is considered by many now to have been way ahead of its time back in 1966 when it first hit the television airwaves. So isn’t it about time that this series come to the new media format of Blu-Ray? And just in time for J.J. Abrams’ reimagining of the franchise, hitting theaters this Friday.
As of Friday, Star Trek: Season One was number on in Amazon’s Blu-Ray category, which bodes well for the future of the series. Everything that’s been accomplished with the Star Trek name started with the first season of the first series, so this set is the ambassador for the new generation who were smart enough to get Blu-Ray players instead of HD-DVD players.
It’s about a year-and-a-half since the HD-DVD/DVD set of Star Trek: Season One came out, and it looks like most of the features and extras on this Blu-Ray set were created for that one. In fact, much of the work upgrading the video, special effects and audio of the original episodes themselves was for it. Unfortunately, in the new millennium format wars, HD-DVD lost and suddenly you’ve got these beautifully remastered episodes of a classic show on a dead format. Which brings us to these Blu-Ray sets.
It also helps that while that HD-DVD set was more than $200 retail, this Blu-Ray set is listing for only $129.99, but you can get it as little as $64.99 right now on Amazon, just in time for the new movie.
Starfleet Access
Available on the following episodes: (Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Manegerie Parts I & II, Balance of Terror, Space Seed and Errand of Mercy)
In the world of standard DVD, these would be considered episodes with audio commentary. With Picture-In-Picture commentary and pop-up tidbits of information,we get examinations on the challenges the team had in remastering the specific scenes for the HD-DVD set, like the day and night background scenes in the beginning of “The Manegrie.” But we also get classic commentary stuff like D.C. Fontana talking in “Where No Man Has Gone Before” about the evolution of the character of Spock, and even the reshooting of the pilot after recasting Captain Pike for Captain Kirk.
Special Features
Spacelift: Transporting Trek into the 21st Century
This documentary takes a look at the work that was put into upgrading those original episodes with new special effects, stereo sound and improved video graphics for that HD-DVD set. From recreating an orchestra to re-record the opening theme to the series, to cleaning up old dirty and ripped footage to splicing in those new special effects sequences, it’s pretty interesting if you’re into all that behind-the-scenes stuff.
Reflections on Spock
If you don’t care about any of that technical crap, you’ve always got Leonard Nimoy’s reflections on playing the iconic character of Mr. Spock. He talked about his book I Am Not Spock, and how it was misunderstood as a cry against the character. He denies it now, but perhaps he was concerned about being typecast, which happens to many actors who play iconic characters. You could, however, feel a genuine fondness for Nimoy’s association with the character and the entire larger Star Trek world.
Life Beyond Trek: William Shatner
Whereas Nimoy spent his time seriously reflecting on the role, as you would expect a Vulcan to do, Shatner talked about horses. He had nothing at all to say about the show. Instead, we got an impassioned discussion about Shatner’s love of professional horse reining. I guess he is the captain, but as someone who’s a science fiction fan and not an equestrian it was pretty boring. I wanted to know what it was like banging every hot alien and losing a guy in a red shirt on every planet, not what it’s like making a horse run in a very tight circle.
“To Boldly Go…” Season One
What a great documentary looking back at the creation of a legendary show. Regular cast members, guest stars like Ricardo Mantalban (Kahn) and crewmen talked about what it was liking creating this magical science fiction world in the ’60s. They talked about various episodes, pranks played on set and personal experiences outside the show, like the death of Shatner’s father during filming. And look at that, Bill Shatner is actually talking about Star Trek, even if he does seem to have a horrible sinus infection. Maybe they had to drug him to get him to shut the hell up about horses.
The Birth of a Timeless Legacy
Looking back at the birth of Star Trek, focusing on creator Gene Rodenberry’s initial pilot “The Cage” and the development from concept to the second pilot that finally made it to air and introduced classic Trek. This is the kind of documentary feature you want on a show as important and pivotal for the rest of entertainment as Star Trek turned out to be. It was very well put together and featured some nice archived interview footage from Rodenberry himself.
Sci-Fi Visionaries
Basically a continuation of the prior documentary, this time we look at the larger science fiction concepts that made their way into the show. Rodenberry even insisted on bringing in science fiction authors to add a sense of sci-fi credibility to the first several scripts.
Interactive Enterprise Inspection
This is a neat little application where you act as a shuttle inspector conducting an inspection of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The computer-based simulation provides computer graphics of the ship and audio details of various sections. You navigate via your remote. Sure, the graphics aren’t exactly X-BOX 360, but it gets the job done and is a fun distraction for awhile.
Billy Blackburn’s Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories
The exciting and dramatic story of the guy who sits to the right in front of Captain Kirk. He was the navigator on-screen, the white rabbit, the Gorn (close-ups) and even performed as stand-in for several scenes. Basically, this is the story of an extra, but despite that he was very charismatic and offered a unique perspective on the whole experience and actually provided some in-depth observations about the sets and the “tricks” they used to make the magic work.
What really made Blackburn unique was that he ran around the set with a camcorder filming everything for his own personal collection, so we get to see some of that footage, including the cameras and crewmen and location scenes. Again, offering one of the better views on the whole experience.
Kiss ‘N Tell: Romance in the 23rd Century
And finally, the last documentary on the last disc touched on one of the most famous cliches of the original Trek: Captain Kirk and the galaxy of hot chicks. Lots of soft lighting close-ups and lots of alien nookie. Occasionally someone outside of Kirk even got into the action. Half serious, half tongue-in-cheek, it was a very watchable examination of the ladies of the stars.
Summary
For Trek purists, you can enjoy the episodes as they were originally broadcast, before they were “Spacelifted” into the 21st Century. And in one of the snazzier tricks, you can even click back-and-forth while watching an episode from the original broadcast effects to the remastered effects until your nose starts to bleed. That way the boxed set works for fans both new and old.
With all the commentary and documentaries on the set, it’s a great way to introduce the Star Trek phenomenon to a whole new audience, maybe one that will come filing out of movie theaters soon wanting to find out where this whole thing began. You can’t do much better at pleasing the older fans and making something so old and some would say corny completely accessible to new and modern audiences as well.
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Apr 27, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
Looking forward to this set, but one nitpick – I don’t think they had “camcorders” during the production of TOS. Perhaps Billy Blackburn was using a Super 8 film camera?