Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022) - Season 1 (1 Viewer)

[KPmusmag]

I can not help wondering it the TOS episode Balance of Terror, which is an extra on the blu-ray set, will be full 4K on the 4K set.

 

[Nelson Au]

That’s an interesting thought Kevin. I’d bet a dollar the 4K set will have the 1080 version of Balance of Terror. But we’ll see!

 

[Museum Pieces]

This series really looks great on these blu rays. It’s hard to believe the series will be that much better on 4K, but we’ll see.

I wonder when you get 4K if you'll check something for me. I was talking to my brother-in-law Carab (Alan), and he was surprised how much banding there was on the SNW S1 BD set. I asked him for an example, and he pointed to the scene in the first episode when they are in the elevator on the planet and the rack focus goes from Spock's transforming ear to the alien woman's face. He's right. There's repeated banding during the rack focus.

Carab had a list of disappointing banding issues with the BD set. I am curious, when you get the 4K, if you have time, can you see if the banding is still there in that rack focus sequence on the elevator? Thanks.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

All of the recreated visual effects for the TOS remaster were completed at 1080p. I'm not sure whether the original film elements were scanned at 4K or 2K.

If they do include "Balance of Terror" in 4K, my guess is that it would be an upconvert from the 1080p master, perhaps with new color grading and an HDR sheen applied.

True 4K for TOS might be counter-productive anyway. It was made with the limitations of 525-line analog television broadcasts in mind. Even in HD, you can see some of the seams that weren't noticeable in the SD version.

 

[Nelson Au]

Skylar, when I have some time, I’ll look for the banding issue you mention on the current blu ray. I’m curious if I can see it as I did not notice it. I’m watching on an OLED 4K display. I will also check on a Panasonic plasma too.

 

[Nelson Au]

Adam, it would be interesting to learn if the 2005-2006 remaster of TOS was scanned in 2 or 4K.

In regards to your comment that Star Trek’s original film elements were made with the 525 line limitations, initially I thought you meant that the film itself did not contain 4K level information. But in re-reading, I think you meant that a higher resolution image would reveal even more of the warts on the sets, make-up and costumes. I noticed things even on the pre-remastered DVD’s! I could see wood grain on some of the set pieces. But for sure on the blu rays, the join line on Spock’s ears are obviously noticeable. And I could see a coffee stain on Nimoy’s tunic in another episode. Of course there are shots of the female guest stars that are often filmed with a softening filter, and then there are shots that have opticals and fades and those don’t look great. That said, I’d buy the series on 4K with the original audio tracks.

 

[Alex...]

 

[Josh Dial]

For my fellow Canadians who can't watch Alex's link, here's an alternative version:

 

[Josh Dial]

This looks so good.

I know everyone is praising Picard season 3. And don't get me wrong: it's a great season of Star Trek and a fantastic recovery from seasons 1 and 2.

But for my money season 1 of Strange New Worlds is the single best season of Star Trek in franchise history. You know how you can watch an installment in a series and think, "yeah, they get it."

Strange New Worlds gets it.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

That teaser was very reassuring for me. When I heard about the "Lower Decks" crossover episode, I feared we were in for a season of crazy bonkers offbeat things like that. But that teaser by and large still looks like the same show I loved in the first season. I'm still not thrilled about them bringing in James T. Kirk on a recurring basis; I would rather he stay on the Farragut for this show's time period. That's nothing against Paul Wesley's performance, but there's only one William Shatner and Welsey bears less of a resemblance to a young Shatner than Chris Pine did.

Judging by the stinger at the end of the episode, we're in for some time travel (aside from the "Lower Decks" characters) at some point in the season. If you don't have currency, you don't need anti-theft device scanners at the doors to your store.

This looks so good.

I know everyone is praising Picard season 3. And don't get me wrong: it's a great season of Star Trek and a fantastic recovery from seasons 1 and 2.

It's such an apples and oranges comparison for me. Within the bounds of what Trek is, they're about as far apart as two shows can be. A sunny, optimistic plot-driven episodic show set in the 23rd century versus a dark, melancholy character-driven serialized show set in the 25th century. I think they're both tremendous at what they're trying to do, but they're trying to do very different things.

The joy for "Picard" Season 3 is getting resolution after more than three decades of investment in those characters and that crew.

The joy for "Strange New Worlds" is going on new adventures in places with characters we're just starting to love.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Also, this is just a drop dead gorgeous one sheet for the new season:

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I enjoyed the first season of SNW, but as I’m revisiting the episodes for the HTF disc review, I’m not as enamored with it as Canadian Mirror Me is.

The characters and main cast all work. The holdovers from Discovery, Pike, Spock and Number One, we already had a season of their performances before this show began, and they are pitch perfect in their parts. The new members of the cast are equally good.

But episodic shows, to a certain extent, live or die based on the strength of their weekly stories, and for me, season one had a few that were duds. When you’ve got a 26 episode season and have three duds, it’s not a big deal, but three out of ten being not all that great becomes more glaring. Not enough to sway me from continuing the show, but enough for me to feel it’s still a work in progress.

