Star Trek The Original Series - The Complete Second Season (Remastered)

This is the way Star trek should be viewed. Not chopped up to fit the shorter running times of today's television, not with the clunky, and sometimes hard to watch 60's effects. ((Which predate Star Wars by 11 years and even the ground breaking motion control of 2001 by two years))

This is Gene's vision...Perfected.

Nothing get's in the way, nothing is lost. The Episodes are complete, and remastered.

I came into the Star Trek universe as a young boy, before TNG was even a twinkle in anyone's eye. My father and mother watched Star Trek religiously in College, as they put it, "the entire campus stopped for that hour of television and you found a TV and watched Star Trek." So when I was growing up, Saturday nights in Chicago were reserved for Star Trek in syndication.

I watched the old shows, but something always nagged at the back of my brain, even though I was young. I watched Star Wars and seeing ships zooming and arcing and banking ((to heck with Physics)), and firing off laser blast after laser blast. And then I'd watch Star Trek, and while the plots were always engaging (( no pun intended :->)) the effects sometimes made it hard to watch.

As I grew up, and learned more of the history of effects, I learned why. The Star Trek team had done a herculean job with the tools of the time, and a mere ten years later, the industry had been so revamped by the new effects technology, that old scioence fiction began to look dated. Star Trek in somes ways ((though never the stories)) became as laughable to my generation as the old Flash Gordon serials were to my parent's generation.

To see Star Trek the Motion Picture and Star Trek Two was huge. the Enterprise a sweeping ship filled with power and Grace...made the original show even more off-putting.

Then TNG came out, updated, with a million dollar an episode budget. Star Trek Realized. The old shows...still powerful in message had lost some of the visual pop.

We watched through Enterprise, and I still maintain that Enterprise and DS9 are the best of the post TOS shows with the best Star Trek feel. That whole feeling came to a head in the now classic DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations". The Enterprise, as Captain Sisko puts it, "His Ship"

Space Station K-7...the Enterprise, Koloth's D-7 battle cruiser, in glorious computer effects. All I could do was tear up and think...."If they can do this now, why can't they go back and help the old girl out in the rest of the original series?"

Fast forward to ten years later, and the painstaking process of remastering Star Trek, from low def, and mono to High Def and Stereo.

Every shot is integrated seemlessly. It's not like watching a new episode, but like watching the episode as you always imagined it would, and could be. The Enterprise we saw when we imagined meeting captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.

As I watched I figured as a memeber of the "Film Biz" I am pretty jaded, ntohing really gets me worked up anymore. So I bought Season two and popped it in. My Girl Friend wanted to see the Tribbles episode, so I popped in Disc Five ((which I nicknamed the Tribbles disc since it has "The Trouble with Tribbles" TOS, "More Tribbles more Troubles" Animated, and "Trials and Tribble-ations" DS9 and nothing else on it. :->)). We watched trials and Tribble-ations first, and I got the swell in the chest as I watched the show. And then I put on the TOS espisode.

Now to put this in perspective, I am watching these episodes on a 61" DLP HDTV 1080p by Samsung. Using a Sony DVD player HDMI upconvert to the TV, and a Sony 5.1 surround sound set up. The Music swelled and I was taken away. The surround sound kicked in, and I was won over. I watched the remastered episodes on TV and these are even better on DVD.

All I can say is...if you are a Star Trek fan, pick this up, now. Do not pass Regula, do not collect 200 credits.

The episodes start off very strong and finish with some amazing work. If nothing else get this season for the Trouble with Tribbles, Amok Time, The Doomsday Machine ((which was the test bed episode for the whole project and does not disapoint you have to see this episode to believe what it looks like now.)) and Mirror, Mirror.

If you are not a Star Trek fan, some of the clunkiness of the effects which may have turned you off before are gone. Take a look at the series again, and see what all us Trekkers have known for over 40 years. This is a vision of the Future we should all aspire to live up to.

The second season of "Star Trek: The Original Series" was a particularly strong one with many outstanding episodes but it also had its share of duds as the grind of producing a weekly TV series wore down the production team. This new remaster uses digitally restored episodes along with new visual effects added recently. Episodes such as "The Doomsday Machine" and "Amok Time" both benefit substanially from the new visuals. The former episode a tense one about an ancient artifact from a long forgotten war that destroys planets features new visuals that compliment the story. The original model for the U.S.S. Constellation which is ravaged by the planet eater was an AMC model that looked terrific at home not so terrific when compared to the Enterprise model. The visual effects crew burned and damaged the plastic model but it never looked realistic. Here you can actually see the support beams where the skin was torn off the Constellation in battle. It makes the episode that much more powerful and the scenes as the Enterprise swiftly moves in to attack the machine look particularly good even if they are in standard definition on this DVD.

We also get duds like "The Omega Glory" where Gene Roddenberry attempts to use a "Trek" episode as a metaphor for the Cold War. Gene L. Coon left during the second season which means the show lost of one its most creative writer-producers. Coon was one of the finest writers on the production team (along with D.C. Fontana and John D.F. Black during the first season)during the first and second season John Meredyth-Lucas (who wrote the classic episode "The Changling" where the Enterprise's fate hinges on a case of mistaken identity by an old space probe and which probably inspired Alan Dean Foster's story "In Thy Image". That story was to be the pilot episode of the new series with most of the original cast. When "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was put into production instead Harold Livingston (with some rewrites by Gene Roddenberry) retooled the episode into a feature film directed by Robert Wise) came on board and wrote/directed a number of very good episodes filling much of the void left by the late Coon.

