If you’re like me, the bad-assery (yes, bad-assery) of J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” unlocked some eerie, deep, dark geek that you didn’t really know existed. No, I’m not hitting the net looking for a life-sized Enterprise Captain’s chair (though they are certainly out there), but I’m quite interested lately in going back and discovering a franchise that never quite appealed to me as a youth.
Luckily, Paramount and CBS Blu-ray is way ahead of you. Landing in beautiful high definition are a slew of home video tie-ins that are sure to please old and new fans alike.
First and foremost there is the massive six-film set — “The Original Motion Picture Collection” — which hits shelves today and includes the “Star Trek” films from the 1979 original to 1991’s “The Undiscovered Country,” which brought director Nicholas Meyer back to the material for the first time since “The Wrath of Khan.”
If six films is a bit too much, you can pick up the “Motion Picture Trilogy”, also released today, which includes “The Wrath of Khan,” “The Search for Spock” and “The Voyage Home,” a series of films that works pretty well as a stand alone set (though tossing in the first installment would have been nice).
I haven’t had a chance to dig into the films yet, but the crown jewel of all this “Trek” home video insanity has been spinning in my Blu-ray player for a number of days now: “‘Star Trek’: The Original Series — Season 1,” which released April 28. Some will pick this up immediately for reasons of nostalgia and I imagine more than a few purists will shy away from the “view with enhanced effects” feature available on each episode. I had fun bouncing back and forth, personally.
There’s a great featurette on the set that details the painstaking process of both restoring the original negatives and pumping up the contrast during the enhancement stage. Frequent Variety film music writer Jon Burlingame even pops up at one point to discuss Alexander Courage’s infamous score, which was re-recorded from the original composition to blast the series into the 21st century.
“Trek” regular Billy Blackburn has his own separate feature called “Billy Blackburn’s Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories.” This intimate look behind the scenes with one of the show’s character actors (in addition to his work on the bridge alongside William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and the rest, Blackburn also starred as the White Rabbit in the episode “Shore Leave” and the ghastly green Gorn monster — close-ups only) is, I imagine, the ultimate special feature for hardcore Trekkies.
It’s a veritable cornucopia of “Trek” delights on Blu-ray. Tap into your inner super geek or just enjoy some intriguing looks at the revamping of a franchise in passing. It’s well worth a look.
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2 responses to “Lots of ‘Trek’ happening on Blu”
I’ve been watching this set courtesy of Lovefilm and quite frequently my jaw has been hitting the floor at the sheer clarity of the picture. The stories themselves I remember quite well from years and years of reruns but I’ve never seen “Star Trek” look so good.
The only downside is that the picture quality really does show up the cheesiness of the sets – lots of polystyrene rocks on distant planets – but hey, I guess that’s half the charm.
I have all the SE’s of the movies on dvd and only the first season of the Original Series. I’ll get the remastered versions of season two and three on dvd soon. Could this be the so much desired revival of Trek for all audiences? I certainly hope so, that way I can start wearing my Picard uniform again instead of it gathering dust on my wall.