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By BWilliams / 08:00, 13 December 2004 / Reviews - Products
There's just something about a series that, by the time it goes into its third season, it should find its footing and start making an impact on viewers. The original STAR TREK, however, was not one of them. After the sometimes shaky but otherwise fabulous establishment of the first season and the character-growing impact of its second season, you'd have thought that everything would have continually progressed smoothly into its third season. Not so. Behind the scenes, the series was up in arms, and its future was extremely uncertain.
Toward the end of the second season, reports got out to the public that NBC had become displeased with the ratings STAR TREK garnered during the second season. The series constantly wound up toward the bottom of the Nielsen ratings, and at that time Nielsens spelled out whether or not a series came back the following year. Despite the Nielsen ratings, STAR TREK began to gather a loyal band of supportive fans known as 'Trekkies". And judged by the numbers of fans, there were obviously more fans than there were homes that the Nielsen ratings system polled. Similar to the Committee's campaign in 1967, a home-grown organization of fans, led by Bjo Trimble, wrote hundreds of thousands of letters to NBC urging them to bring STAR TREK back for a third season. Their efforts obviously worked, because this prompted a very rare on-air announcement from NBC stating that STAR TREK would in fact return. And to think this was all before the Internet! Finally, the fans had something to rejoice" or did they?
As a result of the renewal campaign, NBC brought back STAR TREK for the fall 1968 season. This time, however, it was slated to the doomed 10:00 p.m. time slot on Friday nights, a time when families and college students would be out for the evening and wouldn't obviously watch much, if any, television at all. That didn't sound too good for Gene Roddenberry and the cast. If anything, NBC was damned determined to kill STAR TREK off once and for all, if not give it a much-needed lobotomy to 'correct" Roddenberry's premise and gear it similar to the higher-rated and much more 'sophisticated" sci-fi series LOST IN SPACE.
Further woes plagued STAR TREK's third season return. In 1968 Desilu Studios, the production company that produced STAR TREK, as well as MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, THE UNTOUCHABLES, THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW, MY THREE SONS, and so many classic television programs of the 1960's, merged with another Gulf-Western subsidiary, Paramount Pictures, thereby bringing STAR TREK into the Paramount family to this day. Also, NBC was so determined to kill off STAR TREK, they slashed the budget of the series to a fragment of what it took to properly produce it. (And you think UPN was merciless with ENTERPRISE?) The final blow came when Gene Roddenberry stepped down from his active role as a hands-on active producer to serve as executive producer, and was replaced with Fred Freiberger, who had some solid credentials under his belt with work on ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, RAWHIDE, BONANZA, THE FUGITIVE, BEN CASEY, and THE WILD, WILD WEST. Could he revitalize STAR TREK and maintain the original spirit Roddenberry had infused into the series from day one? Sadly not.
With Roddenberry pretty much out of the picture, and Freiberger in, NBC and Paramount pretty much controlled what went on in the development of the third season of STAR TREK. The series got its lobotomy, and its attempt to delve into the sociological themes of the late 1960's resulted in a season plagued with trouble from start to finish.
The season got off to an extremely shaky start with the episode 'Spock's Brain", written by Lee Cronin (the pen name of Gene L. Coon, and considering the final version of the episode, it's no wonder why Coon resorted to this nom de plume). Only this could happen in STAR TREK: a group of attractive women in miniskirts and 1960's-style go-go boots board the Enterprise and take, of all things, Spock's brain. Of course, everything goes downhill from here, as Kirk and crew take a now-brainless Spock, who can somehow still move around, no less, to a distant planet where the captors are just as clueless as Spock is brainless. And who can forget the now-classic question of the episode: 'Brain and brain! What is brain?" Years later, the 1960's-era nostalgic series THE WONDER YEARS would send up 'Spock's Brain" by featuring the entire cast in STAR TREK period costumes. Not a really good way to start a season, is it?
Thankfully, the follow-up episode, 'The Enterprise Incident" proved to be much more ambitious and adventurous. Taking the Enterprise across the Neutral Zone into Romulan territory, Spock realizes that Kirk is not acting himself and is bordering on complete insanity. Spock himself is tempted with an interesting offer from the beautiful Romulan commander: betray Kirk and the Federation, take command of the Enterprise, and bring it back to the Romulan home world. Of course, everything is a ruse to get hold of the mysterious Romulan cloaking device. Top-notch visual effects, the first appearance of the Klingon-style D-7 cruisers, and convincing performances from William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy delivers 'The Enterprise Incident" into the upper caliber of STAR TREK.
