Star Trek: The Original Series-Season 2 (1966)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio Trailer-Original Preview Trailers Subtitle Commentary-Text Commentary By Michael Okuda And Denise Okuda Featurette-To Boldly Go...Season Two Featurette-Life Beyond Trek: Leonard Nimoy Featurette-Kirk, Spock And Bones: Star Trek's Great Trio Featurette-Designing The Final Frontier Featurette-Star Trek's Divine Diva: Nichelle Nichols Featurette-Writers' Notebook: D.C. Fontana Featurette-Star Trek's Favourite Moments Trailer-Star Trek: Voyager Trailer-Star Trek: The Next Generation Trailer-Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Gallery-Production Art Gallery-Photo Easter Egg-Red Shirt Logs (4)
Rating	?
Year Of Production	1966
Running Time	1265:06
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (7)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	David Alexander Robert Butler Marvin J. Chomsky Marc Daniels
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	William Shatner Leonard Nimoy DeForest Kelley Grace Lee Whitney James Doohan George Takei Nichelle Nichols Walter Koenig Majel Barrett
Case	?
RPI	$150.80	Music	Alexander Courage George Duning Jerry Fielding

    The second season of Star Trek solidified the show as one of science-fiction’s most memorable creations.

    For anybody who is unawares of the premise of Star Trek, the show follows the adventures of the Federation starship Enterprise, commanded by the gallant Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), always ready to have his shirt torn off for a scene. With him on the voyage are his Vulcan first officer, Lt. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and ship’s surgeon Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForrest Kelley), who with Kirk make up what is known as the Triumvirate in Star Trek parlance. At the helm we have Ensign Sulu (George Takei), and at navigation the young Russian officer Ensign Chekov (Walter Koenig). At the rear of the bridge in her bright red miniskirt there is communications officer Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and keeping the ship in one piece is Chief Engineer Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott (James Doohan).

    Here is a summary of the middle episodes of this classic series:

Disc 1

1. Amok Time (48:22)

    When Spock begins acting strangely and demands to be returned to the Vulcan homeworld, it is discovered that he is undergoing the Pon’Farr – the Vulcan time of mating.

2. Who Mourns For Adonais? (48:20)

    After a hand in space mysteriously stops the Enterprise, the crew find themselves subject to a powerful being who claims to be the Greek God of Apollo.

3. The Changeling (48:22)

    The crew of the Enterprise encounters an alien probe that calls itself Nomad and is responsible for wiping out all life in a solar system.

4. Mirror, Mirror (48:21)

    A transporter accident leaves Kirk, Scotty, Uhura and McCoy stranded in an alternate universe where the Federation is a vicious empire, the crew are a sadistic bunch of zealots, and promotions are achieved by assassination.

Disc 2

5. The Apple (48:19)

    Kirk and the away team find a primitive culture that worship a computer that suits all their needs.

6. The Doomsday Machine (48:24)

    When the Enterprise’s sister ship is found drifting lifeless in space on the edge of the galaxy, the Enterprise must track down a planet killer before it can wipe out any inhabited worlds.

7. Catspaw (48:24)

    Kirk, Spock and McCoy are lured to an old castle when Scotty and Chekov fail to return from an away mission where they are subjected to torture by two aliens with immense power.

8. I, Mudd (48:19)

    When the ship is taken hostage by a crewman, the crew are brought to a strange planet where the mischievous trader Mudd is ruler of a race of androids.

Disc 3

9. Metamorphosis (48:23)

    While trying to save the life of a member of the Federation Council, Kirk, McCoy and Spock are marooned on a planet by an alien entity where they discover a man who claims to be the creator of warp drive.

10. Journey To Babel (48:18)

    A Federation conference creates tension for Spock when his disapproving father Sarek is brought on board as the Vulcan delegate. Things go from bad to worse when Sarek is accused of murdering one of the other delegates.

11. Friday’s Child (48:23)

    Negotiations with a warlike race put Kirk, Spock and McCoy in the firing line when the Klingons become involved and there is a coup during the negotiations.

