Earlier this month we reported on how fans had noticed an alternate visual effects shot in the newly released Star Trek: Picard final season DVD and Blu-ray sets (see TrekMovie review). Paramount Home Entertainment has now officially acknowledged this and announced plans to swap the shot for new sets.
Picard sets to restore the enhanced Enterprise-D FX shot
As we previously reported, the shot in question came in the episode “The Last Generation” featuring a flyby of the USS Enterprise. The sets released in North America featured a shot that was a bit different than the one that streams on Paramount+, instead using a shot that was streamed internationally on Prime Video. You can see a comparison of the two shots below (via YouTube video).
Comparison shot from Knight Research on YouTube
This morning Paramount Home Entertainment weighed in, explaining how it happened, and announcing how they are going to update the discs:
The version of the series finale episode of Star Trek: Picard (“The Last Generation”) included on the North American Blu-ray and DVD release was indeed a finished version of that episode, intended for air. The shot of the Enterprise-D was later enhanced for a theatrical screening for fans and subsequently made available for the streaming audience on Paramount+. Paramount Home Entertainment is updating that disc to include the final episode with the enhanced shot of Enterprise-D, so that it will appear on all new manufacturing of the physical product.
There were no details on how long it will take for the new versions of the sets to roll out, or if they will swap out discs for those who already have the version with the alternate shot. The Final Season sets have not been released internationally yet so presumably they will also be getting the enhanced FX shot when they start rolling out in November.
Picard final season Blu-ray and Steelbook releases
Paramount also announced that this new change will also have an impact on their planned big Picard Legacy box set. From their official comment:
Star Trek: The Picard Legacy Collection, which includes the complete series of Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: The Next Generation plus all Next Generation movies, will also include the updated version of the series finale. The domestic release date will be pushed back from October 17th to November 7th to accommodate this change. We thank the fans for the love and passion for all things Star Trek, including their attention to detail! #LLAP
In addition to all that, the limited edition Legacy Collection set also includes an exclusive edition of The Wisdom of Picard featuring brand new artwork and quotes, along with a one-of-a-kind deck of playing cards, a magnet sheet featuring all of Captain Picard’s badges and four custom Chateau Picard drink coasters. Until recently it was available for pre-order at Amazon for $211.10, however currently it is listed as out of stock without a pre-order option. It’s likely once the new release date is updated it will be available for pre-order again.
Picard Legacy Collection
TrekMovie has reached out to PHE for clarification on some of the unanswered questions mentioned above so check back for more updates.
Keep up with all the home video and streaming news, reviews, and analysis at TrekMovie.com.
anyone know if the S3 digital download on iTunes has the updated VFX?
It does in the US
Nice! Exactly what I was wondering too. Probably going to be how I buy it.
The nice thing about iTunes is it will usually swap out your existing copy if a better one comes along, like a 4K remaster.
WOW!!! I’m pulling out my $210. I’d pay $500 for this!!!!
Incredible!!! Thanks Paramount!!!
Not sure if you are being sarcastic (never know from typing) but I think the box set does look cool. To bad I already have most of it on Blu-ray already.
Yeah, I was being sarchastic. :-) It does look cool, but “$75 if I wait six months and buy it on Ebay cool” is where I am at on it.
So I bought the steel book Blu-Ray which I love but man I would definitely prefer the vision of Last Generation I saw in the movie theater and on P+. Everything else about this season looks so good on Blu-Ray. I hope they make exchanges available for those of us who purchased early.
Why Not Update Like 90% If the vfx that kinda looked like sophisticated videogame graphics?
Its so weird how some of the shots look awesome and some just awefull.
Yeah, exactly, given some of the shots looked liked something a gifted amateur could do on their pc.
The arrangement of the dozens Starfleet ships in LEO was especially terrible. Do modern FX artists have no understanding of the basic rules regarding movement and composition? The shots had no feeling of scope, mass or scale at all.
Given the hierarchy of approvals, lots of players had to buy off on that both at conception and during execution as well as when the final was delivered, so there’s plenty of blame to go round on the VFX. It could be the actual artists are just working to order in service to bad taste from a higher-up or, more likely, somebody at Paramount — that’s my only explanation for the thousands of mediocre to terrible VFX shots in DSC, SNW and PIC, most of which suffer from a dead-on-arrival approach that seems to spit in the face of what objects in space look like, and to do so for no evident gain aesthetically.
Personally I think the concept was flawed. Were they trying to go for ‘June Taylor Dancers in Space’ a la the old JACKIE GLEASON show? Maybe ‘SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER’ from THE PRODUCERS, or perhaps the distant saucers that make up a faux big dipper near the end of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS? If they were trying to show control in maneuvering, they could have had the ships peeling off sequentially, or alternating breaking left and right in ever-increasing (or decreasing) arcs.
