Well, I wrote up the news about Farscape coming to Blu-ray a few hours ago, so why not continue the good news parade? For a while now the eagle eyes over at The Digital Bits have been tracking rumors and whispers that a Blu-ray release of Star Trek: The Next Generation might be in the works, or at least at the discussion stage. Now The Bits has a somewhat more definitive word from Comic-Con. In their “My Two Cents” column last week, they had this to say:
Multiple sources I spoke with at Comic-Con have also confirmed our report from earlier this year that CBS is hard at work on Star Trek: The Next Generation -- Remastered for Blu-ray release starting sometime in 2012. The latest word is that 4 test episodes are currently being worked on for release as a sampler/demo BD disc of the project, and that sampler disc will somehow be available to fans by the end of this year. Watch for additional news in the months ahead.
Exciting news, and the idea of a “demo disc” makes sense, because this would be a pretty massive project. As the wizened minds over at TVShowsOnDVD point out, Next Gen was “shot on film but finished on video,” which means all those snazzy special effects and space battles only exist in standard definition and would have to be redone for any potential Blu-ray release. This is the same problem that confronted the high-def release of Star Trek: The Original Series (not to mention any future Blu-ray plans for shows such as Babylon 5).
The good news is that the TOS Blu-rays were a solid success, so they’ve proven there may be a market for a remastered Next Gen. The even better news is that supposedly the upgrade could be partly funded by the cash CBS/Paramount got for licensing all the Trek series to Netflix’s streaming service. The best news is that, if this does go forward, we’ll be seeing Next Gen better than it’s ever looked before.
What do you guys think? Would you spring to buy (or re-buy) Next Generation on Blu-ray? Sound off over on the TV Blend Facebook page!
