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‘What We Left Behind’ Review: Deep Space Nine Returning in Style

Deep Space Nine occupies a special place in the  Star Trek  pantheon. While it never achieved the mass popularity of its predecessor,  The Next Generation ,  DS9 still ran for seven seasons, earned awards, and helped launch Voyager . But there was always something different about the show, something many fans never quite took to. It was darker, both in subject matter and visual style. And the crew was not exploring the stars, but rather operating on what was essentially the 24th-century version of the wild west.

This uniqueness is why, 20 years later,  Deep Space Nine  is finally achieving a pipe dream the cast and crew may have had back in the day: a DS9  movie in theaters. But What We Left Behind isn’t any DS9  movie. It’s a celebration, a look back in time, and a memorial to the blood, sweat, tears, emotions, and memories hundreds of people left behind on the  Deep Space Nine  sound stages.

Occupying Terok Nor

It’s a project that’s years in the making, and one that, as the cast and crew of  Deep Space Nine  have told us , started as simply a conversation about their time on the show. But interest in a DS9  retrospective quickly snowballed to include the cast and crew you see in the doc, as well as testimonies from fans – the driving force of any TV show – about DS9 ‘s value. Dozens of cast and crew members are in What We Left Behind, with the very notable exception of Avery Brooks – Captain Sisko himself – who chose not to appear in the doc (most of his few scenes in What We Left Behind are taken from William Shatner’s The Captains documentary).

In any case, fans can’t ask for a much better list than this. Actors, producers, designers, network execs, and many more are accounted for. Indeed, the diversity of interviews is the doc’s biggest strength, and the number of testimonies really helps sell the familial bond these people share, and also helps paint the atmosphere of the show’s production.

Seeing the faces of our favorite characters is a refreshing change of pace – how often can you catch Star Trek  veterans professionally filmed talking about their work? And while individual interviews are always nice, having showrunner Ira Steven Behr function as an anchor throughout the whole thing lends the doc a persistent narrative.

Just the Way You Look Tonight

After a lovely DS9 -themed song sung by Max Grodénchik at the beginning of the doc, the screen fades to black. And suddenly, bam ! Fans are launched into part of the remastered battle scene from “Sacrifice of Angels.” It’s one hell  of a sequence.

The chance to see parts of DS9  remastered in high definition was always a selling point of the doc – and perhaps the most expensive part about it. It’s an upgrade The Next Generation  received in its entirety, so fans can already get a good sense of how clear and crisp Deep Space Nine  can look outside the show’s native resolution. Needless to say, seeing the station itself in more refined details (while filling the entire screen) is truly amazing. On the inside, thanks to its Cardassian nature, the station always had a fairly monochromatic look to it, which, when viewed in standard resolution, could look a bit muddy (especially on today’s larger, high-definition TVs). But that’s not a problem anymore.

We can only hope that if the doc makes enough money from its theater outing, and if home media sales are good, perhaps the powers-that-be will get the sense that DS9  is worthy of the full HD treatment? After seeing the 20 or so minutes of HD footage in the doc, how can we go back to watching low-res DS9 ?

The Adventure Continues…

Fans will likely see this doc and discover a renewed appreciation for  DS9 ‘s various well-written characters, and that begs the question: what happened to these characters after the events of the series finale? Some of the show’s writers endeavored to answer that very question. Ronald D. Moore, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Hans Beimler, and René Eschevierra are joined by Ira Steven Behr as they pitch a hypothetical season eight premiere, set 20 years after the series finale. The meeting is spread out throughout the doc as the writers break down each act of this mythical first episode – which actually turns out to be quite the interesting story pitch and a fascinating watch in its own right.

This feature (filmed in 2015) is a great idea to help pad out the doc’s running time while revisiting classic characters within the Star Trek  universe. Having a look into the writing and breaking process is a much appreciated, and rare, occurrence, and shows what’s arguably the most creative aspect of any TV show. And having this eighth season animated is a tantalizing tease for what an animated DS9 show could be. It’s virtually certain that there will never be a live-action follow-up to Deep Space Nine, but why not a canonical animated mini-series or graphic novel? And let’s put on our tinfoil hats here: season eight in What We Left Behind  takes place 20 years after the series finale, which  almost  lines up chronologically with the upcoming Picard show. Synergy!

Boldly Go, Boldly Gone

If you missed  What We Left Behind  in theaters, or if you didn’t back the project and therefore didn’t get an early look at the doc, you’re still in luck. It’s releasing on home media in August, which is a natural step for the project. What We Left Behind  will likely remain in  Star Trek  fandom as a time capsule, something fans can look on in the future and remember the journey the cast, crew, and fans embarked on Deep Space Nine  and in the years after.

This raises the idea: what if every  Star Trek  series had such an inclusive, emotional, funny, diverse, and profound documentary? It’s probably too late to do a What We Left Behind -esque doc for  The Original Series , but why not have a  TNG  doc in 2024 (30th anniversary of that show ending)? Or a Voyager doc on that show’s 20th anniversary of its end date (2021). Likewise with Enterprise (2025). Ira Steven Behr and company have shown what’s possible when time, care, and money are spent to properly pay tribute to amazing Star Trek work. In the process, they have given fans an unforgettable gift. If you are a Star Trek  fan, you are in for an excellent two hours.

Stray thoughts from beyond the Wormhole:

• Having Ira Steven Behr and Nana Visitor talk over the lengthy credit sequence at the end was a great idea. Most people wouldn’t be interested in who backed the project, but the duo gives fans a reason to keep watching to the very end.
• The sense of emotion is conveyed so well through this doc. The combination of DS9 footage, emotional actor testimonies, and an appropriate underlying score combine at times to really move the audience.
• Kudos to Ira for holding  DS9  accountable for the things it  didn’t  do. There’s one scene where Ira admits the show didn’t do enough to address sexual identity, pointing out (to likely the surprise of many) that Garak was in fact gay, but that the issue was never explored.
• It’s to the doc’s credit that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Case in point: the amusing musical numbers from Casey Biggs, Jeffrey Combs, Armin Shimerman, and Max Grodénchik.

