By GustavoLeao / 06:13, 13 November 2009 / Star Trek: Nemesis

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STAR TREK (2009)

Released by CBS/Paramount Home Entertainment

Reviewed for TrekWeb.com by Bill Williams

3 discs / Running time: 127 minutes

MSRP $39.99

ISBN # 097360718249

Date of release: November 17, 2009

Introduction:

After the dismal box office performance of NEMESIS in 2002 and the cancellation of ENTERPRISE in 2005, it seemed that the STAR TREK franchise was finally dead, if not on life support at best. The only things that seemed to keep it barely going were new novels from Pocket Books, a new line of comics from IDW Publishing, the DVD releases of the six television series and ten feature films, numerous online fan film projects, and endless reruns on TV. Even the Original Series got a CGI facelift in 2006 in the form of a remastered version of the series that saw new visual effects the way they could have been produced back in the 1960's had Gene Roddenberry and company had the budget. Still, that was not enough to keep things going, it appeared.

Enter Jeffrey Jacob Abrams.

The creator of FELICITY, LOST, and ALIAS had just one feature film directorial credit to his name, the third MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE installment, when he chose to pursue bringing a new version of STAR TREK to the big screen. Fans were obviously curious as to what Abrams would bring to the ailing franchise. Some fans immediately accepted Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, hoping they could bring a fresh new approach. Others decried (and continue to decry) Abrams with outrageous comments to the effect of, "He's ruining the canon!" and "Abrams raped my childhood!" without giving him a chance to prove himself.

When the first teaser appeared in 2008, fans wondered what the film would be about. With the image of a starship Enterprise under construction and a voiceover from Leonard Nimoy reciting the classic "Space, the final frontier..." opening line, it got a number of fans excited and speculating as to what the new film would be about. Security on this film was tighter than steel. Then the first announcements appeared as to who would portray the crew on screen - and again fan speculation was concerned across the board. For the first time, new younger actors would portray the classic roles seen 40+ years before, which immediately begat speculations that Paramount and Abrams were about to reboot the STAR TREK franchise in the same way that the Batman and James Bond series were successfully rebooted a couple of years before. (It was not the first time that Paramount had considered a TREK reboot: two decades before, Harve Bennett had pitched a Starfleet Academy concept of recasting the classic crew with younger actors, which led to his ousting from the Paramount studios thanks to negative fan reaction years before the launch of the Internet!) When it was announced that Chris Pine would take the role of James T. Kirk, people began wondering if he would wind up parodying William Shatner's performance. But when it was announced that Zachary Quinto would become the new Spock, a lot of fears were put to rest. Quinto, one of the stars of HEROES, had the right look to take on Spock.

But as with previous TREK films, it would seem that it just wouldn't be a TREK film unless there was an appearance from a well-known actor in a supporting role. In this case, the announcement that Leonard Nimoy would return as Spock for the first time in 18 years (his last appearances in the role being in STAR TREK VI and the NEXT GENERATION two-part episode "Unification") sent shockwaves of excitement throughout TREK fandom. Finally, some major credibility to this new project, it seemed! That was only the tip of the iceberg. One thing remained: what would the story be about?

We got a tease of the story thanks to IDW's highly successful four-part prequel "Countdown", which saw a Romulan mining captain named Nero (portrayed in the new film by Eric Bana) seeking his revenge on Spock for the apparent destruction of Romulus and the death of his wife. With Nero's and Spock's disappearances in time, that set the stage for the events of the new film. But as with anything, the proof lay in the pudding. Fans were desperate for any footage from the film to give them some idea. The trailers did not disappoint, not even the Internet-only trailer spotlighting Nimoy's return as the elder Spock. Still, it did little to spoil the overall plot, still at that time a tightly guarded secret.

All of that changed this past spring, when it was announced that Australian audiences would be treated to the first world premiere of the film. But then, something happened that was even more surprising. It was announced that moviegoers in Austin, Texas would get to attend a free screening of STAR TREK II that promised a ten-minute preview reel of footage from the new movie. What they got was a filthy, scratchy print of STAR TREK II that disappeared into celluloid oblivion after only two minutes. What they then got would become the stuff that excitement is made of, as Nimoy stepped in front of the audience carrying an empty film canister and asked, "I suppose you wouldn't be interesting in seeing the new film, would you?" The audience went ape nuts and were treated to the world premiere screening of the new STAR TREK film, scooping their Australian counterparts.

The new STAR TREK film is, without saying, nothing but pure surprise and visual excitement. The film itself is bigger in size and scope than anything that came before. The ships are bigger and larger than before, particularly the Enterprise itself. The visual effects are beyond anything that's been produced in TV and on film in previous incarnations, and the character interaction and humor is spot-on with what was established in the Original Series. Here we have a young rebellious Jim Kirk (Pine) pursuing Starfleet Academy training, thanks to the efforts of Enterprise captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), butting heads with Spock (Quinto) and trying to put the moves on Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana). But when Pike is mysteriously kidnapped by Nero and his band of Romulan thugs, who have destroyed Vulcan in search of Spock, it's up to young Kirk to take charge and become the leader he was meant to be.

