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EXCLUSIVE: TNG Remastered – Season 3 Blu-ray HD Preview Stills

Blu-ray (TNG)

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March 25, 2013

EXCLUSIVE: TNG Remastered – Season 3 Blu-ray HD Preview Stills

Almost 18 months after first reporting on this remarkable project, I continue to be transfixed by the unprecedented remastering of Star Trek: The Next Generation still underway in Los Angeles by CBS Digital. Arguably the finest year of the show, Season Three of Next Gen Remastered is scheduled to hit Blu-ray in just over one month’s time. Our friends at CBS/Paramount have just sent us a tantalizing array of brand new HD preview stills from the Season 3 set for TrekCore’s readers to marvel at.

The collection showcases a variety of live action and visual effects shots from a number of different episodes, including “Who Watches the Watchers?“, “The Survivors” and “Déjà Q“. As usual, we have a full breakdown of the new shots, side-by-side comparisons with the SD DVD and extended analysis on the remastering.

Original SD (DVD)	Remastered HD (Blu-Ray)

The energy tendrils from the weapon are reproduced exactly as they were seen in the original version of “The Ensigns of Command“. This episode looks particularly great after the remastering, with shots in the Tau Cygna V colony courtyard taking on a rich and sumptuous color lost in standard def.


This shot of the Husnock ship from “The Survivors” has been tweaked slightly to give the huge ship more appropriately sized shielding, corrected for perspective. The Enterprise is beautifully lit and bathed in a nice amount of shadow which makes the launch of the photon look even more impressive.


A really nice outdoor shot from one of my favorite episodes, “The Survivors“. The color is far better here, compared to the washed out original print in standard def. Worf’s makeup looks great, as does the detail on the early Season 3 uniform variant (notice the seams in the woolen fabric).


Mintaka III from “Who Watches the Watchers?” has been stunningly recreated by Max Gabl at CBS Digital and is beyond breathtaking. Max has faithfully reproduced the shape of the continents visible in the original episode but with a wondrous new realism thanks to more realistic relief and the lingering haze of an atmosphere. This is gorgeous work, and VERY welcome after the mostly lackluster planets we saw from HTV in Season 2.


The Koinonian homeworld from “The Bonding” has again been recreated by Max Gabl. The planet goes from being an indistinguishable blob to a rich textured world with a more convincingly colored atmosphere and wispy clouds. The ship itself is perfectly composited into the shot and takes on a subtle brown tone from the planet. This shot is worth comparing to this still from Season 2’s “Loud as Whisper”.


This shot from “The Hunted” takes place directly after a transporter visual effects shot. As shots like this were added at video resolution, there are distracting scan lines present in the SD. Thankfully after remastering, the shot is perfectly clear with a nice amount of grain (no DNR, thank you CBS Digital!) and some cool details are now visible in signs on the wall and furniture around the away team.


Shots like this from “Déjà Q” really benefit from the high definition treatment as previously blurred-out details in Data’s positronic skull are visible in the remastered episode. Accurate colors show off the iridescence of the fabric under Data very nicely!


WOW. Just when I think Max’s planets can’t get any better after Mintaka, he goes and gives us this stunning recreation of Bre’el IV from “Déjà Q“. Now, it’s true that it would be hard not to improve the terribly blurred original shot, but Max’s new render is in a totally different league. We need to start ranking his planets, because this one is sure to come out in the Top 5. The original element for Bre’el IV’s moon has been used here and looks surprisingly convincing up-close.


The mother of all beauty shots from this season (“Déjà Q“). I’ve commented before how this is one of my favorite shots of the Enterprise-D, and it simply takes my breath away in HD. The lighting on the ship is perfect, Max’s gold-standard Bre’el IV render is gorgeous and the whole thing looks like a piece of art that should be printed out on canvas and framed. This is going to look terrific in motion.


A glimpse of Counselor Troi’s third season outfit in HD from “Captain’s Holiday“.


TNG’s vivid palette comes bouncing off the screen after the original film has been scanned and color timed. Shots like this from “Ménage à Troi” make the show look like it was filmed last week, not 25 years ago.


This shot from “Transfigurations” had an actor sporting a body stocking which was then used as a matte for the glowing effect. SD and HD are night and day here. I still can’t get over how good this season looks – the colors of the uniforms are so vivid that they virtually pop off the screen at you. I continue to find it remarkable that this richness of color and picture was always there, hidden under the haze of standard def video. Season 3 can’t come soon enough!

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Three is released in a six-disc Blu-ray set in just over a month’s time. The set is loaded to the brim with awesome new special features created just for the Blu-rays, including a captivating reunion of Next Gen writers Brannon Braga, René Echevarria, Ron Moore and Naren Shankar (hosted by Seth MacFarlane); the continuation of the documentary to end all documentaries with “Resistance is Futile”; a brand new gag reel, new audio commentaries, a tribute to Michael Piller and a few special surprises thrown in for good luck!

If you haven’t preordered the set already, what are you waiting for!? Head over to Amazon with the links below and lock in your copy… it’s going to blow you away!

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Enterprise Season 2 Blu-Ray Trailer

TrekCore Archives

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March 25, 2013

34

As the Enterprise NX-01 prepares to depart orbital dry-dock tomorrow with the release of Star Trek: Enterprise Season One on Blu-ray, we’re taking a special look at the trailer for Season Two which is included on the first disc of the new set (along with the trailer to the much-anticipated release of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “The Best of Both Worlds” on Blu-Ray.)

We’re presenting the video here in full high-definition (don’t forget to choose 1080p if you’re watching on YouTube) with download options below at varying resolutions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VCN6wdjn-8
Download: 480p (43 MB) • 720p (105 MB) • 1080p (262 MB)

The trailer highlights some of the more celebrated episodes from the second season including the Borg-themed “Regeneration” (which we recently discussed in our exclusive interview with Brannon Braga) as well as “Future Tense“, “First Flight” and “Carbon Creek“. The set will feature the continuation of the newly created documentary series produced by Roger Lay, Jr. and the trailer has a few brief clips from Roger’s interviews with Scott Bakula, Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating.

As an introduction, “They are the pioneers of a new frontier” sets the tone beautifully for Enterprise‘s second season and manages to induce a decent amount of excitement for this show which, for me, has been missing for a long time. These new Star Trek Blu-ray trailers continue to be very well composed and serve as great pieces to whet the appetite in the time between releases.

We’ll be posting a more detailed analysis of the trailer in the coming weeks as well as a rundown of everything we know so far about this release. In the meantime, be sure to secure your order for Season One using the links below!

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EXCLUSIVE: Brannon Braga: The London STAR TREK Interview (Part 2)

TrekCore Archives

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March 24, 2013

22

Interviewed by Adam Walker and Chris Wales for TrekCore.com

During our coverage of the huge Destination London Star Trek convention last year, TrekCore organized an impromptu sit-down interview with well known Star Trek writer/producer Brannon Braga. Brannon has written more episodes of Star Trek than anyone else (over 100) and worked his way up from staff writer on The Next Generation to be executive producer of Star Trek Voyager and Enterprise, which he co-created with Rick Berman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgO2HqZOPk4

TrekCore: What were the things on Enterprise that you really wanted to do in the fifth season? The biggest tragedy is when it got cut short. Where were you going to take it?