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest Star Trek news. You can follow us on Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram .

Kyle Hadyniak has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and isn't ashamed to admit that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: Nemesis are his favorite Star Trek movies. You can follow Kyle on Twitter @khady93 .

Dusty Ayres

August 22, 2019 at 8:31 pm

We can only hope that if the doc makes enough money from its theater outing, and if home media sales are good, perhaps the powers-that-be will get the sense that DS9 is worthy of the full HD treatment? After seeing the 20 or so minutes of HD footage in the doc, how can we go back to watching low-res DS9?

Neither CBS or Paramount are going to commit to remastering all of DS9 on Blu-Ray or 4K simply because of (let’s be honest) modest returns from a documentary about it, especially after the low sales of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu-Ray that they worked so hard to remaster; these companies aren’t charities for fans.

Nice article. But to be honest, if I read the word, “doc” one more time Ima have to ask Scotty to beam me up. “Documentary” was never used and “doc” was used way too much. 🙂

OMG, who wants to remember anything with Bajorans in it. Cisco was a great captain, the Cardassians were well written, the graphic design fun; but the Bajorans! Do a remake if you promise to kill them all!

Kudos to Ira for holding DS9 accountable for the things it didn’t do. There’s one scene where Ira admits the show didn’t do enough to address sexual identity, pointing out (to likely the surprise of many) that Garak was in fact gay, but that the issue was never explored.

Why should he be criticized for something that he might not have been able to feature on the show?

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Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine: Why They Aren’t Being Remastered

by Regina Avalos, February 8, 2017

Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are two of the most popular Star Trek series, but fans will not likely see them remastered to HD like the original Star Trek , Enterprise , and Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Trek News asked Robert Meyer Burnett about the decision to not remaster Voyager and Deep Space Nine to HD. The answer was complicated, but it does involve the type of media used to film the episodes during production. Check out the link for his more detailed explanation.

What was the bottom line? Burnett said the following:

“A complicated question with a simple answer; It takes way too much time and money to remaster  DS9  and  Voyager  into HD.”

Would you want to see remastered versions of Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ? Tell us what you think.

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Please put these great series on bluray,I would definitely would buy them to add to my STAR TREK collection.

Absolutely. Voyager is totally worth it. So much creativity could be shown with that storyline!

Star Trek is an enduring series that has spanned over 50 years. That longevity alone is a reason that any opportunity to launch a new entity should definitely be done. They should also re-master any other extension of such a wonderful series. Don’t let the egg heads who make these decisions continue their stupidity and let another series like the original go by the boards.

I like the feel of the originals. I still rewatch them.

It is indeed a sad thing to know, but I don’t see myself buying and watching again these series even if is on HD. I work a lot and there is a lot of new tv shows around to catch up. So, I think I pass. But eventually if my three year old son I would like to see…

Say Whaaat?! If you can remaster TNG then you can certainly do DS9.. wasn’t much of a Voyager fan but still those fans, and us Ds9 fans deserve an HD remastered series… Besides as popular as those two shows are some consideration would be nice for the loyal following of the series

Given the popularity of Sci Fi these days, I think there are a lot of people, including me, would love to see these episodes remastered.

Of course, I want to see remastered versions of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. I’m dying to see them being remastered. Ok?

Well that… sucks.

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Available for preorder now, this set — billed as Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection, as we are expecting the later films to come in separate, follow-up sets — this new release will feature both improved picture quality with Dolby Vision mastering, along with an isolated score track for  The Motion Picture.   (This appears to be the only new bonus feature in the collection.)

The formal announcement:

For the first time ever, experience the original four Star Trek films in stunning 4K Ultra HD. Newly remastered from original elements for optimal picture quality, each film is presented with Dolby Vision® and HDR-10. This exceptional collection includes four Ultra HD discs, as well as four remastered Blu-ray discs with hours of previously released bonus content. Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (both the theatrical and director’s cut), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home are presented on both the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray Discs, along with access to digital copies of the theatrical version of each film. 

While all of the other bonus features on the set are carried over from the previous Blu-ray editions ( fully detailed at the StarTrek.com announcement ), the standard Blu-ray discs in this new collection appear to contain the newly-remastered picture — which is great for those of you who haven’t yet made the leap to 4K but are interested in the upgraded visuals on each film.

Each of the original four  Star Trek films will also be available individually on Blu-ray…  Newly remastered versions of  Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  (both the theatrical and director’s cut),  Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , and  Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home  are presented in high definition along with digital copies of the theatrical version of each film.

And good news, international fans — while this new collection arrives in the United States and Canada on September 7 , it’s not limited to North America!

The 4K  Star Trek film collection will make its way to the United Kingdom on September 6 , and then to France on September 8 , followed by Germany on September 9 . For those of you in other locations, no specific dates have been announced — but Paramount’s Blu-ray and 4K collections are typically region free so you may be able to import as needed.

As we mentioned above, this is the first four films only — and its quite likely that one follow-up set (featuring the six other films), or two follow-up sets (split between  V, VI, Generations and  First Contact / Insurrection / Nemesis ) will follow, however there’s no specific news on that front yet.

While we’ll take them all now, now, now! of course, this actually makes sense for a few reasons (if it occurs as we are speculating); it will be easier to ask fans to spend, say, $80 three times over a year, rather than one $300 price tag up front.

In addition, including one of the ‘premiere’  Trek films in each of our three hypothetical collections —  Wrath of Khan in the first one,  The Undiscovered Country in round two, and  First Contact in the third set — gives each collection a ‘draw’ for fans along the way.

The Digital Bits’ Bill Hunt also shared his insight into the situation on that site’s Facebook page:

For those wondering why this set only includes films 1-4, it’s because it takes time to remaster all these films and the studio is doing them in batches. You’ll get 4 on 9/7, and the others will follow next year. Besides, if Paramount released a 10-film 4K remastered box set first, people would b—- that it’s too expensive and they only wanted one or two of the films. The more of you who buy this first set now, the more comfortable Paramount will be in continuing to spend the money to release them all. Vote with your dollars and don’t get picky if you want them all. Fans who got picky with ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation – Remastered’ on Blu-ray essentially ensured that ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Remastered’ got cancelled.

