Blu-Ray Review:

Star Trek Season 1

By Jason Gillard

*Screen shots are not from the Blu-Ray source.

Movie

I am not going to go into too much information about the individual episodes in this season because I would be willing to bet that if you're buying this set you have already seen them a million times.  I will say that I started my obsession with Star Trek watching the Next Generation.  So I was not as familiar with the original series.  After watching many episodes I can definitely say that this is just a lot of fun to watch!  The costumes, the sets, and the stories are all great fun and it shows why they are just as popular today.  My favorite episodes in no particular order are: The City on the Edge of Forever, Balance of Terror and The Naked Time.  I should also point out that you can watch these episodes in their original format or you can watch them with the updated effects.  I think they did a pretty good job updating the effects.  They stayed very true to what the original looked like but you can definitely tell the effects have been updated.  Overall this is a fantastic season and if you're a fan of Star Trek, you have been anticipating this release for awhile.  Let me tell you, its been worth the wait.

9 out of 10

Video

I just have to say well done CBS.  They have done a fantastic job with the transfers on this set.  All the episodes are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and are presented in full 1080p.  The colours are vibrant and just jump off the screen.  Detail is also fantastic as well.  You can watch the original or the remastered versions of each episode.  Black levels are also pretty good here.  Grain is present but this is not a problem of the transfer because the remastered version was taken from the original film elements, so you are basically seeing what the camera saw when they recorded these episodes.  I find it difficult to think that they could improve this any more than they have for this release.  If you're a fan of Star Trek I think you're going to be happy with the transfers you see here.

8.5 out of 10

Audio

For the audio on these episodes you get a new 7.1 DTS-HD Master audio track as well as the original Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track.  The dialogue is clear but I did find that I had to turn up the volume in certain parts.  The music in the episodes comes across really well too.  Obviously considering this is a tv show you're not going to get big sweeping surround elements but they have done a good job with what they had to work with.  That's not to say there aren't some surround goodies.  There are many instances where the enterprise comes up from behind and fills the screen and the sound pans from back to front giving you a really cool sounding effect.  Overall I thought they have done a great job taking the original elements and updating the sound for this remastered release.

8 out of 10

Extras

Here is what you get in the way of extras:

Preview trailers for each episode
Spacelift: Transporting Trek Into The 21st Century
Starfleet Access episode – Where No Man Has Gone Before
Reflections on Spock
Starfleet Access episode – The Menagerie, Parts 1 & 2
Life Beyond Trek: William Shatner
Starfleet Access episode – Balance of Terror
To Boldly Go…Season One
The Birth of a Timeless Legacy
Interactive Enterprise Inspection
Sci-Fi Visionaries
Starfleet Access episode – Space Seed
Billy Blackburn’s Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories
Kiss ‘N’ Tell: Romance in the 23rd Century
Starfleet Access episode – Errand of Mercy

There is a lot of great behind the scenes info.  It would take many pages to go through everything that is presented here.  So I will just highlight a few of my favorites.  Spacelift: Transporting Trek Into The 21st Century is required viewing as it goes into great detail the challenges needed to bring Star Trek into the 21st century. They did an amazing job, because they were able to strike a balance and it does not look out of place. In the list above I mention something called Starfleet Access.  This is a picture in picture track that shows up while you are watching the episode. Graphics and behind the scenes info is shown on screen. What is quite cool is that it often compares the original effects with the new remastered effects.  I also thought it was cool that each episode has it's original weekly preview.  Usually I don't like features like Interactive Enterprise Inspection.  This allows you to go around the enterprise and learn more about key features. But because it is in HD the details its that much cooler.

I should also mention that the BD-live section on disc 7 is quite good. There are loads of features you can get online. From what I have seen most studios really don't utilize this feature as well as they could have. But CBS has done a good job here. Once the TOS portal is loaded up you have access to cast biographies, character biographies and the best part, extra videos. There are 3 videos available currently. They are Filming the Galaxy with Bob Justman, Sounds of Star Trek with D.C. Fontana, and Saving the Show with D.C. Fontana. These are 2 minutes in length and I would suggest you download them in HD even if it takes a little longer. 

Another feature that is quite interesting is "Billy Blackburn’s Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories" I didn't know who this was but it turns out that he was a background actor. He talks over clips of the show and also shows home movies that he took from the set. If you are a huge Star Trek fan these home movies will be a real treat!

Overall there is plenty to see for the fan of this series.

9 out of 10

Overall

I think CBS really hit this one out of the park.  They have produced an exceptional package with great video and sound and a lot of great extras.  If you're a fan of the series there is no better way to experience it than on this Blu-ray set.

9 out of 10