Bluray Review: Star Trek TOS Season One
Paramount Goes All Out with Hi-Def Release of Classic First Season
May 10, 2009
To coincide with the release of the newest feature film about the Starship Enterprise, Paramount is going back to the show that started it all.
Introducing us to such stalwart heroes as Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Doctor McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Season One is finally out in the new high definition format.
Essentially a royal treatment which can easily be called the penultimate experience of the show, Season One comes complete with countless bonus features, sure to satisfy the most discriminating Trekkie.
(Warning: The writer of this article is an avowed Trek fan, and isn't afraid to say so. Nuff said, this is still an objective analysis of the product at hand, however you have been warned)
Let us look at the goodies this first bluray installment (of three seasons, the next two to be released soon) brings, with an analysis of what the good people at Paramount have offered, to appease the masses who kept clamoring for this classic show to get the deluxe experience, bells, whistles and all.
Brief Overview of What to Expect From Star Trek TOS Season One Bluray
First and foremost, any group of tech savvy Hollywood video wizards who can bring up the level of image quality on a vintage 1960's television show of this sort, deserves as much praise as can be mustered.
This first season of the bunch, also its longest (with 30 episodes -- 29 if you count the two-parter "The Menagerie" as a single item), is cleaned up to a pristine color level yet seen for a show of this age. Despite the pan-and-scan format (widescreen standards for TV shows have only come up in the past few years), it is still impressive to see the sheer difference compared to the original remastered DVD release offered a short while back.
When comparing the video quality between standard DVD and Bluray, there is just no contest, as the boys at CBS Digital laboriously spent countless hours cleaning up every single frame of the memorable shows. Paramount is getting a reputation for this, having helped Coppola give a similar treatment to his Godfather films last year.
While most would say that the hi-def remastered episodes themselves, with 7.1 sound quality, is enough of a treat for hardcore fans and newcomers alike, most will be delighted with the added features now attached to this version, which makes it a versatile set for purists. Fans will rediscover beloved Season One classics such as "City on the Edge of Forever", "Balance of Terror" and "Space Seed" (Khan's original appearance).
Many had argued the need for Paramount to rework the visual effects which had already been redone on the aforementioned remastered DVDs. Fans of the classic version had hoped the Bluray release would take the original (though relatively primitive) special effects into consideration, rather than go all George Lucas on viewers, and eliminate any previous versions permanently, thus encouraging viewers to look to the future with these remastered flyby shots, phaser effects, matte paintings, etc.
The fans' prayers havebeen answered, as rather than forever condemning the crude 1960's F/X elements, this bluray set instead lets the audience choose between either one, at the touch of a button. Though to be honest, the visual wizards have really outdone themselves on the new shots, and this high-def treatment only enhances the newer, better shots.
Star Trek TOS Season One Bluray Special Features
The coolest aspect of note (in this writer's humble opinion) on this Season One set of 7 dual layer discs, is the option of what is called a "Starfleet Access" available for about six of the season's better episodes.
Think of this feature as a Trek version of MTV's famous (or infamous) Pop-Up Video segments, with useful nuggets of trivia popping up on screen at opportune moments in the show. Rather than inundate the viewer with useless minutiae, the pop-ups come in the form of short video clips of the original actors being interviewed about said scene (this itself is a feat: not all of these actors are alive nowadays!), or an insightful factoid about behind-the scenes goings on about the making of said episode.
Several additional featurettes are offered throughout, in the form of cast interviews, tributes to people past and present who have participated on both sides of the camera, and so on.
Some elements of this set are forgettable, namely the "Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest" segment (the same as was seen on the original DVD version), and an elaborate CGI segment called "Ship Inspection", which is nothing more than a slow, section-by-section breakdown explanation of the Enterprise's ship functions, from the shuttle bay to the phaser banks. Interesting to some, repetitive to others.
Star Trek TOS Season One Bluray Overall Analysis
This set delivers on all of its promises, by offering the best of all of its previous digital incarnations, and more. By playing around with the BD Live function of this package, viewers will be able to get up to the minute updates of new content associated with the subject at hand. While experimenting with this feature, this reviewer was able to download video and photo footage from a Trek convention in Germany, which had taken place not even 24 hours prior to the viewing of the discs.
Granted, this type of extra material may seem like overkill to some, however it is still impressive to see how the people behind this Trek release have gone out of their way to maximize, all futuristic-like, on all of the bluray format's potential.
By researching what its core audience wanted out of this latest release, Paramount has gone ahead and taken the next step into what will no doubt be a very active future in digital entertainment.
9 out of 10 for a well put-together product, with versatile features, high quality video and sound material, and meticulous treatment of classic TV material. Well done.
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