Brannon Braga: Well, Manny Coto had taken over the reins of Enterprise at that point, I was doing some other show for CBS, we were going to continue on with the Mirror Universe, in a major way, I think the Cold War thing would have continued, but Manny Coto, who’s a great guy to interview, he had some big plans for the Mirror Universe.

The Mirror Universe episodes were very successful. The Mirror Universe of the movie First Contact where Zephram Cochrane blows away the Vulcan with a shotgun? I mean, when I saw that, it was like, “This should just be a whole season!” There were some pretty big things we discussed.

TrekCore: I know there’s a large body of work on Voyager and Enterprise where we see the writers credited as ‘Brannon Braga and Rick Berman’. When did that partnership develop between you guys? What was Rick’s input; what was yours?

Brannon Braga: Rick was involved with the writing of every episode. He gave incredibly detailed notes on every episode, so his hand as the ultimate executive producer of the show, for better or worse, depending on who you talk to – I think for the better, there were ideas that he’s not credited with, that would make episodes. It would just make them.

I don’t know why we decided to write the pilot of Enterprise together, the first time we wrote together. We were working out the story; beating out the story, scene by scene, and one of us just said, “We’re practically writing this together. Let’s do it!” We had a great time, here’s how it worked: we’d come up with the story, lay it out, and they we would sit in a room together. I would type, he’d sit on the couch, and we’d just write the episode.

TrekCore: At the end of Enterprise, I remember, I think, twice actually, a fan campaign to get the show on the air, to keep the show on the air, or something. Were you aware of that? Did you think it had any legs behind it? Was it always a done deal?

Brannon Braga: I was aware of the fan campaign to keep Enterprise alive, because I drove past it every morning on my way to work. I don’t think it had a chance. I think the network had decided what it wanted to do, and there was even a fan campaign to raise money. You know, Enterprise cost millions of dollars an episode, and I think they raised $30,000 or something. It was a noble effort, but there was no way the fans were going to save it.

The best thing the fans could do, for those reading this, the best possible thing the fans could do is, if they want to see another season of Enterprise, is watch it on Netflix.

TrekCore: Watch it on Netflix?

Brannon Braga: My neighbor produces Arrested Development, and they’re making a new season of Arrested Development. I recall him telling me that it’s because for that show, they know they’re gonna get… they have data! They know a certain number of people are going to watch that show. I’ve heard rumors in town that the CBS show Jericho might get another season, because the numbers on Netflix are big!

Watch Enterprise!

TrekCore: Brannon, I will go home and watch it five times through, but are you saying – and I know you can’t commit – if everybody was watching it on Netflx, there’s a chance the actors would get back involved?

Brannon Braga: I don’t work at Netflix, but all I can tell you is, based on what I’ve seen, if a show is real popular, they take notice. It’s a business model… I would love to see another season of Enterprise. Whether or not you could get the whole cast, I don’t know. But this cast is young, vibrant… I see them here, a lot of the cast is here at this convention, and I miss these guys.

It wasn’t too long ago… it would be fun to do something. Even if it was just a two-hour special.

TrekCore: Just a couple of hours?

Brannon Braga: Yeah. I think that people would check it out.

Brannon Braga says the main problem with the Borg on Star Trek is that they kept getting their asses kicked and that they were perhaps brought back a few times too often.

TrekCore: You’ve addressed one of the things have “against you”, time travel. The other one is the Borg. A lot of fans say that “Braga de-fanged the Borg” in Voyager by making them less of a threat. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think there’s anything behind that, or were they the same as they were in The Next Generation?

Brannon Braga: I think that, for the most part, the Borg were a very successful villain on Voyager. I don’t think they were… They were “de-fanged” only in so much as they kept getting their asses kicked! Once the Borg lose enough times… which is why in this comic book that I’m going, I have them win. At least, from the beginning, they finally achieve their goals.

That’s the danger when you keep bringing them back. I think we brought them back, maybe, twice too many. There were a couple Borg episodes I don’t think were quite as successful. I don’t remember the finale well enough… I think I have a story credit on it, so you’d think I’d remember it. I don’t know that the Borg were super impactful there.

I think Seven of Nine should have bit the dust. I think there had to be a real sacrifice for this crew getting home; a real blood sacrifice. Seven of Nine was, for me, designed to be a character that was gonna die tragically. I planned that.

TrekCore: A Spock moment. Somebody who’s not human, becomes human by making the ultimate sacrifice.

Brannon Braga: Right. There’s an episode called “Human Error” that I wrote in the final season, where she experiments on the holodeck – it’s actually quite an interesting episode – she tries to feel emotions. She actually succeeds, and she almost dies. She learns there’s a Borg implant, that if she becomes too human, it will kill her. It was that moment in my mind that would set up the finale, where she realized she can’t live here, can’t live there…

She dies getting her family home. I think, then, you have a finale.

TrekCore: I actually think “Regeneration” from Enterprise was one of the high points. It brought a sense of menace to the Borg, because of course they didn’t know what we know. It was like a horror film: they didn’t see the danger, and we did. How much input did you have on that?

Brannon Braga: Now you’re talking Enterprise. I was VERY hesitant to do Borg on Enterprise, unless we had exactly the right story. Mike Sussman and I wrote that episode. That was an homage to “The Thing”, to John Carpenter’s “The Thing”.

We find a Borg in ice, whether it was literally in ice, I can’t remember. But it’s melting, and we know as an audience that it’s going to come alive, and they have no clue what they’ve found. It was “The Thing”. If you recall, you don’t even see the Enterprise crew at first. It’s these other characters on this planet.

Is it Earth?

TrekCore: Yes.

Brannon Braga: I totally agree. “Regeneration” worked great. I thought it had a clever ending, it had a great musical score, by a guy named Brian Tyler who I would end up hiring on ‘Terra Nova’ and he does a lot of movies. I thought it was great, yeah.

TrekCore: It brought it full circle, didn’t it? It ended up kicking up the events that led, ultimately, to The Next Generation.

Brannon Braga: The Borg became aware of us. It was cool.

Brannon Braga has high praise for the appearance of the Borg in the Enterprise episode “Regeneration“. He describes how he was originally extremely hesitant to use them in the series.

TrekCore: ’24’. Jack Bauer, an iconic character. You got onto that, it must have been a writer’s dream. Which were the favorite bits you contributed to ’24”s final season?

Brannon Braga: Well, I only did the last two seasons of ’24’, seasons seven and eight. It was, for some reason, a seamless transition for me. I could have written ’24’ for the rest of my career.

