Star Trek

[andersonh1]

My wife bought me seasons 1 and 2 of TNG on blu-ray for Christmas. If you don't own the show, blu-ray is the way to go. The picture quality is outstanding, and I think some of the effects have been upgraded. I wish DS9 and Voyager would get the same treatment.

[Sparky Prime]

and I think some of the effects have been upgraded.

Yeah, Bernd Schneider has dedicated part of his website to point out various updates to the blu-ray release. Currently he's up to season 6.

[Shockwave]

I'd be surprised if DS9, VOY and Enterprise don't wind up getting the Blu-ray treatment at some point. In fact, I'm kinda surprised they haven't already. I do have the TOS Blu-rays, but I haven't watched them yet, although I think I might just to see if it's been upgraded as well.

[Sparky Prime]

although I think I might just to see if it's been upgraded as well.

It was. All of the space scenes for TOS were completely redone using CGI, along with some other effects.

[andersonh1]

I grew up watching TOS over and over in syndication, and while I have no problem with the old special effects, the CGI shots are a huge improvement, and the episodes with upgraded effects are now my preferred version.

and I think some of the effects have been upgraded.

Yeah, Bernd Schneider has dedicated part of his website to point out various updates to the blu-ray release. Currently he's up to season 6.

The visual tweaks are much more extensive than I realized. I'm sure a lot of the things they're doing, like correcting mirrored images or planets would have been done originally if they'd had the time. I'm sure the production schedule kept them under some tight deadlines.

[Sparky Prime]

So Discovery has jumped to the mirror universe... But they can't use the spore drive to get back home because Staments was overtaxed during a battle with the Klingons. Having accessed a databank from a mirror ship, they've found out about the Defiant and want to use it to figure out a way back. And they need to do it quickly as they're the only ship with a means to detect cloaked Klingon ships. All they've shown of the Defiant so far is just a wire frame, but it's clear that it has been redesigned. Which I guess makes some sense. Having been in the mirror universe for about 100 years at this point, it's likely they made modifications over the decades. Although it calls into question why all the Mirror Constitution class ships weren't designed the same way by the time Mirror Mirror happens given the ISS Enterprise is exactly the same as the USS Enterprise. Or why the Terran Empire has ships like the I.S.S. Shenzhou which is still exactly like is U.S.S. Shenzhou counterpart. Its technology should be much more advanced in the mirror universe thanks to what they should have learned from the Defiant.

[Shockwave]

So Discovery has jumped to the mirror universe... But they can't use the spore drive to get back home because Staments was overtaxed during a battle with the Klingons. Having accessed a databank from a mirror ship, they've found out about the Defiant and want to use it to figure out a way back. And they need to do it quickly as they're the only ship with a means to detect cloaked Klingon ships. All they've shown of the Defiant so far is just a wire frame, but it's clear that it has been redesigned. Which I guess makes some sense. Having been in the mirror universe for about 100 years at this point, it's likely they made modifications over the decades. Although it calls into question why all the Mirror Constitution class ships weren't designed the same way by the time Mirror Mirror happens given the ISS Enterprise is exactly the same as the USS Enterprise. Or why the Terran Empire has ships like the I.S.S. Shenzhou which is still exactly like is U.S.S. Shenzhou counterpart. Its technology should be much more advanced in the mirror universe thanks to what they should have learned from the Defiant.

I quit watching after the seventh episode because I just didn't care or like any of the characters. Or the story for that matter. Then they went to the Mirror universe. I'm a sucker for stories set there, so yeah, I'm back in, but I agree with everything you just said. And those are some pretty major plot holes to resolve. I wonder if that's where the story is going, towards trying to tie up those threads.

[Sparky Prime]

I quit watching after the seventh episode because I just didn't care or like any of the characters. Or the story for that matter. Then they went to the Mirror universe. I'm a sucker for stories set there, so yeah, I'm back in, but I agree with everything you just said. And those are some pretty major plot holes to resolve. I wonder if that's where the story is going, towards trying to tie up those threads.

I haven't been watching it myself I have to admit. I refuse to buy a subscription to CBS All Access for just one Star Trek series which I honestly think is the worst series. I've just been reading/watching reviews of the show to keep up to date on it. The mirror universe episodes have been some of the best to my understanding. I think it really helps that Johnathan Franks directed the first of them. But the story overall still sounds pretty weak. They've been having a lot of reveals with the first season getting close to the end, but no one has been surprised by any of it because it was made so obvious when these characters first appeared.

Oh, and humans from the Mirror universe are sensitive to bright lights, even though that was never a thing before.

[Shockwave]

I don't have the subscription either, but I have friends that do and they have apps through which I can watch it. So far, the Mirror Universe stories are the best, but there are still a lot of problems with the plot.

[andersonh1]

On a completely different note, I've been watching season one of TNG for the first time in years, and while some of the episodes are just as bad as I remember, or have some bad moments at least, there are some things I like quite a bit. There are some oddities as well, things that get dropped later on.

- everyone is genuinely amazed by the holodeck and the visuals it can create, which is refreshing to see. And when the holodeck malfunctions in The Big Goodbye, Picard notes that they're fixing the problem at the next starbase layover.
- Q says at one point that the Federation conquered the Klingons. In Heart of Glory when Worf meets two Klingon fugitives, the captain of the Klingon ship that is hunting them has a Federation insignia with Klingon writing, something I don't think we ever saw again.
- Armin Shimerman (Quark from DS9) is in the first Ferengi episode. Man, the Ferengi are awful in that one.
- Josh Clark (Joe Carey from Voyager) is in an episode, so one assumes Mr. Carey served on the Enterprise before he was on Voyager.
- similarly, Colm Meany shows up a couple of times at conn or as security, and he's clearly not O'Brien yet.
- Data isn't quite the Data we know... he's always puzzled by human behavior or imitating badly as a running gag in those early episodes. Picard is much more surly and unapproachable early on, and the fact that he's meant to be French comes up a number of times.
- I'm not sure how many chief engineers we go through. Quite a few.
- Dr. Crusher and Picard flirt a lot. Crusher is an underused character for most of the series, but she gets a lot to do in the first season.
- Tasha Yar is a character that deserved time to develop, and it's a shame they killed her off. She dies like a redshirt though, killed by the alien partway through an episode, as befits a security officer.
- the Riker smirk is already there. Man, that guy is smug.
- there are a LOT of all-powerful, mysterious aliens in the first half of season one when Roddenberry is running the show. Once he steps back a bit, things change somewhat.
- Wesley Crusher... everyone hated the boy who always saved the ship, but it's down to the writing. Wil Wheaton doesn't make the character particularly annoying, but there are a few too many episodes where the trained, professional, Starfleet explorer adults can't or won't see the danger, while the kid can. Datalore is a prime example.

All in all, early TNG is a show still finding its footing. It's very rough around the edges, but not without some quality here and there.