Another episode, 'Spectre of the Gun" (which was the first episode produced for the third season but the sixth episode telecast), brought STAR TREK back to familiar territory: the Old West. As punishment for trespassing into protected territory, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Chekov are sentenced to re-enact one of Earth's most notorious and most deadly conflicts: the shootout at the O.K. Corral. For DeForest Kelley, this brought him back into familiar grounds, as he had portrayed Ike Clanton years before on film in GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL and had racked up an impressive number of credentials in Westerns both on television and in film. While the Western sets were sparse, based on fragments of historical information, the lack of detailed Western sets gave 'Spectre of the Gun" a spooky atmosphere from start to finish, making it an above average adventure for the series. Had the season begun with this episode, perhaps STAR TREK could have fared better.
One of the most visually impressive episodes of the third season is 'The Tholian Web", which is part outer-space adventure, part 'bottle show". Investigating the deaths of the crew of the U.S.S. Defiant, a group of aliens calling themselves the Tholians pull the Defiant into an unknown region of space "" with Kirk aboard. With no way to bring him back, Spock declares Kirk dead. But the Enterprise's problems are mounting: the Tholians are snaring the Enterprise into a deadly web as part of their plan to assimilate the Enterprise and its crew into their region of space. It's a tense-filled episode from start to finish, one that is, for a low-budget series, a standout.
Racial tension also reared its head during STAR TREK's third season, whether in remote moments or in fully realized episodes. In 'The Day of the Dove", tensions run high between the Enterprise crew and a group of marauding Klingons, all at the hands of a mysterious cloud entity feeding off the anger and hatred of both races to the extent of all-out murder. In 'Is There in Truth No Beauty?" the bent is toward realizing the ugliness of species different from human-based beings. And in one of the most blatant forms of racial tension, 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" featured two survivors of a doomed planet, whose only ugliness they exhibited toward each other lay in the obvious display of white skin on one side of their face, black on the other, and their argument of which one was superior to the other, despite their inner similarities.
But the most significant racial allusion came in the episode 'Plato's Stepchildren", in which Kirk, Spock, and McCoy encounter a being with superior mental powers who could control the crew's every action, movement, thought, word, and emotion. In the episode's most memorable moment, Kirk and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) are forced to kiss each other, network television's first on-screen interracial kiss. The thought of such a moment, paralleling the then-growing trend of interracial relationships and marriages, was one that NBC was prepared to receive tons of hate mail at the network and at Paramount for allowing such a moment to occur. Surprisingly, not one negative letter was ever sent. Fortunately, the production team had filmed two variants of the scene, one with the kiss and one without, in case the network did not approve of the moment.
Along with racial tension, other prominent themes of the 1960's crept their way into the third season episodes. Overpopulation ('The Mark of Gideon"), societal class problems ('The Cloud Minders"), free love ('The Paradise Syndrome"), rebellious youth ('And the Children Shall Lead") "" themes like these permeated the series' writing. Of course, who could forget 'The Way to Eden," STAR TREK's tip of the hat to the growing hippie movement, and Spock's jam session with the space hippies? Roddenberry's original concept of dealing with current issues in an outer space setting had degenerated into a lot of flash and not much bang for the buck.
The series ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. In the final episode 'Turnabout Intruder", which aired June 6, 1969, an old love from Kirk's past captures him and uses an alien device to switch bodies, placing her consciousness into Kirk's body and trapping Kirk's consciousness into hers. This episode allowed viewers to see Kirk in a different light, and sometimes it's confusing figuring out who's telling the truth and who isn't. If only the third season had more above-average episodes like these, STAR TREK would have survived for a fourth season.
Sadly, that was not to be the case. The ratings were pitifully low, and the series was once again at the bottom of the barrel. And this time, no amount of fan-writing campaign could resuscitate STAR TREK for a fourth season. As it was so eloquently put in the now-classic SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE sketch, 'We at NBC have decided to unfortunately cancel STAR TREK." NBC had succeeded in putting the final nail into the coffin and killing STAR TREK off once and for all. Gene Roddenberry and cast headed into separate directions, not knowing what would happen to them, and Roddenberry's 'great experiment" was over as far as NBC was concerned. Or was it?
