The 25th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation was celebrated in style on Thursday with a jam-packed panel called Before and After: A Behind the Scenes Look at Star Trek: The Next Generation's Journey Into High Definition. Sitting on the panel were Robert Meyer Burnett (moderator), Roger Lay, Jr. (Producer/Director, Blu-Ray), Mike and Denise Okuda (Project Consultants), David S. Grant (Vice President, Multimedia, CBS Television Distribution), Ryan Adams (Director, Multimedia, CBS Television Distribution), Craig Weiss (Creative Director, CBS Digital), Eric Bruno (Lead Compositor) and Wade Felker (Film Transfer Technician). Every 15 minutes during the panel, a new, never-before-seen image was transmitted via Star Trek's twitter (@StarTrek). Tribbles creator David Gerrold grabbed a seat in the front row. The event kicked off with Michael and Denise Okuda admitting that they never thought the high-def transfer would happen because of the costs involved. The TOS HD upgrade was a much easier process; they had six reels, all cut on negative, but TNG wasn't cut on negative and had 10 layers of film. To bring the TNG episodes to high-def, they were finished in 1080i.
Burnett, as video footage compared and contrasted the broadcast and Blu-ray versions of images and scenes, noted that TNG never had black, or never seemed to, but that now, with the Blu-ray, black existed and you can really notice the detail and the color.
He pointed out that, "For the first time, you can actually see the color of the uniforms." Burnett added that, “Everyone has been cosplaying wrong for the last 25 years.” [
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Everyone in attendance had a good laugh at footage of LeVar Burton’s first VISOR test. Mike Okuda noted that one of the key aspects in bringing TNG to Blu-ray was making certain that none of the intent of the original filmmakers was lost. Even if they didn't agree with the original intent, he explained, they chose to make sure it was as accurate and true to the original as possible. "It was very important to recreate what they did,” he said. The Blu-ray shows a lot of existing elements, actually. They just stabilized and re-layered everything to be faithful to the original element and to make it more beautiful. Nothing was changed; it's all the original photography. Mike Okuda stressed that TNG was cutting-edge at the time, especially when it came to the use of planets and phasers in filming.
The assembled panelists went on to reveal that Star Trek: The Next Generation -- Season Two will arrive on Blu-ray in the fourth quarter of 2012 and promised a TNG cast reunion on that season-two Blu-ray. The reunion will mark the first time the whole cast has been seen on film since Nemesis.
Burnett cracked that the Blu-ray “is better than Nemesis.” [
] Roger Lay Jr. noted that there will be hours and hours of extras and special features, some of which will be teased during the TNG in-theater event set for July 23. When it was further revealed that a sneak peek of the TNG cast reunion will be part of the July 23 event, fans cheered loudly.
) Probably wouldn't be as noticeable on the small screen, but it's clear that while they shot on film, they did make-up for SD.