Customer Reviews

Star Trek: The Original Series - Seasons 1-3 [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

When I first heard about the 40th anniversary remastered episodes, I was skeptical. Having seen the original Star Trek series on prime time TV in 1966, 67, & 68, and always liking it better than any of the other Star Trek series that came afterwards, I thought that it would be a huge mistake. I was wrong. These new effects are what Roddenbery would have done had he the budget and technology. They are not out of place; they very much have the feel and flavor of the live-action scenes and mesh perfectly. The live-action scenes themselves are now much sharper, colors more saturated, better contrast. Of course I have the complete series as it was originally broadcast- that is a must and I can't part with them. But the remastered episodes are just as essential. They are the original series episodes with the fine details that they have always deserved- even if it took 40 years to finally finish them. I can't imagine any of the original writers or directors having complaints about these remastered episodes- especially since they are in addition to, and not replacing- the series as it was first produced and broadcast.

You can read my formal review at dvdivas.net

Depending on when you purchase this the individual sets MAY be a better deal (as of 12/09 they are about $24 less)


This is for the Blu-ray three season set. Many folks are rating this based on THE PRICE (that's not what the star sysem is for folks--it's for the overall quality of the sets)my rating is based on the quality of the sets, their packaging and the original episodes themselves NOT THE PRICE.


In a nutshell: The show looks terrific and you can toggle between the original visual effects and the new ones with ease most of the time. The writing for the first two seasons was top notch with the third very much a hit-or-miss affair. The show looks stellar with new digitally prepared "prints" that have been cleaned up, color corrected and had damage repaired.

Extras are virtually identical to the last DVD set which also had the new visuals but we also get 3 new "Trek" extras (for all three seasons) Billy Blackburn's behind-the-scenes footage. This color footage was shot on location but without sound which gives us a unique look behind the production of the show. Ideally CBS/Paramount would have incorporated these into a new featurette with narration by Blackburn, Nimoy, Shatner and others discussing production for the various episodes but they are nice to have here with Blackburn's memories of working on the show.

Included is the original unaired alternate pilot for "Where No Man Has Gone Before" which keeps the original visual effects intact as well as alterned music and the edit is slightly different compared to the aired version. "The Cage" is included with both the "restored" color version as well as the black and white version that has come with all the previous sets BUT it is NOT in HD (I suspect the source material may only be SD videotape) it does, however, feature Roddenberry's original introduction.

We also get two Comicon 2009 featurettes (one hosted by David Gerrold writer of "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "The Cloud Miners" and an award winning novelist)as new featurettes on the third season set.

There are no additional discs or special features if you buy this boxed set of three vs. the individual titles.

For those who want to know the case for the third season is slightly thinner than the first two.


Bottom Line: Compare the price of the three seasons to the individual seasons before buying because there isn't anything else of value included here beyond what are on the individual sets.

CBS/Paramount has added a couple of special features here unique to each set but not every single special feature on the previous boxed sets appear here either (although most do). Buy whichever one you can get for the least price since there's nothing "special" about this bundling at this time.

OK, bear with me a bit here. I need to explain something.

I am a Star Trek fan of long standing, 35+ years at this point.

When I first heard that the original series was going to be re-released with all new effects, I was less than thrilled. Maybe this attitude is foreign to the younger people, but there is, for me, a certain charm in the original effects. While I acknowledge that the effects in the original Star Trek are sometimes not slick as you see in modern films, people need to realize and appreciate that they were working before the time of computer generated graphics -- and on a television budget. In short, the effects on the original series stand as an example of what dedicated, talented people could do when it all had to be done "the hard way". And it seemed disrespectful, at least, of that achievement to replace the hard work of those people. In fact, it seemed to me, at first, to really be just another way for more money to be milked out of both the fans and the series.

Then I started thinking. And reading. And considering. And, finally, I decided to take a peek for myself.

