''Space: the final
frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year
mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new
civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.''
TOS.. in the medias...
This show has been released on so many medias, some of
which no longer exist, that I think it’d be pointless detailing all of them, so
I shall concentrate on the current forms: dvd and bluray editions.
Before I do that, the dead formats, except to nerds
and collectors of older technologies:
VHS, Beta, Laser Discs, and the defunct HD DVD on which only the first
season was released, before bluray format had won the HD battle (luckily for
us, it’s way better).
And now, to the dvd releases :
In the US & Canada (and only in region 1), the
initial release comprised 2 episodes per dvd, between August 1999 and December
2001. They were digitally enhanced and remastered, release in closed-captioned,
color, NTSC formats, with dolby digital 5.1 original English language, and
English subtitles, and as added bonus, only the original broadcast preview
trailers were included.
These 40 dvds were ‘’in the proper order’’, two by
two, except for the failed pilot ‘’the cage’’, released in the last dvd,
comprising Turnabout Intruder, and two versions of ‘’the Cage’’, one in black
& white print, the other in original color.
At the time, original pricing was 20US$ a piece – a
total of 40*20=800! Nowadays, they are all available second hand for much
cheaper. Here are a couple examples, out of those 40 dvds.
Then, the series was re-released, in boxsets. On
region 1, on 14 December 2004, and region 2 later in 2005, and exist in UK,
German, Belgian and French editions.
The boxes are pretty; each season has its own color,
yellow, blue and red. But opening them is a tad irritating, and each of the
seasons has been re-released in remastered slimmer editions, in the US (region
1) and Europe (region 2), and altered bonus features.
The US region 1 also has a remastered edition, with
enhanced visual effects for all three seasons which is a 25 dvd boxset, ASIN
B001DHXT6G. I didn’t find any parallel edition in the EU, but its content are
now also in Bluray format, which exists in the US (region A), UK, Germany,
Italy, France, Spain (all region B, but each country emphasizes its own
language)
Each dvd or bluray comprises 4 episodes, (more rarely
5) ; the dvd boxsets offering special features only on the last dvd, the bluray
editions add several on each disc.
Region 1 dvd releases seem to have only original
English, in dolby digital surround 2.0 & 5.1, with, it seems, English
subtitles. As far as I can find, these dvds have no other languages so if
you’re not fluent, you’ll have to get them elsewhere.
I cannot gather all the information regarding Region
2’s, so I shall concentrate on the French/ Belgian editions which appear
identical –on those now limited ‘’tricorder’’ boxset editions – as the
remastered have slight differences.
Audio : dolby digital. English 5.1 ; French, German
and Spanish 2.0 ; Italian 2.0 Mono.
There are 16 possible subtitles, including English,
French, German, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Finish, Greek, Hungarian, Dutch,
Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish, Czech, and Turkish.
There are 8 discs for the first season, 7 for the
second, and 7 for the third.
Each disc bonus includes the original, 30 seconds,
1966-69 episodic trailers.And
These
are the other bonus features
On the season 1 :
· The Birth of a
Timeless Legacy (24’) ; · Life Beyond Trek: William Shatner (10’12’’)
· To Boldly
Go... Season One (18’45’’) ; · Reflections on Spock (11’58’’)
· Sci-Fi
Visionaries (16’25’’) ;
· Red Shirt
Logs: Robert
Justman on "The Cage" ; · and on "The Corbomite Maneuver"
· Red Shirt
Logs: John D. F. Black on William Shatner
· Trekker
Connections (3’41’’) - (US : Limited Edition Bonus DVD only)
· Kiss 'n' Tell: Romance in the 23rd century
(8’19’’) - ( in the US : Limited Edition Bonus DVD only)
The
French/ Belgian edition adds trailers to Star Trek TNG, DS9 and Voyager as well as a photo
gallery with 42 pictures ; I’m not sure if the US/Canada region 1 includes
these.
On season
2:
On season 3:
- "To Boldly Go...":
Season 3 (22’26’’)
- Life Beyond Trek: Walter Koenig (10’48’’)
- Chief Engineer's Log (6’01’’)
- Memoir from Mr. Sulu (8’32’’)
- Star Trek's Impact (8’53’’)
- A Star Trek
Collector's Dream Come True (6’55’’)
- Production
Art (40 images)
- Preview Trailers (again,
tng, ds9 & voyager)
- Red Shirt
Logs: William Shatner
- Red Shirt
Logs: Leonard Nimoy
- Red Shirt
Logs: George Takei
- Red Shirt Logs: Bjo Trimble (1)
- Red Shirt Logs: Bjo Trimble
(2)
- Collectable Trek (14’26’’) (
US : limited edition bonus dvd only)
After several other dvd
editions, all limited to their own regions, and varied prices, ranging from 40
to 130€ per season, the BLURAY ones greatly improved and expanded the possibilities:
first, each episode image has been remastered and can be viewed either with its
original special effects, or new, enhanced ones.
The sound choices offer original
mono, or a DTS-HD MA 7.1 – which in my case breaks down to a 5.1 because of my
hifi system’s limitations, and still, better than the DVD editions which were
on dolby digital. this 7.1 is only for original English, as the dubs French,
German, Italian and Spanish are all limited to dolby digital 2.0 but that doesn’t
matter for me, as I watch only in English.
