Why So Blu?

Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

It feels like we should’ve already been at this point by now; the Star Trek films on the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format. But alas, Paramount has waited for the 55th anniversary of the show’s television premiere to do so. And in waiting, it feels like they almost are here unprepared. This “Original 4-Movie Collection” is quite an odd way to come out of the gates. Its almost as if they didn’t finish restoration on The Final Frontier and The Undiscovered Country in time. And I suppose I applaud getting something out, but you knew this was coming. Anyway, minor quibble aside, I’m very excited to finally see these 4 films restored with a quality upgrade. This set is arriving this week (released on Tuesday, September 7th), the day before the anniversary of the airing of “The Man Trap”, which introduced us to Captain Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu and Scotty. This set includes The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Search For Spock and The Voyage Home. You can order it using the link below.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

The Federation calls on Adm. James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the Starship Enterprise to contain an immense nimbused object that’s on a crash course with Earth. After investigating, the crew discovers that the alien cloud harbors artificial intelligence with an ominous primary directive. Crisis strikes when a probe dispatched by the energy cloud attacks the crew, abducting navigator Lt. Ilia (Persis Khambatta). An android look-alike containing her memories shows up soon after.

Notoriously known as Star Trek: The SLOW-Motion Picture, years and aging have been kind to this once thought up on disappointment of a film. In the shadow of Star Wars, Star Trek was suppose to return and show that little twerp Luke Skywalker that in the vastness of space, Kirk was king. However, where audiences wanted gee whiz, swashbuckling space fantasy adventures, Star Trek delivered…well, a Star Trek adventure.

Rather than cribbing from Lucas, Trek opted for Kubrick (Specifically 2001: A Space Odyssey). Robert Wise was an exceptional director to land for this and he delivered the spectacle many movies dream of hoisting onto the big screen. Crutching on a rather simple narrative with a great science fiction hook, the film isn’t too complex. Its just in love with its visuals. While it should be, its also the film’s downfall as they are a little too in love with them at every turn. For every look inside the vortex surrounding V’ger that oohs and awes, there’s the almost parody like trip from a pod to the enterprise that feels like forever and everyone in the film is hilariously stoic and silent as it happens.

At the end of the day, though, the film is indeed pure Star Trek and maybe the closest the original crew films get to landing that. Its a little cold, but the character moments still deliver and they do crack some smiles here and there. It doesn’t have its finger quite on the button about where these characters are at following the 5 year mission like the next film does, but its hovering over it and in the right spot. The film pulls from an idea presented in the television show and expands deeper upon it and better. What they’ve brought here is just the scale, effects and spectacle the show could never even imagine having the money and resources for back in the 1960s.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture has had a reputation over the years over being some big bad, boring disappointment when it is very far from. Maybe its my older age, time or distance, but its a film I’ve grown fonder of every time I return to it. The Director’s Cut of the film takes a tighter, less is more approach to the edit and it really improves the film. A restoration of that is coming next year. But the original theatrical cut still delivers in Star Trek exploration, ideology, character, wonder and adds a glorious, beautiful spectacle to the proceedings. “The Human Adventure Is Just Beginning” and so are the Star Trek big screen voyages.

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are taken from the standard Blu-ray disc, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC/H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-100

Clarity/Detail: Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a film begging for a fine 4K restoration. Not that the original release was bad or anything. Regardless of your thoughts on the film, Robert Wise’s work on here is gorgeous in scope, cinematography and visual effects. And it does not disappoint with this transfer. Its a bit more darker, refined an image. Details are strong, colors well saturated and the image has an overall more filmic 1970s look to it. Visual effects and model work holds up very impressively.

Depth:  This film features a tremendous scope and glorious depth of field which reflect better than ever in this transfer. The very slow, calculated camera movements are smooth and confident. Great pushback and vastness especially in the emptiness of space. No issues occur with jitter or blurring.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep, gorgeous and natural. There is a good contrast to help strengthen the colors and define the image. Shadows are lovely, darkened scenes keep plenty of details and have a much more refined look to them. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction:  Colors in the film have a very 70s aura to them, lots of whites, browns and the like. But everything is bold, with good shades, tints and stuff finely defined. HDR comes in wonderfully with engines lights, display lighters, lightning and the wild V’ger atmosphere really popping and glowing.

