Star Trek films on Blu-Ray... what we know so far (1 Viewer)

[Osato]

My local Best Buy had tons of copies of Star Trek Into Darkness still available on the shelf. I'm sticking with my copy that I ordered from Amazon Prime though.

 

[Nelson Au]

I had a silly thought today. When we finally see the Remastered blu ray of the Directors Cut of Star Trek The Motion Picture, that part of the effort would be to restore the film elements and fix the color errors on the last blu ray release, and then rerender the new CGI at 1080, and then because of my recent fascination with 3D titles, they do a 3D conversion! I am not advocating a 3D conversion, nor do I ever expect Paramount to have even had a millisecond of consideration for the idea. I was just daydreaming about it while on my training ride on my bike. I was pondering what scenes would work and whether Richard Kline and Robert Wise's choices in lens and in particular, the diopter lens for near and far shots would work in 3D. For example, the scene on the bridge when Spock first comes about and we see Kirk in the foreground and the alien bridge officer in the background in focus due to the split diopter, would that work to make Kirk stand out even more in the foreground. Then I thought about the shots of the V'Ger cloud as the Klingon ship attack it. Or later, more appropriately, the shots of the multilayers of airbrush art used to create the layers of clouds as the Enterprise passes through into V'Ger. Maybe the Wormhole sequence could benefit. Or the final shot of V'Ger as it explodes into that expanding discs of light. Of course this is just pondering for fun. I really want to see the properly done blu ray of the Directors Cut! 2014 is just about here, but if they are going for the 35th Anniversary, I hope the disc would come out far sooner then December 7th.

 

[Jason_V]

Totally off topic, but I rolled into BB last night around 8:30. They had tons of copies of the $7.99 STID and a ton of the $14.99 3D version.

 

[Osato]

I had a silly thought today. When we finally see the Remastered blu ray of the Directors Cut of Star Trek The Motion Picture, that part of the effort would be to restore the film elements and fix the color errors on the last blu ray release, and then rerender the new CGI at 1080, and then because of my recent fascination with 3D titles, they do a 3D conversion! I am not advocating a 3D conversion, nor do I ever expect Paramount to have even had a millisecond of consideration for the idea. I was just daydreaming about it while on my training ride on my bike. I was pondering what scenes would work and whether Richard Kline and Robert Wise's choices in lens and in particular, the diopter lens for near and far shots would work in 3D. For example, the scene on the bridge when Spock first comes about and we see Kirk in the foreground and the alien bridge officer in the background in focus due to the split diopter, would that work to make Kirk stand out even more in the foreground. Then I thought about the shots of the V'Ger cloud as the Klingon ship attack it. Or later, more appropriately, the shots of the multilayers of airbrush art used to create the layers of clouds as the Enterprise passes through into V'Ger. Maybe the Wormhole sequence could benefit. Or the final shot of V'Ger as it explodes into that expanding discs of light.Of course this is just pondering for fun. I really want to see the properly done blu ray of the Directors Cut! 2014 is just about here, but if they are going for the 35th Anniversary, I hope the disc would come out far sooner then December 7th.

It would be a day 1 purchase for me. I hope it does happen eventually. Seems like it is a long shot at this point though.

I'm re-reading Star Trek Phase II right now. Haven't read the book in years and it's a very fascinating read about the 70's Star Trek would be series turned major motion picture..

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Phase-II-Series/dp/0671568396/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385787016&sr=8-1&keywords=star+trek+phase+II

 

[Kevin EK]

I love the enthusiasm, but I tend to doubt we'll see Paramount commit to 3D conversions of earlier Star Trek movies. At this point, I'd just be happy to see them do a proper HD edition of the Wise cut of TMP. I was thinking they would have already done this, but we could be looking at 2016 at this point, to line up with the next movie in the current line. (Which still needs to be conceived and put together, apparently without Abrams as he'll be hip deep in Star Wars for the next couple of years. And we should keep in mind that it's unlikely that Paramount will release a new Star Trek movie anywhere near a new Star Wars movie, for obvious reasons...)

I'm partly surprised to hear that BB actually stocked an appropriate number of the Into Darkness Blus on their shelves for Black Friday. The whole idea of "Doorbuster" deals is that they are limited to a few items, thus motivating the stampede into the aisle to get the special price. If they've put that many copies out there, it's a sign that things didn't go the way they were hoping with the video sales. You normally don't sell all your inventory at a reduced price like that if you don't need to. I have a feeling the split-up "exclusives" with the various featurettes between multiple retailers may have hurt this situation a bit. I had projected in the summer that they'd just need a good video run to make up the rest of the shortfall to get to profitability for Into Darkness. If they're putting them on this deep of a discount, that says that they really want to move the units before the end of the year, and that they don't think they can do so at a higher price. That's really unfortunate.