The other question not yet answered: when will these remastered versions of the  Star Trek films land on streaming services? We know that the still-in-development  Director’s Edition of  The Motion Picture will arrive first as a Paramount+ exclusive, but there’s not yet any information on when we’ll see these other 4K editions outside of the Blu-ray format.

Fans in Europe have reported listings of  Star Trek: First Contact on the Rakuten streaming service in 4K UHD format, so it’s likely just a matter of time until the next round of  Star Trek films makes their way elsewhere.

While we wait for more information, you can preorder  Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection   today ahead of its September release.

We’ll continue to monitor this situation as things develop, so keep checking back to TrekCore for all the latest news!

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Early Star Trek: The Original Series remastering [ ]

While the current understanding of the Star Trek remastering projects concern the digital projects CBS Consumer Products embarked upon in the 2000s, essentially started by predecessor Viacom Consumer Products with the 2001 release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture  (The Director's Edition) , its predecessor, Paramount Marketing and Licensing Department, had already embarked upon an early Star Trek: The Original Series "proto-remastering" project in the early 1990s. Called "digitally mastered" (as indicated on the below-mentioned UK VHS box-art, and the "digitally" essentially referring to the computerized editing equipment instead of the films themselves) at the time, new, cleaned-up and color corrected, transfers were analogously (meaning that each individual film cell was separately photographed with a high resolution camera, instead of digitally scanned) produced from the old masters. The operation was especially commissioned for the 1992-1993 Japanese Original Series LaserDisc collection releases, Star Trek - Log 1 , Log 2 and Log 3 . Picture quality wise, it was the best edition commercially available until the advent of the 2007 TOS-R Season 1 HD DVD version, the earlier DVD versions still making use of the original masters. These Japanese transfers were used twice more, for the lesser known UK 1996-1998 VHS re-release , and the likewise UK 2007-2008 Star Trek: The Original Series - The Collector's Edition DVD/Magazine combo partwork release.

Though not seen by American audiences, the new transfers of the second season episode " The Trouble with Tribbles ", proved exceptionally useful three years later when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 's tribute episode, " Trials and Tribble-ations ", was in production, as studio model maker Gregory Jein , who had to recreate the Deep Space Station K-7 model , explained, " Fortunately, the clarity of detail revealed by the newly-transferred original footage of "The Trouble with Tribbles" proved useful. The art department sent over a drawing that they'd made of the station, Then we made some modifications based on color prints made from the original negative, which we felt were faithful to the original design. And we sort of winged it from there. Then we made molds and cast them, cut the windows out, and put neon inside. " ( The Magic of Tribbles: The Making of Trials and Tribble-ations , p. 42)

Little information is available on this project, as this version was never released on any home video format in America and only on an extremely limited basis in mainland Europe. It was disclosed in 2012 what eventually became of the Japanese master transfers, when it was revealed that stills originating from this particular project were the ones that were included as illustrative backdrops in the 2010 reference book , Star Trek: The Original Series 365 . The authors – unaware of the original intent and therefore misguided in their belief – have elaborated, " Most of those wonderful TOS photos that had never been seen before came from a very expensive project that the licensing department conducted many years ago. In order to find new images for the licensees, the department struck new 16-millimeter copies of the TOS masters – which were then carefully cut up, frame by frame, and mounted into slides. " [1]

Second early Original Series remastering [ ]

The first, 17 August 1999, "digitally enhanced and remastered" Original Series DVD release

When Paramount Home Entertainment started its release of the Original Series on DVD in August 1999 as the "bare-bone" two episodes per disc release , it had it proudly stated on the cover art that it was a "digitally enhanced and remastered" edition. Paramount's Project Manager for the DVD release, Ron Smith, stated to the press at the time, " We have dutifully cleaned up the opticals, which have become predictably dirty. And part of the endearing charm of the original series are the cool opticals. " However, he also intimated that his team did not use the analog Japanese transfers but rather revisited the old worn-out original 35mm film masters, cleaning and color correcting them up before digitally transferring them. Yet, despite his team's efforts, in the picture quality department their work was still inferior to the work done for the Japanese LaserDisc releases – especially where color vibrancy was concerned – as digital scanning techniques were at that time still somewhat in their infancy.

Nevertheless, a significant improvement was made in sound quality as a new Dolby Digital Surround Sound track was created for the release, and picture quality was markedly improved over the prior home media formats, including the US LaserDisc releases – having made use, unlike the Japanese version, of the original film masters. Smith additionally intimated that it was for this occasion that the original pilot episode, " The Cage ", was restored to its full color version. Only a hybrid black and white/color version had hitherto been available. [2] This however, was a "commercial exaggeration" on the part of Smith, as the full coloring of "The Cage" had already been completed for the 1989-1991 (low-res) Betamax/VHS and Laserdisc home media format releases.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director's Edition [ ]

In 2001, the aforementioned Director's Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released on DVD . While the production did not, strictly speaking, conform to the current understanding of remastering, i.e. the upgrade from SD to HD (as DVD the production was merely meant to be played on television sets and was therefore executed in the SD 480i/576i video format with picture quality enhanced by traditional analog methods instead of digital upgrading [3] ), it still was in essence a remastered production as it did receive a new, upgraded soundtrack. Most notably, however, was that many scenes were digitally enhanced and visually changed with the addition of computer-generated imagery (CGI). Striking examples of these were the enhanced air tram station as well as the first and only full view of V'Ger , which was not there in the original version.