What I found is that the new effects are, as expected, as perfect as only a computer can make them. Perfect effects are, really, getting to be a ho-hum thing to me. I realize and recognize that it still takes talent and skill to create effects using a computer, but, honestly, when you can realize on the screen literally anything you want as easily as anything else... well, it just isn't the same. There just isn't that sense of "Wow, how did they DO that?" anymore.

But...

What I also found was that great and loving care was taken to preserve and actually enhance the original episodes through the use of this new technology.

Regardless of any debate on the merits of doing it or not, it's done -- and the results are superb.

The accompanying "bonus features" are also quite good.

There is no special box with this like that other reviewer reported. I'm sure that was just something the studio threw in for early reviewers/gifts etc etc. It comes shrink wrapped with a sticker. That's it. This is NOT a boxed set, it is a shrink wrapped bundle of 3 smaller boxed sets. Its very compact, the size is about 4 single blu-ray cases stacked up. Its not deluxe or impressive, its not a "Luxury Boxed Set". You are buying the contents not the packaging.

Whoever thought of this at CBS Video should be ashamed.

I love Star Trek. I have watched every episode multiple times. I recently began to watch the series with my kids and they love it too. We rented episodes of the 2004 series on DVD. These were great--5 stars. The original episodes, in their original format, with the original songs, the original visuals of the ship, everything. Totally Awesome!

We were renting so much I decided to take the plunge and buy the series. The 2004 wasn't available easily (you can find it on E-bay and used from Amazon), so I got the 2007 series. I figured "remastered" meant better picture. I could not be more disappointed. Where to start....

Let's start with the simple--There are *NO* labels on the DVDs.

1. Each DVD has no label on it whatsoever (unless you count the illegible 2 point font ring around the center). Unlike the 2004 release (which had both the title of each episode and cool pictures on each DVD) these DVDs have nothing. So, you are confronted with the problem of what episode on which disk. Should I label them with a sharpie, etc... Better not because ...

Season 1 has the defunct HD DVD on one side (the one that plays when the tiny font ring is facing up) and regular DVD on the other. The rest of the DVDs have the normal format on the side that plays when the font ring is facing up. Confused? Read on!

The DVD's are packaged in a clear hinged case that is like a stack. You cannot tell which DVD is which, which episode is on which DVD. You cannot separate the individual cases from the stack. This is such exceedingly bad design (especially given that they did such a nice job in 2004) it is maddening.

There is no apparent way to label the DVDs either. There is a set of translucent plastic "playing cards" at the back of each of the three stacks corresponding to each season. These don't fit in the DVD case and you have to pull them out each time to see what episode is on what DVD. Arg!!

Now for the Heresy--these episodes have all been ALTERED!

2. ***ALL*** scenes of the Enterprise (and other ships/stations and planets) have been removed and replaced with digitized versions of the ship, a la "Star Trek TNG". (the sole exception is the 2 second clip of the ship that appears in the trailer of each episode). This is supposed to be a "feature," and I suppose it is for folks who never actually saw the original series. I cannot emphasize this enough. They have removed every single shot of the ship and replaced it with digitized versions.

Gone are the cool hokey wobbly ship scenes from "The Galileo Seven," and the paper mache cone from "The Doomsday Machine". Replaced with digitized stuff.

It frankly beggars the imagination to understand folks who rejoice in this set! Really, the original show was great, no need to redo it. Even if one likes the new digitized ships, the poor packaging and lack of labels on the DVDs would limit this to at the most 3 stars.

Oh yes, the intro classic Star Trek theme has been redone. Suppose that is the coup de gras to all the mangling.

Finally, they seem to have removed the English subtitles in this version (a real pain for watching via a DVD player on the plane or when you need to keep the sound down). Yes, the 2004 version had very nice English subtitles. There is closed captioning in the 2007 release, but that feature doesn't work on most DVD players, just TV sets.

My personal theory is that all the 5* reviews are execs or shills of CBS Video, its affiliates, or folks interested in pushing the release of the new JJ Abrams Star Trek movie. Otherwise, it is baffling.

Summary--go thou and find the 2004 release, it is really cool and your kids will appreciate you for it.

