Star Trek films on Blu-Ray... what we know so far (3 Viewers)

[Jonathan Perregaux]

In the special longer version, Captain Kirk suits up to go fetch Mr. Spock. Unfortunately, he is standing in a partial set that, in widescreen, would look absurd due to the ship looking like an unfinished plywood thing with rigging showing.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I don't know how that would work for the existing scenes that were changed in the DE though - such as the trimmed transporter accident aftermath, the second "Viewer OFF!" line, and the trimmed cloud fly-through. I don't remember if the full versions of those scenes were included in the deleted scenes section or not - it's been years since I looked at it last.

They include a "trims" section which has things like individual lines removed. Unfortunately there's not a straight "deleted scenes" section that would could use to simply drop them back into the theatrical cut. And the Blu-ray only includes the prepared deleted scenes from the DVD set, which means the Blu-ray doesn't include any scenes that were added back to the DVD version of the film. It's a little bit of a bummer.

In the special longer version, Captain Kirk suits up to go fetch Mr. Spock. Unfortunately, he is standing in a partial set that, in widescreen, would look absurd due to the ship looking like an unfinished plywood thing with rigging showing.

I'd accept that - either present it as is, unfinished, or make a simple matte, or simply black out the parts on the side that show the set rigging.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

In the special longer version, Captain Kirk suits up to go fetch Mr. Spock. Unfortunately, he is standing in a partial set that, in widescreen, would look absurd due to the ship looking like an unfinished plywood thing with rigging showing.

Not to mention the fact that he is in a totally different design of space suit (the ones used for the abandoned 'memory wall' sequence). It doesn't match with the footage of him later when he recovers Spock's body from the first officer's solo space walk.


Incidentally, you can still see unfinished parts of the set in the 4x3 cropped version, too, just not quite as noticeable as in the full image.

 

[Nelson Au]

I remember when I first saw the Special Longer Version on ABC the unfinished set really was noticeable. Bring the first time to ever see it, at first I wondered why it looked like an unfinished set and then I realized what it was. There was a sense of wonderment to actually see this. [emoji4]

If Paramount was feeling the need to really put the scene in a special longer edition on Blu Ray, I can imagine a matte artist could digitally finish the shot. Perhaps the same artist at CBS who did the great matte work on Star Trek TOS and TNG remastered. But I know that's just a fantasy in my head.

 

[Kevin EK]

The problem is that the bit with Kirk following Spock out of the ship with the unfinished FX was for the unused version of the Spock Walk, which is why Kirk is in a different spacesuit. This was the sequence that would have included the Memory Wall, but it simply proved untenable and frankly uninteresting. The reconceived version went more for Trumbull's "First Person Theater" notion and stayed with Spock alone until his body comes floating back. For the reconceived version, Kirk's spacesuit was also rethought and simplified.


I would see no point in trying to complete VFX on the earlier idea, as you'd still have Kirk in a non-matching suit that doesn't make any sense in context.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I love that cut but the beauty of it at this point is that "it is what it is" - so I'd be fine with it either included as is, or just the simplest of black masking to matte out the set - I don't have any desire for anything more elaborate. But I'm resigned to the likelihood that it's a total pipe dream at this point.

 

[Kevin EK]

As I don't believe Paramount intends to spend the funds to prepare the DE of TMP for Blu-ray, I would logically extend that to say that they're even less likely to scan the longer TV cut in high definition. From their point of view, it's all deleted material, and some of it (like the original Kirk spacewalk) is embarrassingly unfinished.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I wish I had the editing skills and more importantly the patience to cut together a widescreen SLV from the DE DVD and Blu but that's probably even less likely!

 

[Allansfirebird]

Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I wish I had the editing skills and more importantly the patience to cut together a widescreen SLV from the DE DVD and Blu but that's probably even less likely!

Some intrepid fan did do this a few years back, and it worked beautifully. I probably shouldn't go into too much more detail, as it's not a legitimate release.

 

[Nelson Au]

Kevin, are you loosing faith? I must admit I'm loosing some myself. But I can't let go just yet. A lot can happen in 2016, to paraphrase Nurse Chapel. Maybe later in the next year we'll be pleasantly surprised with a DE blu ray of The Motion Picture.

