Star Trek DS9 on Blu-Ray -- Remain Ever Hopeful Thread (1 Viewer)

[Bryan^H]

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Star-Trek-Deep-Space-Blu-rays-Planned/19841

Looks like this might be happening. My guess for the timeframe is:

Star Trek TNG season 6-June

Star Trek TNG season 7-September

Star Trek DS9 season 1-December

 

[Sam Favate]

Very glad to hear this. Let's hope that timetable is right.

 

[Jason_V]

As much as this news would make my year, I reaaaaaaally think they're just promoting the appearance of DS9 in "Birthright I" and not an actual release for DS9 on BD. I guess we'll see if there's a DS9 trailer on the disc when the reviews start hitting in another couple of weeks.

 

[benbess]

My guess is that—if it happens—the first season of DS9 wouldn't be out until the Spring of 2015. The premiere movie episode of DS9 has a lot of complicated fx.

 

[Bryan^H]

As much as this news would make my year, I reaaaaaaally think they're just promoting the appearance of DS9 in "Birthright I" and not an actual release for DS9 on BD. I guess we'll see if there's a DS9 trailer on the disc when the reviews start hitting in another couple of weeks.

With all due respect, I hope you're wrong

 

[Jason_V]

With all due respect, I hope you're wrong

Believe me...I'd like nothing more than to be wrong. The fact we've heard nothing about DS9 getting the HD treatment is making me wary of expecting too much here.

 

[David Weicker]

Technically, DS9 has appeared on Blu already.Trials And Tribble-ations was included as an extra on the TOS S2 set (although I believe it was an up-convert).

 

[Kevin EK]

The speculation here is coming from a CBS twitter thing where the publicist wrote: "Get your first look at DS9 in HD" with the Season 6 Blu-ray set. They're clearly referring to the appearance of the station in "Birthright" as Jason notes. At this time, I don't believe that any work has been done to prepare DS9 for Blu-ray, so I wouldn't expect to see a trailer for that on these discs. Frankly, I don't think they're far enough along on Season 7 to even have a trailer of that yet. I do think you'll see a bunch of trailers for other Star Trek Blus already out there, including for all of Enterprise, TOS and for things like the "Chain of Command" separate release.

Given that it took a long time and a LOT of work to bring TNG to Blu-ray, and given that we had a preview release of "The Next Level" to test the waters, as it were, I would not expect to see any release of DS9 until sometime in 2015, if it even happens at all. If CBS indeed decides to do it, you'll know way in advance. They're not shy about publicizing this stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if the CBS tweet was intended to see if they can boost sales of Season 6 by attracting people waiting for a potential DS9 release. Typically, the sales of these sets drop off after the first seasons, as the general public gets its fill.

The real challenge to me will be TNG Season 7. This was frankly not a very interesting season, and it was loaded with weak and tired episodes. There are a few gems in there - "Lower Decks" in particular, but this was a season that showed the writers running out of steam, as they've admitted in various interviews. The final episode was a nice way to go out, at least. I would pick up a Season 7 Blu if they have some interesting VAM on it. I expect they'll have a retrospective set of featurettes about winding up the series and preparing for Generations. I expect that the Directors roundtable that didn't happen for Season 6 may happen for Season 7. The usual gag reel and deleted material should pop up as well. I'm not sure what they'll do in terms of putting commentaries on, or in doing a stand-alone release. If they did one, the only one I can think of that could get any attention would be "All Good Things", and I have to wonder whether that's really a good idea. They could just have everything encapsulated within the Season set itself. For commentaries, I believe they'd have one for "All Good Things", but I can't imagine what other episodes need a long discussion.

 

[Sam Favate]

The speculation here is coming from a CBS twitter thing where the publicist wrote: "Get your first look at DS9 in HD" with the Season 6 Blu-ray set. They're clearly referring to the appearance of the station in "Birthright" as Jason notes. At this time, I don't believe that any work has been done to prepare DS9 for Blu-ray, so I wouldn't expect to see a trailer for that on these discs.

I disagree. I think it says "first look" because DS9 is coming to blu-ray. I don't read it any other way.

 

[Mark Collins]

I love DS9 and it is the only complete Trek show that I own. I would love to rebuy but again the price would be a factor. I am here to support the effort if CBS is looking in and reading our posts.

 

[Jason_V]

Technically, DS9 has appeared on Blu already.Trials And Tribble-ations was included as an extra on the TOS S2 set (although I believe it was an up-convert).

Was that upcoverted or a new master? I totally forget at this point.

EDIT: Nevermind...I can't read...

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I disagree. I think it says "first look" because DS9 is coming to blu-ray. I don't read it any other way.

Yeah, the tweet said "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", not just Deep Space Nine.

IMO, one means the show is coming to HD on blu. The other means "Hey, DS9 appears in Birthright, doesn't it look cool in HD?"

