My rating doesn’t display unhappiness with the episodes on these discs. Rather, it reflects the fact that they feel slapped out there in an attempt to scrape a few extra bucks out of the hoopla surrounding J.J. Abrams’ new “Star Trek” movie. I know, what a shock that a studio would pull such a move, but it would have been nice to see some bonus features on these discs. How about a discussion of why these episodes were chosen? Or how about commentary tracks, or maybe one or two of the featurettes from the season collections?
Also, considering how cheap standard DVD releases have gotten, Paramount could have easily released two- or three-disc sets with more episodes. Choosing just four episodes from both the original series and “The Next Generation” seems silly, since each featured plenty of great storylines. (Admittedly, I’m not as up on the new series as I am on the old one, but I’m sure “The Next Generation” could have easily produced a list of top ten episodes, like the original series could.)
The original series disc features four episodes, all drawn from the “remastered” library with new special effects: “The City on the Edge of Forever,” “The Trouble with Tribbles,” “Balance of Terror,” and “Amok Time.” “The Next Generation” offers up its own quartet: “The Best of Both Worlds, Part One,” “The Best of Both Worlds, Part Two,” “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” and “The Measure of a Man.” Since I’m not as well-versed in “Next Generation,” I won’t quibble with that list, but looking at the original series selections, I probably would have swapped out “Tribbles” for “Space Seed.”
Of course, if you were to show these lists to ten Trekkies, you’d get ten different answers, so your mileage may vary. Both of these discs constitute a nice dip into classic Trek, but I would have preferred a full swim.
