Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Star Trek: Motion Picture Trilogy (1 Viewer)

The Films

Overview

Could there possibly be anyone alive who doesn’t know the backstory to the legend of Star Trek? How the show ran for three increasingly low-rated seasons on NBC and upon cancellation and entry into the world of syndication grew into a monster hit that convinced Paramount to mount a movie version ten years after the series had left the network airwaves? That despite a big budget return directed by the Oscar-winning Robert Wise, fans were left a bit underwhelmed with a movie that had the original cast but only a faint resemblance to the fun and adventure of the original series? And thus was born its first sequel Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan which took a well remembered villain from the show’s first season and fashioned a new story around his revenge on his Enterprise enemies.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - 4/5

The evil super alien Khan (Ricardo Montalban) escapes from the planet where he’s been exiled, manages to gain control of a Federation starship, and seeks out his old nemesis, (now) Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) who has been reunited with his old crew including Spock (Leonard Nimoy), McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Sulu (George Takei), Chekov (Walter Koenig), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and Scotty (James Doohan). Khan is also interested in the new invention Genesis which is a terraformation invention he plans to use as a weapon. To do that, he must capture its two inventors, Dr. Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch) and Dr. David Marcus (Merritt Butrick), both of whom have strong ties to Admiral Kirk.

Nicholas Meyer’s rebooting of the Star Trek we all know and love is perhaps this film’s greatest achievement. The sense of adventure, both light-hearted and deadly serious, is palpable in the marvelous screenplay by Jack Sowards, and Meyer handles what could have been a very talky script with great verve. The space duels between Kirk and Khan are gripping as each man thrusts and parries to gain the upper hand. And the story also contains some genuinely moving scenes for audiences who have grown up with these characters. Much more entertaining and briskly paced than the lumbering first film in the franchise, Khan is one of the apex films in the entire series’ history.


Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) reassembles his crew and steals the Enterprise on a quest to bring the missing Spock back to existence after he finds out that the latter's living spirit is extant in another form and that is spirit has been transferred to his old friend Dr. “Bones“ McCoy (DeForest Kelley). Complicating matters is a renegade Klingon warship helmed by the warlike commander Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) endangering the mission.

Though the script by producer Harve Bennett does not have quite the vivacity of the second film in the series, The Search for Spock improves with each new viewing. The story allows Shatner to once again have a very emotional scene to play, and he comes through admirably. Because his character is off screen for much of the film’s running time, Leonard Nimoy has the time to direct his colleagues in another fun adventure with only the film’s opening few scenes rather lethargically paced. Once the old crew gets the Enterprise out of dry dock and take off to retrieve their friend, the adventure and good times are contagious.


After a strange space probe starts beaming signals to Earth, natural disasters start happening and the Earth‘s power supply is drained almost instantaneously. Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew’s learn that the probe is waiting for humpback whales to return their songs, but as they are extinct in the 23rd century, the Earth’s only hope is for the Enterprise crew to travel back in time and find two humpback whales to bring back to their present day so they can return the signals.

Though four screenwriters are credited with the screenplay, the commentaries and bonus features make it clear that producer Harve Bennett and writer-director Nicholas Meyer contributed the bookend acts and the middle two acts of the script respectively. Without a real central villain, the story instead can focus more on fish-out-of-water antics from the crew as they attempt to negotiate life in the 20th century. This is the breeziest of the Trek sagas, and director Leonard Nimoy lets his knowledge of the quirks of the crew work to advantage in some hilarious set-ups for both gags and adventure. Catherine Hicks plays a marine biologist who is helpful in the quest for the whales and also as a budding love interest for Kirk (though perhaps more should have been done with this).

Video Quality

The film’s 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio is replicated here in a 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Color depth and richness is the transfer’s greatest asset as hues parade before our eyes with delightfully vivacious saturation levels. Though sharpness is very good, black levels are appropriately inky, and the image is quite film-like, it’s not quite reference quality despite the film’s having undergone a complete restoration beforehand. The film has been divided into 17 chapters.


The film’s 2.35:1 aspect ratio is delivered in a 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. The image is sharp and reasonably dimensional, but there is some evidence that DNR has been applied to smooth out the grain. It hasn’t been done severely; not to the extent it was applied to Gangs of New York, for example, but it‘s not nearly as film-like as Trek II. Flesh tones look fine, and black levels are well delivered. The film has been divided into 11 chapters.