Produced under the aegis of Robert Wise Productions , the CGI for this production was provided by VFX house Foundation Imaging and supervised by Daren Dochterman , while the soundtrack was remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 by Chuck Michael under the supervision of Michael Matessino at the production company. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 8 , pp. 52-62)

A remastered HD Blu-ray version of the Director's Edition was reported on 30 April 2013 for release. The announced release date proved to be premature though, as it turned out that Paramount had failed to maintain ownership over the CGI elements that were added to the Director's Edition . Former Foundation VFX Supervisor Adam Lebowitz has reported that all these elements were left on the company servers when they were auctioned off after the company went out of business shortly after having completed the Director's Edition commission, which would mean that the studio had to painstakingly recreate all these elements. [4] Yet, his former Foundation colleague, Robert Bonchune (having also worked on the Director's Edition ), strongly implied in 2013 that these elements were still in existence, as some ex-employees had made backups, including Bonchune, of all the Star Trek files on their own computers, and could be made available to the studio if they were so inclined. [5]

Bonchune's supervisor Dochterman had already indicated previously that the digital sequences were produced at a high definition resolution in a remark made in 2009 to DrexFiles (X) , " I sure wish we had had the time and resources [note: either for the remastering of the analog film footage, the home video production as the Blu-ray format was not marketed yet, or both] that Warner Brothers had allotted to the Blade Runner redux. That would have been great. And it would be on 1080p Blu-Ray as we speak… " [6] (X) The 2007 Blade Runner Ultimate Collector's Edition Dochterman spoke of, was withheld from release until after the introduction of the Blu-ray format the year previously, in the process becoming a standard for such releases. [7]

In 2017, it was one of the co-producers of the Director's Edition , David C. Fein , who came forward to substantiate Bonchune's claim – incidentally having already mentioned it in a 2007 podcast, produced for StarTrek.com – by stating it was he who still had all the Director's Edition 's original digital effects elements available for remastering to Blu-ray standards. " We have all that we need. Would I like a few more pieces… sure. But we have everything we need, " stated Fein, " All of the shots in the film were created with HD in mind so the quality of the models and elements were much higher than the SD renderings . We have everything, and when the time is right, we'll use them. Again, there is no truth that anything is missing. " Fein also confirmed that a Blu-ray release was put on the back burner as " Paramount has yet to green light the project. We've had some discussions, " adding that " it'll happen, the only question is when are we going to go ahead with it ". [8] As of 2019 though, the status of a truly remastered Blu-ray release remains yet unknown, and as a result, only the original theatrical version has seen a remastered HD release to date. Still, preliminary talks were reported to have resumed in July 2019 for a remastered release, albeit for a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release. [9]

There is a mystery involved with this release however; five days prior to the official DVD release, on 1 November 2001, Paramount Pictures had organized an event in its Paramount Theatre of the Arts , called the " Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director's Edition DVD Premiere Event". Since the SD digital sequences do not hold up on the big screen, as explained below , this implied that the attendees were presented with a higher resolution print. If so, then a HD ready (master) print already exists – further implying that the DVD release actually concerned a downscaled product, the technique still in its infancy at the time – , though its current whereabouts are either unknown, or that the print is unsuitable for other technical reasons as a Blu-ray master.

Star Trek: The Original Series [ ]

A shot from the revamped intro

On 31 August 2006 , CBS Paramount Television announced that, in celebration of its 40th anniversary , Star Trek: The Original Series would return to broadcast syndication for the first time in sixteen years. Beginning with " Balance of Terror ", each of the series' 79 episodes were digitally remastered to 1080p HD video, and DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 Surround audio standards, [10] with all newly (re-)created visual effects and music. The refurbished episodes were converted from the original film to a high-definition format similar to that used on Star Trek: Enterprise . The opening theme was re-recorded in digital stereo with new vocals by Elin Carlson , and William Shatner 's opening monologue was remastered from the original elements. Most notably, though, many of the visual effects were recreated using CGI by CBS Digital . The opening credits sequence was revamped, several matte paintings received a CGI face-lift, and spaceship exteriors including the Romulan Bird-of-Prey and the Klingon battle cruiser were recreated using state-of-the-art digital effects. However, for some reason, the credits at the end of the episode were not remastered and digitally enhanced. The new CGI Enterprise was based on the exact measurements, originally taken by Gary Kerr , of the original model , which is on display in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

In creating the newly-conceived visual effects, CBS Digital made use of the Autodesk Maya CGI software. ( Sci-fi & fantasy modeller , Vol. 26, p. 49)

Comparison of effect shots. Top: original, bottom: remastered

In an interview with TVGuide.com , project supervisor Michael Okuda said, " We're taking great pains to respect the integrity and style of the original… Our goal is to always ask ourselves: What would Roddenberry have done with today's technology? " Denise Okuda and Dave Rossi were also involved with this relaunch of the original series; Niel Wray is the visual effects supervisor. A Q & A with the production staff was posted by the official StarTrek.com website on 6 September 2006 , shortly before the site was taken off-line by the franchise. While it was still featured, a video preview and interviews with people involved in the project could be viewed by clicking the link to the left of the page.

Planned to coincide with Star Trek 's 40th anniversary , the "new" Star Trek debuted 16 September 2006 . See side-by-side comparisons of the new visual effects from the first episode broadcast, " Balance of Terror ".

The first few episodes were rushed, as CBS only gave its team " one month to deliver the first two episodes with over 120 new effects shots ." Starting with " The Trouble with Tribbles ", a new, improved Enterprise model was used. Members of the effects team have commented that they may go back to the earlier episodes and re-render the ship scenes with the new model, [11] [12] though that did not come to fruition.

When TOS cast member Leonard Nimoy heard about these changes in special effects, Nimoy simply responded " Shame on them " for changing the effects, saying that it was "out-of-bounds" for them to do that. However, after viewing a remastered episode, reportedly he was quoted saying, " I'm amazed. " [13]

The seasons were to be released in an HD DVD / DVD combination set, with season one released in November 2007 . The release of seasons two and three were canceled in February 2008 due to the decline of HD DVDs in comparison to rival format Blu-ray. However, the second season was released on regular DVD on 5 August 2008 . [14] all three seasons are available on Blu-ray Disc, as well as through Apple's iTunes Store (along with a "best of" collection for budget-minded fans), with select episodes available on Microsoft's Xbox 360 Video Marketplace . Unlike the HD DVD releases, the Blu-ray editions also include the original versions of each episode, allowing the original special effects and images to be seen in high-definition for the first time and providing viewers who did not wish to view the remastered versions an option.