 

[Osato]

I love the enthusiasm, but I tend to doubt we'll see Paramount commit to 3D conversions of earlier Star Trek movies. At this point, I'd just be happy to see them do a proper HD edition of the Wise cut of TMP. I was thinking they would have already done this, but we could be looking at 2016 at this point, to line up with the next movie in the current line. (Which still needs to be conceived and put together, apparently without Abrams as he'll be hip deep in Star Wars for the next couple of years. And we should keep in mind that it's unlikely that Paramount will release a new Star Trek movie anywhere near a new Star Wars movie, for obvious reasons...)

I'm partly surprised to hear that BB actually stocked an appropriate number of the Into Darkness Blus on their shelves for Black Friday. The whole idea of "Doorbuster" deals is that they are limited to a few items, thus motivating the stampede into the aisle to get the special price. If they've put that many copies out there, it's a sign that things didn't go the way they were hoping with the video sales. You normally don't sell all your inventory at a reduced price like that if you don't need to. I have a feeling the split-up "exclusives" with the various featurettes between multiple retailers may have hurt this situation a bit. I had projected in the summer that they'd just need a good video run to make up the rest of the shortfall to get to profitability for Into Darkness. If they're putting them on this deep of a discount, that says that they really want to move the units before the end of the year, and that they don't think they can do so at a higher price. That's really unfortunate.

Hopefully all of the DC and SE versions of the Trek films come to blu ray in the next series of releases. I agree 2016 makes sense for the 50th Anniversary of Trek.

Best Buy have a large number of $3.99 blu ray titles available through today I believe.

Many of the 007 titles are $3.99 as well.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/promo/3-99-blu-rays-black-friday-sale-2013?id=pcat17071&sp=&browsedCategory=&nrp=50&qp=&sp=

Kind of off topic, but Amazon also has the Bond 50 blu ray set for $99 today.

http://www.amazon.com/Bond-50-Celebrating-Decades-Skyfall/dp/B00EK6RM92/ref=gb1h_tit_c-3_8022_068f1e3e?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=083TERXANG325XZCSG50&pf_rd_i=384082011&pf_rd_p=1673798022

amazon also has the Star Trek Animated Series for $17.60 as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-The-Animated-Series/dp/B000HEWEJ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385817729&sr=8-1&keywords=star+trek+animated+series+dvd

 

[Jari K]

Osato, you've posted this "Bond on sale!" news to three threads now. We kinda get it already.

 

[Nelson Au]

Wow, $17.60 for TAS? That's a deal, i recall paying a lot more when the laserdisc box set first came out. . Based on the kinds of ads the major retailers have been putting out, it seems they were all eager to send the message that the deals will be there for you even if you don't make the initial mad rush into the stores. My guess Kevin is that they learned their lesson and want your business. So they want to make sure you get what you want, and if it's sold out, they are giving vouchers. On-line purchases no doubt as well is killing them, so they have to do what they can to get business back. ( maybe it's also in an effort to lower the fighting frenzy that goes on too. All the assaults and police arrests might have been okay a few years ago, but it's probably bad publicity now.)In regards to Star Trek The Motion Picture, I can't let the enthusiasm drop! It's hard to believe, and I have to think that the turn over of management and staff at Paramount must have by now removed the stigma that the first film was an expensive film and not well regarded by the mainstream fans. It's an unfair label that the film was a costly over run project, but I know the mainstream or uninitiated do not realize the costs of the earlier TV series Phase 2 was added in to the cost of the film. It certainly had earned a lot back, whether it broke even, I'm sure the Hollywood accountants and bean counters will never tell. I believe either here or on another thread it was discussed that the team that did the Directors Cut did it was severely little money and more for the love of the film. The producers and CGI artists went above and over on their efforts to make the unfinished effects work come alive. So that small investment surely has been paid back from the DVD sales at the time. A film like Top Gun did get a 3D conversion that I'm curious to see. But I know that film was a real money maker and fan favorite and show off material for home theaters. Star Trek TMP would never be in that realm. I have to keep hope and hope that my constant posts of seeing this film released are not annoying too many here.

 

[larryKR]

@ Nelson Au

What is wrong with the current single blu-ray release of Star Trek The Motion Picture? I am considering buying it, so I'm curious about the video quality. Is it the theatrical version or the Director's cut with the enhanced visual effects?

 

[FoxyMulder]

@ Nelson Au

What is wrong with the current single blu-ray release of Star Trek The Motion Picture? I am considering buying it, so I'm curious about the video quality. Is it the theatrical version or the Director's cut with the enhanced visual effects?

