|
Back in DVD Time with The Best of Star Trek: The Original Series
by Reg Seeton
 Ever
since the late, great Gene Roddenberry created
Star Trek back in 1966, the entire Star Trek franchise
has been the Coca Cola of science fiction. No
matter how you look at it, Star Trek never goes
out of style. Hell, you can even look at Star
Trek as the Freddy Kruegur, Jason, or Michael
Meyers of sci-fi, too, since no one, past or present,
has been able to kill off those horror legends.
Although the original Star Trek series, starring
William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley,
James Doohan, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols,
and Walter Koenig, left the live action airwaves
in 1969, it's one of the few series' that's been
on TV in syndication and reruns as long as most
of us have been alive. Odds are that any one of
you out there can surf through the channels at
this very moment and find an episode of the original
Star Trek series. And with the hype surrounding
the newly released Star Trek feature film reboot,
none of it would be alive if it weren't for the
1966 voyages of the starship Enterprise.
As a tie-in to the release of the new, highly anticipated Star Trek movie, which reinforced the popularity of the Star Trek franchise to an opening weekend tune of $72 million at the box office, Paramount Home Video has re-packaged four of the most beloved original Star Trek episodes in The Best of Star Trek: The Original Series. Although the original series is now too dated for some new Trekkies to identify with, hardcore fans know how great the 1966-69 series still is to this day. In the pop-culture pantheon of sci-fi, the original Star Trek series is timeless.
Sure you can look at it on the surface and laugh at the dated qualities - which is actually part of the magic of Star Trek - but it's what the series stood for at large that gives it its timeless quality. The original Star Trek was more about the issues of the modern society than anything far off in space. In the 1960s, Star Trek was a series that featured a multicultural cast of characters that dealt with issues of race, war, love, brotherhood, tolerance, self identity, peace and understanding within an ever-changing universe. To this day those universal themes and issues have continued to challenge mankind in similar ways as the mid-to-late 1960s.
In The Best of Star Trek: The Original Series, Trekkies will find the following classic episodes:
 The City of the Edge of Forever: My personal favorite, penned by the great Harlan Ellison, that sees ... Kirk, Spock and Dr. McCoy enter the "Guardian of Forever" archway and are transported to the 1930s, where Kirk falls in love with a doomed peace activist (Joan Collins). If Kirk saves her, he could alter history, doom the Enterprise and trap himself and his crewmates in the past forever.
The Trouble with Tribbles: One of the most famous and beloved Star Trek episodes of the original series that sees The Enterprise and the Klingons throw down with each other after meeting on the same space station where Lt. Uhura buys a furry pet only to learn that the "tribble" she brought onto The Enterprise is multiplying and about to take over the ship. For many, it's an episode that has it all - tension, Klingons, a mysterious threat, and classic Trek humor.
Balance of Terror: The Enterprise encounters the Romulans for the first time where the crew falls prey to the enemy's cloaking device, which creates a race war between the Starfleet crew and Spock since the Vulcan closely resembles the Romulans. It's an episode that tackles war and conflict and how easily people can distrust someone simply for the way they look.
Amok Time: A classic Star Trek episode that laid the foundation for the rich and complex relationship between Captain Kirk and Spock that lasted for decades. Spock must mate or die and Kirk races to the planet Vulcan to save his friend only to learn that Spock's bride wants him instead. As a result, Spock and Kirk must fight to the death. It's an episode that feels very much in line with the relationship between Spock and Kirk in the later feature films.
 Presented
as a single disc, episode only release, with
a fantastic English Dolby Digital 5.1 track
carried over from the previous original series
revamp, The Best of Star Trek: The Original
Series makes good on its namesake since all
four episodes are indeed what most would consider
to be the best of the entire original series.
And for anyone wanting to be selective with
the older series, especially for those who have
always kept the original at arm's length, The
Best of Star Trek: The Original Series is fast,
efficient, and Trek time well spent.
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: May 12, 2009
Features: N/A
Video: Standard 1.33:1 Color
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC]
Spanish : Dolby Digital Mono
Portuguese : Dolby Digital Mono
|