I loved ’24’… I loved the show, I loved doing the show. It was… it felt a little like Star Trek in some ways. The dialogue’s kind of timeless. It’s indistinct. It’s hard to describe. It’s almost a science fiction show, because time’s being compressed unnaturally. A lot of my time travel instincts were helpful in depicting events in ‘real time’ that were preposterous.

CTU was kind of like the bridge of the Enterprise, man! People are sitting at consoles, talkin’ technobabble… really, we made that shit up. It was not based on anything. When Chloe’s doing the webcams and streetcams and doing triangulating this… it’s bullshit! None of this exists. We didn’t have a technical advisor.

My favorite moments… I mean, I enjoyed bring back Tony Almeida, the Tony Almeida character. There’s a great line of dialogue I remember Manny and I did, where Jack says to Tony, “I’ll kill you again, and you’ll stay dead this time!”

TrekCore: I remember that!

Brannon Braga: It was a blast. It was an honor to be a part of a final season of something again.

TrekCore: Just one last one, if I may. These conventions… this one is huge. I don’t know how they can say there’s no room for Star Trek on the air when this many people have come. What do they mean to you? Why do you come, what do you get from them?

Brannon Braga: Well, I came to this convention because I needed a vacation. (Laughs) I enjoy London, and because when I remember my last London Star Trek experience, which was eighteen years ago with two hundred people. I just remember that the English fans being particularly passionate about Star Trek.

The English and the Germans really like Star Trek. I just thought it would be… it’s a big convention, I knew Kate Mulgrew was going to be here, I hadn’t seen her in a long time. Behind the scenes, it’s a little reunion for us. It’s fun to interact with the fans. It’s interesting. I only do one American convention a year, I knew that there would be people from all over Europe here, and there were.

TrekCore: All over the world!

Brannon Braga: …and all over the world. So this is very unique in that regard. It’s fun.

TrekCore: Mr. Braga, you’re a gentleman and a talent.

TrekCore: Thank you very much for your time.

Brannon Braga: Sure thing. My pleasure.

Go to Part: 1 2

Our special thanks to Brannon Braga for his time. Feel free to leave your comments below and watch out for the first season of Star Trek Enterprise on Blu-ray which features extensive interviews with Braga alongside a unique one hour conversation piece he recorded with Enterprise co-creator Rick Berman.

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EXCLUSIVE: Brannon Braga: The London STAR TREK Interview

TrekCore Archives

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March 19, 2013

25

Interviewed by Adam Walker and Chris Wales for TrekCore.com

During our coverage of the huge Destination London Star Trek convention last year, TrekCore organized an impromptu sit-down interview with well known Star Trek writer/producer Brannon Braga. Brannon has written more episodes of Star Trek than anyone else (over 100) and worked his way up from staff writer on The Next Generation to be executive producer of Star Trek Voyager and Enterprise, which he co-created with Rick Berman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfw19h4n78M

TrekCore: How did you get the gig on The Next Generation?

Brannon Braga: It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. I had just finished school at UC Santa Cruz, and I got an internship through the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; that’s the organization that puts on the Emmy Awards and is kind of the keeper of all things television in Los Angeles, kind of like the Academy is to the Academy Awards.

They have a superb internship program and I got one in there, screenwriting. And they sent me on to… there were two screenwriting internships that year. One went to some sitcom that lasted for about six episodes, and one was on a show called Star Trek: The Next Generation.

My counterpart intern went this way, I went this way, and I got the luck of the draw and ended up on Next Gen at a time of transition, where Michael Piller was running the show, and Ron Moore was the only writer he had on staff. It was a quiet place! Piller was writing “Best of Both Worlds, Part II“, that’s the time when I came in and I did my internship and never left. And I remained there for seventeen years.

TrekCore: Writing for Star Trek: The Next Generation is, obviously, something you have to get used with time and experience. Were you familiar with The Next Generation before you came on board?

Brannon Braga: My experience with Star Trek was limited. In school – in grade school, middle school, and high school – there were the fantasy…the Dungeons and Dragons guys; there were the Star Trek dudes; and there were the horror guys. I was part of the Stephen King set. Fantasy and sci-fi… I would end up getting into sci-fi big time once I hit college when I really started reading hard science fiction novels, and just went crazy for the genre. But I was more into Twilight Zone and horror, and the Star Trek guys were going to conventions – primordial conventions – and reading things like “Spock Lives!” in paperback.

I didn’t get it. It wasn’t my bag. I didn’t get into Star Trek until I watched The Next Generation when it first came out. I was one of those people who said, “You know what? Maybe, because I can get in on the ground floor for something I’ll try this Star Trek out.” And it wasn’t my bag again. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about The Next Generation. By the way, this is a story I think a lot of people will tell.

I didn’t quite get it; I wasn’t sure about Data, an android named Data, are you kidding me? It just seemed childish even to me, at age twenty-one. Then, a couple years went by. So I didn’t really… I watched the first episode with those aliens with the sticks… it just was like, “This isn’t good.” It confirmed my reservations about Star Trek.

But a couple years later, I was in college at UC Santa Cruz, and someone said, “You need to watch The Next Generation. It’s good.” And I suspect that was not an uncommon experience. And they were right. I started watching the show, and it was a stark difference. The writing was so good.

I can’t remember the first episode I actually watched… It was a Geordi episode, with Worf – he’s supposed to give part of his blood or something to a Romulan, and he refused. The guy dies, and Picard is pissed off… I’m like, “This is good stuff!” This was not like the Next Gen I first watched.

And then, when I got the internship on Next Generation, I was into it. I was into Next Gen. That was a long answer.

Brannon Braga describes how it was TNG‘s third season episode “The Enemy” which hooked him into the Star Trek universe.

TrekCore: So, you were obviously prepared to write for it at that stage?

Brannon Braga: I was not prepared to write for it.

TrekCore: But you were into it?

Brannon Braga: I was into it; I knew the characters.

TrekCore: You’ve confessed that a lot of people see you as somewhat of a ‘hack’ with certain topics, like time travel or the Borg. There are these rabid fans who somehow got this opinion about you. But in The Next Generation, certainly, these topics produced amazing episodes. There was “All Good Things…“, “Cause and Effect” – these fantastic episodes. Why do you think that some fans seem to accept those episodes, but not other episodes which you’re still equally proud of, from, say, Voyager or Enterprise?

Brannon Braga: I did some great… we broke new ground on Next Generation, from a storytelling perspective. I mean, the stuff that we did, structurally – like with “Cause and Effect” – was so new that viewers were calling the TV stations thinking something was wrong with the broadcast. That, nowadays, is completely different. People accept that kind of storytelling as part of our vernacular.

It was wild. It was like the Wild West back then. We were breaking a lot of rules, and I think… some unpleasant fans I’ve read, will go online and say, “If you really work at Braga’s early work, that sucks too.” I kid you not. So there’s some revisionist people. Anyway, who knows – they may be right, I haven’t seen those episodes in so long.

TrekCore: No, trust me – they’re still good, Brannon.

