TrekCore has found the trailers for the Season 6 release of Star Trek: The Next Generation on Blu-ray and the single-disc release that accompanies it, “Chain of Command”, due out in June. Season 6 also gives us a glimpse at Deep Space 9 in HD thanks to being shown in the episode “Birthright”. Check ’em out after the break.
I need to rush home and check these out!
First?
Harland Ellison’s original teleplay for City on the Edge of Forever will be adapted into a five issue comic book mini-series by IDW publishing.
http://www.trektoday.com/content/2014/03/idw-publishing-to-adapt-ellison-trek-story/
Gotta admit, these re-masters take 20 years off the looks of TNG. Though, I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. Maybe both.
so disappointed they have spotted the signle disc in the uk, lucky the usa is not region coded, and even then they have missed off a two part
All this is very nice.
However, with every day that passes, I grow increasingly disappointed that there is no new news about the next Trek movie. This is not the fault of TrekMovie.com, but rather of some of the executive and the production companies involved. They are taking their time doing what they want and treating Trek the way they treat sausage — like a purely commercial product.
Honestly, I don’t feel that I have to care about Star Trek anymore if this is the case. I’m very tired of waiting for good news about the next movie or about the next TV series, and time waits for no one.
Hat Rick
#2 Great, so he’ll have someone new to threaten to sue and something new to bitch about for the next 40+ years!..YEAH….
It was one of the best TREKS though!
By the 6th season TNG had lost so much of it’s of it’s short lived steam I was getting headaches just tuning in.
I’d often come back into the room just to watch the commercials.
Does the new Blu Rays come with commercials included?
@7 The Keeper.
Okay, to each their own, then. But TNG’s sixth season was my favorite of all seven. I always felt that TNG should have went two more seasons and not have been cancelled after the 7th just to rush a movie into theaters.
Anyway, that Chain of Command two parter made into a seamless movie looks great. I can’t afford a whole season, but I think I’ll get that one.
Dang, I miss new Star Trek on TV.
This would have been a much more memorable and dramatic story had they allowed it to have a much more memorable and dramatic musical score.
An interesting article worth while to give it a thought — to bring back star trek tng — and some interesting premises too…
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/its-time-to-bring-back-star-trek-the-next-generation-20130910#add-a-comment
@6 Kapt I doubt very much that Ellison will be suing anyone over this since he himself is overseeing the mini-series, as is clearly stated in the story I linked to.
6th Season and the 3rd were the most dynamic seasons where characters were pressed out of their comfort zones and the writers took more chances.
DS9 ran with this approach and dared to be different whilst still respectful.
Hopefully we will see DS9 later this year and proper remasterings of the
Movies by Paramount!
@ 9. Absolutely. The worst thing about Berman-Trek was the “sonic wallpaper” they used for music. It was SORELY lacking in themes, emotion, variety, and depth. It was just so bad and boring. I wish they could replace the scores.
I’m just reviewing the eps from Season 6. While “Chain of Command” has real power and character moments, I remember at the time worrying that the series was missing several beats. That is, there were weak episodes, such as “Suspicions” and “Realm of Fear” that just don’t gel. “Frame of Mind” just bothers me. It feels like Trek on drugs, as does “Birthright.” I think it’s generally agreed that “Aquiel” doesn’t even make sense when you try to work out the plot. And “The Quality of Life” seems just another iteration of machines actually becoming Deus ex Machina. (That theme gets worse in Season 7 when the Enterprise eventually becomes a person only to ditch her higher awareness for no particular reason in “Emergence.”) “Schisms” and “Realm of Fear” are just BEM’s, which is decidedly NOT Trek, although Realm tries to put a twist on it.
Having kvetched… Season 6 also brings us two great Q eps, including “Tapestry” and “True Q.” Great character stories. “Face of the Enemy” gives Troi a rare opportunity to do something interesting. And there are other good eps.