CBS Digital wrapped up their visual effects work on TOS Remastered just before midnight on 21 April 2008 . The last episode they worked on was the show's first pilot, "The Cage". The last shot rendered was of the Enterprise "sailing off into the unknown at the end of the episode." [15]

After the official Star Trek website had been taken off-line, CBS Consumer Products had few to no official lines of communications with the Star Trek fan community left (see main article for particulars), and in an effort to remedy the situation sought out cooperation with Anthony Pascale 's TrekMovie.com news website, in order to keep the community appraised of every aspect of the project, among others by publishing sneak previews and the like, and allowing the blog editors exclusive access to CBS Digital to report on the progress.

Star Trek films [ ]

The success of the remastered Original Series , as well as the upcoming re-launch of the Star Trek franchise in 2009, encouraged Paramount to push forward with the remastering to 1080p HD video, and Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Surround audio standards of their film properties. [16] The remastered versions of the first ten Star Trek films were released from 2009 to 2010 in both the DVD and Blu-Ray disc formats. According to the box-art of the remastered DVD version of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , it was this film that has required the most extensive restoration work and was "fully restored in high definition with brilliant picture quality", whereas the remaining nine were just "digitally remastered". The film's director, Nicholas Meyer , has stated that this was due to the fact that the original master print "was in terrible shape". ( Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  (2009 DVD) - audio commentary ) Compared to the Original Series and the work needed for The Wrath of Khan notwithstanding, the remastering of the films was a relatively straightforward process, and thus cost-effective, as explained below .

A striking detail was, that when it came to the remastering of The Motion Picture , as one of the last released in 2010, only the original theatrical version could be done so, and not the Director's Edition for the reasons mentioned above . A conceivable rationale for the studio to proceed in this manner was, that re-compositing the available HD CGI elements was deemed too cost-prohibitive when compared to the work needed for the other films. Nevertheless, according to one reviewer, the sound quality was superior to all the others. [17] What this reviewer had overlooked however, was, that the soundtrack had already received its extensive overhaul in 2001 for the Director's Edition , a privilege the other nine films did not enjoy. It is unclear which company has been responsible for the remastering of the first ten films.

On the other hand, the eleventh, 2009 film Star Trek and its two alternate reality sequels did not need any remastering, as they, as the first ones entirely produced digitally, were already shot to the high HD standards required for their respective large screen theatrical releases. Produced in the new 4K UHD standard, some remastering in the form of down-scaling (see below ) was required though for the underlying regular DVD and Blu-ray home video formats.

Technical ramifications for the Star Trek remastering projects [ ]

The remastering projects did involve some technical aspects that had bearings on those originating from the Star Trek franchise, but which, in general, applied to other motion picture productions as well. Some of these technical aspects are explored in some detail below, as far as their effects on the Star Trek remastering projects were concerned, while several of these did steer some decision making processes of CBS Consumer Products, when releasing their remastered Star Trek products lines.

Analog versus digital [ ]

While analog photography is currently increasingly considered antiquated and obsolete, especially by the younger generations, analog photography still holds, given the current state of technology as of 2015, one huge advantage over digital photography; Due to the underlying physics, analog photography differs immensely from digital photography in that analog images can be (from their negative film cells) enlarged almost ad infinitum , as generations of 20th century cinema goers can attest to, and actually the primary reason why digital scanning for remastering purposes is even possible at all in the first place. Not so with digital images, once originally shot in a predetermined resolution in terms of number of pixels and predetermined frame size, it will indefinitely remain so. While enlarging an analog image will not noticeably result in loss of sharpness (actually the main reason why, as of 2015, so many professional still photographers still ply their trade "old school"), the same can not be said of digital images. When a digital image is enlarged, each single pixel is accordingly enlarged in size, which works out fine up until the point that the human eye is able to discern each and every individual pixel, a phenomenon known to every Photo-shopper around the world as " pixelation ". This is the reason why later episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager , or The Motion Picture Director's Edition for that matter – the DVD version that is – originally produced in analog SD standards, can never be shown theatrically – enlarged onto the very big screen, the digitally-rendered VFX scenes would fall apart due to the pixelation phenomenon.

Though it is, due to the underlying physics, impossible to objectively determine the resolution of analog imagery in terms of the later digital resolution standards, serious efforts have been made to do so. Currently, after heated debates among professionals, a sort-of-consensus has been reached that analog imagery struck on the traditional 35mm film is comparable to a 4000p-6000p digital resolution range, while 70mm analog prints (typically for Imax films) were estimated at 18000p. [18]

Downscaling and spatial resolution [ ]

No matter what the "real" resolution of analog film footage was (being more than ample for any 1080p remastered project – and even for its 4K UHD 2160p successor format for that matter), in more than one way Paramount "lucked out" with the remastering of four of its ten original theatrical features.

While all the analog, live-action footage could be scanned digitally without much further ado, it should be noted that the four Next Generation films, starting with Star Trek Generations , contained an ever-increasing number of digital VFX sequences, culminating in that virtually all exterior VFX sequences of Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis were digitally composited. This could have been a problem as far as the digital sequences were concerned, were it not that they were all composited for major theatrical features (i.e. far larger screens), and therefore constructed in a resolution which at the very least approximated the resolution of the rest of the live-action footage, i.e. a resolution far higher than required for any contemporary SD television series or home video format. This meant that when the films were remastered for their respective home video formats, the digital sequences of the four Next Generation films were actually down-scaled , as were the three alternate reality films for that matter.

