I received in the mail today, STAR TREK CAPTAIN’S LOG FAN COLLECTIVE box set. The latest in a recent line of Paramount Releases that repackages select/popular episodes of the long running and beloved phenomena that is Star Trek. The Fan Collective Box Sets, claim to fame, being the binding of episodes together based on themes.
There being a Klingon Set, A Borg Set, A Time Travel set, to name the most well known ones. However the one that got my money was THE CAPTAIN’S LOG box set, which was the first set to offer special features, in this case commentaries/introductions by all five of the actors that helmed the Captain’s Chair in all five different incarnations of the Star Trek legacy.
Particularly having the first three actors to sit in the big chair, William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, and Avery Brooks, offering commentary and introducing their favorite episodes made this set a must have. Most of the FAN COLLECTIVE box sets, are bare bones, and I think can be seen rightly as a bit of quadruple dipping, and superfluous fluff, but with CAPTAIN’S LOG the additional material, definitely makes it worth your while.
The first DVD visits the flagship series, and William Shatner is quite…effecting, self effacing, and profound. Plus him and Joan Collins discussing their episode CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER, is worth the price of the DVD by itself. It’s a rambling bit of fluff, but what strikes you is the great chemistry they have 4 decades after the filming of that episode, and William Shatner, at his age is still the mac, as he puts subtle moves on Joan, and Joan is still sensual, flirtatious woman of yore, our bodies age, but not our hearts, and it made me feel hopeful and young to watch them.
And the actual selections themselves, are brilliant. It’s been a good couple years since revisiting the original series, and it is so much fun. It really does hold up as just great, tense, but ultimately feel good tv. It’s a reason an enduring dynasty rose up around this relatively short lived series, it really is television that is forever relatable to all times, while being always still timeless. Looking to the future, while being a beautiful time capsule of a nostalgic past of mini skirts, and go-go boots, and women as women, and men as men, and somehow solid values of our past, writ large in our future.
I have not even gotten to the other 4 DVDs, but this first one, is clearly worth the price by itself. I’ll bring you updates on the other discs as I work my way through them, but my quick assessment… An essential and recommended purchase to any fan of the Original Series.
Heroic Times 