TNG season 2 bluray round up, part 2

Last time I looked at the official descriptions, trailers, and release events, now I'm going to see what some of the people working on the restoration have to say about the newly released TNG season two bluray set. With a few sample screenshots to show their work:

Blu-ray Producer-Director Roger Lay, Jr. on the hopes to exceed expectation after the tremendous first season release:

The big challenge for season 2 was the fact that we delivered such an amazing set for season one which was so well received by fans and praised across the board by reviewers and the industry. So we knew the bar was high and we had to deliver something that was not only on par with season one by offering fans as satisfying an experience, but we also needed to surprise the viewers as much as the content on the first one did. The first-ever extended cut of an episode with "The Measure of a Man" and the cast reunion special "Reunification" became high priority pieces for us in order to not only fulfill fans' expectations for this set, but also shatter them and give them something they probably never even thought they'd get to see. Along with the documentaries and the other special features, I also wanted to produce commentary tracks for a couple of episodes on this set, which was something we did not get a chance to do for the season one set

An impressive effects shot from Time Squared.

The extended cut of The Measure of a Man was initially planned to be a standard def transfer from the VHS they were basing the edit on, but the team decided to get a bit more ambitious:

Originally the plan was to include the episode in that rough standard-def format from the VHS copy, but then we all started thinking that the negative to those deleted or trimmed scenes should technically be in storage with the rest of the cans from the episode. So our fearless leader, Ken Ross at CBS Home Entertainment, agreed to the idea of trying to find the original negs for those trims and edits in the hopes of restoring the extended cut in true HD. And thanks to the efforts of the entire team it became a reality

One of the new scenes from The Measure of a Man.

They were also lucky in having originally composed music already existing for the extended scenes, as CBS's Ryan Adams explains:

..the scenes that created the extended version primarily were extensions of scenes that were pre-existing. So we were able to go back and use, by going back to the original audio tracks, and able to use that audio that was originally scored for those pieces.

The Measure of a Man is also one of the episodes in this set to feature an audio commentry, as Roger Lay, Jr. describes:

Melinda's background as a lawyer was key to the creation of the episode and she shares her story in great detail. It's actually quite an inspiring tale since she wrote the episode on spec and had a friend's agent submit it the producers of TNG, which led to her start as a TV writer. So you get to hear that in the commentary track along with some great insights from Mike and Denise regarding that 23-year-old VHS tape that served as the basis for this groundbreaking extended cut of "The Measure of a Man.”

The Borg engage the Enterprise in Q Who?

Due to the massive workload on the TNG restoration CBS Digital have not in fact been working on season two, which was given to another vendor, working with of TNG's original effects masters: Dan Curry, David Takemura, and Doug Drexler. Meanwhile while CBS continue to work on season three. The Okuda's maintain consistency across the series in their roles as consultants in the process. CBS's Craig Wiess explains the extend of work between the two teams:

...we do collaborate on sharing elements and stuff. Sometimes we might have a film plate that they need and vice-versa, so we share that. But for the most part it’s their artists working on that season, and us here. We don’t have our guys over there and vice-versa, it’s pretty separate.

Both teams have faced certain challenges recreating effects. Wiess on the complexities of recreating effects to match the tecniques of two decades ago:

...something as simple as what would be a phaser beam, there’s a lot of R and D time and work that went into getting the right look and building a system that is consistent throughout. You know, sometimes the simple things are even more difficult because you have to go back and recreate what was originally done, but recreate that same flavor.

In fact in some cases they did indeed use the original techniques, as CBS's Eric Bruno explains:

Replicator, you know where you make all the food. We were creating that element, and through some research we found out it was basically a tube of water with sparkles in it swirled around. So we went on to our stage and got a big giant vase, filled it with water, bought a bunch of sparkles from a local store and we shot it! That’s what we’re using for all the replicator shots. Our new shot isn’t CG, it’s faithful to how they did it 25 years ago.

Indeed Mike Okuda as praise for Dan Curry in being able to recall how many of the original effects were achieved:

Having someone like Dan Curry there who actually remembers, “Oh yes, we did this with a pom-pom” or “We did this with liquid nitrogen” or “We did this with the paint box” gave us an enormous leg up on a lot of these things.

A stunning recreation of the original Borg interior matte painting from Q Who?