All I want is the Wise cut remastered on blu ray. The other cuts would be a delightful bonus, as they are, without any additional work to them. Not too much to ask? [emoji4]

 

[Osato]

Kevin, are you loosing faith? I must admit I'm loosing some myself. But I can't let go just yet. A lot can happen in 2016, to paraphrase Nurse Chapel. Maybe later in the next year we'll be pleasantly surprised with a DE blu ray of The Motion Picture.
All I want is the Wise cut remastered on blu ray. The other cuts would be a delightful bonus, as they are, without any additional work to them. Not too much to ask? [emoji4]

Agreed. I'm thinks something will happen with new transfers for 4K HD blu Ray but whether that is next year I'm not sure.
Classic Star Trek and the films have always been a good source of revenue for CBS and paramount respectively.

Time will tell but I believe there will be new transfers. I'm hopeful about the tmp directors cut. As well.

 

[Kevin EK]

I'd love to be proven wrong on this, but there is no indication that Paramount has people working on or even contemplating new high definition editions of the older Star Trek movies. For understandable reasons, they seem to be more focused on the new JJ Abrams movies and will likely want to focus attention on that cast next year. Every year or two, there's another big anniversary that will come up that could inspire someone to market a new release. Next year is the 50th Anniversary of the original airing of TOS. 2017 will be the 30th Anniversary of TNG. 2019 will be the 40th Anniversary of TMP. But what we've repeatedly seen from Paramount is that they're happy to stay with the existing editions, simply repackaging them from time to time for fans who had not previously purchased them.

 

[Chareth]

Bill Hunt conveyed the fan demand and reported back that the idea was under consideration when he visited Paramount about the Into Darkness extras debacle. He reiterated this in an email to me, saying he's been talking to them a lot about it and that he had renewed hope on this front. The current team is different to the one that put out the 2009 sets, and they seem keen to please Trek fans.


Of course, such consideration doesn't mean anything until it yields a confirmed release, but it's nice to know their thinking has changed somewhat since 2009.


I also don't see why in the 50th anniversary Paramount would only want to focus on the new cast. The movies are the only Trek properties they can now exploit and a half-century anniversary is a great promotional hook for some refreshed products. Old cast, new cast - I don't see how that's relevant, just as it wasn't when they released the original films on Blu-ray to tie into the 2009 film. They don't have much scope, if any, to further exploit the Abrams films on disc, leaving them without any anniversary products at all, since I believe CBS holds all other merchandising rights.


But of course, the disc market has changed and they may not want to invest in new transfers until the 4K/UHD landscape is clearer, which will likely be after the 50th anniversary. Then again, if they have any interest in wringing some remaining dollars out of the old films, they should recognise that there's scope for improvement with these films in terms of PQ/AQ and extras that there isn't for, say, the Alien and Back to the Future films. Repackaging those sets and films truly is the only reasonable option, whereas the definitive Trek set has yet to be made. Assuming they care.


As for the February repackaging of the TNG films, this is too early even to tie into Beyond, let alone the 50th. The anniversary technically runs from Sep 2016 to Sep 2017. Beyond will come out on disc in Q4, and the new series will debut in January, if all goes to plan. Seems like an ideal time to release a new set of the original films too.


Even if Paramount just quietly put the non-DNR versions of their transfers out for a 50th anniversary release, it'd be something. This Generations comparison indicates how much improvement is already sitting on a hard drive at the studio.

 

[Kevin EK]

Paramount is focusing on the Abrams/Chris Pine cast because that's the one that current fans are familiar with and have been following for the past 7 years, ever since the publicity started in 2008 about the 2009 movie. The older movies are looked on fondly by fans, but young fans of the new movies aren't as interested in them as they are in the new Abrams stuff. It makes sense that Paramount wants to cater to that audience - it's what will continue to fill Trek conventions for decades to come. Most of this is about marketing to the younger audience, which is why the new CBS web series will almost certainly be based the Abrams universe. (The rest of it is about the sheer cost of producing a new series, costs that can be helped by using the existing sets in Vancouver rather than starting all over again and constructing completely new ones.)


I'm glad that Bill Hunt has been talking to Paramount about the older movies, and I'm glad that they're receptive to the conversation. But the history of the past decade is still what it it's been, particularly during the 2 1/2 years since they inflicted Into Darkness. Paramount has made no actual progress in commissioning new work on HD transfers, extras or anything else for the older Trek movies. Had they actually done what we'd been thinking in terms of re-acquiring the work done for the DE of TMP, we'd have heard about it by now. Paramount would be marketing such work. Same thing if they'd been commissioning new transfers of the other movies. Whenever releases like this are in the offing, we tend to hear about it way in advance. The whole idea is to build up interest and demand so that they sell in good numbers on the street date. There's no advantage to a studio to hold back this kind of information and then suddenly spring it as a surprise.