Brannon Braga: I think some of the stuff we did on Voyager was even more sophisticated from a storytelling point of view. You know, “All Good Things…” was just the beginning for me, I was just getting going. I wasn’t done! I really got into the stuff on Voyager. I honestly look at some of these Voyager episodes that I’m enormously proud of, like “Timeless“, the hundredth episode of Voyager.

That’s a time travel episode; it’s relatively simple, but it’s filled with striking imagery and character moments. The image of a frozen ship is just perfect…

TrekCore: The opening shot before the credits where it pans up…

Brannon Braga: Yeah. If that had been a Next Generation episode, it would be a classic. It would be ‘one of the good ones.’ I think a lot of it has to do with the crew. A lot of it has to do with it just being a different show, or maybe just being around too long. I stand by the body of work on Voyager as much as I do – if not moreso than The Next Generation.

Brannon Braga cites Voyager‘s 100th episode “Timeless” as one of his crowning achievements from the show and suggests that had it been a TNG episode it would have been a “classic”.

TrekCore: Well, “Timeless” was brilliant. The emotional impact of hearing Janeway’s last log; just filled with, actually, the kind of same moments that the new film had, the emotional resonance of that first scene with Kirk. I mean, you’re still writing time travel stories – you mention you’re doing a comic. What do you think it is that time travel, emotionally or intellectually, brings to a story that makes it something you keep writing and going back to? You must feel very passionate about it.

Brannon Braga: I was never interested in time travel in terms of it’s mechanics. It’s mechanics can be a bit of a headache. It’s emotion. You can get… you can put a character through an emotional trial and take them to places to you can’t otherwise. I look at “All Good Things…” which was a very ambitious piece of time travel, but if you really look at it it’s… if it was a novel, or even… if you took the time travel out, it could just be a story that happened to take place in the beginning, middle, and end of someone’s life. And I’m sure novels like that have been written; stories like that have been written.

If you simply say, “This isn’t literal; this is just the way we’re telling the story”, you think to yourself, “Well, what’s the big deal?” It’s not until you literalize it that you take it to the next level, and you say the person is experiencing this. Then it becomes emotional, times ten. Does that make any sense at all?

TrekCore: Yeah, I think so. I think once you moved on from The Next Generation to Voyager, there was some fans who went the Deep Space Nine way, some fans went the Voyager way. What are your feelings about Deep Space Nine? I don’t think I’ve ever heard your thoughts on the series. Have you seen it all?

Brannon Braga: Of course I’ve seen Deep Space Nine. I was very aware of Deep Space Nine. The writers worked in the same building. We saw each other every day. There was some cross-pollination; I wrote a couple of Deep Space Nine scenes with Bashir, in an episode called “Birthright” in The Next Generation.

So I actually… the only character I’ve ever written for DS9 was Bashir. But Ron and I, you have to remember, Ron Moore and I were working very closely on the movies at that time, so he always knew what I was doing, and I always knew what he was doing. He was always writing a Deep Space Nine script, and I was always writing a Voyager script. We talked all the time; we cross-pollinated I thought Deep Space Nine was terrific. Again, I will say there are episodes of that show like “The Visitor” that are considered classics, but, for some reason, aren’t necessarily spoken in the same breath as some of the Next Generation‘s. But that’s because it was a newer thing.

TrekCore: Do you think that Deep Space Nine, in a way, enjoyed more liberty being in syndication, whereas Voyager was confined to this network so you had the network bosses dictating a large amount of what you can and cannot do?

Brannon Braga: I don’t think Deep Space Nine benefited from being in syndication. I mean, I can’t say for sure, I would say Deep Space Nine benefited more from being third. Being the third series, and there it was… but then Voyager came along, and it was almost like – it’s hard to describe. They started to experiment with serialized storytelling. Stuff that for some reason, they just got away with; that they were able to do, because they were… maybe they almost HAD to do something. They had to set themselves apart, somehow. I don’t know. I wasn’t in the writers room.

Personally, with Deep Space Nine, I don’t think Voyager should have come on the air so quickly. I think Deep Space Nine should have been on its own for a while.

TrekCore: Do think it was pushed out too fast?

Brannon Braga: I think it was, for want of better words, I think they were just kind of laying low and doing their thing, those Deep Space Nine guys. They quietly built an amazing television show. In some ways, I suspect, maybe Rick Berman was more focused on other things, and they just were able take bigger risks than we were.

Go to Part: 1 2

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Review: Star Trek: Enterprise Season 1 Blu-Ray

TrekCore Archives

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March 16, 2013

46

Review: Star Trek: Enterprise Season 1 Blu-Ray

Star Trek: Enterprise Season 1
Release Date: March 26, 2013
Blu-ray Disc • 6 Discs
CBS Home Entertainment

It’s been over ten years since Enterprise first graced our screens and the show still manages to polarize fan opinion. Enterprise‘s supporters are unwavering in their efforts to defend and promote the show, while its critics remain staunchly entrenched with the view that poor writing and a lack of imagination led – ultimately – to the demise of Star Trek on television. This newly issued Blu-ray release of Season One examines both sides of the argument from a historical perspective and sets about re-evaluating the show in a fascinating new light.

Enterprise tries hard to represent a departure from the Star Trek shows that have gone before. The new crew are untested and unsure, the ship is more like a nuclear submarine than a luxury cruiser and the galaxy feels huge, intimidating and unexplored. That feeling of pioneering exploration lasts all of three episodes and then sadly the show seems to descend into a very familiar formulaic presentation that makes it feel like a continuation from predecessor Star Trek: Voyager. There are certainly stand-out episodes: “Dear Doctor” is terrific, and represents the perfect morality play which Star Trek does so well. “Shuttlepod One” is one of those bottle-shows done on a shoestring budget which pushes all the right buttons, laying bare the souls of Tucker and Reed and allowing us to connect with the characters on a different level.

As Brannon Braga laments in the new Bonus Features for the set (reviewed below), “I wish they’d all been Dear Doctors”. Sadly, the majority of the first season still manages to fade into forgetful obscurity with episodes like “Oasis“, “Rogue Planet“, “Acquisition“, “Civilization” and “Fortunate Son” reminding me exactly why the show failed to ignite my excitement back when it aired ten years ago. Does this make the first season a write-off? Certainly not – there’s enough to keep Star Trek fans interested here, just don’t expect a shiny new HD transfer to improve episodes which were terrible when they originally aired. They’re still terrible, folks!

Picture Quality

CBS took the decision to issue Star Trek: Enterprise on Blu-ray as the show was already prepped and ready to go in high definition – unlike Star Trek: The Next Generation which is currently being remastered from the ground up using the original camera negatives.

Enterprise’s Blu-ray transfer is certainly a step-up from the DVD release. Live-action shots possess far more clarity than you’ll have seen before – previously unseen textures of costumes and small intricate details on props and the sets are visible for the first time. The sets designed by Herman Zimmerman and his team hold up fantastically well, and I was left with a renewed appreciation for his work when watching the episodes in HD.

