The Movies: You can’t blame Paramount for releasing no less than two Star Trek movie sets so close to the release of JJ Abram’s Star Trek film. You particularly can’t blame them for dividing the sets into a “original series” set and a “Next Generation” set. After all: even the worst of the original series movies was at lease watchable, and the Next Generation movies were, inarguably, barely watchable except for ONE. Though the real question on everyone’s mind is: why buy this set if you already own all the best Star Trek movies on DVD, for many years by now?

Let’s first answer that question with a quick, film-by-film mini-review of each movie. To be honest; I’ve never been one to say that “only even Trek movies are any good.” To me that’s belittling those even numbered movies immensely. The closer truth is: the even numbered movies are science fiction classics, while the odd numbered movies are, well…flawed. How flawed? Here’s a mini-review of each, with their “Techtite ratings” added as well:

The Motion Picture: Scuttlebutt is that this movie was to be a pilot, of sorts, for a TV series often referred to as Star Trek Phase II. The problems with this first film are of the “resetting the playing field” variety. Over a third of the movie is wasted on “Hey glad to see you again how have you been?” That’s problem one of many. These guys finished their “five year mission” and after all they went through together, went their separate ways? Horrors! Adding to the “horror” was the non-sequential new look of the Klingons (a makeup contradiction that plagued everything Trek until an “official” explanation of their new/old look was given, almost a quarter century later, in Star Trek: Enterprise). Then there’s the only official, “new” alien species, in the form of: a woman who is bald. Big. Whooping. Deal. Yet regardless of the nearly 3 decade old spoilers: the whole calamity in this episode was due to an old Earth space probe whose A.I. went haywire? Wasn’t this story already done in the original series? TWICE? Techtite rating: 2 out of 5 stars; an "affectionate” thumbs down, or Near Miss.

The Wrath of Khan: The Magnum Opus of everything in Trek film canon. To gripe about anything in this movie is to be blackballed from anything Trek related for life. What wasn’t there to like? The arch villain Khan returns: arguably, the Joker to Kirk’s Batman. Then there’s the whole Genesis device. How brilliant was it for Trek to flip-flop the Death Star weapon of Star Wars into a Star Trek invention that, creative or not, was almost as deadly? This leads to one of the best McCoy/Spock squabbles in Trek history, as the man of science (Spock) cooly tells the man of faith (McCoy) that if Genesis was used on an already inhabited planet, the device would simply reformat the planet to “its new matrix.” There’s not much else to say about this one that hasn’t been said many times before. Though no matter how many times it’s been said, the submarine-style “half blind” final battle in the nebula, as well as the poignant seemingly permanent fate of Mister Spock, make this a keeper. Techtite Rating: 5 out of 5 stars, or a perfect Deep Imact.

The Search for Spock: In short, this film was all about Spock’s seeming resurrection, and how it could make any form of sense. Ironically, it was directed by Leonard “Spock” Nimoy himself, and for the most part the film’s biggest flaw is that it isn’t half as good as Khan. Well; there’s that flaw, and the way the film cures the disease by killing the patient. No idea what do do with Kirk’s curly haired dweeb of a son? Kill him off. No idea where to go with the “Genesis” device? Bring in a totally cornball story about how the device is very unstable and basically unusable. Question: if the Genesis’ affects were only temporary and very unstable, then how can Spock, in truth, be resurrected? Would he not drop dead at around the same time the planet collapses? This is one of many reality checks that make this movie a “leave your logic at home” sort of movie. In the end I don’t know what was harder for fans to see: the destruction of the original Enterprise, or the casting snafu of comedian Christopher Lloyd (Taxi, Back to the Future) as the film’s  arch villain. Still: if just for the spectacle of it all, this one was…passable. Techtite Rating: 3 out of 5 stars, or a Small Crater.

