Star Trek: The Original Series - Season Two (Blu-ray) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! (1 Viewer)

[RickER]

I would be fine with an all color version of The Cage. I cant remember, did they restore the Keepers voice back to the original used in the pilot? The guy who played the Commodore in The Menagerie did the voice originally. A fact i am sure everyone on this thread probably knows.

I never knew of a different cut of WNMHGB. That could be cool to see.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon /forum/thread/293107/star-trek-the-...n-two-blu-ray-highly-recommended#post_3608524

 

[Nelson Au]

Here's the original Where No Man Has Gone Before on YouTube. It's essentially what the pilot originally looked like before they re-edited it to conform with the way the production episodes starts. The main difference is a William Shatner voiceover intro for the Enterprise's new mission and scenes showing the crew in the corridors and the credits for the actors:



Hope this link works and doesn't slow the thread down.

 

[GregK]

The end credits have different music as well. (For those interested, this alternate ending score is available on the Cage and WNMHGB compact disc)

 

[RickER]

Thanks for the link Nelson. Glad they cut most of it. Gary acts like a high school boy in some of the corridor shots.

 

[Nelson Au]

You're welcome Rick! It's a little bit of a shock to see it, isn't it? Like seeing the long lost episodes.

Greg- I agree, the end credits music is pretty cool and one of my favorite tracks on that CD. If I'm thinking of the same track you are (about 20 seconds long), it always felt like a mix of futuristic and western cowboy music!

 

[GregK]

A great update from the Digital bits!

I asked longtime Trek veteran Mike Okuda what Where No Fan Has Gone Before might be, and he responded thusly: "It is the original cut of Where No Man Has Gone Before, the second pilot episode. The reassembled original cut of The Cage is also supposed to be included."

 

[Nelson Au]

Greg,

Thanks for that added bit of news, I have not seen his recent postings. Well, that's amazing! Up until now, it's only been available as a bad videotape bootleg, if I can use that word here.

This is a true first. What's next, the Blooper Reel? I'm honestly dumbfounded by the inclusion of the second pilot.

I got it, I got the second season BD in hot little hands right now! Will enjoy it and enjoy it more knowing we will see Where No Man Has Gone Before.

 

[Nelson Au]

I watched Amok Time last night. There wasn't anything that popped out at me in the new HD image. Some scenes did look sharper, others were kind of soft. And that does not include the scenes where a shot dissolves from the original optical process. But that's the way this looked on past DVD releases. So I'm not holding anything against this release. It's just the way the source material on this episode looks.

I saw the episode all the way through and it looks great. The thing that did jump out at me is the audio. I don't have a new processor to replay the new audio formats, so the audio was downmixed to DTS 5.1. It still sounded awesome! The score for this episode is one of my favorites and it comes through very well! The guitar work on the new Spock theme sounds rich and full. Also, the audio mix during the initial beam down to Vulcan is fun. The wind chimes are coming at you from all channels.

Speaking of being on Vulcan, you can clearly see the crack on the gong that Spock hits. The crack is where the gong breaks later as Kirk and Spock fight to the death. The fact that they shot the scenes on Vulcan in the studio also come through even more. Not that it's distracting, but my eye was moving around and looking at the rear studio wall where they had lights shining down.

One thing I did noticed from the increased resolution, and I noticed it when I saw Star Trek The Motion Picture on BD. The prosthetic ears that Nimoy is wearing stood out more as it's color didn't quite match the color of his face make-up. (One thing that I'm very impressed by on the new Star Trek movie are those ears that Quinto wears looks very real as they are translucent like real ears!)

I'm really looking forward to see Metamorphosis. That's one of my favorites and it should be interesting to see the new Companion effects. But the colors and lighting used on the planetoid are what I want to see and how the new HD transfers looks. The use of color gels is not as strong during the second year, but it's there.

The Doomsday Machine of course is another one to see!

By the way, the BD of the First season had some issues for me as the Angle button didn't work to toggle back and forth between the CGI and original effects. I had to do it via the menu on my Sony BDP-S550 with the original factory firmware. During Amok Time, I tried it once and the Angle worked! I'll have to try this more on other episodes.

I also sampled the Starfleet Access for the first 15 minutes of Amok Time. It was a good mix of comments from DC Fontana, David Gerrold, The Okuda's and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens about the development of Chekov's character and Spock's backstory and Theodore Sturgeon and his great contribution to Star Trek and this episode. I'll be watching the rest.

 

[Camper]

Season 2 box set won't play on my Sharp 20U.

Plays menu and special features but not the actual episodes.
All 7 discs !!

My Sharp hasn't had a firmware update since Oct 2008 and I don't expect one soon. if ever.

I just want any other folks with Sharp players to be warned. Borrow or rent the set before buying.

My season 1 set plays just fine.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Camper

Season 2 box set won't play on my Sharp 20U.

Plays menu and special features but not the actual episodes.
All 7 discs !!

My Sharp hasn't had a firmware update since Oct 2008 and I don't expect one soon. if ever.

I just want any other folks with Sharp players to be warned. Borrow or rent the set before buying.

My season 1 set plays just fine.

Oh my. That's awful. It'll be interesting to hear more reports on this Steve as they develop.

