Star Trek: The Original Series: Season 3 Remastered

True, this third season does find somewhat fewer reasons to be cheerful — with a few corny episodes (most notably “The Way to Eden” and “The Savage Curtain”) that never should have found their way into production. The vision of childish women in the opener “Spock’s Brain” has aged badly. (Honestly, it didn't stand up well even in '68.) “The Paradise Syndrome” is too slight to stand up under the weight of William Shatner’s overacting. We’ve already seen the evil-kids schtick of “And the Children Shall Lead.” “Day of the Dove” quickly becomes monotonous, despite the enjoyable ferocity of Michael Ansara, and might have benefited from an additional plot wrinkle. “Requiem for Methuselah” has an solid guest spot by a world-weary James Daly, but doesn’t do much beyond vacant stares with the linchpin character played by Louise Sorel. (Though it does have a lovely and touching final scene.)But it's still fun more often than it isn't. We're also treated to the immensely entertaining and cleverly-constructed “The Enterprise Incident,” which never seems to get old. “Specter of the Gun,” with a quintet of senior Enterprise officers taking on the Earps, always surprises me with its careful blend of ingenuity, raw tension and at least a semblance of authenticity. The execrable villain of “Plato’s Stepchildren” can be hard to swallow — an art also practiced effectively by the sometimes-infuriating “The Mark of Gideon” — but it features the agreeable Michael Dunn (himself a villain at that time in “The Wild Wild West”) and a second appearance by the lovely Barbara Babcock, who manages to steal scenes by simply being Barbara Babcock. OK, “Wink of an Eye” is familiar aliens-take over-the-ship turf, but it does push the envelope a bit — though you could wink yourself and miss that moment. Frank Gorshin’s inspired overacting drives “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” (even if he does occasionally appear to lose track of his lines). “The Empath” is probably the single most passionate and authentic-feeling episode Roddenberry's team ever shot. And the season ends on a decided “up” note with a pair of classic episodes in “All Our Yesterdays” and “Turnabout Intruder,” the latter using Shatner’s natural hamminess to especially wonderful and mincing effect.

The third and final season of Star Trek: The Original Series continues the excellent production values of the first two Blu Ray releases. The episodes have never looked better than they do here with improved contrast, brighter colors, and the removal of dust and scratches from the original film. I'm also pleased that the restoration process does not appear to have used aggressive film-grain removal so that the footage still looks like 1960s film stock, just extraordinarily sharp and clear 1960s film stock. Sound is also excellent, whether you select the original monaural broadcast audio or the new 7.1 surround mix featuring a newly recorded theme song using the original sheet music.However, the producers didn't simply restore the original footage but also replaced the original special effects with "enhanced" CGI recreations, but about this I am less enthusiastic and would have considered this a deal-breaker if not for the fact that Paramount wisely utilized seamless branching to include both the original effects and the new CGI effects on the same disc, leaving it up to the viewer to decide which version he prefers. The problem with the new and "improved" CGI effects is that they were done around 2007, and despite being only 14-years old at this point, have not aged nearly as gracefully as the original effects which are now over 50-years old. I know the CGI artists tried to capture a 1960s aesthetic so that their work wouldn't look out of place within the context of the episodes, but the problem is, they captured a 2007 CGI aesthetic instead which, in my opinion, has not held up well and resembles something you would see in a video game cinematic. The original effects are certainly crude by today's standard, but there's a realness to them that I think is timeless. The thing to remember is that the original creators were not trying to achieve a 1960s aesthetic but were simply doing the very best work they could with the technology and techniques available at the time. I think the CGI team should have done the same. The more unforgivable problem with the new effects is that in some instances, dissolve transitions to special effects shots are necessarily started several seconds earlier than in the original episodes which ends up truncating several seconds of actor performances at the ends of scenes. For instance, an original edit will show Kirk turn and raise his eyebrows at Spock. In the “enhanced” version, Kirk’s turn and raised eyebrows are eliminated in favor of an early dissolve to a new CGI shot. I personally find this unacceptable and will always prefer the episodes as they were originally broadcast.While Season 3 is often regarded as the weakest of the three seasons, and indeed, the looming prospect of cancellation and the drastically decreased budget meant that every episode except one (“The Paradise Syndrome'') was filmed entirely in the studio as opposed to the previous seasons that took advantage of outdoor locations and studio backlots, there is still some classic Star Trek here. Sure, there are clunkers like “Spock’s Brain”, but this is offset by ringers like “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” and “Plato’s Stepchildren” which is famous for showing what many believe was the first televised interacial kiss between Captain Kirk and Lt. Uhura. And honestly, what green blooded Star Trek fan would dare to leave his original series collection incomplete by skipping this boxset? Such a course of action would be highly illogical.Bottom line: this is a “must have” for any Star Trek fan.

It is hard to believe that this series lasted only three seasons. What were they thinking? Star Trek was the genesis for one of the most successful television show franchises ever spawned. Moreover, time has not diminished Star Trek's capacity to entertain. While the third season's special effects and props remain as cheesy as ever, if not more so, due to budget cuts, this remastered edition serves to further enhance the viewer's experience with sharper, more defined images and more intensity in the color schematics.Although some say season three was the weakest, I found myself as entertained as I had been by seasons one and two. I found little discernible difference. Some episodes were great, while others were less so. All were reflective of the social mores of the time. Still, I found all episodes entertaining. I was sorry to see it end.

