Review: Star Trek: TNG ‘Encounter At Farpoint’ (Blu-ray)

The first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation was just released on Blu-ray. TrekMovie has already reviewed the full set but (like we did with the remastered original Star Trek series), today we begin our reviews of the individual episodes from the series, starting with the two-part pilot "Encounter at Farpoint."    

 

 

REVIEW: "Encounter at Farpoint" from Star Trek: TNG S1 Blu-ray
by Jeff Bond

The Trek Remastered quest continues, what is it—six years later? And it’s kind of a miracle. You might think that redoing visual effects from scratch (the approach taken for the original Star Trek Remastered project) is a bigger challenge than what’s being done with Star Trek – The Next Generation in its upgrading from original broadcast quality to HD, but you’d be wrong—the physical process of tracking down elements (sometimes as many as a dozen or so per shot depending on how many spaceships are in the frame) and recompositing everything is pretty staggering, and CBS/Paramount is spending a mint to do this. It’s something I don’t think any of us thought would happen this soon, and it’s kind of a gift.

It’s also, of course, an opportunity to look back at these shows all over again, so you’ll have to put up with my (and others’) sometimes jaundiced perspective on TNG. I came to the series as an adult Trekkie, someone that had been watching TOS since I was 10 years old—so naturally I not only compared the new show to the old one, I also picked up on the pretty obvious lifts of ideas from the original series that haunted TNG during its first season. Watching the show’s first two years was an exercise in frustration—it clearly showed promise, but compared to the first year of TOS, TNG’s stories and characters lacked focus, the show seemed to meander from scene to scene, and particularly in the handling of Wil Wheaton’s Wesley Crusher character, there often seemed to be some confusion as to whether the show was being written and produced for adults or for younger viewers. But it was new Star Trek, so we all continued to watch—and by year three the show got remarkably better.


A new Star Trek show with a new ship and a new crew sets out in "Encounter at Farpoint"

“Encounter at Farpoint” was written by Dorothy Fontana and Gene Roddenberry, and executive produced by Robert H. Justman—so its Trek bona fides can’t really be questioned. However by 1987, Roddenberry had evolved into something more like a futurist than a dramatic television series producer, and his ideas sometimes were at odds with the goal of creating the drama and conflict that should ideally draw audiences in.

The basic story of “Farpoint” involves a mystery regarding a newly constructed starbase on the planet Deneb IV—something that would probably have eaten up a standard hour of television. Supposedly late in the game Roddenberry added the idea of a god-like alien being interrupting the Enterprise D’s mission and putting humanity on trial—a rather standard trope from the original series.


Away team beaming down in "Encounter at Farpoint"

I remember watching the premiere of the series and being embarrassed by what really seemed like a lame rehash of the Trelane character from TOS’s “The Squire of Gothos.” Of course Q (John DeLancie) would eventually become one of the show’s most popular recurring characters, and DeLancie does start to make the role his own by the end of the episode. But the borrowing and rehashing of old ideas was endemic to the show. Data (Brent Spiner) was a retread not only of Spock, but of Roddenberry’s rejected pilot The Questor Tapes; Riker and Troi were retreads of Decker and Ilia from Star Trek – The Motion Picture (who in turn were holdovers from Roddenberry’s Star Trek: Phase II series project), and Marinis Sirtis’s character would have been a retread of tough Latina Vasquez from Aliens until Denise Crosby was cast in the security officer role that became Tasha Yar, and Sirtis became touchy-feely Counselor Troi.


Picard and Q face off in "Encounter at Farpoint"

Most TV shows succeed or fail on their casting, and TNG’s casting strengths are evident immediately in “Farpoint.” Patrick Stewart (who had been suggested by Bob Justman for the role while Roddenberry wanted Stephen Macht, a younger, more virile actor) is immediately authoritative and interesting as Jean-Luc Picard, Brent Spiner shows the mix of innocence and humor that would make him ultimately rival Leonard Nimoy’s Spock in popularity, Michael Dorn (despite his early, slightly ridiculous-looking makeup) immediately turns a minor role into a star turn with his grumpy attitude (which reminds me of acting teacher—and former Trek actor—Jeff Corey’s advice to look at what everyone else in the cast is doing and do something completely different), and Jonathan Frakes shows some charismatic charm as Riker. I’d almost forgotten that Colm Meaney is there right at the beginning in another nothing role that would eventually break through and earn him big stories on TNG and a role on DS9.


