CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Media Distribution have officially announced that they will release on Blu-ray Star Trek: The original Series - The Roddenberry Vault. The release will be available for purchase on December 13.
In honor of the show's 50th Anniversary, and just in time for holiday gift giving, the three-disc collector's edition Blu-ray set from CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Media Distribution gives fans unprecedented access to never-before-seen footage from the production of Star Trek: The Original Series.
During the shooting of Star Trek, bits and pieces of episodic footage were left on the cutting room floor and later preserved in film canisters by The Roddenberry Estate. Recognizing the value of the footage, CBS painstakingly catalogued, transferred, analyzed, and pieced together these Vault materials, which include alternate takes, deleted scenes, omitted dialogue, outtakes, and original visual FX elements.
STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES – THE RODDENBERRY VAULT includes twelve classic episodes chosen for their relevance to the Vault materials, and presented in 1080p High Definition with both DTS 7.1 Master Audio as well as newly restored original Mono. Eleven of these episodes contain isolated music tracks. Newly recorded audio commentaries appear on three fan-favorite episodes.
Each of the set's three discs features documentaries that weave together the previously unseen Vault materials with all-new interviews by key creative and production personnel and famous fans. The three new documentaries exploring the "making of" the celebrated series and its enduring legacy are:
Inside The Roddenberry Vault Rod Roddenberry introduces viewers to the discovery of his father's long-lost Star Trek film reels. With footage from each of the 12 episodes, this three-part special feature offers a guided exploration into the historical significance of the newly discovered material through new interviews with dozens of Star Trek alumni and historians Star Trek: Revisiting A Classic offers a look back at the origins of the iconic series, including glimpses of life on the set with new interviews featuring guest stars, directors and production personnel. Strange New Worlds: Visualizing the Fantastic dives into the creation of spaceships, transporters, and the classic Star Trek visuals. The in-depth feature combines newly found original visual effects elements photography along with interviews with effects masters and Star Trek veterans such as Industrial Light & Magic founding member Richard Edlund, Doug Drexler, Dan Curry and Gary Hutzel.
Star Trek figures interviewed for these exclusive documentaries include William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk); writers Dorothy "D.C." Fontana, David Gerrold and John D.F. Black; director Ralph Senensky; casting director Joseph D'Agosta; visual effects artist Richard Edlund; and actors from the 12 featured episodes such as Clint Howard ("The Corbomite Maneuver"), BarBara Luna ("Mirror, Mirror"), Leslie Parrish ("Who Mourns for Adonais?"), Charlie Brill ("The Trouble with Tribbles"), Michael Forest ("Who Mourns for Adonais"), Bobby Clark ("Arena") and Elinor Donahue ("Metamorphosis"). Plus, the collection features new interviews with an impressive array of some of Star Trek's biggest fans including The Big Bang Theory co-creator Bill Prady, The Simpsons writer/producer David Mirkin, Family Guy writer/producer David A. Goodman, NASA's Bobak Ferdowsi, Bill Nye (The Science Guy), and more.
Giving fans access to even more fragments of unseen footage and omitted dialogue from the groundbreaking series is a collection of Vault materials entitled Swept Up: Snippets from the Cutting Room Floor.
STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES – THE RODDENBERRY VAULT will be initially available in limited edition deluxe packaging. The Blu-ray is Not Rated in the U.S. and rated G in Canada. The disc breakdown is as follows:
DISC ONE
Episodes: The Corbomite Maneuver Isolated Music Track Arena Isolated Music Track Space Seed Isolated Music Track This Side of Paradise Isolated Music Track NEW! Audio Commentary by Dorothy "D.C." Fontana and Gabrielle Stanton Special Features NEW! Inside the Roddenberry Vault (Part 1) NEW! Star Trek: Revisiting a Classic
DISC TWO
Episodes: The Devil in the Dark Isolated Music Track The City on the Edge of Forever NEW! Audio Commentary by Roger Lay Jr., Scott Mantz and Mark A. Altman Operation – Annihilate! Isolated Music Track Metamorphosis Isolated Music Track Special Features NEW! Inside the Roddenberry Vault (Part 2) NEW! Strange New Worlds: Visualizing the Fantastic
DISC THREE
Episodes: Who Mourns for Adonais? Isolated Music Track Mirror, Mirror Isolated Music Track The Trouble With Tribbles Isolated Music Track NEW! Audio Commentary by David Gerrold and David A. Goodman Return to Tomorrow Isolated Music Track Special Features NEW! Inside the Roddenberry Vault (Part 3) NEW! Swept Up: Snippets from the Cutting Room Floor
Some of my favorite episodes have tracked in, or partially tracked in, music -- Galileo 7, What Are Little Girls, Arena, City On the Edge, Space Seed, Balance of Terror. I would love the complete soundtracks, but it would be daunting to do the editing, so I welcome the isolated scores (unless they're actually M&FX) which I'll rip to cds. Unfortunately they didnt include Galileo 7 and What Are Little Girls.
Can someone explain the appeal of isolated score tracks for episodes that had tracked-in music?
That was my question too. The set looks interesting though.
I thought the answer was obvious, even if I'm on everyones ignore list. There's a redundancy of cues on TWILIGHT ZONE (and probably THRILLER and HITCH HOUR dvds) which doesnt cause any consternation for music fans.
STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES – THE RODDENBERRY VAULT includes twelve classic episodes chosen for their relevance to the Vault materials, and presented in 1080p High Definition with both DTS 7.1 Master Audio as well as newly restored original Mono.
New restored original mono? Can it be they are FINALLY going to be putting on the actual original mono broadcast track on the episodes. The Blu-Rays are about 70% wrong. This alone would get me to buy the set.
It strikes me that way too. I know Star Wars is ever more massively over marketed and merchanidised. But Star Trek has gotten pretty bad too, with the many versions of the same movies and same shows reissued again and again with just slight little tweaks to see if the suckers will buy.
It's not the whole series being re-released, just some episodes with deleted scenes, with original mono audio, and some music-only tracks bonus tracks. I think they included deleted scenes in the spinoff series dvds, so yeah, seems like they could have included those for the OS blu-ray releases.
