Title: Star Trek: The Complete Original Series
Creator: Gene Roddenberry
Directors: Marc Daniels, Joseph Pevney, Vincent McEveety, Ralph Senensky
Starring: Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, Walter Koenig, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Majel Barrett
Certificate: PG
Discs: 20
Duration: 4,300 minutes (79 x 50 minute episodes)
The Final Frontier
Space: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship, Enterprise, its five year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
This one, mighty, awesome, boxset contains all of the 79 episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series – the classic science fiction series created by Gene Roddenberry. Each episode plus selected special features is presented in high-definition for the first time ever.
Personal Memories of Star Trek
I remember watching this show as a fairly young child, probably from the age of around five or six, with my Dad. It would have been when they were re-run on UK TV in the early 1980s. I loved Star Trek. The reason that I loved Star Trek then and why I still love it now in all of its wonderful incarnations – whether it’s starring Bill Shatner, Patrick Stewart or Scott Bakula – is because it is quite simply some of the finest TV ever made. There is no wonder that it spawned several spin-off shows in the form of Star Trek: The Next Generation (consistently strong in terms of acting, direction and writing), Star Trek: Voyager (started out slowly but gathered momentum as the seasons went on and finished with several very strong seasons), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (again started out quite slowly but improved as the seasons went by and characters such as Worf were introduced) and Star Trek: Enterprise (too short-lived and in many ways one of the best of the spin-offs, which boasted strong characterisation and some inspired writing). Each of the spin-offs had their own strengths and weaknesses and no doubt slightly different fan-bases but they were without doubt some of the best sci-fi on TV at the time of airing and are certainly well worth collecting on DVD, or Blu-ray where available.
But let’s get back to where it all started with Star Trek: The Original Series as it’s now called, or as I’ll refer to it from now on: Star Trek: TOS It’s strange in many respects to go back and watch all of the 79 original episodes. I’d certainly not seen them all as a child or since. I don’t think that they have really had much airtime in the UK since the mid 1980s which is a shame
Highlighting the Best Episodes
There are just a few too many episodes to talk about them all in depth but I do want to bring your attention to some of the very best. I’d like to pick three from season one: The Corbomite Maneuver. The Enterprise comes across a space buoy that blocks its path. Kirk destroys the buoy only for it to be replaced by a spaceship by the name of the Fesarius which accuses them of trespassing in its space and threatens to destroy. Kirk employs a fantastic bluff in the form of the Corbomite Maneuver. It’s a classic episode. Arena is the episode with the Gorn – an alien that destroys an Earth colony. Kirk and the Gorn are thrown into a deadly battle. It’s another classic. Finally from season one I’ve chosen Space Seed which is the episode which introduces Khan (from the Star Trek movie The Wrath of Khan) played to perfection by Ricardo Montalban. Khan is found in a drifting ship in suspended animation with the rest of his drew. He is a genetically enhanced superhuman. He tries to steal the Enterprise.
I’d like to choose three favourites from season two: Mirror, Mirror. A transporter malfunction sends Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura to a parallel mirror universe whilst evil copies of the crew members beam aboard our Enterprise. It’s a classic that has been repeated in Star Trek spin-offs. The Doomsday Machine sees the Enterprise find a wreaked USS Constellation that has been almost destroyed by a robot ship. Finally from season two I’d choose a real fan favourite – The Trouble with Tribbles in which hundreds of furry creatures cause havoc abroad the Enterprise. This is another episode that has been re-imagined and crossed over into a later Star Trek spin-off when Tribbles overran Deep Space Nine. And one final favourite episode that I would choose from season three is The Tholian Web in which a violent hysteria grips the crew of the Enterprise, it’s an illness that destroyed the entire crew of the USS Defiant, can Spock save Kirk and the rest of the crew? It’s a special episode because there is just so much going on, as the Enterprise is also under attack by the Tholians.
Production Problems
Star Trek: TOS was apparently plagued by difficulties due to a lack of faith from the network that created the shows such as a miniscule budget…. That Bill Shatner suggests would “barely pay the catering bill on a TV show these days”. But I don’t believe it shows. The costumes and sets are far better than similar shows of around the same time such as Dr Who and Space 1999 as are the special effects – even before they were so painstakingly upgraded.