Blu-ray image: Brent Spiner as Data from "Encounter at Farpoint"

The female actors are not so fortunate. Sirtis eventually found a level for her “I sense great (fill in the emotion)” character that was less annoying, but in “Farpoint” she’s pretty unbearable, and Denise Crosby is saddled with a number of hyperemotional moments that are way outside her range as an actor. Sometimes switching actors’ roles works, but in this case Sirtis was always more convincing in later episodes when Troi got possessed or driven crazy and turned into a monster—she’s much better at the dark side than she is at sweetness and light, and she probably would have been a more convincing security officer than Crosby, who never seemed effective in any circumstance on the show. Gates McFadden’s Beverly Crusher has a few scenes with Picard that suggest dramatic depth, but they are ultimately only suggestions. Despite the much ballyhooed “romance” between Picard and Crusher, Crusher was always a tremendous missed opportunity, basically defined as a mother and caregiver with little in the way of defining personality traits.


Marina Sirtis as Troi in "Encounter at Farpoint"  

Technically, “Farpoint” is an exciting relaunch for the Trek concept, and the HD makeover shows the program as much slicker technically than it seemed at the time. Andy Probert’s Enterprise D has more than its share of detractors but I always loved it as a daring reimagining of the starship, and ILM’s visual effects set a new standard for the franchise. The recompositing upgrades from the original video composites are sharp and show off fantastic detail—the difference between the original, muddy Farpoint jellyfish creatures—one of which the dodgy Bandi race has imprisoned to construct their starbase—is like night and day, turning what originally looked like cheap TV effects to something that’s more like theatrical quality.


Blu-ray image: The USS Enterprise-D "Encounter at Farpoint"

For the most part, we’re looking at what the original effects were intended to look like (unlike the CG makeovers for the TOS Remastered project), but there are some very effective fixes done too. The timing for one shot of the Enterprise fleeing from Q’s pursuing energy ball has been tweaked to much more seamlessly portray the scale and velocity of the chase, and a late-in-the-game shot of the Enterprise beaming energy down to the captured jellyfish creature has been totally redone so that the beam is coming from the Enterprise phaser banks instead of the captain’s yacht where it issued from in the original shot. All of the effects show much more texture and detail and should help to rehabilitate TNG’s reputation for unconvincing video effects early in its run.

farpoint_beam_fix_small
CBS fixed the energy beam for "Encounter at Farpoint"

For the most part, the show’s makeup and costuming holds up very well under the HD (TNG was shot on film, and DP Edward Brown no doubt worked under the assumption that his shots would have all the detail of a regular shot-on-film network TV show), although the look of the lighting goes from overly bright and flat (mostly on the bridge) to so dark you almost can’t make out details (for Picard’s first meeting with Riker in his ready room and some scenes in catacombs below the Bandi city). Director Corey Allen plays around with camera angles to create some unusual shots, but there’s still a stagey look to the show compared to the fluid camerawork and vivid cinematography of the original series—TNG wouldn’t find a strong visual look until Marvin Rush came onboard to shoot the show in season three.


The USS Enterprise-D with two space life-forms in "Encounter at Farpoint"

As a story, “Encounter at Farpoint” moves forward in fits and starts—moments of jeopardy and urgency stand weirdly alongside scenes of people just hanging out on the ship, engaging in conversation. TOS did this too—Kirk always had time for a cocktail with McCoy in the middle of an emergency—but the show’s music, editing and performances always managed to maintain some kind of background tension, and that’s missing here, leaving scenes like Picard’s visit to Crusher in sickbay seeming like it belongs in another episode. But Stewart at least always manages to make it seem like there’s something else boiling under the surface—it’s safe to say this show probably would have gotten nowhere without him. All in all, “Encounter at Farpoint” demonstrated the scope, the mix of ideas and intriguing characters that would eventually gel into an excellent television series—it’s a successful audition, but viewers would have to wait for the full payoff.


"Encounter at Farpoint" Old vs. New

Available Now  – price drop to $59.99

The six-disc TNG Season 1 set includes HD remasters (in 1080p and 7.1 DTS audio) of all 26 episodes, plus brand new special features You can order the set at discounted prices: Amazon has lowered their price to $59.99 to match Best Buy. Walmart is selling it for $78.86 

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Can’t decide if I want it now or wait a few year till they bring they box set out …

are those audio issues real? i read that the right (?) audio channel bleeds into the center.

