Product Description

STAR TREK THE ORIGINAL SERIES 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20427 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount Pictures
• Released on: 2004-12-14
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 22
• Dimensions: 3.70 pounds
• Running time: 4117 minutes

Amazon.com
The facts have become legend. Star Trek, the NBC series that premiered on September 8, 1966, has become a touchstone of international popular culture. It struggled through three seasons that included cancellation and last-minute revival, and turned its creator, Gene Roddenberry, into the progenitor of an intergalactic phenomenon. Eventually expanding to encompass five separate TV series, an ongoing slate of feature films, and a fan base larger than the population of many third-world countries, the Star Trek universe began not with a Big Bang but with a cautious experiment in network TV programming. Even before its premiere episode ("The Man Trap") was aired, Star Trek had struggled to attain warp-drive velocity, barely making it into the fall '66 NBC lineup.

The series' original pilot, "The Cage," featured Jeffrey Hunter as U.S.S. Enterprise captain Christopher Pike--a variation of the role that would eventually catapult William Shatner to TV stardom. Filmed in 1964, the pilot was rejected by NBC the following year, but the network made a rare decision to order a second pilot. "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was filmed in 1965, and only one character from the previous pilot remained--a pointy-eared alien named Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy), whom Roddenberry had retained despite network disapproval. The second pilot was accepted, and production on Star Trek began in earnest with the filming of its first regular episode, "The Corbomite Maneuver."

Never a ratings success despite a growing population of devoted fans, Star Trek was canceled after its second season, prompting a letter-writing campaign that resulted in the series' third-season renewal. It was a mixed blessing, since Roddenberry had departed as producer to protest the network's neglect, and Star Trek's third season contained most of the series' weakest episodes. And yet, the show continued to "to explore strange new worlds…to seek out new life and new civilizations…to boldly go where no man [a phrase later amended to "no one"] has gone before."

There were milestones along the way. The first interracial kiss on network primetime TV (between Shatner and series co-star Nichelle Nichols) furthered a richly positive and expansive view of a better, nobler future for humankind. The series offered a timelessly appealing balance of humor, imagination, and character depth. And at least one episode (Harlan Ellison's "The City on the Edge of Forever") ranks among the finest science fiction stories in any popular medium. Beloved by long-time fans in spite of its cheesy sets and costumes, and the now-dated trappings of late-1960s American culture, "classic Trek" has aged remarkably well, and its sense of adventure and idealism continues to live long and prosper. --Jeff Shannon

The three 2004 DVD sets collect all 79 episodes of the show, including "The Cage" in both a restored color version and the original, never-aired version that alternates between color and black and white. Each set is supplemented by over an hour of featurettes incorporating new and old interviews with Shatner, Nimoy, other cast members, and producers, and there's also some vintage footage of Gene Roddenberry. Accompanying the 20-minute seasonal recaps ("To Boldly Go...") are a number of interesting featurettes: "The Birth of a Timeless Legacy" examines the two pilot episodes and the development of the crew; "Sci-Fi Visionaries" discusses the series' great science fiction writers; Nimoy debunks various rumors in "Reflections of Spock"; "Kirk, Spock & Bones: The Great Trio" focuses on the interplay among Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley); and, in what is probably his last Star Trek appearance, James Doohan (Scotty), slowed by Alzheimer's but still with a twinkle in his eye, recalls his voiceover roles and his favorite episodes. 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 cases are 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 sets are 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

Customer Reviews

To buy, or not to buy...
Star Trek was a ground-breaking series, but a few of the episodes (especially early in Season 1 before the main characters come into their own) are pretty painful to watch. 4 stars overall for the 3 seasons, but many of the episodes are 5-star. No doubt you have seen the show on TV (edited to fit in more commercials), and other reviewers on Amazon have written excellent reviews for the single season editions so I won't go into details. I just want to summarize some information that may be helpful in deciding whether to buy this set now, or wait until later...

First, the set I received had several defective disks (1,6,7 in the first season). The program freezes, then eventually skips from seconds to minutes of the show. Amazon has a good exchange policy, and I'm hoping I get a good set this time, but I won't know until I go through all the disks and that will take a while. At least one other reviewer has also recently (fall 2006) received defective disks, so it is likely that there is a bad batch at Amazon at this time.

- UPDATE: I received the replacement set and have watched all the episodes. It has defects too, but I'm keeping this one as they are relatively short, and only affect two episodes of the three seasons.

Second, as many people have noted in the single-season reviews, this has to be the most impractical packaging yet devised by man. The outer plastic cases don't stand upright on their own. They come with what looks like a sales display stand, and will stand upright in these, but I notice the individual stands have been reinforced and weighted in the bottom by what looks like leftover building material. Inside each case is a stack of plastic trays held together by cellophane tape. This fits inside a thin paper sleeve which will no doubt tear soon, and the accompanying paper booklet does not fit in the sleeve. So you have to go though several levels to get to the disks, and the booklet falls out each time.