Flesh Tones:  Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish. Facial features and textures like wrinkles, lip texture, make-up, stubble and more are clear. Alien make-up shows no strings and looks seamless.

Noise/Artifacts:  Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, German 2.0 Dolby TrueHD, Spanish 2.0 Mono Dolby Digital, French 2.0 Dolby Digital, Japanese 2.0 Mono Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Danish, German, Spanish (Castilian), French, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish

Dynamics: No new audio tracks have been added or remastered in this set. Thus, Star Trek: The Motion Picture carries the same 7.1 Dolby TrueHD track and mix that has come with it since arriving on standard Blu-ray over 10 years ago. Its a pretty solid track that you’ll want to bump up. It has some groovy moments, but definitely could’ve done with an Atmos update if they weren’t going to offer up the original theatrical mix.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: Some good rumbles, bumps, roars and booms in the musical score (The strings really hum along nicely here) keep the subwoofer active and deep.

Surround Sound Presentation: There are some terrific moments of sound travel and soundscaping present here in the mix that gives it a nice flavor and hits great peaks in terms of impressiveness. When entering the vortex to find V’ger, some of the best stuff appears coming from all around and consuming the viewing.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp.

Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (1982)

Captain Kirk’s Starfleet career enters a new chapter as a result of his most vengeful nemesis: Khan Noonien Singh, the genetically enhanced conqueror from late 20^th century Earth.  Escaping his forgotten prison, Khan sets his sights on both capturing Project Genesis, a device of god-like power, and the utter destruction of Kirk.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was actually the first of the Star Trek movie’s I saw.  When I went to rent the first one (Way back when, on VHS), it was out.  I don’t like to watch movie series’ out of order, but I had familiarized myself with the franchise through reruns and was eager to dive into the films.  So, I bit the bullet and went for the second one.  This was before there was internet and I really knew the reception on The Motion Picture.  It was the perfect move, as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was the absolute perfect follow up to the television series.  Its something I may have picked up a little bit on then and have realized even more now that the years have gone on by.

Kirk and crew’s second big screen adventure was one of those films that once you see it, you’ll never forget it.  For a movie without notable big action scenes, its incredibly big on character and performance.  It features one of the greatest cinematic antagonists in Ricardo Montalban’s Khan.  People may know nothing about Star Trek, but they know of Khan and the whales.  Another scene in the film to stick out is when Chekov and Terrell have the the Ceti eels put into their ears.  Its so gross, and as a kid (And to a degree now) I could barely watch it and my body is definitely squemish as it happens.  Oh, and yeah, the film packs a WHALLOP of an ending in killing the series’ most popular and iconic character in such a perfect, heartfelt and deeply emotional way.

The arc and journey of James T. Kirk in the film is possibly the best character work done with him as well as some of the best ever in film.  William Shatner also sees his finest hour here in enhancing it all and making it come to full fruition with his performance.  The film sheds light on the fact that this crew has grown old and Kirk’s journey is one that sees many aspects of his past coming to back to either haunt him or finally make him face the things he’d been running from or not acknowledging over the years.  Kirk actually has to deal with the things that in the past, the episode would end and they’d just move on to next week’s adventure.  This script takes all that into account and in a stroke of genius creates a story that fully focuses on those hangups, the drive to rediscover youth, finding acceptance and being able to turn to the next chapter of your life.  Its a man that has to fully realize who he was, what he’s become and how he’s going to go forward.  Everything from Khan, to David, the reading glasses, to the Genesis Device and Spock’s demise perfectly form feature film-like poetry to give us the ultimate story and follow up to one of television’s greatest characters of the 1960s.

Paramount is bringing this tale to video for the umpteenth time and on Blu-ray for…I dunno how many times.  At least this time we are given the director’s cut.  Its not that much longer and no completely drastic changes are made to it, just a little bit more flushing out on a few scenes and character interactions.  However, like another popular director’s cut in Aliens, I much prefer the theatrical cut.  That, to me, is actually a perfect film top to bottom.  While only about a 3 minute difference, I think the pacing is tighter and better with the theatrical cut.  I both do and don’t like the whole opening up about the crew member being Scotty’s nephew bit.  It helps to see his sadness and loss when Khan’s attack happens, but the way its delivered and set up in the script and performance is so damn cheesy and you know its coming.  Yeah, theatrical is my way to go, and awesomely, its still available here on the new release.

