Star Trek 50th Anniversary TV And Movie Collection

3 reviews for Star Trek 50th Anniversary TV And Movie Collection

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Brian A. Foster – November 20, 2017

   I am only halfway through the first season, but am amazed at the quality of work performed on these blu-ray discs. The color and clarity restoration is superb. I have found only a few scenes where artifacts appear on the screen, and they are noticeable only because everything else is pristine. The same can be said of the audio.A few technical issues: there is a pop-up menu option that allows the user to switch screen angles, which serves to switch between original graphics and re-created graphics that use existing technology but are made in the old style to match the rest of the episodes. That is, the graphic detail does not look like that in the newer movies. It is visually pleasing and supportive of the story lines. The problem is that the switching is available ONLY when the new graphic scenes are being displayed. So, you cannot switch angles except while those graphics are appearing, and there is no way to know when those graphics are showing! It’s a catch-22. Obviously, the exterior scenes of the Enterprise are all new, but there are interior scenes that are sometimes new as well, whether it’s a background graphic or a time display on a console. It would be nice/interesting to have a split-screen display option to show both versions simultaneously.[UPDATE at end of paragraph] Secondly, on some of the discs, the user is granted special “Starfleet Access,” to selected episodes that brings up a picture-in-picture display showing things like pre- and post-restoration. It also brings up picture-in-picture of staff apparently describing what they did technically to the scenes, but it’s impossible to tell on my display since there is no audio selection to hear what they are saying. Even under the “Audio” options, there are no selections for “director’s notes” or “English 3” or anything that might play the audio notes. Sad. So very sad. [UPDATE: after searching the internet on these issues, others noted that the player has to enable “secondary audio” to hear the overlaid audio. I have a Sony BDP-BX370 blu-ray player. On this player, the “BD Audio MIX Setting” needs to be set to “On.” Doing so mixes the overlaid audio into the output. Yes, I now hear the extra audio.]Having said all of that, I first saw Star Trek episodes as re-runs on a black and white television. I haven’t seen most of the shows in 40 years or so. I had forgotten some episodes entirely, and others are just amazingly wonderful to see in fully restored color. I had no idea that the insignia on the shirts was different based on profession, e.g., science, medical, command, etc. Also, in the earliest of episodes, I don’t think that they had much in the way of air conditioning: in almost all shots, all of the faces continuously show beads of sweat. In some of the later episodes, they seem to have gotten the overheating of actors under control.Mr. Spock gets special notes: in the earliest of episodes, they seem to have experimented with the color of his face, which in some episodes is downright yellow. In other episodes, he has typically “human” skin color. Also, Mr. Spock’s cadence changed from the earliest shows where he sounds like an officer giving commands on a submarine (through odd voice inflection), but later takes on a more “normal” voice. Of course, Mr. Spock’s ears and eyebrows changed a lot from the earliest episodes (eyebrows were almost vertical and thick as caterpillars in the earliest episodes). Also, my memory had only one instance of Mr. Spock showing emotions. How wrong I was: Mr. Spock shows emotions in most of the episodes (at least the early ones). In some of them, he downright laughs/smiles, but in almost all episodes, he shows a slight grin, especially at the end of the shows when he banters with Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy.There also appears to be much more romance than I remember from 40 years ago. In almost every episode, there is romance for Captain Kirk. I remember that he was a ladies’ man, but it’s almost every single episode…even with Yeoman Rand.I suppose that the best part of my journey through these shows is that I now see them through adult eyes (not the pre-teen and teenager eyes of my first viewing). I now see all of the nuances and moral values that are embedded in the series. This show was not just a science fiction series: it was a reflection of a generation of hopes and dreams. I thoroughly enjoyed (and am still enjoying) my romp through the past.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   A Photographer – February 13, 2023

   The original cast Star Trek is my favorite. I watched Next Generation, and initially enjoyed that, but I felt like it went on too long and I had little interest in the series that came after.McCoy’s my favorite character, but all of the original members are great. Shatner gets a lot of flak it seems, but he’s wonderful. You can tell he’s giving it his all, making the absurd believable.I watched the series on Netflix before it got deleted and felt like the video quality was better there, so maybe they’ve released an upgrade to this set? It’s not unwatchable or anything like that, but you can tell which shots have been fully remastered. On Netflix, I kept saying, “This looks gorgeous.”The option to play this with upgraded effects is great. I think it works better, as the original effects just haven’t survived well (kinda like Harryhausen films sadly). If anything, their inclusion adds replay value. It’s more fun than playing: Bill Shatner this episode: Buff, or pregnant? If pregnant, how far along? Twins? . . . Kirk out.I have two complaints with the OS: There’s no option for “play all” that I could find, uggggggghhhh FWP lol. And the aspect ratio is in a box, not filling the screen like it should. For instance, the “extended” version of “The Cage” fills my screen properly (like these did on Netflix) but not the normal version (which is the same thing, just completely in color and without the goofy Roddenberry bits *Picard facepalm*). I have an older HDTV, so maybe newer TVs don’t have this issue?I haven’t seen the movies in ages, and while they look great, there is some red bleed. I seem to recall they’ve released upgrades to these as well? Again, not unwatchable. (I even like The Motion Picture and Final Frontier *ducks tomatoes* because while they might not be Wrath of Khan or Search for Spock, they’re better than “Spock’s Brain” and work when viewing the collection as a whole, as every episode of the OS was never completely serious or super high quality).The animated episodes are super fun! I can’t recall having seen them, but I probably did at one point. The animation is a bit stilted (there’s a reason why Disney was considered the best) but just view it like a moving comic book and it’ll work better. The original voice cast (minus poor Chekov, who at least got to write an episode) is a big part of why this is good. And like the show, the actors are giving it their all, not mailing in lines. How this won an Emmy but didn’t get a second season (and fifth year of ST’s five-year voyage) is beyond me. There’s a question of whether or not these are canon raised in the special features. These are absolutely canon.Packaging is not the worst I’ve seen; mostly it’s the case for the two series. It’s difficult to remove the discs, and some discs are bound to get marks on them. They did arrive in much better overall condition than a similar He-Man set I reviewed, which had tons of markings (but still played).I like the art on the discs, but don’t like the “collectible” art. The magnet’s OK. If you squint, you could be owning the 60th anniversary. :POverall, for the Black Friday deal I got this for, completely worth it.

3. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Veritas – May 25, 2023

   I’ll be honest, I bought the pack for the TOS series only. But for the price, which started at 120 pre-pandemic, then rose to 200 USD, and is now below 100 USD, you get a LOT OF VALUE.Paramount released a 55th anniversary (huh?) set without the animated series or the 6 movies and yet costs 70% of the 50th anniv set: go figure.That packaging is regal, though I know most of the colors will have probably faded away within 5 to 10 years.The collector badge is terrible (paint, plastic, design), so don’t buy this set for that reason.And for clarity, I won’t be buying any other set even if it’s 4K, 8k, 16k or 1064k. I usually don’t buy packaged films or tv anymore, but I needed the TOS and will probably invest in TNG if they do something similar and at least 2K resolution.