Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 [Blu-ray]
![Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 [Blu-ray]](/images/Star-Trek-The-Original-Series-Season-3-Blu-ray-B002PQ7JQA-L.jpg)
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Actor: DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Leonard Nimoy, William ShatnerBrand: Paramount
Blu-ray: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1350 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: 2009-12-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Paramount
Blu-ray Reviews of Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 [Blu-ray]
Blu-ray Review: It may be a slightly sub-par season of Trek, but it's a real hum-dinger of a Blu-Ray
Summary: 5 Stars
The Program:
Since the A/V quality of the episodes is quite similar to the previous two sets, I will spend a little more time on the episodes in this set. Season 3 is generally regarded as the weakest of the Original Series (TOS), and I won't offer much argument. Several episodes have rather silly premises. But that said, there are still several gems, the actors all still give it an earnest go, and the characters they have created carry the day. Season 3 is still entertaining and charming, if not as cerebral as the prior two seasons. Here are the episodes you get, with my own humble opinion and ratings (out of 5).
Disc 1
Spock's Brain - a decent SF premise marred by silly execution. Spock as a radio controlled automaton is just a bit hard to take seriously. 2/5
The Enterprise Incident - A classic show in which Kirk and Spock infiltrate a Romulan vessel to steal vital technology. 5/5
The Paradise Syndrome - Kirk loses his memory on a planet with a "Native
American" style culture. A decent show. 4/5
And the Children Shall Lead - Ugh, what a stinker. A very annoying alien uses children to do his bidding. 1/5
Is There in Truth No Beauty? - Diana Muldaur in her 2nd TOS appearance. A decent show. 3/5
Disc 2
"Spectre of the Gun" - Some love it, some hate it. I love it. The sparse design is visually stimulating, and the "western" setting is a precursor to later 'holodeck' shows. 4/5
"Day of the Dove" - A pretty good show featuring the Klingons and a rage-inducing alien presence. 4/5
"For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" - Good sci-fi concept, but one TOS has done before, a society controlled by a computer. 3/5
"The Tholian Web" - Kirk trapped in another dimension while aliens attack. Decent, but the pacing is a little sluggish. 4/5
"Plato's Stepchildren" - Absolute telepathic power corrupts a race of beings who once visited ancient Greece. Decent concept, but what of "Apollo?" 3/5
Disc 3
"Wink Of An Eye" - Some fun bits with an alien race that is sped up beyond our ability to see. 3/5
"The Empath" - a weird, sluggish, kind of boring show about a trapped telepath who is the subject of alien experiments. 2/5
"Elaan of Troyius" - A royal alien irritates the crew with her demands. She irritates the viewers, too. 2/5
"Whom Gods Destroy" - an ex-captain attempts to escape an insane asylum. 4/5
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" - one of Trek's most hackneyed attempts to address a 'Big Issue,' that of racism. 2/5
Disc 4
"The Mark of Gideon" - An overpopulated planet concocts a crazy scheme to use the Enterprise to depopulate. Creepy and interesting. 4/5
"That Which Survives" - a rather pointless episode about the last survivor of a dying race. 2/5
"The Lights of Zetar" - a strange cosmic storm attacks the Federation library world. 3/5
"Requiem for Methuselah" - Interesting show about an "immortal" man from earth's history. 4/5
"The Way to Eden" - Space hippies. One of the worst Trek episodes ever. 1/5
Disc 5
"The Cloud Minders" - One of the most overtly political shows in TOS, a race of aristocrats in the clouds subjugates a race of workers down below. 3/5
"The Savage Curtain" - I don't know how they made "Abraham Lincoln in Space" work, but somehow it does. 3/5
"All Our Yesterdays" - a great s/f premise, in which a dying world sends its inhabitants back in time. 5/5
"Turnabout Intruder" - an almost unbearably sexist show in which an ex-girlfriend of Kirk's envies his job and his gender. 2/5
Disc 6
"The Cage" (2 Versions) - What Trek could have been. Amazing to see in HD. The original adventures of Captain Pike, Number One, and Spock. Quite a brainy show, with many interesting characters. 5/5
"Where No Man Has Gone Before" (Alternate) A slightly different edit of the classic 2nd pilot. This cut has a voice-over intro, a few extended scenes, a different theme song, and title cards that say "Act 1" etc. While it was transferred in 1080p from an original film print, it has not undergone the cleaning and color restoration that the other episodes have. All the effects are original as well. Definitely one of the top 5 TOS episodes ever, so it's nice to have this additional stuff. 5/5
The Blu-Ray:
Like the previous 2 sets, the HD transfers of these shows are absolutely sparkling. Detail is through the roof, making every smile line, button and dial, star, and ship detail just pop right off the screen. Black levels are rock solid, especially in space scenes. Color saturation is deeper than deep, and bright colors are radiant in a way that the previous DVDs just can't replicate. The show is presented in its original 4:3 aspect ratio.
