r/startrek: The Next Generation
Star Trek news and discussion. No slash fic...
Maybe a little slash fic.
New to Star Trek and wondering where to start?
Rules
1 Be constructive
All posts/comments must be thoughtful and balanced.
2 Be welcoming
It is important that everyone from newbies to OG Trekkers feel welcome, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, religion or race.
3 Be truthful
All posts/comments must be factually accurate and verifiable. We are not a place for gossip, rumors, or manipulative or misleading content.
4 Be nice
If a polite way cannot be found to phrase what it is you want to say, don't say anything at all. Insulting or disparaging remarks about any human being are expressly not allowed.
5 Spoilers
Utilize the spoiler system for any and all spoilers relating to the most recently-aired episodes, as well as previews for upcoming episodes. There is no formal spoiler protection for episodes/films after they have been available for approximately one week.
6 Keep on-topic
All submissions must be directly about the Star Trek franchise (the shows, movies, books etc.). Off-topic discussions are welcome at c/quarks.
7 Meta
Questions and concerns about moderator actions should be brought forward via DM.
Upcoming Episodes
| Date | Episode | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 11-21 | LD 5x06 | "Of Gods and Angles" |
| 11-28 | LD 5x07 | "Fully Dilated" |
| 12-05 | LD 5x08 | "Upper Decks" |
| 12-12 | LD 5x09 | "Fissue Quest" |
| 12-19 | LD 5x10 | "The New Next Generation" |
In Production
Strange New Worlds (2025)
Section 31 (2025-01-24)
Starfleet Academy (TBA)
In Development
Untitled comedy series
Wondering where to stream a series? Check here.
My biggest complaint with Live Action Trek vs the two Animation shows is that they seem obsessed with giving us a black ship on a black background. It’s nice to be given a reprieve, even if for only one episode.
100% agree. Still not as bad as the darkness on GoT. The entire damn episode was just a black screen.
The one shot with all the torches going out, that the lighting was perfect for, and it looks amazing on TVs that have super great black, like an OLED.
The rest of that episode, they should've TURNED ON SOME DAMN LIGHTS
I've never understood the complaints about lighting on the new treks. We're watching on big HDR enabled screens now, the lighting is appropriate for them.
Tons of people don’t have HDR yet. It takes a while for tech to spread, especially when it’s not something many people are gunna go replace a several hundred dollar device for, nor is it necessarily a selling point when shopping for new TVs.
I thought my 4k smart tv was new enough to have it by default since I bought it in 2019, but it doesn’t.
Really, I'm on my second HDR enabled screen now and that was from 2020, the previous one dated back to 2016 and had it.
My tv is from 2012. It's got colors AND sounds!
Does it have smells though?
Just checked - dust and warm plastic. I guess if I was watching Toy Story 2 or 3 it would be appropriate.
Mine’s from 2010. It’s got colours but I’m not sure they’re quite right, and it’s got some sounds (music and explosions), but is lacking in others (dialogue).
Yes, really.
Maybe you are spending more than I am on your TVs, but even after it became more common it still wasn’t standard apparently. It wasn’t something I looked for or knew to look for, being one of those things that isn’t really a selling point for most people and all.
The only reason I even know mine doesn’t have it is video games, I just found out a few months back, and frankly I just set the gama high within the game and call it good. Been doing that for many many years. The whites are more blinding than they used to be but that’s about it. Frankly I assumed the problem was with the backlighting.
I just assumed the media issue was, in fact, a media issue (which it -abso-fucking-lutely is-! If you need a special [even if common] TV device format to correct for your shit production quality by default, ya dun fucked up your production, that’s on you, not the people watching it) and went about my day oblivious as always. :)
How is using all the top level technology available to the visual medium "shit" production and not good production?
Even back to the days of TOS Trek was designed to look better on colour TVs when not everyone had them. Lo and behold, we all eventually moved over to colour.
There has to be a certain level of expectation on the consumer to keep their equipment up to date and to design for the best available otherwise things would just stagnate.
You guys have hdr?
And here I am on a 1080p plasma screen from 2011. Because it just will not die! Which, is a good thing I guess.
Yeah we only got 4k tvs when the 1080p one from. 2008 died a few years back, well it's not dead, it's in my office as the crappy spare with a giant smudge at the top. Still usable but ugly. And a line.
But I love the oled 4k TV it cost less than the 1080 did originally.
Yeah man I’ve got one of those old school polarity based 3D tv’s from like 2008 but I will never get rid of this thing I love it
Yep, this one is also 3D but the active kind. I've not used it in years, the glasses probably need new batteries.
It's not even HDR. I'm a TNG fanboy, and one of the reasons is just because the show is bright. The ship sets are bright, etc. Even VOY and DS9 don't get this quality, and while SNW is probably the best, new Trek gets nowhere close.
Oh man. I work in the post industry professionally - on the documentary side, but honestly 10bit HDR (HDR10) and 12bit (Dolby Vision) are the REAL technological leaps in quality NOT 4K/UHD.
