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| Available at Amazon.com |
It’s probably safe to say that when Paramount announced it was going to remaster and add modern special effects to the original Star Trek series, that the project was met with a high amount of skepticism. I mean, Sci-Fi fans already had problems with the new versions of the Star Wars films and Trek enthusiasts were also still smarting from the loss of Enterprise as well, and now there beloved original series would be besmirched as well? Fortunately, all should be happy with the final results of this project, as evidenced by the release of Star Trek The Original Series – The Complete Second Season Remastered, as the show has never looked better and original story elements have been completely left alone.
While the first season is a little harder to come by considering it was released on an HD-DVD Combo and was much pricier, this second season (released on DVD only) shows exactly what this experiment was trying to do, replicate the original effects in CGI, but don’t be intrusive. The results are quite astonishing and effective. Instead of trying to reinvent these episodes with extra footage and goofy CGI everywhere, these effects are mainly held to replacing model work done and matt paintings, with the occasional light effect replaced within the show itself. Things like phaser blasts are pretty much as they’ve always been, a testament to how subtle this work is trying to be. The new effects are trying to work organically within the show, and on that level they are a rousing success.
Even more impressive is the remastering job done to the original footage that is still contained within the series. Even compared to the recent DVD releases, these episodes look infinitely better, with the colors onscreen popping like never before. Installments like “The Apple” and “The Doomsday Machine” have never looked as good as they do on these discs, and that goes for sets, uniforms, and Shatner’s hair as well.
As great as all of these cosmetic changes to the series are though, the best reason to pick up this box set is that your buying the second season of one of the greatest TV shows of all time. Watching it today, its easy to take for granted just how ground breaking this show was, introducing all kinds of fans on TV to serious Science Fiction for the first time. Even today, its still incredible how the show was able to tackle issues like Viet Nam (“A Private Little War”), religion (“Who Mourns for Adonais?”) and other issues of the 1960’s, all while packaged in an incredible adventure week in and week one.
Star Trek knew when to have fun and become a full on Space Opera also, with classic episodes such as “Mirror, Mirror” and “The Trouble with Tribbles” populating this season, both of which offer nonstop entertainment. It’s also nearly impossible not to love installments like the campy “A Piece of the Action” in which the Enterprise encounters a planet populated completely by 30’s gangsters and Kirk and Spock have to decide how to stop the planet from killing each other without just filling all their bosses full of lead.
All in all, its impossible to deny this season of Star Trek. Whether you’re getting it for the visual upgrade, the serious Science Fiction, the adventure, or for the relationship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy that continues to build in episodes such as “Amok Time”,Star Trek The Original Series – The Complete Second Season Remastered is well worth your time. This is TV in one of its finest moments.
As I’ve already said, other than the HD-DVD Combo release of Season 1, this is the absolute best this series has ever looked. The colors are beautiful and all of the restoration and new CGI work is terrific. The sound is also better than ever, showing off those awesome Star Trek musical queues like never before.
To Boldly Go… Season Two – This is a nice re-cap of Season 2, looking at all the important episodes and showing how they came about. Most of the time here is spent on “The Trouble with Tribbles”, but seeing as how its probably the most popular episode of the entire series, you can see why there’s so much devotion to it.
Billy Blackburn’s Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories Part 2 – Blackburn, a bit actor on the series who played a number of roles in key episodes, has a wealth of back stage knowledge of the series, showing off both his anecdotes and vintage home movies shot back stage. This is a wonderful Featurette that shows the cast goofing around while the cameras are off, making you love Star Trek and its players even more than you did before.
Life Beyond Trek: Leonard Nimoy – This 11 minute Featurette has Nimoy discussing his love of photography, which has been one of the big passions of his life. There’s a moment here where Nimoy shows us a death clock that apparently shows him how many days he has yet to live (about 5,000 or so), which I find a little morbid though.
Kirk, Spock and Bones: Star Trek’s Great Trio – Neat little mini-doc discusses the bond between these three characters and why they were all so great together onscreen.
Designing the Final Frontier – This is a 22-Minute Featurette discussing the look of the series and how terrific all the design work was, especially on the series’ sets, even if they were done on a miniscule budget.
Star Trek’s Divine Diva: Nichelle Nichols – Nichols is very engaging here, talking about her experiences getting cast on the show and what it was like to work on such an important series. She also talks about her experience on the stage as well as talking a little about the “fan dance” in Star Trek V.
Writer’s Notebook: DC Fontana – Fontana goes into detail about her role on the show on how she developed some of the most important episodes of the series, “Who Mourns for Adonais?”, “Amok Time”, and “By Any Other Name”.
“More Tribbles, More Troubles” – This episode from Star Trek: The Animated Series is a direct follow-up to “The Trouble with Tribbles”. This episode gives you a feel for the animated series, presenting one of its best episodes. Many of the installments were director sequels to original series episodes and if you can get by the dated animated and appreciate it for getting most of the original cast back., this can be pretty fun.
“Trials and Tribble-ations” One of my favorite episodes from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as we get an ingenious joining of the two series. DS9 is arguably the best of all the Star Trek series, and here the creators show a real flair for creativity, weaving a story together that puts the crew in the middle of “The Trouble with Tribbles” quite brilliantly.
‘Trials and Tribble-Ations”: Uniting Two Legends and Trials and Tribble-ations”: An Historic Endeavor – These two Featurettes cover the development of this episode, as well as the challenge of putting all the effects together to make this melding of series as seamless as possible.
Original Preview Trailers – You get trailers for every episode on this set.
This is an incredible set for Trek fans. The series has never looked so good and this set is packed with extras. For fans of the series, this is a must-have.
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Paramount presents Star Trek The Original Series – The Complete Second Season Remastered. Created by Gene Roddenberry. Starring
William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, Bill Blackburn, George Takei, and Walter Koenig. Running time: 1311 minutes. Released on DVD: August 5, 2008 . Available at Amazon.com.
About Robert Sutton
