DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Star Trek: Generations - Special Collector's Edition (1 Viewer)

[Colin Jacobson]

Well, First Contact could use a little improvement - it has a few source flaws like specks and some light edge enhancement. However, unlike Generations, it doesn't need a substantial overhaul - even if the SCE of FC only includes the old transfer, it's still very good.

 

[Ric Easton]

I guess what I'm saying is... Don't screw it up!

 

[Jay Pennington]

It was announced a few months ago that Martin was leaving Paramount. Probably gone by now.

 

[Will*B]

This DVD arrived a couple of weeks ago, but I only got around to watching it tonight as I was convinced the picture quality would be unwatchable.

Sure enough, the opening sequence is horrible, but after that the picture quality, whilst not great, is perfectly watchable. Granted, I don't have a massive TV, but I was expecting much, much worse.

(The alternate ending is awful, by the way. So, so, SO overlong and tedious!)

 

[Ric Easton]

Agreed! For all the reading I did about how Kirk's death was not handled well, it was much worse in that original version. I mean, shot in the back? C'mon! I'm also glad they didn't go with the original opening sequense. It wasn't working for me at all.

Ric

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Nope, he's still at work...

 

[Jeff Brooks]

I just finished viewing this. I had hoped what has been said about the image was not true. Oh man, is this transfer bad. (The DTS sound was nice, though.) Any well-lit scenes seemed to have that awful shimmer. I don't think any scene with Data's face looked right. The starfields looked bad. The rock scenes looked bad. Even Spot the cat looked bad. I only wish they were recalling it to fix this transfer. I also viewed "Dial M for Murder" today. What a beautiful transfer. If they can make a 50-year old movie look that good, surely they could make this one look better. It's only 10 years old.

 

[Scott Kimball]

Liz Haggar was the one who recently left Paramount.

Martin is still around and has seen this thread. You can be assured that Paramount is aware of the reaction to this release.

As much as I would like to see this fixed, I understand the economics of not providing a new transfer after this got out - it would be a very expensive fix for a transfer that, frankly, 90% of the audience won't see anything wrong with. I've read some reviews that don't see a problem with this transfer, and Joe Sixpack isn't going to notice the problems.

Now, I'm not trying to make excuses - I'm just pointing out the economic reality, here. This thing will sell regardless of the imperfections.

The questions are:
1. How did this get by them in the first place?
2. And, after the response to this release, can we count on them to take better care on future releases?

Certainly, Paramount's track record is above average in the transfer department. Hopefully, the answer to number 2 is "yes," even if question one goes unanswered.

The only other question is, why the recall for a printing error? I suspect Paramount's legal department is behind that.

No doubt, Paramount dropped the ball on this one, and they know that.

-Scott

 

[Bill Williams]

This past Saturday my wife and I were in the local Wal-Mart shopping for groceries and other necessities, and on a whim we went by the entertainment section. Sure enough, they had seven copies of Generations on sale for $14.44. I picked up a copy of it, pointed out the misprinted label, and told her about the recall, to which she replied with a big "Oops!!!!"

As for the alternate ending and all those other deleted scenes that's on the DVD, that's taken from the first workprint (dated 6-22-1994). I've seen a tighter version of the ending sequence that ran about six and a half minutes long and had completed visual effects to it (circa August 1994) along with a temp score from different sources, and even then in its shortened form it's still not as good as the final version. Besides, thematically it's not an effective ending for a number of reasons:

1. Who could accept Kirk getting shot in the back by a one-time villain? Having Kirk supposedly die at the start of the film, by saving the Enterprise-B, is more effective and befitting his character.
2. What justifies Picard in shooting an unarmed man? There's only one phaser at the launch site, Soran's, and for Picard to shoot an unarmed Soran is, in my opinion, out of character for Picard. If they had been fighting in hand-to-hand combat, or if both had phasers, then it would have been a more balanced fight.
3. Kirk's death as seen in the alternate ending just comes up really flat. Even in the second workprint it comes off just as flat but is a little more ambiguous, because it looks like he might in fact survive.

As for the eventual First Contact SE, I definitely plan on getting it, as it's the sole remaining Trek film on DVD I need for my collection. I agree, it should have a very clean and crisp transfer on it, at least one that's better than the Generations SE.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I was just in a large and predominantly pro-P&S superstore last night, and they had the new "corrected" copies out early. I believe someone else already alluded to this, but the artwork is a new printing, not a sticker over the original art to hide the trailers. I still can't believe they went through all that trouble.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

I bought this title just today. How can I check if I have the new one? I see no mention of trailers on the back.

 

[Bill Williams]

If the label doesn't mention anything about trailers, then chances are you have the new revised version.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

With the new corrected video transfer, right?

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Here is my DVD
http://perso.club-internet.fr/willow/STG.jpg

 

[Johnny Jr.]

This question is for anyone that has seen both transfers of Generations on dvd. I am just curious if it is worth to keep my older version of Generations for the video quality when I get the 2-disc set?

 

[PeterTHX]

Dump your old "Generations", Johnny.

While this transfer is flawed (over sharpened), it's miles beyond the old one (MPEG artifacts, no starfields, edge enhancement, weak DD 5.1 track, etc).

 

[Johnny Jr.]

Thanks Peter now I won't feel guilty getting ride of the original transfer

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Here for comparison

Letterbox DVD

Anamorphic DVD

 

[Sam Davatchi]

By the way, there is no insert? And also which DVDs of the original Star Trek release should we keep? I guess we have to keep Star Trek 2 but what about the others?

 

[Tarkin The Ewok]

Paramount has stopped putting inserts into ALL of their DVD releases. This started around the time of Star Trek VI's release. They assume (probably correctly) that most people will just use the scene selection menu on the DVD and not check the insert for the chapter titles.

For your second question, only Star Trek I, II, and VI have any editorial changes from the original releases (that I noticed). If there are other reasons you want to keep your old DVDs, I can't help you unless you tell those reasons.