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Star Trek The Next Generation coming on Blu-ray

Star Trek The Next Generation is set to be released on Blu-ray this Christmas, marking an end to a four year wait for fans.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
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Joe Svetlik
2 min read

The wait is nearly over for fans of Star Trek The Next Generation: a Blu-ray release is imminent, according to various sources, and it'll come complete with new special effects, just like the remastered Star Wars special editions. Let's just hope there's no Greedo shot first nonsense introduced.

Rumours have been raging since 2006, when the original series was remastered, according to fan site Trek Core. No announcements were forthcoming, however, and while it's still not official, there's more proof online than it'd be sensible to ignore. So get ready to enjoy Captain Picard's slaphead in the glory of high definition.

Digital Bits reported back in July that it had heard at Comic Con that CBS was working on a sampler blu-ray set for release this year. The disc would contain four test episodes, and would be on sale on 28 September (the 24th anniversary of the show's first broadcast in 1987), though then it heard 6 December was the date.

More evidence came a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of Twitter. LeVar Burton, who played Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge, tweeted: "Stopped by to see how the TNG coversion to HD for Blue Ray [sic] was coming along… #mindblown"

So, it may not be official, but all signs point to it being a merry Christmas for fans.

Digital Bits has since confirmed which four episodes would be included on the sample disc: Encounter at Farpoint, Parts 1 and 2; The Inner Light; and Sins of the Father.

Star Trek The Next Generation was edited on video, unlike the original William Shatner series, so the tech heads will have to go back to the original film to perform the high definition transfer and create new special effects. That sounds like quite a technical challenge, but we're sure they're up to it. Where no man has gone before, and all that.

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