For Mike and Denise Okuda, remastering Star Trek: The Next Generation means respecting the original work by those who first created the series.

Some fans might think that having Star Trek: The Next Generation remastered means that any mistakes will be fixed this time around. But according to Mike Okuda, that is not necessary so.

“For the most part, we find that people – for whatever reason – [mistakes are] part of the viewing experience,” said Okuda. “So to smooth over things they expect to see we find will disappoint some people. That being said, very occasionally there will be some minor tweaks. An example of that is in The Next Level, there is a shot where Picard orders the phasers to be fired at a low level to bathe the wounded space creature to bring it back to life. In the original version the phasers incorrectly came from the Captain’s Yacht. Having worked at Paramount at the time, the original ship’s designer Andrew Probert was very disappointed because that wasn’t where the phasers were supposed to come from. So we thought ‘let’s make Andy happy.’”

Others may wonder why The Next Generation is not being done in widescreen. “First of all, it is our very strong desire is to respect the original work by the original directors and cinematographers,” said Mike Okuda. “By cropping and letterboxing, we change the composition. You make things appear bigger and more crowded. It is true that in some shots – not all – but in some shots there is additional information on the film. But then again you are changing the original intention.”

The Okudas are still working on remastering the first season of The Next Generation. “We are excited that people are going to finally get to see what we have been seeing,” said Denise Okuda.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Next Level will include the pilot episode, Encounter at Farpoint, as well as Sins of the Father (S3) and The Inner Light (S5).

The two clips may be seen at StarTrek.com.

Marina Sirtis may not be a technology geek, but she liked what she saw when introduced to the Blu-ray version of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

“I’m a total Luddite, not good with any technology at all,” she said. “I was not prepared to be impressed when I went to CBS to see what they were doing with the Blu-ray, but it was amazing.”

“It was amazing because one of the things I’d always felt about our show was how I felt about the original Star Trek (1967-1969) when I watched that twenty years later,” she said, “and that’s how dated it looked. So I was feeling that about The Next Generation, that it looked dated because the technology had come so far since the 1990s, since we’d made the show. We were state of the art in the 1990s, but technology put us in this time capsule, really.

“Now, with this Blu-ray technology, it looks like we shot it yesterday,” she said.

A Star Trek: The Next Generation sampler will be released on the twenty-first of this month. It will include the pilot episode, Encounter at Farpoint, as well as Sins of the Father (S3) and The Inner Light (S5).

Star Trek: The Next Generation will be released in Blu-ray beginning this year.

For fans of The Next Generation, 2012 will be a good year, with the release of the first season towards the end of the year. But fans will get a taste of what to expect with a sampler to be released January 21, 2012.

“All 178 episodes from seven seasons will be transferred to true high-definition 1080p for release on Blu-ray and eventual runs on television and digital platforms both domestically and internationally,” said the CBS Home Entertainment press release.

“Fans have been clamoring for a high-definition release of Star Trek: The Next Generation for years,” said Ken Ross, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CBS Home 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 first full season won’t be available until late in 2012, but a sampler disc, Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Next Level, will release next month. The Next Level will include the pilot episode, Encounter at Farpoint, as well as Sins of the Father (S3) and fan-favorite The Inner Light (S5).

“One of the most popular series in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: The Next Generation celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2012. It premiered in first-run syndication during the week of September 28, 1987 and ran through 1994.

“Star Trek: The Next Generation won numerous accolades, including 18 Emmy awards, and was the first – and only – syndicated television show to be nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for its seventh season. It was also ranked #46 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time list in 2002.”

Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Next Level can be pre-ordered here.

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.

Best Buy has five Trek movies on sale, all in the Blu-ray format. Included are Star Trek XI (3 disk version), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek: First Contact.

Star Trek XI is on sale for $19.99, and the four movies are selling for $9.99 each. The movies can be ordered from Best Buy.

Amazon.com is also running a Trek sale. They are offering the 3-disk Blu-ray version of Star Trek XI, just as Best Buy is, however, their sale is even better, discounting the movie to a very affordable $9.99.

Also on sale are all three seasons of the Remastered original series in Blu-ray. Season one sells for $64.49, season two for $65.49 and season three for only $49.99. Amazon.com offers free shipping for orders over $25.00

Star Trek fans who purchased Star Trek XI in either Blu-ray or DVD format received an authorization code to allow them to download a digital copy of the movie to their iTunes library, but then ran into a snag when trying to obtain their copy of the movie.

When trying to redeem the authorization code, some fans saw a message that said that the authorization code had already been used, and could not be used again.

The theory regarding the message is that the codes may have somehow been stolen and posted to a torrent file where unauthorized users redeemed them.

A representative of Deluxe Digital Studios posted to an Apple Discussions thread to assure customers that “if they contact support via the website, they will receive a new code for their digital copy of Star Trek for iTunes or Windows Media.”

The first new clip features part of the Simon Pegg segment of the “Casting” featurette. J.J. Abrams and First Assistant Director Tommy Gormley (a native of Scotland) spoke about Pegg’s Scottish accent in the short clip.

The second clip is a montage of behind-the-scenes footage from several of featurettes including: Leonard Nimoy speaking about Star Trek; action scenes including the skydiving scene, the car chase, and Sulu (John Cho) fighting; and aliens.

The two clips can be seen here.

As reported by TrekToday a few days ago, twenty North American Blockbuster stores will be open at midnight, November 16, for fans eager to get their hands on the latest Star Trek movie release.

Before sales begin, Blockbuster will host a showing of the movie at 10 P.M. Fans will also have the chance to win official Star Trek memorabilia, including theatrical posters, collectible comic books, Delta pins and more.

Fans who prefer to pre-purchase Star Trek XI at any participating Blockbuster store will receive two free movie rentals.

Fans purchasing the Blu-ray set will see an unaired alternate version of the original Star Trek pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, for the first time.

The alternate version of the pilot was acquired by a German film collector who “recently brought it to the attention” of CBS/Paramount. This version has an alternative monologue by William Shatner, different theme music and closing credits. It is presented in three parts with “1970s-style act breaks.”

The season three six-disc set includes all twenty-four episodes of the third season and each disc is Mobile BluTM and BD Live enabled. Special features include several panels from ComicCon International 2009: The Anthropology of Star Trek, The World of Rod Roddenberry and a twenty-minute piece hosted by David Gerrold (The Trouble With Tribbles.) In addition, the set includes: Billy Blackburn‘s Treasure Chest-Rare Home Movies and Special Memories Part Three, To Boldly Go, Collectible Trek and Star Trek’s Impact.