Mike Okuda on matte paintings, particularly the impressive recreation of the interior of a Borg cube made for season two:

A lot of the original matte paintings – not all of them, but a lot – were done by the legendary visual effects company Illusion Arts by the great Syd Dutton and Bill Taylor. A lot of those were done old-school style, that is – composited in-camera from the matte painting – and in many cases those original film elements still existed, and that was the case here. Usually when we have something like that, we will simply clean up the shot a little bit and use it. However in this particular case, because there was that very dramatic pull back, at the beginning of the shot, they were quite close to the painting and as a result you could see some of the brush strokes. Now this was not at all a problem in standard definition – even though the brush strokes were there, you didn’t really notice them. Now suddenly in high definition, it became an issue. Dan [Curry] suggested – and CBS concurred – that this was a case where it was appropriate to try to recreate the sense of the original but make it look better in high definition.

Going back to the original negatives has been a gold mine for finding new behind the scenes footage. As Lay explains, this includes a whole new gag reel for season two:

We've gone back to the original film elements and created a true HD gag reel rather than just utilizing an old tape master from a wrap party. There's a lot of great content and this is one of the luxuries the decision to rebuild the show in HD from the original camera elements offers you -- you get to find all these missing gems and share them with the fans in the best possible sound and picture quality.

Data and Geordi as Holmes and Watson in Elementary, Dear Data. Showcasing the costumes and sets in HD.

There is a wealth of information and featuring highlighting the work in TNG season two. Continue reading after the jump for links to many more interviews and previews:

The Almighty Star Trek Lit-verse Reading Order Flow Chart, Mark II!

About a year ago TrekBBS user Thrawn created The Almighty Star Trek Lit-verse Reading Order Flow Chart, and graciously allowed me to post it on this blog - I felt it was such a useful resource that I made it a permanent feature linked to at the top of the page. A year of books later it was time for an update, so I've been working with Thrawn to redesign and expand to the flow chart to both include the latest and forthcoming releases, and work in a little of the wider lit-verse; adding in more of the older books that directly feed in to the current series, and managing to squeeze New Frontier on as well.

So here is The Almighty Star Trek Lit-verse Reading Order Flow Chart, Mark II. You can find the full sized version permanently available on the reading order page.

Thanks once again to Thrawn for allowing me to host his work, and expand on it, and for his assistance with the latest additions.

Star Trek Into Darkness around the world

Paramount has released information on the world wide releases of Star Trek Into Darkness; if you're especially keen to see it then you'll want to go to either Norway or Egypt, where it is set for release on the 15th of May, two days ahead of the US. Most of the rest of the world see it from the 16th or 17th, with a string of other releases extending months later for some countries. You're particularly unlucky if you live in Japan, where it isn't released until the 13th of September!

Here's a chart of all the dates (or see the website version for links to all the local official websites and Facebook pages):

Looking through the international sites gives some interesting incites into how Paramount will be marketing the film differently around the world. Some countries omit Star Trek from the title on the poster. For instance, the German version:

Several others rearrange the title to make Into Darkness the main title, with Star Trek as a subtitle. I quite enjoy seeing how titles are rendered in different languages, so if you share that particular interest, here's a little collection of linguistic variations on Star Trek Into Darkness:

Taiwanese

Turkish

Polish

Japanese

Hungarian

French

Spanish (Spain)

Spanish (South America)

Czech

Portuguese

Korean

Which ever version of the official site you go to, you might notice the poster there has been animated with flames and falling debris - Fancy.

UPDATE: Those resourceful chaps over at TrekMovie.com found one I missed, the Russian poster, which apparently not only gives us the title in Russian characters, but in facts gives us a different title: Tje film will be known as Star Trek: Vengeance in Russia, which according to TrekMovie was one of the alternative titles considered for the film.

In other Into Darkness news, TrekMovie report there will be a online teaser trailer released this thursday (6th December), ahead of the previously announced full length cinema trailer, and the IMAX exclusive nine-minute preview, a week or so later.

Star Trek Into Darkness poster!

Paramount have released the first theatrical poster for Star Trek Into Darkness:

Looks, well, dark, as one might expect from the title, and terror filled blurb. It undoubtedly also alludes to The Dark Knight; with this poster all but mirroring the dark wind swept cape, and an explosive version of a familiar emblem from the franchise in the artwork for that film. I'm sure the future will continue to be filled with the bright lens flares of optimism though; so we're all good.