Digital down-scaling encompasses the processes computer algorithms perform by, given a set frame size, removing pixels of digital footage stills in order to have the remaining ones fit a given frame. Typically, these algorithms remove the more ambiguously-coded pixels, often resulting in far more crisp and more sharply defined images to the Human eye when viewed on the smaller screens, even though they are then, most counter-intuitively, of a lesser resolution. This phenomenon, where reducing the resolution actually enhances the perceived image quality, is called improving the spatial resolution and a principle which states that, simply put, the more pixels there are in a fixed frame dimension, the less a pixel can resolve itself – in layman's terms, becoming more blurred to the Human eye. A similar effect is noticeable when a 1080p or 2160p HD home video format, presently produced with the current dimensions of home screens in the mid-to-large size range in mind – and thus the very reason for the down-scaling of the Star Trek films – , is viewed on smaller sized view screens, even if they are technically capable to play back such formats in said resolutions. In these cases viewers are, again counter-intuitively, better served with 720p versions. [3]

These technological properties made the remastering of the franchise's first ten Star Trek films a relatively cost-effective – meaning the studio did not need to revisit the original digital VFX sequences for reconstruction in higher resolution – and therefore profitable effort in comparison to its very costly previous Original Series project, and its subsequent, even more expensive, Next Generation project. It has concurrently explained why the studio was able to release the remastered films in such quick succession, spanning a time period of merely two years, 2009-2010. It also means that if the new 2160p format becomes the new norm, the procedure can be repeated for the first ten films, though not from the digitally enhanced 1080p versions; the original film elements have to be revisited in that case, as had indeed been done for the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  (Director's Cut) Blu-ray, though it had been downscaled to the 1080p resolution format for its 2016 Blu-ray home video release. [19] Nonetheless, because of the 4K HD 2160p resolution remastering, the film was able to enjoy a limited theatrical release in its full glory to celebrate the film's 35th anniversary in September 2017 [20] , and a subsequent 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray home video format release is currently under advisement. [21]

Incidentally, CBS Digital had four years earlier already stumbled upon the "spatial resolution" effect by accident, when they decided out of cost considerations to cut down on computer rendering time by dialing down the (pixel count) resolution of their highly detailed original CGI Enterprise model . ( Sci-fi & fantasy modeller , Vol. 26, p. 49) As explained above however, when enlarging, the original high-rez image becomes much clearer and more crisp due to the spatial resolution phenomenon ( this picture is a good example), whereas the down-scaled image falls much sooner prey to the pixelation effect.

Downscaling is also applied for remastered/HD production transfers onto the 720(w)x480(h) [3] /720x576 DVD home video format. Besides technological advances of the format proper, it was the spatial resolution phenomenon that became partially responsible for the perceived image improvement for these releases, such as those for the remastered films, Original Series and Star Trek: Enterprise . Spatial resolution also explains the perceived higher picture quality of remastered DVDs in comparison to their standard DVD counterparts originally produced in SD such as those for, again, the films and the Original Series , even though they are technically both of the same resolution. Ironically, it became a contributing factor of the slower consumer adoption of the Blu-ray disc home video format, and one of the primary reasons why as of 2020 DVDs are still concurrently released alongside their Blu-ray counterparts. (see: main article )

Star Trek: The Next Generation [ ]

Canisters of film, in storage, from the show's production

After several months of speculation and partial confirmation, on 28 September 2011 (the 24th anniversary of the series premiere), StarTrek.com announced that Star Trek: The Next Generation was to be remastered to, again, 1080p HD video, and DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 Surround audio standards, for release on Blu-ray Disc and eventual syndication, starting in 2012 .

The remastering process required returning to the original film negatives, as all editing and visual effects compositing took place in post-production on the magnetic videotape format back in the day, which not only lacked the required resolution for high-definition, but more importantly, not being a film format, simply can not be scanned digitally for HD remastering, unlike the Original Series project, which was originally edited into the final product on 35mm film masters. As a result, the collection of original Next Generation footage, totaling over 25,000 reels, was painstakingly re-edited exactly as had been done for the original airing, essentially doing the post-production process all over again in its entirety, which, in the process, also explained why the remastering project turned out to be so costly. Visual effects were entirely re-composited from the original constituent film elements, and not up-converted from the derivative videotape end products as explained. Compared to its Original Series predecessor, this had, excepting the construction of the new digital visual effects, made the Original Series project actually the more straightforward one. Audio is the form of 7.1 DTS Master Audio.

However, there was one happy side effect; because the editing process had to be done all over again, it enabled some episodes to receive the "Director's Cut" treatment, by reinserting scenes that were originally cut, trimmed or deleted for their original airings, provided the original film elements were still available for remastering. Unfortunately, the practice was abandoned after the second season of the remastered project. Aside for organizational reasons, there were in some cases also practical reasons for abandoning the practice; some of the deleted scenes only still existed on so-called taped "workprints", pre-final edited versions of episodes made for evaluation purposes by producers. Most of these workprint tapes were habitually not archived at Paramount and ended afterwards up in the possession of collectors such as Cyril Paciullo, having acquired them at the various Star Trek auctions . Paciullo has made his collection available to CBS for inclusion on the fourth season release of the project, but being magnetic tapes, even though some digital cleaning up could be performed, true remastering remained outside the realm of possibility as explained. For integrity reasons, the conscious decision was made to include such deleted scenes as separate special features on the releases, as reinserting them would constitute a too large a break in quality with the rest of the remastered footage.

As with the remastering of The Original Series , Denise and Michael Okuda served as consultants. Unlike its predecessor, none of the visual effects were slated for replacement with newly conceived CGI, or as Project Consultant Mike Okuda explained it, " We love the approach that CBS took for this project. We take the original film elements and put them together in a new way. The material still has all the details and they are beautiful. And the new visual effects are really the old visual effects but a lot more beautiful than you have ever seen them. " [22] However, some use of CGI was made. This was restricted to correcting continuity details, or for replacing original elements that were either lost, such as in the case of the Crystalline Entity , or technically impossible to upgrade. The most notable examples of the latter case were the replacements of long shots of planets , which were originally executed as matte paintings, by newly created CGI effects, though Digital Artist Max Gabl took care they approximated their original appearance. Gabl stated, " I think most of them are total recreations. Because the planets we're looking at from the original [TNG] series are very low-res and blurry. There's no way to put more detail into those, so it's basically all recreation. Mike Okuda tells us exactly what we need in there, and it's just back and forth – playing it and seeing what the details are going to look like and then I put them in, compare with the old, [Mike will] look at it, I'll make the changes and that's how it goes. " [23]