Who cares if the Farpoint creature is blurry or not? Mediocre first season doesn’t interest me in the slightest.

@#1 This is CBS we’re talking about. box sets for Voyager, DS9 and Enterprise are STILL selling at 70 dollar price points at most places, waiting a year won’t change the price.

The issues are presumed real. I won’t know how real until mine arrives here in a couple days, however my enthusiasm has already dropped because of it. Hopefully CBS fixes this soon and issues a recall.

Great review, Jeff. Perceptive and very candid. Looking forward to your ongoing reviews.

@3

The TOS BluRay set in uk is around £100-£120. The individual bluray sets are selling for around £45-£50.

I hear though the packaging on the full set is quite poor though.

Great review though Jeff.

The issues are real, CBS / Paramount is investigating. Go to the digital bits for updates. 7 episodes are affected, along with the new docs.

Okay, just a quick update re: CBS’s Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season One Blu-ray set. There is a confirmed audio issue that affects 7 episodes in the set – Encounter at Farpoint, Hide and Q, The Big Goodbye, Datalore, 11001001 and Too Short a Season. (Naturally, none of the episodes I watched prior to my review!) The impact is that in the DTS 7.1 mixes for these episodes, character dialogue that should normally be in the center channel is also mixed into the front left and right channels. The other episodes are unaffected. However, there’s a secondary audio issue being reported as well in which the PCM audio for some of the extra features on Disc One and Disc Six plays out of sync on at least some models of Blu-ray player. CBS has begun investigating both issues. As soon as we get some kind of official word from them as to what they find to be the cause and how they’re going to fix the problems, we’ll let you all know.

Back in a couple hours with the rest of the day’s news…

Bill Hunt, Editor
The Digital Bits
billhunt@thedigitalbits.com

I’m now on the fence about buying this because of the audio issues.
I hate to deal with sending discs back (of required) and waiting for replacements to arrive.

I may just wait until the fixed set comes on the market.

The dialogue was stiff and stilted, the acting swung wildly from wooden to hysterics.
No one had a clue as to who their character really was. Riker was wooden, Picard was straight from Shakespeare, Tasha was hysterical, Wesley was Will Robinson on Valium, Troi was archly overemotional as compared to her later layered performances, Data was pretty emotional for a being without emotions, Worf was achingly stupid and over-reactive, even for a Klingon- Beverly was the only one who was reasonable in the bunch-
This wasn’t just the pilot, it was the entire first season, although it did improve toward the final episodes.
I watched and waited and hoped, but it would be well into the third season before I was rewarded for my patience, with the second season pretty much lost to the strike.
It’s not a coincidence that this turnabout 3rd season was about the time frame that Gene Roddenberry was forced by his failing health to make his withdrawal from the series.
If you can find it, “Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek” by Joel Engel is a very good candid picture of the rise and decline of The Great Bird of the Galaxy from ‘The Cage” to his death.
Leonard Maizlish, a name mentioned in the documentary several times became Roddenberry’s hatchet man at the end, responsible for the loss of David Gerrold and D C Fontana’s burnouts.
Roddenberry’s final years was not a pretty thing to read and it is amazing that Star Trek: The Next Generation survived at all.
It survived for two reasons.
It wasn’t because Paramount was enthusiastic about it. The ratings were showing a steady decline through the second season and the third season was a bit of a miracle renewal.
Patience of fans like me and Rick Berman. We owe Berman much more thanks than we do vitriol for his last few years.
I can’t wait for his autobiography. I suspect he has a helluva story to tell.

When Tng came on I had high hipes that it would be at least as half as good as TOS. First Season was ok. Had some great Eps and some ok ones. Season 2 got a little better but when season 3 came. TNG came into it’s own. I like many fans could not wait till next weeks Ep and it was a new golden time for Star Trek. Now with all of this on Blu-Rey it’s like it was then. a new Golden age of Tng.

Berman may have made the trains run on time, but creatively I always found him to be an utter disaster. You don’t need to look further than the way shutters dropped on TNG scores, or his dismissive attitude about folks like Melinda Snodgrass, to see that he is about as far afield from a creative producer (a la Gene Coon) as imaginable. And with only a few glorious and semi-glorious exceptions, I find TNG to be as far afield from TOS (as in, far FAR astern) as SPACE RANGERS was from FIREFLY.

