Star Trek TNG S2 Celebration Recap
Last night I got to see the second season Star Trek TNG episodes Q Who and Measure of a Man in the theater, remastered and digitally restored for HDTV. It was a one-night showing that was basically an extended preview/ad for the 2nd season Blu-rays, but it was excellent entertainment. (Also, effective advertising. I'm tempted to get a player just for the special features, and the video quality is stellar.)
The Remastering:
The remastering is beautiful. We got to the theater half an hour early (even after a sit-down dinner at the brewpub across the street), and instead of the usual theatre ads we had a slideshow of the remastered shots from the second season - often alongside or right after the original and the difference is profound. A LOT of work went into this.
Q Who:
I forgot what a fantastic ep Q Who is, which I didn't think was possible because I am such a Q fan*. Q's last two visits to the Enterprise are among the best of the entire series, but I forget Q Who is one my favorite Q episodes**. It's the first that narrows Q's focus from the ship to the captain, and it establishes a lot of the recurring dynamics of their relationship***. I also forgot how good the parts that weren't Q and Picard flirting posturing. The introduction of the Borg was fantastically executed, and the Borg are still damn creepy - even after Voyager and 25 years of science has made the impossibly futuristic cybernetic implant technology in the 23rd century achievable in this lifetime. Probably sooner than a Mars colony.
The "Making It So" documentary has an interview with John de Lancie, in which he described his approach to the character as "a psychopath with a sense of humor" and expressed mild befuddlement that the character was so popular for so few performances. I suspect the two are related - it's why Dexter is such a hit. Also, de Lancie was adorable in his late thirties but he's goddamn handsome now. Seriously, that man aged with elegance.
I also want to thank director Rob Bowman, for deciding it was a good idea to randomly drape de Lancie in odd places. Like that bored sexy jaguar lounge on the bridge. THANK YOU MR BOWMAN!
Measure of a Man:
This was an extended director's cut - the episode, as originally written, was 13 minutes too long for television due to being dialog heavy, and a lot was cut for time. I don't usually say this: but the tv cut was much, much better. Most of the dialog cut - a couple of entire scenes, several lines cut from other scenes - was awkward, wordy, and unnecessary, and it turned a sharp, biting, thoughtful episode into one that was almost painfully pedantic. There's a fencing scene - Riker talking to Picard as Picard fences a nameless extra - that was out of character and felt tacked on in a bad fanfiction sort of way.
Also: Data has 3 TB of storage? That's the size of the backup harddrive. And it's full.
Extras:
The interviews and cast reunion were great, but the bloopers alone make want to switch to Blu Ray. I love bloopers (I have leaked from crew and passed around a million times at conventions bloopers of all 5 seasons of B5. The highlight of which has got to be Peter Jurassik in costume, dancing with cardboard cutout of Londo while singing "Me and My Shadow") and these were good ones. The flubbed lines, the swearing, the corpseing, the laughter. One thing that was almost immediately apparent from the bloopers is the cast's affection for each other. They talk about that in interviews, of course, but between takes there was a comfortable physicality that you mostly only see between close friends. They touch so. much. more. off screen in a few minutes of bloopers than their characters did in a season of Trek. They were honestly cute.
*After season 2, I only watched Voyager if Q or other TNG characters were on.
** I mix up "Q Who" with "True Q" - when we first talked about going, I was wondering why they took episodes from two different seasons, and what in the world "Q and Picard discuss custody issues" had anything to do with the meaning of life.
*** i.e., Holy fanfiction fodder!
X-posted to non-LJ blog
The Remastering:
The remastering is beautiful. We got to the theater half an hour early (even after a sit-down dinner at the brewpub across the street), and instead of the usual theatre ads we had a slideshow of the remastered shots from the second season - often alongside or right after the original and the difference is profound. A LOT of work went into this.
Q Who:
I forgot what a fantastic ep Q Who is, which I didn't think was possible because I am such a Q fan*. Q's last two visits to the Enterprise are among the best of the entire series, but I forget Q Who is one my favorite Q episodes**. It's the first that narrows Q's focus from the ship to the captain, and it establishes a lot of the recurring dynamics of their relationship***. I also forgot how good the parts that weren't Q and Picard flirting posturing. The introduction of the Borg was fantastically executed, and the Borg are still damn creepy - even after Voyager and 25 years of science has made the impossibly futuristic cybernetic implant technology in the 23rd century achievable in this lifetime. Probably sooner than a Mars colony.
The "Making It So" documentary has an interview with John de Lancie, in which he described his approach to the character as "a psychopath with a sense of humor" and expressed mild befuddlement that the character was so popular for so few performances. I suspect the two are related - it's why Dexter is such a hit. Also, de Lancie was adorable in his late thirties but he's goddamn handsome now. Seriously, that man aged with elegance.
I also want to thank director Rob Bowman, for deciding it was a good idea to randomly drape de Lancie in odd places. Like that bored sexy jaguar lounge on the bridge. THANK YOU MR BOWMAN!
Measure of a Man:
This was an extended director's cut - the episode, as originally written, was 13 minutes too long for television due to being dialog heavy, and a lot was cut for time. I don't usually say this: but the tv cut was much, much better. Most of the dialog cut - a couple of entire scenes, several lines cut from other scenes - was awkward, wordy, and unnecessary, and it turned a sharp, biting, thoughtful episode into one that was almost painfully pedantic. There's a fencing scene - Riker talking to Picard as Picard fences a nameless extra - that was out of character and felt tacked on in a bad fanfiction sort of way.
Also: Data has 3 TB of storage? That's the size of the backup harddrive. And it's full.
Extras:
The interviews and cast reunion were great, but the bloopers alone make want to switch to Blu Ray. I love bloopers (I have leaked from crew and passed around a million times at conventions bloopers of all 5 seasons of B5. The highlight of which has got to be Peter Jurassik in costume, dancing with cardboard cutout of Londo while singing "Me and My Shadow") and these were good ones. The flubbed lines, the swearing, the corpseing, the laughter. One thing that was almost immediately apparent from the bloopers is the cast's affection for each other. They talk about that in interviews, of course, but between takes there was a comfortable physicality that you mostly only see between close friends. They touch so. much. more. off screen in a few minutes of bloopers than their characters did in a season of Trek. They were honestly cute.
*After season 2, I only watched Voyager if Q or other TNG characters were on.
** I mix up "Q Who" with "True Q" - when we first talked about going, I was wondering why they took episodes from two different seasons, and what in the world "Q and Picard discuss custody issues" had anything to do with the meaning of life.
*** i.e., Holy fanfiction fodder!
X-posted to non-LJ blog