So, all in all, TNG S6 is a mixed bag for a show that was stretching just a bit. TNG finishes on a great note… and gives us one very good movie. Overall I continue to love it, Worfs and all.
@13
I remember when they made, what I call, the “big change” in music during the end of season 4. After that, TNG lost all it’s atmosphere, tension, and wonder. If an episode like “Chain of Command” had happened in season 3 (or even 2), it would have been a much more visceral and frightening episode because the music would have reflected the tension of the story.
It is just shame: “Chain of Command” had an amazing guest cast, a good story, and a chance to really be something greater than it was. I remember being “all-psyched up” for it when it was going to be on, because there was a big story about it in the news. Then it aired and I was like, “So what?”
Compare it to “Best of Both Worlds”. It doesn’t even come close to that episodes tension. Why? Because it lacks any urgency or atmosphere. The music had a great deal to with that.
@ 15 – Not surprisingly, the change in music also coincided with Ron Jones being shown the door. BOBW is classic Ron Jones stuff.
@ 2 Who Cares (I do!)–
Thanks for the heads-up. It will be fascinating to see that script brought to life, finally, in whatever medium.
“Chain of Command” was a great piece of television which proved conclusively that TNG could be every bit as dark and rich with drama (including, yes, conflict between those “perfect” 24th Century humans) as TOS when it put its mind to it.
I always thought part 2 of Chain of Command was far superior to part 1… part 1 always looked a little silly to me with Worf, Beverly and the Captain hopping around the caves.
Agreed about the caves and Part 2 being superior, but really liked the character conflict on the Enterprise in Part 1. Ronny Cox was just terrific.
I hope the seventh season comes out sooner, we have a 7 month gap from season 5 released in november 2013 and season 6 in june 2014.
I want DS9 and VOYAGER on blu ray by 2017.
Yep, Ronny Cox plays a magnificent bastard as Captain Jellico. Hard to imagine now, but there was a time before Robocop when he was known primarily for his ‘nice guy’ roles.
It’s too bad TNG or DS9 never brought Cox back. Jellico would’ve kicked major butt in the Dominion War.
On a side note, I was in a restaurant in Arkansas about a year ago and saw an ad for a blue grass/folk music festival—and Ronny Cox was playing there! Apparently he’s mostly a musician now.
Yeah, I hear Ronny Cox’s music occasionally on the Chicago broadcast, “Midnight Special.” I was surprised to know he was a singer/guitarist, but then, many actors are multi-talented. Jeff Daniels is also a singer/guitarist, with a satirical bent.
Captain Jellico was a character that would’ve borne repeating. It would have been great to see him in a sphere where his leadership style was more effective with those he was leading, and in a sphere where his combativeness and aggressive style would serve, e.g., in the Dominion Wars, as Vultan said above. On Enterprise 1701-D, he was so completely different from Picard; the eps with him were a great way to examine different styles of leadership. For the most part I’d much rather serve with Picard!
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The MUSIC. What a lost opportunity.
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Can I just say I REEEEAALLY dislike that announcer’s voice. Sheesh.
Season 6 had only a handful of good episodes.. but sadly that’s about it.
“Chain of Command” is great, but what a way to spoil everything with that trailer (same with BoBW) – and short shrift to the fantastic Ronny Cox, who owned part 1. He also got Troi into a standard uniform for the first time since Farpoint and the skant. Between that and “Face of the Enemy,” I like Troi’s 6th Season makeover.
Season Six was indeed a mixed bag, but with Scotty and the Dyson’s sphere, Moriarity’s return, Tapestry, Timescape and Chain of Command, it’s an easy decision for me.
“Second Chances” was a really refreshing change of pace, a sci-fi idea well developed which managed to churn up the Riker/Troi history in a way that I bought into completely. I wanted them to run away together. Major Kira? Seriously? After all that, sheesh. “Lessons” failed to get my buy-in on the romance so well, but I loved the way they brought in the Ressikan flute, and the diagetic music (the stuff they play) was sweet.