A book from Berman would have to be called SPIN CONTROL: The ONLY Frontier. Why pay to read a press release?

12. kmart

“…the way shutters dropped on TNG scores” WHAT???

very much looking forward to it, unfortunately they can’t fix the horrible acting from season 1. If the audio issues can help the dialogue and Sir Patrick’s overacting inflection as if he were on stage at The Globe, then make it so.. Really can’t wait for season 3..thats when it really got GOOD!

Maurice Hurley and Tracy Torme were the Gene Coons of TNG…they are the unsung heroes!!! Without Hurley, we would not have had the Borg!

I was about 20 or so when ST-TNG premiered; I remember even buying a special Sony ‘gold’ VHS tape to record it on. At standard play, no less…

It very much disappointed on so many levels. Felt like Saturday morning kid-vid than the heir apparent to “Wrath of Khan.” And for the next two years, I hung on like an abused spouse waiting for the drinking to stop. Eventually, around year three, the show finally took off; the writing was sharper, the characters were better defined and it finally seemed to get a handle on what kind of a show it was going to be (and as Bond points out, even Marvin Rush’s cinematography looked a lot more polished as well). The digital video FX in those first few years always had a weird, cheesy “Land of the Lost” look to me that never quite sat right for some reason. Those improved a bit as well.

As for the Bluray? I appreciate the super clean image and the almost 3D depth, but the image looks a bit too dark to me. Like someone screwed around with the brightness control. Oh well. As much as I loved TNG (from season 3 onward, anyway) I could never justify buying the first two seasons anyway, no matter how good or cinematic they look. I’d probably watch them once to see the improvements and that’d be that….

Great review by Jeff Bond (who I also saw at Comic Con at the 1982 Retrospective panel; that was a blast!). Keep up the great work on Geek magazine. I’m a reader for life as long as it continues publication (after it’s all-too-long absence).

Great work, Mr. Bond (I feel like I should’ve been petting a Persian cat when I wrote that )….

TOS was simple stories about complex ideas.
TNG was complex stories about simple ideas.

Rick Berman was a great technical producer but lacked any type of creativity or ideas. The fact that TNG is a very safe/bland/boring show rests squarely on his shoulders.

Great review, BTW, Jeff!

# 17

Agreed.
I have been (and always shall be) more of a TOS/DS9 fan as well. ;-)

There are only a handful of episodes of TNG that really hold up for me these days (“Best of Both Worlds”, “Inner Light” “Relics” and “Yesterday’s Enterprise” are still favorites of mine). I own seasons 3 and 6 on DVD and I rarely watch them anymore, to be honest. But at the time, with very little in the way of scifi programming on TV? It was (for a long time) the only act in town…

I have to admit, the (2003-09) Battlestar Galactica, with its gritty, visceral realism and movie-look REALLY spoiled me for the true potential of the space opera subgenre. ST-TNG by comparison (fair or not) seems overly staid and a bit too ‘sanitized-for-your-protection’ these days….

13. Anthony- “shutters dropping on TNG score”… I think he’s referring to the lackluster bland “wallpaper” scores that began to be the norm on TNG starting with season 3-ish? Rick Berman didn’t want the music to be too distracting.

The reason everyone remembers season 3 so fondly is that it basically hit it out of the park with every episode. Honestly, I cannot think of a bad season 3 episode. A few didn’t quite nail their concepts as good as they could have (A Higher Ground, for example) but they were all great entertainment. Season 2 would be remembered more fondly if not for poor Diana Muldaur, who unfortunately was not written well and just did not gel with the other cast members. She was McCoy 2.0, right down to her distaste for the transporter. They even tried to setup a similar antagonism between her and Data, but it came off as mean & nasty. It was a relief to see Crusher back at the beginning of season 3. It was also the season the writers finally decided to take Wesley seriously as a character.

The overly bright picture on the bridge is the crucial argument NOT to buy this BD-box.
As a fan I await a perfectly made refit to HD resolution and not such a partly baked, carelessly developed Season Box!

I came into TNG late enough into the game, being a mere lad at the time, but nobody’s got to explain to me what it was to hang on for two-plus seasons hoping things would really hit their stride. After all, Enterprise was a fairly recent experience for all of us.

