Star Trek DVD Reviews

Timed with the new theatrical Star Trek movie release, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment made available some great classic Star Trek items on DVD May 12th. These new DVDs include: The Best of Star Trek The Original Series, The Best of Star Trek The Next Generation, and Star Trek: Motion Picture Trilogy.

The Best of Star Trek: The Original Series celebrates the founding legacy of this epic and loved sci-fi phenomenon. The original, and young, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nemoy), McCoy (DeForest Kelley), and many more of the great characters of the original TV series (originally aired 1966-67) are featured in four of the best episodes, that include:

• The City on the Edge of Forever: Kirk, Spock, and McCoy enter the "Guardian Forever" archway and are transported to the 1930s, where Kirk falls for a doomed peace activist (Joan Collins).
• The Trouble with Tribbles: The Star Ship Enterprise is docked at the same space station as the Klingons, producing a full-scale brawl.
• Balance of Terror: The Enterprise crew battles the enemy Romulans for the first time. The Romulans use their cloacking device to become invisible.
• A Mok Time: Spock must mate or die. Kirk takes the Enterprise to the planet Vulcan. However, Spock's bride chooses Kirk as her champion, pitting him against Spock in a fight to the death.

Perhaps controversial when its crew initially entered the Enterprise, Star Trek: The Next Generation, led by Captian Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), soon established its own niche as a popular primetime sci-fi TV series. The Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation, also released on DVD May 12th, and it includes these four episodes (originally aired in 1989-90):

• The Best of Both Worlds (Part I): After a spectacular battle and chase, the Borg cube overtakes the Enterprise and the Borg abduct Captain Picard, taking over his mind and body.
• The Best of Both Worlds (Part II): Riker is Captain and the Enterprise temporarily outwits the Borg, allowing for Picard's rescue. The Enterprise crew tries to figure out how to stop the Borg from reaching the Earth.
• Yesterday's Enterprise: A rift in the space-time continuum brings the Enterprise-C 22 years into the future where it encounters a transformed Enterprise-D, now warring with the Klingons. This is only one of two episodes to feature two versions of the Enterprise.
• The Measure of a Man: The Enterprise docks at a new Starbase, where robotics specialist Commander Bruce Maddox convinces Starfleet to allow him to disassemble the android Data. The result is a hearing that could mean life or death for Data.

Finally, as modern technology and actors take over the Star Trek movie production, it is important to honor the motion picture legacy of the original Strek Trek crew. It is remarkable to think that even after a long-running success with the original TV series, the same actors managed to product six reasonably successful movies between 1982-1991. Perhaps most remarkable is that the same William Shatner that starred as Captain Kirk in 1966, starred as Captain Kirk through 1991 in the movies, and just finished his stint as Denny Crane on the now finished TV series Boston Legal. That is 52 years of TV making.

The Star Trek: Motion Picture Trilogy presents episodes II-IV in the 6-part movie series. In these episodes, the crew of the Enterprise sacrifice their lives, ship and freedom to save the universe from imminent destruction. There is heroism, duty, and friendship. Best of all, the movies are digitally restored and remastered in high definition with top picture quality and 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround EX. The movies include Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (II - 1982), Star Trek: The Search for Spock (III - 1984), and my personal favorite Star Trek: The Voyage Home (IV - 1986).

It is definitely a good time to be a Trekkie, a science fiction movie junkie, or just a fan of legendary TV and movies being reproduced and redistributed through the advanced technology of digital remastering and DVD.


DVD Reviews by Neil of Movie Room Reviews