Received this item today (ordered it yesterday... thanks Amazon Prime!) and it is quite amazing! Watch any episode, and you can see the amount of work that went into restoring these! Kudos to CBS and Paramount. The price for the 3 season set was actually LESS (on 12/22/2009) than purchasing each season individually by almost 15 dollars. Great value at the current price of about $170

OK, the good thing is they did proper scans of the earliest generation films possible. That's about where it ends. As everybody knows, they changed all the special effects shots. I'll repharase, they replaced cheap, cheesy 1960s special effects with cheap, cheesy 2000s special effects. They look hollow and fake at best. So if they weren't going to put in a real effort, why bother replacing them? At least the models used in the original series looked like actual objects rather than drawings. As for the rest of the restoration, the newly recorded theme bothers me to no end. They used the original monologue from Bill Shatner, why not the music? The rest of the music was remixed from their 3-track sources and sound great, no problems there. As for the picture, the image is noticably cleaner than it used to be, but they messed with the color/contrast a great deal, added people in the background where they didn't used to be. Really, why did they do this? I guess I'm in the school of thought where you ust don't mess with the classics. A lot of people say "well if CG was available back then, they would have used it". Yeah well, they didn't have CG so don't pretend they did by inserting it into an obviously 40+ year-old TV show.

As I am writing this, Amazon is "reviewing" this product and no longer offering it due to complaints about the blu ray sets of Strar Trek the original series - Seasons 1-3. I have this set and can tell you there is nothing wrong with it. There was no problem with the packaging, the picture or the audio on this set. The problem seems to be with peoples inability to know how to use the features of their blu ray players or thier audio equipment. There ARE options for the sound. If you don't have the right equipment you can always change the sound output to the original mono instead of the 7.1 DTS HD audio option. I have my blu ray hooked up to a two speaker system and when I have the audio of the blu ray player set to 7.1 DTS HD (this feature can be changed no matter if you are watching the original or enhanced version) I do notice that the sound seems lower. This is because my stereo is not set up for 7.1 DTS HD sound. I simply set the audio of my blu ray to the 2.0 mono and I can hear everything fine. It's not rocket science, people. As for all the other complaints...I think people are just being way too petty. I think the blu ray technology is a little too advanced for some of you. Hooking your blu ray player up to a non HD tv isn't going to improve the picture much. The same goes with the audio.
I waited a long time to own every Star Trek episode. I'm glad I didn't go with VHS or DVD because these Blu-ray discs are superior in every way. I hope Amazon will continue to offer this set to the rest of you. If they do, don't hesitate to buy it. Like I said, there's nothing wrong with these sets.

Star trek on blu ray.
First off i see that a lot of the reviews on this page are about the dvd remastered set and not the blu ray. I am a huge trek fan and was very excited when i hurd that it was om blu ray. lots of people are complaining about the remastered version. But on the blu ray set you get both the original and the remastered versions. not only this but they are both in full HD. so whats the point in complaining about the remastered when you dont have to watch it anyways.

This is a great set it has 20 discs total.
season 1: 7 discs
season 2: 7 discs
season 3: 6 discs
It has all 79 episodes in the original and remastered editions fully restored in HD.

My review is a bit delayed, as I purchased this set last summer. It took me over six months to go through all 20 BD disks, and I finally finished watching in early December.

I'm a long-time Star Trek fan (my first episode was the 1967 summer rerun of "Balance of Terror" on NBC). Yet I have never owned the complete series in any of its formats (VHS or DVD). As the complete series DVDs disappeared and became impossible to obtain (except for the disappointing remastered DVDs--more on that below), I thought I would never be able to own this classic series in its original, unaltered incarnation.

Thankfully, Paramount/CBS has released an absolutely superlative BluRay collection of all 79 original episodes and some surprising and unexpected extras.

The extra I was most anticipating is to be found on disk 6 of Season 3: the original unaired (and very rarely seen) version of Star Trek's second pilot episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before." This alone is nearly worth the price of the entire set. CBS was contacted by a German film collector who had the entire pilot in its original form on 35mm film. When CBS realized what he had, they agreed to pay for a complete HD scan, clean-up and re-color-timing of the whole film, which looks amazing, despite some occasional film damage. It's enjoyable to see the more serious tone generated by different theme music and "Quinn-Martin"-style act breaks, as well as more fight scene footage in the episode's climax.

