TNG Movie Night S3: Sights, sounds & tales from L.A. to E.P.

We'll keep collecting anecdotes here, but it's safe to say Thursday night's "Best of Both Worlds" TNG Bluray movie night from CBS and Fathom Events was easily the biggest Trek blowout event in this series. And kudos to TrekRadio for having podcasters and others (like moi) call in from theaters around the country for a little live flavor of Collective fun.

TREKLAND had our ticket-giveaway winners among the hordes of non-drones heading to cinemas nationwide, and Canada too. As promised here's a round-up of what we got in—including a wedding proposal, thanks to Locutus (or at least thanks to his timing of return).

Of course, the fact that the newly HD'd show in question was "The Best of Both Worlds"—and an all-new cinematic edit to boot—didn't hurt the turnout.

The fact that the flick in question not only packs its own punch, but evokes for all who were around in 1990 that long-ago innocence of witnessing a breakout hit in the process, your reward for  standing by in the lean early years... before all the movies and sequels and had-to-get-a-job worldweariness. It calls to you, back to the days when you really could obsess over the world's best cliffhanger... all. summer. long.

Which, as @SirPatStew recounts in the new documentary, applied to parents as well as kids. (And I won't spoil his story, if you haven't seen it elsewhere yet.)
 
Still, I heard that some goers were confused with that Other Star Trek Movie coming next month ...

"There were five people (looked like a family) who got up and left at the beginning as soon as the Fathom trailers finished and the documentary came on. They apparently thought they had bought tickets for the new J.J. Abrams film-—you know, the one that hasn't even come out in the U.S. yet. Pretty amusing!"—Frank Gruber, Paramus, NJ screening

"Guy came out of the theater, saw an Into Darkness poster, said to his friend: 'That's what I THOUGHT we were coming to see!'—@gregharbin (Seattle)

Unofficial ground central for TNG movie night may have been at the Century City Arclight in L.A., where goers got to hear remarks from TNG staffers and Blu-ray project consultant Mike and Denise Okuda, LeVar "Geordi" Burton, onetime TNG S3 writer Ira Steven Behr, and even Elizabeth "Shelby" Dennehy herself, plus Blu-ray doc producers Robert Meyer Burnett and Roger Lay Jr. The Westmores Michael and Michael Jr, who did the Borg electronics, were also in the house—and thanks to my Vegas Vanna, Mary "Televixen" Czerwinski, for these photos while I was "on location" in El Paso:

Listening to Ira wax historic are (from left) Rob, Roger, Denise, Mike, and LeVar ...

...plus a zinger from Elizabeth!

And friend/photog Mary snags those Westmore boys

But meanwhile, in Charleston, S.C.:

"As the director of Carolina Alliance of Star Trek Fans... last night at a local Regal theater we hosted an event. I've worked with NCM Fathom Events since Season 1 and last night was our largest attendance yet!!! We even had a couple get ENGAGEd!"—Erika Y. Figueroa

Our ticket winner in Philly sent this:

"I attended the showing at the Rave 6 University City... It seats about 200 and was a sellout. As I waited for my friend Amy, I talked with members of the Philadelphia Star Trek Meetup Group and the Southeastern PA Nerd Herd.  I ended up missing the pre-show trivia questions and the [documentaries] and instead spent my time talking with my new friends! (Even more members of these 2 groups showed up after this photo was taken.)—Loretta Painter (in TNG T-shirt), Philadelphia

From our Cleveland-area winner, too, in North Canton:
"The theater was almost sold out, and I bought the tickets for our others there; I was going to help the less fortunate anyway."—Roger Scritchfield, Akron


We also heard from the USS Ticonderoga crew in Salt Lake City:
"We had more than the previous two showings"— @TardisCaptain_p

And the USS Atlantis in Idaho, too:

And yes, here in El Paso, where I was in town for Sun City SciFi con, the small but rowdy group at the "overflow" Tinseltown Cinemark theater stood up for my camera to yell out for TrekRadio, and then racked up a few raffle prizes from the con promoters:

Family night!: "Not a great shot, but here's me and my daughter, @ConeErica in Provo, UT"—@cone_is










We also got some thoughts from Treklanders who simply pinged me:

"Modern me got hit almost as hard in the gut as the 1990 me: Fleet graveyard scene hits me right in the feels every time. —@thejoncon, Phoenix area

"That was fun! Loads of #TNG fans, Trek t-shirts everywhere & even a few costumes. Too bad about tech issues tho."—@wetodded, San Diego

"Unfortunately, here at the Orem, UT event, nobody was in costume. Except me."—Scott Armstrong

"I wonder how many Miley Cyrus fans were disappointed last night?"—@doubleofive, Bedford, IN

"Yes [ennoyed],  but thanks to technical difficulties we lost 30 minutes of the episode #dontgotoAugustaGA —@The_Don_Burrito


"Awesome big sceen show, almost full theater, lots of fun, laughing, clapping, true ST fans." —@laura_leclair8, Revere, MA


The event has not dropped off, the numbers keep growing, and a TNG Season 4 promo night seems a sure thing—especially with that trailer for the set on view as well.  I have it on good authority that plans are well along for a repeat of this special edition and documenatry, so we'll see you in a few months back at the theater—even after that other Trek movie... and hopefully glitch free and with cheer to spare.

STV: VFX master Dan Curry on TNG, Part I: Tales and Blurays

It's TNG Blu-ray week,and I just sat down to talk about it with Dan Curry, one of the original luminaries in Trek—along with Mike and Denise Okuda, for starters—who have had a big hand in the remastering project. Season 1 is on sale Tuesday, July 24 (discount presales in force already), with a nationwide screening of two episodes to kick it all off the night before, tonight at participating theaters (plus Canada and Australia). Our man Dan especially worked on the Season 2 episodes, for now, as he'll describe (video below the fold).

And with recent events— yes... GO tonight. Prove the grip of terror will not take hold on "fan tribe" events after the Aurora massacre, as the LA Times wonders will happen. If you have not yet got your tickets to your nearby theater for the big Fathom Events 25th anniversary tie-in— "Where No One Has Gone Before" and "Datalore" plus documentary shorts, starting at 7 p.m. local times—do it now.

UPDATE: Now you can "remaster YOURSELF" into Blu-ray TNG with this fun app on Facebook from CBS, using any of six stills with more to come— plus wallpapers, ringtones and custom Facebook banner tools for TNG's 25th.


Of course, by now if you don't know about the masterful miracle of the Bluray remastering of The Next Generation, you need to get out of the wormhole. Where the amazing game-changer of the original series' "Remastered" vibe was the all-new visual effects—modernized but laboriously respectful  to the original intent—the TNG story has been about restoring the original film quality to apply Blu-ray to. Most all fans unaware how the entire filmed picture was "down-rez'd" to video quality to make the FX composting of elements affordable with 1987 budgets and technology, and the live-action had to be made to match—and avoid that uneven "tape-to-film-to-tape" look of a lot of early BBC Doctor Who and Monty Python, for instance.

Here's Part I with Dan at his home, with a few special props you may recognize; Parts 2 and 3 in coming weeks will focus on some all-new TNG stories, and also his time on dearly departed, fan-favorite Chuck, home to other Trek vets:



The picture and audio upgrades for HD Blu-ray would be amazing enough, but leapfrogging past this original "dumbing down" of overall picture quality is proving just breathtaking to most fans—or any viewer of a typical then/now comparison. Producers Roger Lay and Robert Burnett have also done a great job on the bonus features—way more than shorts, there's a full-length ongoing documentary that dozens of TNG insiders and pundits are a part of over all seven seasons—including yours truly—along with makeup tests, camera tests, audition tapes and the like.

If you are excited about all this, you're not alone: the San Diego Comic-Con was SRO at 500+ and double that many were turned away in line (bottom), as seen in these pics from CBS. The TNG Remastered Bluray panel include (clockwise from left): Ryan Adams and David S. Grant (Director and Vice President, Multimedia, CBS Television Distribution), Wade Felker (Film Transfer Technician), Eric Bruno (Lead Compositor), Lay, Craig Weiss (Creative Director, CBS Digital), the Okudas—and Burnett (not in photo). 

iPad frenzy: This Facebook page asks for what's right!

From the "Things that got buried on my desk" Dept.:

...I don't know how many thought to grab the great unsung artist Wah Chang—he of the original TOS communicator design— when flip-top cell phones "debuted"... but I was sitting here and had to wonder what Mike Okuda and Rick Sternbach were thinking, PADD-men all, when Jobs finally let the iPad out in the open. :-D

So... I asked Rick what he was thinking the day it was unveiled, and he emailed:

"I'm thinking that it would be nice if Steve Jobs sent me a 64GB model with 3G wireless and a free data plan. :) Good to know that we had some really good ideas back in the day."

Rick"

I had nothing to do with it, but now for you Facebookers out there: it's not too late to join the page that does demand Rick and Mike O. get their due—at least according to us in Trekland:

Have Steve Jobs give Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda iPads

Of course, of all the talk and debate, the true question for Jobs is:
Why not double-D it and give us the "iPADD"?

Good for Mike Okuda: NASA honoree

This just tickles me, and I'm so happy for Mike Okuda: he's been honored with NASA's highest public honor for "civilians" outside the agency.

Here's word via Wired.com that Mike's been awarded NASA's Exceptional Public Service Medal.

I thought *I* was a NASA fan and space junkie long before Trek or any other post-color TV franchise came along (Just ask Mrs. Large how many Apollo mission bulletin boards I talked her into letting me put up in the sixth grade!)

But Mike tops it all by staying a "NASA nut" and helping design logos for the agency, much less fostering goodwill: there's the whole "mutual NASA/Star Trek love affair" thing, for instance, that he helped keep alive all during the modern Star Trek TV run—along with a crewful of help.

And in case you wonder why, visit he and Denise's portfolio site and get plenty of reasons—both in and out of NASA and Trek.

It all flows from the purest joy of exploration, the need to explore and discover and push out—no matter the obstacles, including the human political ones. And it's hardly a spirit unknown to Trek fans...

Good on you, Mike! (And thanks, Denise, for getting the word out).