12. The Deadly Years (48:17)

    When the Enterprise finds a science colony that has died of old age, they realise that more is going on when they too begin to age at an accelerated rate.

Disc 4

13. Obsession (48:18)

    A gaseous cloud that decimated a Federation crew 15 years ago is discovered on a planet where it begins killing Kirk’s crew. Kirk breaks orders to destroy the anomaly, believing it to be a hostile alien, which causes the crew to question his sanity.

14. Wolf In The Fold (48:19)

    After several murders on a pleasure planet are linked to Scotty, the crew must find the truth before more murders occur and Scotty is tortured to death.

15. The Trouble With Tribbles (48:21)

    Summoned to mind a grain store on a neutral space station from a group of Klingons, Kirk is unimpressed by the use of his time. His testiness is not helped by the number of cute purring animals that begin multiplying all over the ship.

16. The Gamesters Of Triskelion (48:22)

    When Kirk, Uhura and Chekov are whisked away during an apparent transporter accident they find themselves on an alien planet where they are forced to fight to the death for the amusement of a group of bodiless voices.

Disc 5

17. A Piece Of The Action (48:17)

    After receiving a hundred year old distress call from a planet whose inhabitants are highly imitative, the crew discover that the society has modelled itself on a history of the Chicago mobsters from the 1920s.

18. The Immunity Syndrome (48:20)

    A strange anomaly wipes out the crew of a Vulcan ship and the inhabitants of a whole solar system, and Kirk is given orders to destroy it before it can cause any more damage.

19. A Private Little War (48:17)

    When Kirk returns to a planet he surveyed several years ago he finds that the development of one race has increased dramatically. Believing the cause has to do with Klingon interference, he seeks to discover what is going on.

20. Return To Tomorrow (48:15)

    In order to help a trio of disembodied beings, Kirk agrees to allow them to take over the bodies of himself, Spock and a female doctor named Mulhall in order to build android bodies for themselves.

Disc 6

21. Patterns Of Force (48:18)

    After finding a world that has modelled itself on Nazi Germany, Kirk is compelled to intervene and find the cause in order to avert an inter-planetary war.

22. By Any Other Name (48:12)

    The crew is taken hostage by a group of aliens from another galaxy that have travelled intergenerationally to find new worlds to conquer. After their ship was destroyed, they need the Enterprise to get back to their own galaxy and are willing to take it by force.

23. The Omega Glory (48:12)

    After finding the crew of a Federation vessel dead from a mysterious illness, Kirk and the away team realise they too have been exposed. In order to find a cure, they beam to the planet below where they find a survivor from the vessel claiming to have the key to eternal life.

24. The Ultimate Computer (48:18)

    A new computer called the M-5 is installed in the Enterprise to handle battle situations. After an accident, the M-5 refuses to be shut down and takes control of all systems on the Enterprise to defend itself against the rest of the Federation fleet sent to destroy it.

Disc 7

25. Bread And Circuses (48:19)

    After a science vessel is destroyed, the Enterprise locates the surviving crew on a planet with a society much like 20th Century Earth, except they are still using slaves and broadcasting arena fights like the Roman Empire.

26. Assignment: Earth (48:16)

    Sent back to observe Earth in 1968, the crew intercept a traveller from a distant galaxy who calls himself Gary Seven. He claims to be from Earth of the present era, but is returning to make sure that the inhabitants of Earth do not destroy themselves at the behest of a group of advanced aliens.

    It is no surprise that Star Trek has been one of the most loved and enduring science fiction franchises for nearly forty years. In 1967-68, with everything else that was going on in the world, this show was a rare glimpse of hope in a world that was mired in the Cold War and escalating regional violence.

    The second season solidified Star Trek as one of the greats, particularly with the shift to prime time TV in the US – 8:30pm on Friday nights. Season 2 includes many engaging tales of intergalactic exploration, and some of the best known and loved episodes, including Amok Time, Mirror, Mirror (which spawned a series of looks at a dark alternate universe throughout Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), The Doomsday Machine, A Piece Of The Action, The Immunity Syndrome, The Ultimate Computer and of course The Trouble With Tribbles (which was also used in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the basis for a time travel episode in the fifth season called Trials And Tribble-ations). The season does contains a couple of not-so-good episodes (Catspaw and Assignment: Earth spring to mind) but even these have a nostalgic charm about them, especially now that the strings on the puppets are so evident. I’m still baffled by the whole “Star Trek does the Gary Sever Show” thing though.