“The Chase,” “Rightful Heir,” and “Descent” all muck about with canon in a way that overreached and didn’t withstand a great deal of scrutiny IMHO.
As silly as Picard doing Die Hard is, I get a real kick out of the Baryon sweep in “Starship Mine” which provides an excellent denouement. But the less said about “Descent” and “Aquiel” the better. I personally like “Birthright,” I’m an admitted Mok’bara fan, I like Data’s development here, and what a beautiful birdseye view of the D in Data’s dream. Though the DS9 crossover may be contrived, it’s appropriate coming as it did right after the spinoff. Jaime Sommers did a lot more crossing over in season 3 of the Six Million Dollar Man after The Bionic Woman spun off, back in ’76. Oops, showing my age. Anyway, looking forward to Terok Nor in HD.
Wish this was coming out in April instead of June. It’s green.
Sad to note that Wendy Hughes, who played the role of Picard’s lover Nella Daren in the sixth-season episode “Lessons,” died yesterday of breast cancer. She was 61.
@25
Just saw that news too. That’s awful.
We’re all getting old….I hate it!
@15. Chain of Command,
” it would have been a much more visceral and frightening episode because the music would have reflected the tension of the story.”
What’s interesting about Star Trek is the passion of the fans. Look at the expense gone to with the fan fiction being made.
I envision a time in the not too distant future where studios offer split audio masters for sale in their never ending quest for new ways to milk a dollar out of the fans — i.e. listen to the music without the dialogue and effects, watch the scenes without music, or even effects. Then I imagine some enterprising young fan re-scoring such lack-luster episodes with brilliant new scores.
It will truly be interesting to see what happens …
FINALLY!!
Now…we need a release date!
Additional articles on the upcoming “City on the Edge of Forever” graphic novel adaptation of the original Ellison script:
http://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2014/03/06/idw-tackles-ellisons-classic-star-trek-tale
http://comicbook.com/blog/2014/03/06/star-trek-city-on-the-edge-of-forever-by-harlan-ellison-to-be-adapted-to-comics/
@30 Michael Hall,
Interesting news. Thanks.
But is this ORIGINAL script the one with the drug dealing subplot, and where the Guardians are 9 foot tall humanoids? Or will it reflect his final revised draft incorporating a number of requested changes? Or perhaps a new rewrite to make it more Star Trek like after 43 years?
Screw the comic book, how about a made for TV miniseries for CotEoF???
A comic remake of “City On The Edge Of Forever”? Why? How about something original for once????
32. T’Cal..that idea rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COTEOF tv series? Awesome! And Harland could actually make some $ writing scripts!
@ 31 Curious Cadet–
“But is this ORIGINAL script the one with the drug dealing subplot, and where the Guardians are 9 foot tall humanoids? Or will it reflect his final revised draft incorporating a number of requested changes? Or perhaps a new rewrite to make it more Star Trek like after 43 years?”
Well, your guess is as good as mine. Ellison’s original teleplay has been published twice in book form: in “Six Science Fiction Plays” in 1975, and in “The City on the Edge of Forever: the Original Teleplay” book in 1996. The script is virtually identical in both editions, with the latter adding an explanation as to why Richard Beckwith, the drug-dealing villain, ends up being the catalyst who disrupts the flow of time by committing the seemingly out-of-character act of saving Edith Keeler’s life (people are complicated, with good existing even in the worst of us).
“Or perhaps a new rewrite to make it more Star Trek like after 43 years?”
As someone who loves the aired version while revering Ellison’s original script, I sure hope not. The whole point of this project is to give us an idea, for the first time in visual terms, what Ellison had in mind when he sat down to write “City” all those years, hurt feelings and damaged friendships ago. Not to filter it through the established sensibilities of Gene Roddenberry, Gene Coon, Bob Justman, or D.C. Fontana. What would be the point? We got that story in 1967.
