STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL
SERIES
THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON
As
someone who grew up watching STAR TREK on television, and having
the show become part of my daily ritual during my formative years, all I
can say is that I am delighted by the fact that the show is now being made
available on DVD in season sets. There were a lot of years that I was
unable to watch STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES (as it is referred
to today), simply because it was not longer being regularly syndicated in
the market in which I lived, or it was being aired in the middle of the
night. The arrival of the complete first season on DVD made remember just
how good of a show the original STAR TREK TV series actually was,
and had me especially eager for the season two, which contained more than
its fair share of classic episodes.
For
the handful of you completely unfamiliar with STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL
SERIES the show was the brainchild of that Great Bird of the Galaxy
Gene Roddenberry. STAR TREK is set several centuries in the future,
and takes place on board the Starship Enterprise, whose five-year mission
was to explore strange, new worlds… seek out new life and new
civilizations… to boldly go where no man has gone before. The regular
cast for the second season of STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES
featured William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as the
ship’s Vulcan first officer Commander Spock, DeForest Kelley as ship’s
surgeon Dr. Leonard McCoy, James Doohan as ship’s engineer Lt. Cmdr.
Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott, George Takei as helmsman Lt. Hikaru Sulu,
Nichelle Nichols as communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura, Walter Koenig
as navigator Ensign Pavel Chekov and Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine
Chapel.
STAR
TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES- THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON ($130) comes to
DVD in a seven-disc set that features all twenty-six episodes that were
aired during the show’s that sophomore year. The twenty-six featured
episodes are as follows: Amok Time, Who Mourns For
Adonais?, The Changeling, Mirror, Mirror,
The Apple, The Doomsday Machine, Catspaw,
I, Mudd, Metamorphosis, Journey
To Babel, Friday's Child, The Deadly Years,
Obsession, Wolf In The Fold, The Trouble
With Tribbles, The Gamesters Of Triskelion, A
Piece Of The Action, The Immunity Syndrome, A
Private Little War, Return To Tomorrow, Patterns
Of Force, By Any Other Name, The Omega Glory,
The Ultimate Computer, Bread And Circuses and Assignment:
Earth.
Season
two of STAR TREK was a great year for the series that produced a
lot of episodes, which this reviewer counts among his personal favorites,
including: Amok Time, which strips the Vulcan first officer
of his steely logic. Mirror, Mirror in which a
transporter mishap strands several members of the crew in a savage
parallel universe. I, Mudd marks the return of
conman Harry Mudd, who now rules over a planet of androids. Journey
To Babel finds the Enterprise transporting alien diplomats to a
Federation conference, including Spock’s parents. Wolf In The Fold
finds Scotty the prime suspect in a series of murders. The Trouble
With Tribbles is one of the all time classic Trek episodes
involving Klingons, a type of grain called quadrotriticale and furry
little creatures with prodigious reproductive habits. The Ultimate
Computer takes control of the Enterprise, but will it render
living crews obsolete. Assignment: Earth finds the
Enterprise journeying back in time, where they encounter a mysterious
human, who has been trained by an unknown alien race to help prevent
humanity from destroying itself.
Paramount
Home Entertainment has made all twenty-six episodes from STAR TREK: THE
ORIGINAL SERIES- THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON available on DVD in the
proper full screen aspect ratios of their original television broadcasts.
Similar in quality to the season one set, all of the episodes in this
collection look pretty terrific. The image tends to be sharp and very
nicely defined, especially the actors close-ups. There are some softer
looking shots, and opticals have some minor limitations. In general,
colors are strongly saturated, with appealing looking flesh tones and no
signs of chroma noise or smearing. Blacks appear inky, whites are clean
and contrast is good for a nearly four-decade-old television series. The
film elements from which the episodes are transferred are in great shape,
showing few blemishes for their age. There is some mild film grain in just
about every episode, but it is never excessive. Even with four episodes on
a dual layer disc, digital compression artifacts are always nicely
contained.
Just
like the preceding set, all the episodes that comprise STAR TREK: THE
ORIGINAL SERIES- THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON come with upgraded Dolby
Digital 5.1 channel soundtracks. The multi channel sound mixes are very
well implemented for a television series originally presented in monaural.
