Ex Astris Scientia - Notable Changes in TNG Remastered

The remastered version of TNG on Blu-ray was created based on the originally filmed shots wherever possible. Some shots, however, were deliberately changed, either to fix bloopers or because the original footage was deemed too poor for inclusion in HD. Here are some notable examples.

Description TNG	Comparison TNG to TNG-R	Description TNG-R
Backgrounds that should have motion in it are sometimes static in the original release.		In TNG-R: "Encounter at Farpoint", the water in the stream in the background is running and the leaves of the plants are moving.
		In TNG-R: "Haven", the waves are now in motion.
In the original version of "The Naked Now" the depiction of the refitted (Movie) Enterprise does not comply with the mention of the TOS: "The Naked Time" incident in the dialogue.		In TNG-R: "The Naked Now" the Movie Enterprise side view was replaced with the TOS version.
In the original version of "The Last Outpost", the graphics in the upper left-hand corner were upside down (as evidenced by the graphic of the Federation logo).		In TNG-R: "The Last Outpost", the error has been fixed.
The holographic display in "The Last Outpost" shows two rotating images. One is flipped, so the person at the other side of the observation lounge table sees the images the right side around. When the display switches to the star charts, the aft image is no longer flipped.		The small error was corrected when the footage of the Tkon star charts was recomposited for TNG-R: "The Last Outpost". Mike Okuda: "In the tabletop hologram in 'The Last Outpost,' note that one side of the rotating image is now flipped, even though the images themselves are identical to the original."
The last page of Picard's logbook in "The Battle" consists of plain text that is partially reversed.		As the mirrored text would have been recognizable, the last page was completely redone and now depicts a diagram too.
Clare Raymond's family tree in "The Neutral Zone" contains numerous in-jokes. It includes the names of TNG actors, as well as references to other TV series, such as "Kermit T. Frog" and "Miss Piggy". Visual Crossovers with Other Series/Movies		The screen displays were completely revised for the HD edition. The in-jokes were altered to be less obvious. Names of the crew working on the HD edition were newly added. Also, the family tree now includes the place of birth and the dates of birth and of death for each member. Finally, the spelling of Clare Raymond was changed from "Claire" to "Clare" on the first display, and the date of her death was fixed (2035 as originally displayed does not fit with spoken dialogue).
Owing to the limited amount of stock footage some shots of the Enterprise were reversed to create more diversity. The hull labels, however, appear reversed too.		In the first season some shots, like one in TNG-R: "Lonely Among Us", were fixed.
		A reversed label was also corrected for TNG-R: "11001001". Reversed labels in some other episodes remain uncorrected.
The shots of the Starfleet Command grounds in "Conspiracy" were originally created for "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home". The Federation emblem is as it was devised by Franz Joseph for the Star Trek Technical Manual, that is, with the two faces instead of the olive branches. The Evolution of the Federation Emblem		In TNG-R: "Conspiracy", the anachronistic emblem on the building was replaced with the 24th century Starfleet emblem.
In "Encounter at Farpoint", the energy beam to free the Farpoint lifeform emerges from a spot on the ventral side right in front of the captain's yacht. It is doubtful that there is an emitter in this place.		When the scene was recreated for TNG-R: "Encounter at Farpoint", the origin of the beam was moved to the phaser strip.
Similarly, in TNG: "The Battle" the tractor beam originates in the torpedo bay.		In TNG-R: "The Battle", the origin of the tractor beam was moved down to the bottom of the secondary hull where it belongs.
A flower pot is visible in this shot in TNG: "The Arsenal of Freedom".		The flower pot is gone in TNG-R: "The Arsenal of Freedom". It was digitally covered by a piece of rock like the one to the left of the pot.
Equipment such as tripods or microphone beams is visible in some episodes.		A tripod in TNG-R: "Justice" was digitally erased.
		Likewise, a tripod was removed in TNG-R: "When the Bough Breaks".
		A piece of equipment was digitally removed in TNG-R: "Heart of Glory" too. Not all instances of visible equipment in the first season were removed though.
