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We recently ran a competition offering winners the chance to attend a special HD screening of Star Trek: The Next Generation on the big screen.
Twenty-five years after TNG made its television debut, a select audience got to see what no man had seen before (ahem) at a special showing of opening two-part episode ‘Encounter At Farpoint’ at the Prince Charles cinema on Sunday 4 November 2012.
With fully remastered visuals, the inaugural adventure of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his new crew has never looked so impressive.
With its use of the CG special effects, The Next Generation was a considerable step up, technologically, from its occasionally ropey-looking seminal ‘60s forebear.
Originally shot in 35mm, it was then edited on videotape, giving it an something of a washed-out drabness. But after being carefully remastered with some added effects, it now looks as the programme makers originally intended.
According to Trek fan Andrew Baker, you can tell the difference right from the early shots of the U.S.S. Enterprise soaring through space, only to be stopped in its tracks by dastardly intergalactic villain Q.
“I was a bit worried because the pilot is a little bit different to the rest of the series because it’s where they try out a few things,” he admits. “But it looks great! When the Starship Enterprise comes on the screen, I thought it looked really good. I was at school when it first came out and I remember buying the video before it was actually on TV. Just watching it now in the cinema was excellent as it looks so much better than it originally did 25 years ago.”
But it’s not just the big visuals and epic space-set stuff that benefits from the upgrade. Trekkie Ann Richardson noted. “I’ve got the all the boxsets at home but seeing it in HD on the big screen is fantastic,” she told SFX . “There are things that you just don’t notice when you watch the boxsets because it’s a lot clearer visually. You can notice things that you didn’t the first time around like the little yellow sparkles in the yellow of Data’s uniform.”
Guillaume Bouqueau was only familiar with Star Trek ’s big-screen outings but he was also won over by the HD transfer. “I’ve never seen any of the TV series before but I was amazed by the level of the image quality,” he says. “It was fascinating to see and, to be frank, I wasn’t expecting that on the big screen. It stands up to the movies!”
Star Trek: The Next Generation Series 1 will air in the UK on Syfy at 7pm Weeknights from 5 November 2012 on Sky 114 and Virgin Media 165.
