The Blu-ray release will begin in January of 2012 with a sampler including the pilot and several popular episodes.

After that, the first season will be released on Blu-ray later in 2012 and subsequent seasons will follow thereafter.

“Fans have been clamoring for a high-definition release of Star Trek: The Next Generation,” said Ken Ross, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CBS Entertainment. “Transferring the series to high-definition presented difficult technical challenges, but our team has come up with a process to create true 1080p HD masters with true HD visual effects. We can’t wait to show fans how pristine the series looks and sounds with our upcoming Blu-ray releases.”

The TNG sampler (Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Next Level) will be released on January 31, 2012. The single disc will include: Encounter at Farpoint, Sins of the Father and The Inner Light. The sampler will sell for $21.99.

CBS Corporation and Hulu announced the multi-year, non-exclusive licensing agreement that will offer certain television shows from across CBS Corporation to be streamed instantly.

The shows include previous seasons of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, NCIS and the CW’s 90210, as well as Numb3rs, Twin Peaks and Star Trek.

It was not made clear if Star Trek referred to the original series only, or to more than one of the various televised series.

“We’re thrilled to have CBS’s world class content be part of Hulu’s first international market and their new venture in Japan,” said Armando Nuñez, President, CBS Studios International.  “This new subscription service marks yet another opportunity to deliver CBS programming to more global viewers in a way that complements our traditional licensing business and realizes even more incremental value from our library.”

Hulu in Japan will be Hulu’s first international expansion.

Four of the five televised series are currently available. The only series not yet available, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, will be added in October.

Each series has its own page, with tabs for each season. The series include: original series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.

Two series – the original series and Star Trek: Enterprise are available in HD.

One Star Trek movie, Star Trek XI, is also available on Netflix to watch via streaming.

For $7.99 a month, Netflix members can stream these and other shows on their PCs, Macs and TVs.

Back in February, TrekToday announced that a two-year deal had been struck between CBS Corporation and Netflix, Inc. to stream select TV shows from CBS’s library, including Star Trek episodes from all five televised series.

Streaming will begin in July, with the original series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise being offered. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine will begin streaming in October.

Netflix offers unlimited streaming for $7.99 a month. For $8.99, users can stream episodes to their iPhone and iPod touch, after downloading the free Netflix App from the App store. Shows can also be streamed to gaming consoles, DVRs and HDTVs.

All twenty-two of the episodes are online, including the popular Yesteryear. Two episodes of the animated series – Mudd’s Passion and More Tribbles, More Troubles – are sequels to episodes from the original series.

The Animated Series featured voice work from all of the original series actors except for Walter Koenig. Episodes were written by writers such as David Gerrold, D.C. Fontana, Larry Niven and Larry Brody.

The shows can be seen here.

According to UGO, some of the movies from this summer could be matched with Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes like Tapestry, Lower Decks, and Journey’s End.

Shrek Forever, according to UGO, can compare with Tapestry. In Tapestry, Picard sees how his life could have been different had he not got into a brawl with a Nausicaan which resulted in him receiving an artificial heart, while in Shrek Forever, Shrek imagines what his life would have been like if he had stayed true to his ogre roots.

Of course, the “what your life could have been like” story has been done before, in movies such as “It’s a Wonderful Life” and in television shows such as Dallas.

The Other Guys, which tells the story of the NYPD accountants and benchwarmers “in the shadow of the Big Collar Cops” can be compared with Lower Decks, in which non-senior staff who are usually seen in passing, if at all, are featured.

Salt can be compared to Face of the Enemy, as “A raven-haired beauty who may be fighting on the side of freedom or may be working from within on behalf of a totalitarian empire.” This description might describe Angelina Jolie as a Russian double agent Salt, or Marina Sirtis as Troi, who ends up working from within on behalf of the totalitarian Romulans.

To see more comparisons, head to the link located here.

For fans looking for something to watch while at home during the holidays, if they are signed up with Comcast, all eleven films plus Galaxy Quest will be available via Comcast’s On Demand system.

Those who aren’t signed up with Comcast, or who prefer to watch the original series, can go to Fancast, where every episode from the original series is available to view online for free.

In addition to the above, Fancast has posted a “beginner’s guide” to all eleven Star Trek films. This guide has been created by Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise), Anthony Pascale (TrekMovie.com), Jeff Bond (Geek Monthly) and writer/director/producer/author Nicholas Meyer.

Click here to read the review.

As reported by The New York Times, a new iPhone application was released today for CBS’s TV.com site that can play full episodes of TV series, including the original series of Star Trek.

The new application offers free streaming video content from CBS, (including CBS News, CBS Sports and CBS Radio,) the CW and Showtime, CNET and several other places. The video can be viewed on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

To read more, head to the article located here.