Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture 6-Movie Collection 4K review

Sep 03, 2022- Permalink

It seems like just yesterday that Paramount released the Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection on 4K. Well, actually, it was just last September and now, a year later, we get the Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture 6-Movie Collection on 4K. This set contains the following releases: Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Theatrical Cut, Star Trek The Motion Picture – Director’s Edition, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. I had a chance to take an early look.

For video and audio details of the first four films (minus Star Trek The Motion Picture – Director’s Edition) check out last year’s review of the Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection. Now let’s get on to the newest addition to the set…

Star Trek The Motion Picture was rushed to meet its 1979 release date but in 2001 Paramount gave director Robert Wise a chance to work on a Director’s Edition for the Special Edition DVDs they were releasing. Wise’s new edit also updated the visual effects. With this release, the print was meticulously restored and the effects upgraded for 4K. The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. It looks great, with amazing detail in the textiles, facial features and environments. The colour palette is equally good from muted browns to popping reds and the HDR really highlights the instruments and engine glow. Black levels are deep with great detail in shadows and darker scenes. As a film transfer, there’s a light grain structure. There’s no sign of digital noise or compression artifacts.

On the audio side, you have the choice of an English Dolby Atmos track that folds back to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, as well as French, German and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, Danish, German, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, and Swedish. The soundtrack here is an upgrade, as the Director’s Edition gets an Atmos soundscape with everything from sound effects and the score getting a chance to visit your height channels. The surrounds put you in the scene, playing host to ambient sounds and action effects that move seamlessly through the soundscape. There’s plenty of low-frequency action. Dialogue is clear, centred and well-priortized in the mix.

The Director’s edition comes with the 4K, a Blu-ray copy and a digital code. Bonus features are spread between the 4K and the Blu-ray and include old and legacy features. The 4K contains an audio commentary from David C. Fein, Mike Matessino, and Daren Dochterman, a commentary by Robert Wise, Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra, Jerry Goldsmith, and Stephen Collins, a text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda and an isolated score track. The Blu-ray contains the new and legacy extras. There’s a new 8-part documentary called The Human Adventure that runs over 48 minutes and focuses on the new cut, three new deleted scenes, effects and costume tests, and a look at the computer display graphics. Legacy features included a look at the Star Trek Universe, storyboards, deleted scenes from the theatrical cut, deleted scenes from the 1983 TV version, a teaser trailer, a theatrical trailer and TV spots.

The second addition to last year’s release, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, came out in 1989. It was helmed by franchise star William Shatner. Shatner wanted to veer away from the action and light comedy of some of the previous instalments and get into science fiction’s more heady themes of humanity’s place in the universe. The story sees the crew chasing a renegade Vulcan searching for God at the centre of the universe. The film went through many rewrites to please both the cast and series creator Gene Roddenberry and a WGA strike led to a shortened pre-production phase. The result was a film that didn’t quite hit with audiences and despite a record opening, quickly plunged in the box office rankings.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. The 4K transfer makes all the usual suspects (faces, hair, textiles and sets) look amazing, the colour palette looks great and the black levels are deep. The visual effects of this film were budget-constrained and the 4K only makes those issues stand out more.

On the audio side, there’s an English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack as well as French, German and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks and a Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish. The 7.1 track is the same track from the 2009 Blu-ray release. It’s a great track that makes great use of the surrounds and your subwoofer. The score sounds great and the dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier also comes with a Blu-ray copy and a digital code. Legacy extras (nothing new for this release) are spread between the 4K and the Blu-ray. The 4K has an audio commentary from William Shatner and Liz Shatner and a commentary from Michael & Denise Okuda, Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and Daren Dochterman. The Blu-ray contains the aforementioned commentaries as well as various featurettes on the production, the Star Trek Universe, deleted scenes, a production gallery, a gag reel, storyboards, trailers and TV spots.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was the final voyage of the original crew and after the failure of the previous film, Paramount brought in director Nicholas Meyer, who previously directed The Wrath of Khan. The film echoes the ending of the Cold War with a story line that has the Klingons and Federation seeking peace after the Klingons’ home planet’s existence is threatened after its moon is destroyed. Kirk, distrustful of the Klingons, is tasked with escorting their peace emissary. When the Klingon chancellor is assassinated, Kirk and McCoy are blamed, arrested, and sentenced to life by the Klingon warrior General Chang (Christopher Plummer). Peace, trust, loyalty and aging are among the themes explored in this send-off to the original crew of the Starship Enterprise. The 4K disc contains both the theatrical release and the director’s cut.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. As with the other movies in this set, the detail is fantastic from uniforms, facial textures and environments. Again, the colour palette is excellent from muted tones to popping reds and the HDR enhances the highlights. Deep black levels with excellent details in darker scenes. Shot on Super35 film, the grain structure in this transfer looks pretty good.

On the audio side, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country comes with an English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack as well as a German, Spanish, French and Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish. As with the other films in the set, the 7.1 soundscape makes good use of the surrounds to place you in the action and your subwoofer adds “oomph” to the proceedings. Cliff Eidelman’s score is clear and dynamic and dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized in the mix.

The Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country 4K comes with both the theatrical release and director’s cut, while the Blu-ray has only the theatrical release. There’s also a digital code. There’s no new extras for this release but there are a lot of legacy extras. The 4K has an audio commentary from Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flinn, a commentary from Larry Nemecek and Ira Steven Behr and a director’s cut text commentary from Michael and Denise Okuda. The Blu-ray has the two audio commentaries, a 26 minute featurette called “The Perils of Peacemaking”, pieces on the production and farewell to the characters, a series of featurettes for the Star Trek Universe, a tribute to DeForest Kelley, interviews with the cast, a production gallery, storyboards, a convention appearance by Meyer, a teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer.

With entertaining stories, excellent audio and video and a great selection of extras Star Trek fans will not be disappointed adding the Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture 6-Movie Collection on 4K to their collection.