Boldy Going…
Before I dig into this box set, let me first say that I am a Star Trek fan, but still far from a ‘Trekkie’ or ardent fan of the Star Trek universe. While I’ve dozens and dozens of episodes from most of the different TV shows, I have only ever seen the second Star Trek film, The Wrath of Khan, and the brand new one in theaters. So when I got this Blu-ray set in for review, I was excited — I had always wanted to see the other Star Trek films but I just never made time for it, until now.
That said, I popped in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which first arrived to theaters in 1979 and starred the cast of the Original Series. William Shatner, who we all know as Captain Kirk, had since become an Admiral, relinquishing his Captain status to another Starfleet officer.Some early scenes in the film show Kirk struggling with his new role and longing to feel young again. He gets his chance when an odd space entity is spotted in the galaxy approaching Earth, prompting the Admiral to take over command of Enterprise and head out to investigate. His trusty friend and Science Officer, Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Medic Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and the rest of the old crew including Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Scotty (James Doohan), Sulu (George Takei), and Chekov (Walter Koenig) will join him on this first motion picture adventure.
Truthfully, as a fan of the show and especially the Original Series, I found this first Star Trek picture to be the most boring of the bunch. The pace is generally very slow and frankly there is very little action or cause for alarm throughout the feature. It’s a heavily dialogue driven work that sorely lacks a sense of urgency or danger, even though this bizarre entity is en route to Earth. While all of the acting was great, as it is in the other films, it just failed to really captivate me and I would have to consider it one of the weakest films in this set.
However the second film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, takes the cake as being the best Star Trek film I’ve seen to date. Director Nicholas Meyer, who also had a hand in Star Trek IV and VI, is at the helm for this Trek picture and the result is not only much better than the first, but a film that can truly be considered a sci-fi classic. In Wrath of Khan, Commander Chekov and Captain Terrell of the USS Reliant are assigned to the Genesis project, a secretive scientific project whose purpose is to be able to create life on otherwise dead planets within mere days instead of centuries. When Chekov and Terrell beam down to what was thought to be a dead planet to investigate and gather information, they encounter Khan, a warrior from the 20th century that Kirk had left abandoned on this planet fifteen years prior. He’s managed to not only survive but build a respectable following and with Chekov and Terrell as his captives, he intends to get back at Kirk at all costs.
Wrath of Khan is easily the best Star Trek film in this set and one of the few that I can really stand to watch more than a couple of times a year; simply put it’s the most interesting and least boring of the bunch.
After the events in Star Trek II, the third film, The Search For Spock, has the crew once again involved in the Genesis Project. In violation of orders, the team, excluding Spock of course who sacrifices himself for his crew at the end of Khan, take the Enterprise in an attempt to reach the planet that was planted with the Genesis ‘bomb’ to locate Spock’s body. Christopher Lloyd stars as a stingy Klingon commander who wants his hands on the Genesis project very badly, but as it turns out, the Project was a failure and the seeded planet destroys itself.
The fourth Star Trek film, The Voyage Home, arriving in 1986, is arguably the goofiest of the bunch. This film has the crew going back to Earth in the 1980s to locate and capture two humpback whales so that they can take them into the future (where they are extinct) and offer or use them to understand and appease another strange space entity that seems to speak the language of the humpbacks. The interactions of the crew with 1980s San Francisco citizens is good for some laughs, but overall the plot will leave you shaking your head at just how silly it is. Leonard Nimoy actually directed both this and the third Star Trek; between the two, the third was far better.
The fifth adventure of the Enterprise is known as The Final Frontier, in which the crew comes to face God, or some kind of Supreme Being anyway. Spock’s half brother and his cronies manage to hijack the Enterprise after he captures a few ambassadors and lures the Enterprise within striking distance. With the Enterprise and its crew, Sybok intends to reach the furthest reaches of space in an attempt to find the omnipotent one.
The Undiscovered Country is the final film in the set and sees the Enterprise crew uncovering an assassination plot to disrupt peace talks between the Klingons and the Federation.
Overall, I thought the films weren’t all bad, but I think the first and fourth films aren’t likely to make their way back into my Blu-ray player for a long time. In fact, my favorites of the bunch would have to be II and III, although it is worth noting again how The Wrath of Khan stands out head and shoulders above all of the others.
On Blu-ray
These films have all seen the DVD treatment before, but this is the first time they’ve hit Blu-ray. There have been plenty of questionable reviews posted thus far on sites like Amazon, suggesting that the the picture quality of these films is poor for a Blu-ray, but having watched all six films, I can confidently say this is rubbish. I thought all six films looked at worst very good to great, and at best excellent. I kept waiting for the image quality to disappoint, but it never did; there are just literally a small handful of scenes that looked odd or bad, but these were short and they didn’t compromise the overall experience. I believe it was in the third film if I’m not mistaken, where there was a brief scene aboard the Enterprise where about half the image was blurry — it was odd, but forgettable. Otherwise, expect a good sharp picture with a nice contrast, and thanks to all the sci-fi atmosphere, some really gorgeous scenes and plenty of vibrant colors. The only DVD I had to compare to was a copy of Wrath of Khan and there is really no comparison — the Blu-ray version outshines the DVD clearly.
The audio presentation is also very impressive for all six films. A 7.1 Dolby TrueHD track will wow viewers who have such a setup, and for everyone else in 5.1 or even stereo, you can expect a very competent and well balanced experience, although the Klingon speak is annoying.
As far as extra features, there are a ton, including lots of new ones in HD. There are nearly three hours of brand new features as well as over twelve hours of previously released features. One of my favorite new features is the seventh disc in this box set, and that’s the Captain’s Summit, an enjoyable round table discussion with Star Trek stars Shatner, Nimoy, Frakes, Stewart, and Goldberg. In this seventy minute, three part discussion, these actors divulge a variety of anecdotes and memories and other things that I think even casual Star Trek fans can enjoy; and it’s all in gorgeous HD.
This BD set also includes a library that gives information on the characters, planet, and ships that you’ll see in the movie, great for the more ardent Trek fans. Also via BD-Live, there is a trivia game known as Star Trek IQ that will test your knowledge.
To get more specific now, let’s take a look at the extras on each disc:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
-A/C with Michael & Denise Okuda, Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and Daren Dochterman
-The Longest Trek: Writing the Motion Picture (HD)
-Special Star Trek Reunion (HD)
-Starfleet Academy: The Mystery Behind the V’ger (HD)
-Plus fifteen additional minutes of previously released content
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
-A/C with Director Nicholas Meyer & Manny Coto
-James Horner: Composing Genesis (HD)
-Collecting Star Trek’s Movie Relics (HD)
-A Tribute To Richardo Montalban (HD)
-Starfleet Academy: The Mystery Behind Ceti Alpha VI (HD)
-Plus over two hours of previously released content
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
-A/C with Ronald D. Moore & Michael Taylor
-Industrial Light & Magic: Visual Effects (HD)
-Spock: The Early Years (HD)
-Star Trek And the Science Fiction Museum And Hall of Fame (HD)
-Starfleet Academy – The Vulcan Katra Transfer (HD)
-Plus over two hours of previously released content
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
-A/C with Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
-Pavel Chekov’s Screen Moments (HD)
-The Three-Picture Saga (HD)
-Star Trek For A Cause (HD)
-Starfleet Academy: The Whale Probe (HD)
-Plus over two hours of previously released content
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
-A/C with Michael & Denise Okuda and Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Daren Dochterman
-Star Trek Honors NASA (HD)
-Hollywood Walk of Fame: James Doohan (HD)
-Starfleet Academy: Nimbus III (HD)
-Plus over two hours of previously released content
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
-A/C with Larry Nemecek & Ira Steven Behr
-Tom Morga: Alien Stuntman (HD)
-To Be Or Not To Be: Klingons & Shakespeare (HD)
-Starfleet Academy: Praxis (HD)
-Plus over two hours of previously released content
So as you can see, there is a tremendous amount of content here for fans to enjoy. What impresses me the most is the fact that there is so much additional new content in HD that was made just for this box set — these new extras alone would be enough to convince a lot of Trek fans to upgrade, but you can hardly forget the far superior image and sonic quality of this new set in comparison to the DVDs.
With that, let’s get to the summary…