No, it's not actually this bad, but the fan remasters I have seen definitely suffer from the usual AI "upscaling" issues like smooth skin, weird text, etc. What is the best quality these shows can actually be found in?
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AI disclaimer: If it's not obvious, the punchline at the bottom is an AI-generated image. I found it by browsing already-generated Trek-themed AI images. I believe this post fits the AI rule on this community, but I understand if not. My first idea for the punchline was to run a photo of the DS9 cast through a 2015-ish Deep Dream model or whatever (the kind that makes nonsense like this), but apparently that's no longer a thing.
DS9 (and probably voyager, but definitely DS9 per some documentaries) was filmed on 35mm and then transfered to D-2 tape at 480i. Shots that required CGI were transfered to D-1 tape (both store an uncompressed digital recording, but D-1 stores component video instead of composite with D-2.) CGI shots got transferred to separate D-1 tapes and sent to Paramount to be finalized and merged onto the lower-quality D-2 tapes. Nevermind that they had several very low resolution assets that would be used depending on visual fidelity needed (computers were slow and didn't have a lot of memory or storage.) Here's a cool interview with the Senior CG Supervisor for Voyager talking about the work they did making the assets. https://blog.trekcore.com/2013/07/voyagers-visual-effects-creating-the-cg-voyager-with-rob-bonchune/
Also also - the DS9 doc "What We Left Behind" has some non-CGI shots from DS9 properly restored and remastered. I remember the scene where they're all walking to the holodeck in the casino heist episode was featured, I'm sure there were some others.
That was very educational, thank you.
Also, I would assume that this is how they did composite and CG on TNG as well. And since they kept the original 35mm film for TNG I want to believe the word that they also held onto the original reels for DS9 and VGR.
It pays to believe. They found the original version of Star Wars on film after Lucas swore it was lost forever.
I haven't busted out the special feature on my blu-ray in a while but from what I remember, TNG used far fewer special effects. They were mostly practical (physical models on strings or poles, for example). One example of a complete replacement that stands out in my mind is the crytalline entity. They talked about how bad the model looked in HD so they were forced to try and recreate it, but just modelling it as it was looked pretty bad too so they added some extra spines. I can't find the blu-ray specials but I did find a news segment interviewing the studio that did the actual production work. Really cool vid, I hadn't seen it before. https://youtu.be/dPHP5izB8MU