If only the executives at NBC had paid any attention to what was happening around them in the real world. Only a month and a half later, after the final original episode had aired, science fiction became science fact, as the Apollo 11 space capsule landed on the moon, and astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man ever to walk on the lunar surface. The lunar mission's success, coupled with the serious (and sometimes trippy, depending on your choice of drug) nature of Stanley Kubrick's epic 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, gave science fiction and STAR TREK fans the belief that man would in fact one day head into the final frontier.
But this was not to be STAR TREK's final hurrah. During the 1970's the first fan conventions were held, as cast members reunited to tell their stories about their work on the series, and fans could watch uncut episodes and the infamous blooper outtake reels as well as buy, sell, and trade memorabilia related to the series. In 1972 an animated spin-off was telecast on NBC, reuniting the cast with Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana for 22 half-hour segments that was above the standard Saturday morning cartoon fare of the time. Most importantly, the original STAR TREK episodes found a new home in something called local syndication. To recoup production and advertising losses, a television series was routinely sent to local television stations for telecast to bring in additional profits. STAR TREK became a hit in syndication with families and college students, generating success beyond anyone's wildest beliefs. I recall those days growing up, discovering the original episodes all over again on local cable stations such as WGN from Chicago and WTCG (pre-TBS) in Atlanta. Invariantly, one or the other would rerun 'The Apple" to the point of driving it into the ground! Already at the time, rumblings spread of a second STAR TREK television series or even a feature film reuniting the entire original cast. Original novels, comic books, and fan publications furthered the mythic nature of the series. Even NASA's first prototype for the space shuttle was christened the Enterprise, after hundreds of thousands of letters had been sent to the White House requesting the name change. The stage had been set for STAR TREK's triumphant return to the entertainment field. Or had it ever left to begin with?
Technobabble of a Different Kind:
All 24 episodes of the series' third and final season are included on the set's first six discs, reproduced in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and Dolby Surround 2.0 sound. This is a real boon for the set and a solid step up from its previous incarnation, which featured the episodes just in 5.1 sound only and no further options beyond that. In addition, each episode includes English subtitles and English closed captions for further enhancement for deaf viewers. I would have preferred some additional foreign language subtitle options, since this is obviously a series that has left a major impact on the world's culture.
As for the episodes themselves, they are comparable in viewing quality in comparison with their single-disc counterparts from a few years back. Each episode is divided into 6-7 chapters apiece, with chapter breaks appropriately placed in between acts. Visual quality is quite exceptional, with obvious grain reflecting the show's age, but nothing that will overall distract viewers from enjoying these episodes once again. I'd have to say that of the three seasons, the third season is certainly the most colorful in its presentation. This set definitely brings all of the eye candy home for the DVD generation!
Also included on Disc 7 are both the full color and original home video version of 'The Cage", the series' original pilot episode, along with all of the bonus features. I must point out that both versions represented here are the same as was previously presented on Volume 40 of the single-disc releases in 2001. The full-color version is presented in both Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 sound, while the original home video version is given to us only in Dolby 2.0 mono sound. As with the previous DVD release, the numbering on each version of 'The Cage" is the same, with the full-color version listed as 'Episode 1" and the original version as 'Episode 99". Initially, the 1986 VHS release was listed as 'Episode 1", while the full color VHS release from 1989 was labeled 'Episode 99". Finally, Disc 7 lists the initial telecast of 'The Cage" as running on October 15, 1988. This is close to the fact, as 'The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation to the Next", which ran the first full-color version of 'The Cage", had been telecast as early as October 4, 1988. I know; I videotaped that program the night of its airing. At that time, the lost color footage had been restored as much as possible to the previous VHS print, with the sound track in both versions the same.
Aside from the obvious color footage, there are a number of differences in the audio sound track between the original 1986 version and the restored version from 2001, specifically in the area of musical cues and digitized voices. While the full-color restored version not only presents a more balanced color presentation of the restored footage but also restores some of the original Alexander Courage musical tracks, some of the music cues are different. Listen to the introduction to the fight sequence on Rigel VII, then compare it to the black and white footage on the 1986 version. You'll notice that for the restored version the music is slightly different, as it is taken from a re-scored version of the original Courage score. Also, the re-recording of the Talosian keeper's voice is off in places in the restored version, and some audio hiss is distinct in those specific places.