The Voyage Home: Kirk takes the small Klingon warbird he “stole” from the prior movie and uses it to go back in time to, for all intent, “present day,” or in this movie’s timeline: sometime in the late 1980’s. Yet what makes this movie so fun isn’t simply the blunt environmental message, or the even more shamless way our favorite Trek characters interact with 20^th-century Americana. The real fun is how this movie takes all the flaws the films had so far, and throws them away, with surprising panache. “Admiral” Kirk is demoted to Captain. The new Captain needs a ship, which happens to be a brand new starship named, not so coincidentally, The Enterprise, NCC-1701-A. This opens the door for a whole Next Generation of Trek (literally) via a certain Captain Picard, 75 years later, aboard the so-called NCC-1701-D. It is also, by my estimation, second only to Khan as the best Trek movie. ‘nuf said there. Techtite Rating: 4.5 out of Five or Deep Impact.

The Final Frontier: No pun intended here: oh…my…STARS, what was William Shatner thinking? First of all (are you sitting down?) Spock has a half-brother named Sybok. Sybok is a sort of cultist who is using mind meld trickery to make people who feel guilt feel “good” thanks to him, and then help him on his mission. What mission? Well, Sybok has a mental link to an alien who insists he is (no, seriously: are you sitting down?)…god. Yet the oddest part of this movie is how a Klingon actually helps save Kirk from the faux god, and they have a whole party aboard the Enterprise afterwards. Sure, 75 years later, a Klingon named Worf was a trusted crewman of the Enterprise, and yet based on his own history with them: seeing Kirk and Klingons partying is like Princess Leia partying with Stormtroopers. Rating: 1 out of 5 stars, or…Burnout!

The Undiscovered Country: After the debacle that was The Final Frontier the original cast needed a fitting sendoff, and in this, they got one. Along the way we see a much more intelligent and thought-provoking step towards peace between the Klingons and Earth than the "hearty party" that ended the prior film. While highly contradictory to the prior movie’s Klingon/Kirk party, this movie makes it clear that Kirk hates everything Klingon ever since “they” killed his son. This leads to Kirk framed for the murder of a pivotal leader in Klingon’s high council, along with McCoy if just because Kirk needed a straight man for all his one-liners while in a Klingon prison camp. Kirk escapes with the help of Spock (of course!) and the now Captain Sulu (Oh…my!) while the guys who saved humanity so many times, in the end, save the entire Alpha Quadrant of the galaxy. Add some really funny banter, and the added fun of seeing “Sex and the City’s” Samantha, Kim Cattrall, as a sexy Vulcan (sweet!), and you have the best “series finale” that the original series could have hoped for. Rating: 4.5 out of 5, or Deep Impact.

Whew! After all that: what can be said? Well, that’s about it for the movies themselves. Let’s jump to…

The DVD (Extras): First of all: the movies have been re-transferred with newer DVD technology. So yes each is a much better DVD than the one currently on your shelf, with better quality and much more vibrant colors throughout. Of course with clearer quality comes the setback of seeing the FX much more clearly. Blu-Ray versions of the original series, for example, make each scene with Kirk’s stunt double frustratingly obvious. Yet if older, lower-budget FX like those in The Final Frontier are that much more obvious the clearer the DVD picture is, that’s not the DVD’s fault…or the movie’s, basically. It’s just a sign of how far FX have come in so little time.

The first good news is that each film has its own separate extras. This isn’t like the Indiana Jones Trilogy Set where they threw all extras on a separate DVD. Each of the 6 films has their own relevant extras.

Let’s start with The Motion Picture, with audio commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda, Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Daren Dochterman. While all the above might leave agnostic DVD fans to ask “who?” let’s just say the commentary does not include any of the cast. Additional video features include the writing of the movie, a special Trek reunion featurette (which is basically a reunion of extras from the movie, not the main stars), and a supposed Starfleet Academy video about “The Mystery Behind V’Ger,” where we learn of the origins of the blue cloud that contains “V’Ger.

