Here’s Your First, Tiny Glimpse Of The Deep Space Nine Documentary’s HD Footage In Action

Here’s Your First, Tiny Glimpse Of The Deep Space Nine Documentary’s HD Footage In Action

It’s short enough that yes, it can almost entirely be captured in gif form. But god, considering how hard it is to get, how unlikely it is to see more beyond the upcoming Deep Space Nine documentary, and how clean it is, it’s not hard to be excited anyway.

A few months ago What We Left Behind, the highly anticipated crowdfunded documentary from Ira Steven Behr and David Zappone, announced that it was launching a secondary crowdfunding product to digitally remaster every piece of footage from DS9 being used in its runtime (about 20 minutes in total) into high definition for the first time, to help truly celebrate 25 years of the show.

Back then, all we got to see of the proposed remaster was a single shot. Now, as part of this month’s update on the project, Behr shared our first actual glimpse of what HD Deep Space Nine actually looks like in action. He couldn’t have picked a better shot to show off—Sisko and his crew waltzing their way down the promenade in the season 7 episode “Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang,” draped in their finest 1960s attire to go save holo-crooner Vic Fontaine. It’s a great shot, and it looks wonderful, especially in this comparison between the new footage and old made by TrekCore:

It’s clear a lot of work and love has gone into remastering this footage from the original film — not only letting it be seen in the highest quality possible, but beyond the 4:3 format DS9 was actually presented in on TV, DVD, and now on streaming. But, as Behr notes in this update, although the second round of funding did mean What We Left Behind will now entirely use remastered HD footage of the series, the process is so extensive and expensive the project will now no longer be finished this year.

But frankly, as Behr also notes, as annoying as that is, it’s entirely worth it. Given that the incredibly difficult process of converting DS9 and its sister show Voyager into HD likely means that neither show will get a commercially-released remaster in the way The Next Generation did, What We Left Behind might be the only time we ever get to see one of the best sci-fi shows ever made in all its clean, crisp glory. Even if it’s only footage amounting to the equivalent of half a regular episode of DS9, it’s an opportunity that Behr clearly didn’t want to miss.

If you still want to donate to What We Left Behind’s funding of the HD remasters — which is still an ongoing process — you can do so here.


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