Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition and, on the TV front, there are no plans currently to move on with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Voyager Remastered. HOWEVER... my hope is that if the remastered Blu-ray and 4K release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is successful, that might provide the business incentive for Paramount to at least continue on with future remastering projects on all the other films.
So again, good news and bad news. I know some of you will be thrilled by the good and incensed by the bad. For my own part, I find it a bit frustrating, but I’m willing to take the good for now and hope for more later. Paramount’s Star Trek 50th Anniversary Blu-ray plans are certainly not what I would have hoped, nor what I advised them to do, but there’s still some good things in there to appreciate.
I know there will probably be a lot of questions, and I’ll try to answer what I can (via this link) on The Bits Facebook page later this evening (I’ll be out of the office until then), allowing that there are still a number of things I can’t talk about yet. So that’s where things stand at the moment.
The rest of them hate the Shat. So good luck with that!BladeCollector wrote:The Shat, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig still appear regularly at conventions, especially Shatner and Takei. Shatner is on the Wizard World circuit and tours the con trail all the time. All but Koenig are scheduled for Dallas comic con, but he's scheduled for a Houston con soon.
I'd love to get a group pic.
OMG, yes. The TOS cast is a very dysfunctional family. Essentially, at least as told by the majority of the cast, Shatner very badly suffered from "I'm the big star here" syndrome, even while the show was still in first run and they were all relative unknowns. They all resented him to one degree or another, except for DeForrest Kelley, who was too much the Southern Gentlemen to dislike anybody (or at least too tactful to let on that he did) and Leonard Nimoy. And apparently even Nimoy grew cool to Shatner late in his life, as Shatner recently reviewed in his book about Nimoy, that Nimoy quit speaking to Shatner in the last months of his life.Fingolfin wrote:So Takei doesn't get along with Shat? As a young Trek fan, I'm not in on all the cast's past drama.
Thats actually funny, even more perfect is if you mess the cookies up, and you get the face palm!Olorin wrote:What I want to bake the next time I make cookies:
http://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com/captain ... lm-cookies
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