Wrath of Khan has audio commentary by Director Nicholas Meyer and Manny Coto. An additional video featurette is about composing the soundtrack (which was admittedly superb). There is also a very fitting tribute to the late Rocardo Montalban. Not so fitting is a very geek worthy featurette about various fanboys’ vast collection of Trek memorabilia. Was it truly necessary to make fanboys look like total nerds on the DVD for the best Trek movie of all time? No offense to the fans shown on this featurette ---who I’m sure demanded they be put on the Wrath of Khan disc--- though perhaps this minutiae would be better suited for The Final Frontier? Again…no offense. An additional Starfleet Academy video summarizes “The Mystery of Ceti Alpha V.”

Fanboys of everything Ronald D. Moore (aka, the man behind the “re-imagined” Battlestar Galactica series) will love The Search for Spock’s audio commentary, by both he and Michael Taylor. ILM’s Visual Effects get saluted in its own featurette, as well as a video of Spock: the Early Years, a la Spock’s quick aging process from baby to man in this film. "Star Trek and the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame" is a self explanatory, as well as this disc’s chosen “Starfleet Academy” video, which this time is of the Vulcan’s suddenly-revealed ability to place their whole brain into another mind.

For The Voyage Home, commentary is by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Though perhaps his own video featurette would’ve been better suited for Khan (given his character’s run-in with a brain parasite), Chekov gets his own featurette here. “The Three Picture Saga” a self-explanatory look into the story so far that leads to this film, while “Star Trek for a Cause” elaborates on the obvious environmentalist messages of the film. This disc’s Starfleet Academy “video file” is of “the whale probe.”

As much as it pains me to even bother listing them: The Final Frontier has extras. Commentary is by Michael and Denise Okuda, Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Daren Dochterman. Apparently, “Star Trek honoring NASA” was only worthy as an extra on the Worst TOS Film “Evah,” though at least it’s an extra that makes it worth putting this disc in your DVD player at all. Almost as condescending: a tribute to James “Scotty” Doohan is on this disc, along with a salute to his star on the Walk of Fame. Starfleet Academy’s faux “video file” is of Nimbus III. Where? What? Exactly. Let’s move on.

The fitting farewell that was The Undiscovered Country has a not so fitting parting gift of extras. Commentary is by Larry Nemecek & former DS9 showrunner Ira Steven Behr, and that's pretty good, though diehard fanatics of everything Trek had better ask themselves if they have a sense of humor before seeing "To Be or Not To Be," which is basically a funny salute to the film's jovial "link" between Klingons and Shakespeare. If you have such a sense of humor then you'll really enjoy this 25 minute look at a bunch of fans and their attempt to literally translate Hamlet into "it's native Klingon." Otherwise, well...there's a stuntman featurette and a Starfleet Academy Video all about Praxis. That's cool, right?

An added bonus? Oh, yes! "The Captain's Summit" is a 70 minute featurette that needed a disc all its own. In a nutshell this feature is exactly what it sounds like, including not only William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, though Patrick Stewart and Johnathan Frakes as well. Whoopi "Guinan" Goldberg hosts the supposed "summit." Cool.

The bad news? Well, I myself bought the Blu-Ray version of course, though I have word that the DVD version has a bit of a limitation. Apparently all those cool two-disc special editions released a short while ago are used to offer a whole slew of extras, in their entirely, on the Blu-Ray versions of each film. The DVD set? Not so lucky. Then again you do have a blu-ray player right? ...and you wanted to know if it was worth it to buy the Blu-Ray set of these movies, right? Well, the films are all re-mastered for high definition, and the extras are aplenty, so the answer is one, resounding: yes!

In passing, the truth is that at least three of these films are classics, with the remaining three at least watchable at the very worst. Heck; even The Final Frontier is watchable if just for the Mystery-Science-Theater spectacle of it all. If you already have these movies on DVD you might not want this set. The Blu-Ray set, however, is more than worth the price for the three classic Trek movies alone.

DVD Collection		Blu-Ray
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