The Wrath Of Khan is one of my favorite films of all-time.  Not just great science fiction or a great sequel, but just one of the greatest films altogether.  Everything here fires on all cylinders.  The effects, the script, the arc, the performances.  Seriously, one of the best camp performances of all time is delivered here from Ricardo Montalban.  He knows how to balance the line between going to far and being much to serious.  As many times as I’ve seen this movie, its hard not to still get a bit misty eyed during Kirk and Spock’s final moments together as well as the beautiful eulogy Shatner delivers during the sendoff.  It includes one of my favorite movie quotes ever, which I’ll leave this review on; “Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most…human.”

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are taken from the standard Blu-ray disc, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC/H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-100

Clarity/Detail:  Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan was restored and released on standard Blu-ray five years ago, I imagine this is that transfer displayed proper.  The transfer provides a more elegant, darker look to the film, but definitely in the wheelhouse of the late 70s/early 80s era its a part of.  The visual effects even look really good under this.  It features some finer detail, crispness and sharpness upticks with the format jump from an already good looking Blu-ray.

Depth:  Depth is quite amazing here and the film looks more 3 dimensional than it ever has.  Spacing and distance between characters, background and objects will have one quite impressed while watching this new transfer.  Movements are smooth and cinematic.  There’s a real free floating nature to everything here that really makes everything so well rounded.

Black Levels:  Blacks are deep and natural.  No issues with lost details.  When it came to Blu-ray with this transfer, I commented that it looks like a whole other movie with how right they got the blacks here.  And those have made a nice jump with the 4K edition now.

Color Reproduction:  The colors are also much more bold and saturated even better than before.  Some of the purples and blues among the stars are just gorgeous.  The enterprise crew’s uniforms look perfect.  Colors are vivid and poppy, but they are rich and bump on the screen like you’re looking at some real fabric.

Flesh Tones:  Skin tones maintain a consistent and natural appearance for the film’s duration.  Facial details are discernible at any distances.  Sweat, 5 o’clock shadows, wrinkles, make-up, lip texts…geezum, you name it, you can see it.

Noise/Artifacts:  Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, German 2.0 Dolby TrueHD, Spanish 2.0 Mono Dolby Digital, French 2.0 Dolby Digital, Japanese 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Danish, German, Spanish (Castilian), French, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish

Dynamics:  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan boasts that same 7.1 TrueHD track its had for quite a while now. That said, its very good and makes for an engaging mission with the crew.  For as old as it is, this sounds plenty fresh and perfectly balanced.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension:  Big moving parts, ships moving in space, blasters and explosions all get a natural and adequate bump from your subwoofer.

Surround Sound Presentation:  The 7 channels all get some good use here in this mix as well as a terrific sense of restraint.  It doesn’t get overzealous just because the channels are open, each speaker comes with purpose, place and a good sense of movement and position.

Dialogue Reproduction:  Dialogue is clean and crisp.  Don’t worry, “KHAAAAN!!!” sounds great on your system.

Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984)

Adm. James T. Kirk (William Shatner) has defeated his archenemy but at great cost. His friend Spock has apparently been killed, the USS Enterprise is being scrapped, and starship physician Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley) has taken ill. McCoy’s odd behavior is evidence he’s harboring Spock’s katra, or animating spirit, and Kirk seeks to take the Enterprise back to the Genesis Planet and find his friend. Rebuffed, Kirk takes dramatic action that results in war with deadly Klingons.

Another odd numbered Star Trek, another one that beats that adage of only the evens being the good ones. The Search for Spock is the unavoidable step down from The Wrath of Khan, but it does pretty strong in its own outing as well as giving itself a sense of character unique to its predecessors. Sure, one can say its an entire film dedicated to walking back the death of a fan favorite character from the previous film, but its much smarter and does more than that. Its almost an epilogue to the journey of The Wrath of Khan.

Leonard Nimoy takes the reigns of the third entry, which doesn’t see his return on the final minutes. This marks his first foray into feature filmmaking after a career as an actor, but also directing some episodes of television (Including the Shatner starring TJ Hooker). Its with this that you slight a slight shift in feel and scale from what came in the prior films. But, you also are given touches of what Nimoy is good at, humor, injected into the film. The model work is still fantastic and the ship/base interiors work in tandem with the previous films, but its the surface of Genesis where the cracks begin to show.