I agree that the winter repackaging of the TNG movies is a bit early for the tie-in, but it will fit in with the 2016 anniversary. I'd expect to see another repackage for the original cast movies by summer, followed by the new movie on Blu in either September or October. I also expect to see the same kind of division of the bonus features between multiple sales outlets, particularly if Beyond suffers from the same disappointing box office performance as Into Darkness did. (It's been noted in the Hollywood Reporter that Beyond was being produced for an understandably lower budget than Into Darkness, including its move to Vancouver for the tax incentive.) (I would also note that Into Darkness needed home video sales just to break even, sadly. They spent so much making and marketing it that it needed to be another Avatar or Jurassic World to show the profits Paramount needed. Which is why they were using sales ideas like dividing the bonus features - it would help boost their sales numbers like the inflated 3D ticket prices did.)


Even if they were to package some new extras in with the older movies, I really wonder how much material there really is left to include at this point. Like with the James Bond films, all I can think of is that they could try to find whatever deleted scenes are left. I wouldn't expect new commentaries and wouldn't even know who could really do them. We've already had commentaries from the directors for each movie, and we've heard all the stories of what happened during each shoot. The smartest and most inexpensive move Paramount could make would be to simply repress what they already have - as a historical set for the fans of the newer movies. Doesn't really do much for me or for older fans, but I'm not sure that Paramount is concerned about those fans. To you or me, the definitive Trek set may have yet to be made. To Paramount, they made those sets in 2009 and the sets sold. It's the same as with the Bond films - I don't see Eon commissioning brand new transfers of the Bond movies anytime soon either.


Again, I would be very happy to be mistaken on this. If Paramount announces they are revisiting the Trek films and putting Robert Wise's cut of TMP on Blu, I'll be happy to consider purchasing them.

 

[Chareth]

Agreed, the new cast will be their main priority. They have a new film out. But I don’t understand why it has to be an either/or proposition. Couldn’t they still continue to service the older films as needed - which are narratively tied to the original films, after all - while making the new films their promotional priority? The new films can and have driven newer fans to the older films, after all, which generates more revenue. So Paramount focusing exclusively on the new films doesn’t seem necessary.

Side note: I don’t think it’s guaranteed that the new series will be set in the Abramsverse. CBS may not even have the rights to use it. They may well co-opt the style, tone, and aesthetic, but Bad Robot isn’t involved even though Alex Kurtzman is. The press release also makes a point of saying the new series is “not related” to Star Trek Beyond, which sounds like a legal note. And CBS may see value in continuing the prime timeline material they do have the rights to.

Do we always hear about new transfers a year before? This is optimism asking, I realise, but I’m interested to know if that’s the usual pattern for titles like this.

I would hope Paramount doesn’t repeat the split extras strategy since they were reportedly contrite about doing it last time and made amends with the Compendium. But true, if it made money, there’s nothing stopping them doing it again.

True, there wouldn’t be a huge amount to add to a new movie set. But a Charles de Lauzirika-style documentary covering the whole series and really digging in deep could yield some valuable new insights. Such docos are scarce now though, admittedly.

I agree that the scenario you outline is most likely because it’s the path of least resistance, and a new set is perhaps wishful thinking. But we’ve at least identified reasonable potential scope - this wouldn’t be a release fixing insane nitpicks which there’s very little demand to fix.

And surprise remasters have turned up before. I may be wrong, but I assume few expected a new Home Alone transfer to materialise. Fair enough though that dripfeeding information about new Trek releases would be more beneficial, and Paramount’s history of remastering existing Blus is slim to nil.

 

[Nelson Au]

The Bond example seems very apt. Every generation has their favorite Bond. The 50th Anniversary Bond set was very nice. While not perfect to some or everyone, at least every title seemed to benefit from some reworking to HD.

Here's a thought, why not just toss in a remastered Star Trek The Motion Picture Directors Cut into a new box set of all the films as a bonus disc. Wishful thinking I know.

I think Chareth already said what I've been thinking. Seems that while Paramount cares about the new cast film because that's the new audience they are going after with the new fans, why are they ignoring the older films? It's behooves them to take care of the earlier films because it can only generate more income when the youth of today realizes there's more Star Trek from the "olden" days. Those old Star Trek TV episodes their grandfather watched might be something to check out. CBS has that already on hand, so they're going to be set. The TOS films are available and can be had sure. My impression is the millennials don't care about high definition audio, so they won't care about high definition imagery either, so they can just download the early films from iTunes. Even the Wise cut.

Pretty depressing that the youth don't care about the same things we do. The whole home theater and hi fidelity audio market is going down the YouTube path to be viewed on phones and tablets. Nothing wrong of course, I have the entire TOS series I prepared myself for viewing on the iPad and iPhone. So if the youth wants to, he/she can at least still discover where Star Trek started and came from, if they can see past what they might think of as cheesy sets and such. There's some real good stories there.

But it sure would be great to have the Bond film type of remastering for the Star Trek TOS and TNG films. Thanks Chareth for reminding me of the Bill Hunt conversation he had with Paramount. I had forgotten about that. Let's hope that bears some fruit.

 

[Tom St Jones]

I remember back when Paramount issued the very first widescreen edition of TMP (on VHS) and it was the theatrical cut, apparently because they realized the widescreen would have revealed the unfinished set in the shot of Kirk in white suit exiting the ship just before Spock's take-off in the TV version. That, and possibly because certain other shots in the TV version were only available in fullscreen at the time.

As Paramount released many movies in separate widescreen and full screen DVDs at the height of the format, I remember (before The Director's cut was announced) hoping that they would release a separate widescreen DVD of the theatrical, and Full-screen of the TV version. I would still go for a fullscreen DVD/ Bluray if it were announced today. Unless they ever decided to digitally finish the background in the white-suit shot, this version will probably continue to fare best full-screen.

 

[Osato]

On the tng films on blu Ray being reissued I recall reading that this was most likely clearing the decks for new sets later in 2016?
Anyway hoping for new transfers for the older films on blu Ray.

 

[Osato]

The Bond example seems very apt. Every generation has their favorite Bond. The 50th Anniversary Bond set was very nice. While not perfect to some or everyone, at least every title seemed to benefit from some reworking to HD.
Here's a thought, why not just toss in a remastered Star Trek The Motion Picture Directors Cut into a new box set of all the films as a bonus disc. Wishful thinking I know.
I think Chareth already said what I've been thinking. Seems that while Paramount cares about the new cast film because that's the new audience they are going after with the new fans, why are they ignoring the older films? It's behooves them to take care of the earlier films because it can only generate more income when the youth of today realizes there's more Star Trek from the "olden" days. Those old Star Trek TV episodes their grandfather watched might be something to check out. CBS has that already on hand, so they're going to be set. The TOS films are available and can be had sure. My impression is the millennials don't care about high definition audio, so they won't care about high definition imagery either, so they can just download the early films from iTunes. Even the Wise cut.
Pretty depressing that the youth don't care about the same things we do. The whole home theater and hi fidelity audio market is going down the YouTube path to be viewed on phones and tablets. Nothing wrong of course, I have the entire TOS series I prepared myself for viewing on the iPad and iPhone. So if the youth wants to, he/she can at least still discover where Star Trek started and came from, if they can see past what they might think of as cheesy sets and such. There's some real good stories there.
But it sure would be great to have the Bond film type of remastering for the Star Trek TOS and TNG films. Thanks Chareth for reminding me of the Bill Hunt conversation he had with Paramount. I had forgotten about that. Let's hope that bears some fruit.

The HD mastering for bond was completed in 2004-2005. They tweaked and used some alternate transfers on blu Ray. Most were from the 2004-2005 HD mastering work done by Lowry.

It felt like mgm sat on several of the bond HD transfers for a long time before all were issued on blu Ray in 2012. I was thankful when they were all released.

That being said I am interested in new 4K HD transfers.

 

[Osato]

No source given but I recalled reading this years ago when the series was released on DVD..


CBS remastered the series in 1080p HD for this release. While the series has not yet seen an HD release, the episode More Tribbles, More Troubles has been released in full 1080p HD on the Star Trek: Season 2 Remastered Blu-Ray set. However the NTSC DVD's themselves feature the episodes in Enhanced-Definition 480p/24p.