This new version of STAR TREK hits all of the right notes in just about all of the right places. It doesn't feel short, nor does it overstay its welcome. At 127 minutes, Abrams was correct in trimming some of the scenes from the original 140-minute cut for the audience's sake; its length is just right. John Cho (late of the new series FLASH FORWARD) makes an effective Hikaru Sulu, engaging in an exciting sword fight with one of the Romulans atop a floating mining station. Simon Pegg (from the cult film SHAUN OF THE DEAD) brings a nice comic touch to Montgomery Scott that does the late James Doohan justice. Ben Cross (CHARIOTS OF FIRE) and Winona Ryder (whose career had temporarily stalled because of personal screw-ups) do a good job as Sarek and Amanda, Spock's parents, and it's nice to see Ryder's career back on track thanks to Abrams. Even Tyler Perry (of the MADEA series) has a good supporting appearance as a Starfleet admiral in a couple of key scenes. And there's a nice surprise involving Spock that harkens back to the earliest episodes of TOS. All in all, there are wonderful touches to the entire franchise throughout this new film. Granted, it does take a few liberties in sensibility, but once you get past them you're given a wonderful film from start to finish.

But I have held back my final thoughts about the film to this point, because there's one actor I have to single out above all. I had my own reservations about the film and about Chris Pine as Kirk, and even from the stills I had seen Zachary Quinto would do Spock full justice. But the one actor who truly sold me on this new version of STAR TREK was Karl Urban (from THE LORD OF THE RINGS) as Leonard McCoy. He doesn't just channel DeForest Kelley's portrayal into his performance, Urban becomes the new McCoy for this generation. His crabby attitude when we first see him, his crankiness in his interactions with Kirk and Spock, makes him the perfect choice, no bones about it (pun intended!). Like Kelley, Urban has that little something extra about him that makes him appealing to the audiences in his previous roles, and he brings that same little extra to his role here. (No wonder he's a fan favorite around the world!) I hope that when Abrams and company get to shooting the next STAR TREK film, we get to see Urban in an expanded performance that does Dr. McCoy more than full justice.

For the first time since 1986, STAR TREK broke the barrier not just in commercial success but also critical success from the fans and film critics. In its theatrical run TREK brought in a whopping $257.7 million in its U.S. run (including its runs in IMAX format) and an overall $385 million worldwide box-office intake, making it one of the top grossing films of the year. It recently earned four awards at Spike TV's Scream 2009 awards including best science-fiction film. And there's talk that, with its recent controversial increase from five to ten nominees, STAR TREK may make a serious mark at the Academy Awards in 2010. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen. More importantly, this version of STAR TREK has done something that the recent films and TV series have failed to do: capture the spirit of the Original Series while truly surprising its audience. It's more than just for the hardcore fan base; not since THE VOYAGE HOME has it reached a larger audience like this. And it's paved the way for a whole new playground to explore in future films.

Paramount has just issued the new STAR TREK film on DVD and Blu-ray in both single- and two-disc DVD releases and a three-disc Blu-ray set (the latter two with digital copies), sure to satisfy even the most diehard TREK fan. For the purposes of this review I will refer to the three-disc Blu-ray set.

Technobabble of a Different Kind:

So how does the new STAR TREK film look and sound on Blu-ray? In just two words, absolutely spectacular! The Blu-ray is presented in 1080hp. English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, Spanish 5.1 Digital, French 5.1 Digital, and your choice of English, English SDH, Spanish, French, or Portuguese subtitles are also included. The film is divided into 15 chapters, and through the main menu on Disc 1 you can bookmark your favorite chapters. The film itself is incredibly crisp, highly detailed, with lots of vibrant, rich colors and just enough black not to overwhelm you. The one thing that does seem overwhelming, however, is the inescapable amount of light flashes throughout the entire film - why Abrams and company decided on this is beyond me. It distracted me a bit in the theater, and it's as distracting here, but it was Abrams‘ choice to begin with. Otherwise, picture perfect reference quality!

Packaging and Menus:

The three-disc Blu-ray set of STAR TREK comes packaged in a standard Blu-ray case with the TREK logo on both sides, as well as Chris Pine's picture on the front and Zachary Quinto's portrait on the back on both the slipcover and the packaging. A tri-fold insert is included inside the packaging spotlighting the digital copy information, the STAR TREK: D.A.C. videogame, and a new online feature entitled "Experience the Enterprise", which will allow you to access a special online tour of the famed starship (which I‘ll discuss later). For some reason, in my copy of the Blu-ray the hub containing Discs 1 and 2 was broken upon arrival - an inconvenience but a minor nitpick worth noting.

