Star Trek: The Complete First Season

Season Grade: A

Blu-ray Special Features Grade: B

Overall Grade: A-

As we all know the war between HD DVD's and Blu-ray Discs has finally been won by the latter. As a result, consumers have inherited the unenviable task of rebuilding their DVD collections by now repurchasing all of their favorite movies and televisions shows on these new higher quality enhanced Blu-ray Discs. In some cases, take romantic comedies for example, the increase in visual and audio quality is not so amazing that it warrants the double purchase. But when you take a title like Star Trek, particularly the original series initially filmed in the late 1960's, the true beauty and power of this new format is made astonishingly clear.

This seven disc set offers both the original broadcast quality version of the episodes as it was shown in the 60's as well as the supped up 21st century versions with all new special effects sequences and the enhanced picture and sound. So if you're a purist who thinks the special effects of the day were partly what gave the show its charm you can still watch it as it originally aired or, if you're like me and have been dying to see what the show would have looked like with today's advances you get your version too! Basically before we even get into the discs themselves I'm saying that every true Star Trek fan should go out and get this and start socking away your money because seasons 2 and 3 aren't far behind.

As for the set itself they have gone back to the basics as far as packaging and I'm really glad that they did. With the most recent Trek releases there was a trend of these big awkward plastic containers that were just too bulky and took up way too much room; not to mention the fact that they were cheaply made and were very hard to keep from breaking. Blu-ray has gone back to a simple thin case that holds all of the discs in a slip style with the discs content information contained on the back of the slide in cover art. It's simple, sleek and efficient.

I won't go into individual reviews of the episodes themselves because frankly who hasn't seen every episode multiple times at this point? But what I will say is that the enhanced quality and clarity has made a few things very obvious that were never intended to be. For example if you're watching the episode Space Seed that first introduces Kirk's most formidable adversary Kahn later to be seen in one of the franchises best feature films, it is blaringly obvious that the two men fighting down in the engine room aren't William Shatner and Ricardo Montalban… it's their not so similar looking stunt men stand ins and man you can really see them!

So in that sense, all this 'improved you really can see everything' quality is a bit of a detractor as it takes you out of the story and the action for a few moments as they cut back and forth between two different men playing the same character in a fight scene. There were also some coffee stained uniforms worn in scenes and things of that nature that now show through that never did before.

On the whole, however, the show on Blu-ray looks amazing! I really feel that if Gene Roddenberry was alive today he'd be absolutely thrilled to see how well his legacy is enduring and to see the new Cadillac version of his formerly primitive special effects laden show.

Certain episodes in the first season obviously benefit more from these new special effects shots than others. The aforementioned Space Seed benefited greatly from the new shots of the ships making the SS Botany Bay actually look like a far older less advanced earth ship. The face lift also did a world of good for The Galileo Seven that had tons of exterior shots of the shuttle craft and a massive anomaly that the Enterprise was investigating that formerly didn't look very interesting, convincing or menacing. With the improved effects the sense of jeopardy that the crew was in really hit home. Other effects heavy shows that packed a much stronger punch thanks to all these new bells and whistles include The Naked Time where the Enterprise is hurtling its way into a collapsing planet, Balance of Terror where the Enterprise engages in a fierce battle with the newly introduced Romulans, A Taste of Armageddon where the old still matte paintings have been replaced with real cityscapes that establish a fully realized unique world for Eminiar VII and of course Errand of Mercy where we have our first show down with the Klingons!

The special features in this set are where things start to get a little bleak. While there are several well produced featurettes they all seem to be ones that have been lifted from past DVD releases and that was disappointing. It's true that there is a limited amount of material you can draw from, but you can still re-cut and re-edit things to give it a different feel or direction.

Each episode comes with its original preview trailer which can be interesting to watch because back then editing was a monumental undertaking and not at all what we think of today; before the days of digital quick cut style editing trailers were king of boring.

There is also the "Starfleet Access" feature on six of the episodes where if you want, you can be interrupted by pop up interviews and facts about the show (though I'm not sure why you would want to be) And then of course there is Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest of

rare home movies from the set. This is probably the best feature on the disc but again, it was lifted from the HD DVD release of the same season.

The one special feature that I think all fans are waiting for are the outtakes from way back when on the set during filming! You know, the ones that you used to see at the conventions. Somehow we can't seem to get the rights to put those on a DVD set apparently. Maybe when Blu-ray is eventually outpaced for the next latest and greatest format we'll get another look at those hysterical classic moments.

In the meantime, however I totally recommend picking up this set, not for the special features, but simply for how amazing the show looks in hi def!

Season Grade: A

Blu-ray Special Features Grade: B

Overall Grade: A-