Both in appearance and script, The Search For Spock begins to feel like the genre television show it was trying to elevate itself from. There’s  sort of studio set and phony feel to Genesis when they arrive. It fares better in the snowier and foggier sequences, but when it is lit, its very soundstage-like. And in the writing, the film has a big bad like the previous one in Christopher Lloyd’s Commander Kruge, but its how Kirk and company deal with he and his crew in the end that’s telling. Whereas the first film was based in search and discovery and The Wrath of Khan was a chess game with space submarines, Star Trek III ends in operatic dramatic fisticuffs with Kirk and Kruge. Though dabbling in this camp the original series was no stranger to, it never feels truly that way.

Nimoy’s film does plenty of good in its character work and its narrative. There’s a further analysis on the psyche and growth of Kirk as he deals with older, middle age. He’s sent on adventure or trying to hold on to the last bits of the past he has, only to see destruction of both it and some of his future by an enemy of the past instead of merely moving forward. To regain a Spock it costs him both his past and his present/future. In dramatic fashion, the original Starship Enterprise is blown to bits by Klingon Kruge, who also has his son David killed in the film. I don’t know if these revelations and turns work as well as Kirk’s development in the previous film (Which they are surely trying to recreate), but they don’t harm or undo anything either.

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are taken from the standard Blu-ray disc, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC/H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-100

Clarity/Detail: Star Trek III: The Search For Spock debuts on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray with a beautiful little transfer, making it look more filmic and grandiose than I ever remember. Like all the movies here, its darkened a bit to the benefit of the overall look. Saturation, details and textures all get a terrific bump There are a lot of light filters in use in the film and it handles them swimmingly.

Depth:  There is some great depth of field on display, especially showcasing scale and pushback on the model work for ships, stations and planets floating and moving in outer space. Movements are smooth and filmic with no issues revolving around motion distortions like jitter or blurring.

Black Levels:  Blacks are deep, natural and plenty shadowy. There’s great contrast going on to help define, make the image crisp and bring out a bolder look on the colors. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction:  Colors are really nice and refined with strong bold look to them. They are nicely saturated with plenty of shades and tints on display. HDR comes in beautifully in space, fires, display monitors and exterior lights on ships and space stations.

Flesh Tones:  Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish Facial features and textures are plenty visible from any reasonable distance in frame. Make-up and prosthetic work hold up terrific under this strong transfer that reveals a lot.

Noise/Artifacts:  Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, German 2.0 Dolby TrueHD, Spanish 2.0 Mono Dolby Digital, French 2.0 Dolby Digital, Japanese 2.0 Mono Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Danish, German, Spanish (Castilian), French, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish

Dynamics: Like the others in this set, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock holds onto its old 7.1 mix and while improvements can be made, its still quite good. Its no slouch, and does more than merely “gets the job done”. It has a great balance and weaving between score, music and effects that helps to bring a nice engagement to your viewing space.

Height:  N/A

Low Frequency Extension: Definitely some nice booming from explosions, fire, blasters, punches, big swooping movements from the string and brass sections in the score and more.

Surround Sound Presentation: Plenty of great ambiance in this mix (As well as the others). Sitting aboard the Enterprise or the Klingon Bird of Prey is a real treat as there are sounds all over the room bringing them to life. Travel and volume are set to good levels and accurate to onscreen events.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are rich, clear and crisp.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Living in exile on the planet Vulcan, the ragtag former crew of the USS Enterprise steal a starship after receiving a planetary distress call from Earth: a space probe has entered into orbit around Earth, disabled global power on the planet and evaporated the oceans. Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and the rest of the officers travel back in time to retrieve now-extinct humpback whales, which Spock has deduced will communicate with the probe and send it away from Earth.

And now we come to “the one with the whales”. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was an incredibly popular movie when it arrived in 1986. I don’t know how we got here with Trek after Khan’s popularity and then the not as well received Search For Spock. Perhaps word of mouth was just that strong for the film or the advertisement really sold people on it. This was the film that crossed Star Trek over to a more mainstream audience. It was the highest grossing of the original series proper all the way til the Kelvin movies came out. And it wasn’t even close. A lot of people may haven’t known much about Star Trek, but for some reason they all saw and know about this one. Perhaps because it was on TV a lot, too?