    I guess a lot of people of the new generation are probably asking whether this first incarnation of Star Trek dated? Well, I’d have to say, definitely – in fact it’s so out of fashion that it’s back in fashion. But, more importantly, is it still fun all these years later? A group of friends and I sat around laughing for hours with this box set, and some of my friends were even surprised by a few episodes that really induced a bit of nail-biting tension and a couple of surprises. It’s a testament to a show that was on TV a decade before this reviewer and his contemporaries were even born that it can still achieve with a modern audience what so few TV shows ever manage to pull off today. Sure this is dated, but it’s still an amazing show.

    Any fan is going to be greatly impressed with this set, and I highly recommend it as the ultimate format in which to see this series. However, for anybody who wants to get retro-cool, or is up for some science fiction that is so out of this world you have to wonder what the writers were taking when they dreamt it up (it was the 1960s after all), I highly recommend this set – it might not be the height of fashion, but Star Trek: The Original Series is way more fun than half the garbage they have on TV now.

Video

    Presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, this is Star Trek’s original aspect ratio.

    As with the first season, the transfer is excellent. Definition is amazing, sometimes too amazing, given the FX of the day relied a little bit on the quality (or lack thereof) of the broadcast signal. Check for puppet strings and fishing wire off shuttlecraft. The image is always sharp except for the obligatory soft-filter focus on every close-up of every hot girl that seemed to fall into Kirk’s lap.

    Colour is also fantastic, with excellent balance and good saturation for a show this old. I felt that the colour saturation for the first season was slightly better, and maybe it could have been ramped up a little for this transfer, but you will soon adjust to the 1960s colour palette with its pastels upon pastels.

    There are no MPEG artefacts, and the only film-to-video artefacts I noticed was some faint moire effect on textured objects when they got far enough into the background and some minor aliasing on straight metal edges in direct sunlight.

    Dirt seems to crop up in scene changes and around the credits because of the manual handling of the film necessary then to splice scenes together. There are also a few noticeable white hairs here and there. The worst episode in terms of film artefacts was Metamorphosis which was marred with blue lines down the screen in the teaser and big blue blotches on the screen at 10:04 - 10:06. There was also a lot of dirt on Amok Time and Operation: Earth by comparison to other episodes. Still, the clean up is evident and will put your VHS tapes to shame.

    All episodes have an extensive set of subtitles available. They are white with a black/grey edge and are easy to read. The episodes are also subtitled for the Hearing Impaired.

    The dual-layer pause is in between the second and third episodes on each disc and between the episodes and the special features on the last disc. They are all undetectable.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    As with the first season, audio is available in an awesome English 5.1 Dolby Digital remix, as well as German, French, Spanish and Italian in the original 1.0 Dolby Mono overdub.

    With the English remix, dialogue is superbly remastered, with no difficulty in understanding what is said. There were no glaring audio sync issues, although some of the post production dialogue is noticeable as such.

    There is a surprising amount of surround information, and obviously a lot of the audio was not just remixed but also redone. There are good cues from behind and from left-to-right on the screen. While not cinematic quality, it puts the original audio to shame.

    The range is also very good, with the music sounding totally different after the remix. The bass guitars used to get a ‘Vulcan’ effect are very noticeable now, and indeed all of the music has a clarity that it lacked when it was limited to mono.

    The subwoofer is also put through its paces, although not as well as in the first season I thought. There are still many instances where it is given a good go, particularly in The Doomsday Machine, but the use of the sub for ambient rumble was less pronounced.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    All menus are in 1.33:1 Full Frame. The disc home menus are of the bridge view screen with ambient bridge noises in 2.0 Dolby Surround. The episode home menus are a similar variant looking down on the bridge. All other submenus have a 2.0 Dolby Stereo track of ambience bridge noises.

