Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and crew are back for the second season of Star Trek, and unlike season one, this is the first we've seen these episodes in glorious 1080p. Season two has several strong episodes that tackle heavy social issues and offer up planet-eating monsters, a murder mystery, and those wonderful tribbles.

Out of the 26 episodes in its sophomore season, a fair number stand above the rest, starting with the season premiere, "Amok Time," which introduces Pon Farr, the Vulcan mating cycle that affects first officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Other notable episodes include "Mirror, Mirror," in which some of the crew are beamed to a parallel universe where deception and murder provide advancement in Starfleet, and "Doomsday Machine," a social-commentary episode related to nuclear weapons—remember those?

By far my two favorite episodes are "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "A Piece of the Action." The first is probably the most famous episode of all three seasons and was the inspiration for the premiere episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series and a classic Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations," both of which are included in this set with HD treatment (animated episode at 1080p, DS9 at 1080i). "A Piece of the Action" is a hilarious episode in which Kirk and crew beam down to a planet whose society is modeled after 1920s gangland Chicago in the midst of a turf war. Neither of these episodes tackle any significant social issues, but they're funny as hell even 40 years after their debut.

As with season one, the CGI effects were redone for broadcast and they're just as impressive. The effects are faithful to the original elements and blend in extremely well. Pressing the "angle" button on the remote lets you switch back and forth between the original and new effects since they are encoded with seamless branching.

The VC1 encodes are fantastic—just like season one. Grain is well-preserved along with high-frequency detail, and the new color timing is just as impressive as the first season. Red and blue are particularly strong, but even the yellow-green of Kirk's uniform has more pizzazz compared with the DVD set. Shadows are exquisite, flesh tones are natural, and blacks are rich and deep.

Given its monophonic roots, the soundtrack will rarely blow you away, nor should it. The DTS-HD MA 7.1 track is front-heavy and collapsed toward the center. For some reason, the audio is recorded at a lower level than normal—just like season one—but a slight turn of the volume knob fixes this issue. My only complaint is that the revamped title song is recorded much louder than the rest of the show, so be sure to have a remote in hand to save your precious hearing.

Not only are all 26 episodes included in the 7-disc set, there's also a galaxy of bonus materials. The highlight for me was the tribble-specific disc, which includes the classic episode along with the aforementioned episodes from The Animated Series and DS9—the latter is a mind-boggling technological achievement at the time. There are also two featurettes on the DS9 episode; a "Starfleet Access" Bonus View PIP with trivia, text commentary, and video clips; and BD Live and Content To Go exclusively via Mobile Blu (not tested).

Other features scattered throughout the discs include an additional "Starfleet Access" Bonus View episode ("Amok Time"), preview trailers of each episode, five more Content To Go Mobile Blue features, and numerous featurettes on the design elements, memories from the writers and actors, and fun featurettes on the Great Trio (Kirk, Spock, and Bones) and Nichelle Nichols.

Other than a couple of episodes that really stunk—"The Gamesters of Triskelion" and "The Omega Glory"—this is probably the strongest season of the three it survived on the air. A number of social issues are explored, but it’s the comedic episodes the really separate themselves from the pack. Highly recommended—but don't feed the tribbles!

Release Date: September 22, 2009
Studio: Paramount

Movie: 10/10
Picture: 9/10
Sound: 8/10

Review System

Source
Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 power amplifier
Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics