Season 2 at the Movies

Richard, a few of our friends, and I attended the HD TNG Season 2 event last week, and I have opinions. Like the Season 1 event, a good time was had by all and it was fun watching the show with so many people. They showed Q Who and the extended cut of Measure of a Man as well as some bonus features. Some opinions in no particular order.

Q Who looked pretty good overall. The higher detail on the Borg costumes is pretty nifty. The scene in engineering still looks really dark and grainy. I'm curious how it will look on TV. The detail on the Borg cube was great obviously, but the ship as a whole doesn't look as great. They used the plastic trees in model kits for a lot of the surface of the cube and in higher def, it makes it looks like the edges aren't quite crisp, straight lines. The effect on the saucer section were really, really cool, however.

The extended cut of Measure of a Man had some good and some bad in it. There was an extended scene of Picard wrestling with the issues and talking about them with Data. The additional dialogue also fleshes out more clearly that Maddox was only forcing Data to transfer off the Enterprise if he refused the refit. If the refit proceeded, he could have stayed on the Enterprise, and some of the dialogue seems a little more clear as a result. There was a scene of Picard in Data's quarters preparing his testimony that was interesting but not vital. We got some additional dialogue with Nakamura about Picard's early career, which was nice, but dispensable. My favorite parts were an additional scene between Geordi and Data where he gives Geordi his Holmes pipes as a goodbye gift, and some additional dialogue in the party scenes, including the party being crashed by Maddox.

On the downside of the additions is a fencing scene with Picard and Riker where it appears Riker is gunning for Picard or something. It adds an odd emotional component to what's going on and is bizarre in light of the fact an actual friend is at stake, so good cut there. Overall, the additions didn't make the episode feel too long, though the cuts they made were largely good ones. There was also an additional lines of dialogue in Louvois' summation, where she starts her speech with the now cut line "I don't know boys." It was a good cut.

The snippets of the cast reunion were awesome and sweet and funny and the blooper real was great since it had more than people cracking up at themselves, though there was plenty of that. According some review I read, the features include the Reading Rainbow episode where LeVar Burton goes on a backstage tour of the show. Like last season, as a longtime viewer, the most exciting part for me is the special features. Matt has already started reviewing the episodes themselves for the blog. I'm most excited for Contagion as between the Romulans and the Yamato, it should be a hoot.

The best part of the evening, hands down, is the promo for season 3 on Bluray. They were showing snippets of Yesterday's Enterprise and Best of Both Worlds, so that makes me think that will be the movie event, which AWESOME! The Borg cube looked much better and I cannot wait for a season in high definition that has a very high number of episodes I actually want to see again.