Nothing is better...yes, really, nothing else. I cannot tell you how many times I have watched this series. It has become like comfort food. If you're having a bad day, watch Star Trek: The Original Series. You'll feel much better in no time at all. My family has watched these episodes so many times that we have a contest to see who can say which episode it is in the first three seconds of viewing (before the title comes up). I usually win LOL! Obviously, I am a YUGE TREKKIE. My first love was Mr. Spock, with Captain Kirk coming in a close second. The newer versions of Star Trek are great too, as well as the movies. But every so often you just need to go back to where it all began and relive the awesomeness!

There's a scene in The Simpsons in which Bart is grumbling to a pal about how disappointed he is with the latest issue of his favourite comic. His friend wonders whether he'll refuse to buy it. "What?" says Bart. "And leave a gap in my collection?"To be frank, a dislike of gaps was my main motive in buying this final Original Series Blu-box. Star Trek's third season saw it losing a hefty slice of its budget and several of its ablest writers and producers, and the quality of the show inevitably suffered. The infamous Spock's Brain gets the season off to a blush-making start, and there are several other episodes in which the suspension of disbelief becomes more than a little difficult; you may recall the red eyeshades that warded off insanity, or the way the Enterprise's masters of antimatter and space-warps were awestruck when they encountered an alien ship with an ion drive. As for the procession of guest starlets and their ever skimpier costumes, I can only hope that the studio wasn't draughty.This said, the season has many more good episodes than I remembered from my childhood. I enjoyed revisiting the Enterprise's strife with a female Romulan, Kirk's time as an amnesiac Amerindian shaman, the re-enactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral, another tussle with our dear old Klingons, an irritable royal fiancee, battling piebalds, space-faring hippies, a caveman-reverting Spock, a very old Leonardo da Vinci and a decidedly vengeful ex-girlfriend of James Tiberius. And I respected the writers for being willing to take on serious social issues like racism, over-population and inequality. All in all, I ended up feeling that the gap between this season and its more successful predecessors wasn't quite the chasm that we Trekkies sometimes imagine it to be.Whatever one thinks of the stories on these discs, the excellence of their presentation on Blu-ray is surely beyond question. The purity of the video and audio streaming down your HDMI cable will astonish you, and the optional CGI sequences offered as alternatives to the 1960s visual effects are, I think, masterpieces of their kind. The matte images of Leonardo's palace or the Eden of the questing hippies would do credit to a modern blockbuster.Extras include interesting interviews with Walter Koenig, Bill Shatner, Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei and a painfully elderly James Doohan, as well as an amusing glimpse of the convention subculture, a featurette about Trek collectibles and many other odds and ends beside. Also provided are the unaired pilot and an extended version of the aired one.Before I ordered this set, I was afraid that I might regret it. I needn't have worried. Reboarding the Enterprise has been a joy, and even the weakest moments of the season have had a nostalgic sweetness. I only wish that Buffy, Angel, Roswell, Babylon 5, The Dead Zone, Joan of Arcadia and my other favourite old TV shows could be reissued on Blu-rays as lovingly luxurious as these.

Space.....The Final Frontier.These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.Do I need to remind anyone of the relevance of that statement? And if you dont know what it is, google is your friend.I dont go to comic con, I dont dress up in costumes, I dont have posters of shatner or nimoy, but I love this series. It feels wrong calling it a series actually. Its more than that, its what gave a lot of us the chance to escape and live a make believe life that thought us values and morals which we have applied to our real lives.I am overwhelmed at the quality of the picture and sound of the BluRay version, and I am thrilled to have the privilege have seen this in my lifetime. Go out and get yours straight away. Oh, and its worth every penny by the way.

For many people born before the sixties or even the fifties Star Trek remains one of the all-time great television series and is still circulating on Freeview Channels today. Compared today's special effects, stage sets and in your face violence the episodes may seem tame but the characters are as much about the success of the series as anything else. Ground-breaking in its time and some very clever plots, especially in the first two series though Series 3 isn't at all bad either. Excellent remastered quality and excellent value.

After The Twilight Zone, the original Star Trek was the next great American Sci-Fi series in the mid 1960's.Hard to believe that CBS turned down Gene Roddenberry because they already had there own Sci-Fi series, Lost In Space, oh dear!Eventually it was bought and made by an independent studio owned by Desi Arnez and Lucille Ball, Desilu Productions.Still great nearly 50 years later, make sure you buy the Blu-Ray version for the superior picture quality and added extras.Unfortunately this is where it ended until the Movie Franchise started in 1979 and then The Next Generation in 1987.But you still get 24 episodes, plus the 2 pilots The Menagerie and Where No Man Has Gone Before.I hear Shatner is in talks to come back in the next Movie at 83 years old!Let's hope we get a new TV series for the 50th Anniversary in 2016.A must buy, very highly recommended.

Paramount decided to take the original tapes of the programmes, digitally record them and then enhance the original material.They have also gone back over the special effects and a great many of these have also been improved. The end result is something that Gene Roddenberry would have been delighted with; it is the programme that he would have wanted to produce if the budget and technology had been available.There are also some really interesting extras added to the disks; interviews with people and items on the production. But for me, the most interesting item relates to the original pilot of the show. This was not originally broadcast, but film clips from it were used to make a 2 part episode as part of the normal series; later it was released as an episode in its own right. The last disk contains that episode, but it also contains an extended version as well; parts of that are shown in black & white as it was never colourised or enhanced and this shows what it might have looked like at the time. A fascinating glimpse at Roddenberry's thinking behind the original concept.Although some feel that this is not true to the original, I feel strongly that it is in the spirit of Star Trek, and the enhanced product is one that I will enjoy tremendously. OK, I didn't like the plastic boxes that the disks came in; it makes it much harder to take disks out to play them. I felt that the slim disk cases used in the other box sets were far smarter. However, it is a really good set, and one that I will enjoy for many years to come.