Posted Thu Jul 8, 2021 at 06:09 AM PDT by Matthew Hartman
[Update 2:30 EST] - the Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection 4K UHD Blu-ray set is now up for Pre-order.
It's time to crack open that bottle of Romulan Ale! After years of quiet teases and rumors on top of a failed celebration of the series 50th Anniversary, Paramount Home Entertainment beamed aboard a massive consignment of Star Trek news. Celebrating the 55th Anniversary of the Original Series, Paramount has officially announced the original cast crew will be going where no original cast crew has gone before - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray!
Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
All of this was late-breaking news from Paramount and StarTrek.com. After years of rumors, a digital-only release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on 4K, this is finally official. All of this broke late last evening. With a number of online retailers jumping the gun with their product listings and posting official artwork only to have said listings pulled, it's great to get official confirmation that this is all really happening! The box set is going to be an 8-Disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital set with each format getting it's own case - think of how Fox/MGM did the Daniel Craig Bond set a couple years ago.
Now for reasons unknown, this set is for only the first four films - V and VI are not included here. We can only speculate as to the reason why, but it's likely Paramount being cautious with their releases of Trek after fans largely shied away from the Star Trek: The Next Generation individual seasons on Blu-ray. They printed a lot of discs that did not sell, so I don't blame them for being cautious.
The good news is each disc (including the Blu-rays) is sourced from new restorations. The 4K UHD discs will offer up Dolby Vision and HDR10. There's a rumor that each film will get an Atmos audio mix as well, but that hasn't been pinned down 100% yet.
Here's what's going to be in the package:
As of this writing, this set is not up for pre-order yet and we don't know if there'll be any kind of retailer exclusives yet, but as soon as we know more, we'll update our listings accordingly
What 55th Anniversary celebration of the crew of the Enterprise would be complete without a new release of Star Trek: The Complete Original Series? Sadly these are not in 4K - although wouldn't that be something! Instead, Paramount Home Entertainment is repackaging the existing discs in a fancy SteelBook set - each season gets its own SteelBook. Now if you already own the set, this may be a bit pricy to simply upgrade your packaging, but - it looks pretty slick and if you haven't already picked it up, it's an attractive bundle.
Star Trek: The Complete Original Series SteelBook
Yes, I'm aware I'm starting to sound like Billy Mays, but there's A LOT to cover here. Not only will we be getting the first four films in 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, but Paramount has confirmed they have greenlit the complete restoration of Robert Wise's Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director's Edition to 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Vision (and HDR10)! The reason this isn't in this set is simple - all of the additional VFX work done for the old DVD sets was completed in SD - I've heard HD by some but either way not at a resolution that was appropriate for 1080p Blu-ray let alone for 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. This is going to be a 6-8 month restoration project so it's nice to hear that Paramount isn't shortchanging it. Supposedly there's going to be some theatrical screenings of this restoration along with an exclusive release window on Paramount+. This project was JUST announced yesterday as well so no release date disc or otherwise has been hinted. But a late Spring early Summer 2022 appearance is likely.
And that is all the news that's fit to reprint. Again I'm like most of you and would have loved to get a complete Original Cast 1-6 4K UHD Blu-ray Boxset, but at the same time - I'm willing to take what I can get. The current state of the home media business is a numbers game; if you don't buy it, they won't make it. Obviously, we want high-quality A/V presentations, that goes without saying, but at this point we can't get too stuck on the packaging or artwork quibbles. If buying this 1-4 set now means I'll get V and VI later with Generations and the TNG films in 4K later - I'm all in.
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