Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11667 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-08-30
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Formats: Subtitled, PAL
• Original language: English, Italian, German, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 8
• Running time: 1407 minutes

DVD Description
8-disc set containing all the episodes from Series One of the original Star Trek series (first broadcast between 1966 and 1967).

Episodes:

Disc One:

• The Man Trap
  
• Charlie X
  
• Where No Man Has Gone Before
  
• The Naked Time

Disc Two:

• The Enemy Within
  
• Mudd's Women
  
• What Are Little Girls Made Of?
  
• Miri

Disc Three:

• Dagger of the Mind
  
• The Corbomite Maneuver
  
• The Menagerie (Part I)
  
• The Menagerie (Part II)

Disc Four:

• The Conscience of the King
  
• Balance of Terror
  
• Shore Leave
  
• The Galileo Seven

Disc Five:

• The Squire of Gothos
  
• Arena
  
• Tomorrow is Yesterday
  
• Court Martial

Disc Six:

• The Return of the Archons
  
• Space Seed
  
• A Taste of Armageddon
  
• This Side of Paradise

Disc Seven:

• The Devil in the Dark
  
• Errand of Mercy
  
• The Alternative Factor
  
• The City on the Edge of Forever

Disc Eight:

• Operation: Annihilate!

Special Features
Discs 1–7:

• Feature
  
• Preview trailers for each episode on that disc

Discs 1, 3 and 4 only:

• Feature
  
• Text Commentaries - Text Commentary on the 4 episodes are done by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda - co-authors of The Star Trek Encyclopedia
  
• Text commentary on Where No Man Has Gone Before (disc 1), The Menagerie, Part 1 and Part 2 (disc 3), The Conscience of the King (disc 4)

Disc 8:

• Operation: Annihilate! preview trailer
  
• The Birth of a Timeless Legacy - This is the definitive telling of how it all began. Included are interviews with cast and network executives and producers. Features new interviews with Shatner, Nimoy, and Robert Justman.
  
• Life After Trek: William Shatner - We follow William Shatner around on his most current film and TV projects, charity events, conventions, trips, and hobbies including an exclusive invitation to his ranch to discuss his love of horses .
  
• To Boldly Go… Season One: - Cast members and production crew members recall fond memories/stories of working on the series. Includes intimate details about struggles behind the scenes and specific episodes - "The Naked Time", "City on the Edge of Forever", "Devil in the Dark", and "The Squire of Gothos".
  
• Reflections on Spock: - Leonard Nimoy discusses his character in depath, and explains why he chose to write two different books on the subject: "I Am Not Spock" and "I am Spock.".
  
• Kiss & Tell: Romance in the Final Frontier (24th CENTURY) - William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig and others take a fun look at the many romantic relationships seen on the series.
  
• Trek Connections Game - Instead of a regular "Trekker Trivia" style game, this "six degrees of Separation" text/photo featurette offers links between cast, crew, and guest stars to other films and tv shows, eventually circling back or ending on a TOS episode.
  
• Photo Log
  
• Sci-Fi Visionaries
  
• Kirk, Spock and Bones: Trek's Great Trio
  
• Envisioning the Final Frontier
  
• Sci-Fi Visionaries - A look at Star Trek's famous writers - Gene Coon, Harlan Ellison, George Clayton Thomas, Richard Matheson, D.C Fontana, and Roddenberry - featuring interviews with Trek Writers. New interviews with D.C Fontana, Bob Justman and John D.F Black

Synopsis
Going boldly where no man had gone before, Gene Roddenberry's cult phenomenon Star Trek debuted in 1966 and reflected that decade's optimistic preoccupation with space travel. Set in the 23rd century, the series chronicled the intergalactic adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise on its five-year mission to explore the outer reaches of space. Encountering a now-iconic assembly of innovative alien life forms such as the Klingons, Romulans, Tribbles, and Khan Noonian Singh, the ship's jumpsuited crew was a then unheard-of font of multiculturism: Asian Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), African-American Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and Scotsman Montgomery Scotty Scott (James Doohan). But it was the contrasting personalities of cooly logical Vulcan Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), emotionally intuitive medical officer Leonard Bones McCoy (DeForest Kelley), and womanizing ship captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner in definitive overacting mode) that lent the series much of its charm--and spawned a rabid cult following that continues to fuel costume sales and convention bookings to this very day. Presented here is every episode from the show's debut series.

