CBS DVD/Paramount released Star Trek: The Original Series Remastered DVD Edition Season Two for the standard DVD format, a logical choice as not everyone has Blue-ray yet. The set is incased in a clear plastic covering which hinges open to reveal a CD-sized clear box, housing the DVDs with a graphic paper slipcover.   In this release, instead of the previously release’s small booklet with the program details within, we are given four nifty data cards printed on clear blue plastic, which are quite nice in appearance.

This set features the recently remastered Star Trek episodes, all controversially “enhanced” with CG effects.  Part of the charm of the show was the original effects, and though they can be seen as primitive these days, the efforts made by the visual effects team soared as groundbreaking for television in the late 1960’s, especially when compared to other TV shows’ special effects of the time.  Unfortunately for the newly enhanced Star Trek episodes, it was not just the miniature photography and visuals that were replaced; some transition shots were removed that had provided a unique texture to the show, which added a surreal feel to the episodes.  For example: the season one episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” famously shows Kirk looking up at the stars, where he poignantly says: “we are totally alone”. The shot pans upward, following Kirk’s gaze into the sky.   This image provided a fantastical transition, reminiscent of MGM’s The Twilight Zone series.  The enhanced version of the episode removes this unique cross fade, and now becomes just another bland fade-out to commercial.  Removing these unique shots illustrates that those involved with the enhanced effects did not completely understand Star Trek’s subtle magic, a detail necessary to do the job.  

If nothing else, this re-release of the Trek seasons to DVD provides the opportunity to show the most significant footage of Star Trek since the discovery of the color print of “The Cage” (the lost original un-aired 1965 pilot for Star Trek).  On this go-round, each season on DVD will feature “Bill Blackburn’s Treasure Chest,” a display of rare home movies that Blackburn took behind the scenes on the set of Star Trek.  This discovery is absolute video gold, and features amazing images of the sets from angles never before documented in any Star Trek product to date.  Footage of Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley in costume, working on set and on location is truly a first!   Star Trek fans will also find it a hoot to see famous set pieces discarded after their use in certain episodes, abandoned beside the soundstage on the Desi-Lu lot to bake in the sun, ready for destruction.  Zephram Cochran’s shelter as seen in the episode “Metamorphosis” can be seen in the background of one of these home movies.  Bill Blackburn should be commended for his foresight to capture Star Trek in a way that no one else thought to do at the time.

Blackburn is truly a gift to Hollywood history and needs to be recognized for many reasons: he appeared in many episodes of all three Star Trek seasons doing different roles, acting as everything from helmsman and security guard to aliens and androids.  He also worked closely with Bill Thiess, Star Trek’s innovative costume designer.  Blackburn should also be credited for saving many of Hollywood’s Treasures.  He worked for many studios other than Desi-Lu and was instrumental in setting aside key costumes over the years, thus saving them from destruction. These items are now some of the most valued historical pieces in many Hollywood Archives.

Season two was excellent and features some of the best episodes of Star Trek, such as “Amok Time” (Spock’s return to Vulcan to claim his bride), “Patterns of Force” (Kirk and Spock in Nazi uniforms), “Mirror, Mirror” (the alternate universe - Spock with a goatee), “A Private Little War” (The bodacious Kunutu Woman), “A Piece of the Action” (the enterprise crew as 1930’s gangsters complete with Tommy guns and gangster slang like “Nab-em, Spock-o!”) and the all time Trek comedy classic “The Trouble with Tribbles”.  Amazingly, on this DVD viewers get two future Trek series’ episodes concerning Tribbles as a bonus: one from Star Trek: The Animated Series (1974) called “More Troubles, More Tribbles,” and “Trials and Tribble-ations” from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. These bonus episodes are all included to round out, as I call it, “The Tribbilogy”.  (And yes, I do expect credit in the future for coining that term just now.)

 Did you know that the last episode of season two was actually shot as a new Gene Roddenberry / Desi-Lu spin-off to star Robert Lansing and Teri Garr in a James Bond-meets-Star Trek Spy-Fi series called “Assignment: Earth”. One talented fan recently created a clever home-made version of the “Assignment Earth” opening credits, and what he thought the series may have looked like if it had been picked up, complete with original theme music that he composed.  His offering of the “Assignment: Earth” opening titles is as good as anything the studios today could hope to come up with.

As far as featurettes, I was disappointed to see some of the same interviews with the cast and writers being recycled from previous DVD season releases.  These interviews were insightful the first time, and I suppose the material was covered so that a second interview may have been pointless, but the fact that Shatner was interviewed with a cold bugs me.  It’s sort of off-putting to see Captain Kirk immortalized on DVD with the sniffles.  How about a featurette released on each season with the enhanced effects crew giving their take on why they did the FX they way that they did?  On second thought; thanks for not doing that.

One featurette included on this set is “To Boldly Go... Season Two,” a retrospective on the highlights of the season. This featurette largely focused on the writers’ concerns over “going comedy” for “The Trouble with Tribbles” episode, among other significant occurrences during season two’s production. Other featurettes “Writers Notebook: D.C. Fontana” and “Star Trek’s Favorite Moments” are enjoyable as well.  The two most interesting featurettes are “Kirk, Spock & Bones: Star Trek’s Great Trio” (which is way too short) and “Life Beyond Star Trek: Leonard Nimoy,” which showcases Mr. Nimoy in his home studio sharing his interest and explorations in the photographic medium.

“Star Trek’s Favorite Moments” is a new featurette unique to this release and features writers and actors from future Trek productions and their memories of the 60’s series. Jeffrey Combs provides, as always, insightful DVD commentary, perhaps some of the best moments from him since the Bride of Re-Animator special edition DVD release from a few years ago. Two featurettes discuss the production of “Trials and Tribble-ations,” the episode that briefly unites the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine cast with the original series’ cast using visual effects. Perhaps these two were made for a DS-9 release, but they are a first for a classic Trek production.

The great thing is that Star Trek is still being re-visited and celebrated, so any attention that the show receives from the “enhanced effects” is perhaps the logical way to reintroduce the episodes that started it all, celebrated with the excitement and anticipation of something “new”.  Perhaps Bill Blackburn’s incredible home movies could have been used in video wrap arounds, or perhaps…well, maybe I better keep my ideas to myself as there is undoubtedly still-unreleased Star Trek intellectual property from the 60’s series sitting in storage somewhere.  In order to get more of this kind of material produced for future Star Trek re-releases, supporting new DVDs such as this one is the required action.  The effort of providing something new to the fans of Kirk, Spock and McCoy is the prime directive, so here’s to taking the next re- release to where Star Trek has never gone before.  This set provides viewers with a few new shots to savor, which is quite a thrill for the fan that has seen it all.