CBS Home Entertainment has officially announced that Star Trek: The Next Generation will be available in high-definition for the first time ever on January 31, 2012. The previously announced sample disc — ‘The Next Level’ — will be followed by the complete first season Blu-ray later in 2012. Details over the jump.
‘The Next Level’, which features the two-part pilot “Encouter at Farpoint”, the season three episode “Sins of the Father” and the season five episode “The Inner Light”, is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com. A specific date is not given, however, CBS Home Entertainment says the complete first season of the show will be released on Blu-ray sometime in 2012.
Here’s the complete press release.
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION®
TO BE AVAILABLE IN HIGH-DEFINITION FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER FOR ITS 25TH ANNIVERSARYStar Trek: The Next Generation® – The Next Level Blu-ray Disc™
Will Be Released On January 31, 2012
Complete First Season Blu-ray Available Later in 2012
LOS ANGELES – The beloved series STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® will be transferred to high definition for the first time ever and released on Blu-ray™, it was announced today by Ken Ross, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CBS Home Entertainment.
All 178 episodes from seven seasons will be transferred to true high-definition 1080p for release on Blu-ray and eventual runs on television and digital platforms both domestically and internationally.
“Fans have been clamoring for a high-definition release of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® for years,” said Ross. “Transferring the series to high-definition presented difficult technical challenges, but our team has come up with a process to create true 1080p HD masters with true HD visual effects. We can’t wait to show fans how pristine the series looks and sounds with our upcoming Blu-ray releases.”
Transferring STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® to high-definition presented numerous challenges – The series was originally shot on film and then transferred to videotape, which was used to edit episodes together. In order to create true HD masters, CBS is going back to the original uncut film negative – all 25,000 plus film reels of it – and cutting the episodes together exactly the way they originally aired. The visual effects were all shot on film and will be painstakingly recompositioned, not upconverted from videotape. The newly cut film will then be transferred to true high-definition with 7.1 DTS Master Audio. Denise and Mike Okuda are consulting on the project.
While the first full season won’t be available until later in 2012, CBS Home Entertainment is releasingSTAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® – THE NEXT LEVEL, a single Blu-ray disc to give fans a taste of the series in HD, on January 31, 2012. The disc will include the feature-length pilot – “Encounter at Farpoint” – as well as two more “fan favorite” episodes, “The Inner Light” (Season 5) and “Sins of the Father” (Season 3). The single disc will be available for a suggested retail price of $21.99.
One of the most popular series in the STAR TREK franchise, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION®celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2012. It premiered in first-run syndication during the week of September 28, 1987 and ran through 1994.
Set in the 24th century on the Starship Enterprise, about 100 years after the original STAR TREK series took place, the series starred Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker, LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge, Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi, Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data, Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf, Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher and Wil Wheaton as her son Wesley Crusher.
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION® won numerous accolades, including 18 Emmy® awards, and was the first – and only – syndicated television show to be nominated for the Emmy® for Outstanding Drama Series for its seventh season. It was also ranked #46 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time list in 2002.
Erm, ok. This is nice I guess, still though, weren’t the first two trailers and news articles official enough?
It’s going to be too expensive to replace seven seasons of TNG that many of us already have on dvd…By the way the dvd’s look like old vhs tapes. They look horrible.
Saeson 7 will be available fall 2019!!!!!!
I’m really looking forward to this-and I’m still amazed that it’s actually being done. It’s an incredible amount of work…makes the TOS remaster seem like a breeze.
#1 agreed lol, this doesn’t really tell us anything we don’t already know? Kinda redundant.
Glad Amazon’s selling the sampler disk for $15. The original asking price Paramount suggested of what, $21.99 is a bit much for what amounts to four episodes we’ll likely all buy again later.
#2 Why not sell your TNG DVD’s and use that money to buy the blu rays? I have the complete series box set but as soon as all 7 are released I’ll sell it for a decent amount on Amazon. I agree with you on how bad the picture quality is on those discs though, its pathetic. Also, the packaging of the TNG/DS9/Voy sets leaves much to be desired.
I think if you own a hi-def system and are a Trekkie you’ll likely want to add this to your collection. Those who don’t care as much about picture quality probably won’t care about replacing their DVD’s but I was impressed with what I saw from the trailer so I think I will add this to my collection. Was also impressed with the work they did with TOS.
#3 Hope you’re being sarcastic and that this isn’t an actual release date, by then the next big hi-def format will probably be available or soon to be released and we’ll be expecting TOS to be remastered yet again for it!
“TO BE AVAILABLE IN HIGH-DEFINITION FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ”
Ever? the PR guy must be in high school.
Any word yet on Netflix or Amazon streaming or iTunes downloads? I don’t own a Blu-Ray player and don’t intended to buy one just for this.
Doug Drexler and Dan Currie have also joined the TNG remastering team. :)
Wish it was in Dolby TrueHD 7.1 instead of DTS-HD MA 7.1
Looking forward to this and thanks to the whole CBS TNG-R team!
7. No details yet, just splurge for a $89 Bluray at target or walmartI and enjoy.
I want it on HD-DVD so I can play it on my HD-DVD player.
#7 Seconded! Any info on TNGHD in digital media?
They should had thought of selling it this month better sales
@14.
“The iron cannot be hurried.”
I’m sure the marketers know what they sow.
#12: I want it on Beta video cassette. And the soundtrack on 8-track. Can I borrow some coax cable? :P
Press release fails to credit Denise Crosby, who was a full regular cast member for the first season. Diana Muldar isn’t mentioned either but she was never officially a regular and appeared in fewer episodes than Crosby.
