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Star Trek is a phenomenon of ridiculous proportions. And with the release of Star Trek – The Motion Pictures DVD Collection (Special Edition), it’s a useful reflection on just how far science fiction has come since its debut.
What began as a cult following in reruns has blossomed into a full-fledged franchise of television shows and movies. And all it is pretty simple, really. The Enterprise is a spaceship of the United Federation of Planets, sent to boldly explore parts unknown throughout the universe on a five year mission. In what would be one of the more influential science fiction franchises, Star Trek never attracted a large audience when it was first ran but attracted a huge audience in syndication.
And from the small screen to the silver screen was easily the next big step, as the franchise spawned 10 movies and counting. What has been missing, however, are editions with revamped audio and video, as well as additional materials. And into this comes Star Trek – The Motion Pictures DVD Collection (Special Edition), new special editions of each of the movie series to match the demand. And with ten movies, there’s a lot of ground to cover:
Star Trek: The Movie– An alien phenomenon is approaching Earth, destroying everything in its path. The only starship in range is the Enterprise. However it still is being upgraded after a major overhaul. Admiral James T. Kirk arrives with orders to take command of the Enterprise and intercept the intruder.
Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan – Kirk is still in charge of a space fleet but now is behind a desk. Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock convince him to take on a mission that appears easy enough. However things get a little tricky when an old nemesis from the television series Khan shows up.
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock – Kirk’s defeat of Khan and the creation of the Genesis planet are empty victories at the conclusion of the second movie. Spock is dead and McCoy is going insane. Sarek, Spock’s father, arrives and brings with him some startling information: McCoy is harboring the living essence of Spock. Kirk now has to try and help both riends by stealing the Enterprise and defying Starfleet’s Genesis quarantine. But the Klingons have also learned of the planet of Genesis; intent on going there to encounter Kirk it ends in a deadly encounter
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – A space probe appears over 23rd century Earth and starts emitting strange noises. As time passes, the probe starts to cause destruction. Kirk and crew are called upon once again to save mankind as they discover the strange sound is actually the call of the humpback whale. Having been hunted to extinction, they have only one choice: time travel. Going back into the 20th century, they have to locate a whale and bring it back.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – When the newly-christened starship Enterprise’s shakedown cruise goes poorly, Kirk puts it into Spacedock for repairs. As fate would have it, an urgent mission interrupts shore leave as a renegade Vulcan named Sybok has decided to put a crimp in Kirk’s sun-tanning time. He takes several ambassadors hostage on the planet Nimbus III, attracting the attention of a Klingon captain who wants to make a name for himself in the process. Sybok’s rag-tag army manages to outwit Kirk and capture the Enterprise, taking in search of the Supreme Being.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – After an explosion on their moon, the Klingons are faced with a dire situation. They have an estimated 50 years before their ozone layer is completely depleted, which would kill them all. They have only 1 choice: join the Federation, ending 70 years of war. Kirk and the gang are once again called upon to help, as he is set in to help the negotiations because of assorted “experience” with them. Peace talks don’t quite go to plan, ending up with Kirk and McCoy being convicted of assassination and sent to Rura Penthe. Penthe is prison camp and they have to find a way out.
Star Trek: Generations – In the late twenty-third century the maiden voyage of the third Starship Enterprise boasts a hall of fame of federation luminaries: Pavel Chekov, Montgomery Scott, and the legendary Captain Kirk are all aboard as guests. The maiden voyage turns out very poorly as the unprepared ship rescues two transport ships from a mysterious energy ribbon. Captain Kirk’s life is lost in this attempt. Seventy-eight years later, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D from Star Trej: The Next Generation, find themselves at odds with Soren, a renegade scientist. He is scheming in an attempt to begin destroying entire star systems. Only one man can help Picard, and he’s been dead for quite some time.
Star Trek: First Contact – A Borg Cube and ships from the Federation are in a battle and Picard is ordered not to engage. Seeing the Federation is about to lose, Picard ignores his orders and takes command, his knowledge of the weak spot of the Cube used to destroy it. A small part of it escapes, however, and plots a course directly to Earth. Chasing it, The Enterprise enters a time distortion created by the Borg and end up in the mid 21st century. Stuck centuries in the past, they have only one option left to stop the Borg and their scheme: help Zefram Cochrane make his famous first flight at light speed.
Star Trek: Insurrection – Data, on a mission to observe the race of Ba’ku, suddenly begins to fear for his existence. The peaceful Ba’ku, whose planet offers regenerative radiation and long lifespans, live in harmony with nature. Their planet and their culture is being studied Starfleet and the associated Son’a in secrect. But the So’na intends to abduct the Ba’ku in order to take the planet for themselves, as well as for the Starfleet officials who all would like to regenerate their bodies.
Star Trek: Nemesis – On their way to Riker’s and Troi’s honeymoon, the Enterprise is sent near the neutral zone to Romulan space. Picking up a prototypic twin of Data, they are sent to Romulus immediately. A new praetor, Shinzon (cloned from Picard), appears to want peace with the Federation. When a break-in on their computer systems is detected by the crew as well as Picard’s capture by the Romulans, it becomes a much direr situation than it began: they have to stop a cloaked Warbird from destroying the Earth.
While The Undiscovered Country would mark the end of the original crew in prominence, Nemesis would mark the end of the Next Generation crew’s series of movies. With the other Star Trek spin-offs (Deep Space Nine, Enterprise or Voyager) not having the same sort of broad appeal the first two Star Trek television shows acquired, the ten movies that comprise the Star Trek – The Motion Pictures DVD Collection (Special Edition) represent the pinnacle of the show.
Ten movies of high quality in one package, however, is hard to beat. With an overall level of quality that is hard to match, as even the lesser entries in the franchise are still good movies on their own.
Score : 10 / 10
The Video
Paramount has gone back through the entire series and revamped the video. Presented in a widescreen format, nearly 26 years after the first was released the film has been given a once-over and cleaned up considerably. Gone is the grainy look of late 70s and early 80s film for the first five movies; in its place are cleaned up, great looking pictures.
The Audio
With Dolby 5.1 Surround all around, the collection has been given an upgrade in the audio department. The one thing lacking prior Star Trek releases had been a spectacular sound, and this has it.
The Extras
It would be nearly impossible to try and catalog the amount of extras in a reasonable amount of space for 10 movies. With previous releases of all ten movies being lacking, this is a Trekkie’s dream release. With two disc special editions of all ten movies for 20 total DVDs, anyone who is seriously into Star Trek needs to pick this up. Per edition, the extras overflow. Included in each are featurettes about the world of Star Trek, retrospectives from the cast, all new director commentaries, deleted scenes, trailers, and making of vignettes. All told, there are more than 30 hours of extras in this collection.
Score : 10 / 10