We get almost all the originals special features ported over from the previous boxed set of the second season except for the text commentary tracks. We also get "Billy Blackburn's Home Movies" which gives us more footage behind-the-scenes narrated by Blackburn that was shot when the show was in production. Additionally, we get the "Star Trek: The Animated Series" episode "More Trouble, More Tribbles" with David Gerrold's optional commentary track and the "Trials and Tribble-ations" amusing tribute episode from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". There are also some extras ported over from the "DS9" set that had this episode on it including two featurettes "Uniting Two Legends" and "An Historic Endeavor" which discusses the challenges of creating this episode, making it work as a "DS9" episode even though it had a "gimmick" and the difficult in combining the "DS9" crew into the old "Trek" episode. We also get previews for the episodes. The menu is the same design as the previous set. Kudos to Paramount for including the other two "Tribble" episodes with the extras. While it didn't cost them much to include they could have given us NOTHING.

In place of a booklet we get the individual plastic cards that have a picuture on the front from an episode on that set along with details on the back about the episodes and extras. I don't like the cards although they are a clever concept. Which brings us to the flimsy packaging. The plastic case would be great if the hinges weren't so delicate and broke so easy. The design is sharp and the intent was good but the execution was lacking.

The problem with this set though is simple--this was originally to be a dual sided DVD/HD-DVD combo. While the HD-DVD format may be dead, Paramount went ahead and used the two sided hybrid discs that they had purchased for the previous season set to manufacture these but didn't put anything on the "HD" side of the disc except the same disc info as on the previous set. I understand that Paramount was reluctant (with their funding from Toshiba pulled who paid Paramount for the exclusive rights to release this to HD-DVD)to continue on but they should have finished what they started for HD-DVD owners. If nothing else, Paramount should have put episodes on the flip side with the original visual effects so fans could view either version of the show.

I'm disappointed that Paramount didn't put together a Blu-ray version in time to coincide with this release but I suspect they recognized that many fans will buy this AND the Blu-ray so they could double dip. The HD masters were probably already prepared so they should have come out at the same time.

Regardless, this is a fine season with some episodes sporting new visual effects that make a difference while others they are mere decoration. The extras are fine but Paramount should have included the original episodes with the original visual effects or the HD-DVD versions. They also should have released this to Blu-ray at the same time. Recommended but with hesitation because you just know a Blu-ray version is in the pipeline.

First I would like to address people who keep commenting that this set should have been offered in HD DVD like season 1 was. HD DVD's have been discontinued, this means there is no more funding to produce HD DVD's. I would have loved for this set to be in HD DVD as well but it is just not possible once the funding to make them went out. Also a lot of people are writing and saying they wish it was offered in Blu-Ray. Paramount has just started releasing some of their titles on Blu-Ray (most notably the Mission Impossible series). Paramount is probably waiting to see how well Blu-Ray is going to do before releasing the Star Trek license especially after they released Star Trek on HD DVD and we all know how well that turned out. People need to remember this is a business and Paramount is not going to risk losing money. But I am more than certain that Paramount will sign Star Trek onto Blu-Ray.

I am relieved however that they have released this set now though rather than making us wait for it to eventually come to Blu-Ray (who knows how long that could be). I love being able to watch these episodes on DVD uncut and commercial free and in complete seasons. Also the picture quality, even though on Standard definition, is still much better than watching it off cable, I remembered that earlier this week when I saw an episode on TV Land. The added special effects although the topic of much debate makes the series feel new again to me and adds to the drama and tension during scenes that are suppose to feel that way. Also the new special effects (again my humble opinion) make the shows story better, instead of me just sitting on my couch making faces at the old effects I can watch the show as it was intended to be. I wish Gene Roddenberry could still be alive today to see Star Trek redone in this way, I am certain he would have loved it. I do believe people who have issues with the new effects should not leave negative feedback for this set however, you can still get the older versions if you wish, but for people who appreciate the newer versions we can have them. It is a matter of choice and as someone else said it is entertainment and nobody is pointing a gun to anyones head and forcing them to get one version vs another. This set also includes all the special features that were available on the older second season DVD set along with a few new ones.

Bottom line is if you like the new versions with the updated special effects you should get this set. the picture is still quite good for standard definition and of course the audio is good as well. If you prefer the older versions then this is probably something you should skip.

Why didn't paramount release it in HD/DVD duel like they did the first one? I mean those who don't have HD can still watch it in regular def. They should have made it HD/DVD duel.

I have only Pre-Ordered Star Trek: Remastered Season Two but i have viewed all the new GCI special effects shots shown in syndicaton so i am more doing a review of the Remastered treatment of Star Trek.

I got Star Trek Remastered Season One when it was released and have watched it constantly.
The remastered live action scenes are amazing- it makes the shows feel new and fresh - and the new CGI effects sprinkled through the episodes are sweet.
the new effects visualy expand the scope and story of the episodes and make it feel like you are almost watching it new all over again.
The only problem is even though the new DVD's looked so much better than the VHS video releases it is impossible to watch the old washed out scratched footage with the clunky, incomplete, repetitive effects shots after seeing the Remastered episodes.

This means i am limited to season one untill this arrives at my door and season three is released on SD DVD.

I highly recomend Star Trek Remastered.