Some of the production problems that plagued Star Trek: TOS now seem totally crazy. The first season of the show was produced by a TV company called Desilu and the final two seasons were produced by Paramount, but neither company really put any weight or money behind the show, they simply didn’t believe that the show would do well. Of course a small, but fanatical following – that grew as the years went on and meant that the motion pictures were well received – even after the decline of the original series proved that Star Trek would continue to live on to this day and no doubt for many more years to come. The show aired on the CBS network. The ratings for the first season were not good. However, airing the show at the later time of 8:30-9:30 at night, even on a Friday, was not a good time for younger viewers – who at the time made up a fairly large proportion of the show’s audience. The third and final season was aired on the NBC network and the show was moved to 10:00-11:00 at night, once again on a Friday – a slot that was known at the ‘death slot’ which obviously harmed ratings still further. The most unbelievable factor in this decision to give Star Trek the ‘death slot’ was the fact that this move was taken in order to make sure that it didn’t conflict with a, then highly successful show, by the name of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. The point being that have you ever even heard of that show? Did that show stand the test of time? But Star Trek suffered because of silly decisions like that.
Further nails in the Star Trek TV show’s coffin were NBC reducing Star Trek's already small budget, which sadly affected the quality of many episodes for third season. These budget cuts would later be described by members of the cast as “intentional efforts to kill off Star Trek”. The third season production budget was ten percent lower than it had been for the first season and thus Star Trek's demise became a self-fulfilling prophecy. It was a sad end for the show. Of course several years later there was an animated version of Star Trek: TOS, featuring the voices of the cast and of course, as we know, by the early 1980s the show found new life in re-runs and a number of motion pictures, so all was not lost for Kirk and his crew.
Restoration of Star Trek: TOS to bring it up to HD standard for release on Blu-ray
The restoration work that has been done on the transfer to bring it up to as close to the very best HD possible is nothing less than exceptional. It’s been entirely digitally re-mastered with the original camera negatives that were originally shot being used. The transfers for each and every episode were scanned into a computer and turned from print to digital and then cleaned of dirt, tears, scratches, stains and other imperfections. The contrast and colour were then also greatly enhanced. It’s clear that the prints have been looked at in a meticulous manner and worked on tirelessly to clean them up and remove imperfections and it looks fantastic. But I’m not surprised as Star Trek: TOS is owned by the CBS Network – the network that did the fantastic restoration job on The Twilight Zone series.
The New CGI Exterior Effects Shots
What is perhaps even more impressive is the beautifully rendered and perfectly conceived new exterior special effects shots. What am I talking about? Well if you take a show such as Star Trek: TOS and clean it up and bring it up to HD standard then you are likely to find that (even if they too are cleaned up) that the original special effects shots from the late 1960s (whilst ground-breaking at the time of production) are now unfortunately, but inevitably, going to look a bit shoddy by comparison. So what do you do? You re-imagine all of the exterior shots of the Enterprise, be it warping through space or orbiting a planet, they all have to be re-drawn. Of course with new computer generated images it would have been simple for the team to have made the space sequences looks top-notch – as good as anything you might see in a film today. But therein lies another problem the latest CGI shots would conversely look too good. But it was a problem that the graphic designers at Paramount had the perfect answer for. An inspired decision was made by the Visual Effects team Denise and Michael Okuda, Dave Rossi and Neil Wray – to upgrade the exterior shots.
It’s clear that the team spent a great deal of time deciding what to do. They were careful to respect the original material and to consider what the artists back in the 1960s would have done if they could have done it. So they improved the effects shots to a level that they perceived that the makers of the show would have wanted, or envisaged, back in the late 1960s if they had at the time and the technology to create it.
The end result is simply perfect. The shots look fantastic and most importantly they are not incongruous with the rest of the show. Planets that were once merely a swirl of red, blue, or white now have the added detail of landmasses, oceans and even mountains, icecaps and weather systems. The Enterprise herself is unchanged in shape and design but is rendered in exquisite HD detail. There are also some exciting little changes and additions to look out for: the blink of the Gorn’s eyes in Arena the extra detail of the outpost in the opening of The Naked Time, the Enterprise deploying satellites, from hitherto unknown bomb-bay doors, in Operation - Annihilate! or the increased levels of dimension and detail of the glowing coloured space buoy cube, or the Fesarius spaceship, in The Corbomite Maneuver. And if you’re looking to be simply blown away by the new special effects shots – be sure to check out The Doomsday Machine – it’s jaw-droppingly good.
