Tonight, I went to a screening event for the Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 Blu-ray. I went and paid my money, having already watched the entirety of a review copy of the set over the weekend. I went because I wondered how the crowd would react to the astounding jump up in quality on two of Season 1’s more visually impressive episodes: “Where No One Has Gone Before” and “Datalore” (aka an “If Only You Listened to Wesley Crusher” Double Feature).
The satellite-beamed image and sound quality did not remotely hold a candle to what I saw at home on my HDTV. The Blu-ray remastering is glorious, revelatory, and magnificent...but you wouldn’t know that from the theatrical screening.
Preceding the two episodes was a cut-down version of some of the new extras from the Blu-ray set, which touted the staggering amount of work that went into the restoration. There were “oohhs” and “aahhhs” throughout the crowd upon their seeing the re-done planet models. That’s because they were completely new effects, not because they looked as crystal clear as they do on the true HD Blu-rays. I was reminded to listen for the surround sound quality when CBS Digital’s chief sound guy came onscreen…but when the episodes played, there was no engagement of the surround speakers, just left-right stereo.
The breathtaking color gamut and nuanced contrast levels from the Blu-rays were also gone, in favor of what looked no better than SD-grade resolution. In “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, the stunning deep space visuals looked no better than most in the audience would have remembered them from the old 480i masters. There were no gasps or coos from the audience at these remarkable visuals, although there were plenty of laughs and knowing chuckles from the hardcore Trek enthusiasts around me, especially at the bit in “Where No One…” where a male Starfleet guy in one of those cheerleader skirts stops in his tracks.
Despite quality issues, it was great to hear an audience full of people reacting to a show that so many of us previously enjoyed only in our living rooms.
The video resolution was better in some places than others (same with the contrast), but that unevenness is exactly what kept bothering me the whole time. It never looked dead-on like the Blu-rays do. If they had simply burned Blu-ray assets and sent those to the loads of theaters doing the screening tonight, it would not have so badly represented the actual final product. There’s no way that the bitrate of a satellite feed could match the wide pipe of data you get from a dual-layer, 50GB Blu-ray.
The same issues persisted in “Datalore”, though interestingly, the quality improved a bit during the section of the three-part Disc 6 documentary they showed in-between episodes. Upon the appearance of the Crystaline Entity, there wasn’t a wave of delighted sounds, just some light murmuring along the lines of “huh, look at that”. In some close-up shots, the level of detail was much closer to what I saw at home, but it still was not quite “there” with regard to creases in skin or detail in fabrics. Everything looked too smooth all around. The biggest crowd reaction was a laugh at Wesley’s “I heard you know how to turn him on” line.
The underwhelming reaction to picture quality wasn’t just me, either. Various people I spoke to afterward made mention of how it looked “good but not…great”. Had it looked as great in that theater as I know it does on Blu-ray, there would have been loads of people lighting up their phones upon exit to order it before they got to the car.
I love the idea of people experiencing these remastered episodes in a communal setting. There’s nothing like discovering or re-discovering something like TNG with others around you, but the presentation provided tonight was an insult to the months upon months of work that the brilliant people at CBS Digital have done. I would hate for anyone in the audience tonight to have thought that it looked “OK, but not amazing” based on a flawed presentation that they paid good money to see.
The quality of the Blu-ray set (in an audiovisual sense) is nothing short of exceptional, and one of the most miraculous remastering jobs I’ve seen done. I don’t want these screenings to simply not happen for future season releases, but a less-than-ideal presentation defeats the purpose of enticing die-hard Trek fans into buying the Blu-ray sets. I loved the exclusive intros from the Okudas, one of which included the nugget that Mike Okuda very nearly played Data's creator, Dr. Soong. This could be a great ongoing thing.
The solution is simple: screen a physical asset, not a streaming one. Bring your best, or don’t bother. You do yourself more damage looking merely good enough when you could leave an audience in awe.
I wish that audience could have seen the startling yellow of Data’s eyes like I did over the last few days.
Maybe my experience was not typical, but knowing the equipment used for these events in most auditoriums nationwide, I doubt it was an outlier. The die-hard among us may not have even nothing or cared, and were planning to buy the set no matter what, with some buying their first Blu-ray player to watch it. For anyone, it's a great introduction to the format.
My full review is forthcoming.