Also, and I think I asked this during first airing, were there no collision or running lights on all those ships? I don’t remember seeing any blinkies in the distant shots at all … yet that very detail is what made the huge number of Enterprises look so good during the multiverse orgy of vessels in PARALLELS, and getting there took production months … but it was worth it. (I also bitched about the absence of deflector shields during the big fleet battles in DS9, but that stuff looked semi-okay anyway, so it wasn’t a dealbreaker for me.)
I think this may be the first time in all of human history that a formation of fictional spaceships was analogized to Mel Brooks’ apocalyptic show-stopper. (“Singing starships to port, dancing starships to starboard.”) Mr. Martin, I’m coming to suspect that your journalism career has left you permanently warped. 😜
I think it was too much exposure to TREK for far too long that did the warping, but whatever the cause, I’m definitely not workin’ on all thrusters anymore.
I guess it isn’t Trek only … I dug out a script I worked on decades back and found that the opening sequence — with a space freighter swooping in to grab an illicit payload, then covering their escape by detonating a small moon — was supposed to be set to the theme from SHAFT. I had spent years remembering that the sequence was set to the theme from THE SHOOTIST! Quite a difference between Elmer Bernstein and Isaac Hayes (though big orchestra sound in both!)
So, can those of us who already got the season have our Blu-Ray disc that contains that episde replaced?
We’re awaiting an answer to that question from Paramount Home Entertainment.
Will the Legacy set include DS9’s “Emissary?” If not, the set will be incomplete.
“Emissary” isn’t mentioned in any of the descriptions so probably not.
Most likely, this set is just a repackaging of discs they have released before.
My guess is probably not. The actual discs for the TNG seasons are likely reproductions of the original (and in some cases corrected) Blu Rays from 2012-2014. The discs for the films are the recently upgraded Blu Ray discs included with the 4K packages. The discs for PIC are probably the exact same discs in the PIC sets. I mean, who knows, maybe there’s an “extra disc” that has some currently undisclosed content. If, by some miracle, that is the case and “Emissary” is included, it’s probably not been remastered.
Why would they? He is in about three scenes in a feature length pilot. It would so out of place.
Not really. It digs deeper into the best of both worlds.
Honesty this should be a minor “news and notes” tidbit. Not sure it really needs a dedicated article. Its just a few seconds of new effects. I’m not terribly excited either way.
But I understand some big Star Trek fans would be invested / excited for a few seconds of changed footage.
Indeed, what’s the point in doing all this work to change a scene? It’s just seem a waste of resources.
It’s the definition of “a storm in a teacup”. But Star Trek fans very often make Star Wars fan seem like reasonable and rational individuals.
I’m cool with a swap for the enhanced vfx. But, the new one doesn’t bother me. It’s the characters and storytelling that made me buy this season. I wonder if I can keep both if I want the enhanced one.
Early in the run of the TNG Blu Ray releases there were a couple discs with VFX that had to be fixed. I remember getting them in the mail, and they did not ask me to send back the “defective” disc. My assumption would be – IF Paramount just simply replaces the third disc for those of us who already have the product – they will not ask us to mail the original disc back.
Cool! I do remember that.
Those are exactly the things that will lead me not to buy it.
Unfortunately i’m one of the ones that had to have season 3 on release day so when the single season sets sold out instead of waiting i bought the 1-3 season set for 60 dollars. I’m not buying season 3 again for one visual effects shot. The people who waited are they gonna get the new one? This is a mess.
I actually quite liked the shot that was streamed on Paramount+ here in the UK as it was very reminiscent of the warp flybys from the series. Personally I’m not really fussed whether its changed or not and look forward to picking up the SteelBook edition in November.
I’ll only pay top dollar if I see a HDR 4K version (even if its upressed from 2K) of Picard! Season 3 is so dark it needs HDR double time!
SAME HERE – imo one of the best star trek seasons of all time – but/so I refuse to buy it in any other way than in the best quality possible which is on a 4K disc!
I would totally totally get this if I still owned a DVD player! 😂😐
I suspect it’s going to sell big though!
And which version of the shot will be on the 4K Discs – which are not existing? – … end of joke. 😒
Still didn’t add the DS9 Pilot 🫥
Do you want the master tape which is on the DVD on Blu, because they aren’t going to pull out the film and scan it in 2k resolution. Standard Def is the best you are going to get. As is the DVD looks way better than the broadcast ever looked, better than the VHS and Laserdisc.
Then its not the complete collection. Ill keep my money.