The menu interface on the discs is very easy to navigate. The main menu designs display a computer graphic of the Enterprise, which allows you to navigate on Disc 1 through the main feature itself, the chapter options, and the bonus features, while on Disc 2 you can easily navigate the menu to access the various additional features on the disc.

The Extras:

With a film this big, Paramount Home Entertainment has jammed this three-disc set with quite a lot of extras to keep even the most die-hard TREK fan occupied for hours on end! Starting with Disc 1, accompanying the movie is a full-length audio commentary from J.J. Abrams, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, producer Damon Lindelof, and executive producer Bryan Burk (all of whom have worked together on LOST and ALIAS). I've only had a chance to sample the audio commentary, but what a fun commentary it is! Abrams mentions how composer Michael Giacchino changed the main title music only two weeks before the final film mix was completed, and how Spock's birth scene was cut to get to the main action of the film and not continually go back and forth with the young Kirk and Spock scenes in the first half hour. They comment about how the Kelvin was named for Abrams' grandfather, and if you go through all of Abrams' film and TV work you'll spot the Kelvin references as well. Orci, Kurtzman, Burk, and Lindelof discuss the believability of the many starship and location sets and how they deliberately misled fans into thinking Chris Hemsworth's character was Jim Kirk, given his physical similarity to Chris Pine. The group mention their favorite edit cuts throughout the film, and Abrams jokes how he saw the group repeatedly editing the Kelvin sequence. They also discuss how they briefly considered using the transporter early in the film but worked it out better in a later scene. They were especially concerned with how they could convince their wives to go see a male-oriented movie like STAR TREK! Ultimately they get to the issue of breaking canon; how could they get away with it? The back-and-forth commentary reminded me of the group commentary on the GHOSTBUSTERS DVD release a decade before, it's that much fun (all that's missing is a Picture-in-Picture or MST3K pop-up video commentary - with Blu-ray capacity, they should have gone for it on this disc).

What I ultimately enjoyed about the audio commentary is that I deliberately chose to listen to the commentary just by itself, instead of watching it with the film, while writing this review. The reason is very simple: I just wanted to enjoy the movie by itself without any commentary, bonus features, captions, you name it. I was blown away by the film in the theaters, and I wanted to have that same experience once again. (All I need now is a huge home theater set-up!)

There is also an exclusive BD-Live feature on Disc 1 called NASA News, which allows you to check out the latest mission reports from NASA on forthcoming shuttle launches, news articles, and the latest images from outer space. This is pretty darn cool for those of you who enjoy the latest space news, and you don't have to watch the NASA Channel on DirecTV to keep up - just plunk in this disc and off you go! Also included at the head of Disc 1 are trailers for TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, the Fox series FRINGE, and the STAR TREK: D.A.C. videogame.

Moving to Disc 2 we have the full boatload of documentary features that take viewers behind the scenes. This release is substantially different from all of the previous TREK DVD offerings in that these features really get down to the nuts and bolts of bringing this film to life. It's more than just the back-slapping talk we've seen on past TREK DVDs; this is real meat-and-potatoes stuff we're talking here, the kind of rawness that people want to see in the making of STAR TREK (or any film for that matter). All of these bonus features are presented in HD and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, which is an added nice touch. First off is "To Boldly Go" (16:41), where Abrams, Nimoy, Orci, Kurtzman, Lindelof, and Burk discuss re-imagining STAR TREK, along with the challenges that went into producing a new version of the classic franchise. Nimoy reflects on being back at the Paramount studio lot once again and the memories of filming the Original Series during the 1960's. Orci and Kurtzman admit their fears of taking on such a huge challenge of writing a new version of the saga and meeting that challenge head-on. Lindelof and Abrams address how to make this new version of TREK cool yet relatable to a new generation, and of the five key creative personnel Orci is the most knowledgeable of all things TREK. It's interesting this time around to have a mix of personnel both knowledgeable and not of TREK, because it lends a greater creative challenge in making the best kind of film possible. For Abrams and company they wanted to see how the classic crew came together for the first time (as opposed to what's been done previously in comics and novels). We get great pre-production and on-set footage in this documentary, along with seeing Nimoy getting back into the Vulcan makeup after 18 years, and the birds' eye view really takes you into the filming. Ultimately Abrams addresses the issue of this film being an origin story and not violating the 40+ years of canon. They went to Nimoy and Shatner to break the film, and it sold Nimoy completely on the project without even seeing a script (a true professional in every sense of the word). We get priceless on-set footage of Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols meeting with their younger counterparts, and both Orci and Kurtzman comment on how they seriously checked their TREK lore through the Internet during the production process.