The 2.35:1 aspect ratio of the original film is presented here in 1080p using the AVC codec. DNR has been more heavily applied here than in the previous picture giving artificially smoothed backgrounds and somewhat waxy appearances to faces. Color saturation is very strong, and black levels are first rate, but this doesn’t look much like a film image. There is also some slight moiré to be seen midway in the film. The movie has been divided into 18 chapters.

Audio Quality

The Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio mix is very impressive for a film of this age, but it can’t be compared to the full-bodied richness of today’s modern soundtracks. The dialog is well recorded and is placed appropriately in the center channel, and the surround channels get good if only sporadic use. There’s some LFE channel moments when the subwoofer gets some work to do, but, again, not to the extent that the channel is used in more modern sound design.


The Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mix is my favorite of the three audio tracks in this set. There is surprising heft to the soundfield and more surround presence than I was expecting. The LFE channel gets a pretty fair workout here.


The Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio track does feature occasional front to rear pans and some directionalized dialog. The alien probe also emits a nice rumble that gives the subwoofer something to do. Still, it’s not as active as a more modern audio mix would be resulting in a good but not great surround presence.

Special Features

There are two audio commentaries available for listening: the original commentary from director Nicholas Meyer and a new commentary featuring Meyer and Manny Coto. Meyer repeats many anecdotes from one commentary to the other though Cotto does ask some probing questions to spur Meyer’s thoughts when the conversation begins to lag.

The library computer is an interactive interface which can be turned on as the movie plays. It allows the viewer the option to select pop-up facts about dozens of aspects of the movie organized in the following groups: Culture, Science & Medicine, Starfleet OPS, Life Forms, Planets & Locations, People, Technology, Ships, and Miscellaneous. The interface also contains an index to all of the drop down facts so the viewer can choose ahead of time and read them instead of waiting to be prompted as the film plays.

“Captain’s Log” is a 27 ¼-minute summary of the issues facing the producers, the director, and the actors in deciding about the plot for the film featuring interviews with select important members of the cast and crew. It’s in 480p.

“Designing Khan” is a 24-minute 480p featurette featuring interviews with production designer Joe Jennings, costume designer Robert Fletcher, art director Lee Cole, and director Meyer all discussing their work to give the picture its specific look and tone.

Original 1982 interviews with Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, and Montalban are in 480i and run a total of 11 minutes.

“Where No Man Has Gone Before: The Visual Effects of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” goes into some depth with the model work and animation used on the picture. This 480p featurette runs 18 ¼ minutes.

“Star Trek Universe: The Novel Approach” features interviews with Greg Cox and Julia Ecklar who have written books based on the mythology established in the television series and the films. This 480p feature runs 29 minutes.

“James Horner: Composing Genius” is an interview with the film’s gifted composer lasting 9 ½ minutes in 1080p.

“A Tribute to Ricardo Montalban” spends 4 ¾ minutes with director Nicholas Meyer waxing rhapsodic on the classy, urbane actor in this brief feature presented in 1080p.

“Collecting Star Trek”s Movie Relics” is an 11-minute featurette hosted by collector Alec Peters who shows us some gems of his collection along with introducing is to other Trek collectors who show off some of their most prized possessions. It’s in 1080p.

“Starfleet Academy: Mystery Behind Ceti Alpha VI” features actress Sarah Backhouse in an on-going lecture on an aspect of the film some have found perplexing. This lasts 3 minutes in 1080p.

There are 13 storyboards which the user may choose and step through.

The theatrical trailer is in 1080p and lasts 2 ¼ minutes.

BD-Live for the set (available on each disc) offers a series of trivia quizzes for viewers and the ability to compose and upload your own quizzes for others.


There are two audio commentaries available for listening. The first and best edits together comments from director Leonard Nimoy, writer-producer Harve Bennett, cinematographer Charles Correll, and actress Robin Curtis (who played Saavik in the movie). The other features two men connected to other parts of the Trek television legacy but not connected to this film: Ronald Moore and Michael Taylor.

The library computer is an interactive interface which can be turned on as the movie plays. It allows the viewer the option to select pop-up facts about dozens of aspects of the movie organized in the following groups: Culture, Science & Medicine, Starfleet OPS, Life Forms, Planets & Locations, People, Technology, Ships, and Miscellaneous. The interface also contains an index to all of the drop down facts so the viewer can choose ahead of time and read them instead of waiting to be prompted as the film plays.

