You’ve been waiting for the HD release of Star Trek: The Next Generation to come out for what seems like forever. And we’ve been waiting with you since we reported on it in August and earlier this month . We’re excited to tell you that the 3 episode (yes, it’s not touted as 4 episodes any more…they are now counting “Encounter at Farpoint” as a single episode) Blu-Ray, The Next Level, will be out on January 31, 2012. This is set includes “Encounter At Farpoint”, “Inner Light” and “Sins of the Father.” The full first season is slated to arrive in 2012, with the rest of the series to follow. Here’s the official trailer for the Blu-Ray release.

One of the biggest questions since the Blu-ray Next Gen upgrade became a talking point was the question of how the show’s special effects sequences would carry over. Since the show was shot on film but finished on video, there was concern that we might wind up with something similar to the Babylon 5 DVD releases, which suffered from similar problems of outdated special effects that weren’t easily upgraded to current technology. Thankfully, Trek has never been a franchise that was afraid to throw money at a problem. Not only has CBS Entertainment created new 1080p, 7.1 DTS masters of the episodes, but they’re apparently redoing the special effects as well. As CBS Entertainment Executive Vice President and General Manager Ken Ross explains, “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.”

These Blu-Rays can’t get here fast enough for us. We've (individually) been watching Next Gen since the very first night it aired, and Captain Pyke and I watched "All Good Things" first run on our honeymoon. I don’t know about you, but my microwave finger is poised to pop some popcorn and I’m ready to get my Trek on.

Source: Television Blend)