Sure resolution is nice and all, but if you have a capatible TV, we can literally force change your local settings to optimize what we want you to see (people ever notice Dolby Vision settings turn on and grey out your own settings). Being able to change your TV's color settings natively directly to what we wanted out of the box in post is by far the biggest tech advancement in post to home video in decades. UHD is 4x the pixels but HDR is up to 16 billion more colors. Trust me, it's worth the upgrade.
It's been standard on TVs for years now?
I only change TVs when they die. Mine is 12 years old.
Yeah, I'm not sure who's going out buying a new TV every couple of years.
If say I've upgraded at least every five years since having my own place and a living room to put it in. I do do a lot of gaming though so having all the latest features are important to me. That being said my parents seem to upgrade theirs as often now.
Christ, that's ancient in TV terms. Is it even 4k?
Lol, my tv is a 40" from 2008.
Even my boomer parents are rocking a more up to date TV than that, lol.
Buddy, it’s worse than that. My TV has a fluorescent backlight. Been planning to upgrade as soon as they stop infesting TVs with adware and spyware.
So never, I guess.
Part of the issue is compression. Most modern compression algorithms bias towards light areas of the picture. On high bandwidth streams, this is no issue. If the stream is highly compressed, the backs can become blocky and details are lost.
On top of this are suboptimal viewing conditions. Non HDR, background light, or poorly configured (or limited capability) screens. All of these punish the black parts of the image more than the bright.
I can't speak to the compression on P+ as I'm in the UK so most new Trek is on Netflix, Amazon or the high seas for me and I haven't noticed much blocking it artifacts even on a 65 inch screen.
I think I optimal viewing conditions are the biggest issue. People who don't know how to set up and calibrate their TV or watch on an inappropriate device like a laptop, tablet or phone.
I'm not surprised directors like Lynch and Nolan get annoyed. They put all the works into making the best cinema experience, then people ruin it by leaving motion-clarity on on their TV or watching on a six inch screen with tinny headphones on the way to work.
I mean, I don't care what the directors think. They can make things for mass appeal, or they can make things for enthusiasts who invest in top-quality TVs with the latest tech every few years, and who invest a lot of time calibrating their TV and putting up the right curtains to block out the sunlight. If they're making it for enthusiasts, great. But these directors are supposed making things for mass appeal, so they should make TV and movies easily consumable in the ways that average people watch.
I watch for the stories, characters, etc. I honestly don't care that DS9 will never be remastered, it's fine the way it is. But I do care when half the bridge is black because Discovery went to black alert, and I guess that means I can't see anymore :P
.(edit: I actually enjoyed "watching" new trek on my phone with the audio description track on while I was doing dishes. Mostly listening actually.)
Your last paragraph literally made me wince. That's some major disrespect to the people who work on the show turning it into an audiobook.
It's not as if I watch everything that way. Just when I want to enjoy some star trek and can't look all the time. Besides, the audio description tracks are meant for the blind to enjoy the show, they're quite well written and produced. They are also great at surfacing details about the settings or characters which the writers/directors wanted to be noticed, but I wouldn't have focused on. So they really open up a new and great perspective. And it's a lot cheaper than buying a new TV every few years so I can see all the newer shades of black lol.
You mean you are?
If you're not, it's time to upgrade. The rest of us shouldn't get a subpar product because some people aren't up to date. I mean, TOS was partly designed to help sell colour televisions back in the day, being on the forefront of tech is part of the franchise.
That sounds a bit rude and pretentious.
Not everyone wants the latest, highest dynamic, fidelity, wibbly wobbly TV.
Some are pretty content with colours and not a blurry picture.
Besides, not everyone can afford one.
Then they have no right to moan if they can't watch the newest content properly which is made for the latest tech. No one expects a PS5 game to run on their NES just because they didn't want to upgrade do they?
Not being able to afford is a different issue, but theres always been people who can't afford the latest and greatest, that's life. No reason to hold things back for everyone else due to that.
I definitely prefer the darker version, it seems a lot less artificial. To me, the brighter ship looks rendered, as if I was looking at a video games' screenshot.
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Oh, thanks, I didn't know that. I'm not much into the animated stuff.
On first glance it could've been from Picard S03 which had a similar aesthetic that didn't work for me. Too clean, too polished, too much video game.
I've had to download higher quality episodes as the lighting has made higher compression unviewable.
the two Animation shows
RIP prodigy
Literally a ship in space with next to no light.
The live action version is more realistic.
the extra light comes from the same place as the music actually
And the pew pews!
I see, the camera just has a sun attached to it then? cool. no problem.
Not just any sun, they use the sun.
It's a huge inconvenience for people in Sector 001 every time they need to borrow Sol to shoot more exterior shots of the various ships for the historical documents.
Err, wrong IP there, @beefcat. "The Historical Documents" isn't from Star Trek, it's from BSG.
It’s. Galaxy Quest reference, and as we all know Galaxy Quest is one of the top 3 best Star Trek movies.
Not to mention my favorite work of Tellerite cinema.
There's these things called "stars" most planets with life on them have them very close by in the cosmic scale of things, and if you look up pictures of the ISS under one you'll see it's actually quite bright...
Thanks captain