Starfleet Access for select episodes, Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories, Part 2", Original Preview Trailers for Each Episode, Commentary with Writer David Gerrold on "The Trouble With Tribbles" , "More Trouble, More Tribbles" Animated Series Episode (HD) , "Trials and Tribble-ations" DS9 Episode (HD), "Trials and Tribble-ations: Uniting Two Legends" Featurette (SD) , "Trials and Tribble-ations: An Historic Endeavor" Featurette (SD), "To Boldly Go..." Season Two Featurette, "Designing the Final Frontier" Featurette, "Star Trek's Favorite Moments" Featurette, "Writer's Notebook: D.C. Fontana" , "Life Beyond Trek: Leonard Nimoy" Featurette, "Kirk, Spock and Bones: Star Trek's Great Trio", "Star Trek's Divine Diva: Nichelle Nichols", original and remastered special effects versions seamlessly branched

Star Trek – The Original Series returns for another season on the Blu-Ray format. After the high critical acclaim for the first season’s 1080p release earlier this year, expectations were set quite high for the second season’s set. Well, let me be the first to tell you that Season Two continues to boldly go where no television series on Blu-Ray has gone before. I also want to make it clear that my review for this set should be held in higher regard than my average review because, once again, Paramount failed to provide us with a review copy and I had to purchase the set myself. ***

If you don’t know the story of Star Trek, you’ve obviously been living under a rock for the last few decades. The show, created by Gene Roddenberry, premiered in 1966, and follows the crew of the Starship Enterprise in some not-so-distant century. The crew travels to strange new worlds and galaxies with peaceful intent – but often ends up over its head in dangerous and perilous situations. The enterprise is helmed by the young and at times reckless captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his logical, emotionless first officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy.) Amongst the rest of the Enterprises 400-or-so man crew are the wise (but no less witty) chief medical officer Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley), command deck lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), chief engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott (James Doohan) and helmsmen Sulu (George Takei) and Chekov (Walter Koenig.) ***

During its run on the airwaves, Star Trek was never a massive hit in the ratings department. However, it did receive a number of positive reviews from critics and fans alike. The show was well ahead of its time, mixing intriguing, thought-provoking plotlines that touched on major social issues, as well as having a mixed-ethnicity crew – when the show aired, it was unheard of to have minorities in roles that weren’t stereotypical. Season Two perhaps epitomizes this better than any other season of the show, introducing the Russian helmsman Chekov (and this was the height of the Cold War, no less!) It wasn’t until some years later airing as syndicated reruns that the Star Trek series really began to gain popularity, however. And indeed, it has stood the test of time, spawning a dozen or so feature films and numerous spin-off series. While the series that have come since are all solid, the original has never been topped. ***

This 7-disc Blu-Ray set contains all 26 episodes of the Second Season. Disappointingly, the episodes are presented in their airdate order rather than production/stardate order (but this was to be expected considering the First Season on Blu-Ray did the same thing.) Packaging is identical to the First Season Set, and disappointingly, this also means printing the episode lists on the inner covers of the casing (meaning the inserts and disc 7 block out your view of them, and they must be removed to read them.) I’ve seen two different cover arts on various websites and print ads – both are blue with the St arfleet insignia, with one having the “command and navigation star” insignia, and the other having the “science and medicine globe” insignia. The latter is the cover art of the final product. ***

In the 2000s, a crew began remastering the series, which included creating new CGI shots in place of all the old, grainy and damaged stock footage of space shots/spaceship shots/etc. The Blu-Ray contains this new CGI footage, as well as the original episode footage via seamless branching. Purists and those wanting the best video quality alike will, a s such, both be impressed with the set. And even the new CGI footage doesn’t make any obtrusive, unwanted changes. This is still Star Trek the way it was meant to be experienced. ***

Star Trek stands the test of time and then some, and the Original Series is the best. Yes, the costumes and sets look dated and even a few episodes feel campy. But that certainly doesn’t detract from my love of the show. It’s every bit as enjoyable and relevant today as it was when it was first released. ***

Image and Sound: Paramount scores major points for the production on these Blu-Ray season sets. The show went through a painstaking remastering process, and it looks better than ever. Object detail looks far better than you’d expect from a show this old, and the colors are bright and vibrant. Nearly all damage and dirt has been removed from the film. In close-ups, the amount of facial detail visible on characters and their faces and clothing alike is incredible. Film grain is in nearly every shot, but rarely spikes to the point of distraction. ***

I have only two major complaints in regard to the image quality. First and foremost, the original special effects footage hasn’t been cleaned up. It suffers from grain spiking galore and print damage. I wish they had made more of an effort to clean this stuff up rather than just focusing on making the remastered CGI footage look good. It’s 1080p, no question, but you’ll wish it had gotten more attention. The other issue is that the image quality of the main show itself is inconsistent at times. Some scenes can have some serious grain spiking, some can look as pristine as a modern show broadcast in HD. ***

Audio is presented with two options – a new 7.1 lossless stereo mix and the original broadcast Mono. Both sound excellent. If you’ve got the equipment, the new lossless mix is nothing short of excellent. Even the original mono sounds incredible. With all the work that went in to remastering the video, it’s good to see the audio wasn’t left behind.

The first season set had a ton of bonus material, so naturally expectations are high for the second. And once again, Paramount doesn’t disappoint. There are a ton of behind-the-scenes featurettes, exploring nearly every aspect of the creation of the second season, with cast members, crew members, fans, and those who worked on the remastered version of the series. We get a second installment of the Billy Blackburn’s Home Movies” series, which continues what we saw in the first season with one of the show’s best-known extras/stand-ins. As Season Two features the iconic The Trouble With Tribbles episode (arguably the most famous Star Trek episode ever), Tribble-themed episodes from the Animated Series and Deep Space Nine have been included here as bonuses – and the classic episode itself has an optional commentary. Much like Season One, Starfleet Access picture-in-picture commentaries are included for the most notable episodes – and once again these are enlightening listens. BD-Live online content is here as well. This set DOES NOT fail to please in the world of special features.

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