The Set:
How is it possible that Star Trek debuted 50 years ago? I remember 1966 just like…
Okay, I don’t remember 1966 at all. I was barely in the womb when Trek hit the airwaves in the fall of 1966 – I’d be born about a month after the end of Season One – so all my memories related to the “Original Series” connect to reruns I watched in syndication as a child in the 1970s.
But those are fond memories, and they established me as a life-long Trek fan. Not a die-hard Trekkie, but still one who has consistently enjoyed the shows and movies over virtually my whole life.
While I’ve taken pleasure from all the incarnations of Trek, “The Original Series” remains my favorite. One can argue that the spin-offs offered better acting and superior production values and whatnot – and they do. But “The Original Series” simply boasts a dynamic and a vision they others couldn’t top.
“The Original Series” has received umpteen issues and reissues and re-re-re-reissues on various home video formats. Does this 2016 “Complete Series” package bring anything new to the table?
Nope. It simply takes the 2009 single-season Blu-ray sets, plops them in one big box, and sells them for a lower price. The 20 discs we find here exactly replicate the 2009 platters, so we get no new extras or remastering or the like.
Because of that, there’s no reason to purchase “The Complete Series” if you already own the earlier releases. If you don’t, though, it makes for good “one stop shopping”. It presents nearly 70 hours of Trek in top-notch fashion along with a pretty good roster of bonus materials. For those new to “TOS” on Blu-ray, “The Complete Series” is a bargain.
