Star Trek really has quite a remarkable family tree. Since the series began in 1966, it’s grown in many incredible directions – both on the big and small screen.
And with the next JJ Abrams Trek 2 reboot coming next May, there’s sure to be more of the shows repackaged, re-issued, and redone for Blu-ray, and whatever other new technology comes along next.
Now as the site Nerdage tells us, we’ve got the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation ready to hit Blu-ray.
As Matt Price writes, for the Next Generation Blu-ray, the studio went back to the original 35mm camera negatives, because don’t forget, both the 60’s show, and the Next Generation, were both indeed shot on film. (No digital video in those days.)
And as Nerdage notes, “It’s the best TNG has ever looked, and a huge improvement visually from the DVD presentation.” This is a six disc edition with plenty of the great extras you’d expect, including interviews with the late Gene Roddenberry, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, plenty of behind the scenes documentaries on the show, and much, much more.
The Next Generation BluRay will be officially available on July 24, 2012, and the list price is officially $129.99, but you can get it for $59.99 on Amazon.com.
Now going back to 2009, you may recall the original Star Trek movies came out in a special BluRay package that was a hell of a deal for any Trek devotee. The original Star Trek flicks, as we all know, are hit and miss. The first one, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, was a big miss, but it made big bucks, so there was a sequel, The Wrath of Khan, which saved the franchise, and kept more movies and TV spin-offs coming for years.
Although every self-respecting Trekkie probably knows all the episodes and lore verbatim, I’m willing to bet it’s still has to be a lot of fun to watch all the new, hi-def editions of Trek, whether it’s for the movies or the TV shows. Like Star Wars, Trek has a deep lineage, and it’s fun to trace the family tree and how the show has progressed when it first aired in 1966.