The difference is, even 20 years old I find Seasons 1 and 2 of TNG eminently watchable. Despite the glaring flaws, seeds are planted, and the charisma of the better actors is infectious, and you see their gravitas and levels of fun begin to affect their co-stars. (Whereas, I’ve actually tried to retroactively start up Season 1 of Enterprise … I can’t even sit through an episode if it doesn’t have Jeffrey Combs in it. I feel bad, because it’s Trek and I’ve seen every other thing ever and even love the cheesiest episodes of Voyager, but c’est la vie.)

#16. I think that’s just from the screen-capping method. It looks bright and vibrant when I watch it on my TV

20 – Gotta admit, I’m actually in the probably small camp that prefers Pulaski over Crusher. I felt like her basically bad attitude was something needed on that show, and kind of made her moments with Worf sweeter as well. Every crew needs a stubborn, bullheaded individual to shake up character interactions. That’s why DS9 was great; half the principle cast were stubborn and bullheaded.

@18 – STAR TREK is about hope and optimism, not the endless depressing despair and hopelessness of nuBSG. You can’t compare the two.

@12 and 17 – you still can’t admit Berman saved TREK. It kills you to think that without him that we would not have had shows like DS9 either. He was creative enough to hire people like Ron Moore and Michael Piller and put them in charge of writing. He steered the franchise away from the depths from Season Two.

So stop with the outright lies.

Great review. Thanks.

@24

I agree.

Crusher was fine, but you really needed the curmudgeon character, to criticize, and/or question everyone else. Only the doctor could do this because of the command structure. Not only was McCoy a friend, but like in MASH, the doctors kind of exist outside of the command structure yet have the weight of an officer … Unlike Guinan, who was basically a civilian. And I liked her hybrid pant/skirt outfit.

I always find it interesting that TOS could exist with just the three main characters — Spock, Bones & McCoy. They had perfect balance. But TNG literally needed all 8 (nine if you count Wesley) to create the same effect. Take any one away and a significant voice was missing …

Bergman did some good — that’s true!! But he also made some bone headed creative decisions (like the musical score fiasco) and some of the worst Trek ever — TNG seasons 5-7, most of Voyager, Enterprise seasons 1 & 2, ST Insurrection and ST: Nemesis.

Seriously, I’d put his worst right down there with Spocks Brain (only not as entertaining). Bergman made a LOT of pretty boring Trek.

I think DS9 actually got better when he loosed his grip on it to make Voyager!

He did a lot of good and kept the torch burning for Trek (until Nemesis, that is). That, I can’t take away from him.

Berman…not “Bergman”…

# 25

Simon~

In my post, I readily admitted it was an unfair comparison.
I just preferred the more realistic, flawed people that populated the Galactica, rather than the perfect icons of marble that roamed the always clean corridors of the 1701-D, that’s all…

A personal preference. ;-)

# 23 MattR

Good point; I hadn’t considered that…. ;-)

#24, 27

I agree such a character was needed, but that’s not what Pulaski was. She was just a female Dr McCoy with the exact same mannerisms, the same personality traits, etc. If it hadn’t been so blatant and they’d tried to define her character as something new, it might have worked. Odo, Kira, etc. were strong characters in their own right, so the stubborn attitude worked.

@2 – The Blu-Ray.com review seemed to have nothing but good things to say about the audio: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Star-Trek-The-Next-Generation-Season-1-Blu-ray/30939/

The final analysis at Blu-Ray.com reads as follows: “This is everything the series’ audio presentation should be, and then some.”

Q is fantastic aaaaaall the way back in ep 1, well done Sir Q! =D

@35 – Good sir it is worth just to see how beautiful these look after 25 years, plus there are a few diamonds in the rough as it were, with ‘11001001’, ‘Code of Honor’ and ‘Conspiracy’. Even the worst look somewhat improved with this glossy makeover. Just has my mouth watering for more aka ‘Best of Both Worlds’ in 1080p goodness!!

Won’t be buying it until the audio issues are resolved…ugh…don’t they have quality control at CBS video?! How would that even ship out in that condition?

Hmmmm somehow 35 has changed to 36! Haha oh what a kerfuffle!

#35 — Will you buy these again when they are available as 2080p “super high-res glasses free 3D goodness”? ;-)

I’m sure Paramount/CBS thinks you will! HAHAHA!!!