Channel separations are effective and work well within the limitations of
the original sound design. Surround usage isn’t excessive, but there is
a fairly nice spread of music and ambient sound to the rear. Fidelity has
some limitations, but the music never comes across as being either harsh
or shrill. Dialogue is crisply rendered and remains totally
understandable. Most signs of background hiss and surface noise have been
cleaned up in the mastering process, leaving the episodes with a nice
sonic quality. The bass channel provides a respectable bottom end to the
sound, but never sounds artificial or forced. English Dolby Surround
soundtracks are also encoded onto the DVDs, as are English subtitles.
3-D
animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s cool interactive menus- I
still love those CGI renderings of show’s plywood sets. Through the
menus, one has access to the standard set up and episode selection
features, as well as the supplemental materials. Throughout the set, one
will find a preview trailers for each of the episodes, while Amok
Time and The Trouble With Tribbles feature popup
factoid text commentaries by Michael and Denise Okuda. As for the rest of
the supplemental materials, they can be found on disc seven of the set. To
Boldly Go... Season Two runs nearly twenty minutes and features
various cast members reflecting on some of the second season’s stand out
episodes, as well as a new addition to the cast.
Life
Beyond Trek: Leonard Nimoy is a twelve-minute program featuring
the actor discussing his latest project and love- photography. Kirk,
Spock & Bones: Star Trek’s Great Trio clocks in at seven
minutes and features Shatner and Nimoy discussing their chemistry on
screen with the late DeForest Kelley. Designing The Final Frontier
is a twenty-two minute program featuring art director Matt Jefferies
discussing his work on Trek. Star Trek’s Devine Diva:
Nichelle Nichols is thirteen minutes long and features the
singer/actress talking about both aspects of her career and how she got
involved with Trek. Writer’s Notebook: D.C. Fontana
is a seven-minute interview in which the writer/story editor discusses her
involvement and contributions to the series. Production Art
is a gallery of design drawings by Matt Jefferies, while the Photo
Gallery offers an assembly of production and publicity
photographs.
STAR
TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES- THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON is a great
collection that features some of the series best and most classic
episodes. Again, Paramount has done a terrific job in the audio and video
department, making this a set every fan (who hasn’t already picked up
the individual releases) will want to own. Highly recommended.
As
someone who grew up watching STAR TREK on television, and having
the show become part of my daily ritual during my formative years, all I
can say is that I am delighted by the fact that the show is now being made
available on DVD in season sets. There were a lot of years that I was
unable to watch STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES (as it is referred
to today), simply because it was not longer being regularly syndicated in
the market in which I lived, or it was being aired in the middle of the
night. The arrival of the complete first season on DVD made remember just
how good of a show the original STAR TREK TV series actually was,
and had me especially eager for the season two, which contained more than
its fair share of classic episodes.
For
the handful of you completely unfamiliar with STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL
SERIES the show was the brainchild of that Great Bird of the Galaxy
Gene Roddenberry. STAR TREK is set several centuries in the future,
and takes place on board the Starship Enterprise, whose five-year mission
was to explore strange, new worlds… seek out new life and new
civilizations… to boldly go where no man has gone before. The regular
cast for the second season of STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES
featured William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as the
ship’s Vulcan first officer Commander Spock, DeForest Kelley as ship’s
surgeon Dr. Leonard McCoy, James Doohan as ship’s engineer Lt. Cmdr.
Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott, George Takei as helmsman Lt. Hikaru Sulu,
Nichelle Nichols as communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura, Walter Koenig
as navigator Ensign Pavel Chekov and Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine
Chapel.
STAR
TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES- THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON ($130) comes to
DVD in a seven-disc set that features all twenty-six episodes that were
aired during the show’s that sophomore year. The twenty-six featured
episodes are as follows: Amok Time, Who Mourns For
Adonais?, The Changeling, Mirror, Mirror,
The Apple, The Doomsday Machine, Catspaw,
I, Mudd, Metamorphosis, Journey
To Babel, Friday's Child, The Deadly Years,
Obsession, Wolf In The Fold, The Trouble
With Tribbles, The Gamesters Of Triskelion, A
Piece Of The Action, The Immunity Syndrome, A
Private Little War, Return To Tomorrow, Patterns
Of Force, By Any Other Name, The Omega Glory,
The Ultimate Computer, Bread And Circuses and Assignment:
Earth.