Anyone wanting to watch the show as it was originally filmed needn’t worry as every episode is available in its original format as well as with the upgraded effects – both are in HD and you can even switch seamlessly between options mid-episode to compare and contrast, at the touch of a button. All of this is discussed in one of the HD special features – Spacelift: Transporting Trek into the 21st Century.
Re-mastered and Re-recorded Sound and Music
Also upgraded is the entire sound mix, now in DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround sound, you’ll be able to hear the hum of the Enterprise engines in the rear speakers, the sound of phaser-fire pinging around the front speakers and crystal clear dialogue coming from the central speaker, as explosions rumble through the subwoofer. It’s a full on Star Trek experience and it sounds amazing.
Naturally the team updating the show also saw this as a chance to update the theme music as well as naturally musical recording techniques have improved considerably over the years. The Star Trek theme tune was originally composed by Alexander Courage and here it is beautifully upgraded. The theme music has been entirely re-recorded, using the same instruments, voicings and arrangements and of course a soprano, by contemporary conductor Greg Smith instructing an orchestra of 29 players. Many of the players have played on contemporary Star Trek spin-offs so it was believed they had a vested interest in Star Trek’s success and they’ve done a great job.
Special Features
There are lots of special features, too numerous to talk about them all in this already lengthy review, plus some of them are very short and quite honestly not that appealling, however there are a selection of very impressive extras that I would like to talk about.
For instance there are a number of Life Beyond Trek featurettes each featuring a different cast member talking about his or her role, including, Bill Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Deforrest Kelly, Walter Keonig, James Doohan, George Takei and others. Each of them tend to take the form of interview snippets but they all have a moment or two in that is priceless and make them all worth watching closely.
There is also a three part Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest featurette (one installment on each disc) that deals with rare home movies and special memories of Star Trek: TOS. They are enjoyable slots of roughly 10 minutes a peice. Billy Blackburn was a supporting actor on the show, stand-in and a makeup tester. They are well worth a watch also.
One of the very best features that I have already mentioned is on the season one discs: Spacelift: Transporting Trek into the 21st Century, which discusses all of the work done to upgrade and enhance the show. If you like technical stuff, it's a really interesting featurette, and it's still fairly accessible even to people who are not a technical whizz, I wished there was more of this information.
On the season three discs there is also a featurette entitled To Boldly Go… which delves into the letter-writing campaign that helped to save the show for a third season, it's worth watching to understand a little more about TV products of the late 60s and how things worked.
Overall the special features are very good and it's really great to see some of them in HD as well.
A Very Special TV Show
Star Trek: TOS stands the test of time and it now looks better than ever, and indeed how many people involved with the show believe it should always have looked – technology permitting. It’s a truly special show that will live on for many years in the hearts and minds of its legions of fans across the world.
Star Trek had some excellent science-fiction writers such as Robert Bloch (who wrote Psycho), Harlan Ellison, and Theodore Sturgeon. Other more regular writers included Gene Roddenberry himself, Gene L. Coon and Dorothy Catherine ‘D.C.’ Fontana. Fontana was originally Gene Roddenberry's secretary but apparently took a chance to write and did so with considerable flair penning Tomorrow is Yesterday, Friday's Child, Journey to Babel, This Side of Paradise, and The Enterprise Incident. A quite prolific writer Fontana also wrote under the pseudonym of Michael Richards for That Which Survives and The Way to Eden.
In the 1960s and 1970s perhaps space travel on a starship such as the Enterprise seemed fairly likely, not so much science-fiction but science-almost-fact. I believe for viewers in the late 1960s it must have seemed within reaching distance by the end of the 20th century. Of course here we are in 2011 and not much further in terms of distance covered of exploring space, so the stories are still science fiction, which is perhaps why the stories have so far been timeless. Having said that I do believe that Star Trek will live on throughout the 21st century as but a mere moment captured in time when one man – Gene Roddenberry – captured the imagination of so many and created Star Trek.
I have a lot of affection for this show. I genuinely believe that this re-mastered release of Star Trek: TOS in HD on Blu-ray is a real gem and that it is well worth your time and money. I love it and I hope that I've been able to express my love of this series in this review and convey to you just how good I think it is in terms of writing, direction, acting and now image and sound quality as well.