Customer Reviews

To Boldly Go To Where We've Been Before
The icon that is Star Trek is nearly forty years old, and it's about time that the Original Series was given the DVD treatment.

Paramount have previously released the original series on VHS, but we have had to wait some time for the release on DVD, and here we get the entire first season on 7 discs. An eighth disc contains the bonus features.

The outer packaging is bold and imaginative, however the pack is let down by the lack of production notes about the first series itself - all there is inside is a 12-side sleeve, with only 5 of those sides directly mentioning what you've actually bought; the first series of Star Trek. The remainder is essentially advertising for the other DVD Star Trek franchise offerings.

Right, criticism aside. Why is this reviewed as a 5-star item?

Paramount have gone back to the master tapes for this series and have treated each episode to an upgrade for today's age. Comparing this DVD to broadcasted episodes I have on VHS show that the picture quality is improved, though not perfect. Remember that this is a television series cancelled after three years that is nearly forty years old now, and the masters were getting on a bit.

The sound has also been treated to a well-deserved upgrade, episodes are presented in 5.1 Dolby Surround, adding a much-needed depth to the presentation.

Star Trek fans will know that there is a prior pilot episode, "The Cage." This was included in the first VHS release of Star Trek 18 years ago. Strictly not part of the first season, although parts of it were used in the two part episode "The Menagerie," it is conspicuous by it's absence, and the pack looks and feels "incomplete" without it. Episode production numbers shown by the side of each episode title bear witness that there is no episode #1.

The episodes are presented here in airdate order - the order that they were first aired by NBC in the US, not as they were produced by Desilu. This means that the pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is actually the third one on the discs, and it's left to "The Man Trap" kicks things off just as it did in 1966.

This item is a complete series as it was aired. As with any new series, you can tell that scriptwriters, directors and actors are getting into the feel of things and getting aquainted with their roles. Every series have their bad days, and Star Trek was no exception, there are stronger episodes than others - some are very weak indeed, but there are episodes in the first series that even now stand out as televisual gems. Do not miss "The Devil In The Dark", "The City On The Edge of Forever", or the episode that provided the foundation that sparked the Star Trek franchise with the 1982 release of Star Trek II, "Space Seed."

Some people knock the original series for hammy acting, bad plotlines and 1960's vintage SFX, however the original series cannot be ignored, it has influenced science-fiction and indeed life for three generations.

Even if you've seen every episode on television. Even if you've got every episode on VHS. Even if you're a Next Generation or later Star Trek fan, and think of TOS as the kooky uncle family members try and ignore, this DVD is a must-buy. After all, this little yellow box contains the seedlings of what has become a billion-dollar franchise.

Why we continue to watch
One of my earliest memories is being terrified of the puppet head in The Corbomite Maneuver during its first showing in the UK - I have been an unrepentant fan of the series and its spin-offs since then.

While at times the acting was hammy, the plots ridiculous, the special effects laughable, there is a sincerity to the writing that conveys Roddenberry's vision of a more-or-less Utopian future (certainly for the human race) better than the later franchises. What will be lost now is the daring quality that the show had when it was first released, with plot lines addressing relevant social issues, thinly disguised as SF and fooling only the censors. This sincerity gives the show its timeless quality, and the sometimes unsuccessful attempts to maintain these same standards have made the series, and the franchises that followed, watchable over its extended lifespan.

No comments on the technical aspects since the disks are on pre-order, but if you have even the remotest interest in Trek then the cleaned up episodes alone make the purchase price well worth it.

There's More?
I purchased this by post so that I wouldn't be seen with it in a shop, and feel the scorn of "Trekkie" buring in my back as I left.

The trouble with nostalgia is that it sometimes disappoints, as tastes change and memories fade. This it not so with this boxset. It is 40 years since the begining of the making of the first Star Trek and it is not unpleasantly cheesy.

OK, most planets have blondes in miniskirts that fall in love with Kirk, but then that kinda predictibility adds the the warm charm of the series. "All's well that ends well" the bard said, and they all do.

Do you know how good it feels when they do say immortal lines like "He's dead Jim", "Beam Me Up Scottie" or "Life, but not as we know it"?

Talking of miniskirts, it is unbelievable how short the female crew wear them; it takes careful slo-mo to fully appreciate it.

My teenage son, has watched all of the 29 episodes with me, and found them all entertaining.

It took me two months to work through this boxset, which is good value for money. Now, just when I was resting on my laurels, I discover there's two more series.

I can't stop now.......

Live long and prosper