CBS Digital was again appointed lead company in the remastering project, as well as being made responsible for the creation of the replacement CGI effects. [24] Contrary to The Original Series remastering project, CBS Digital had by this time switched over to the LightWave 3D software (as used by Foundation Imaging for the earlier Director's Edition of The Motion Picture ) for the recreation of missing elements in CGI. In a similar fashion as they had done for the Original Series remastering project, CBS Consumer Products again reached out to the Star Trek fan community, this time by giving access to the project to the administrators of the TrekCore news website. It was TrekCore's Adam Walker in particular, who was given access to production staffers and actors alike for conducting in-depth interviews that were published on the blog. Cooperating with the blog was beneficial for CBS as well, as it was through TrekCore that Paciullo's above mentioned workprints became available to them. [25] TrekCore is cooperating with another blog, Ex Astris Scientia , where MA admin Jörg broke down each episode for the differences and occasionally received input from production staffers to explain detail issues. [26]

The first release for high-definition Star Trek: The Next Generation was a Blu-ray sampler disc, Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Next Level , released on 31 January 2012 , [27] and the full series Blu-ray release followed suit. The TNG Season 1 Blu-ray was released on 24 July 2012 , Season 2 on 4 December 2012 , Season 3 on 29 April 2013 , Season 4 on 29 July 2013 , Season 5 on 18 November 2013 , Season 6 on 18 June 2014 , and finally, Season 7 on 2 December 2014 .

Highly anticipated, the first season release was well received and did very well in initial sales, selling 95,435 copies in the first week after release in the US alone, which was expected by the franchise to earn an initial US$5.5 million in domestic sales alone, putting it well on its way to cover the US$9 million the first season remastering had cost. [28] By then, CBS had already decided to speed up the release schedule for the remastered series. For CBS to be able to do so, they had to sub-contract, considering the amount of work the remastering entailed, other companies to do the work on a season alternating basis. Independent company HTV-Illuminate was awarded the commission for the upgrade of the second season . However, their work was less well received , as many considered their efforts sub-par to that of CBS Digital. [29] Though not having confirmed if this was in any way related, CBS has made the decision to go with another effects house, Modern VideoFilm , for the remastering of season four , while simultaneously keeping a tighter rein over the work [30] , aside from doing the two-part episodes " The Best of Both Worlds " and " Redemption " themselves. While the work of Modern VideoFilm was far more favorably received [31] , the services of the company were not retained for the sixth season, the remastering of which, like the seventh one, entirely performed by CBS Digital themselves, the workload on the company due to the tight release schedule notwithstanding. [32]

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine [ ]

Although there have been no officially announced plans to remaster Deep Space Nine (or Voyager ), the documentary What We Left Behind has over 20 minutes of remastered footage from DS9, including some special effects shots, spanning all seven seasons, which involved scanning 400 reels of 35mm film. The original film reels had to be located, brought out of storage, scanned, and then color corrected and generally cleaned up of any blemishes.

Documentaries and specials [ ]

• TOS Season 1 Blu-ray special feature "Spacelift: Transporting Trek Into The 21st Century"
• TNG Season 1 Blu-ray special feature Energized! Taking The Next Generation to the Next Level
• TNG Season 2 Blu-ray special feature "Energized! Season Two Tech Update"
• fxguidetv #161: CBS Digital & Star Trek TNG , 2012

Footnotes [ ]

• ↑ The 720 resolution format is not used for any of the main feature presentations included on physical home video format releases, where 1080 had been the norm from the moment the Blu-ray disc was introduced. It is occasionally utilized though for newly-produced accompanying special features – older such specials ported over from prior SD formats are rarely, if at all, remastered to HD standards – when physical disc space and/or cost considerations are an issue. At the time of its introduction it was used as an intermediate/preliminary HD format by the producers of viewing screens, both television sets and computer monitors, and not considered as "Full HD" by them. Television set producers in particular marketed their 720 resolution products as "HD Ready" (meaning they – contrary to the classic SD television sets – were technically able to display 1080 productions, though downscaled to the 720 resolution), instead as "Full HD" which they reserved for their 1080p products. Actually, very few small-sized television sets are produced by manufacturers as Full HD products as the " spatial resolution " phenomenon would render such a product void. Their more recent higher resolution products are marketed as "Ultra HD", reserved for the largest-sized television sets, likewise for spatial resolution reasons. However, due to the usually smaller file sizes, the 720 resolution format remains a popular choice for both individuals and companies to upload their productions onto internet and social media sites such as, and most notably, YouTube or Facebook Live .
• ↑ Contrary to what one might assume, the letter "p" after the pixel count does not stand for " p ixel", but rather for the technical way a watched device refreshes its viewing screen. " P "rogressive scanning is the protocol in which a watched device refreshes its horizontal resolution lines sequentially, whereas the letter "i", also utilized for the earlier 1080 productions, stands for " i "nterlaced scanning in which first the odd resolution lines are refreshed, and then the even lines. This incidentally, was also part of the technical reasons why the early generations of Blu-rays (the "1080i" versions) still exhibited the differences in run times for those regions that employed the NTSC television format, and those that employed the PAL/SECAM format (see Video releases ). The interlacing protocol had been the standard for television sets in the "low-res"/low-frequency era, and has become obsolete, mainly because more modern television sets have a higher refresh rate.
• ↑ 3.0 3.1 The downscaled HD 480p format is a commonly used format for display on the small screens of smartphones, whereas the larger-screen computer tablets, such as the iPads, usually make do with the 720p format – as do most small-screen television sets incidentally, most notably the so-called "HD Ready" television sets. Note that it is the devices themselves that do the downscaling when accessing the HD files.

See also [ ]

• Blu-ray Disc
• 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

External links [ ]

• Remaster at Wikipedia
• 2006 "Behind the Scenes at CBS Digital" feature at TrekMovie.com
• 2012 five part interview with the staff of CBS Digital at TrekCore
• Why Deep Space Nine and Voyager Aren’t On Blu-ray… And Why They May Never Be at Treknews.net
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

In the vicinity of the liberated planet of Bajor, the Federation space station Deep Space Nine guards the opening of a stable wormhole to the far side of the galaxy. In the vicinity of the liberated planet of Bajor, the Federation space station Deep Space Nine guards the opening of a stable wormhole to the far side of the galaxy. In the vicinity of the liberated planet of Bajor, the Federation space station Deep Space Nine guards the opening of a stable wormhole to the far side of the galaxy.

