Star Trek: The Next Generation is finally headed for Blu-ray Disc release, according to an official announcement from CBS Entertainment. The 178 episodes of the Star Trek series spanning from ’87 – ’94 (a total of 7 seasons) will release sequentially throughout 2012, starting with a “sampler” on January 12 which will include several popular episodes. The Blu-ray sampler, pictured above, will be called Star Trek: The Next Generation — The Next Level, and include the pilot episode “Encounter at Farpoint,” as well episodes “Sins of the Father” and “The Inner Light.”
What took so long for ‘Next Gen’ to get a high-definition transfer? Executive VP/GM of CBS Entertainment reveals that “Transferring the series to high-definition presented difficult technical challenges, but our team has come up with a process to create true 1080p HD masters with true HD visual effects.”
For the Blu-ray and digital releases of ‘The Next Generation’ series, CBS will use the original film negatives spanning over 25,000 reels of footage to recut all the episodes exactly the way they were originally presented. That fresh film will get a high-def digital transfer with sound upgraded to 7.1 DTS Master Audio.
Star Trek: The Next Generation — The Next Level on Blu-ray Disc will retail for $21.99.
I’m sure there are some people still buying them, but I’ve never added ANY of these series’ to my collection because they’re priced so far out of the normal range – $60 for a single season?! I’d love to have these, but I just can’t see why they want so much for so little.