The opening titles to Enterprise are especially striking in HD. Despite the packaging labeling of “Star Trek Enterprise”, the show title remains simply “Enterprise” as it was originally aired during Seasons 1 and 2.

Black levels are close to perfect with episodes such as “Rogue Planet” benefiting the best from the improved Blu-ray resolution. This was always problematic on DVD releases – blacks would be crushed and smudged producing an incoherent mess, especially as the camera pans across a shot. The new HD transfer is thankfully free of these problems, allowing us to appreciate for the first time layers of subtle shadow previously hidden.

As I’ve discussed in previous articles, CG and VFX sequences for the first three seasons of Enterprise were rendered at 720p resolution during the show’s production (CORRECTION: It seems most VFX shots were actually produced at 480p resolution, with shots only being rendered at 720p/1080p if the visual effects team thought aliasing issues were too severe). Rather than re-render these shots at full 1080p (which would have proved prohibitively expensive for CBS due to the reduced market for Enterprise) the shots have been up-scaled. The results seem to be very much dependent on the (admittedly variable) quality of the CG that was produced back in 2001-2002 rather than any upscaling algorithms CBS may have used.

A number of upscaled shots suffer from noticeable aliasing with the smooth lines on the hull of the Enterprise being particularly vulnerable to exhibiting jagged artifacts when the ship is in motion. These are somewhat distracting when you see them for the first few times, but I found myself being less and less bothered by them as I moved through the season. It’s not a huge problem, just a somewhat annoying side-effect of up-converting the original lower resolution CG sequences.

This shot from “Cold Front” is a good example of the aliasing you can see as a result of the upscaled CG. The enlarged section is displayed at 1080p resolution.

Perhaps more distracting to me was the drop in image quality when a shot involves blue-screen work. These shots have also been upconverted and result in a somewhat blurred look to the presentation which contrasts with the crisp, sharp 1080p image that you become accustomed to seeing. Again, this was unavoidable with any upscaling project and it’s worth emphasizing that these shots still fare better than they did when the show was released on DVD.

The upscaled presentation manages to provide a number of surprises through the season with many shots coming out with a stunning level of quality and detail that I would have thought impossible given the source material. Shots such as the ones showing the IKS Somraw in “Sleeping Dogs“, Starfleet Headquarters in “Shadows of P’Jem” and the Valakian City in “Dear Doctor” look stunning in HD and bring forth some wonderful detail previously hidden at standard def resolution.


The IKS Somraw from “Sleeping Dogs” – some really nice textures visible on the model after the upscaling.	The Valakian City digital matte from “Dear Doctor” looks stunning in HD. No aliasing evident and lines are sharp with a nice natural grain visible.

Finally, I must mention the apparent color correction applied to the episodes for the HD conversion. Episodes have taken on a slight magenta/purple cast which has resulted in some rather noticeable palette changes. I’ve posted a couple of shots to highlight this difference below. At present, I’ve been unable to ascertain the reason behind this shift in color but I’m looking into it and will update the review with more information when I have it.


The color of the HD transfer seems to have been given a purple/magenta hue, so scenes such as this shot of Risa in “Two Days and Two Nights” have been rather dramatically altered.

Bonus Material

I would find it somewhat difficult to justify an upgrade to Blu-ray at the price CBS is asking for this set if it wasn’t for the masses of extra bonus content commissioned specially for this release. TNG Blu-ray VAM gurus Roger Lay, Jr. and Robert Meyer Burnett were once again drafted to produce a raft of documentaries and special features chronicling the troubled inception of Enterprise.

Enterprise had already been given a pretty lavish helping of bonus features when it was released on DVD back in 2005 with numerous documentaries, deleted scenes, outtakes and even a commentary or two. Thankfully all of that material has been ported over to the Blu-rays so you can rest assured that you’re not losing any content from the previous release.

The main body of the new content comes in the form of Roger Lay, Jr.’s three-part 90 minute documentary “To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise”.

“Countdown” details the rocky road the producers and creative staff had to traverse to develop the show and get their concept approved. Show producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga are brutally candid about Enterprise‘s troubled inception, with Berman recalling how he “begged” the studio to wait after Voyager and Braga evoking memories of being daunted and exhausted during the first season. Braga is especially engaging as he shares some wonderful memories of developing the show, revealing that Season 1 was originally going to be set entirely on Earth! You can’t help but laugh at the end as Braga finally ‘fesses up to finding the theme song “embarrassingly bad”, a thread which will be picked up in the “In Conversation” piece later on.

Brannon Braga speaks openly about feeling daunted and exhausted during Enterprise’s first season and also hints at his original idea for a temporal cold war.

“Boarding the NX-01” introduces us to the main cast – or at least some of them. Due to the tight deadlines imposed by CBS on this release, Roger Lay, Jr. was unable to interview the entire principal cast in time so those hoping to see Jolene Blalock, John Billingsley, Anthony Montgomery or Linda Park will be left waiting for Season 2. Still, there are some nice stories to be told as Dominic Keating recalls overhearing Billingsley’s hilarious “squawking bird” audition and Connor Trinneer remembers fearing he would be fired by Rick Berman after stealing a couple of bottles of booze from a studio function.

Herman Zimmerman guides us through the construction of the sets for the NX-01 and talks about the intention of making the ship more like a nuclear submarine than a luxury cruiseliner.

“First Flight” is easily my favorite part. The creative struggles that faced the show are finally illuminated in a far more honest light than we’ve ever seen before. Even lead actor Scott Bakula admits that the writers were exhausted during the inaugural season. Brannon Braga is a delight to watch here as he says what many fans have thought for a long time, and takes responsibility for what didn’t work. I couldn’t help but empathize with Braga as he laments that none of the writers lasted through the first season and how he was forced into frantic rewrites of most of the shows that season. Having him literally go through a list of episodes was a stroke of genius, and produces hilarious results as he writes off shows such as “Terra Nova” as “terrible, f**king terrible” and “Aquisition” with “There was no excuse for the Ferengi. It was an act of desperation.”

Video Village behind the NX-01 bridge set controlled all the LCD monitors on the bridge. There’s a nice story from Denise Okuda about how nothing worked hours before the pilot was scheduled to start shooting.

“On the Set” is a fascinating documentary giving a detailed account of the work involved in producing an episode of Enterprise. Film-maker Barry Kibrick spent a week on the Paramount lot during the production of the episode “Vox Sola“. What follows is a revealing look at the challenges of producing a full episode of Star Trek, from story-breaking through to filming and post-production CG work and scoring. There are some really nice insights here, and I was particularly impressed by Roxann Dawson whose professionalism and motivation is clearly apparent in her role directing the episode. There are some wonderful one-liners thrown in here from the unlikeliest of people as Rick Berman muses how “it’s very difficult to make a pile of goo the bad guy” and Roxann Dawson qualifies the challenges of “directing alien linguine”. Great fun!

On the Set takes an intimate look at the daily troubles faced by the cast and crew when filming Enterprise and focuses particularly on Roxann Dawson’s role as the director of “Vox Sola“.