Leonard Nimoy returns to the director chair again and really lays into his sensibilities and shows the filmmaker we’d come to know him by. Nimoy leans on making Star Trek as a comedy. And this is a poking fun at the characters or the series. Its a collaborative effort with its audience in sharing some laughs. The crew of the Enterprise are put into a big fish out of water scenario, which in turn has a self aware sense of humor to go with it. Nothing criticizes the series or its crew, but it has a sort of acknowledgement of things fans may have talked about on the playground about what it would be like to have a member of the crew walking around on modern day Earth.

We return to a conflict not too far off from The Motion Picture. Its what makes Star Trek, Star Trek. After two big bads, its time for a mission and not one that involves physical conflict or destruction of ships/bases/etc. Trying to pull off a swiping of whales to bring back to the future is an interesting challenge. But also they are strapped by what happens when they don’t know how to mingle and get around with the people on Earth as well.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home has Star Trek in its heart and celebrates its characters by letting them loose a little bit and having fun with them in the film. There’s a lot of fish out of water material here, but its all in the name of a Starfleet member being that fish and not just out of water, but completely out of time. There are some hijinx and the like, but they are still pretty funny to this day. I’m sure at one point this was considered hands down the best Star Trek film, which I’m not sure it is, but its still held on to being one of the very best of them even if some of this sheen has worn off over time.

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are taken from the standard Blu-ray disc, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC/H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-100

Clarity/Detail:  Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home arrives on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray for the films time with a very gorgeous looking transfer and maybe the best in the set running neck and neck with The Wrath of Khan. The image is a bit of darkened one, but it really sings with the good clean and crisp details and textures rampant throughout. It has a healthy layer of grain to flaunt too. Taking place in 1980s San Francisco treats one to a load of lived in information as well that sprouts easily in this great transfer.

Depth:  Scale is on par with the others in the film. Great depth of field inside the ship or even the museum. The space stuff is most impressive, feeling grand and with a good pushback. Movements are smooth and natural with no issues on motion distortion during and of the more rapid sequences.

Black Levels: This film handles darkness inside the Bird of Prey as well as nighttime and other dimmer interiors with a really nice natural smoothness. Great contrast on display and no details get hidden by any darkened corners of the image. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors are very strong, keeping natural and Earthy. There is a nice flourish in outer space with good glow from the ships and such. HDR comes in handy with ship lights, display screens, ship lights (inside and out) and more to help with a good spot to spot glow.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish of the film. Facial features and textures really hold strong here with visible stubble, make-up lines, wrinkles, blemishes and more.

Noise/Artifacts:  Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, German 2.0 Dolby TrueHD, Spanish 2.0 Mono Dolby Digital, French 2.0 Dolby Digital, Japanese 2.0 Mono Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Danish, German, Spanish (Castilian), French, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish

Dynamics: Fourth verse same as the first and second and third for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home arriving on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray for the first time. Same old 7.1 track as previously available on Blu-ray. Its a very good track with nice atmospherics, volume placement and sound travel. The mix and design rather runs pretty fluid with what to expect and what is done on the other discs in this set.

Height:  N/A

Low Frequency Extension: Ship humming, deep whale sounds, engines, crashing and some nice deeper moments in the score get a nice buzz from the subwoofer.

Surround Sound Presentation: There’s good environment soundscape building here as well as good layered sounds throughout. Rain, the whole sounds, ships sounds and more are playfully placed around the room to some good deals of effect when taking in the film on your system.

Dialogue Reproduction:  Vocals are clear and crisp.

Extras

Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection is an 8-disc set and comes with the standard Blu-ray editions and a redeemable digital code for each film. Aside from commentaries and isolated scores. All bonus materials are found on the standard Blu-rays.

The Motion Picture

Audio Commentary

• By Michael & Denise Okuda, Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Daren Dochterman

Isolated Score Track

Library Computer

Production

• The Longest Trek: Writing The Motion Picture (HD, 10:44)

The Star Trek Universe

• Special Star Trek Reunion (HD, 9:37)
• Starfleet Academy Brief 101: Mystery Behind V’Ger (HD, 4:24)

Deleted Scenes (SD, 8:02)

Storyboards

• Vulcan
• Enterprise Departure
• V’Ger Revealed

Trailers 

• Teaser Trailer (HD, 2:18)
• Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:29)

TV Spots (SD, 3:39)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Audio Commentary

• By Director Nicholas Meyer (Director’s Cut)
• By Director Nicholas Meyere and Manny Coto (Theatrical Version)
• Text Commentary By Michael and Denise Okuda (Director’s Cut) – Blu-ray Only