The French BD editions are all
region A, B & C. the first season is comprised of 7 discs. There are 4
episodes per disc, except for disc # 2 which holds 5 episodes.
The bonus features, old and new, are
spread of all discs. They all share the episode promos, just like the DVD
edition I detailed above.
Here is the breakdown of the first season:
BD1 : Spacelift:
Transporting Trek Into The 21st Century (20’10’’) ; Starfleet
Access for "Where No Man Has Gone Before" . The French edition
adds a 2’08’’ trailer for JJ Abrams’ Star Trek movie from 2009.
BD2: a hidden bonus offers
a 3’42’’ trailer for the enhanced special effects
BD3: Reflections on Spock (12’03’’) ; : Starfleet Access for "The
Menagerie, Parts I and II"
BD4: Life Beyond Trek: William
Shatner (10’18’’) ; Starfleet
Access for "Balance of Terror"
BD5: To Boldly Go... Season One (18’49’’) ; The
Birth of a Timeless Legacy (24’05’’)
BD6: Interactive inspection tour of the USS Enterprise ; Sci-Fi Visionaries
(16’30’’) ; Starfleet Access for "Space Seed"
BD7: Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and
Special Memories (13’23’’) ; Kiss 'N' Tell: Romance in the 23rd Century
(8’24’’) ; Starfleet Access for "Errand of Mercy"
BD-Live function gives
access to additional bonuses:
Biographies, character
notes, Data base ((aliens, spaceships, technology, science and medical, places)
; Photos Galeries (team, aliens, Fedcon 2009) ; Exclusive videos (interviews
& conventions) ; Transcription of a chat with Michael & Denise Okuda ; The Red shirt logs (those short
videos which were hidden features in the DVD editions) ; « Trekker
Connections » : quiz ; CBS trailers.
The second
season is also comprised of 7 discs, with 4 episodes on disc 1, 5 on discs 2
& 3, and only… 1 on disc 4 (which has extensive bonus material relating to
said episode), again 4 episodes for each of discs 5 & 6, and lastly 3 on
disc 7.
Here’s the
breakdown of the bonus features:
BD1 : Billy
Blackburn's Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories Part 2
(HD) (12’07’’) ; Starfleet
Access for
"Amok Time" ; "Content To Go" featurette via Mobile-Blu: Writing
Spock
BD2: "Content
To Go" featurette via Mobile-Blu: Creating Chekov ; Hidden bonus : David
Gerrold’s anecdotes (2’14’’)
BD3 : "Content
To Go" featurette via Mobile-Blu: Listening to the Actors ; hidden: D.C.
Fontana’s anecdotes (1’22’’)
BD4 : as
this disc contains ‘’the trouble with Tribbles’’ all the bonus features are
targeted to this episode. They are : David Gerrold’s audio commentary, which is
new to this release! ; The animated series episode ‘’more tribbles, more
troubles’’ in HD (24’13’’) ; with an optional audio commentary, again by
Gerrold. ;
DS9: "Trials
and Tribble-ations" (in SD) which is a cross-over, time-travel special episode from
Star Trek DS9, beautifully interweaving the original story with the arrival DS9’s
crewmembers ; 2 making off’s for this episode are "Trials And
Tribble-ations": Uniting Two Legends (16’53’’) ; "Trials And
Tribble-ations": An Historic Endeavor (16’32’’) ;
Star Trek:
The Original Series On Blu-ray ; Starfleet Access for "The
Trouble With Tribbles" ; "Content To Go" featurette via
Mobile-Blu: Spock's Mother
BD5 : To
Boldly Go... Season Two (19’32’’) ; hidden : D.C. Fontana’s anecdote (1’19’’)
BD6 : Designing
the Final Frontier (22’19’’) ; hidden : David Gerrold’s anecdote (1’25’’)
BD7 : Star
Trek's Favorite Moments (17’10’’) ; Writer's Notebook: D.C. Fontana (7’35’’) ; Life Beyond Trek: Leonard Nimoy (12’02’’) ; Kirk, Spock & Bones: Star Trek's Great Trio (7’10’’) ; Star Trek's Divine Diva: Nichelle
Nichols (13’04’’)
; Enhanced Visual Effects Credits : hidden : Charles Washburn’s anecdote
(1’13’’)
Season 3
closed the show. It contains 6 discs, with 5 episodes for # 1 to 4, 4 episodes
on disc 5, and a bonus disc 6. Here’s the final breakdown for season 3:
BD1 through
4 : only hidden bonuses, with the remastering team’s anecdotes with these
durations:
BD1 : (2’03’’)
; BD2 : (1’31’’) ; BD3 : (1’31’’) & BD4 : (1’32’’)
BD6 : the
original unaired pilot, The cage, in two versions ;
An alternate,
unaired version for ‘’where no man has gone before’’ (52’22’’)
David Gerrold Hosts 2009 Convention Coverage (19’25’’) ;"The
Anthropology of Star Trek" Comic-Con Panel 2009 (4’14’’) ; The World of Rod
Roddenberry - Comic-Con
2009 (7’14’’) ;
Billy
Blackburn's Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories Part 3 (10’53’’) ; To Boldly
Go... Season Three (22’28’’) ; Collectible Trek (14’21’’) ; Star Trek's Impact (8’54’’)
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