Theatrical cut only and a little bit of DNR, like others i am waiting patiently for the directors cut with no obvious DNR.

 

[Jari K]

Amazon's "The Animated Series" seems to be from the 3rd parties. 17$ is not even the cheapest price.

 

[larryKR]

Thanks for the reply FoxyMulder. I guess I will be waiting for the Director's cut also.I've read before that Star Trek TMP was the theatrical version in the BD box-set,but my confusion comes from Amazoncalling the single BD release a "newly restored Director's Edition". Looks like Amazon's listing is incorrect again.

 

[Nelson Au]

Larry: Was the Amazon description from the reviews? Those often incorrectly group the reviews from DVDs withe the newer blu rays.The DNR issues on the Star Trek TMP blu ray I've read are more apparent on screens larger then 60". But on my 65" plasma, I really can't tell if its DNR or the make-up on the actors.During the trip by shuttle around the Enterprise that Scotty gives Kirk, one shot has the color on the side markings on the secondary hull green instead of red! That was an odd one.Overall, I think the blu ray of the theatrical cut is quite watchable. And it is great to have a copy of the theatrical cut. But a new blu ray with both cuts would be ideal!

 

[Osato]

Larry: Was the Amazon description from the reviews? Those often incorrectly group the reviews from DVDs withe the newer blu rays.The DNR issues on the Star Trek TMP blu ray I've read are more apparent on screens larger then 60". But on my 65" plasma, I really can't tell if its DNR or the make-up on the actors.During the trip by shuttle around the Enterprise that Scotty gives Kirk, one shot has the color on the side markings on the secondary hull green instead of red! That was an odd one.Overall, I think the blu ray of the theatrical cut is quite watchable. And it is great to have a copy of the theatrical cut. But a new blu ray with both cuts would be ideal!

I hope someday that Paramount will honor the late Robert Wise's request that the director's cut be the definitive release of the film. It should be on blu ray in HD. I know this will require work as Paramount didn't do the proper work for the DVD DC release.

Hopefully it is done someday though.

It is interesting that Paramount created new audio mixes of all of the films for blu ray. Essentially there are 3 different audio mixes for TMP now. Theatrical, Directors Cut (which is the only completed audio mix as it contains all of the elements from 1979 that would've been used in the theatrical if proper post production had been completed) and blu ray 7.1.

 

[Osato]

Amazon's "The Animated Series" seems to be from the 3rd parties. 17$ is not even the cheapest price.

It was posted on Trekcore and I checked the pricing and the Amazon listing. The set is at $17.38 this morning.

here is the post from Trekcore as well.

http://www.trekcore.com/

The Animated Series on DVD: Only $18.08! Nov 29, 2013
Trying to find a gift for a discerning Trek fan (or maybe just looking to complete your own collection)? Amazon has the complete Animated Series for a great price: only $18.08!

 

[larryKR]

Larry: Was the Amazon description from the reviews? Those often incorrectly group the reviews from DVDs withe the newer blu rays.

"Newly restored Director's Cut" is in Amazon's product description for the Blu-ray, not the customer's reviews.I think what Amazon has done is unwittingly use the same product description for the Blu-ray as they did for the Director's Cut dvd.

 

[Nelson Au]

That's definitely a big mistake on Amazon's part!

 

[FoxyMulder]

That's definitely a big mistake on Amazon's part!

Unfortunately Amazon always do this, they mix DVD and Blu ray review together, i have seen it with other products too.

 

[Kevin EK]

To be very clear, Paramount only pressed one set of Blu-rays for the Trek movies. They have simply repackaged the same discs into multiple slipcovers and dressings. Or they've put the same files onto the various alternate packaged discs they've released since 2009. If you buy any of the Trek movies in their new packages, you'll just be repurchasing the same Blu-ray from before. And those discs contained the theatrical cuts of the movies with new commentaries and some new extra features, along with just about all the bonus content from the earlier 2-disc DVD releases.

There are some exceptions. The text commentaries by the Okudas were not included on the Blus, which I frankly thought was a shame, since that would have taken up very little space. And the Blu-ray of TMP is missing just about ALL of the bonus content that can be found on the fine 2001 DVD they did for the Robert Wise cut. So the Blu-ray has essentially the theatrical cut of TMP, with a single shot having its VFX altered. The Blu has a then-new featurette on the making of TMP and a new commentary with the Okudas and others. But you don't get the Wise cut, the full commentary that was on that disc, or the featurettes from that disc. I still think that Paramount will do a Blu-ray of TMP, but as we said, it's going to be a few more years before it happens. A Blu of the Wise cut would mean re-rendering the VFX work done in 2001 (which shouldn't be that much but still will take a little time), and yes, doing a DTS HD MA 5.1 or 7.1 mix of the proper sound provided on the 2001 DVD.

