STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION 4-MOVIE COLLECTION 4K UHD Review

Review

If, like me, you were a child of the late 1980’s then you most likely grew up with Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) and the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Also like me, you’re probably living your best life as the cast reunites on the small screen in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard which is currently rolling out on Prime Video and Paramount+.

If the reunion alone wasn’t enough to push you to the edge of your seat. Paramount this week releases brand new 4K UHD remasters of all four of the origin Next Generation movies. The new remasters arrive in stores as individual 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases and a collected box set edition which I’m reviewing today.

The box set itself arrives in a beautiful hard slip cape featuring the painted artwork in the above header. It lines up perfectly with the recently released box set of the Original Series-era movies. The back of the slip features a handful of stills from each of the movies and the usual technical specifications.

For those home video junkies in the audience each of the four films is presented in all 4K resolution, aka 2160p. Both Generations and Insurrection are in 2:39:1 widescreen aspect ratio whilst First Contact and Nemesis are in 2:35:1 letterbox ratio. Each film is presented with a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 surround sound track and picture is fully Dolby Vision capable.

There are no new bonus features in this latest presentation. The 4K discs contain the original feature commentaries and text commentary by production designers Michael and Denis Okuda. All of the legacy bonus features remain in-tact on the Blu-ray copies of the films.

From the get go all four of these films looks the best they ever have. First released on Blu-ray in 2009, fans have spent the better part of 15 years bemoaning the noise reduction, compression and colour grading of the old transfers. But from the moment a champagne bottle floats towards the U.S.S. Enterprise-B in the opening moments of Star Trek: Generations it is clear that these remasters are something special.

All four of the films have been rebuilt from the ground up. The production team has rescanned the original negatives to produce the 4K master and it shows in every frame on screen. Naturally there are shortcomings tied to the level of visual effects available at the time they were shot but regards to their presentation, this is as smooth as it’s going to get.

Generations, first released in 1994, was my first Trek theatrical experience. At the age of 9 I was dumbfounded how the brightly lit sets of the TV series were upgraded for the silver screen. The 4K presentation pulls out a huge amount of detail in Herman Zimmerman’s production design. The bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D underwent a huge transformation in the time between the end of shooting on the series and the beginning of production on the film. All of those additional monitors beautifully add to the look and feel of the ship. The bridge feels alive as extras work in the background creating a lively, dynamic visual.

Unlike other films in the franchise, Generations was a transitional period in costume design. Many of the cast would continue to wear the uniforms from The Next Generation whilst others would take on designs seen in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Whether old or new, Robert Blackman’s costumes pop on screen. Black fabrics are deeply rendered whilst the traditional command red, science blue and operations yellow are all rich even in the darkest of scenes.

The film itself is much more darkly lit than the series creating many more shadows on screen. The new remaster handles all of those shades without visual artefacts or crush. Even during the climatic battle between the Enterprise and the Klingons, and the subsequent crash, the picture holds together perfectly.

Jumping forward to 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact the production team was able to start from scratch with a brand new ship. It’s easy to see how the film became one of the most highly regarded amongst Trek fandom. Easily the most action-packed, it’s also one of the most beautifully shot and consistently well produced films in the box set.

Zimmerman returns as production designer alongside costume designer Deborah Everton and first-time theatrical Trek director (and series star) Jonathan Frakes. The entire production team on First Contact is lightning in a bottle. There are flashes of the franchise legacy which makes the current season of Picard so exciting. But to see a film now nearing its 30th birthday presented with such care and attention is breathtaking.

As with Generations, all compression and artificial filters have been removed. Film grain is allowed to exist naturally and colour grading has been adjusted to give a much more natural tone to the image. The new grey uniform designs look equally stellar with the colourful undershirts giving a really vivid pop of colour on screen.

A leap forward in technology also sees some ship models created using visual effects for the first time. Visual effetely mostly stand up incredibly well to the test of time. The opening dream sequence of Picard on a Borg cube features a few shifting elements in the composition but this is simply a quirk of 1996 film making. If anything it’s a minor goof which only makes the film move loveable.

The final two films in the box set, Insurrection and Nemesis, present two of the commercially less well received films in the franchise. Whilst Insurrection was well received by fans it failed to live up to the success of First Contact. Whilst Nemesis brought a premature end to the TNG cast which would remain until this very year and the premier of the final season of Picard.

Insurrection marked a bold move for the franchise. It was the first film to ditch physical ship models to shoot space sequences entirely in VFX. The change in process isn’t entirely obvious on screen. There are some differences in the texture of the Starfleet ship models but this could easily be sidelined as changes in budget or progression in model making. Either way it’s great to see the U.S.S. Enterprise looking great regardless of how she is rendered on screen. The Son’a ship seen in the final act with what is essentially sails does struggle to find veracity on screen. It looks quite flat and similar to video game graphics of the era. Again a problem of the original production and not this 4K remaster.

The 4K uplift in image certainly makes the visual style more dynamic. The Briar Patch nebula always seemed somewhat flat to me on the Blu-ray. Here it takes on a much more immersive and engaging appearance which is great to see.

Finally, Star Trek: Nemesis, the most divisive of Trek films. Produced as more of a generic action movie. Nemesis might be high in action but is also low on substance. That’s not a slight on the cast or crew. It was simply a victim of the studio wanting a blockbuster from a title which was always considered the nerdier of the two Star franchises.

Released in 2002, the visual effects of Nemesis hold up incredibly well under a 4K lens. Ship designs feature plenty of small detail which could easily have been missed in standard HD. The Enterprise-E sets continue to look better, even with age. A filmmaking has progressed the love and care put in by the various set designers and builders is brought out more and more on screen.

Early scenes in the film were heavily stylised through use of over saturation and a disturbingly yellow filter. This was used at the time to make sure the planet would look alien. Here it is quite garish and a little painful on the eye. But… you guessed it… this is another issue which relates to the original production. The 4K remaster does nothing but improve upon the previous releases but shining a spotlight on the best areas of the production.

Verdict

A fantastic presentation of four legendary films from one of the greatest franchises of all time. Each of these films looks and sounds the best they ever have after being lovingly remastered in the ultimate fan box set.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