The only shots that don't enjoy the same quality are shots with original optical effects in them (e.g. a phaser blast, the transporter). These shots are blurrier and grainier, because the film elements were scanned twice or more back in the 60s to introduce optical effects. These account for maybe 5% of each broadcast.
Special effects sequences have been redone with modern CGI and in high definition. They look uniformly great, and they respect the original design aesthetic of the 1960's material. All the original effects are on the same disc, and you can either watch the show with either set of effects all the way through, or switch on the fly with the "angle" button on your remote.
Also included are several extra features. Several mini-documentaries, mostly reprised from the previous DVD set, are included on the final disc. New features include include several panel discussions from a recent convention, and a set of "home movies" from an extra on the Trek set. Unfortunately, there are no text or video commentaries on any of the episodes.
The packaging has its issues. It doesn't match the previous two sets in size, though it does in design. Again, my main beef is the fact that episode information is placed INSIDE the liner of the case. This means that ALL of the episode information is covered by the two discs in front and back. Having to pop out discs just to see what's on them is really dumb. Why not put the episode titles on each disc's face? Instead, I flipped the insert around so I could read it more easily.
*****
Even though the content is not as strong as the previous 2 sets, the quality is still stellar, and the extras (especially the "Cage" episode) are very good. There are several classic shows, and even the ho-hum shows still have that Shatner-rific and Nimoy-tastic character magic.
For a Trek fan with a Blu-Ray player, this is a no-brainer. It's essential to any HD Trek collection, and the quality of the presentation is top-notch. For everyone else, try the first set instead, see if you like it, and come back to this later.
Description of Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 [Blu-ray]
Space. The Final Frontier. The U.S.S. Enterprise embarks on a five year mission to explore the galaxy. The Enterprise is under the command of Captain James T. Kirk. The First Officer is Mr. Spock, from the planet Vulcan. The Chief Medical Officer is Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy. With a determined crew, the Enterprise encounters Klingons, Romulans, time paradoxes, tribbles and genetic supermen lead by Khan Noonian Singh. Their mission is to explore strange new worlds, to seek new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.Blu-ray Features:
- BD Live Portal
- Where No Man Has Gone Before (Rare and Unaired Version)
- David Gerrold Hosts "2009 Convention Coverage"
- Life Beyond Trek: Walter Koenig
- "The Anthropology of Star Trek" ComiCon Panel 209
- Chief Engineer's Log
- "The World of Rod Roddenberry" ComiCon 2009
- Memoir From Mr. Sulu
- Captain's Log: Bob Justman
- Billy Blackburn's Treasure Cese: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories Part 3
- "To Boldly Go..." Season Three
- Collectible Trek
- Star Trek's Impact
Saved from the brink of cancellation by its loyal fanbase, Star Trek's third and final season rewarded them with a number of memorable episodes. Tight budgets and slipping creative control, however, made it the series' most uneven season, though it did have some of the coolest episode titles ("For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky," "Is There in Truth No Beauty," "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"). Some of the best moments involved a gunfight at the OK Corral ("Spectre of the Gun"), a knock-down drag-out sword battle with the Klingons aboard the Enterprise ("Day of the Dove"), the ship getting caught in an ever-tightening spacial net ("The Tholian Web"), TV's first interracial kiss ("Plato's Stepchildren," and it should be easy to guess who participated), Sulu taking command ("The Savage Curtain"), and Kirk's switching bodies with an ex-love interest ("Turnabout Intruder").
The 2008 DVD set benefits from the same remastering given to the other two seasons, though only the first was released in high definition (the now-defunct HD DVD format). Still, the episodes are substantially cleaned up to the point where they look quite good, rather than jarringly fuzzy to the modern viewer. And there are some new visual effects that are well-done, and obtrusive only to the strictest fans. Compare, for example, the dramatic close-up of the green-glowing U.S.S. Defiant in "The Tholian Web" with the original effect, which had the ship floating in a green haze. New bonus features are 11 more minutes of rare footage from extra Billy Blackburn; "Collectible Trek," a 14-minute discussion of rare Trek items, filmed in 2004 with the rest of the bonus content but not included on the previous DVD set; and the newly filmed "Captain's Log: Bob Justman," an affectionate nine-minute tribute to the series producer. Otherwise, the set retains almost all the special features from the 2004 set, including the features on Walter Koenig, George Takei, and James Doohan (who died the following year), plus the two versions of the series pilot, "The Cage," a restored color version and the original, never-aired version that alternates between color and black and white. Starring Jeffery Hunter as Captain Pike, Leonard Nimoy as a relatively emotional Spock, and Majel Barrett (the future Nurse Chapel and Mrs. Gene Roddenberry) as a frosty Number One, this pilot was rejected, but a second was commissioned, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," now considered the "official" beginning of the series. But "The Cage" is very recognizably Star Trek with its far-out concepts (telepathic aliens collecting species samples), sexy humanoid women, character development, and of course cheesy costumes and special effects. Footage was later reused in the season 1 two-parter, "The Menagerie." --David Horiuchi
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