In a few shots the studio ceiling is visible.		The set border is no longer visible in TNG-R: "Hide and Q". It wasn't retouched, but the scan area was simply smaller and the uppermost portion was cut off.
In a few shots the studio ceiling is visible.		There is no visible studio ceiling in TNG-R: "The Arsenal of Freedom", also because of the smaller scan area in that direction. In some other episodes of the first season there are still visible set borders left.
As Beata reaches out her hand, almost off the screen, we vaguely see how someone is taking over the glass in TNG: "Angel One".		The "helping hand" is not visible in TNG-R: "Angel One" due to the reframing.
In order to extend the set in "Hide and Q", two different elements of filmed footage were combined here. The actors were filmed separately from the rocks in the foreground. Mike Okuda. "Those shots were, indeed set extensions. For the original versions, Rob Legato and Gary Hutzel, took images of the rocks on Stage 16 and used video compositing to create more planetscape. They also stretched the sky in at least one shot."		In TNG-R: "Hide and Q", the rocks in the foreground have been replaced by CG rocks. Mike Okuda: "For the remastered version, CBS-D used simple matte paintings to re-create the extensions."
Several planets were quite blurry in the original TV release.		Ligon II was completely redone for TNG-R: "Code of Honor". Gone is the blurriness, we can make out small islands.
		The planet Delphi Ardu IV was redone with much sharper contours of the continents for TNG-R: "The Last Outpost".
		The Edo planet was completely redone for TNG-R: "Justice". Note that the new continents are very similar to the original but not quite the same.
		Angel 1 was reconstructed for TNG-R: "Angel One" by Max Gabl, who faithfully followed the lines of the original. Among the planets of the first season apparently only Deneb IV in "Encounter at Farpoint" as well as Haven in "Haven" and its reuse as Bynaus in "11001001" are still represented by the old models.

Description TNG	Comparison TNG to TNG-R	Description TNG-R
The visual effects of TNG were top-notch in the 1980s but usually rather blurry.		All visual effects had to be reconstructed in HD for TNG-R. The sequence of cutting the skull monster in half was considerably improved for TNG-R: "The Emissary".
The original version of TNG: "The Royale" showed a curious US flag with 52 stars and the field of stars resting on a red stripe. The mission patch below the flag is a re-use of the Apollo 17 patch, with only the word "Apollo" removed. The patch still bears the number "XVII" and the name of the actual astronauts, Cernan, Evans and Schmitt.		The flag is still the same. The patch, however, was corrected for TNG-R: "The Royale". The number "XVII" was replaced with "Charybdis - NASA", and the names of the Apollo 17 astronauts with "First Beyond the Solar System".
The list of comedians in TNG: "The Outrageous Okona" and the list of Earth deep space launches from 2123 to 2190 in TNG: "Up the Long Ladder" contain several in-jokes, such as names of people involved in the production of Star Trek.		Some names were changed for TNG-R: "The Outrageous Okona", replacing them with names of people that were involved in the remastering of TNG.
		In TNG-R: "Up the Long Ladder" the VK Velikan is no longer commanded by Gene Roddenberry but by Mike Volland. It is also no longer on a mission "to explore strange new worlds" but is engaging in "stellar chart mapping". The HMS New Zealand is now on a diplomatic mission to Aldebaran instead of Alderaan. The SS Seattle is on a diplomatic mission to SR-47 now and no longer does "ADR looping".
In TNG: "The Schizoid Man" data seen on the viewscreen contains references to different fields of science. nDNA is short for nuclear DNA. HCOOH is formic acid. A stands for adenine, T for thymine, C for cytosine, G for guanine and U for uracil, all five are nucleobases. Uracil and thymine normally never appear together, as thymine (only in DNA) is replaced by uracil in RNA.		The text on the display was newly created for TNG-R: "The Schizoid Man". There are several differences between the TNG-R text displays and the original, such as "O" (instead of C) in a DNA sequence and nonsensical words like "angie" (instead of "angle").