The other major problem is with the presentation of the restored color footage. At times the footage jumps, as it did with the previous 1988-89 full-color version while at other times some shots are repeated or skipped. This is simply because of the unfortunate loss of some trims of footage from Roddenberry's original master print of the pilot. In comparing both versions of 'The Cage", as well as the 1988-89 version and the footage from 'The Menagerie", some 30 seconds of footage is lost forever. However, because of the restoration of the color footage and with some digital editing, it presents a version that is off from its original print by only five or six seconds at most. While the restored version of 'The Cage" is not by any means the original version as we would have liked to have seen it, it does represent Roddenberry's original intention, and for us TREK fans it is as close to a complete restoration of the original pilot that we have, now preserved on DVD for future generations to study and inspect.
Packaging and Menus:
The packaging work for the new DVD set is done in the same style as the previous two sets, only this time in a red color scheme denoting the engineering and security colors of the series. All of the discs are housed in clear plastic storage trays bound by a protective slipcover, and each disc contains picture artwork, episode titles, star dates, and original broadcast dates. There is also a 12-page insert folder that contains episode synopses, a third season overview, and commentaries on the changing face of the Klingon culture and on the engineering duties in Starfleet. There is also a small flyer on the BORG INVASION 4-D attraction enclosed.
The DVD menu design also follows in the same pattern as on the previous two sets, with beautiful CGI renderings of the STAR TREK logo, the Enterprise, and a 360-degree view of the bridge. From the main bridge monitor you can choose which episode to watch, and then you will be taken to Scotty's engineering station on the bridge, where you can choose from Play, Communications, Chapter Log, the episode preview trailers, or the various special features. Communications will take you to a close-up of one of the bridge panels, where you can make sound and subtitle options. The Chapter Log will provide a close-up of Scotty's bridge monitor, allowing you to skip to a particular chapter in the episode. Hit Play, and you will then see a close-up of one of the overhead bridge monitors dissolving before the start of the episode. I've got to hand it to the menu designers who came up with the CGI animation of the Enterprise for the three sets. It really makes you feel like you're on the actual bridge. These guys should be doing CGI work for TV and film projects, if they're not already doing so. Very nice!
The Extras:
For this final season set, Paramount has included a wealth of extras in the new DVD set, all of which total a massive three and a half hours in length. Many of these extras contain new interviews with surviving cast and production crewmembers, along with clips from the various episodes. It's interesting to note that Donald Beck and Stephen Wolcott, who previously developed the bonus features for the GENERATIONS Special Edition DVD, also conducted the interviews for the three STAR TREK sets (the Shatner, Nimoy, and Koenig interview segments were filmed at the same time), making for a consistent overall DVD presentation across the various products. Beck and Wolcott have contributed documentaries over the last 16 years for the various TREK series, and their production caliber with the Original Series DVDs solidly continues to this day.
As with the previous two sets, all of the third season episodes' original broadcast trailers are included in the set and are accessible within the menu selection of each respective episode. All of the trailers are in their original aspect ratio and are featured in English Dolby Surround 2.0 sound. These trailers have remarkably held up rather well over the past 35 years.
Textual commentaries by Michael and Denise Okuda are also included in 'Pop-Up Video" style on two episodes, 'The Savage Curtain" and 'Turnabout Intruder". Most of the factoids presented here are interesting little tidbits of information about the episodes, the various cast members, and TREK in general. I for one would have enjoyed seeing more text commentaries on other episodes beyond these two, including 'The Enterprise Incident", 'The Tholian Web", and 'The Cage", among others.
The new retrospective commentaries kick off with TO BOLDLY GO: SEASON THREE, as cast and production members recall working on the third season, including the struggles behind the scenes and the inevitable threat of cancellation. Featuring new interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Bjo Trimble, and Robert Justman, they look at some of the highlights and problems encountered during the third season. For Nimoy, Takei, and Koenig, they all felt that NBC's shifting of STAR TREK to a late Friday night time slot spelled the inevitable end of the series. Shatner candidly comments that Trimble's letter writing campaign, while well organized, did little to convince NBC otherwise to keep the series alive, and Trimble refutes that Gene Roddenberry had a hand in the campaign himself. Nimoy shares that while he had a good love/hate relationship with Roddenberry, Fred Freiberger, while a capable producer, had no clear sense of where to take the series. Both Justman and Trimble agree on some of the more outrageous ideas of the third season, including 'Spock's Brain" and 'Spectre of the Gun", were fun to execute, and Nichols relates the now-legendary story behind the interracial kiss in 'Plato's Stepchildren". The featurette ends with Shatner comparing his cold, which he had at the time of his DVD commentary, with the flu he had in filming the final episode, 'Turnabout Intruder" and stating that NBC made a bad decision in canceling the series. Running time: 22:35.
