Star Trek - Time Travel - Fan Collective (DVD)

...for a review of the Star Trek: Time Travel Collection DVD box set.

---What's it all about then?---

The theme of this box set is a particularly good theme that has been used to different angles within the Star Trek universe, that of Time Travel, something that always appears in every flavour of Star Trek including the films on more than one occasion. The set comprises of the following episodes:

'Tomorrow ...
...the set is a little Star Trek Next Generation heavy the episodes are memorable not because of the time travel, but because of the problems that travelling in time causes. I personally don't have any experience of this but for example the episode Yesterdays Enterprise has the Enterprise- C appear through a spatial anomaly and thus changes the present into an alternate timeline where characters are reborn, attitudes are different and the Enterprise ... more

Hello there and welcome to my ninth review.

Please make yourself comfortable because we are about to beam ourselves up for a review of the Star Trek: Time Travel Collection DVD box set.

---What's it all about then?---

The theme of this box set is a particularly good theme that has been used to different angles within the Star Trek universe, that of Time Travel, something that always appears in every flavour of Star Trek including the films on more than one occasion. The set comprises of the following episodes:

'Tomorrow is Yesterday'
The City on the Edge of Forever'
Yesterday's Enterprise'
'Cause and Effect'
'Time's Arrow (Parts 1 & 2)'
'All Good Things...'
'Little Green Men'
'Trials and Tribble-ations'
'Year of Hell (Parts 1 & 2)'
'Endgame'

Although the set is a little Star Trek Next Generation heavy the episodes are memorable not because of the time travel, but because of the problems that travelling in time causes. I personally don't have any experience of this but for example the episode Yesterdays Enterprise has the Enterprise- C appear through a spatial anomaly and thus changes the present into an alternate timeline where characters are reborn, attitudes are different and the Enterprise is a fighting ship of war in a long running battle against the Klingons.

On the other end of the scale you have DS9's Little Green Men where the Ferengi's travel back to 1950's anti-communist America.. My favourite part is the scene with the failure of universal translator inside the Army base which has to be one of the funniest moments in the whole DS9 run.

So you have a good mix of stories from the 60's to the end of Voyager.

---Extras---

To put it basically, there are none. I have been thinking hard as to what I would have wanted for Disc extras. The Disc contains text commentary on 3 of the episodes, bit sparse for 10 hours of footage. Personally I would have liked to have seen the trailers included as extras for the episodes or even a perhaps one-off documentary.

Surely Paramount must have had something other than a text commentary. That is not to say it is not interesting as it is plus the fact it is by the Okuda's who basically manage the continuity and science of the more recent TV series and films, but it's a genuine shame that this is the only extras on the 4 discs as I feel there has been an opportunity lost.

---Episodes---

So there are 14 episodes with some being complete two-part stories. Watching from the beginning with the excellent Tomorrow is Yesterday shows what could be done in 1960's TV. The stories are simpler and there is a lot more acting, less action than in later episodes on the DVD's. The next TOS episode The City on the Edge of Forever is undoubtedly one of Trek fans favourites, mainly due to the fact the problems caused and what Kirk has to overcome with the death of Edith Keeler, played by a very young Joan Collins. I find it truly amazing with what she has been in over the years.

The Next Gen episodes show's how far Trek had come in the late 80's/ early 90's with a new crew and new stories and of course, better special effects. Cause and Effect being my personal favourite as the crew start to realise they are caught in a temporal loop by predicting the order of a pack of playing cards with a serious case of deja vu. There are two good two part stories as well, Times Arrow where Data's head is found in an archaeological excavation and the Season 7 finale of All Good Things which is set across three different periods in time with Jean-Luc Picard being the key to all events and having to manage all timelines as one to resolve the issues set by Q.

Two episodes from DS9 include Little Green Men as discussed earlier and Trials and Tribble-ations, a very well structured and executed sequel to Trouble with Tribbles from the original series aired for the 30th Anniversary of Star Trek. This episode uses the actual footage and characters from the TOS episode and has DS9 personnel going back to the time of the original series to stop an assassination attempt of Captain Kirk who by the time of DS9 has become a Starfleet legend. This episode is well put together and immensely enjoyable. Good to see Captain Sisko meet Captain Kirk and also a newly computer rendered Starship Enterprise. The opening pan shot of this ship is priceless and shows what could be done today, perhaps this is a hint of the next Star Trek film that is due out at Christmas 2008.

To round off there are the two parts of the Year of Hell from Voyager that shows a number of the crew in a war situation with the TV movie version of Endgame. This was the last episode of the Season 7 where the crew of the Voyager overcome all the odds and face the Borg head on with a little assistance from Admiral Janeway from the future. I found this to be a bit of an anti-climax as it was the last seconds of the last show in the last season that the crew got home.

---Overall---

Good value for money, but if you have gone out and bought the multiple boxes of the seasons for any of the series then you may feel a bit cheated by this set. Also it does not contain any of Enterprise episodes at all. Hooray! I hear you shouting but Boo I say as this would make the quintet complete of every series aired.

The front cover with the picture of Kirk on the front is the essence of cool and Shatner does look good as Kirk. This is also part of a series of fan DVD's as there are other available such as the Q and Klingon box sets available. Which are all unique 4 disc box sets, as the contents on each one's have been chosen by the fans for everyone.

To be honest if I did not have the box sets I would buy this just for the subject itself. This would be an ideal introduction for the younger fan that is probably not aware of this as much as the longer fans of the series. As at a young age you see it for the action, when you are older you discover the true meaning of the story. The RRP is £27.99 but can be found cheaper by looking around on line at places such as HMV and Virgin. HMV had this in their sale for £19.99.

Thanks for reading and thank you for your time.

Tim
 

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