I think the other things I didn’t like as much about the show come back to Akiva Goldsman’s contributions, which also in my view hampered season 2 of Picard. I don’t doubt his love of Star Trek, but I think his particular areas of interest can hold his shows back from being all they could be. On the first season’s lone audio commentary, Goldsman talks enthusiastically about his love of taking little things in TOS and turning them into big stories on the shows he works on, and I think that’s the problem. When it works well (like the finale’s spin on Balance of Terror, for instance), it works well. But there are also plenty of characters and scenarios that shouldn’t be on the Enterprise’s radar so early on, and Goldsman just doesn’t seem to be able to resist. So, it’s not enough to get Nurse Chapel before she should be serving on the Enterprise, or Dr. M’Benga rather than Dr. Boyce, but we’ve also got Uhura before her time, and a lot of the Gorn, an enemy that the Enterprise probably shouldn’t be encountering yet. T’Pring and Sybok. Sam Kirk. The list goes on and on. It starts making the universe feel too small when the focus winds up being so titled to things we’ve seen before.

I love the idea of episodic stories with serialized characters, but it’s a little bit of a bummer that in season one, the serialized elements were pretty much all downbeat story elements. M’Benga trying to save a dying daughter from a fatal disease. Pike’s depression over his eventual horrific fate. Number One’s hiding of her illegal actions to join Starfleet and the xenophobia she faces as a result. Chapel’s longing for Spock. Spock’s romantic hardships. La’An’s traumatic childhood. Uhura’s tragic loss of her parents. I wish more of the serialized elements had an upbeat bent to them; a lot of the individual plots are big enough downers without needing serialized downers too.

On a production level, I think there’s a little too much reliance on the the “volume,” the augmented reality video wall. It winds up leading to a sameness of shots that I don’t recall in the earliest seasons of Discovery, before the Trek productions got their setup. A lot of the shots and the stagings within the volume are remarkably similar, and it tends to make it look like what it is - people standing together in a small area in front of a screen simulating a larger space. What’s absent are the happy accidents you get when a director and cinematographer have to make due with the limitations of a real physical environment in deciding where to place a camera or block a scene.

I don’t mean this to sound like I’m damning it with faint praise. I think the potential is limitless and I very much look forward to seeing what happens this coming season.

 

[jayembee]

This looks so good.

Funny thing...earlier today, I read a complaint about the trailer, specifically to the "revolving door" bit at the end. It boiled down to him sounding like a crazed fan complaining that "he's not 'from space', he's from Iowa!" It's not that he is necessarily wrong; I can understand someone rolling their eyes at that, but (a) it was still funny (as was Spock's "thing"), and (b) he spent way more energy complaining about it than it was worth.

That Final Joke In The Strange New Worlds Season 2 Trailer Raises A Startling Number Of Star Trek Questions - /Film

Something isn't right about a certain James T. Kirk one-liner in the new Strange New Worlds trailer...

www.slashfilm.com

 

[Chris Will]

Trailer looks awesome and I can't wait. I loved season 1. If I'm honest though, I'm not looking forward to yet another Trek time travel episode, especially after all of Picard season 2 was time travel.

 

[Jason_V]

Now that everyone's had a minute and half to see the trailer, can I just say...

KLINGONS! Klingons that look like historical Klingons (not whatever Discovery did in Season 1)...

 

[jayembee]

KLINGONS! Klingons that look like historical Klingons (not whatever Discovery did in Season 1)...

They don't want to talk about that...

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Now that everyone's had a minute and half to see the trailer, can I just say...

KLINGONS! Klingons that look like historical Klingons (not whatever Discovery did in Season 1)...

View attachment 181852

It would be cool if they have a mix of these style Klingons and the TOS style Klingons...

 

[joshEH]

Now that everyone's had a minute and half to see the trailer, can I just say...

KLINGONS! Klingons that look like historical Klingons (not whatever Discovery did in Season 1)...

View attachment 181852

The brow-ridges and some elements of the clothing still hearken back to Discovery's design for them, but they've also let the noses and mouths be normal, as well as giving them the Neville Page normal flesh-toned skin, which was what really changed the Klingon design in Disco.

 

[Jason_V]

The brow-ridges and some elements of the clothing still hearken back to Discovery's design for them, but they've also let the noses and mouths be normal, as well as giving them the Neville Page normal flesh-toned skin, which was what really changed the Klingon design in Disco.

These look a whole heck of a lot more like what we’ve seen for nearly 60 years with the Klingons. There’s even the baldric some TOS Klingons and Worf wore.

The Disco Klingons shared the forehead ridges…that’s about it. No hair, skin color radically different, teeth, uniforms, ships…

I’m very happy to see this design.

 

[David Weicker]

These look a whole heck of a lot more like what we’ve seen for nearly 60 years with the Klingons. There’s even the baldric some TOS Klingons and Worf wore.

The Disco Klingons shared the forehead ridges…that’s about it. No hair, skin color radically different, teeth, uniforms, ships…

I’m very happy to see this design.

I assume you mean 40 years.
The long hair and ridges didn’t appear until the films in the 80s