In TNG: "The Measure of a Man" Picard views the Starfleet transfer orders on the desktop monitor in his ready room. The graphic was added in post production.		The graphic was created from scratch for TNG-R: "The Measure of a Man". The font of "40271" is a different one. The text still isn't legible.
In the original version of TNG: "Time Squared" the beginning of the shuttlepod video was re-used from the USS Yamato logs seen in "Contagion". If one watches closely, the words "Access File = Captain's Log * USS Yamato * NCC 71807" can be made out.		The logs are correctly labeled with "USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D" in TNG-R: "Time Squared".
Riker views photos from his family album in TNG: "The Icarus Factor".		The skyline on the first photo was updated with buildings such as the Burj al Arab in TNG-R: "The Icarus Factor".
In TNG: "Q Who" we can see stock footage of Shuttle 01 - Sakharov from "Unnatural Selection", while the dialogue mentions "Shuttle 6". Variations of the Type-7 Shuttle		The registry of the shuttle was accordingly fixed for TNG-R: "Q Who".
Although Wesley identifies the shuttle as "Shuttle 2" in TNG: "Samaritan Snare", it can be clearly seen in this reused shot from "Unnatural Selection" that he and the captain are departing in Shuttle 01, the Sakharov.		The shuttle mock-up was relabeled for TNG-R: "Samaritan Snare". It is now the Einstein - Shuttle 02 (taken from a chart visible in the shuttlebay since "Evolution"). In other shots in the episode the shuttle is still mislabeled though.
If one compares this shot of the Borg cube in pursuit of the USS Enterprise-D with an earlier shot of the ship in TNG: "Q Who", one can see that the footage is upside down here.		The Borg cube is no longer upside down in TNG-R: "Q Who".
All scenes with starships were originally created with motion control photography.		Generally season 2 uses recomposited original shots of the studio miniatures. One exception is the Erstwhile, which was replaced with a CG model for one shot in TNG-R: "The Outrageous Okona".
		A new CG model of the Klingon BoP appears in two shots of TNG-R: "A Matter of Honor".
		This shot from TNG-R: "Peak Performance", unlike the previous ones from the same episode, shows a CG model of the Hathaway. There are several slight differences to the physical model.
Filming equipment is visible in a couple of season 2 episodes, as well as some other things that should normally not come into sight.		In TNG-R: "The Child", the sandbag behind Wesley is no longer visible thanks to the reframing.
		The equipment is not visible any longer in TNG-R: "The Schizoid Man" because the shot was slightly reframed.
		A carpet patch was digitally retouched at the beginning of this scene in TNG: "Time Squared" (but reappears in a later shot).
Several matte paintings can be seen in the original episodes of the second season, sometimes to supplement real shots with actors.		A new digital matte was created for TNG-R: "Loud as a Whisper".
		The two beautiful sceneries on the holodeck were digitally recreated from scratch for TNG-R: "The Dauphin".
		The surface of Iconia in TNG-R: "Contagion" is an entirely new CG creation that closely follows the lines of the original.
		The original matte painting was replaced with digital set extensions for TNG-R: "Q Who".
		For TNG-R: "Samaritan Snare" the matte painting of Starbase 515 was modified to look less like Angel One. Three rounded roof tops were added, and most notably a helix-shaped tower. The tree in the foreground was changed as well. In addition, a flock of birds was added, the tiny human figures which were part of the original matte painting are moving now and the shuttle can be seen landing on a platform.
Like already in season 1, many planets were rather blurry in the original episodes of season 2.		A much more detailed planet Solais V was created for TNG-R: "Loud as a Whisper".
		The planet Theta 116 VIII was recreated for TNG-R: "The Royale", including some turbulent storms.
		The Starbase Montgomery planet was newly created for TNG-R: "The Icarus Factor". Yet, it looks rather blurry in some of the shots.
		The new Pacifica created for TNG-R: "Manhunt" is even more blurred than in the original episode. Overall, more planets remained the same in season 2 of TNG-R than in season 1.


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	Last modified: 09.03.13
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