Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 1 [Blu-ray]
Description
Space. The Final Frontier. The U.S.S. Enterprise embarks
on a five year mission to explore the galaxy. The Enterprise is under the
command of Captain James T. Kirk. The First Officer is Mr. Spock, from the
planet Vulcan. The Chief Medical Officer is Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy. With a
determined crew, the Enterprise encounters Klingons, Romulans, time paradoxes,
tribbles and genetic supermen lead by Khan Noonian Singh. Their mission is to
explore strange new worlds, to seek new life and new civilizations, to boldly
go where no man has gone before. In 1966, Star Trek set out to
boldly go where no series had gone before, beginning a three-year mission that
led to a franchise that would last decades. Here at last is the first season
of the original series all in one box, 29 episodes in their original broadcast
order. That means starting with “The Man Trap,” and soon followed by “Where No
Man Has Gone Before,” the second pilot filmed and the first one starring
William Shatner as Captain Kirk. The many highlight episodes include “Balance
of Terror” and “Errand of Mercy” (introducing, respectively, the Romulans and
the Klingons), the two-part “The Menagerie” (which recycled footage from the
original pilot, “The Cage,” which featured Christopher Pike as the captain of
the Enterprise and is not included in this set), “Space Seed” (introducing
Ricardo Montalban’s Khan character), and “The City of the Edge of Forever”
(written by sci-fi giant Harlan Ellison and considered by many the best-ever
episode of the series). The first-season DVD set is supplemented by 80 minutes
of featurettes incorporating 2003-04 interviews with Shatner, Leonard Nimoy,
other cast members, and producers, and some 1988 footage of Gene Roddenberry.
The longest (24 minutes) featurette, “The Birth of a Timeless Legacy,”
examines the two pilot episodes and the development of the crew. Slightly
shorter are “To Boldly Go… Season One,” which highlights key episodes, and
“Sci-Fi Visionaries,” which discusses the series’ great science fiction
writers (most famously in “The City of the Edge of Forever”). Shatner shows
off his love of horses in “Life Beyond Trek,” and, more interestingly, Nimoy
debunks various rumors in “Reflections of Spock.” As they’ve done for many of
the feature-film special editions, Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda provide a
pop-up text commentary on four of the episodes filled with history, trivia,
and dry wit. It’s the first commentary of any kind for a Star Trek TV show,
but an audio commentary is still overdue. The technical specs are mostly the
same as other Trek TV series–Dolby 5.1, English subtitles–but with the
welcome addition of the episode trailers. The plastic case is an attempt to
replicate some of the fun packaging of the series’ European DVD releases, but
it’s a bit clunky, and the paper sleeve around the disc case seems awkward and
crude. Still, the set is a vast improvement both in terms of shelf space and
bonus features compared to the old two-episode discs, which were released
before full-season boxed sets became the model for television DVDs. –David
Horiuchi
Features:
Product Details:
- Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, TV
- Format: Multiple Formats, Box set, Blu-ray, DTS Surround Sound, Dolby, Color, Closed-captioned
- Contributor: Majel Barret, Walter Koenig, James Doohan, William Shatner, George Takei, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols See more
- Language: English
- Number Of Discs: 7
- Aspect Ratio : 1.33:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 0.01 Ounces
- Item model number : 455608068
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, Box set, Blu-ray, DTS Surround Sound, Dolby, Color, Closed-captioned
- Run time : 24 hours and 20 minutes
- Release date : July 19, 2016
- Actors : George Takei, Majel Barret, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Leonard Nimoy
- Dubbed: : French, Spanish