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Star Trek films on Blu-Ray... what we know so far (2 Viewers)

Scott D S

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I did a search and I couldn't find a dedicated thread so away we go!
We know the following:
The Bits (3/5/08): Our own industry sources have recently hinted that several of the previous feature films are currently receiving brand new high-def transfers and a good digital scrubbing to prepare them for future Blu-ray release.
Same article, courtesy of Trek writer David Gerrold: "Tim King Productions invited me down to the Paramount lot to be interviewed for a documentary. Paramount is planning to rerelease all ten Star Trek movies on DVD with a bonus disc of extra material, including an interview with folks who were in the crowd scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.[...]"
I was on a Trek blog which had a link to another website which had a link to the page of Stephen Wolcott, writer/producer of many Trek documentaries over the years, including the DVD releases. This was listed in the "recent work" section:
-STAR TREK FILM COLLECTION - DVD Bonus Features for the complete Star Trek Film Collection. Includes exclusive interview with writer/director Nicholas Meyer, interactive features (in production).
-THE STAR TREK SUMMIT - A multi-camera Roundtable event filmed on HD in New York, featuring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.
And on Tim King's website, there's a listing for the following in the "in production" section:
-“Star Trek” Movies Special Bonus Features DVD October 2008 (obviously the October date is now erroneous)
Next year, we're getting a new Trek movie and it's also the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I just hope Paramount upgrades the Director's Edition FX to 1080p since they were not done that way originally, IIRC. And it would be great if some of the other "gaps" are filled in along the way, including a commentary on Insurrection, the trailers for Generations, etc.
 

Dave Mack

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Yep, Darren Dochterman who did the new FX for TMP has stated that they wanted to do them in a higher res but had neither the time nor budget so they were done in 480P. His crew did very good work and the integration is very impressive but certainly won't hold up at 1080P when compared to the original model FX shots. They also need to remix the sound properly as all the looped dialog in TMP DE is dry as a bone with no reverb added to match the natural on set room reverb from the dialog that wasn't looped. In the deleted scenes on the 2 disc, (meaning the original theatrical release) they DID add the reverb to the looped bits and the dialog is much better integrated.
 

John H Ross

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Michael Mattessino has indicated that he'd like to produce a HD set for Star Trek: The Motion Picture consisting of all three versions: the theatrical version, the TV version and the director's cut. At the time he made his comments he made reference to HD-DVD but obviously that would now be BD (hurrah!)

He's also indicated that several tweaks have been made to the mixing of Jerry Goldsmith's score to fix the moments where it kind of "phases out" in the director's cut, e.g. during "Leaving Drydock" where the engineering door closes.
 

Dave H

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Hopefully, when these are likely released with the new movie they receive the treatment they deserve.
 

Scott D S

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John H Ross said:
He's also indicated that several tweaks have been made to the mixing of Jerry Goldsmith's score to fix the moments where it kind of "phases out" in the director's cut, e.g. during "Leaving Drydock" where the engineering door closes.
I didn't even notice that. I think it'd be cool if they fixed the shot where the travelpod passes in between the spotlight and the Enterprise. The light shines on the pod but the pod doesn't cast a shadow on the Enterprise's hull.
And the mysterious reversal of Spock and McCoy's armbands in the last shot (the colors change).
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Seriously, this movie (IMHO) deserves the Blade Runner treatment, given all the false starts, writers, directors, squabbles, rushed schedule, different versions, etc.
And maybe they could do some kind of Robert Wise tribute.
 

Stephen_J_H

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I'd also like to see a more extensive doc on the development hell this particular film went through. Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens' book Star Trek: Phase II has some great insight on this, but it's out of print and this feature would be well served by such treatment.
 

Ed St. Clair

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If we are indeed going too get multiple versions...

I'd like too request the original "ST: TMP" in HD.

No redos, no nothing! Just the original as was.

(I'm a huge fan of the "original" effects of the 'cloud' surrounding V'ger)

Then the TV version w/all its 'fixes'/changes.

And the "final" (ha, ha) version w/all of (today's) A/V changes/improvements.
 

Jeff Robertson

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Thanks for starting this thread. I too would like to see Blade Runner treatment of TMP. Hopefully, the 30th anniversary will be capitalized on.
Scott D S said:
I did a search and I couldn't find a dedicated thread so away we go!
Next year, we're getting a new Trek movie and it's also the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I just hope Paramount upgrades the Director's Edition FX to 1080p since they were not done that way originally, IIRC. And it would be great if some of the other "gaps" are filled in along the way, including a commentary on Insurrection, the trailers for Generations, etc.
 

zackscott5

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Since we are doing a dream wish list on the Trek films...I would love to see Shatner's original vision of Star Trek 5. I think it would be worth the investment if they box all Trek films together on Blu Ray so that people will have to buy it.
 

Jason_V

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Ed St. Clair said:
I'd like too request the original "ST: TMP" in HD.
No redos, no nothing! Just the original as was.
(I'm a huge fan of the "original" effects of the 'cloud' surrounding V'ger)
Absolutely agreed. Make ST:TMP something to rival Blade Runner. I can't imagine there's a shortage of people who want to be involved. And not just cheap, 15 minute featurettes. Put some documentaries together, celebrate Robert Wise and Jerry Goldsmith and James Doohan and DeForest Kelley and Mark Lenard and Persis Khambatta. Explain in detail the story of Phase II and how it morphed into ST:TMP. Deleted scenes, alernate takes, bloopers...
Make this the definitive edition of the film. And then start work on the others in the series in the same manner. Even ST 5 and Nemesis.
 