“Captain’s Log” features director Nimoy recounting how he came to get the job and how he enjoyed his first feature film directorial assignment. Star William Shatner also has a few zingers to fire off at his old friend. This is in 480p and lasts 26 ¼ minutes.

“Terraforming and the Prime Directive” is an interesting interview with scientist David Brin describing the real possibilities of forming a new biosphere on Mars in this 26-minute segment presented in 480p.

“Industrial Light & Mahic: The Visual Effects of Star Trek” is a 13 ¾-minute summary of some of the effects work the famous company accomplished on four of the Trek films: II, III, IV, and VI. It’s in 1080p.

“Spock: The Early Years” allows actor Stephen Manley to introduce the actors who play Spock at different ages during the movie and recount some of his fondest memories of making the picture. It’s in 1080p and lasts 6 ¼ minutes.

“Space Docks and Birds of Prey” finds the film’s designers and props people discussing their work on the project. This 480p featurette runs 27 ¾ minutes.

“Speaking Klingon” gives some insider information on how the language for the aliens was developed based on previous Klingon conversation in earlier shows and films. This 480p feature runs 21 minutes.

“Klingon and Vulcan Costumes” looks at the wardrobe, make-up, and jewelry needed for various characters in the film. It runs 12 ¼ minutes in 480p.

“Star Trek and the Science Fiction Hall of Fame” has the curators of the museum in Seattle escorting writer-producer Harve Bennett around to show him the contents devoted to Star Trek. This lasts 17 minutes and is in 1080p.

“Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 003: Mystery Behind the Vulcan Katra Transfer” finds actress Sarah Backhouse once again explaining briefly an apparent anomaly in the portrayal of an alien in the film. It lasts 2 ¾ minutes in 1080p.

There are two photo galleries which the viewer may step-through: behind-the-scenes production shots and movie stills.

There are nine storyboards which the viewer may step through.

The theatrical trailer runs 1 ¼ minutes in 1080p.

BD-Live for the set (available on each disc) offers a series of trivia quizzes for viewers and the ability to compose and upload your own quizzes for others.


There are two audio commentaries from which to choose. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy host an affable remembrance of making the film in their track while two men connected with the new Star Trek movie, Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci, contribute a new commentary from a fan’s perspective.

“Future’s Past: A Look Back” is a 27 ½-minute discussion of how the plot for the film came about building on the stories from the previous two films. It’s in 480p.

“On Location” spends 7 ½ minutes talking about the thrill of shooting on location in San Francisco rather than within the confines of a studio. It’s in 480p.

“Dailies Deconstruction” shows multiple takes and multiple camera angles for the downtown San Francisco scene. It lasts 4 ¼ minutes in 480p.

“Below the Line: Sound Design” has the film’s sound editor discussing how he came up with the sounds needed for various scenes in the picture. This 480p featurette runs 11 ¾ minutes.

“Time Travel: The Art of Possible” finds a series of Ph.D’s discussing the physics and possibilities of time travel in an 11 ¾-minute feature. It’s in 480p.

“The Language of Whales” is a quick overview of the different types of whales and the mysterious sounds they make. This 480p short lasts 5 ¾ minutes.

“A Vulcan Primer” is a 480p primer on what we know about Vulcans based on information contained in the original series and the movies. It runs for 7 ¾ minutes.

“Pavel Chekov’s Screen Moments” is a 1080p visit with actor Walter Koenig basking in the extra attnetion his Chekov character received in this particular film. This lasts 6 minutes.

“The Three-Picture Saga” is a series of interviews with the writers of the three trilogy films discussing how the plots were written to tie each film to the next. This 1080p featurette runs 10 ¼ minutes.

“Star Trek for a Cause” finds two members of Greenpeace advocating their work in the preservation of the whale in a 5 ¾-minute feature in 1080p.

“Starfleet Academy: The Whale Probe” is another 1080p feature with actress Sarah Backhouse basically summarizing the plot of the film. It lasts 3 ¾ minutes.

“Kirk’s Women” features four actresses who have appeared on the Trek series as either love interests or involved in some way with Captain Kirk: Louise Sorel, Catherine Hicks, Celeste Yarnell, and Cathy Browne. This 480p series of interviews lasts 8 ¼ minutes.

