Star Trek: The Next Generation is one of the very few shows that I would personally fork over a bunch of money to own in HD on Blu-ray, as soon as they get around to it. There’s just one problem with my awesome plan: an HD conversion of the TNG episodes simply can’t be done.
The issue with converting TNG to high def is that while all of the actors were filmed at a quality that’s just dandy for HD, all of the editing and post-production work, which includes every single special effect, was done on standard definition video. This means that there is no higher definition source for much of the TNG material, and the only way to create an HD version of the series is to go back and completely re-do every single freakin’ special effect by hand.
And that’s what Paramount is going to do.
Some guy named LeVar Burton swung by CBS a few days ago to check out how the remastering was going, and according to Twitter, he was “#mindblown.” The first HD release is going to be a Blu-ray sampler disc that includes both parts of “Encounter at Farpoint” (meh), “Sins of the Father” (not bad), and “Inner Light” (WOOT!). Look for a release sometime before the end of this year, which means that you all know exactly what to get me for my birthday.