...at least I hope that's what it means, because the DS9 DVDs looked like crap, and I want to see those episodes looking as good as TNG does now.

/and don't they have a few seasons they can get done relatively painlessly, since they were still using traditional models and FX until season 4 or 5? And even then, we've seen articles about how the DS9 CGI ships were "overbuilt", and could be made HD ready fairly easily.

 

[Carabimero]

It would seem to suggest DS9 is coming in HD. There are too many other ways to word it, even in a Tweet. However, it could be privately planned at this point and still never happen. Conversely, it could +not+ be planned at this point and still happen. That's why you never say anything until you're sure, since it keeps your options open. And so, that is why, at least to me, this tweet suggests it IS coming on HD.

 

[Kevin EK]

I think CBS may well do Blu-rays of DS9, but you won't see it this year. The tweet suggests that it's a "first look", but they're not saying that any episodes of DS9 will be on this set, unless all the publicity about it has omitted that idea. It's for the shots in "Birthright" that see the station.

If CBS thinks the sales numbers are there, then I could see them approaching DS9 the same way they did TNG - except that they have other hurdles to deal with the VFX, which may put them in a position they'd rather avoid.

The first thing we'll see is TNG Season 7, which I figure will hit stores somewhere around November or December, based on how long it's taken since Season 5 came out. After that, we'll just have to see if CBS wants to continue in this vein. Their other option would simply be to upconvert the materials they have for DS9 and Voyager and call it a day.

 

[Jason_V]

Their other option would simply be to upconvert the materials they have for DS9 and Voyager and call it a day.

I think I would cry is all they did was upconvert. Seriously, cry.

I'm on record as feeling CBS has no choice but to do DS9 and Voyager (and TAS) if they want to continue selling the franchise. I still feel that way. Right now, I think we're all taking this tweet a bit too literally and parsing each word.

(The other thing: I'm not getting my hopes up too high on this lest I'm going to be let down -- hard.)

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I think I would cry is all they did was upconvert. Seriously, cry.

I'm on record as feeling CBS has no choice but to do DS9 and Voyager (and TAS) if they want to continue selling the franchise. I still feel that way. Right now, I think we're all taking this tweet a bit too literally and parsing each word.

(The other thing: I'm not getting my hopes up too high on this lest I'm going to be let down -- hard.)

I wouldn't cry over an upconversion.

I'd just not buy it, and complain a lot on the internet, hoping it would make other, less in tune people not buy the set.

I mean, seeing the upconversion of the TNG footage on blu, well... it looks bad. Barely better than the DVDs. If that's all they could do for DS9, it's better it not be done at all.

However, the remasterings aren't necessarily all about DVD. This pretty much needs to be done if they want to keep DS9 and Voyager around in syndication in the future. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if there's a set of widescreen TNG HD transfers that will be ready to go into syndication after the show has been fully restored and remastered. And they would almost have to do the same with DS9 and Voyager, or lose the money from syndication sales of nearly 400 episodes worth of material.

In the end, I believe that's what the whole project is about, and the blu sales are just helping fund it, or maybe are just the icing on the cake of the real money source... syndication sales of true HD Star Trek.

 

[Kevin EK]

I agree that the end purpose of the HD project of TNG is to provide solid syndication masters for HD channels in perpetuity.
And with the work they've done on TOS, Enterprise and TNG, they'll now have plenty of material for that.

I also agree that they could take the same approach with DS9 and Voyager, particularly if they see strong sales on the final sets of TNG material. In that case, you'd see biannual releases of Blu-ray sets of these shows over the next few years potentially all the way up to 2020 or beyond.

But they could also skip the Blu-ray idea for the last two shows. (And I'm not even getting into the animated shows - I'm amazed that we got a DVD release of them in the first place.) My notion of CBS simply upconverting DS9 and/or Voyager wasn't for a potential Blu-ray release. This would just be for the HD channels without even making Blu-rays. We'll just have to see what CBS decides, which likely won't be til the end of the year or sometime into next year.

 

[Sam Favate]

BTW, season 6 of TNG on DVD had a trailer for DS9 on DVD.

 

[Jason_V]

Someone on the TVSoD Facebook story is claiming Voyager is next, the remaster is happening next and "someone" has said we need to support that series to get DS9. Of course, Mr. Sam (thank you, Sam) has mentioned this is the first time he's hearing of that news. Add me to the club...

It's kind of weird, too, that the two Trek related news sources I would have expected to mention this Tweet (TrekCore and TrekMovie) don't have anything on it.

 

[Kevin EK]

I see no indication of Voyager being on the boards to happen any more than DS9. I also see no articles about this from any source. This sounds like someone's wishful thinking. Not the first time that has happened.

If CBS really were working on DS9 or Voyager right now, they wouldn't make a secret of it. They would openly promote it.