Since the first Star Trek movie Blu-ray releases in 2009, the same ten discs have been released over and over in different packages. The classic Trek films in one set, the Next Generation movies in another; all ten films in one box, every movie separately… even various combinations of two and three films together.
After yet another set of reissued 2009 discs were announced for February, we thought that Paramount had decided once again to ignore the original ten films, leaving the hopes of a sorely-needed remastering project in the dust. Even with the news that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was being revisited for 4K UHD, the fate of the other nine movies was left hanging… until today.
Bill Hunt of The Digital Bits is now reporting that Paramount is not only getting The Wrath of Khan ready for a 4K-quality Blu-ray remaster (in both the theatrical and director’s cuts) — though a UHD 4K disc release is still up the air — but aside from the JJ Abrams films, and a few planned combo packs featuring possible new content, none of the other nine original films are getting new transfers. That means that for everything else, the 2009 Blu-rays are the best we’ll see for the foreseeable future.
It’s an extremely disappointing report to hear, with the nature of the picture quality on the rest of the earlier films — but rest assured we’ll be bringing you all the information we can on the Wrath of Khan remaster once it becomes available.
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