Also included within the framework of the documentaries are branching pods that you can view either separately or during the course of the documentaries. (If you are familiar with the branching pods on the three-disc DVD of TITANIC from a few years back, then the process works the same.) In "To Boldly Go" are four such pods. First, in "The Shatner Conundrum" (1:58), Abrams, Orci, and Burk discuss how they looked for any way to get Shatner into the film while respecting the canon and not simply shoehorning him into the project for the heck of it. (As we now know, Abrams is looking for any and every way to get Shatner involved in the upcoming sequel.) "Red Shirt Guy" (:43) takes a look behind the scenes of approaching a well-known running gag throughout the Original Series. We get to see actor Greg Ellis as Chief Engineer Olson, along with a rough animatic of his demise during the drill platform sequence. "The Green Girl" (3:25) shows how actress Rachel Nichols was made up to look like the Orion cadet Gaila. The makeup process took three different passes to make her look a believable green, and Nichols jokes how she could choose among the Green Goblin, the Incredible Hulk, Kermit the Frog, and the Jolly Green Giant for prospective boyfriends. Finally we have "Trekker Alert!" (2:22) which profiles a couple of extras and their non-speaking parts in the film and their love for the franchise.

In "Casting" (28:53) Abrams and company discuss casting the various actors into the classic parts. We get to see Zachary Quinto discussing his approach to Spock, and Abrams and company simply blown away at how much Quinto resembled a young Leonard Nimoy. We have some priceless footage of Quinto testing for the role, including his first ear and camera tests from 2007, along with the Comic-Con footage of Quinto and Nimoy onstage together discussing their work on the film. In casting Chris Pine as Kirk, Abrams knew that was one of the biggest hurdles in casting a primary role. Pine admits his nervousness at stepping into Shatner's shoes without making him a carbon copy or caricature, and Abrams, Kurtzman, John Cho, and Bruce Greenwood give Pine their credit in bringing a sense of fun to the character while teasing everyone with little hints at who the character will become. Zoe Saldana talks about bringing her sense of New York toughness to Uhura, and she admits her nervousness at first meeting Nichelle Nichols but relaxed more in receiving Nichols' blessing in carrying on the part. Abrams and Kurtzman give high praise to Karl Urban for bringing the same sense of crabbiness to Dr. McCoy that De Kelley gave the character decades before. Urban, a long-time TREK fan, actively campaigned Abrams and the producers to be cast in the film, ultimately nailing the role in his audition. (Is it any wonder that it turned out to be Urban's portrayal that completely sold me on this film?)

Cho, a veteran of FELICITY, brought a sense of humor to the role of Sulu, but Abrams was at first concerned that Cho was so racially different from George Takei. Ultimately, Takei assured Abrams that Sulu represents the progression of Asian characters in film and TV and that Cho would do well in the part. Abrams also points to Anton Yelchin as being the only one who could adequately portray Pavel Chekov, given Yelchin's native Russian background, yet everyone gives him credit for his intelligence and maturity beyond years on set. Urban shares a funny story of how Yelchin continually beat him and Greenwood in numerous chess games and how Urban's Bones-like crabbiness surfaced as a result (Greenwood remains hilariously mum on the subject!). Yelchin shares how upon meeting Walter Koenig he received good advice about staying true to the character yet bringing his own approach to the part. To have footage of the younger actors meeting their older counterparts is priceless - I wish that there had been footage of Pine and Shatner meeting as well. In casting Scotty, Abrams was concerned about finding an actor who could make everyone laugh yet fit in well with the cast, which led to Simon Pegg (also from Abrams' M:I3) being cast in the part after a humorous yes-no-yes e-mail exchange. The British-born Pegg, also a fan of the Original Series, wanted to bring the same qualities James Doohan gave to the character yet convey a true Scottish accent (which only helped him by listening to first assistant director Tommy Gormley speak). In casting Greenwood as Christopher Pike, Kurtzman notes that Kirk was partly modeled after John F. Kennedy, and Greenwood (who portrayed Kennedy in 13 DAYS) brought that same quality to Pike. Both Yelchin and Abrams comment about how laid back and relaxed Greenwood is that he‘s one of the guys you just want to hang out with even if he‘s not part of your TV show or movie. (Perhaps we should ask for a Captain Pike TV series down the road!)

Next, we get to see how Eric Bana (recently of THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE) was cast as the renegade Romulan Nero. Seeing interview footage of the very mild-mannered Bana against footage of him as Nero, it's like watching a Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation, which suited Bana well in the role. Kurtzman discusses how the villain to whom the audience can relate becomes much more believable. Abrams gives Bana credit for wanting to take chances with the part and make it an engaging performance. The piece rounds out with a very moving tribute to Nimoy, including touching footage of his final shooting day, and the younger cast has great awe and respect for Nimoy and the aura he simply brought to the set, no matter if it was the main cast or a group of tired extras who got an extra burst of energy just at seeing Nimoy on the set. In this feature we have lots of great behind-the-scenes footage, on set shots, flubs, even some very candid fly-on-the-wall shots that flesh out the piece and make it a great piece. Without a solid, believable cast, no TV show or film can do well, and Abrams actively sought the best people for the parts.