Now look closely, and you might spot several London landmarks; I've found the gerkin, London eye (and nearby bridges), and St Paul's Cathedral so far. Will my future fellow Britons be facing the "unstoppable force of terror" of the mysterious bad-guy??

TNG season 2 bluray round up, part 1

The release of TNG season two on bluray is just days away, and there are previews, interviews and launch events abound. Here's part one of round up of the season two bluray news, starting with all the official trailers and release information:

First up here's a trailer:

And to accompany, an overview of this season's release, from the CBS press release:

Adding to the exclusivity and collectability of the Blu-ray release is an HD, "Extended Cut" of "The Measure of a Man," which includes deleted scenes and different angles from the broadcast version. The original version of the episode is included, as well as a "Hybrid Extended Cut," combining the high-definition on-air version of "The Measure of a Man" with video of the extra material taken from an early VHS rough-cut of the episode that was in the writer's (Melinda Snodgrass) archives.

The spectacular collection boasts a must-see reunion of the cast, who were brought together earlier this year in Calgary in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the series. Produced exclusively for the series' Blu-ray, this never-before-seen reunion roundtable chat features all of the best known cast regulars, joining together for the first time in years to tape a discussion about the legacy of the series, including Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Commander William T. Riker, LeVar Burton (Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Michael Dorn (Lieutenant Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher) and Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher).

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - THE SECOND SEASON also includes over 120 minutes of brand-new special features, including a two-part, in-depth documentary on the making of Season 2 entitled "Making It So: Continuing Star Trek: The Next Generation" - Strange New Worlds (Part 1), and New Life and New Civilizations (Part 2), and a gag reel that was created from newly recovered 35mm film elements and transferred for the very first time to high-definition.

The 5-disc collection features all 22 episodes of the second season of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, including the beginning of Whoopi Goldberg's notable recurring role, and the introductions of Diana Muldaur as the new ship's doctor and the deadly alien villains The Borg.

You can see a disc by disc breakdown of all the extra feature, here on Trekcore.

As with the season one release, Fathom Events are doing a screening of select episodes to mark the release of season two. This time they have picked the first Borg episode, Q Who? and the new extended cut of The Measure of The Man. Here is their poster and trailer for the event:

Unfortunately for the rest of the world this event is limited to the US again. If you're lucky enough to be American you can find your nearest cinema on Fathom's website. Best be quick though, the screening is tonight!

CBS in the UK are apparently trying to find fans with Borg questions to do some sort of launch event too. Details at Trekcore if you can help with that.

In Germany meanwhile Amazon are continuing their steelbook release of the series. Here is the Season two steelbook:

 
Each steelbook release is coming with a Star Trek pin badge; season two gets the Federation emblem. Here is the full set which, if you collect all the steelbooks, you will amass.

Check back later for part two, where I'll be looking at some of the preview images, and picking out some highlights from the bewildering array of interviews that are around in relation to this season two release.

First plot details for Star Trek Into Darkness

Paramount has released the first synopsis for the next Star Trek film, Star Trek Into Darkness. It goes like this:

In Summer 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness.

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.

With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.

As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

Sounds interesting! "Detonated the fleet" sounds ominous! I wonder if this terror from inside (the Federation? Starfleet?) has anything to do with the conspiracy hinted at in the Return of the Archons comic in the ongoing series. I also wonder what happened to Kirk's family; we don't know was has become of his mother, and his brother and his family are alive and well as of Operation: Annihilate!, also in the ongoing series.

First details of The Stuff of Dreams

James Swallow has blogged the first details of his forthcoming TNG ebook novella, The Stuff of Dreams. Here is his summary of the story:

When Captain Picard is summoned back to the mysterious space-time phenomenon known as the nexus, he and his crew become embroiled in a desperate plot to rewrite history, no matter what the cost.

Apparently he originally came up with the story as an idea for one of the Star Trek RPGs:

The story picks up a dangling narrative thread left over from the movie Star Trek Generations; originally I wrote it as the basis for a role-playing game scenario for the now-defunct ST:TNG RPG produced by Last Unicorn Games, and I’ve had it kicking around for several years. I realized that with some revision and expansion, it made a good basis for a novella...