LCD22

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John H Ross said:
Michael Mattessino has indicated that he'd like to produce a HD set for Star Trek: The Motion Picture consisting of all three versions: the theatrical version, the TV version and the director's cut. At the time he made his comments he made reference to HD-DVD but obviously that would now be BD (hurrah!)
That would be fantastic. Question, is the TV version of TMP the same as the longer VHS version?
I'm hoping they'll also include both the original theatrical cut and the television cut for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country they need to have the original theatrical cut and the VHS version included.
Also, I wonder if they'll be porting over the extras (including all of the trailers in HD) from the DE/SCEs.
 

Jason_V

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ChrisCook said:
Also, I wonder if they'll be porting over the extras (including all of the trailers in HD) from the DE/SCEs.
While we're talking about trailers...every last TV spot for all the movies too, not to mention the bloody trailers for Generations. I don't care what kind of agreement needs to be reached. Just hammer it out!
 

LCD22

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Jason_V said:
While we're talking about trailers...every last TV spot for all the movies too, not to mention the bloody trailers for Generations. I don't care what kind of agreement needs to be reached. Just hammer it out!
Agreed.
 

Scott D S

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If we're talking about tributes, they can also do pieces on Bibi Besch, Merritt Butrick, Paul Winfield, composers Alexander Courage and Leonard Rosenman, and writers Denny Martin Flynn and Michael Piller.
I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up when I started this thread.
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It's possible we'll simply get direct ports of the SE DVDs with a few new extras, and that would suit me fine. I just hope the studio realizes what an opportunity this is, especially with so many Trek crewmembers (Courage, Bob Justman, etc.) who've passed away recently.
I'd love to see them get someone like film/music historian Jeff Bond to do a commentary or two, talking about the films from a critical and historical perspective.
 

Jari K

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Great thread. I was just thinking about this, since I want to watch all of these films (I haven´t seen them all) before the new one (and I would of course prefer Blu-ray).

I have the older SD DVD box set at home (still unopened), so...
 

Nelson Au

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Agreed, great thread! I mostly post and discuss Star Trek in the other threads. But I'm going blu-ray soon!

A Blade Runner treatment of Star Trek The Motion Picture would be terrific, but I doubt the love for The Motion Picture is there to get a SE set that nice! What's been suggested on this thread though sounds great for an TMP SE. All three versions sounds doable and a lengthy doc on the making of the first film would be terrific. The doc in the last TMP DVD had some good stuff, but it just touched the surface. Tributes are certainly in order to recognize those contributors to the films and series.

It would be interesting if someone would finance the FX to do Star Trek 5 the way Shatner wanted. It's still possible, there's still time and I bet Shatner is willing to help!

I know we're talking the films here, but my first love is TOS. We do know what the first Season will contain as I bet all the features will port from the HD-DVD to the Blu-Ray and the same features that were started for the Second Season before HD-DVD ceased will be ported over, then all's left is the Third Season to do the same contents.
 

Jason_V

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Nelson Au said:
It would be interesting if someone would finance the FX to do Star Trek 5 the way Shatner wanted. It's still possible, there's still time and I bet Shatner is willing to help!
You made me remember, Nelson, both versions of The Undiscovered Country, too. Gosh, we can create our very own Super Duper Extra Special Edition of each movie, can't we?
(I'd like to see the Generations crew in the new uniforms, if we're going in that direction...)
 

Nelson Au

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Well Jason, I think there's three versions of The Undiscovered Country, and I never thought about that before!
The original theatrical version (which I have not seen since in the theater).
The first DVD version with the inclusion of what some call the "Scooby-Doo stuff" at the last sequence to reveal Col West.
And the SE Directors Cut DVD with the added nonsense during the Spock/Valeris mindmeld sequence showing all the conspirators. The music and sounds during that scene and added imagery does send a scary chill down my back.
 

Scott D S

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Nelson Au said:
All three versions sounds doable and a lengthy doc on the making of the first film would be terrific. The doc in the last TMP DVD had some good stuff, but it just touched the surface.
I found the documentaries on the ST:TMP DVD quite inadequate, given the troubled history of the film. Believe me, I'm grateful that the film received the attention it did but at the same time, Paramount was just starting to dip into the special edition waters. I think Forrest Gump was their first big catalog title SE and it came out only a month or two before TMP, plus this was the very first Trek Special Edition. (Hard to believe the Trek films were neglected on laserdisc all those years, the TVH Director's Edition notwithstanding).
I doubt we'll get the Blade Runner treatment but, if the other Trek SE's are any indication (the DVDs got really good when they got to TVH - lots of archival footage and material), maybe we'll get some new featurettes, one on the development of the story (which is barely touched upon on the TMP DVD), one on Robert Wise, one on the art direction, etc. Maybe they could include some of the Ken Adam and Ralph McQuarrie artwork too. (There's some good stuff being posted at the TrekBBS in the "Planet of the Titans" thread.)
It would be great if they included Goldsmith's alternate music cues on a separate track but it would probably cost too much.
And on a more personal note, it's nice to see a thread I started still active after a few days! That doesn't happen very often.
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