Season
two of STAR TREK was a great year for the series that produced a
lot of episodes, which this reviewer counts among his personal favorites,
including: Amok Time, which strips the Vulcan first officer
of his steely logic. Mirror, Mirror in which a
transporter mishap strands several members of the crew in a savage
parallel universe. I, Mudd marks the return of
conman Harry Mudd, who now rules over a planet of androids. Journey
To Babel finds the Enterprise transporting alien diplomats to a
Federation conference, including Spock’s parents. Wolf In The Fold
finds Scotty the prime suspect in a series of murders. The Trouble
With Tribbles is one of the all time classic Trek episodes
involving Klingons, a type of grain called quadrotriticale and furry
little creatures with prodigious reproductive habits. The Ultimate
Computer takes control of the Enterprise, but will it render
living crews obsolete. Assignment: Earth finds the
Enterprise journeying back in time, where they encounter a mysterious
human, who has been trained by an unknown alien race to help prevent
humanity from destroying itself.
Paramount
Home Entertainment has made all twenty-six episodes from STAR TREK: THE
ORIGINAL SERIES- THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON available on DVD in the
proper full screen aspect ratios of their original television broadcasts.
Similar in quality to the season one set, all of the episodes in this
collection look pretty terrific. The image tends to be sharp and very
nicely defined, especially the actors close-ups. There are some softer
looking shots, and opticals have some minor limitations. In general,
colors are strongly saturated, with appealing looking flesh tones and no
signs of chroma noise or smearing. Blacks appear inky, whites are clean
and contrast is good for a nearly four-decade-old television series. The
film elements from which the episodes are transferred are in great shape,
showing few blemishes for their age. There is some mild film grain in just
about every episode, but it is never excessive. Even with four episodes on
a dual layer disc, digital compression artifacts are always nicely
contained.
Just
like the preceding set, all the episodes that comprise STAR TREK: THE
ORIGINAL SERIES- THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON come with upgraded Dolby
Digital 5.1 channel soundtracks. The multi channel sound mixes are very
well implemented for a television series originally presented in monaural.
Channel separations are effective and work well within the limitations of
the original sound design. Surround usage isn’t excessive, but there is
a fairly nice spread of music and ambient sound to the rear. Fidelity has
some limitations, but the music never comes across as being either harsh
or shrill. Dialogue is crisply rendered and remains totally
understandable. Most signs of background hiss and surface noise have been
cleaned up in the mastering process, leaving the episodes with a nice
sonic quality. The bass channel provides a respectable bottom end to the
sound, but never sounds artificial or forced. English Dolby Surround
soundtracks are also encoded onto the DVDs, as are English subtitles.
3-D
animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s cool interactive menus- I
still love those CGI renderings of show’s plywood sets. Through the
menus, one has access to the standard set up and episode selection
features, as well as the supplemental materials. Throughout the set, one
will find a preview trailers for each of the episodes, while Amok
Time and The Trouble With Tribbles feature popup
factoid text commentaries by Michael and Denise Okuda. As for the rest of
the supplemental materials, they can be found on disc seven of the set. To
Boldly Go... Season Two runs nearly twenty minutes and features
various cast members reflecting on some of the second season’s stand out
episodes, as well as a new addition to the cast.
Life
Beyond Trek: Leonard Nimoy is a twelve-minute program featuring
the actor discussing his latest project and love- photography. Kirk,
Spock & Bones: Star Trek’s Great Trio clocks in at seven
minutes and features Shatner and Nimoy discussing their chemistry on
screen with the late DeForest Kelley. Designing The Final Frontier
is a twenty-two minute program featuring art director Matt Jefferies
discussing his work on Trek. Star Trek’s Devine Diva:
Nichelle Nichols is thirteen minutes long and features the
singer/actress talking about both aspects of her career and how she got
involved with Trek. Writer’s Notebook: D.C. Fontana
is a seven-minute interview in which the writer/story editor discusses her
involvement and contributions to the series. Production Art
is a gallery of design drawings by Matt Jefferies, while the Photo
Gallery offers an assembly of production and publicity
photographs.
STAR
TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES- THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON is a great
collection that features some of the series best and most classic
episodes. Again, Paramount has done a terrific job in the audio and video
department, making this a set every fan (who hasn’t already picked up
the individual releases) will want to own. Highly recommended.