“From Outer Space to the Ocean” is a 14 ¾-minute slight EPK featurette on the special effects used for the movie’s four main effects sequences: the whales, the dream sequence which used early CGI effects, the space probe, and the Bird of Prey. It’s in 480p.

“The Bird of Prey” discusses the concepts for the design and implementation of the space vehicle used in the film, both its look and sound. This 480p feature runs 2 ¾ minutes.

Interviews from 1986 are individually held with William Shatner (14 ½ minutes), Leonard Nimoy (15 ¾ minutes), and DeForest Kelley (13 minutes). All three men play their cards close to their vests about the central problem in the film's plot not wanting to give away any surprises.

“Roddenberry Scrapbook” is a tribute to the creator of the original series by his son Eugene. This 480p feature runs 8 ¼ minutes.

“Featured Artist: Mark Lenard” is a tribute to the actor who played Spock’s father in the series and the films with his wife and two daughters contributing personal reminiscences about the actor and the man. It’s in 480p and lasts 12 ¾ minutes.

A production gallery featurette is a montage of movie stills and behind the scenes production shots collected in a 480p 4-minute vignette.

There are eight storyboards which the viewer may step through.

The film’s theatrical trailer runs for 2 ½ minutes in 1080p.

The library computer is an interactive interface which can be turned on as the movie plays. It allows the viewer the option to select pop-up facts about dozens of aspects of the movie organized in the following groups: Culture, Science & Medicine, Starfleet OPS, Life Forms, Planets & Locations, People, Technology, Ships, and Miscellaneous. The interface also contains an index to all of the drop down facts so the viewer can choose ahead of time and read them instead of waiting to be prompted as the film plays.

BD-Live for the set (available on each disc) offers a series of trivia quizzes for viewers and the ability to compose and upload your own quizzes for others.

Each of the films in the set contain a 1080p trailer for the new Star Trek movie and also for the new Blu-ray edition of season one of the series.

In Conclusion

Star Trek: Motion Picture Trilogy includes what many believe are the three best films made by the original series stars and bundles them together in this one Blu-ray package. Extras are plentiful (both ported over from the Collector’s Edition DVD sets and some new high definition featurettes), and while the films themselves have not been given reference quality transfers, they will likely satisfy all but the most demanding consumers.



Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC

Thank you, Matt! Great review.

Your closing line is the key for many people to base their decisions on.

Not to mention that I believe many enthusiasts of Wrath of Khan would have paid 39.00 just for the remastered Khan in Bluray if that were the only Trek film in BD for now. Just consider III and IV as bonuses!

I did EXACTLY that! Glad it was the best of the bunch.

Brian

One minor historical note about the writing of these three films.

Star Trek II was actually a screenplay by Nicholas Meyer. When he came onto the project there were multiple scripts, all based on different concepts. Meyer sat down with Bennett (and others) and compiled what they liked best about each script, took the distilled ingredients and wrote a script from those notes. As Meyer discusses in his commentary (and in the interview extracts in Shatner's MOVIE MEMORIES book), he was able to accomodate the various story elements, as well as the notes and criticisms he received from Nimoy and Shatner, and the result is the script that was filmed. Both Shatner and Nimoy have commented that Meyer was able to address their issues very quickly, with revised scripts being sent out to them within days of their meetings. Meyer has admitted it was not a smart idea to waive his writing credit, but it worked out pretty well - he wound up scripting a good chunk of IV, and writing/directing VI.

Star Trek III was indeed written by Bennett.

Star Trek IV had a more "involved" writing history, partly due to the thought of having Eddie Murphy play the role that eventually went to Catherine Hicks. The actual story for the film came from Nimoy in its most basic form. Meerson and Krikes wrote drafts of the script based on the Murphy character, but these didn't meet with Nimoy's approval and wound up being totally unusable once Murphy dropped out. With very little time left, Bennett began writing the script himself again, with Nicholas Meyer contributing the 20th century portion. (He has been repeatedly quoted as saying his material starts with the line "Judging from the pollution content in the atmosphere, I would say we have arrived in the late 20th century.") Meyer has also acknowledged that he used several ideas that were left over from his film Time After Time, which similarly deals with time travel, only in the opposite direction.

