Star Trek The Original Series: Season One
HD DVD / DVD Combo Disc Set
CBS Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release: November 20, 2007
MSRP: $217.99
Back in July, just about every Star Trek fan had a huge smile on their faces when it was announced by Paramount and CBS Home Entertainment that the first season of Star Trek The Original Series was coming out on Combo Format HD-DVD discs. This combo format allows for play in standard definition in any DVD player as well as in HD on any HD-DVD player.
The set releases on November 20, 2007 and comes in a 10-disc set which is very nicely put together. The set is boxed in a clear plastic shell. Once inside you will see a smaller cardboard box of sorts which holds the discs in clear plastic case form. There are also sheets to reveal the contents of each disc.
Star Trek has truly been brought into the high-definition era with this box set as the episodes have been restored absolutely beautifully. Star Trek, simply put, has never looked this good before. An immense amount of work was done to restore these episodes to remove any type of dirt, cracks, or hiccups seen in the original film prints. Piece by piece though the arduous task was completed and the results are simply breath-taking.
The episodes in 1080p AVC-MPEG-4 encoding in 1.33:1 look phenomenal for HD-DVD owners. Even the standard 480p DVD side of the discs looks incredibly impressive.
Star Trek does show its age in certain spots but that is simply because of the fact that things have progressed quite a bit since this show originally kicked off. Paramount and CBS also noticeably did a lot of work to the CGI aspect of the episodes. Some fans may appreciate it and others may feel that too much was done and changed. Personally as a Star Trek fan I feel that it only improves them and was a necessary fix. If what was done to the CGI was skipped out on it may look foolish next to the other great video quality outside of the CGI-aspect of it.
In terms of audio the biggest thing here is the fact that the musical score done by Alexander Courage has been completely re-recorded. It was re-recorded from scratch with an orchestra which was set up in size and such to match exactly what the original brought to the table. On HD-DVD the audio is pushed out in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and to be quite honest I was in awe when I first heard the clarity. The classic score has never sounded this clear and inspiring.
The dialogue and such from the audio is also extremely well done as everything is extremely crisp and clear. The episodes even make use of the surround channels when necessary which is very impressive considering the age of the show. From an audio/visual aspect, fans of Star Trek simply could not ask for more.
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