From there we have "A New Vision" (19:31), a documentary that shows how Abrams wanted to give STAR TREK a true big-budget feel combined with old-school Hollywood filmmaking tricks. Both Abrams and Burk were concerned that the Original Series had a lot going for it except the budget and they wanted to pull out all the stops in giving the new film the look it rightfully deserved. None of the crew wanted to give it a STAR WARS kind of mentality, but they felt that TREK deserved more of a fast-paced approach to make the film work. We get some great on-location footage of many of the film's key dramatic and action sequences to give it that added sense of scope. The production crew has praise for Abrams, who was very hands-on in the collaboration process with his team throughout the production. The trick, according to Abrams and company, was grounding the film in a sense of reality and not make it an all-green screen production like the STAR WARS prequels. The film wound up being shot half on stage and half on location, something we haven't seen the likes of on a TREK production in quite a while, requiring the film to be shot with anamorphic cameras and not digital cameras. Abrams wanted to shoot everything in camera, which meant using forced perspective miniatures, visual tricks, and matte shots throughout the film (not to mention an old-school TREK trick of bouncing the actors back and forth to mimic the Enterprise under attack!). For the orbital platform scenes Abrams combined wire work with filming the actors standing on mirrors and shooting downward to achieve the realism of falling. Abrams even used child actors in some of the forced perspective shots to stand in for the adult actors, including one of the deleted Klingon scenes. And we get yet another wonderful shot of Abrams filming Nimoy in his last shot as Spock for the film.

Branching out from "A New Vision" is another pod feature, "Savage Pressure" (3:08), which profiles first assistant director Tommy Gormley, who was responsible for the organizational logistics on the film. Cast and crew rag on Gormley, his Scottish accent, and his constant reliance of yelling out "Here we go!" and "Savage pressure!" on the set, but all have respect for Gormley's dedication to his craft.

In the documentary "Starships" (24:33), Abrams and production designer Scott Chambliss discuss how they wanted to keep the new Enterprise in tune with the previous incarnations of the ship but also make it accessible to a new audience. We also get to see how many of the new ships, including the Kelvin and the Narada, were created. We get blueprint designs for ships that were barely seen on screen at all, including the Newton, the Defiant, and the Mayflower. Believe it or not, the Kelvin's worn-down inspiration came from the Buster Crabbe serials of the 1930's and "The Day the Earth Stood Still", and we get great production footage on the Kelvin set. The realism of the Kelvin's inner workings came from a Long Beach power plant which doubled as the Kelvin engine room and as one of the prison corridors later in the film, and it's that sense of grounded realism that Abrams brought to the film. We also get early concept production sketches and paintings of the new Enterprise, along with comparison sketches to the original Enterprise and the Enterprise-A. We also have great before-and-after green screen footage on the Enterprise set, and we have pre-production footage from inside the Budweiser manufacturing plant in Van Nuys (Nice to know that Budweiser is still around in the 23^rd century! Product placement plug!), which served as the Enterprise's engine room, ship's corridors, weapons bay, and Uhura's monitoring station, as well as the Delta Vega power house where we first see Scotty in the film.

Of course, the real challenge lay in the bridge design, since millions of people are familiar with the classic set. We see early sketches of the set, foam core mockups, and the actual set under construction. There's even a nice close-up of the bridge dedication plaque, which has become a TREK staple since the Original Series! (Can you find it in the film?) And while the new Enterprise may stray a little bit from established canon, it's pretty much a big hot rod three times the size as the original, the way Abrams and Chambliss wanted it. And we get lots of production sketches of the Narada, which gave the production team a completely fresh design approach. We also have a nice scale map of the different ships in the film, which for me is cool because it only adds to that sense of reality Abrams gave the film. Chambliss expresses concern about the construction of the Kelvin's inner workings simply because the immense size of the ship was too big for budgetary reasons, and just from looking at the foam core mockup we see that Chambliss was right. He went for a true old-school Broadway trick of rearranging the set to produce more sets, which Abrams totally embraced.

We also have seven branching pods included in this feature. "Warp Explained" (1:22) shows how fan blades were included in the warp nacelles and how they went for a darker color and more realistic look than what was seen in the Original Series. "Paint Job" (1:14) looks at how interference paint was used on the movie Enterprise in past films and how the model makers wanted to pay tribute and use the same kind of paint work in detailing the new Enterprise. "Bridge Construction Accelerated" (1:18) and "Narada Construction Accelerated" (1:20) are just that, time-accelerated features that showcase the construction of said set and ship, respectively, in the soundstages. In "The Captain's Chair" (:45) Karl Urban jokes about how the chair was a cool prop enough to have a latte' in it, and one of the on-set dressers comments on the realism of the chair design. We get to see a lot of fine details on the chair console that you may have missed on screen, which only adds to the realism on set. "Button Acting 101" (1:44) shows the actors discussing the sometimes overwhelming feeling of working on a set with so many futuristic buttons on it. Finally there is "Shuttle Shuffle" (1:46), which gives us a look at the realism of the military transports and passenger shuttles seen in the film. Pine comments on the serious attention to detail given to the shuttles that, unless you're looking at one of Michael Okuda's famed Okudagrams, you'll never notice these details on screen.

