Friday, July 20, 2012

Star Trek: TNG Blu-ray Release Interviews, New Trailer

This Tuesday is the release of Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season One Blu-ray set. The season set was remastered from the original film, re-edited together to duplicate the episodes with improved special effects, sound, and visuals. This is combined with a host of new extras and interviews that get into the details on what it took to create what would become television history. Below are highlights of interviews with Mike and Denise Okuda who talk about what was involved in creating this first season set. Also have an interview with Roger Lay, Jr. who was the producer of the special features in the set. After that is a new trailer that debuted at 2012 SDCC. Last is an impassioned defense by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson of the original USS Enterprise where he makes the compelling argument that it was the first amazing leap forward in sci-fi space ship design. Before the Enterprise, there was the flying saucer. After that, it just blew open, leading to all the other famous star ships of science fiction. Worth hitting the links below just to read the entire interviews.

Okudas Interview Highlights:
- Found original camera negatives, rescanned them all, and then reassembled them to recreate the episode edit in the computer. From there the visual effects were recreated but "the mandate was to match the original shot as close as possible - just making it clearer, sharper, and better."
- "You would be amazed at what we can obsess about, like phaser shots, explosions, planets. We try to put everything under a microscope and see if we can get it as close as possible as we can 25 years ago."
- "The vast vast majority of the ship shots are the original film, but there were some shots that were missing and so CBS Digital brought in Tobias Richter who built a beautiful Enterprise and CBS went on to tweak it further."
- "There were only gag reels for the first two seasons and we stopped doing them."
- Plan is two season per year.

Roger Lay Interview Highlights:
- Never before seen material, discovered while finding original film, was incorporated in the set documentaries.
- Examples include wardrobe and makeup test footage for Troi, Geordi's visor, Data makeup and more.
- "I’m a huge fan of the miniature work on the show, so for me the multiple motion control photography passes on the models of the Enterprise and some of the other ships such as the Romulan Warbird are a big highlight – they’re just stunning."
- A feature includes interview with actor that Gene Roddenberry chose as Captain Picard. Who then turned down the role.
- Easter egg with Brent Spiner on disc 6.
- "The main bonus content is all included in a multi-part documentary series which kicks off in the season one Blu-rays with Stardate Revisited: The Origins of Star Trek The Next Generation. This first documentary is a feature-length exploration of the show’s genesis."
- "The second key component to the season one extras is Energized: Taking the Next Generation to the Next Level. I like to think of this piece as a living, breathing Cinefex article since it’s an in-depth chronological presentation of the entire process to rebuild the episodes from the ground up in high-definition."
- Next season set extras will include entire cast interview, feature on staff writers, directors, music, tribute to Michael Piller (season 3 set) and over 100 hours of new interviews with cast and crew to use in future extras.
- "I think by the time season seven is released fans will have gotten the definitive look at the making of the series and its legacy."

SDCC 2012 Trailer


Starship Enterprise Smackdown

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