“But honey!! This version is different!!! You can actually see the GLUE that holds the latex prosthetics to Michael Dorn’s FACE in this version and the musical score sounds like it is being played by an orchestra in your living room!!!”

LOL!!!

@33

Nevertheless, the audio problems are real. That a plethora of websites haven’t done their full fact-checking (forgive me) doesn’t change that.

Despite that, I’ve purchased the first season in strong hopes that my sale helps to ensure that Paramount not only concludes this lofty investment with seven releases, but above that, continues forward with DS9 and Voyager. DS9 is “officially on their radar” now, but fan support of TNG will determine the likelihood of it actually happening.

@39

There’s a difference between double-dipping (which many of us aren’t even doing) and, like… quadruple-dipping, or whatever it is you’re insinuating. There’s also a difference between wanting to be able to see the characters when the original piece gets blurry as hell, and having to continually settle for a televised audiobook.

Of course, your suggestion holds merit. If you can make it so, I may boldly go.

@39 – Since it’s TNG…I probably would, although by that point I’d get the holo deck version! Hehe

Any word of the remasters making it to Netflix or Amazon Prime? That’s the only way I’ll see them, and even then, probably not Season One.

I’m done purchasing seasons of Star Trek. They lost me in the 90’s when I spent $100,000 or so on videotapes, which are now in a landfill somewhere. Money well spent.

Oh and BTW I originally responded to Jeffrey S. Nelson, which WAS 35, then changed to 36 then settled with 38! Oh good old comment glitch! = D

There could have been so much potential for this show had Berman not been the guy post-Roddenberry…

I really have to ask, how the heck did Gene get handed a shot at ANOTHER $$$$$ series after he’d basically been fired from meddling with Star Trek films?? He must have had some really good pals in Hollywood at the time. I would have thought Paramount would have wanted Harve Bennett to slide over to reignite Star Trek for TV, after all, he was producing SUCCESSFUL Trek films at the time and was coming off the biggest success ever for Star Trek with the 4th film…

Don’t get me wrong, he created a great playground for this show back in 1966, but over time, he never proved he knew how to deliver dramatic, exciting Star Trek over time. Other creative people did, along with other writers. It’s become obvious to me over time, Gene prevented a lot of great stories from being written due to his strict rules for how characters can act.

Imagine if Next Gen was able to have had some of the conflicts Ds9 got away with?? As far as Rick Berman, dear lord, he squandered 3 out of 4 movies that could have been epic… Instead he played it safe… Generations is practically unwatchable now, and I’ll be honest, for as good as First Contact was received, I still think it’s only about 70% well done. And Insurrection/Nemesis speak for themselves, garbage in terms of big screen features. Berman should have had his creative team come up with some sort of 3 film story arc, that culminated in something truly epic and enduring for the Next Gen cast, but it NEVER happened, and sadly never will now. I think it’s quite obvious just watching Patrick Stewert in these blu-ray interviews, he’s starting to look about as old as his “All good things” elder Picard.. It just wouldn’t be believable throwing a 70 year old Picard up on the big screen. Heck, even Frakes is showing his age as well.

So much potential, so much wasted in my opinion with that crew/cast. Thank Roddenberry and Berman for wasting the possibilities.

What CBS is likely going to do regarding the audio problem is when they fix it and press new discs, you just need to ask for them and they will send them to you. Probably wont ask for the bad ones in return.

I still think the one plan to make the episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” into what became Generations would have been fantastic, with Kirk and the gang coming back in time through the rift to meet Picard and the gang and fight Klingons…

Talk about missed opportunities. That would’ve brought the house down, done right.

Excellent and dead-on assessment of the first episode and the first season (and second) as a whole.

25,
Berman is the one who was doing the lying (or at least outright misrepresentation.) Like how he represented the klingon blood issue on TUC (a show he had next to zero to do with) as being ratings-related, which is utter horseshit.

@#49 – [citation please]

In any case, TREKL VI kept its “PG” rating because the blood was pink. Red blood would have gotten at the very least a “PG-13” and possibly an “R”. That’s the way it is with the MPAA. You can shoot down an army in “The Mummy” but as Stephen Sommers said in his commentary: little to no blood can be shown. Same thing with LOTR: black Orc blood ok. Red blood is a no-no.

And you’re denying he hired Piller & Moore?

So who’s doing the BS-ing now?