Star Trek: The Original Series: Season 2 (Remastered Edition)

Just like the Season 1 Blu Ray release of Star Trek: The Original Series, the quality of the transfer and restoration work is stunning. Contrast has been improved, colors enhanced, and scratches and dirt specks have been almost entirely eliminated. The show never looked better than it does on these Blu Ray discs. (Although the remastering does expose some of the budget cuts suffered by the show between its first and second season. Colors are sometimes inconsistent from shot to shot, lighting is not as precise or artistic, the picture is occasionally overexposed, and camera focus doesn’t always hit its mark, all very likely the results of a production team that did not have the time and resources to give the show the same polish that it had in its first season. This is obviously no fault of the restoration team. They have simply preserved what the show originally looked like, and I’m perfectly fine with that.) 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 music track 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.Of special note in the Season 2 boxset is disc four which is entirely devoted to the Original Series' most well-known episode "The Trouble With Tribbles". Not only does the disc contain the original episode gloriously restored in high definition, but I was delighted to find the sequel episode from the animated series "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and the DEEP SPACE 9 classic "Trials and Tribble-ations", which uses a time travel MacGuffin to seamlessly integrate the DEEP SPACE 9 characters into the original episode as they have their own parallel adventure. In addition, there are two documentaries about the writing and production wizardry used to make the latter episode, audio commentary tracks from writer David Gerrold for the original episode and the animated sequel, and finally, a picture-in-picture commentary/documentary to accompany the original episode. There is enough content on this disc alone to justify the purchase price of the entire boxset!Bottom line: this is a “must have” for any Star Trek fan.

I ordered this one because of Pluto TV switching between the original series, which is the one I grew up with, and the next generation, which I do not like, I keep missing "Nomad", so I ordered it. Now it's mine!

Pros: Over all well done, good packaging.Cons: Really just one, NO ENGLISH SCREEN TEXT. Only spanish, & french. As long as it was being remastered, they could have done something about walking around the bridge area sounding like walking on plywood. None of it was a deal breaker for me though, generally happy with the purchase of all 3 seasons.

Wonderful dvd. Star trek is my favorite.

I have been a Star Trek the original series fan going back to the mid-70's as a kid. I took my time with shopping for a quality Blue Ray set. This is just Season 2 out of the set, so I purchased Seasons 1 and 3 to complete the entire set. This sensational Blue Ray set far exceeds what I expected. I knew that it would be good, but I didn't think that it would be this good. The sound quality is fantastic, and the video looks absolutely spectacular! Very well done! There are multiple episodes on each disc, and I love how when you load up the disc in the Blue Ray Player, you hear the sound of instruments on the bridge, while seeing images from some of the episodes on a particular disk. On the screen, below is a box that allows you to select which episode on the disk that you'd like to view, and the ease of selecting either the enhanced effects or the original effects as they were during the original filming in the 60's makes this set superb! In addition, the episodes are seen in their entirety rather than the shortened cut versions that we saw on TV over the years. Scenes are seen in full length that were often not included in the TV versions. Every single episode is included when you purchase all 3 Seasons; yes, "The Cage" too! "The Cage" is included in Season 3. I am so happy that I bought all 3 Seasons and have every single episode (80 episodes).I haven't been able to stop watching episodes ever since I bought them 3 weeks ago. I certainly recommend buying this Season 2 as well as Seasons 1 and 3 in these Blue Ray cases. Who needs the Paramount network? This is the best viewing of the original series ever! It is a must have for those who love Star Trek the original series.Now, I am off to go watch another episode right now...LOL!

I got the remastered Season 1 Blu-ray when it came out and also recently got hold of Season 2. Season 2's episodes remain strong, although with many of the same themes as episodes in Season 1 (and in fact a lot of common themes to the whole Star Trek universe, really, but that's no bad thing). The remaster again is visually very impressive. Not all scenes are as sharp and colourful as each other though. As with Season 1 there are a few soft and/or desaturated scenes that slightly mar an otherwise colourful and pleasing experience. There is a lot of detail and expression in facial close-ups, which I really appreciated. The sound, like Season 1, is a HD Master Audio 7-channel remaster. It's very impressive, although the dialogue is mixed rather low. It's great quality, just lower than the music. You may find yourself turning the episodes down form time to time during action scenes. Compared to Season 1, perhaps subjectively as I haven't had the chance to do a proper check, Season 2 seems a bit rougher visually and Kirk's voiceover on the opening music seems quieter. No real problems here, just odd, and perhaps related to the source material. It's also worth noting there are lots of little extras (including BD-Live ones) like there were with the Season 1 set. It's particularly nice to see a host of extras accompanying the 'trouble with tribbles' classic episode, on a disc of its own - a cartoon and a Deep Space Nine episode (upscaled with some heavy digital noise reduction if my eyes don't deceive me). One point of caution, again like Season 2, the last disc in the (UK) pack doesn't stay in its place very easily. It seems to pop out a lot. I store the boxes horizontally because of this, to avoid scratches. Overall then, not perfect, but a very impressive remaster of some classic sci-fi material than I'm fully happy with, in spite of a few minor niggles. Very highly recommended.

And so on we go to the year 2267. The central trio of Kirk, Spock and Bones have become as assured and happy in their interplay as a classical music chamber group; and adding to the merriment are a busier Montgomery Scott, memorably drinking an unfriendly alien under the table, not to mention the Russian Monkee of Pavel Andreievich Chekov. And thankfully, our scriptwriters bring us some of our very favourite episodes. Spock introduces us to his Mum, his Dad and his formidable fiancée; we discover that there are exoplanets ruled by Romans, Nazis and Capone-era Chicago gangsters; and we meet the god Apollo, the great Zefram Cochrane, Teri Garr, Diana Muldaur and a pregnant Julie Newmar. Oh, and our heroes also have to cope with premature senility, a second dose of Harry Mudd and an awful lot of tribbles.The technical quality of these blu-rays is as astounding as Season One's. There are perhaps two or three minutes in the entire set where the sharpness is below par, but in the main, the purity and detail of the images on your screen are little short of miraculous. And the remastered multi-channel audio is no less delectable. As before, we have the welcome option of CGI visual effects instead of model starships dangling from strings, and as before, these are achieved with a discretion and gorgeousness that should kindle joy in every Trekkie heart.A slew of extras include an interview with writer Dorothy Fontana, Nichelle Nichols's droll account of her singing career and Leonard Nimoy showing us a little of how he goes about his fine art photography. And our dear old tribbles get an entire disc of their very own. As well as a behind the scenes featurette and the tribble episode of Star Trek: the Animated Series, we're given a chance to see the entire, sublime Trials and Tribble-ations episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. If I could only ever watch one Star Trek series again, I suspect that DS9 would be the one, so it has been an enormous pleasure getting a preview of Benjamin, Odo, Julian and Jadzia on BD.For a vintage TV collection, this set is very, very expensive: but when you remember how much work has gone into it and what a box of delights it truly is, you could say that it's something of a bargain.

As a life long fan I have purchased Star Trek (in it's entirety) on VHS, on DVD and now BLU RAY; I have fond memories of watching Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Co in their adventures on BBC2 every teatime (was it Wednesday's?!) with my Dad during the early to mid eighties.I would not describe myself as a 'Trekkie', but I just find the shows comforting and relaxing to watch.These BLU RAY sets are superb, the picture quality is obviously amazing, at times it is genuinely difficult to believe that images were not filmed in the last couple of years!The new special effects are great, and real care has been made to edit them into the show as effectively as possible; I still prefer the original effects believe it or not (!) but they are a fantastic addition and warrant yet another purchase of the series.The sound is also stunning and the newly produced intro tune is a great addition.There are good extras and the menu screens look great also.One minor negative for me is the inability to play all the episodes on each disc in succession, one has to play each episode seperately; I personally love to put them on to 'play all' and fall asleep to them on a lazy afternoon, but nevermind!Particular highlights of this series for me are 'Amok Time, 'The Changeling', 'Mirror, Mirror', 'Journey to Babel', 'The Doomsday Machine' (A personal favourie).......... I could go on (!), it was arguably the best season of the original series.An essential purchase for any Star Trek fan with a BLU RAY player.

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 shots of the Enterprise in orbit show many details that were never in the original, and instead of just having cloudy planets, you see the outline of continents. There are also some really interesting extras added to the disks; interviews with people and items on the episode production.Among these are some home movies by Billy Blackburn, a long time extra on the programme. These show the actors relaxing behind the scenes, there are some items that show how the filming took place and how they did a lot of the preparation work. A really valuable insight into how the series was made.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. But I do think that the box set is excellent value for money.The end result is something that I believe 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. 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.

Those purchasing the second season can be assured of the same high production values of the first. The extras on this can of DVDs consist of the following: -1. Part two of Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest - memories of an extra on the series (twelve minutes).2. `To Boldly Go', a twenty-minute review of season two, including the introduction of Walter Koenig as Ensign Chekhov.3. `Designing the Final Frontier', another twenty-minute feature looking at the series art direction.4. A ten-minute `Writer's Notebook' by D C Fontana, focussing on the script-editing process.5. `More Tribbles, More Troubles', an episode (with commentary) from the animated series that reworked and took further one of season two's most loved episodes.6. The `Deep Space Nine' episode `Trials and Tribble-ations' that cleverly revisited the original `Trouble With Tribbles', together with accompanying documentaries.7. `Life Beyond Trek', a twelve-minute interview with Leonard Nimoy regarding his work as a photographer.8. A seven-minute featurette on `Kirk, Spock, & Bones - Star Trek's Great Trio'.9. `Star Trek's Divine Diva', a thirteen-minute interview with Nichelle Nichols.Enough here, then, to keep any Trekker happy, especially those with pet Tribbles.