This announcement does raise a lot of questions (and possibilities), though. Will the likenesses of the original TOS cast be used? Will the Enterprise look much as it did in 1967, or will the artwork more reflect Ellison’s written descriptions of the vessel as a spacegoing battleship? Given the alt-universe nature of the project, I hope the creators take as many liberties with the established look of the show as the story’s mood and themes requires.
@ 33 Red Dean Ryan–
“A comic remake of “City On The Edge Of Forever”? Why? How about something original for once????”
Oh, I don’t know–maybe because this episode, and the story behind its creation, have been a cause celebre and a source of controversy in Trek and SF fandom going on five decades? Because it remains one of this franchise’s greatest ironies that the writer responsible for its most beloved installment has the least amount of respect for the finished product?
To each his own, I guess. But I’ll just say that I’m more jazzed by the prospect of seeing Harlan Ellison’s original script brought to life, even in comic book form, than I am by anything Bad Robot is likely to produce.
The episode is on pretty much everyone’s top ten all time best episode lists. It’s an absolute classic. There’s just no way its going to be topped.
This is simply a cash grab by a grumpy old man who’s bitter over the fact someone took his idea and made it into an all-time, award-winning classic.
Obviously the TOS writers read the original story and came to the conclusion it wasn’t up to snuff. That’s why we ended up getting the episode we got, andfor that, we should be grateful.
“This is simply a cash grab by a grumpy old man who’s bitter over the fact someone took his idea and made it into an all-time, award-winning classic.”
Oh–well, okay, gods help me, I’ll bite. Have you read the original script? Do you know the actual, like, opinions of the TOS cast and crew, including Leonard Nimoy, with regards to the qualities of the original script? Are you aware of the awards and kudos received by the original script? And if the answer to any or all of these is no, what gives you the idea that you have anything of value to add to this conversation?
36 RDR, The producers, et. al., knew Ellison’s original script would never fly on 1960s TV because [a] drug-dealing subplot [b] the flow of time is changed forever, thus, the starship Enterprise viewers knew and loved would be gone.
So — Will the TV audience go along with it? [NO], and will the producers of Trek go along with it? [NO.] In that sense, it wasn’t “up to snuff” for the TV series.
The sense that I got from the controversy was that Ellison submitted a script for a TV series that would have completely changed the TV series. Did he not realize that scripts submitted for TV are often changed completely? Had anyone made a promise to him that his script would remain intact?
Michael, I have not done extensive reading on this issue, before you ask. If, that is, it’s not glaringly obvious.
30. Michael Hall – March 8, 2014
Additional articles on the upcoming “City on the Edge of Forever” graphic novel adaptation of the original Ellison script:
Very interesting. I haven’t read comics in a long, long time, but I’d consider reading this series. Maybe it’ll even be adapted into a movie, if the comics are well enough received.
It will be interesting to see what the original story was, but we’ll have to bear in mind that, while “City on the Edge of Forever” was the first time-trouble Trek episode, there have been many, many time-trouble stories more since, not just in Trek but in TV and movies generally. “Back to the Future,” for example, was basically a variation on the time-trouble theme of “City on the Edge of Forever.”
*…there have been many, many more time-trouble stories since….
So I made a post last night that has still not shown up and I am wondering what is up. Have I been banned for posting a typo correction on another story? I guess I will post this and see what happens.
On the TOS Blu-rays, there is a DS9 episode in HD, the one with the Tribles.
So, this will not be the first time we are going to see DS9 in HD
Pretty sure Trials and Tribbleations included on the TOS Blu-ray is just an upconversion of SD content, not proper HD like the TOS or TNG episodes.
@ #5 HatRick:
I agree, Star Trek seems like a thing of the past. I have come to this site almost daily since 2006 for news on Trek. I do agree that those in charge in the 90s saturated the market. There should have only been one Trek TV showing airing at any given time. It seems we won’t have to worry about that happening any time soon. Sigh……………..