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• Trivia Kira was a last-minute addition to the cast. The original plan was to include the Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) character of Ro Laren, but Michelle Forbes didn't want to do a series at the time.
• Goofs In the first three seasons, CDR Sisko refers to his father in the past tense, even talking about his slow demise and death from some unknown ailment. But starting in the fourth season ("Homefront"), Joseph Sisko is alive and well running a restaurant in New Orleans. Joseph appears in a total of six episodes throughout the last 4 seasons.

Garak : [Cornered by a group of Klingons in his store] Well, let me guess! You're either lost, or desperately searching for a good tailor.

• Crazy credits The opening credits for "Emissary" lacked the wormhole opening that all future episodes featured. Starting with Season 4, the opening credits included additional spacecraft and activity around the station, including the Defiant flying into the wormhole.
• Alternate versions Several episodes were originally shown as 2-hour movies. They were later edited into two-part 60 minute episodes for later airings.
• Connections Edited into Star Trek: Voyager: Unity (1997)
• Soundtracks Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Main Title Written by Dennis McCarthy

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Review: The Promise Of A DS9 Prelude Falls Short In ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation: Pliable Truths’

| May 20, 2024 | By: Dénes House 3 comments so far

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Pliable Truths Written by Dayton Ward Published by Pocket Books

The labor camp on the surface was an almost perfect screen for the activities taking place far beneath their feet. So far as they knew, they had been interned on yet another planet to exploit its natural resources for the good of the Cardassian people. “The Cradis protocol is a direcdtive from the Obsidian Order,” [said Havrel.] “It directs me to ensure we relocate this facility without ever exposing its presence, or leaving behind any trace it was ever here. None of the Bajorans will ever know. They will die here.”

Dayton Ward’s new Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, Pliable Truths , is chock full of fantastic ideas filled with dramatic potential. Set during TNG’s sixth season, soon after Picard’s torture at the hands of Gul Madred in “Chain of Command, Parts I and II,” but before Deep Space Nine’s pilot episode, “Emissary.” The Cardassians are ending their occupation of Bajor and withdrawing from their Terok Nor space station. A tentative agreement has been made to return all off-planet Bajorans held in parts of the Cardassian Empire to their homeworld. The Federation has been asked to provide a neutral mediator to come to Terok Nor (soon to be renamed Deep Space 9) to help the Bajorans and the Cardassians negotiate the details of a possible peace treaty. Of course, they tap one of their most experienced Starfleet Captains, Jean Luc Picard, to be the lead mediator.

This is a wonderful period to set a novel. Who doesn’t want to see the first interactions between TNG and DS9 characters? What would Kai Opaka make of Jean Luc Picard? What if we see Garak and Dukat square off? How will Ro Laren react to news of a secret Cardassian labor camp? All of these pairings, along with many other surprising ones, are featured in this book. Sadly, none of them create the sparks one would hope for. For example, the Cardassians try to rattle Picard by assigning his former torturer, now-Legate Madred, to lead the negotiations. But beyond an off-hand mention to Counselor Troi, this doesn’t result in any interesting exploration of how the events of “Chain of Command” impacted him, which is exactly the kind of thing these tie-in novels can do best, filling in those character gaps for an episodic series. Neither the crew of the Enterprise-D nor the characters we love from Deep Space Nine have any sort of emotional journey.

Looking at the plot, the negotiations storyline didn’t really go anywhere. The book is set one year after the agreement between the Federation and Cardassia (established in the DS9 episode “Life Support”) which resulted in significant concessions and decisions. That seems like more ripe territory than what is presented here. Ward also gets repetitive. There were so many scenes discussing how the Federation stood by and did nothing while the Cardassians oppressed Bajor, but now they intend to ensure Bajoran safety and independence, that I started to laugh when it happened yet again. Action threats on board the Enterprise and the station that seem to hold exciting promise are resolved quickly, and mysteries that crew members strive to solve turn out to have humdrum solutions.

The most interesting thread in the novel is the drama of the secret Cardassian labor camp on a planet just inside the Cardassian border. Presented as a rough analogue for World War II-era concentration camps, Ward does a great job letting us into the mindset of the prisoners there, detailing the indignities they are subjected to and their journey as they resist their captors in small and large ways, as they discover that Cardassia has decided to withdraw from Bajor, and as they realize that despite the withdrawal, their Cardassian captors have no intention of allowing them to leave the planet alive. These scenes are detailed, human, and insightful. While the talks on Terok Nor felt like wheels spinning on ice, these scenes felt vital, urgent, and important.

This leaves Pliable Truths a mixed bag. The labor camp drama is well worth reading, but the events taking place on Terok Nor and aboard the Enterprise are not engaging and add little to the understanding of the characters.

As a fan of Dayton Ward’s work, I wish I could recommend this novel more strongly. Ward is an idea factory. This is the guy who wrote 2020’s cracking spy adventure, Agents of Influence , and dug deeply into Discovery’s characters in last year’s Somewhere to Belong . He’s a veritable Star Trek encyclopedia, serving as a consultant for Star Trek: Discovery and Strange New Worlds , and writing the entertaining tie-in “travel guide” books for Vulcan and the Klingon Empire. Pliable Truths is a readable but unremarkable entry in Ward’s fantastic bibliography.

Available Tuesday

Dayton Ward’s Star Trek: The Next Generation: Pliable Truths from Pocket Books will be released on Tuesday, May 21. You can pre-order it at Amazon in paperback and  Kindle e-book .

Pliable Truths is also available as an audiobook on CD now and also Audible .

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Wow. I love Dayton Ward and other novels he’s done, but this review has been a big let down for me about this one. I was really hoping for some sort of analysis or impact from the events of Chain of Command.

I’ll wait for this one to go on sale before I buy it.

Damn it!I was really, really, REALLY looking forward to this one, too!