The story focuses on Picard, and also features another character who is an old friend of Picard's. Expanding on his blog on the TrekBBS, Swallow noted that it was originally to be set before the Cold Equations trilogy, but once the release date was pushed back to after the release of the trilogy (March 2013) he made some revisions to have to take place after instead.

Swallow's post was presented in the format of the "Next Big Thing" meme, in which authors discuss, their next big things... Una McCormack has posted similar coverage of her recent Typhon Pact novel, Brinkmanship.

Dayton Ward has also posted about his forthcoming TOS novel, From History's Shadow. He revealed a connection with his previous short story on a similar subject, The Aliens Are Coming!:

Several years ago, I wrote a short story called “The Aliens Are Coming!” which touches on similar themes. I’ve always wanted to take a longer look at some of the ideas I put forth in that story. Consider this novel to be something of a prequel as well as an expansion of the storyline from that original short tale.

In addition to the Star Trek: Eugenics Wars novels Ward also cited the TV series Taken and Dark Skies as inspirations.

The John Byrne Collection

Exciting news for fans of John Byrne's Star Trek comics (which, should be everyone as they are some of the best Trek comics ever): IDW will be releasing the John Byrne Collection, a new oversized hardcover omnibus of all his Trek series (The Romulans Saga, Assignment: Earth, Crew, and Frontier Doctor), due in April. Here is the description from Amazon:

Comics legend John Byrne has taken on 4 Star Trek titles, and they are all collected here, in one oversized hardcover collection. "Assignment Earth" recounts the adventures of interstellar agent Gary Seven, "Crew" recounts a tale from the very beginnings of the United Federation of Planets, "Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor" is a collection of tales from the member of the Frontier Medics Program, and mystery, intrigue, and war abound in "Romulans."

Byrne has already confirmed, on his own forum, that he will be producing a new cover for the 320 page omnibus. But in the mean time Amazon have a stand in, using his first Romulan comic cover:

Byrne also noted on his forum he will be using this opportunity to correct a few errors that snuck into his work:

This will be a "last chance" to clean up all the little glitches that have persisted thru various iterations, like the Engineer whose name changes mysteriously in SCHISM, and may failure to identify the Organian who pops up at the end of the same series. Also correcting a line of dialog from TOS which was "fixed" by an over-zealous proofreader in THE HOLLOW CROWN. We're also going to see if it's possible to fix the poor resolution on the first issue of A:E, which was my fault since I somehow scanned the pages at the wrong setting.

Sounds good. But I really want to know is, when will Byrne be giving us some new Trek?!

The latest Bye Bye Robot Treks

Bye Bye Robot has released their latest Star Trek art print, this time celebrating TNG's 25th anniversary, with a neat gathering of the main cast by department colours, by artist Tracie Ching:

Also out recently was their retro travel poster for Risa, by Steve Thomas:

They've released a set of Horga'hn stickers to match it:

Finally Her Universe's latest T-shirt sports some Bye Bye Robot artwork too, using Charity Wood's Gorn portrait:

First Star Trek Visual Dictionary details

One of the most exciting of the numerous Star Trek non-fiction books coming out soon is the first ever Star Trek book in Dorling Kindersley's lavishly illustrated Visual Dictionary series. Now details are now starting to emerge about the Star Trek: The Visual Dictionary, including a first look at the draft cover, posted on the Things From Another World listing of the book:

Amazon has also a posted a blurb, which defines what the book will cover:

Boldly go where no Trekkie has gone before. "Star Trek the Visual Dictionary" is the final frontier.

Charting each and every one of the the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its mission: to explore everything Star Trek, strange new worlds (and old ones), to seek out every character, ship and series, to boldly go where no book has gone before. Covering all of the six television series, with full coverage of favourite characters such as Spock, Bones, Scotty and Uhura, and full-colour pictures of ships that would make James T. Kirk proud, this is the ultimate guide to "Star Trek" for any Trekkie.

Don't be a Vulcan - live long and prosper with "Star Trek the Visual Dictionary".

I'm really rather surprised. Given the market for the Visual Dictionaries tends to be quite mainstream, and that this book is coming out almost at the same time as Star Trek Into Darkness, I was expecting this to focus solely on the new world of Star Trek in the new timeline films. Maybe that will come later? Still, will be nice to see the DK treatment of Star Trek, whichever bit of franchise they are playing with.