Next up is "Aliens" (16:30), in which designers Neville Page and Joel Harlow discuss their approaches in creating the unique looks of the Romulans and Vulcans, as well as the monstrous alien creatures from Delta Vega. According to Page, the trick was to convey aliens that could believably fit within the TREK universe yet have never been seen before. We get CGI renderings of the various aliens that appear in the film, which pretty much translated to heads and hands in the final product simply because of the budget. The key came in designing aliens that the audience would see up close, background aliens, and aliens whose makeup were recycled from other makeup designs. We have footage of Abrams talking with Page and Harlow and giving them his input on which designs would best work in the film. In designing Scotty's alien sidekick Keenser we see actor Deep Roy (the Oompa-Loompa guy from CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY) hanging on the set with Pegg and Nimoy, a nice fun moment. In designing the Vulcan ears they went all out in designing hundreds of ear prosthetics for the many actors on the project and keeping the design the same from four decades before. Nimoy relates how his own Spock ears had changed over the course of the first six films and how Abrams wanted to keep the ears the same as back in the 1960's. We get some really candid comments between Nimoy and Abrams about early ear designs and how they didn't want to go for elf- or hobbit-like ears.

Abrams went for a similar approach in designing the Romulan ears, but as far as the remainder of the makeup everything was up for grabs. We get a lot of concept sketches of Eric Bana modeling numerous unused Romulan makeup guises, and we get to see how Nero's final makeup was designed as well. It was Page who came up with the many Romulan hair patterns and tattoos to distinguish among the various ethnic clans, and we get to see numerous Romulan tattoo concepts before they went with what was seen in the film, which extremely impressed Bana to go completely unrecognizable from his other film parts. The most fun alien to create, according to Page, was the Delta Vega alien. We get a great set of comparison shots among the original shot, a composite shot in progress, and the final composite, along with sketches and a CGI rendering and motion test of the alien. It's a complete departure from the Michael Westmore days, I'll tell you that.

Five more branching pods are included in this feature. "The Alien Paradox" (1:40) spotlights circus and theater dancer and choreographer Paradox Pollack (that‘s his name, seriously!), who served as the movement coach for the aliens in the film. "Big-Eyed Girl" (1:25) profiles how an alien nurse on the Kelvin had her eyes stretched out for the alien look she has in the film. We get some nice before-and-after shots of the on-set footage with the actress in her natural look and the final film version. In "Big Bro Quinto" (1:26) Zachary Quinto talks about how his older brother Joe visited the set and was ultimately cast as a Romulan in the film. We see the brothers Quinto talk about their fight moment toward the end of the film, and Zachary jokes how this would probably be the only time he could beat up his older brother and get away with it. In "Drakoulias Anatomy 101" (1:35) we see how the Delta Vega alien monster was designed as a cross between a polar bear and a gorilla. And there's a funny shot of the monster with a certain part of its anatomy censored which, if it survived on screen, would have certainly earned the film an R rating! Most interesting is the "Klingons" feature (1:57), which spotlights Abrams' take on the classic enemy race, the makeup designs used on an un-credited Victor Garber (ALIAS), and the subplot that was edited from the final film (more on this later). Will we get to see more Klingons in the future? Maybe in the sequel!

In "Planets" (16:10) we see how Chambliss and the art department created the realistic planetary settings seen in the film, including Delta Vega, Vulcan, and the futuristic Earth. We see how Abrams wanted to shoot on real locations, giving the art department some interesting challenges. For Vulcan they went to Vazquez Rocks, which as all TREK fans know is where Kirk fought the Gorn in "Arena". We learn more about Vazquez Rocks itself, which is a protected environment, so for any film or television production the land has to be kept intact. For the Vulcan Science Academy scenes they shot at Rosehill Cemetery, which has an otherworldly nature to the ceiling for the specific scenes. The rest of the planetary shots were combined with CGI effects and matte paintings. For the drill platform and Delta Vega scenes they went to, of all places, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles to get a natural outdoor environment - and we get to see nice before-and-after comparison shots of both scenes. Better Dodger Stadium than Iceland, according to Chambliss!

For the Starfleet Academy scenes they went to Tustin Blimp Hangar, which was built during World War II for the military, so the natural military design of Starfleet Academy is reflected here. They also went to Long Beach City Hall and Cal State Northridge for the Starfleet Academy headquarters shots, which was quite a challenge to film because the film crew had to really tighten the security on the set so the general public couldn't find out that the sets were being used for a STAR TREK production. Since Starfleet is based in San Francisco, of course, getting exterior shots of the city and modifying them through CGI for that futuristic look were done, as was the case in earlier films. And Bakersfield, California and a rock quarry in Vermont stood in for the cornfields of Iowa for the Corvette scene.

