Star Trek

Star Trek (Three-Disc +Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]
$39.99
This film was interesting only from a historical perspective. It lacks depth and substance, and tries to make up for a lousy plot and shallow characters with flashy, useless special effects that only detract, bore and annoy.

SPOILER PLOT. We see how the paths of Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Scotty, Chekov and Sulu intersected, beginning from Kirk's birth. This timeline is different from that of the regular, known Trek universe. A Romulan from the future has traveled back in time to avenge the blowing up the planet Romulus, which apparently the elder Spock promised to avert but wasn't able to. Now Angry Romulan wants to kill major players in Starfleet, as well as blow up Spock's native planet Vulcan, in the hope that Spock will suffer as Mr. Angry did (in the future). Angry does, in fact, manage to kill Kirk's father on a ship; Kirk's about-to-give-birth mother and the rest of the crew escape while Kirk's dad dies defending them.

A now adult young Kirk joins Starfleet under unusual circumstances. Kirk and his cohorts prevent Angry Romulan from doing any more damage, thanks to the wisdom of Elder Spock, who shows up in this timeline to advise Kirk and his own younger self. Elder Spock gives Scotty the formula about life-saving technology Scotty will develop in the future -- or DID develop in Elder Spock's future timeline. (You still with me?) In this film, the now new timeline is not repaired. Kirk's father still died defending his pregnant wife and crew, young Spock and Kirk's friendship gets off to a bumpy start, and more. However, at least there will be no more damage from Mr. Angry.

CHARACTERIZATION. New Scotty sounds just like the old one (but we don't learn anything about him). Kirk does a pretty good job as a younger version of Shatner. And Spock is decent, if lacking in the essence of what it means to be Vulcan. Uhura is competent and spunky; too bad the original Uhura was never given this many professional credentials and tasks that this younger version was given. (I appreciate the efforts to overcome the sexism of the original, first Star Trek.) However, all this cannot rescue this film. (By the way, what was Uhura doing French kissing Spock -- and Spock kissing her back? It didn't fit in anyplace, and certainly did not follow the original.)

DOWNSIDES. This film is more of a novelty and the glimmering of an undeveloped, good idea. It lacks the spiritual dimension, psychological sophistication and developed relationships between the characters of Star Trek's best films and TV episodes. Elder Spock telling younger Spock to "follow your feelings" doesn't constitute enough of a worthwhile message to redeem this flick, although it's always nice to see Leonard Nimoy. The soundtrack is relentless, noisy and distracting, and overshadows the dialogue at times. The visuals are simply ugly and busy, looking as though too many hand-held cameras are working overtime. I got dizzy watching all this tiring pointless activity, and had my finger poised on the fast-forward button. And due to the excessive and unnecessary action, this film needed a good editing; about 20 to 25 minutes less would have made it much better.

CONCLUSION. What I loved most about Star Trek's finest TV and movies were its messages, acting, and character development. This film just didn't do it for me. Die-hard fans may like and even love this flick. But for my taste, the best in Star Trek -- where there are socially redeeming messages, great characters, humor and depth as well as action -- is still Voyager, all seven seasons on TV.

Star Trek (Single-Disc Edition)
$29.99
Having grown up with TOS, I was skeptical at first before watching this. Prequels are usually what franchises do when they have nowhere else to go. This movie blew me away (yet I hate the mind**** of past/future issues in any scifi movie). Nonetheless, I enjoyed the movie so much that I immediately watched it again after the credits rolled. I think this is the best Trek movie since Wrath of Khan. There were some headscratching moments like the Spok/Uhura relationship and Scotty learning his own formula from a future Spok, but at some point I just went with it and enjoyed it.

Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 1 [Blu-ray]
$129.99
I bought this because I wanted to replace my standard DVD copies and I love the star trek series and I will buy each of them as they are released on blu-ray, however I am writing this review because I have read most of the reviews that others have left and not one of them has touched on the problem that when you play an episode in the enhanced or original effects the audio drops out completely. At first I thought that it was limited to just the first disk but no I played an episode that was on disk #4 and encountered the same problem. I also bought a copy of this from borders and encountered the same problem so now I have to return both of them! I was playing it on a pioneer player, which is considered to be one of the best players around! I am planning on waiting until the second release if there is one so that this problem can be addressed.

Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 [Blu-ray]
$129.99
Star Trek is one of the biggest franchises ever. I first came across it with The Next Generation series. So, when the blu ray of the original came out, I jumped on it. The blu ray presentation--in terms of quality of image and sound--is unparalleled for any series of its time. I was blown away that a series this old could look and sound this good. Now the actual material was a little more uneven than I expected. Some of it is brilliant (Menagerie, Balance of Terror, Court Martial), some of its good, but there is some that is bad, really bad (The Man Trap, Miri, Shore Leave). I watched in utter disbelief as Sulu pranced around in one episode swinging a sword! Yes, there are number of these horrible moments. Of course, there are moments of brilliance and episodes where you see the future potential of the series. Menagerie Parts 1 & 2 is one of those. Jeffrey Hunter is brilliant and the story is one of the best of all Star Trek. BTW, Kirk and Spock are really, really good episode after episode. There are a number of good guest performances and even some surprising ones (like Joan Collins). Overall, it's ok, but not the best.