Most of TNG was shot on 35mm film, and negative was immediately transfered to D1 [720x486] All of the editing and visual effects compositing was done in D1.

I saw a little of the motion control filming for the show, and heard one story (don't know if it's true) that for one particularly tight deadline, they processed the VFX footage at a one hour photo place, since it was just headed straight for the pin-registered Rank - it didn't have to be perfect.

There ain't that much more actual resolutions to recover. I would be surprised if the film negative was even archived.

That being said, imaging technology and BluRay storage and playback might help bring out the best of what's there on the original tapes.

I hacked together a 3 peddles deal that was wired directly into a PS-2 mouse. Saved my hands when I was doing hours of 3D modeling. Drove my neighboring cube buddies crazy with the endless clicking. This was 1998, and I got the idea from a guy who did it at least three years earlier. In 2008 I bought an off-the-shelf 3 paddle USB foot input from a place called Fentech. This new device mentioned here might have directional control that will slew the mouse using four arrow peddles. Similar devices have been available on the assistive technology market for quite a few years.

I went to see 'The King's Speech" (PG version) at the AMC in (undisclosed Southern California Suburb) Most decidedly and mercifully NOT a 3D presentation

The preshow commercials were running a little dim. At first I thought this was just the 'video' projector running the HD commercials before the show. I took a peek up in the booth and sho' nuff the polarizer assembly for the 3D is parked right in front of the cinema projector lens. It's a big rectangular glass in a sturdy frame - you can't miss it. I go and mention this to ticket taker up front, and I see some of the ushers poke their nose in theater - not the booth. No dramatic improvement.

It's not even as if this projector was bouncing between multiple movies. Is it too much to have someone check the rig - just once - at the start of the day?

It was entirely wrong but supper cool all at the same time- They had a that humungous MIT mechanical differential analyzer write out its answers in english cursive handwriting on an X-Y plotting table.

As someone who was fortunate enough participate in cinematic CG as it evolved to dominate film making, I've given this a LOT of thought and have come to a few conclusions:

1.LESS IS MORE: Absolutely true, not having enough money seems to always lead to tighter, more exciting, more engaged film making.

2. MIX IT UP: In the pre-computer era, you would always mix models, matte paintings, optical composites , and full size sets so that the audience's eye-brain wouldn't catch on to the weaknesses of any single technique.

3. TRUE MAGIC: My grandfather who worked on the original 'Fantastic Voyage' told me that for some shots the blood cells were Cheerios. Look carefully at Thunderbirds, Capt. Scarlet, etc and you'll recognize all kinds of household items which masquerade as ships and structures of that imagined future. Doug Trumbull recently revived paint mixing techniques from 2001 to create a swirling cosmos for a modern astronomy digital HD film. There is true alchemy in taking ordinary things and painting, cropping, and perhaps filming in reverse or up-side down to turn them into something else entirely. Cloud tanks are WAY more fun than running fluid simulations. Al Whitlock and some degree Peter Ellenshaw were masters at in-camera effects for perfect composites. See Coppola's "Dracula" - done entirely with in-camera effects. You have to PLAN these shots carefully to make them work.

4.TOO REAL: It struck me watching 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader' that everything is too real. This has been the holy grail of film making and particularly computer VFX. But this was a kid's fantasy (with deeper meaning) Everything about the ships, the swords, the locations, the costumes, the monsters, the spirits, was so fully material, that I was getting antsy about all of the make believe story stuff. How did we have battles without blood and nasty casualties? How did we get from point A to point B with no sensible navigation? Where the hell do people go to the bathroom? If you're going to give me absolutely real - I start wanting ABSOLUTELY REAL. Referring again to traditional matte painting - the best are very rough, just enough to trick you.

5. DIGITAL MET FILM - AND WON When we were struggling to render a few frames of a shiny box, a few people had the vision to see that digital imaging could make whole movies. I don't think that we quite envisioned that they could truly create alternate realities. Most people have no idea that most of what their watching is synthesized from nothing. No set, no model, no camera.

The true leverage is that now an unlimited number people distributed in time and space can contribute to the creation of an image. In the past, only so many people could build, photograph, an act in a film frame. Now, if need be, a thousand hands around the world can do their part, all pre-planned, orchestrated, and combined into an assembly line of dream-forging. If it doesn't feel real, it's because at some level it isn't.

The tactile, textural, visible film image is surrendering to the cool controlled perfection of the digital image. We have won the battle for reality. The next battle is to reclaim our humanity.

"An independent CSA would be trusted more widely than Fort Meade..."
The CSA - I like it - there's already a cool flag which can be seen on many pickup trucks in certain parts of the country.

Ah yes - about 10 thrilling seconds of Jenny. That was the first bit of screen nudity I saw in a movie theater. Even better, it was my first industry screening at MGM. I still have the souvenir copy of American Cinematographer with the lifeclock on the cover. Logan's Run is one of the few films that might actually benefit from a remake. The book is amazing - people were only allowed to live to 21. In the words of Tom Lehrer - "When Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years"

From TFA:
"By age 16, Lindstein says, he was working for Golden Era Productions, Scientology's film production company, restoring Hubbard's films from the 1970s. He says he often worked 24-hour days at the "tedious, frame-by-frame work ...."
This lad is well prepared for a career in visual effects.

Human to alien transformation is sort of a core SF idea, which was done very well in the classic (60's) Outer Limits episode 'The Cameleon' with Robert Duval in the tile roll. Harlan didn't write this one though, credit goes to Lou Morheim and series creator Joe Stefano.

Here's another unverified TSA horror story that made the rounds on the Internet last year. I first found the story on the L.A. Times website, and it was just copied from there a hundred times. Nobody's come up with any news report or documents from the timeframe when the incident was supposed to have taken place:

Zimerman has had problems in the United States in recent years. He travels with his own Steinway piano, which he has altered himself. But shortly after 9/11, the instrument was confiscated at JFK Airport when he landed in New York to give a recital at Carnegie Hall. "Thinking the glue smelled funny, the TSA decided to take no chances and destroyed the instrument."

They went to bat for us against two fraudulent merchants. There was no identity theft involved, but hey, they were there for us.