LIFE BEYOND TREK: WALTER KOENIG continues in the same vein as the Shatner and Nimoy featurettes on the first two sets. Koenig shares his pre-TREK memories of being cast in several different TV series, including Gene Roddenberry's THE LIEUTENANT, which put him in contact with a number of key production people who would later work on STAR TREK. Koenig humorously recalls how it came down to him and one other prospect for the role of Pavel Chekov, and how he found out from, of all people, the wardrobe designer that he'd gotten the part. He briefly mentions some of his post-TREK work, including filming MOON TRAP with Bruce Campbell in the 1980's and his recurring role of Bester in BABYLON 5. The second part of this segment is devoted to Koenig's many collections of TREK memorabilia, Big Little Books, and pullback buttons dating back to the 1890's. A number of the camera shots in this segment are either jumpy and quickly shot or poorly framed, neglecting the viewers in noticing the little details of Koenig's different collections beyond the TREK franchise. This feature could have been handled and assembled a lot better if given proper time and ability. Running time: 10:57.
CHIEF ENGINEER'S LOG features an all-new interview with James Doohan, conducted in December 2003, prior to his retirement. It's evident from watching this brief segment that Doohan's battle with Alzheimer's has taken a toll on him, as Doohan appears very weak, but his recall of STAR TREK and World War II is still very lucid. He relates the action he saw on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, resulting in Doohan getting shot eight times and losing the middle finger of his right hand. Doohan recalls how Gene Roddenberry selected his Scottish accent for the character of Scotty, and how he was often called upon to do the voice work for characters such as the M-5 in 'The Ultimate Computer" or the Melkotian alien in 'Spectre of the Gun". He also recalls how fans thanked him for inspiring them to pursue careers in the engineering field and specifically relates how he kept in contact with one woman who Doohan had kept from committing suicide. Doohan finally states with joy how his biggest contribution was treating STAR TREK with the respect it deserves. To read more about his life and career, I highly recommend checking out Doohan's autobiography BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY from Pocket Books. Running time: 6:11.
MEMOIR FROM MR. SULU features George Takei discussing how STAR TREK has permeated every area of his life from conventions to politics. He's still optimistic to this day that a 'Captain Sulu" TV series, if properly handled, would be a huge success. But the majority of his discussion centers on his involvement as the chairman of the board of the Japanese American National Museum, an organization dedicated to bringing awareness of the Japanese influence in American society that dates back to the 1880's. For Takei and his family, as for many Americans of Japanese heritage, the ugly stigma they faced centered around the World War II years, when Japanese Americans were arrested and placed in internment camps simply for looking like the enemy. Internment camps like Jerome and Rohwer in Arkansas were common for the time, Takei points out, and it took the active involvement of Japanese American soldiers fighting for the U.S. in World War II to bring them out of that stigma into equality. Takei reveals that the only surviving aspects of Rohwer are the cemetery and a marker dedicated to the many Japanese American soldiers who fought for, and died in defense of, their country. To read more about Takei's life and heritage, check out his autobiography TO THE STARS. Running time: 8:41.
STAR TREK'S IMPACT focuses on the impact and legacy the series had on Eugene 'Rod" Roddenberry. Armed with a number of the original single-disc DVDs, Roddenberry views episodes on his home computer and talks about how over the last 20 years fans would tell him how STAR TREK had influenced them. From 'The Cage" to 'City on the Edge of Forever", 'Devil in the Dark" and 'The Trouble With Tribbles", Roddenberry conveys what he sees are his father's views permeating the entire series. As he relates from watching 'Shore Leave", humanity is still in its infancy and has a long way to go in its development. He also shares how the world could go hunger-free for one day out of the year if everyone gave food to each homeless person. Young Roddenberry's views are quite valid, echoing what his father conveyed 40 years ago. Running time: 9:03.