Of course, that's not all Paramount/CBS did in preparing this set. The went back to the original negatives, did a complete clean-up and new color timing of every episode. Each episode is now a visual revelation and practically every frame is sparkling with color and life. This remaster has renewed my respect for the producers and craftsmen involved with this ground-breaking show. Not only does the higher resolution not reveal as many flaws as I suspected it might, it actually makes the sets and costumes used back then look even more impressive than I remember them. There are some early episodes where makeup and costume inconsistencies are more jarring in HD than before (like some zippers showing near the uniform collars, and the seams in Leonard Nimoy's Vulcan ear appliances), but you can see that their execution of their craft got better and better with each subsequent episode. The HD remaster looks so good that you'll soon forget that your first viewing of this incredible series was likely on a fuzzy black-and-white TV with ghosting on the signal reception.

It won't be that much of a cliché after you get your first viewing of these on BD, but here it is: it's like watching these episodes for the very first time.

There is some visible softness in transitions created on an optical printer, such as dissolves, fade-ins and fade-outs, but that is really fairly unobtrusive as you are watching each episode. However, because of the way the original effects were created, using multiple film elements combined on an optical printer, there was a lot of dust, scratches and damage they could not fix in the new scans on the effects and composite footage (such as Enterprise fly-bys and viewscreen inserts). This was a motivating factor in CBS' decision to have all new digital effects created beginning in 2006 for the newly-remastered original series.

Herein lies my only problem with the Original Series BluRay, and seeing as how I can view all of the original visual effects for every episode on this BluRay set, it's not really that much of an irritant.

I really wanted to believe that the people who executed the remastered effects had Star Trek's best interests at heart, but after viewing them, I am so far from being sold on them that I will never accept them or watch them as an integrated part of each episode.

For one thing, they got certain details of the Enterprise wrong. I checked with some A/B comparisons of certain shots on the BluRay, as well as photos of the original model as it was being restored at the Smithsonian. That's pretty unforgivable, considering the producers could have accessed exactly the same material I did.

The remastered effects, more often than not, look overdone and cartoony, creating a feel not even close to the original filmed episodes. They would have been better served to recreate the same camera angles and lighting of the original Enterprise shots instead of making the camera, and the ship, swoop and dive like a spacecraft in modern visual effects. The remastered effects would have been at home on "Enterprise," but not on the original series.

That said, there were some interesting additions that actually were successful, such as the new archaeological dig establishing shots added to "The Man Trap," and the marvelously lifelike and active mattes of Starbase 11 created for "The Menagerie" and "Court Martial," as well as the improved yet faithful cityscape of Eminiar 7 from "A Taste of Armageddon."

I'm really glad that, unlike Star Wars, we can still view the original versions on BluRay, and are not forced to accept the remasters as the new (and only) standard.

The 7.1 DTS-MA audio mix created for the remastered episodes is pretty amazing, even the newly-recorded, and thoroughly bombastic, main title theme. Despite the fact it doesn't quite match the action when accompanying the original visual effects, it's still very impressive, and a lot of fun to listen to. Even the original mono tracks included on the disks sound close to pristine (with a few bits of damage they were never able--or willing--to repair). My only possible gripe is that they should have also included the 5.1 mix they created for the original DVD release as an option, in addition to the original mono audio (and the Spanish and French dubs), but alas, there is only so much room for options on each BluRay disk.

If you are a Star Trek fan who really feels most at home with the original series, this BluRay set will satisfy you for years to come, and since Star Trek just passed its 45th anniversary, what a fitting way to renew your acquaintance with this incredible, ground-breaking, well-written and well-produced TV sci-fi gem. It easily is the equal to the other two classic sci-fi shows of the 60s, The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. Even at its price at this writing of $183, this is, frankly, an amazing bargain.