@ 38 Marja–
“36 RDR, The producers, et. al., knew Ellison’s original script would never fly on 1960s TV because [a] drug-dealing subplot [b] the flow of time is changed forever, thus, the starship Enterprise viewers knew and loved would be gone. . . The sense that I got from the controversy was that Ellison submitted a script for a TV series that would have completely changed the TV series.”
Not sure where you got this idea. Both versions of the story actually end up in the same place, with the flow of time restored and Kirk bereft over the loss of the one true love of his life, Edith Keeler.
In fact, both Ellison’s original script and the aired episode tell esstentially the same tale: Kirk goes back in time to the Depression-era ’30s, where he falls in love with a woman whom he comes to realize must die in order that history follow its proper course. The differences are mostly in the details of how the stories are told; of tone (Ellison’s treatment of the Depression is much harsher than anything Star Trek was ever likely to attempt); and the way the story’s central conundrum gets resolved.
“Did he not realize that scripts submitted for TV are often changed completely? Had anyone made a promise to him that his script would remain intact?”
As someone who had been working in Hollywood since the mid- ’60s (one of his earliest projects was an adaptation of his memoir “Memos from Purgatory,” which featured James Caan and some guy named Walter Koenig), Ellison was well-aware that scripts are often rewritten. His bitterness stemmed, I think, from the fact that he’d brought in a number of fellow science fiction writers to work on the show, as well as having been a driving force behind the letter campaign to get Trek renewed for its second season. He is notoriously sensitive about changes to his work, and felt that the rewrites robbed the story of much of its force and poetry. (Ironically, even though his it was his own criticisms which led to many of those changes, Bob Justman wound up feeling much the same way.) Even so, the whole thing may have eventually been buried as an honest creative disagreement between two individuals (Ellison’s introduction to the script in “Six Science Fiction Plays” is actually quite conciliatory) but for two things: the episode’s increasing notoriety, and Gene Roddenberry’s insistence over the years of distorting the facts behind the dispute (e.g. that the original script had Scotty selling drugs). This Ellison could not abide, and the two men remained estranged until Roddenberry’s death in 1991.
I miss TNG. Season 6’s “Timescape” to this day remains one of the best hours of sci-fi ever aired on television. “Tapestry” is the best of the Q episodes and such a great character story. “Face of the Enemy” was a great Troi-centric episode finally! She was a beautiful character and that may be the height of the character’s success Although “Man of the People” was also a very good episode for her and to this day remains an edgy delight for me in TNG’s run. “Relics” was such a fun episode, including the great sci-fi idea of the dyson sphere and the creative way to bring back a legend without using time travel. OMG! Even “Birthright” was superb, exploring Klingon mythology and giving us blending with DS9 along the way. Fun!
I really really miss the quality and excitement of each week’s adventure back in the 90s. I barely remember Trek 09. But to this day, I can still tell you “Rascals” scene for scene. Truly one of the most high-spirited and engaging, though underrated episodes of Trek… Ah, the old days. Producers, directors and writers need to start trying again.
I disagree ironhyde, I too can recall Rascals almost scene for scene, but I also can with episodes from throughout TNG, TOS, DS9, ENT, TAS, VOY, to say nothing of all the different Trek films over the years.
I can recite dialogue from every single film from memory, from TMP to STID, entire scenes in fact, and while I may dislike a particular episode, or film, from within the whole, there is no part of it that is not Trek to me. Even the bad episodes or films are still firmly in my memory, though I will concede there is no possibility that my Trek rankings, either for series or films, will match yours, and I am ok with that, at least we agree that we both miss Trek on TV (and TNG, I never missed an episode, from Farpoint to All Good Things).
I would love to see IDW turn Harve bennett’s Star Trek Acedemy script in to a comic, or Erik Jendresen beginning script.
@Who Cares: How do you disagree with ironhyde? You seem to agree. I think the consensus here is we miss Trek on TV.