All Rise...

Interested in buying a couple of tribbles from Judge Clark Douglas? They're delicious!

Editor's Note

Our reviews of The Best Of Star Trek: The Original Series (published May 12th, 2009), Star Trek: The Original Series: Season 1 (Blu-Ray) (published May 6th, 2009), Star Trek: The Original Series: Season Two (Remastered) (published August 22nd, 2008), Star Trek: The Original Series: Season Three (Remastered) (published November 26th, 2008), Star Trek: The Original Series: Season One (published September 27th, 2004), Star Trek: The Original Series: Season Two (published November 2nd, 2004), and Star Trek: The Original Series: Season Three (published January 26th, 2005) are also available.

The Charge

Boldly going where no man has gone before…in hi-def!

Opening Statement

"You may find that having is not so nearly a pleasing thing as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."—Mr. Spock, who clearly wasn't thinking of this awesome Blu-ray release at the time

Facts of the Case

Captain James Kirk (William Shatner, Miss Congeniality), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy, Invasion of the Body Snatchers), Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley, Apache Uprising), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols, Heroes), Scottie (James Doohan, Peyton Place), Sulu (George Takei, The Green Berets), Chekov (Walter Koenig, Deadly Weapon), Nurse Chapel (Majel Barrett, Westworld), and the rest of the U.S.S. Enterprise crew continue their five-year mission, exploring new worlds, finding new challenges, and making both allies and enemies along the way.

The 26 second-season episodes are spread across seven Blu-ray discs.

Disc One
• Amok Time
• Who Mourns for Adonais?
• The Changeling
• Mirror, Mirror

Disc Two
• The Apple
• The Doomsday Machine
• Catspaw
• I, Mudd
• Metamorphosis

Disc Three
• Journey to Babel
• Friday's Child
• The Deadly Years
• Obsession
• Wolf in the Fold

Disc Four
• The Trouble With Tribbles

Disc Five
• The Gamesters of Triskelion
• A Piece of the Action
• The Immunity Syndrome
• A Private Little War

Disc Six
• Return to Tomorrow
• Patterns of Force
• By Any Other Name
• The Omega Glory

Disc Seven
• The Ultimate Computer
• Bread and Circuses
• Assignment: Earth

The Evidence

Though I'm not sure that there is any Star Trek: The Original Series episode to match the Harlan Ellison-penned "A City on the Edge of Forever" from the first season, it could be (and has been) argued that the second season of the show is the most consistent and high-caliber overall. It suffers from neither the slightly awkward chemistry of the first half of season 1 nor from the rampant silliness that would define season 3. Great episodes abound in this season, from "Amok Time" to "Mirror, Mirror" to "Metamorphosis" to "The Trouble With Tribbles" and so many more. If you're contemplating a purchase of this admittedly pricy set, odds are that you've already owned at least one incarnation of this season on DVD already. My guess is that you want to know whether upgrading to this set is worthwhile. The answer is an unequivocal, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Good gravy, this show looks gorgeous in hi-def. There have been precious few classic television shows released on Blu-ray at this point, but Star Trek: The Original Series will surely be regarded as the standard-setter for such releases for years to come. It's about as perfect as a low-budget television series from the 1960s could possibly look, almost completely free of scratches, flecks and grime. The program was one of those early programs seemingly designed to sell color television sets, and as such the palette is generally vibrant and diverse. The striking colors seem to pop off the screen at times. A small measure of natural grain is left intact, and there's no evidence of DNR. The changes that have been made are certainly impressive, though. The remastered versions of these episodes are sublime examples of how to insert advanced special effects into a program in a natural and appealing manner. However, purists will be happy to note that the original, "cheesy-looking" versions of each episode are also included. Everybody wins. The 7.1 audio is also excellent, giving the top-drawer scoring and diversely innovative sound design the opportunity to shine. Dialogue is crisp and clear, and everything is very well-distributed and immersive. It's remarkable how dynamic and sharp the sound is while also seeming free of distracting enhancements. Of course, the original mono tracks are included for Star Trek purists who grumble about someone daring to "improve" the audio of their precious show. Again, everybody wins.

Many extras from previous DVD releases are reprised on this set, in addition to a little bit of new material. Let's check it out disc-by-disc.

Disc One
• Starfleet Access (a combination of video commentary with various experts and text trivia/fun fact tidbits) on the episode "Amok Time." These "Starfleet Access" features are noteworthy for being the only brand-new supplements of substance on the set.

• Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories—Part 2: More engaging thoughts from Blackburn. If you're wondering about Part 1, it can be found on the Season 1 Blu-ray, HD-DVD and DVD sets.

• Preview trailers for each episode.

Disc Two
• Preview trailers for each episode.

Disc Three
• Preview trailers for each episode.

Disc Four
This disc is a somewhat peculiar curiosity considering that it is entirely dedicated to the subject of Tribbles. The only episode contained on the disc is "The Trouble with Tribbles" (of course), leaving room for a whole boatload of Tribbles-themed supplements.

• Starfleet Access on "The Trouble with Tribbles."

• Audio Commentary on "The Trouble with Tribbles" with writer David Gerrold.

• The episode "More Trouble, More Tribbles" from Star Trek: The Animated Series. This incredibly cheesy episode also includes an audio commentary with Gerrold.

• The episodes "Trials and Tribble-ations" from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It's thrilling to finally get a look at Deep Space Nine in hi-def. Could this mean that we'll be seeing Blu-ray releases of the show at some point down the road? I sure hope so.

• Trials and Tribble-ations: Uniting Two Legends: A featurette that digs into the history of the Deep Space Nine episode.

• Trials and Tribble-ations: An Historic Endeavor: Basically a continuation of the discussion in "Uniting Two Legends." This piece originally appeared on one of the Deep Space Nine DVD release.

• Preview trailers for each episode.

Disc Five
• To Boldly Go—Season Two: A 20-minute featurette offering a brief but informative behind-the-scenes look at the second season.

• Preview trailers for each episode.

Disc Six
• Designing the Final Frontier: A 22-minute piece examining the design work of Matt Jeffries.

• Preview trailers for each episode.

Disc Seven
• Star Trek's Favorite Moments: 17 minutes of cast members from various later Trek series talking about how wonderful the original series is.

• Writer's Notebook: D.C. Fontana: A brief spotlight on one of the key behind-the-scenes players.

• Life Beyond Trek: Leonard Nimoy: A 12-minute puff piece devoted to the man playing Mr. Spock.

• Kirk, Spock and Bones: Star Trek's Great Trio: Hey, did you know that these three had great chemistry together? This featurette rehashes that fact for about 7 minutes.

• Star Trek's Divine Diva: Nichelle Nichols: Another puff piece focusing on a key member of the cast. It runs about 13 minutes.

• Enhanced Visual Effects Credits: Oooh, exciting! Credits! I kid, I kid, these folks deserve a lot of credit for their fine work.

• Preview trailers for each episode.

In addition, there are four "Content to Go" featurettes exclusively for those of you who are Mobile-Blu enabled: "Writing Spock," "Creating Chekov," "Listening to the Actors," and "Spock's Mother."

Closing Statement

While it might have been nice to have a few more audio commentaries, featurettes or "Starfleet Access" installments to sweeten the package, it's pretty hard to find much fault with this superb set. It's a terrific season of sci-fi television that looks and sounds awesome in hi-def. Bring on season three!

The Verdict

Not guilty.

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