“In Conversation” for me, is the pièce de résistance from this set. Producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga sit down together for a full hour to address some of the more contentious issues which fandom has debated for years. The piece starts off innocuously enough with the two discussing the ideas behind Enterprise and the cast, but quickly heats up as Braga turns to Berman and asks “Do you realize Rick, that some fans say we killed the franchise?” What follows is a fascinating insight into studio and network politics and the daily obstacles the producers had to overcome to keep Star Trek going. Rick Berman’s story about the unnamed network executive’s failure to understand what is meant by the ship’s hull is hilarious, but also poignant as he recalls realizing that they were fighting a losing battle to keep Star Trek on the air. There are some real shockers thrown in as it’s revealed that Brent Spiner refused to do Star Trek: Nemesis unless Data died at the end and William Shatner pitched a two-part Kirk episode of Enterprise but wanted an “obscene” amount of money to do it.

“In Conversation” is a killer piece which originated from an idea by Robert Meyer Burnett that he used previously for the 2003 DVD release of “Valley Girl”. It works exceptionally well on this set and I can only hope that the team organize a follow up of some form in the future. It’s a totally captivating watch and managed to leave me with a renewed appreciation for both Berman and Braga.

The candid In Conversation piece between Rick Berman and Brannon Braga covers some notably hot-button issues such as network interference, allegations of “killing” the franchise and dealing with demands from actors.

Audio Commentaries: The set sports a total of four new audio commentaries on the key episodes of the season –

“Broken Bow” with Brannon Braga, director James L. Conway, visual effects producer Dan Curry and cast members Connor Trinneer (Trip Tucker) and Dominic Keating (Malcolm Reed)
“Silent Enemy” with writer/story editor André Bormanis and visual effects producer Dan Curry
“Shadows of P’Jem” with writers/executive story editors Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong
“Shuttlepod One” with Brannon Braga, director David Livingston and cast members Connor Trinneer (Trip Tucker) and Dominic Keating (Malcolm Reed)

Admittedly I haven’t had chance to listen to the commentaries yet, but judging by the people involved it sounds like they’re going to make for fascinating listening, especially the new “Broken Bow” commentary.

Additional New Material: While the team were unable to locate the original episode trailers for the set, there are some very cool promotional presentations which I hadn’t seen before, including:

Cast Introduction – Rick Berman introduces fans to the new cast during the filming of “Broken Bow”
Network Presentation – A three minute presentation chronicling the different incarnations of Star Trek and introducing Enterprise
Syndication Presentation – A blood-pumping seven minute presentation which is easily the best of the three. Features some of the most memorable scenes from Star Trek: Enterprise and the earlier shows in a wonderful montage.

Again I must give kudos to Lay, Jr. and Burnett for putting together a great package of bonus features at short notice. The material clearly benefits from the close involvement of the show’s co-creator Brannon Braga and will undoubtedly change many fans’ opinion about Enterprise.

The Bottom Line

Despite some of the limitations I’ve discussed relating to picture quality and the somewhat hefty price-tag for this set, it deserves recommendation based purely on the unprecedented candor on display in the new bonus features. The VAM makes this set, and it really is fascinating to watch. “In Conversation” is sure to challenge many fans’ preconceptions about Berman & Braga, or at the very least give them new ammunition to lay fresh criticism at their feet.

Written by Adam Walker, March 16 2013

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EXCLUSIVE: Enterprise Season 2 Blu-Rays – Cover Art Revealed

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March 14, 2013

20

EXCLUSIVE: Enterprise Season 2 Blu-Rays – Cover Art Revealed

As Enterprise prepares to launch from drydock with the release of Star Trek: Enterprise – Season 1 on Blu-Ray in a couple of weeks, we’ve got an exclusive look at the cover art for the second season set which will hit shelves later this year. The artwork is shown in a brand new trailer promoting the second season which will be included on Disc 1 of Season 1 along with the trailer for TNG‘s “The Best of Both Worlds” which we’ve already profiled.

Season 2 carries on with the same background motif used in the first season set, this time in blue. All seven primary cast are shown in a publicity shot taken for the show’s first season. You can view a larger version by clicking on the art below.

The original publicity shot that the art is taken from is shown below. The designers opted for the Season 1 cast publicity shot over the Season 2 variant (we’ve shown it below for comparison). Be sure to let us know what you think about the choice in the comments at the bottom of this page!


Cast publicity photos from Enterprise‘s first (left) and second (right) seasons.

Please bear in mind – as ever – that the artwork is provisional and subject to change between now and release-date. We’ve got pre-order links below for the first season of Enterprise which is drawing ever closer and we’ll have a full review of that set very shortly!

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Enterprise S1 Blu-Rays: Amazing Packaging & Disc Menu Images!

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March 13, 2013

29

Fans of Star Trek: Enterprise are on countdown for the release of the show’s inaugural season on Blu-Ray in little under two weeks time. TrekCore’s review copy arrived today and we’re thrilled with both the packaging and unique Blu-Ray menu system the team have put together for this release.

Packaging

When we first revealed the cover art choice selected by CBS, a number of fans were somewhat disappointed in the decision to go with a generic ‘flat’ stock image for the release. However, when I set my eyes on the set this afternoon I was delighted to see that the slipcase design sports a stylish and sleek shiny embossed metallic finish which brings a whole new dimensionality to that image. It’s somewhat hard to capture the effect on camera, but I’ve snapped a few shots which you can see below

The set follows the same design standard as the new Blu-Ray season sets for Star Trek: The Next Generation Remastered. Slide off the slipcase and you have a 6-Disc Case which is the thickness of a normal Blu-Ray:

The discs themselves sport the now-standard plain blue coloring with no artwork. The set guide is visible behind the discs with a full breakdown of the contents for each disc with some beautiful new artwork of the Enterprise NX-01 docked beside the Kreetassan ship from the first season episode “Vox Sola“:

Menus

The menus presented in this set are some of the best I’ve ever seen designed for a Star Trek Blu-Ray or DVD release. They feature a three-dimensional styled NX-01 computer system with hints of the holographic time stream graphics from “Cold Front” and the opening title credits to the show. It’s an incredibly cool design which has to be seen in motion to appreciate how much work has gone into it. In the meantime, here are some stunning stills from the sequence:

Watch out for our full length review of the set coming soon in addition to a comparative analysis of Enterprise’s HD transfer in relation to the original SD DVD print. Enterprise Season 1 comes bursting at the seams with new bonus features including a brand new three-part documentary profiling the launch of the show, a candid conversation piece between executive producers Brannon Braga and Rick Berman, a never-before-seen all access documentary detailing the making of an episode and of course a slew of audio commentaries and the original DVD bonus features!

The set is release in just under two weeks time, so make sure you’re ready by pre-ordering your copy at Amazon using the links below!