I wound up picking up the Trilogy set at lunch today not long after reading the review. 42 bucks, figured it's hard to go wrong, and makes the inevitable double-dip for the other films later on less painful. I doubt Khan will ever be any better while the other films will hopefully get the Directors Editions and the same restoration work that was lavished on Khan.

Just a small nitpick. Khan and his crew are human but are products of selective breeding. They took control of large portions of the Earth in the 1990s and escaped in the Earth's most advanced ship of the time when they were on the verge of losing. They survived over 200 years in the ship due to sleep capsules they put themselves in.

Thanks for the review Matt! I'm still on the bubble with the Trek films on blu ray. I appreciated the insight on the video and audio of each of the films. Sounds like there are some nice new extras on this set too. I might go for it as others are saying here, it's worth $40 just to have a nice properly restored copy of Wrath of Khan.

Side note: I really am enjoying the CBS Star Trek The Original Series blu ray set. The episodes were remastered from the original camera negatives and look wonderful! If only CBS had handled the Star Trek feature films as well!

What a great post!

I have watched Khan more times than I can count, yet I never understood how the crew of the Botany Bay had sworn allegiance to Khan 200 years before Terrell was born. I too assumed they were aliens or somehow lived that long because they were genetically altered.

Is this something that was mentioned on one of the extra features? I tend not to watch the extras.

Brian

All of that information was in the original TV episode "Space Seed" where Kirk found Khan's ship and revived Khan's crew from the sleep chambers.

'Gangs of New York' left a bad taste in my mouth. It may be a knee-jerk reaction, but after that, I am not purchasing blu-rays that have been stripped of their real detail to please the "I want a clean image on my HD display" people.

I am also not playing this game of having to purchase titles I would not have purchased otherwise to get the titles I actually want. Do to the filtering, I don't want III and IV, so as others have mentioned, that gives II a $40 street price. Great movie, but not worth it to me.

These will be double dipped, and I am confident that once people get over this "clean image" mentality, just as they got over Pan and Scan, we'll get quality releases of these titles. Until then there are plenty of well mastered titles to hold me over.

Guess I need to get the TOS BR Box, eh? ;-)

I have never seen that episode.

Brian

One of the great episodes of TOS.

You definitely need to find it somewhere/somehow. Geez, I must really be older than I think to know that folks haven't seen these episodes -- of course I saw that episode as a first run at an impressionable stage and it permanently branded my brain ST Friendly

Actually, I just ordered it from CD Universe. Episode 23 and 24, IIRC on one DVD. Obviously it's SD DVD, but for $18 delivered, what the hell? I really NEED to get up to speed on Khan's back story. ;-)

And truth be told, I am plenty old enough to have seen this when it was new, but I came to ST kind of late, and am sad to say that there are many TOS episodes I probably have not seen.

Brian

Thanks for the review, Matt.

I will be Netflixing these, as I am very much the commentary track and factoid (aka "library computer") freak. The price is quite good, and I will see if I image bothers me enough, though I am avoiding titles I know will be released again later. I want to buy Blu-rays ONCE.

None of these transfers is anywhere as bad as GANGS OF NEW YORK.

I watched some of WOK last night and some of STIII. Khan looked wonderful of course, but I was quite impressed how good STIII looked. I have a Sammy 52" LCD, 1080p/PS3 setup, I guess I'm just not as sensitive to DNR as some. I haven't checked out IV yet, but II and III looked really nice to my eyes.

And that is the other reason, if these transfers don't end up being so bad, I might have bit if I thought this was going to be the only release, but we all know it isn't.

I wonder whether double-dips will be as frequent on BD as they were on SD-DVD. People aren't buying BDs the way they bought DVDs.

It probably won't get as ridiculous as it with DVDs but Star Trek is a guaranteed money machine with a fanbase that will keep buying and buying and buying.

How about $27.99 + tax @ Fry's Electronics???

FYI: May 15th 2009 Fry's Friday SJ Mercury insert (page 7) ...

Blu-ray:

Star Trek Original Motion Picture Collection (#1 - #6)** = $59.99 + tax

Star Trek Trilogy (#2 - #4)** = $27.99 + tax

Hurry, they are sold out @ Sunnyvale Fry's as of 8:25am!!! They might have more in the back (which I doubt - but you can ask)!?!?