star trek season one blu ray

"Star Trek" is forever engrained in our collective conscience. Seems like it's been with us forever. It's hard to believe that a show, which only lasted for three seasons, has spawned its own industry. The show wasn't taken very seriously back in 1966, and really only survived due to a devoted fan base and a relaunch as a feature film in 1979. The concept of "Star Trek" remains with us to this day.

“Star Trek: The Original Series Season One” is now available on Blu-ray.

If I took a time machine back to 1966, and with my wild science fiction geek self sat down in front of the television then, "Star Trek" probably would've been a revelation. The show was well cast with the likes of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley. The visual effects, at the time, were probably considered state-of-the-art. The show was well written and had some intriguing ideas.

I'm not a "Trekkie" or "Trekker" or a Vulcan. The only reason why I learned about "Star Trek" was through watching old reruns during dinner time. My parents didn't buy into cable television back in the late-1970s, so locally we really only had a few stations to watch. We watched "Star Trek" because it was usually the only entertaining thing on.

Being a kid of the original "Star Wars" film generation, "Trek" was sometimes an amusing show in my eyes. It was campy and seemed cheaply made. The costumes were very dated; the acting by Shatner was over-the-top at times; the visual effects (special effects is what we called them back then) were really cheesy and how many times did they use that same planet that the Enterprise flies by? There weren't enough action scenes because most of the show was tied up in dialogue. It just wasn't as fun as "Star Wars." More laser fire, please.

Now that the series is on Blu-ray, I've come to appreciate its merits. Not that I haven't before, but the original "Star Trek" series wasn't something I absolutely had to watch, buy tapes of, or collect the DVDs. It was a television show of a certain era. If some people loved it and lived it, then so be it. We all have our television series vices. For some, it was "The Brady Bunch." For others, it was "Star Trek." Leave it to Paramount to milk long lost television series and make them succeed years after they were cancelled.

The original series, in my mind, still holds up well, despite being horribly dated in how it looks and feels. It's got a strong 1960s feel to it, as it should. What makes it still work are the strong cast of characters and mostly good storylines. As a kid, I always enjoyed the relationship between Kirk and Spock. I also enjoyed the funny banter between Spock and McCoy.

Like many people who aren't devoted to the show and movies, I always found much of it to be unintentionally funny. When the Enterprise gets shot at and the ship shifts, it's hilarious to watch the actors fly across the bridge. The sets seemed low budget. And how many times will the Enterprise come across a planet that has at least one beautiful woman on it? I suppose these are dreams that are made for geeks.

The Blu-ray features some classic episodes, including "Space Seed" that unleashed Khan on the galaxy. There's also the episode where Kirk battles the hideous Gorn. Great "Trek!"

Paramount has done a respectable job in bringing the series to Blu-ray. The show, as I recall, was remastered at one point and was shown in syndication with lots of hype over how it looked. Who knows how many times the show has been remastered. Either way, the Blu-ray is excellent, featuring all the details and camera flaws in breathtaking clarity. The show is rightly presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

My only gripe, and thank goodness it's an optional feature, is the inclusion of "new and improved" visual effects. Though at first they look neat, they ultimately take me out of the pleasure of viewing the show as it was shot. I wish this re-thinking of television and film history ("if they had the technology then they'd use it") would end. Revisionism of old visual effects makes the show look odd. They don't look like they fit! Who cares if the Enterprise was held by black wires? If you're going to revise the show's look, how about digitally fixing the solid rock made out of foam foam set piece Kirk kicks in "The Man Trap?"

The soundtrack has been carefully remastered and the results are excellent. The DTS-HD Master Audio tracks do sound pretty darned good with the music and sound effects now in multichannel sound. Yet I preferred listening to the orignal mono mix (in Dolby Digital 2.0) sitting front and center between my speakers. Though I watched the show on a small set with a tiny speaker, I'd rather hear it in its original mono form since that's how it was made, even if its on my big speakers and big HD set.

"Star Trek" still holds many people captivated. How many times has it been lampooned, or how many people dress up in costume to realize their Star Fleet Command dreams? And there is now a re-boot of the whole franchise that goes back to the early days of Kirk and Spock. The show that started in the late-1960s still lives and breathes. It's outlasted the show it based itself on, "Wagon Train," by millions of light years. If anything, "Star Trek" is fun to watch. Seeing Season One on Blu-ray, it's easy to see why.

Bill Kallay

Special thanks to Click Communications

Photos: © Paramount/CBS. All rights reserved.