Two more branching pods are included here, "Extra Business" (2:29), which shows us how the background extras were incorporated into the film, and "Confidentiality" (2:45), which describes the tight security process Abrams, cast, and crew used to keep the fine details about STAR TREK from being spoiled online, as is the case with many movies these days. Quinto and Abrams talk in particular about how a photo of Spock had been captured on a cell phone and posted online only two hours after filming, which called for tighter security measures on set. And Urban adds how script names were changed in case of leaks to the public.

Then, in "Props and Costumes" (9:22), property master Russell Bobbitt talks about creating the various props for the film, keeping them in the spirit of the Original Series yet making them relatable to today's technology in 2009. Which brings about the question, how do you keep the look consistent yet make it fresh? We get to see the new props up close, including the communicator, the tricorder, the phaser, and Uhura's earpiece among others. Costume designer Michael Kaplan comments on creating the many costumes for the film, paying homage to the series yet, like Bobbitt, making them relatable to today. He and Abrams wanted the costumes to harken back to the Original Series, as those old-school costumes had never been seen in any of the feature films. Kaplan, a costuming veteran whose credits include the designs for Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER, wanted to pay tribute to the Original Series yet include original looks throughout the film. Kaplan also based the Vulcan women's costumes on classic wear from decades before, giving the Vulcans a serious yet sensual look. He also gave the Romulans a rough, barbaric look, based on costume patterns he found at a flea market. Also included is a branching pod, "Klingon Wardrobe" (1:08), which takes a look at the various Klingon costumes created for, but not seen in, the final cut of the film. Abrams and Kaplan went for a cross between Nazi storm trooper looks and helmets for the Klingons in the cut scenes.

Next up we have "Ben Burtt and the Sounds of STAR TREK" (11:45). Burtt, most famous for his sound design work on the STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES series, talks about how he created the unique sounds for the new TREK film. Anyone who has followed Burtt's career knows that he can take the simplest of objects - whether a razor in a salad bowl for a humming transport ship, or a wrench on a phone line for blaster fire, for example - and turn them into truly alien sounds, so his approach here is the same. Burtt, a long-time TREK fan since the days of the Original Series, always wanted to contribute to the franchise, and here he gets his opportunity. He did his homework in researching the Paramount archives to see if anything sound-wise was in the vaults, and he discovered that each sound has a musical quality of its own based on common electronics of the time, so he took the same approach in creating the sound effects for the new film. We get to see how he used a trolley car combined with tennis shoes squeaking on the floor for the turbo lift doors, shortwave sounds on a keyboard mixer for planetary sounds and phasers, a testing oscillator to create the warp drive, bar chimes for the transporter, a metal coil for photon torpedoes, and such. Other sounds he created on a Moog synthesizer similar to what was used in creating the sounds for the series - which, ironically, was first developed after the Original Series ended.

"Score" (6:28) focuses on composer Michael Giacchino's approach in creating a new and exciting score for STAR TREK yet paying tribute to the late Alexander Courage. Giacchino, who also composed the fun and tender score for Disney/Pixar's UP (also just recently released on DVD and Blu-ray), discusses the crucial placement of the classic Courage theme at the end of the film, preferring that it be earned and that his original music take precedent throughout the other segments with a relentless drive and energy. We get some great footage of Giacchino conducting the musicians in the studio performing their rendition of the classic theme along with the film's new music. He also talks about creating original poignant music for Spock that separates his theme from the rest of the score. To go from something as epic as STAR TREK to something as sweet and funny as UP just shows Giacchino's diverse range as a composer.

Then there is "Gene Roddenberry's Vision" (8:47), in which Abrams, Nimoy, Orci, Kurtzman, Lindelof, Michael and Denise Okuda, Rick Berman, Nicholas Meyer, Manny Coto, and scientific consultant Carolyn Porco discuss and give credit to Roddenberry's optimistic vision of the future which Abrams and company convey in the new film. As we are aware, the 1960's pushed the envelope in arts, technology, politics, music, and science, among other things, as well as the tragedies of assassinations and the hope of going to the moon, and Roddenberry saw the optimism that was possible in humanity. Those dreams, of course, begat the original STAR TREK. The participants talk about how Roddenberry saw diverse races and peoples working together, science as opposed to science fiction, and the inspiration TREK gave to many in NASA's space program today.

Now we come to the section that I've been wanting to get to: the deleted scenes. As we know, the original running length of the film was 140 minutes before Abrams trimmed 13 minutes of scenes. Nine scenes are presented on the disc, all presented in HD and Dolby Digital 2.0 sound with optional audio commentary from Abrams and company discussing why the scenes were cut. All but three of these scenes, surprisingly, are of finished quality, which indicates they were cut very late in the game. This is a first for STAR TREK, as opposed to many of the previous films‘ DVD releases which had its scenes cut early in the editing process. "Spock's Birth", which featured prominently in the trailers, focuses on, well, Spock's birth, and as Abrams notes in the audio commentary on Disc 1 it was cut mainly to jump into the main action of the film‘s story. "Young Kirk, Johnny and Uncle Frank" shows more of young Jim Kirk's life in Iowa as a boy, suffering emotional trauma at the hands of his stepfather. "Amanda and Sarek Argue After Spock Fights" and "Sarek Gets Amanda" give us a couple of nice additional moments between Ben Cross and Winona Ryder that harkens back to "Journey to Babel". "Dorm Room and Kobayashi Maru (Original)" gives us an alternate look at the sequence in comparison to its final counterpart, with only a couple of lines trimmed out of the scene.

