Product Details

• Actors: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Deforest Kelly
• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 8
• Studio: CBS Paramount International Television
• DVD Release Date: August 31, 2004
• Run Time: 1461 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (191 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002I831S
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,031 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #9 in	Movies & TV > Television > Classic TV > Star Trek: The Original Series
  #58 in	Movies & TV > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Star Trek
  #81 in	Movies & TV > Boxed Sets > Classics

• For more information about "Star Trek The Original Series - The Complete First Season" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

• This is item 1 in The Star Trek: The Original Series Complete Season Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
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

Product Description
STAR TREK - THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON features the adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of Capt. James Kirk (Shatner) and his first officer, Lt. Cmdr Spock (Nimoy) during the 23rd century. They are on a mission in outer space to explore new worlds, where the Enterprise encounters Klingons, Romulans, time paradoxes, tribbles and genetic supermen. All 29 first-run episodes on eight discs: The Man Trap, Charlie X, Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Naked Time, The Enemy Within, Mudd's Women, What Are Little Girls Made Of? Miri, Dagger of the Mind, The Corbomite Maneuver, The Menagerie Part I, The Menagerie Part II, The Conscience of the King, Balance of Terror, Shore Leave, The Galileo Seven, The Squire of Gothos, Arena, Tomorrow is Yesterday, Court Martial, The Return of the Archons, Space Seed, A Taste of Armageddon, This Side of Paradise, The Devil in the Dark, Errand of Mercy, The Alternative Factor, The City on the Edge of Forever, Operation: Annihilate!

Text commentary by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda on Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Menagerie Part I, The Menagerie Part II, The Conscience of the King
Featurettes: The Birth of a Timeless Legacy, Life Beyond Trek: William Shatner, To Boldly Go... Season One, Reflections on Spock, Sci-Fi Visionaries.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

237 of 256 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, A Season Set Of The ORIGINAL Series!, June 29, 2004

By	Servo (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

With practically all of the Star Trek spinoffs now available as season sets, Paramount Home Entertainment FINALLY delivers the highly anticipated Star Trek - The Complete First Season on DVD this August 31, in an 8-disc collectible box set. The box will contain all 29 episodes - in airdate order - from Season One of the original Star Trek series, along with newly produced bonus features exclusive to this DVD release. The contents of the DVDs are as follows:
Disc 1: "The Man Trap," "Charlie X," "Where No Man Has Gone Before,"** "The Naked Time"
Disc 2: "The Enemy Within," "Mudd's Women," "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" "Miri"
Disc 3: "Dagger of the Mind," "The Corbomite Maneuver," "The Menagerie, Part I,"** The Menagerie, Part II"**
Disc 4: "The Conscience of the King,"** "Balance of Terror," "Shore Leave," "The Galileo Seven"
Disc 5: "The Squire of Gothos," "Arena," "Tomorrow is Yesterday," "Court Martial"
Disc 6: "The Return of the Archons," "Space Seed," "A Taste of Armageddon," "This Side of Paradise"
Disc 7: "The Devil in the Dark," "Errand of Mercy," "The Alternative Factor," "The City on the Edge of Forever"
Disc 8: "Operation: Annihilation"
** These four episodes have text commentary by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda
Disc 8 of the DVD also includes the following special features:
"The Birth of a Timeless Legacy": The definitive telling of how it all began: from the first pilot, "The Cage," (which will be included on the Season 3 set, and will be the same two versions released before) to reshooting the pilot with William Shatner, to the many challenges leading up to its premiere on NBC in 1966. Included are interviews with cast and network executives and producers. Also featured are new interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Robert Justman.
"Life Beyond Trek: William Shatner": Featured on each volume, this featurette follows one principal cast member around on their most current film and TV projects, charity events, conventions, trips, or hobbies. In Season One, William Shatner gives viewers an exclusive invitation to his ranch to discuss his love of horses.
"To Boldly Go .": Includes discussion of "The Naked Time," "The City on the Edge of Forever," "The Devil in the Dark" and "The Squire of Gothos" by cast and production crew members.
"Reflections on Spock": Leonard Nimoy discusses his character in depth, and explains why he chose to write two different books on the subject: "I Am Not Spock" and "I Am Spock."
"Sci-Fi Visionaries": A look at Star Trek's famous writers, featuring interviews with Gene Coon, Harlan Ellison, George Clayton Thomas, Richard Matheson, D.C. Fontana, Gene Roddenberry, Bob Justman and John D.F. Black.
Original Preview Trailers
Photo Log

