Side-by-side pics show why Star Trek TNG: Blu-Ray is worth it
The forthcoming release of Star Trek: The Next Generation on Blu-Ray really gets our nerd juices flowing, and some übernerds (we say that with respect and a little bit of jealousy) have gone through scene by scene and taken note of a bunch of the cool new stuff that you can see in the remastered episodes that you couldn't see before.
For example, did you know that there's a little shout-out to Star Wars hidden in one of the props in Encounter at Far Point? Yeah, neither did anyone else, but thanks to the magic of high-res Blu-Ray, we can see it now.
In the gallery below, check out some of the ways that TNG: Remastered will make your life infinitely better, from sleekier starships to prettier planets to aliener aliens. Yeah, some of these examples are only going to appeal to seriously hardcore Star Trek fans, but that describes more or less everyone who's ever been interested in anything cool, right?
The images and captions are provided by Jörg Hillebrand and Bernd Schneider of TrekCore and Ex Astris Scientia, and you can hit up the link below to see even more examples.
So, what do you think: improvement, or defilement?
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When Q appears we can see a small graphic on a viewscreen on the right, but it can't be identified. Thanks to the new HD transfer the graphic can be seen much better now. It seems to depict a star cluster or a similar stellar phenomenon.
The Enterprise has red collectors now. Also note that the "bars" in TNG-R have a rectangular cross-section and a stronger glow.
The saucer separation was filmed with the 6ft model. The details are much better recognizable in TNG-R.
The drug dispenser is labeled "Army R2D3PO-D" which is a reference to the two Star Wars droids R2-D2 and C-3PO.
Deneb IV will later appear as Vulcan in TNG: "Sarek," "Unification" and "Gambit." In TNG-R Deneb IV remains the same. Vulcan is likely going to be changed.
In the original version of the episode, a freeze frame of the forest is used, so there is no movement in the background shot at all when Riker enters the holographic forest. In the remastered episode, the water in the stream in the background is running and the leaves of the plants are moving.
The planet surface was greatly improved in TNG-R, although it is arguably still the very same shot of the studio model. We can see even better now that it is not the same as the one in Zorn's office.
The window in Zorn's office (non)surprisingly spells "Zorn." TNG-R reveals that the actual outlines of the emblem are not pink, but more like yellow.
The shot was recreated exactly for the remastered episode. Only the flashing ventral position light of the U.S.S. Hood (seen on the DVD screenshot) is completely missing in the remastered shot.
The energy beam emerges from a spot on the ventral side right in front of the captain's yacht. It is doubtful that there is an emitter in the place. When the scene was recreated for TNG-R, the origin of the beam was moved to the phaser strip.