Is the Sharp 20U a 1.0 generation machine?

I have a Panasonic BD-10 and I'm starting to get fearful that the new software stuff (BD Live, etc.) is going to render the machine less and less relevant (and maybe even functional) as time goes on.

 

[Camper]

Yep, it's 1.0 and the season 1 discs don't say 'BD Live' on the disc but season 2 does.

I hope there is some way to fix this without running out and buying a new player.

The Sharp has 5.1 analog output and that's what I need. Most players with 5.1 output AND that decode DD TrueHD & DTS MA are fairly expensive.

Every time a player is announced with 5.1 analog outputs at a decent price----they then release it WITHOUT the 5.1 outputs (Sony 350, the Vizio model etc.)

Why is 5.1 analog a feature that they feel they have to charge so much for?


Is there a way to ERASE the previous firmware updates?

The two i added were to make playable a few rental copies of movies I don't own. Perhaps the updates are causing glitches for other movies that i do own.

Wish i never bought the Sharp.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

You tell me if I should be concerned...

I preordered the Star Trek Season 2 BD for $72.99
on Amazon a few months ago. The day I receive it
the price drops to $59.99.

I have already sent a letter to Amazon complaining
about this practice as I would expect a preorder
price to be the best available and not subject to
be lowered upon the day of or after release. This
is the first time I have seen a set drop like this in
price on release day and I am wondering if A).
Amazon will credit the difference and B). If it not
worth preordering anymore if Amazon is going to
pull these price drops so close to street date.

Sorry to be a downer in this thread. Really nice
review, Patrick. I am looking forward to browsing
this set and seeing the new effects.

 

[benbess]

I heard of someone else in your situation who got a price adjustment from amazon. They got credited $13. Hope the same happens for you. I think they were maybe surprised that Best Buy cut it down to 59.99, which really is at cost, or probably below cost when you count overhead. So it became a loss leader, I think....

 

[RickER]

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

You tell me if I should be concerned...

I preordered the Star Trek Season 2 BD for $72.99
on Amazon a few months ago. The day I receive it
the price drops to $59.99.

I have already sent a letter to Amazon complaining
about this practice as I would expect a preorder
price to be the best available and not subject to
be lowered upon the day of or after release. This
is the first time I have seen a set drop like this in
price on release day and I am wondering if A).
Amazon will credit the difference and B). If it not
worth preordering anymore if Amazon is going to
pull these price drops so close to street date.

Sorry to be a downer in this thread. Really nice
review, Patrick. I am looking forward to browsing
this set and seeing the new effects.

Ron, i have had this happen too, and feel the same way as you. The only reason i didnt complain was a 2 or 3 dollar price difference on what i had ordered, not the difference like what you have on Trek.
Here is something else you need to keep an eye on. The price of things go up, and down, and Amazon doesnt always adjust your pre-order price down. Twice this month i have been looking at various price trackers on the web, and have found my pre-order price has not changed, even though its ALWAYS supposed to go down to the lowest price before it ships.
Id call them, and ask to speak to a supervisor if you dont get satisfaction.

 

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

I have already sent a letter to Amazon complaining
about this practice as I would expect a preorder
price to be the best available and not subject to
be lowered upon the day of or after release.

I don't know about after the release day, but Amazon's policy is to automatically credit your card if the price is lowered by the end of release day.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Amazon just credited me $13. Very proud of their service
and the way they handle these things. Thanks for the help,
folks!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein /forum/thread/293107/star-trek-the-...wo-blu-ray-highly-recommended/30#post_3609658

 

[Ensign Eddie]

Glad you got your refund Ron. It took longer than usual for me to receive mine, but they did come through for me as well.

As for the set, I seem to have one problem that has me stumped. I have a Panasonic BD-605 (the Costco version of the BD-60). When I start up any of the disks, the player puts up a statement that the network connection has started. Then, when the disk starts for real (after the little Java animation of the E firing its phasers), the player puts up another (rather large) message saying the network connection failed.

Does anyone else with a Panny see this? I know it's not the network connection itself because I've seen it both before and after updating the firmware to 2.0 (which, BTW, seems to make the disks start up faster). BD-Live works as well. However, since I have generally found BD-Live to be somewhat of a disappointment, I may just disconnect the network cable until the next firmware update.

Other than that, I am enjoying the set. I watched most of "Journey to Babel" last night and forgot how much I enjoyed it. Although they still didn't take the opportunity to fix "Hanger Deck".

 

[Nelson Au]

Glad to hear the Amazon price change issue was resolved for you guys. Sorry to hear that some players are having issues with this set. I hope you guys get some help to resolve them.

I guess I feel really lucky, my Sony S550 player has not had any issues.

I'm watching the set in airdate order, what the heck, I didn't feel the need to watch in production order. I saw Who Mourns for Adonis last night. It looks better then Amok Time did, more shots are sharper. One thing I never noticed before, maybe because this is not one I watch too much is how small the planet set is. There's a rock wall to one side and I never noticed how close it was to the temple! Porbably the rock wall used for The Apple where Vaal is built.

The added clarity really shows the hair and hair pieces and make-up, details on the sets, costumes and props. Looks great!