Here are the official release dates of the original Star Trek season sets:
- Season 1 on 8/31
- Season 2 on 11/2
- Season 3 on 12/14
- The Complete Series on 12/14

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Review of product presentation, not the show itself, September 9, 2004

By	Steve Bonario (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

I'm guessing few people want to read another opinion about the show. If you do, skip this review. Instead, I'll share my opinion and rating of this DVD collection from a physical product standpoint, as well as some of the DVD-collection/presentation elements.

PHYSICAL PRODUCTION
PROS:
- comes in a single hard shell case instead of a cardboard fold-out box
- each disc label has a photo of an original cast member as their character
CONS:
- each of the 8 DVDs is stored on a single, clear plastic, uncovered disc-holder. All 8 are held together with a piece of clear tape.
- the taped bundle of 8 discs fits inside a tight-fitting paper sleeve
- booklet for the DVDs is just a flimsy long fold-out with little informative value


DVD PRESENTATION:
PROS:
- good sound
- decent image quality
- episode preview trailer included for each episode
- some episodes have text pop-up commentary
- all episodes have chapter logs
- original broadcast date included
- a few extras included
CONS:
- being forced to sit through the credits of every episode
- being forced to sit through the bridge animation sequence to get to the main menu
- bad quality control process on some of episode selection/nav console sequence (for example, I always experience stuttering and visual errors when loading the episode nav console for "What Are Little Girls Made Of?")
- use of prints apparently remastered in 1978 (unless the closing copyright date is simply a studio copyright and not print-related).

OTHER STUFF:
Price: I bought it new and discounted at $79.99 and thought that should have been the *list* price. Pretty poor value if you pay much more than this.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A classic show, spoiled by price and packaging, October 29, 2004

By	ollierobbers (Bay Area, CA United States) - See all my reviews

It was always the case when the original two-episode DVD's were released that Paramount would eventually release Star Trek as a boxed set. This was reinforced when The Next Generation was released as season sets. So, now we have The Original Series Season 1, and as you may have read already, there's some very mixed reviews as to whether it's worth your hard earned dollars to buy.

So, being upfront, I'm not really a huge Trek fan. I've enjoyed Star Trek ever since I was a kid, but I don't go much beyond that, and so it was pretty hard going to stump up the $85 to buy this box set - and that's after a 25% plus discount. Ouch.

After coughing up my hard earned cash, I was eager to find out exactly what I got for my money. Well, the answer is every episode - minus the pilot - from the original Season One. I'm not quite sure why the pilot is missing. It would seem logical to include it in the set.

Now unlike some others, I'm not bothered how they are ordered, or whether they are in airdate, or production date. I just want to know if they look good, and have good quality sound. And the answer to both of those questions is yes and yes. It's pretty clear that they haven't been restored by a dedicated team, but for what it's worth, the image quality is still pretty good with vibrant colors in some of the episodes, and on the whole good contrast, and a clear, well defined image. Audio wise, there's two soundtracks, one is a remastered Surround version, and the other mono. I always listen to the original mono - I guess I'm a traditionalist. There are no audio commentaries, which is a great shame.

There's a single extras CD, which apparently has a few featurettes and the like, but I have yet to really take a look at it. There's also a very poor quality insert that briefly describes each episode, and that's about it. No production notes, or anything like that.

The packaging, while on the outside looks good, is actually a huge letdown. On the individual cases, rather than use a push-style release for each DVD disc, Paramount have used horrible, cheap looking plastic cases, where the DVD is literally locked in place, and you end up bending the disc to get it free. No doubt, bending the DVD's reduces the lifespan, and you'll end up after a few years with a season box set that no longer plays. My advice? Get rid of the awful plastic case, and use after-market ones. Or, make a backup copy and use those for general viewing.

All in all, it's a shame that Paramount feel that they can charge so much, for what is - at the end of the day - just another 1960's TV program. If it was anything else, you'd pay $50-60, but because it's Star Trek, you pay double that. When you consider the lack of extras such as commentaries and - outside of the gold plastic case - poor quality interior packaging, in the end it all feels like a real letdown.