Star Trek: The Original 4 Movie Collection [4K Ultra-HD] [2021]

Product Information

The two remastered editions of of Star Trek VI is available in the 6-film box set or as a standalone 4K + Blu-ray release. The theatrical cut is also available as a standalone Blu-ray. This Limited-Edition Collector’s Set includes all of the above, plus an additional 4K Ultra HD disc containing: According to StarTrek.com, "[The] collection includes four Ultra HD discs, as well as four remastered Blu-ray discs with hours of previously released bonus content ... along with access to digital copies of the theatrical version of each film." The sets’ disks themselves are uninspired. They have the standard reflective silver no-art, an approach that has become a staple of Paramount Trek releases. Another weird addition is a disk-shaped cut-out of the boxset art that’s included in the 4K box for some reason. I can’t see the purpose of it, it certainly won’t be featured on my wall any time soon. The Artwork on the inner cases of the Star Trek Original Motion Picture 6-movie 4k & Blu-Ray Collection The Films – Technical advisories and historical context

The remastered edition of Star Trek III is available in the 6-film box set, as a standalone 4K + Blu-ray release, or as a standalone Blu-ray. Paramount’s 4K UHD disc offers a simple menu interface featuring the Bob Peak poster artwork for the film. It includes the following special features: Fans can already watch the first four Star Trek movies in 4K/HDR thanks to the excellent Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection released last year. But now Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (which has taken on renewed attention recently thanks to a certain Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode), and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the last TOS-era Star Trek movie, will be watchable in 4K/HDR for the first time ever as part of Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture Collection, and as standalone releases. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) will be presented in 4K UHD with HDR-10 and Dolby Vision, boldly remastered from the original film elements; a Blu-ray disc containing the remastered presentation will also be included. (A standalone Blu-ray is also available.)

All this is desperate when you consider the Trek royalty that penned it: Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga wrote the screenplay, and are acutely aware of its issues, but due to the timing involved, they were writing All Good Things at the same time, and were given no time to flesh out the Generations script as the release date was already set, and sadly this shows in the finished product. Likewise, Jerry Goldsmith didn’t return to score the film, it therefore has no overarching theme or that resonance of score, and this really matters. They even re-use film footage of the Bird of Prey’s destruction! In any case, while Paramount’s new Original 4-Movie Collection can’t quite be called perfect, the studio has clearly made a significant effort (and spent a significant amount of money) to remaster these films for 4K Ultra HD and greatly-improved Blu-ray release. The result is pretty impressive, easily the best these films have looked since their original theatrical release. And if not quite every bonus feature from past disc releases has carried over here, most of that content certainly has, and the new isolated score on The Motion Picture is a gem. Primary audio is included on the 4K disc in English 7.1 surround in lossless Dolby TrueHD format. This is the exact same mix found on the original 2009 Blu-ray. As is the case with the other films, while a new Dolby Atmos mix would have been welcome, the TrueHD was and remains quite good. The soundstage is medium-wide across the front, with pleasing use of the surround channels for music, ambient spatial effects, and occasional directional cues and panning (the pulsing signal of the probe itself is a highlight, along with the stormy weather on Earth, city sounds on the streets of San Francisco, and the ‘warp’ effects as the Bird-of-Prey travels through time). Dialogue is clean, bass is solid, and Leonard Rosenman’s score exhibits good fidelity. Optional audio mixes are available in German, Spanish, and French 2.0 stereo in Dolby Digital format, along with Japanese 5.1 surround in Dolby Digital. Subtitles are available in English, English for the Hearing Impaired, Danish, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, and Swedish. Besides, if Paramount released a 10-film 4K remastered box set first, people would b—- that it’s too expensive and they only wanted one or two of the films. The more of you who buy this first set now, the more comfortable Paramount will be in continuing to spend the money to release them all. Even with seamless branching, both cuts of Star Trek VI won’t fit on a single standard Blu-ray disc, but they will both fit on the large BD-100 disc used for the 4K presentation. If you don’t have a 4K Blu-ray player, you don’t get Colonel West.

A side note: what did Walter Koenig or George Takai ever do to Paramount? Theirs are the only faces not seen on the covers of both the four-movie and six-movie collections outside the case!) Special Features The remastered editions of Star Trek II are available in the 6-film box set, as a standalone 4K + Blu-ray release, or as a standalone Blu-ray. These extras unfortunately feel a bit more generic and uninspired than those for the other films, though that’s probably because the film itself feels generic. Even so, there’s some good content here and certainly much of you’d want discussed is covered. Both commentaries are well worth your time. The Easter egg featurette from the 2002 Special Collector’s Edition DVD release has carried over too. Really the only thing that’s not included is the Okuda text commentary from the DVD, though the Library Computer feature mostly makes up for it. The fundamental problem was the shoe-horned story; forcing Kirk and Picard together to face off against a common enemy must have look incredible on paper and it's little wonder the script developed the way it did, but it is a huge contrivance, and one that the film never really overcomes, with even that ending failing to lift it from mediocrity.Ken Ralston on Models and Creature Effects Easter Egg (SD – 7:06)—Select ‘Right’ from the Production menu item Unfortunately it’s not easy to get representative screencaps from 4K discs and maintain the full HDR color presentation for online publication, but after having watched the film on a proper 4K HDR display, the orange ‘push’ was not noticeable during that viewing.) Audio Commentaryfeaturing Robert Wise, Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra, Jerry Goldsmith, and Stephen Collins At long last, all six of the classic Star Trek crew’s big-screen adventures are available to fans in new 4K Ultra HD presentations, rescanned from the original negatives and preserved without the heavy-handed, artificial modifications that have plagued the movies since their first high-definition release in 2009. In the new 2022 editions, because the films have been rescanned from the original picture, those 2009-era modifications are not even part of the discussion anymore — restoring the look of each picture to something much closer to the original theatrical presentation.

The other question not yet answered: when will these remastered versions of the Star Trek films land on streaming services? We know that the still-in-development Director’s Edition of The Motion Picture will arrive first as a Paramount+ exclusive, but there’s not yet any information on when we’ll see these other 4K editions outside of the Blu-ray format. This exceptional collection includes four Ultra HD discs, as well as four remastered Blu-ray discs with hours of previously released bonus content. That said — the primary problem with those first Blu-ray editions are the tragically-overused Digital Noise Reduction (DNR) and edge-enhancement (or “sharpening”) techniques used when bring the movies to HD for the first time. If you’re looking to re-live the theatre experience of the original casts’ movies, you’re not going to get any closer than having the Star Trek 4K 6-Movie Collection editions with a good quality screen, some may argue it’s even an improved experience. Having only watched the Director’s Edition and Wrath of Khan re-release in cinemas this past summer in the UK I won’t make that claim on behalf of all of the films though. The rest of these extras are quite good, a bit more comprehensive than those for the other films, including vintage interviews with Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley, another fine Library Computer viewing mode, and a pair of nice Tribute segments. The only thing that’s not included here is the Okuda text commentary from the 2003 DVD and Roger Lay, Jr.’s The Dream Is Alive: The Continuing Mission featurette from the 50th Anniversary Collection’s bonus disc (here’s hoping it shows up in the next 4K box set—more on that in a minute).Originally released in 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture became the fourth highest grossing movie of the year and earned three Academy Award® nominations for Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, and Best Music, Original Score. The film successfully launched the Star Trek franchise beyond the original television series, despite having been rushed to theaters with incomplete special effects and forced editing choices. And good news, international fans — while this new collection arrives in the United States and Canada on September 7, it’s not limited to North America!