BTW it's a bit of a misnomer to say that the Wise cut of TMP was done for very little money. The guys who did it with Wise said something along the lines that they would have liked a larger budget and that they went above and beyond to get it right for Robert Wise, but they weren't saying that they had no budget. They just would have liked more time and a higher budget than they had. As it was, they did a fine job of essentially completing a movie that Paramount had rushed into theaters to make their deadlilne in 1979, and because he was finally given the opportunity to do this, Robert Wise publicly stated he was pleased with the movie and made a series of appearances to promote it before he passed away.

It's also a misnomer to say that TMP was only considered overbudget because of the costs of Star Trek Phase II. It's true that those costs were piled onto the overall budget. But that's not the only reason the movie went way over. The fact is, it was very, very badly mismanaged. They spent a tremendous amount of money and time on the shoot, to the point that they went way past the date they were supposed to finish without even knowing how the script would end. They squandered a lot of resources in the fighting going on between Gene Roddenberry and Harold Livingston over the script. To make their premiere date, they had two different VFX houses literally working around the clock for months to try to make the delivery. I believe Douglas Trumbull recounted on the TMP DVD documentary that it would have been cheaper to push the release date than to follow a schedule like this, but Paramount was faced with having to give back the guarantee money they were getting from distributors if they didn't make that date. There are some great quotes from Jeffrey Katzenberg about what happened on TMP that did not make it onto the DVD documentary. (Those featurettes were heavily edited to remove a lot of this kind of material, sadly.) Katzenberg in other interviews has described the production as an out of control stagecoach blasting through town with him desperately trying to rein in the horses. He has described with ironic humor his attempts to tell the higher-ups at Paramount at the time that he had no control over this production and that it was beyond belief that they would think that he ever could. Now, in the end, TMP did actually make money. No question about it. If it hadn't, there would never have been any other movies. But there was no way that Paramount was going to throw that kind of money at Trek again, at least not until JJ Abrams came along. So the following movies were made for a reduced budget that allowed them to make as much use out of the existing sets, materials and FX as possible. Star Trek II in particular is a marvel of maximizing story while conserving production costs. Which is why Trek II is considered the one that pretty much saved the franchise. Had it been another boondoggle, the whole thing would have been over right there.

I actually saw the Top Gun 3D conversion at a special IMAX screening in Los Angeles in February. I've noted my reaction to it elsewhere at HTF, but the short version is that it was meh. The movie doesn't call for 3D, wasn't shot for it, wasn't lit for it, and in most cases, the effect is superfluous. In some cases, the effect is actually distracting from shots where it introduces a foreground element that will jar the viewer right out of the movie. Trying to do a 3D conversion of TMP might add some dimensionality to the long sequences of looking through the viewscreen, but again, the movie wasn't shot to be seen that way. I'd just be happy to see a solid HD edition of the Robert Wise cut, with his sound mix repurposed to 7.1. I still think we may see this within this decade, if Paramount agrees to put the funds into it.

Lastly, on the "doorbusters", I'd love to believe that retailers have been learning their lessons about the stampedes and silliness that have happened over Black Friday over the past decade. And I agree that they're really trying to assure people that they can get a lot of their sale items even if they're not in the door at midnight. But I still wouldn't trust those guys any farther than I could throw them. The whole point of the "doorbusters" is to get you into the store during the limited time of the sale. They LOVE the idea of a massive crowd of people trying to shop in their stores. They in fact need it, given how bad the retail business has been over the past few years. So now we see them opening up even on Thanksgiving and making the store clerks come in - which is something frankly inexplicable and inexcusable to me. We continue to see giant crowds stampeding into the stores and trying to snark up whatever deals they can find. We continue to see violence, as we did this past Friday. For myself, I steer well clear of those stores at this time of year. I wait until the nonsense has stopped and then figure out what to shop for. My issue with the Star Trek Into Darkness Blus being offered for such a reduced price, so soon after the movie came out in theaters and onto disc, is that it indicates that they are not moving the volume that they wanted or expected. If they were, they would have offered the movie at a higher price. If they've put that serious of a discount on it, it means they have a large inventory they're trying to move before the end of the year. Which means my projections of the movie making its money back via home video may have been more optimistic than I thought. I still think we'll see another Trek movie in 2016 or 2017 (whenever it doesn't compete with Abrams' Star Wars movie), but this doesn't bode well for another 200 million dollar 3D extravaganza.

 

[Jason_V]

There's really no need for another $200 million Trek movie. They've shown even when throwing a lot of money at the production and giving it a plum May release date, the audience remains relatively constant. This will never be Star Wars or Hunger Games. The budget for the next one needs to be greatly reduced and the release date moved.