| The STAR TREK Collection - DVD Box Sets: |
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Star Trek The Original Series - The Complete Box DVD Set:
Where, exactly, does one start talking about THE original series that single-handedly launched the TV
genre like none that came before it and none has done since? What does one say about the one sci-fi show against which all subsequent sci-fi seems to be some kind of lesser imitation or spinoff? Should discussion begin with the original and imaginative concepts and themes - space warp, time travel, alternate realities and universes, powers of the mind and spirit, transporter beams - or should discussion start by talking about how masterfully familiar human interest themes are woven into a technological vision of the future? Or, maybe discussion should begin with how perfectly the show's central characters both complement and supplement each other at multiple levels of the human experience - the decisive commander-warrior, the rational half-human science officer, and the empathetic healer?
- STARRING:
as Captain James T. Kirk -
as Lt. Cmdr. Spock -
as Lt. Cmdr. Leonard H. 'Bones' McCoy -
as Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott -
as Lt. Hikaru Sulu -
as Ensign Pavel Chekov -
as Lt. Nyota Uhura.
Star Trek: The Original Series - The Complete First Season (1966) Almost forty years ago since the origeinal episodes aired and viewing rerun after rerun in syndication sometimes twice a day, every day, and watching the spinoffs throughout the next fifteen years, the answers to those questions have always stayed just out of reach. The highlights of season one are "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the powerful opening episode (which was aired out of sequence, for some strange reason) where two crew members, one a personal friend of Captain Kirk, become endowed with mental powers that grow to such strength as to make them a danger to the ship and crew, to the question and problem of time travel raised in "The
City on the Edge of Forever", which is regarded by many fans as possibly the best sci-fi episode ever produced. Then there's "Space Seed", whose sequel was produced in the feature film,
, where the Enterprise is commandeered by a rogue group of genetically-engineered super-leaders from the 20th century.
may have turned out the two most memorable performances of his career as the charismatic but overly-ambitious Khan. It is even more impressive when one considers that genetic engineering was barely a blip on the scientific radar in 1965 when the episode was written and filmed. Who can forget "Balance of Terror", which was Trek's rendition of the movie classic "Run Silent, Run Deep", which tells the story of two seasoned commanders playing a deadly game of cat and mouse in in deep space? This episode features Mark Lenard, who would also act the part of Spock's father in several future TV episodes and the feature film, "The Search for Spock". Season 1 also gives fans the first glimpse of the mischievous but lovable space-rogue Harcourt Fenton aka "Harry" Mudd in "Mudd's Women". Viewer beware
- do not allow the episode's light-hearted tone to obscure it's message, that physical beauty is merely an outward manifestation of one's true, inner beauty. After the resounding success of season one, season two delivered more of the same while yet retaining the original and imaginative themes and character development. Deforest Kelley, acting the part of Dr. McCoy, is now billed as a leading part in the series, and we are introduced to the young, quirky, and often funny Pavel Chekov.
Star Trek: The Original Series - The Complete Second Season Season two gives us our first look at the mysterious Vulcan ritual of "pon farr" - the boiling of the Vulcan blood - which drives Vulcans to mate every seven years. "Amok Time" places Kirk between a rock and a hard place as he is maneuvered by a scheming Vulcan female to battle his friend and first officer Spock. The theme of the first Star Trek feature film is also foreshadowed in season two as the crew of the Enterprise are sieged by Nomad, an old Earth space probe that was reprogrammed by an advanced civilization to fulfill its original mission - return to its creator, at all costs. Season two also led the sci-fi genre as it explored the
subject of alternate realities and universes in "Mirror, Mirror", where a transporter accident causes Kirk and his landing party to switch places with their counterparts in an evil, chaotic universe. Rationality is constant in both universes, though, as "evil" Spock figures out what happened and aids "good" Kirk and co. in their return home. "The Doomsday Machine" tackles the problem of weapons of mass destruction 35 years before the concept became a household term. Always on the cutting edge of sci-fi, season two brings the viewer back to Harry Mudd, who returns in "I, Mudd" a whimsical adaptation of Asimov's "I, Robot" crossed with "The Stepford Wives". Environmental responsibility is addressed in the perennial fan favorite, "The Trouble with Tribbles", which features a warm fuzzy exotic
species that overruns both the Enterprise and a deep-space station while consuming a critical supply of super-wheat. Season two is also rich in material that examines Earth's own history. Imperial governments are critiqued in "Bread and Circuses", where Kirk, Spock, and McCoy encounter the survivors of a previous space-wreck who have modeled a society using Earth's ancient Roman Empire as a model. "A Piece of the Action" revisits the issue of culture contamination as Kirk and Co. encounter an entire planet culture organized around a book called "Chicago Mobs of the 20s". A social experiment runs out of control in "Patterns of Force" as a society is transformed into a 23d century version of Nazi Germany. At a time when most computers were used for experimental purposes in scientific labs,
"The Ultimate Computer" addresses the questions of what might happen if computers ever get smart enough to act on their own volition. History is studied directly for the first time ever in "Assignment: Earth", as the crew of the Enterprise employ their knowledge of the "whiplash effect" to purposefully travel through time. Their investigation of the first moon launch is interrupted as they intercept the mysterious spy-master Gary Seven beaming in from a far-away planet.
Star Trek: The Original Series - The Complete Third Season Season three is often criticized as being the least original and interesting of the three original Star Trek seasons. Although there may be some truth to that sentiment, I believe it is a matter of degree. To say it is the least interesting of the three is not the same as saying that it is not worth watching. There are still many good episodes to stir the imagination. In a theme repeated in future Trek spinoffs, Kirk feigns madness leading to his capture by the Romulans in order to execute his master plan to commit espionage aboard a Romulan ship in "The Enterprise Incident". "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is a powerful allegory of the
irrational and destructive nature of racism. The feasibility of artificial intelligence was correctly surmised long before the leading researchers in the field reached the same conclusion in "Requiem for Methuselah" where Kirk and Co. encounter a super-genius who has created a seemingly perfect robot spouse who, in the end, is shown to be nothing more than a sophisticated machine incapable of human feelings. "All Our Yesterdays" revisits the time travel theme in a wonderfully written story about Kirk, Spock, and McCoy's encounter with an automated librarian who is the caretaker of the archives of a great civilization that abandoned its homeworld as their sun nears the end of its life in a catastrophic explosion. As I watch all these episodes again for what must be the eighth or ninth time,
I still see things for the first time I somehow managed to miss throughout all my previous viewings, and I still find myself pondering the large questions of life: who and what is man?, love and hate, war and peace, faith and reason, and all the other issues related to our purpose in this life. The voyage never ended for me.
Other Star Trek:
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