"Kirk Apologizes to the Green Girl" is a nice character moment for Chris Pine but reveals a hint of wimpiness mixed with racism. Finally we have "Klingons Take Over Narada" and "Prison Interrogation and Breakout", which showcases the much-discussed Klingon subplot cut from the film. We get to see Victor Garber as the Klingon interrogator who tortures Nero, as well as Nero's escape from the Rura Penthe prison (these scenes were expanded upon in the recent IDW series "Star Trek: Nero") - however, the visual effects for the first of the Klingon scenes, "Spock Gets Amanda", and the tail end of the "Kobayashi Maru" sequence are of nearly finished quality with obvious rough computer animation, camera lighting, and green screens, respectively. Having these scenes are a wonderful addition to the disc, and while it's understandable to get the film trimmed down for a suitable time for release, many fans want to see an extended cut with the scenes integrated into the film. Perhaps down the road Abrams will give the fans what they want.

There's also a Starfleet Vessel Simulator, which allows you to use your remote to take interactive views of the Enterprise and the Narada and review technical information on each ship. Once there, you can read up on the various areas of both ships and see 360-degree videos of each ship. This is a nice little feature that takes you into the realism of the ships while staying true to the spirit of the franchise. We should have gotten more of these simulator videos on other ships, including the Kelvin, the Newton, and other various ships that had little screen time in the film.

There's even a funny gag reel (6:22) presented in HD showing the cast and crew playing jokes on one another, flubbing lines, and screwing up numerous takes. What makes this gag reel worth it is a classic colorful metaphor from Leonard Nimoy (for all you STAR TREK IV fans out there!), though I would have hoped that the rumored gag shot featuring Karl Urban's take on the Ole Miss party song "Hotty Totty" would have made it onto the disc. Finally, the film's theatrical teaser and trailers are included, also presented in HD and English Dolby 5.1 digital sound.

Moving to Disc 3, we have a digital copy of the film which you can download to your computer or iPhone, as well as a free trial of the STAR TREK: D.A.C. computer game for the Xbox 360 and web links to the game for PC and Playstation 3. But we're not through just yet. Earlier I mentioned a new online feature tying into the Blu-ray set. It's called "Experience the Enterprise", which requires you to go to a special web site, www.experience-the-enterprise.com, and print off a copy of the theatrical poster. Once that's done, tie in your webcam to your computer, hold up the poster, and you'll get to see an extremely cool holographic display of the Enterprise. Just make sure you have a webcam and the appropriate computer software, and you should be good to go!

As if that weren't enough, there are several limited edition versions of the Blu-ray out there. Amazon.com has a limited edition replica set with an eight and a half-inch metallic replica of the new Enterprise. This set is limited to only 5,000 pieces, so it may sell out pretty quickly. Best Buy has a version of the Blu-ray that comes with four replica insignia badges. FYE is selling the film in collectible steel book packaging, while Target is offering their release in a replica of the Enterprise with the discs inside the saucer section. And as if that weren't enough, European fans can get a digital version of the film on a 4GB USB stick.

Final Thoughts:

Bottom line: This is one of the sharpest and most enjoyable Blu-ray releases of 2009! With a crisp transfer, incredible sound that will completely immerse you (what's the next step in sound quality, 8.1?), and substantial behind-the-scenes extras that you can shake a stick at, this version of STAR TREK will surely make its way into every fan's Christmas stocking this year! It's definitely a top contender for Blu-ray of the year, alongside UP. It's got action, humor, and excitement for all. And to think that J.J. Abrams had this idea of doing a STAR TREK film project to begin with. I can't remember the last time I had this much pure fun watching and enjoying anything TREK-related, much less any TV show or movie, on DVD or Blu-ray.

I hope that when Abrams and company get started on the second film, they take things up several notches and go all DARK KNIGHT on it - not in terms of darkness, but in making the second film even bigger and more exciting than this one, giving the fans more surprises and character development along with an extremely strong script, and getting an even bigger critical and commercial return in the end. And with a gigantic playground to explore, the sky's the proverbial limit for the sequel. I know I'll be in line for it!

Rating: 5/5 stars

Also now available from CBS/Paramount Home Video:

STAR TREK (single-disc and two-disc DVD)

THE BEST OF STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES - VOLUME 2 (DVD)

THE BEST OF STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - VOLUME 2 (DVD)

GALAXY QUEST (on Blu-ray)