Mike and Denise. You are the keepers, you are knights Templar, you are the guardians of our memories and of our fondness for a dream
Mr. Corvette
Too bad they can’t remaster the writing.
This appears to be an an exact, word-for-word copy of the press release that appeared on September 28th:
http://cbspressexpress.com/cbs-home-…print?id=29302
Fire up the bittorrent!
Since they’re going back to the original reels, does this mean we’ll finally get a Star Trek release with some good bloopers on it?
It vexes me to this day that the TOS bloopers don’t exist in any kind of quality. As though someone can’t just go digging and find the reels that the VHS was based on.
I was hoping this would be under the tree. Now, I can not hold back my tears. My dishonor as a Klingon is complete.
If they’re saying they’re releasing Season One next year, I think that means we can assume the syndicated episodes (if they have any) will be released in order and not randomly like TOS was.
@9
At this point, Dolby and DTS really come out about the same, especially with these lossless audio codecs; DTS has always been better and appears to be taking over somewhat.
I suggest any Aussies planning on getting this, please do. Whether PHE Australia releases the whole show will depend on the sales
I wonder if they can do seamless branching for both the two-parter and the feature length edition of “Encounter at Farpoint”. For syndication, they reordered a few scenes, did a pre-title teaser with “Laaaaassst time on Staaaaaaar Trek: The Next Generation”, onscreen credits for Part II and end titles that didn’t roll.
Oh wait. No, it was more like “Laaaaaassst time on Encounter at Farpoint”. :-}
16 – I am hoping that RCA will unmaster it for SelectaVision vinyl video disc, circa 198. This is not fair!!! :P
sorry, should be 1981. My Commodore keyboard got stuck.
Im sure the HD versions will crop up on netflix eventually, in which case, I may watch a select few. That’s the problem with TNG season sets, lots of boring episodes with just a few really good ones. I wont buy them all just to get to the good ones, blu rays are much too pricey.
Someone correct me, but i do not believe most streaming sites are streaming the true 1080p that a bluray puts out. My understanding is that the video is re-encoded to stream, thus defeating much of the pristine 1080p bluray quality.
Just buy a bluray player as an update to your DVD player! They are practically giving them away!
Netflix has limited HD content. I know this because I was looking into setting up my home theater for streaming video and decided not to due to the lack of HD. Might as well continue to rent DVDs.
On another note — I can’t wait to see Shades of Gray and Home Soil on Blu Ray!! I am sure they’ll look SPECTACULAR!!!
I can’t wait to hear “Ugly bags of mostly water” in 7.1 HD audio!!! WOW!!!
LOL!!
34. they can’t all be Darmok can they :)
I just want the remastered soundtracks released on reel to reels! My quad stereo system will rock! Can we get the shows on 16mm?
#29: Not until I get my LaserDisc version!! With soundtrack files playable in Real Player. I should make sure my AOL account is paid up in anticipation :)
p.s. Is Real Player compatible with Windows 3.1?
27 – I have to agree with this, I do hope Encounter at Farpoint is just presented as it was when it aired originally.
The DVDs I got from an Asian box set of TNG have great picture quality. Not bluray quality, obviously, but definitely not VHS quality.
Those may have been encoded from a laserdisc source at a higher bit rate than the DVD’s here. Either legit or bootleg. An the quality varies so greatly from episode to episode on DVD also, it’s crazy.
Inner Light was my favorite of the entire series.
I wonder if some new images will officially be released soon or already have been, or if there is a promotional already floating.
I found THAT image from “sins of the fathers” on the german amazon site:
http://www.amazon.de/Star-Trek-Generation-Einblick-n%C3%A4chste/dp/B005OUKLG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323814348&sr=8-1
As you can see on the live action AND on the fx scenes the aspect ratio is 16:9 with black bars on left and right side.
This has already been anounced, but if some still don’t believe it, that’s how it is gonna look.
42. What you’re looking at there, is how TNG should be watched. A Blu ray device or TV set 16:9 FIXED. Pillarbox at either side is perfectly normal. In fact, you’re still seeing more than you did originally. There’s an area at each side that used to go off the sides of a square TV. That’s called overscan. I’ve seen people watch old shows oddly distorted, with various settings like Panoramic and forced to fill the whole of the widescreen frame. That’s up to them, but it’s often an attitude I don’t understand myself and they often don’t notice how misshapen the actors are onscreen.
Well, that’s how i expect to see it too.
I was just refering to the new picture which hasn’t been released elsewhere and wonder if we are going to see a few more soon.
Which bank should I rob to buy these BluRay’s? TNG DVD sets were $129.99 each.
Beloved? I don’t think the airdate of Encounter at Farpoint envokes those kind of emotions in me……
@3 Season 7 will be available fall 2019!!!!!!
At which point 1080p will look like SD as 4k and 8k become the norm. Then, a new set of remasters can begin production!
@47 I believe they are doing at least 4k masters. I don’t think you can get much more than that out of 35mm anyway though.
If they went back to the original negatives, why didn’t they just redo the FX a’la TOS and go 16×9 widescreen? It would almost be as cheap to redo the FX digitally rather than simply recomposite the originals and it would have been a major major sales tool…I have no interest at all in a 1.33×1 high def. since most DVD players upconvert to 1080 anyway…
@49
Bob, if you need your precious screen filled, chances are good that the versions made available to TV and possibly Netflix will be in 16×9.
Even at the original aspect ratio of 4×3, these Blu-rays will beat the crap out of your and my DVD sets, I guarantee it.
(hint: upconverting tends to work best when the material on the DVD was at some point HD and/or film at some point in the process; upconverting video-sourced (which would include TNG, as final editing was done on video) material just looks like, well, video-sourced material.)