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Extended Print of THE WOUNDED Appears Online

TrekCore Staff

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March 9, 2013

35

Extended Print of THE WOUNDED Appears Online

We were all extremely excited to see the newly-restored, extended edition of “The Measure of a Man” on the Next Generation Season Two Blu-ray set back in December, and now, another never-before-seen extended cut of a Next Generation episode has appeared online!

Last night, Cyril Paciullo – a Canadian poster who goes by the name of “Patchou” on the social site Reddit (and elsewhere online) – revealed a long-lost VHS copy of “The Wounded“, the Season Four episode introducing the Cardassians to the Star Trek universe. Paciullo acquired several similar TNG episodes – a total of nine tapes – at the 2010 Propworx Star Trek auction, all of which contain unfinished, preliminary cuts which are missing visual effects, music, and other post-production material.

The other episodes he acquired are:

From Season Two: “The Child” and “Where Silence Has Lease“
From Season Three: “Evolution“, “The Bonding“, “The Hunted“, and “Sins of the Father“
From Season Four: “Brothers” and “Devil’s Due“

The tape containing “The Wounded” is labeled “Peter’s Cut – 11/26/90” – referring to TNG co-producer Peter Lauritson, and is dated during the time of the episode’s production – and contains an extended version of the episode which runs approximately three minutes longer than the final broadcast version.

Workprint vs. Finished Episode




In this early cut, all the live-action monitor shots exist as separate elements…





…and none of the visual effects that complement the final episode appear.

Paciullo has already made the entire episode available to view online at his website (linked above); we haven’t embedded that video here due to uncertain copyright issues which may apply. We’ve been provided a copy of the original VHS transfer, so we’re happy to share an exclusive cut-down package highlighting the four most prominent deleted scenes, in proper context with the finished episode!

TrekCore has already connected Cyril with CBS – unfortunately, this discovery apparently comes too late to allow any of the material to be included on the Season 3 Blu-ray set. For Season 4 however, we’re hopeful that CBS will be able to include some of the deleted material in the original rough-cut VHS form as a standalone bonus feature (similar to the deleted scenes from “The Icarus Factor” and “Up the Long Ladder” in Season 2). Any restoration of the same ilk as “The Measure of a Man” seems somewhat unlikely given time constraints and the limited amount of new material.

Check back with us soon as we will continue to follow this developing story!

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The Novel Review: “Devil’s Bargain”

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March 6, 2013

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Star Trek: The Original Series – Devil’s Bargain
Tony Daniel
Published by Simon and Schuster • Paperback
320 Pages

2013 is certainly shaping up to be the year of the Original Series for Star Trek novel releases. After last month’s Allegiance in Exile, March brings us the second TOS release this year in the form of Devil’s Bargain, penned by newbie Star Trek author Tony Daniel. After so many grand sweeping multi-book series being published over the last few years, it’s nice to take a breather and immerse yourself in a standalone adventure from the original 5-year mission of Captain Kirk and his crew.

Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are sent to evacuate the Federation mining colony Vesbius, a frontier settlement that is on the brink of an extinction-level event, threatening the lives of all the colonists and the disruption of ore production vital to Starfleet. However, the colonists refuse to abandon this settlement, not wanting to leave their claims. It is after these irrational decisions that Spock suggests that perhaps an unexpected ally could aid the colony and help complete the mission….

Devil’s Bargain draws on elements from some of the most memorable episodes of the Original Series including “Space Seed” and “The Devil in the Dark” to weave together an interesting enough story about the seemingly doomed inhabitants of Vesbius. Any talk of evacuation is quickly silenced when it’s revealed that the Vesbians have significantly altered their genetic code to the point where they are dependent on the planet to sustain them. There are shades of the Ba’ku’s plight in Star Trek: Insurrection and the stubborn colonists of Tau Cygna V in TNG’s “The Ensigns of Command” here, even down to the obligatory love interest for Captain Kirk (read: Anij or Ard’rian McKenzie) raising the stakes even further.

Tony Daniel manages to reproduce the classic Trek feeling without falling into the trap of making things too clichéd along the way. The characters come across as being true to the personalities we are so familiar with: Bones is deliciously irascible as ever and Spock holds up the tenets of logic unwaveringly.

Many fans will delight at the prospect of revisiting one of the Original Series‘ most popular species – the silicon based Horta. This time Kirk needs the assistance of the Horta in breaking up the menacing asteroid with their unique ability to slice through solid rock. Like any good Star Trek episode, the novel is peppered with tales of morality focusing primarily on bigotry and xenophobia/racism. A collection of the Vesbian colonists hold on to the view that their genetic modification makes them superior, in a similar fashion to the attitudes of Khan Noonien Singh and his Botany Bay followers from classic Trek‘s “Space Seed”.

Devil’s Bargain nicely combines the necessary morality play with a healthy dose of nostalgia and drama. Tony Daniel is plainly an author who is familiar with Classic Trek and his first outing in the novel-verse more than satisfies the demands of this reader.

Review: Star Trek Game – A First Look + Gameplay Video

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March 4, 2013

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Review: Star Trek Game – A First Look + Gameplay Video

After three years in development, Paramount mean to show they mean business with the latest Trek game release.

“We’ve been trying to put something back into Star Trek games that has been absent for the last… well, in recent decades,” said Brian Miller, Senior Vice President of Paramount Pictures.

I felt a slight sting – every now and then I just can’t help but dust off Birth of the Federation for one more go; I spent the wee hours of many mornings rampaging through Elite Force, and I not only worked out how to crack the controls for Starfleet Command, but even actually enjoyed it at one point. And yet I concede that next to their contemporaries, Trek games have been marginally good and briefly blipped on the wider gaming community’s radar at the very best; in some cases (Starship Creator. What were they thinking?), abysmal. Thus far, having Star Trek in a game title is as good an indicator of “mediocre” as making a movie tie-in game. And here Paramount’s big cheese was, proudly announcing he’d done both. What could possibly go wrong?

As it turns out, we’ve yet to find anywhere it has; and we’ve looked hard. Brian Miller took to the stage on Tuesday to address a press gathering and proudly pitch them Star Trek, the upcoming video game from Namco Bandai due to hit the shelves in late April. Miller’s passion and reverence for Star Trek, coupled with his insider’s take on the gaming industry, actually sounded pretty convincingly like the team behind this latest foray into gaming Trek might actually have finally cracked it.

The graphics are top-notch: the Enterprise crew look, sound and move so spookily close to how they do in the film, that you could easily forget you weren’t watching the latest cinematic installment. Gone are the Elite Force days where Janeway’s head was an unconvincing elongated dodecahedron – these characters move with seeming weight, fluidity and little idiosyncracies so closely matching the actors, you know it’s got to have been a motion-capture job.

Speaking of the actors – every main member of the Enterprise crew from the 2009 film has reprised their role for this game; with Simon Pegg even being given the same licence to ad-lib his lines as he did in the first movie. The cinematic sequences show off the work done to replicate the look and feel of the new Star Trek universe at its best – choices of camera angles and panning of shots in particular has clearly been set up to give you that sense of déja vu, sprinkled liberally throughout but wisely intermixed with different shots to give a sense of continuity and evolution at the same time.