Third, as others have hinted, Paramount has been remastering all the episodes with new CGI for the ships, and for some other effects. It's the same ship, it just looks real now instead of like a model on a string. The sound is also being remastered (and in a few cases the music is being re-recorded). The picture is also being cleaned up. These episodes are currently airing on affiliate stations as they are completed (also edited to fit in more commercials). You can go to the Paramount website and navigate through their 'home video' page links/search/etc until you find the Star Trek pages. There you can download previews and information. I've seen a couple of these remastered episodes airing locally, and TOS has never looked so good. Be aware that as of this writing, Paramount has not committed to releasing the re-mastered series on DVD, but I have no doubt that they will as they have a history of getting as much money from Trek fans as possible.

- UPDATE: The revised episodes are being released in dual format (High Def DVD and Standard DVD) beginning with Season 1 in November of 2007 - Star Trek The Original Series - The Complete First Season (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]. As of this writing, Amazon's price for the first season is nearly as high as this set of all three seasons. If you are patient, no doubt the price will eventually come down, as this is Paramount's pattern.

The bottom line...if you want the series with all the original effects (cloth backdrops, the same planet tinted different colors, reused ship clips, etc) go for this set. I doubt if it will get any less expensive than it is at the time of this review. But download some of the remastered previews from the Paramount site first, and if you can, watch the remastered episodes on TV before making up your mind. They aren't altering anything that significantly changes the show, and it looks stunning compared to this set. If you want the remastered 'improved' version though, you will have to wait until Paramount releases it (season by season, and eventually the full set), and expect to pay a lot more than this set, unless you are willing to wait a year or more after release. Finally, if you decide to order this set, check all the disks as soon as possible, as it appears there are defective sets being sold. Hope this helps in the decision...live long and prosper :-)

OH, THE IRONY
I couldn't give Star Trek any less than 4 stars simply because it's Star Trek, a show that I've been watching since I was a baby, and has had an immense influence on my life. The Original Series is an important show, and finally being able to get it in an all-in-one package for a (fairly) reasonable price has taken too long. There was no way I as a rabid Star Trek fan wasn't going to beg for this for Xmas. I'm glad I have it in my collection.

But if I could give a separate rating to the quality of the transfer, I'd give it 2 stars. How ironic that a show that deals with humans using technology to achieve and explore has been released by humans witholding technology to maximize profit. Despite a new, cleaned up digital mix of the audio, the video portion of the DVD's still contains the little scratches and video noise that my original videotapes possessed when I bought them in the 80's. There have been too many old movies and TV shows digitally remastered and beautified for me to believe that they couldn't clean these episodes up and give us better picture quality. It's a crime that Paramount continues to milk the original Trek dynasty like this.

It's quite obvious that there will be yet another re-release of the series down the road, but I can't see waiting any longer. The Harry Mudds have won again.

Paramount should be put in the brig for this one
Don't get me wrong - I love the old gen. Love, love the old Gen. The transfers? Great - didn't have a problem there. The packaging? Yeah, the inside sleeve was a little cheap but otherwise - smooth sailing. And the extras? Outstanding.

BUT.

Why, why are they making us shell out all the big time cabbage for this set? Compared to other season sets, you have to mortgage your house to buy this one. They don't even give you anything special for buying the whole set other than wrapping them all together in a little cardboard sleeve. And it's bad enough Paramount is making a major cash grab...I discovered the other day that there are other extras that they've included on European sets BUT not the North American one.

They include:

Kiss & Tell - Romance In The 23rd Century (8:19): William Shatner and story editor Dorothy Fontana talk about the multitude of women that Kirk managed to get 'involved' with during the course of the show. Also includes Nichelle Nichols talking about some suggestive scenes between Uhura and Scotty and Walter Koenig talks about the revealing costumes the actresses wore on the show.

Trekker Connections (3:42): A little game for the viewer to play with cast members like six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Star Trek's Favourite Moments (17:09): Cast and crew members from the newer shows such as Michael Dorn (TNG), Ethan Philips (Voy), John Billingsley (Ent), Jeffrey Combs (DS9), Vaughn Armstrong (Ent), Robert O'Reilley (TNG) and Tim Russ (Voy) talk about their memories of the show.

Collectible Trek (14:26): Paramount archivist Penny Juday talks about the money that some people will pay for genuine Star Trek collectibles.

Considering the serious gouging, it wouldn't have killed them to stuff these on here. There's also trailers for The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager DVD sets they didn't include but that's just as well since there's disclaimers to sell Trek DVD product all over the DVDs. I bought the set, they have my money and now they want more of it?

All in all, it is a tremendous set, considering the major cash you had to spend before buying all the episodes individually. It just would've been nice to see Paramount really roll back the price tag and roll out the red carpet for the Trek fans who've been lining their pockets all these years.