[kevin]

I don't think strictly that's the best comp shot ever but...........

Due to financial constraints (OK, so I bought the complete BSG, Firefly and four seasons of Fringe on Blu Ray over the last few months and my Blu Ray budget is used up for a bit) I still haven't picked up Season 1 of TNG yet. With Christmas coming it's looking like January may be the earliest I can get it, but at least Season 2 would also be out by then.

[samwiseb]

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/item/s...k-tng-season-2

Review for the 2nd season BluRay set. It seems to acknowledge some of the issues I've described at the screening last Thursday. But in general sounds promising. Hopefully mine ships here soon.

[samwiseb]

http://trekmovie.com/2013/01/07/star...tion-in-april/

Linking this here since the TNG S3 set is what I consider to be the real news. However the more imminent ENT S1 set looks interesting as well.

[kevin]

I know that S4 can now be preordered in the UK and I finally was able to start getting back on track and I purchased S1 recently.

Gorgeous, just gorgeous looking (and it's a rerelease set with none of the issues of the original release) it's truly like watching it for the first time properly almost. The episodes themselves all wide ranging in quality (even though I do have a personal fondness for S1 more than many) but it's totally worth it.

[horatio]

TNG does indeed look far better than with the old smeared video look and while it remains my favourite series (this might sound strange from me) I find the pacing of the first two seasons pretty slow.
Of course they still have all of the old advantages, a stricter Picard, no soap opera crap, an empty universe and so on but just like when you watch TOS it takes some time to get used to the slow pacing if you have recently mainly watched post TNG or modern TV in general.

[kevin]

The one thing that is hilarious is the original 80's episode promo's attached to each episode. Utterly dated now but certainly interesting to see how they marketed the show early on.

There's no question at all that the pace of TV shows has gotten much faster but watching them I also remembered that when TNG began the average broadcast episode ran about 46/47 minutes for it. By the time VOY and ENT aired that had been cut to around 42 minutes. So you also have a good ten percent less time to tell the story in.

Sitcome are the same (in the Eighties and Nineties around 26 mins was normal, now it's sometimes barely 20-22 minutes). Less time for content forces plots and developments to be speeded up within episodes let alone across season runs. Only cable shows in the US can run longer because they don't need the ad revenue the same way Network does. Part of the reduced runtime is to get more adverts and money in.

So, yeah I'd agree that the episodes feel slower but that sometimes it allowed them then more character moments and time to more effectively detail out the plot. It's the same with the Trek and all movies. During the editing process it is always the character moments and plot elements that get cut to bring films down from their original cut to the final cut that hits theatres.

Which is why so many Director's and Extended cuts come out now I think.

[samwiseb]

Originally Posted by kevin

The one thing that is hilarious is the original 80's episode promo's attached to each episode. Utterly dated now but certainly interesting to see how they marketed the show early on.

You don't say; I seem to remember making fun of them a while back. Perhaps even in this thread. No TNG set would be complete without 'em.

I'm curious, did they used to run the same teasers in the UK? Seems like it would be an easily cost-effective enough thing for them to do.

[kevin]

From memory, no I think that BBC2 (the channel it was originally shown on in the UK) made their own promo's for the show. But that is a very dim and distant memory of scattered bits and pieces.

They deserve to be made fun of though. From the melodramatic voice overs and wording. But as ever, the fact that episodic trailer materials frequently focused on action moments, explosions and phaser shots was actually less of a surprise than the cheesy way in which they actually did it.

[samwiseb]

My all-time favorite TNG teaser was for 'The Best of Both Worlds pt1.'

I love, LOVE, the way Riker's line is modulated for the teaser. Not kidding. I don't know why, I just stuff like that.

I wish they had included the 'countdown' promos. Those are my very earliest memories of TNG, from the summer when I was still familiarizing myself with classic TOS. As I recall the title used to 'explode' onto the screen at the end of each promo (as I think it continued doing until almost halfway through S1 when re-runs started airing -- then somebody went back and inserted the newer '3D wipe' title effect on all of the 'next episode' promos to date).

[kevin]

That was funny. Very much indeed. How melodramatic can you be?

I think the explosion effects were on the early episodes and then at some point got replaces with that silver futuristic looking effect instead. I remember the 'Farpoint' main TNG ones ended the former way. Big explosion in space then the show's title appears over the explosion.