Library Computer

The Genesis Effect: Engineering The Wrath Of Khan (HD, 28:21)

Production

• Captain’s Log (SD, 27:21)
• Designing Khan (SD, 23:55)
• Original Interviews With William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley and Ricardo Montalban (SD, 10:57)
• Where No Man Has Gone Before: The Visual Effects of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (SD, 18:15)
• James Horner: Composing Genesis (SD, 9:33)

The Star Trek Universe

• Collecting Star Trek’s Movie Relics (HD, 11:05)
• A Novel Approach (SD, 28:56)
• Starfleet Academy Scisec Brief 002: Mystery Behind Ceti Alpha VI (HD, 3:07)

Farewell

• A Tribute To Ricardo Montalban (HD, 4:4)

Storyboards

• Main Title Concept
• Kobayashi Maru
• Ceti Alpha V
• Regula I
• Chekov And Terrell Find Khan
• Admiral’s Inspection
• Khan’s Revenge
• Kirk Strikes Back
• Finding The Genesis Cave
• The Mutara Nebula
• Sneak Attack
• Genesis
• Honored Dead

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:15)

Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

Audio Commentary

• By Director Leonard Nimoy, Writer/Producer, Harve Bennett, Director of Photography Charles Correll and Robin Curtis
• By Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor

Library Computer

Production

• Captain’s Log (SD, 26:13)
• Terraforming And The Prime Directive (SD, 25:53)
• Industrial Light & Magic: The Visual Effects Of Star Trek (HD, 13:50)
• Spock: The Early Years (HD, 6:22)

The Star Trek Universe

• Space Docks And Birds Of Prey (SD, 27:49)
• Speaking Klingon (SD, 21:04)
• Klingon And Vulcan Costumes (SD, 12:16)
• Star Trek And The Science Fiction Museum And Hall Of Fame (HD, 16:52)
• Starfleet Academy Scisec Brief 003: Mystery Behind The Vulcan Katra Transfer (HD, 2:42)

Photo Gallery (HD) – Production, The Movie

Storyboards (HD) – Main Titles, The Klingons Attack, Entering Spacedock, Search For Life, Finding Spock, The Destruction Of The Grissom, Stealing The Enterprise, Self Destruct, Kirk Fights Kruge, The Katra Ritual

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:12)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Audio Commentary

• By William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy
• By Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman

Library Computer

Production

• Future’s Past: A Look Back (SD, 27:32)
• On Location (SD, 7:26)
• Dailies Deconstruction (SD, 4:13)
• Below-The-Line: Sound Design (SD, 11:45)
• Pavel Chekov’s Screen Moments (HD, 6:09)

The Star Trek Universe

• Time Travel: The Art Of The Possible (SD, 11:15)
• The Language Of Whales (SD, 5:46)
• A Vulcan Primer (SD, 7:50)
• Kirk’s Women (SD, 8:19)
• Star Trek: Three Picture Saga (HD, 10:12)
• Star Trek For A Cause (HD, 5:40)
• Starfleet Academy Scisec Brief 004: The Whale Probe (HD, 3:42)

Visual Effects 

• From Outer Space To The Ocean (SD, 14:43)
• The Bird Of Prey (SD, 2:48)

Original Interviews

• William Shatner (SD, 14:43)
• Leonard Nimoy (SD, 15:40)
• DeForest Kelley (SD, 13:02)

Tributes

• Roddenberry Scrapbook (SD, 8:17)
• Featured Artist: Mark Lenard (SD, 12:44)

Production Gallery (SD, 3:55)

Storyboards (HD) – Encounter With The Saratoga, The Probe Approaches Earth, Time Warp, Mind Meld, The Whaling Ship, Return To The 23rd Century, Communication, NCC-1701-A

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:24)

Summary

Paramount delivers a rock solid set in their debut of the first four Star Trek “motion pictures” to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. Considering its Star Trek and extras are easily rampant, involved parties have talked ad nauseum, its nice that Paramount hasn’t forced or bloated supplemental features with these. Instead there has been some light tinkering (isolated scores) and a focus on the restoration and transfer for the film which is very very good. That’s the appeal, that’s what you want, that’s the goal. And that mission has been accomplished. Fans should be very happy to upgrade with this set and maintain all the bells and whistles of their previous Blu-rays.

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