Product Details

• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Paramount Home Video
• DVD Release Date: July 11, 2000
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305910448
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #125,028 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Vulcan-born first officer of The Enterprise, Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), generally smiles about as often as Greta Garbo. But in "This Side of Paradise," Spock not only smiles but laughs, dangles from a tree, kisses a good-looking blonde woman, and gets into a fight with his best friend. It all starts when Spock, Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Sulu (George Takei), and a couple of crew members beam down to Omicron Ceti III to find out what happened to a group of scientists who built a research colony on the planet. What they discover is a little spooky. The colonists claim they've created a true paradise where everyone is part of a collective mind bent on positivity. Kirk, naturally, argues that paradise robs people of their need to suffer and crawl toward progress.

Meanwhile, Spock is zapped by an exotic flower that is the real source of all this community goodwill, and he instantly gets happy, acting like a kid, renewing a romance with a comely biologist (an angelic Jill Ireland), and giving the sputtering Kirk an earful of entertaining insubordination. Story editor D.C. Fontana's script contains some obvious parallels between a chemically induced "paradise" and a drug-induced high in the 1960s. But the real draw here is Spock's uncharacteristic joy and the drama behind Kirk's shattering decision to break his friend's heart.

"Devil in the Dark" opens with an emergency on Janus VI, a planet rich in raw materials crucial to the running of Federation operations. There's a lot of money to be made by the mining contractor involved, but a swift, unseen monster is roaming the snaky tunnels of Janus's interior, turning miners into acid-drenched goo. It's up to the Enterprise crew to find the alien culprit and defuse the lynch-mob mentality spreading among the paranoid working stiffs there. Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) beam down to initiate the detective work, leading Spock to quickly conclude that the thousands of silicone balls mysteriously strewn about the planet's deepest level might have something to do with the reasons behind the atrocities.

Written by series guru Gene L. Coon and directed by mainstay Joseph Pevney (who alternated directorial chores with Marc Daniels during the show's second season), "The Devil in the Dark" is a breathlessly paced episode reflecting a delightful variety of cross-genre influences--Westerns, creature-features, gritty noir. Add one of the most effective and moving instances of the Enterprise's search for new life on Star Trek (plus McCoy's infamous complaint, "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!"), and this is a memorable program indeed. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

"This Side of Paradise," Ep. 25 - Omicron Ceti III's colonists should have been killed by deadly Berthold rays, yet Kirk finds a group of mysteriously healthy colonists--and Spock falls in love! "The Devil in the Dark," Ep. 26 - Kirk and Spock beam down to Janus VI to investigate after an unknown monster roaming the planet's tunnels kills more than 50 miners.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alien Encounters, July 2, 2001

By 

Hank Drake (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 13, Episodes 25 & 26: This Side of Paradise/ The Devil in the Dark (DVD)

Volume 13 of Paramount's complete Star Trek reissue contains two episodes long popular with fans.

This Side of Paradise is known primarily as the episode where Spock falls in love. This sensitive story was written by D. C. Fontana, who wrote many of the series' best scripts. Spock had been mostly asexual since the beginning of the series, but when Leonard Nimoy began to receive large quantities of fan mail, the writers decided to come up with a romance for Spock. This episode allows Nimoy to stretch his acting muscles and prove he can do more than merely raise his eyebrow. Seeing Spock come under the influence of the alien spores ("I love you. I can love you.") and finally escape his self-imposed purgatory of logic is akin to watching a butterfly escape from its cocoon. The scene with Kirk alone on the abandoned bridge is a searing portrait of the loneliness of command, excellently acted by Shatner.

William Shatner has referred to The Devil in The Dark as his favorite episode. It's easy to see why: the story, dealing with the crew encountering a new life form which makes the crew reconsider their actions, summarizes everything that Star Trek is about. The timelessness of the story makes it possible to overlook the rather dated Horta costume. This episode was also close to Shatner's heart for a very different reason: while filming the Horta mind-meld scene with Leonard Nimoy, he was notified that his father had passed away. Ever the professional, and knowing that he would not be able to catch a flight for several hours, Shatner refused to abandon that day's filming--although the scene remained unfinished until he returned from his father's funeral. Nimoy remained at his side for the remainder of the day, which cemented their relatively new friendship. Fortunately, there are no continuity problems resulting from the break in filming. In a reversal of the norm, Shatner underplays his performance during Spock's agonizing mild-meld with the Horta, allowing Nimoy to shine.

The picture has never looked better, with great colors and flesh tones, particularly in the outdoor scenes. The sound has been remastered in multichannel stereo.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two of the best episodes of ST:TOS, October 24, 2001

By 

Ross Nordeen (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 13, Episodes 25 & 26: This Side of Paradise/ The Devil in the Dark (DVD)

This is the first (and so far only) set of episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series that I've purchased. One of the main reasons is that so few of the sets contain more than one good episode. The highly erratic quality of the show and the (correct) decision to release the episodes in the exact order that they aired often means that one has to pick up a dud to get a favorite.

Fortunately, the two episodes on this disk are real gems. The first, "This Side of Paradise" is a great "Spock" episode, letting the viewer get to know the coldly logical Vulcan and explore his past. The second episode, "The Devil in the Dark" is a well-done sci-fi monster story.

Sadly, little is done to take advantage of the DVD format. There are no commentaries and only minimal extras in the form of trailers for the episodes. I hope Paramount does a better job when they release the DVD's for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reaching an emotional core, July 12, 2000

By 

Michael Colvin "DVD collector" (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 13, Episodes 25 & 26: This Side of Paradise/ The Devil in the Dark (DVD)

Two classic episdoes on this DVD, filled with some of the really tough questions. What is paradise? What is considered to be alive? There are just some of the questions which this DVD raises.

In "This Side of Paradise", The Enterprise crew becomes infected with a mind altering "spore" which transforms them into an ideal state of mind. The parallel to me from the late 70's is clear: the spores are a metaphor for drugs. The statement being that spores (drugs) might put you in an ideal "place", but without need nor want, there is no reason to exist.

In "The Devil in the Dark", a silicon-based lifeform attackes miners because her eggs were being destroyed. The classic "care for our earth" motto and "respect all forms of life" themes are definately being presented.

That's the best part of Star Trek. It has its morals, it has its really tough questions. But it was disguised in a way that it was still "entertaining". Best of all, both of these episdoes make you think!

The quality of both the sound and the picture are excellent, and of very high quality.

Overall, a great buy!