Episode Text Commentaries by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda

    There are text commentaries on two episodes. When you choose ‘Play’ for these episodes, you will be presented with a new menu asking if you want the text commentary. You will then be given a list of language subtitle options for the text commentary. NOTE: If you do not choose a language, the commentary will not appear. So even if you want the commentary in its original English, you must select it in English before the commentary will appear.

• Amok Time (Disc 1)
• The Trouble With Tribbles (Disc 4)

Preview Trailers

    All episodes have a trailer running approximately 60 second in 1.33:1, Full Frame, 1.0 Dolby Mono. It is illuminating to contrast this with the quality of the remaster.

Disc 7

    All special features on Disc 7 are presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, 2.0 Dolby Surround, with the interviews inset in 1.85:1 letterbox, unless otherwise specified.

Featurette - “To Boldly Go... Season Two” (19:30)

    Another good season overview. Includes interviews with several cast and crew members.

Featurette - “Life Beyond Trek: Leonard Nimoy” (12:00)

    An extensive and recent interview with Leonard Nimoy and his new obsession with time and other recent creative endeavours.

Featurette - “Kirk, Spock and McCoy: Star Trek’s Great Trio” (7:08)

    A look at the interaction of Kirk, Spock and McCoy and how they formed the core of the series.

Featurette - “Designing The Final Frontier” (22:17)

    A look at the creation of various worlds, including interviews with Matt Jefferies who was the art director for the series, producer Robert Justman, writer D. C. Fontana, archivist Penny Juday, and set designer John Jefferies.

Featurette - “Star Trek’s Divine Diva: Nichelle Nichols” (13:02)

    An extensive interview with Nichelle Nichols talking about how her singing talents led to her getting a part in Star Trek, and her involvement in the show over the years.

Featurette - “Writer’s Notebook: D. C. Fontana” (7:32)

    Another extensive interview, this time with science fiction writer Diane C. Fontana who used initials in her name to overcome the sexism in the science fiction community. Talks about her experiences in writing for the show.

Featurette - “Star Trek’s Favourite Moments” (17:08)

    Recollections from the cast and crew from other Star Trek spin-off series about watching The Original Series and what they thought of it then and think of it now.

Trailers

• Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD (1:10)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on DVD (4:48)
• Star Trek: Voyager on DVD (2:20)

Production Art

    A series of still frame storyboards and other production artwork done for The Original Series.

Photo Log

    A series of 41 inset stills, predominantly from the production of Season 2.

Red Shirt Logs

    There are four short hidden featurettes that you can access by highlighting the other panels on the communications control station on the first and second menus of the Special Features section. These are:

• Red Shirt Log 1 (1:28) - looks at the episode a Private Little War and the monster in the suit that attacks Kirk.
• Red Shirt Log 2 (2:32) - looks at the boi-bed and the weird readings Spock would always get.
• Red Shirt Log 3 (1:42) - looks at the controversy Star Trek often created with its political themes and sexy and revealing outfits. Interestingly enough, the Australian censors used to cut all the violence out of the show which didn’t leave a lot left over.
• Red Shirt Log 4 (1:35) - looks at the creation and design of the Tribbles.

    Star Trek: The Original Series came out on DVD in R1 little by little on two-episode single DVD releases, beginning in August 1999 and ending in December 2001. Each release had the original trailer previews but nothing more, and these episodes were released in production order, not in the order of the original air date.

    Star Trek: The Original Series – The Complete Second Season was released on DVD in R1 on 2 November 2004. This box set would appear to be substantially identical to the R4 release, although the R4 release has considerably more language options.

    Given that there is little to distinguish the two, purchase whichever you can find the cheapest, unless you have specific language barriers.

    Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 2 carries on the original late night overacting science fiction series that had it all. It’s a time warp, that’s for sure, but it’s a fun one.

    Video is amazing for a TV show of this era. A little dirty, but otherwise excellent.

    The sound is likewise an impressive 5.1 Dolby Digital mix from a limited source.

    Plenty of extras help make this a definite sale, although we are little light up by comparison to the first season I felt.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall