REVIEW OF THE BEST OF STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES & THE BEST OF STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION on DVD! ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE



Photos Courtesy of Paramount Pictures/CBS Home Video



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BEST OF
STAR TREK TOS
ON DVD 		BEST OF
STAR TREK TNG
ON DVD

THE BEST OF STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES & THE BEST OF STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION RELEASED ON DVD!
-Review by Patty Wright

STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

THE BEST OF COLLECTION 
 

Star Trek is new all over again. At least that is what Paramount is banking on....quite literally. On the heels of the release of J.J. Abrams reboot of The Original Series with it’s multi-million dollar budget, Paramount is releasing a “Best Of” DVD for all five of the franchise’s television series in the hopes of retro-recruiting new fans to their older versions of Star Trek. Most likely, if you are a Star Trek fan you probably already own these entire series’ on DVD. So why should you buy these DVD’s? 


THE CONTENT:

Each of these collections contain four episodes that are meant to give viewers a healthy taste of what the series were about. Labeling them as “Best Of” collections is a way to entice new viewers but it surely will spark endless debate among even casual Star Trek fans. The episodes chosen may or may not be the “best of”, but they definitely give the viewer a good sampling of what each series was made of. 


BEST OF STAR TREK THE ORIGINAL SERIES

Anything that is labeled “The Best of Star Trek: The Original Series” needs to show us Gene Roddenberry’s hopeful vision of a optimistic future, despite our continued human failings, as well as establishing his “Wagon Wheel to the Stars” concept. They should also illustrate the best features of the show, if not the best episodes. For those purposes, they have chosen the episodes well.   

• “The City on the Edge of Forever” – Arguably one of the best written episodes of TOS, “City” gives us great insight into our three main characters and their relationships with each other. This gives viewers a taste of the plain old good science fiction writing we often saw in TOS. Time travel has never been written this well again. 
• “The Trouble with Tribbles” – A fan-favorite standard that shows people we don’t always take ourselves too seriously. It’s a classic that even non-fans recognize the references to. 
• “Balance of Terror” – Is a classic space-submarine battle that illustrates science fiction isn’t that “out there” after all. It deals with the elimination of bigotry in our future (and attempts to get viewers to try it themselves) and showcases Captain Kirk’s character as a commander.  
• “Amok Time” – Face it: everyone wants to know about Mr. Spock. This was the episode that introduced us to his culture and planet. Another of the best written episodes, it never dissappoints.  

These are the digitally remastered versions with an improved Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. While fans may debate whether the classics should have been altered, given that the target audience is folks who just left Star Trek 11 at the theatre, it’s a, um, logical choice. 


BEST OF STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION

A set labeled “The Best of The Next Generation” must contain, clearly, an example of each of the three types of episodes that made up the series, which this set does well.

 
• “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I and II” – Like “Amok Time” in TOS, these are the episodes where the fans got a much-longed for look into our favorite enemies - the Borg- culture. This also gave us real insight into both the character of Riker and Picard. BBW is the DVD’s example of TNG episodes that are part of the “story arc” of the series. Remarkably, this same “story arc” found it’s way into DS9 and the TNG features.   
• ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise” – This is the DVD’s example science-fiction episode where some scientific phenomenom throws a problem up that must be solved. It’s not surprising that they chose a time-travel story for this example, because it shows a change in a ship’s battle incident that alters the timeline and who and where everyone is.. including the reappearance of a previously dead Yar. Hmm... Ship...explosion...different biographies for known characters.... I wonder why they chose this episode?

• ‘The Measure of a Man”‘– Lastly, we have the example of a TNG episode that is struggling with the greater morality issues of the larger universe. A good choice, again, because the issues of morality put in jeopardy a character that audiences care about as much as they care about Spock in TOS, and this episode immediately introduces to new audiences who Data is and the issues with his very exsistence.  

The episodes on “The Best of The Next Generation” are presented in the same exact format they have been presented on the series DVD’s.  


SPECIAL FEATURES

The only special feature on these discs is an extensive preview of the “Star Trek: The Original Series Blu-ray” package. The main drawback to these discs is the basics of their set up.. they don’t even have a “scene selection” option in the navigation menu. Given the target audience, that’s probably for the best. 


WHY YOU SHOULD BUY THESE DVD’s:

If you buy these DVD’s for yourself you will only be doing so to use them to fight with other fans about what episodes should or should not have been included on the sets. But you should buy them for all your friends and family that aren’t part of Trek fandom yet. Really. These affordable collections  (they’re running $10 at your local discount store ) consist of one disc each that is a decent introduction to non-fans with a good sample as to what the shows are all about. The next time one of them disparage your love you can send them home with a disc. If they are hooked and don’t return it, you aren’t out very much money and have done the universe yet another good deed. 

THE BEST OF STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES 
Street Date: May 12, 2009 
Pricing: $14.99 US/ $15.99 CAN  
Catalog #: 140634 
Runtime: 3 Hrs., 35 Min. 
U.S. Rating: Not RatedCanadian Rating: G 

THE BEST OF STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION 
Street Date: May 12, 2009 
Pricing: $14.99 US/ $15.99 CAN  
Catalog #: 140644 
Runtime: 3 Hrs., 1 Min. 
U.S. Rating: Not Rated 
Canadian Rating: PG


The review on this page is not necessarily the opinion of Paramount Pictures, CBS Home Entertainment, their subsidiaries or the Production Team of Star Trek New Voyages Phase 2

2009-07-27

 

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