The characters’ on-screen chemistry even shines through – hard to achieve, when actors are pre-recording lines – cute, witty asides occur as much during actual gameplay as they do in cutscenes. “Hey Spock, I like this one!” exclaims Chris Pine’s Kirk, checking out shapely female Vulcan scientist T’Mar after having grumbled about Vulcans. “There are few that you do not like, Captain”, deadpans Zachary Quinto’s Spock. Hearing the curmudgeonly Dr McCoy grumble about “endless fencing stories” over the comm while stuck on a shuttle with Mr Sulu raised as many sniggers from the assembled press as it did knowing looks from the Trekkies. Tip to gamers hunting for easter eggs: try and sit in the Captain’s chair as each character.

The acting and the cinematics merely set the scene for the gameplay though – and again, there’s enough there to delight Trek fans and gamers alike. Despite taking the form of a third-person shooter, Star Trek afficionados can take heart that the game offers far more than this. “Star Trek was never just about running and shooting,” observes Miller. “and there are a lot puzzles, discovery and adventure in the game to honour that.” Player choose whether to play as Kirk or Spock at the outset, and then the game really is about the two of them from start to finish, with either the AI or a local co-op buddy controlling the other character.

It’s this duality of two different but complementing personalities that powers the game – a “bro-op” rather than a co-op, as one developer put it. Kirk’s gameplay style is predictably more brash: slightly more impressive weaponry, and a greater chance of getting stuck in tight corners when his bold gambles lead to trouble. His main weapon is a custom phaser that models an old Wild West six-shooter revolver (it looks a lot better than it sounds); whereas Spock packs a slightly less impressive weapon but makes it up with stealth moves, neck pinches and mind melds.

The game cleverly interweaves their two skill-sets and viewpoints together, requiring frequent collaboration but giving you plenty of scope in-between to run off on your own and Just Shoot Things (TM). A particularly well-developed set of game mechanics revolves around Kirk injuring his leg and having to hold out against charging enemies until Spock arrives; the Spock player then needs to guide the immobile Kirk to safety while the Kirk player lays down covering fire, and then tend to Kirk’s leg while Kirk buys time with has phaser. Other parts are optional but pretty cool – a stun effect that only partially works from Kirk’s phaser was brought to a smart conclusion by Spock in one game we watched, in which the latter had quietly snuck around the back of the offending alien to administer a neck pinch, just as it was weakened by the stun. Much like their rampage through Nero’s ship in the first move, you realise this is a dynamic duo not to be tangled with – and the game is all the more fun for that dynamic.

Many sub-games are built-in to fix alien equipment, suppress onboard fires and the like; these and more regular puzzles keep the game interesting, but this is wisely complimented by a diverse set of levels with ever-changing hazards that keep it feeling genuinely fresh, rather than just changing the scenery. A vast array of approximately 25 diverse weapons, each with different firing modes also helps keep the game feeling as though it is offering you genuinely new things – some of the Gorn weapons in particular were good fun to play with.

We’ve put together an exclusive video in full 1080p HD showing some excerpts of gameplay footage to give you a better idea of the game’s performance and look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apri7n9GheU

Miller was at pains to point out that movie tie-ins get a bad reputation for a reason; he lays the blame at the door of studios looking to get a bit of easy brand-promotion on a tight-schedule that fits the film. “They get nine, maybe twelve months at best,” he said, “but we took three years on this – that’s how serious we were about it.” He went on to note that every department involved in the two films – the art directors, the costumers, the writers, the actors, even Industrial Light and Magic had a helping hand in the game – and Academy Award-winner Michael Giacchino came in and wrote over two hours of new cues that have a distinctly authentic sound to them. “That’s unheard of”, Miller stated proudly.

Which is how the Gorn come into this. We didn’t quite get to the bottom of how the famous sluggish guy in the rubber suit transmorphed into the lightning-fast dragon-like antagonists of the game (even Nero would struggle to take credit for that), but as befits a game that has benefited from such strong input from the film’s writers and creators, an extensive and intriguing backstory covers not only their origins (like Voyager’s Species 8472, it turns out they’re not from these parts) but their social hierarchy, motives and the presence of fifteen different ranks and types of Gorn, including female Gorn. As antagonists, they’re adaptive and wily – hiding behind scenery, playing dead, and making suicidal charges when cornered.

Meantime, for those who were aching to find out what happened to Star Trek’s beloved pointy-eared logicians, the Vulcans, a good chunk of the story is set on “New Vulcan”, showing how the race has tried to move on from the near-extinction they suffered in the 2009 Star Trek film. Things of course are never quite so simple – the Gorn manage to gatecrash the party and the sort of desperation and extremes a group of genocide survivors can resort to also fold in to round out the story.

Miller was keen to cite influences – Mass Effect, Uncharted, Dead Space and Arkham in particular as games that had something of note to learn from. What struck us about the game was that although it didn’t do anything in its genre that was particularly new and groundbreaking, it is easily a best-of-breed entry in current gaming – enough that it actually looks like a plausible mass-seller. And yet one thing does set this game apart, and give it a unique selling point – and irony of all ironies, it’s the Star Trek label.

If you’re going to pick this up, pick it up because it’s a damned good game AND because the two lead characters are Kirk and Spock. The game doesn’t need to establish characters or investment in them because they already have almost fifty years of history to them already; instead, it wisely plays on two of Star Trek’s strongest character assets. You’ll buy this because it’s cool to play as Kirk and Spock, because the banter and the bond and the teamwork is enjoyable in and of itself, and because that “bromance” is something you and your fellow local co-op player subconsciously enjoy leaping into the parts of.

The final word: Miller and his team at Paramount, together with Namco Bandai, actually look like they’ve nailed this one – no mean feat for a Star Trek game and a movie-tie in. Excellent smooth graphics, innovative puzzles and imaginative levels, witty banter and character relationships, and movie-quality production values make this a title you want to put in your PC, XBox or PS3 collection.

Other things we learned:

The story will have a single storyline rather than branching – “we wanted to tell one good story”, says Miller.
Single-player, local co-op and network play modes all feature.
The plot involves the Enterprise being drawn into defending New Vulcan from a Gorn assault, the latter having arrived through a tear in space caused by the Vulcan themselves – and like “red matter”, the technical gubbins involved (“The Helios device”) is an in-demand piece of kit.
Players will get to spend quality time on the Enterprise, exploring the Bridge, Engineering and the Main Shuttlebay – all faithfully recreated from the movie sets.
Bonus objectives include getting through levels using stun setting only, and feature a variety of shooting, puzzle-solving and stealth to win the day.
Plenty of nod to Trek fans – the Gorn, Sulu’s fencing, shuttlecraft Galileo and references to the previous film all came up.

Make sure you lock-in your pre-order for the new Star Trek game with your platform of choice below:

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Picture Quality

Bonus Material

The Bottom Line

Packaging

Menus

Workprint vs. Finished Episode