A STAR TREK COLLECTOR'S DREAM COME TRUE focuses on the design work of John Long, a model and miniature designer who got his start in the field because of STAR TREK. He discusses documenting one of the only surviving working phaser props from the series and creating a replica for a proposed company. According to Long, the surviving working phaser prop is virtually priceless, though a prop version had sold in excess of $20,000 at a recent auction. Long also documented the original communicator and shows how series prop designer Wah Chang used a stopwatch as the inspiration for a key component of the communicator. He even shows a work-in-progress version of the replica phaser rifle, based on the prop used in 'Where No Man Has Gone Before". I felt that this featurette felt a bit out of place in the DVD set, though future model and miniature designers may find it of interest. Running time: 7:05.
Also included on Disc 7 is a collection of 40 sketches from the library of Walter M. 'Matt" Jefferies that focuses on various set designs from the third season as well as from earlier episodes. This is a very nice and wonderful complement to the collection that was seen on the Season 2 set and is essential viewing and study for anyone who wants to pursue a career in art or production design.
In addition, Paramount has included a final collection of hidden Easter egg features in its RED SHIRT LOG series, accessible through the Special Features section. This time around, six such hidden features are included. The first bonus feature, at 2:05 in length, features William Shatner talking about how, on the day of his commentary, he had gone to a drugstore to get some cold medicine and met a pharmacist who shared how he'd grown up watching STAR TREK with his now-deceased father. The second bonus feature, running 3:44 in length, spotlights George Takei discussing the hard work Sulu put in that got him promoted in rank but never moved beyond helmsman, until STAR TREK VI. Takei again waxes optimistic for a 'Captain Sulu" TV series. The third bonus feature is the longest at 4:39 and features Takei discussing the 25th anniversary convention celebration at the Shrine Auditorium and Gene Roddenberry's appearance there. Never-before-released footage shows an ailing Roddenberry, aided by his son Rod, getting up from the wheelchair to thank the fans. The fourth bonus feature, running 2:53, spotlights Leonard Nimoy as he discusses his transition to the character of Paris on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and how he left at the end of the second year of his five-year contract to pursue a career on stage and in film. The fifth bonus feature, running 2:52 in length, spotlights Bjo Trimble discussing how fans could not get the message of 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield". Trimble returns for the sixth and final bonus feature, running 2:38, as she talks about the fun of 'Elaan of Troyius" and France Nuyen's many costumes for the episode. Some of these features could have easily been included in the TO BOLDLY GO feature for a longer discussion.
As with the previous sets, Paramount has provided an extra featurette found as part of the master set in the Region 2 DVD release yet is released here in Region 1 format as a bonus DVD through Best Buy, Suncoast, and Sam Goody. COLLECTIBLE TREK examines part of the huge world of STAR TREK memorabilia and merchandise, highlighting the value and rarity of collector's items from Spock ears to lunch boxes, and including interviews with Leonard Nimoy, designers, and archive experts. A copy of this bonus disc was not available for review at press time.
Missing in action from the new DVD are INSIDE STAR TREK: THE REAL STORY and WILLIAM SHATNER'S STAR TREK MEMORIES, two excellent made-for-video documentaries that further explore the success and the problems of the series. I cite these two documentaries because of the number of interview clips with key TREK personnel who are sadly no longer with us. Also missing are archival interview clips with Gene Roddenberry, DeForest Kelley, and Majel Barrett, anything that would give the third season relevance in its place in TV history. Also, since 'The Cage" is included in this set, it would have been nice to have seen the 1988-89 color reconstruction of the pilot included in this set, giving fans all three released versions of the pilot to view, as well as the rare outtakes featuring Jeffrey Hunter that were shown on the E! Network a few years back. Finally, the lost outtake and blooper reels would make for a wonderful inclusion on any set, and there's a wealth of them that have been viewed over the years in bootleg releases yet should be released in an official capacity.
Final Thoughts:
35 years after its cancellation, we can look at the original STAR TREK and see that this was more than just Gene Roddenberry's 'great experiment". With all of its ups and downs, the original STAR TREK set the tone for everything to follow in feature films, on television, and in all of the expanded universe and fan media to this day. With the series now complete on DVD in the three season box sets, we can look back on it and see all of the trials and turmoil, all of the hard work and perseverance, that went into the 80 episodes of a modern American classic.
