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The original voyages of the Starship Enterprise get more than
simply a digital buffing with this new release of the second season. This is the
classic bridge crew -- manly yet amiable Captain Kirk (William Shatner),
unemotionally logical yet unfailingly loyal Vulcan science officer Mr. Spock
(Leonard Nimoy, with elf ears and the Vulcan equivalent of a pageboy cut),
country doctor in space McCoy (DeForest Kelley), chief engineer Scotty (James
Doohan), navigator Lt. Sulu (George Takei), communications officer Lt. Uhura
(Nichelle Nichols), and Ensign Chekov (Walter Koenig), who joined the cast this
season to provide the bridge with a heartthrob. The 26 episodes of the second
season open with the classic "Amok Time" (where Spock goes into & well, he
goes into heat and goes all gladiator with Kirk in his sex-frenzied bloodlust)
and include "Mirror, Mirror" (a transporter accident sends an away team into an
alternate universe with a fascist Federation), "Journey to Babel" (Mark Lenard's
first appearance as Sarek, Spock's estranged father), and the fan favorite "The
Trouble With Tribbles."
The difference here is that the special effects
and sound effects have been redone with digital technology. (Don't worry, the
cheap sets and '60s color scheme remain untouched.) The producers have been
careful to match the look and style with the rest of the show so that the new
ship isn't overly detailed or slick, but rather smoothly integrated into the
existing footage. Supplements include two "Tribbles" sequels ("More Tribbles,
More Troubles" from the animated series, and the "Deep Space Nine" episode
"Trials and Tribble-ations") and the new featurette "Billy Blackburn's Treasure
Chest" (think of it as a "Memories of a Star Trek Extra and Spear Carrier") in
addition to all the supplements from the previous DVD release. The new case is
an awkward concoction, a cheap plastic set of DVD leaves dropped into a
cool-looking case, with recipe cards in place of a booklet. If you're wondering
about "Season One Remastered," it was previously released as an HD/DVD combo at
more than twice the retail price of this set. No word from Paramount on a
re-release of that season, but this is just the kind of cult title likely to be
considered for a Blu-ray release.
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| Masters of Science Fiction |
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The premise was promising: an anthology series of adaptations of
short stories from the great authors of science fiction, like "The Outer Limits"
with better source material. It was produced by the creators of the spotty but
satisfying made-for-cable series "Masters of Horror," but, despite larger
budgets than its parent series, this project misses the mark of its horror
counterpart because the directors (among them Harold Becker, Mark Rydell and
Michael Tolkin) have science fiction cinema background. Still, the series will
be remembered for its adaptation of Harlan Ellison's "The Discarded," which
Jonathan Frakes (directing from a script by Ellison and Oscar nominee Josh
Olson) brings to the screen with a grim desperation. Only four of the six
produced episodes were broadcast by ABC during its original summer 2007 run.
This two-disc set features all six episodes and no supplements.
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| Foyle's War: Set 5 |
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The British mystery series set in southeast Britain during World
War II comes to an end with this collection of three new, feature-length
episodes. These stories (which follow the chronology of the war) begin in 1944,
as the tide of the war has turned. The resignation of Detective Chief Inspector
Foyle (Michael Kitchen) has left the police department in a crisis of
leadership, but the brazen murder of his replacement brings him back to work,
where his quiet style starts solving cases once more. This trio of mysteries
takes Foyle and his team (Anthony Howell and Honeysuckle Weeks) to the end of
hostilities and the marvelous series to the end of its run. The DVDs arrive mere
weeks after the final episode runs on the PBS series "Mystery!" Supplements on
the three-disc box set include the 12-minute "The Making of Foyle's War" (a
clip-heavy look at the final series) and pages of text interviews with Weeks
(talking about running her first and only marathon) and Howell.
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| Route 66: Complete First Season Television Series |
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College boy Tod (Martin Milner) takes the driver's seat in his
Corvette convertible, and streetwise lady-killer Buz (George Maharis), the
rough-and-tumble pragmatist with a chip on his shoulder, rides shotgun in the
original TV road show. This early '60s series was kind of a "Playhouse 90" on
the road, with Tod and Buz as hosts and eternal guest stars in the stories they
discover driving across the country looking for work, and every episode opens
against the landscape of their new location with Nelson Riddle's jazzy theme
song providing the continuity. The first season was originally released within
the past year in a pair of box sets, but the second half of the season was
mastered in a wide-screen format. Infinity corrects its mastering gaffe with
this collection and presents the entire season in its correct aspect ratio. The
30 episodes are collected in a box featuring a pair of four-disc digipak sets,
which also feature original commercials and performer filmographies.
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| Masters of Horror: Season Two |
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Originally made for the pay cable network Showtime, "Masters of
Horror" is a transfusion of old blood into the horror genre: an anthology show
headlined by veteran directors of the genre given creative freedom to choose
their own projects and direct in their own styles. The directors featured in
this final run include Dario Argento, John Carpenter, Joe Dante, Stuart Gordon,
Tobe Hooper, John Landis and Norio Tsuruta. If it faltered somewhat in its
second season, it still remains more satisfying than many of the tired
theatrical horrors and most of the made-for-cable and direct-to-video junk. All
13 hourlong episodes of the second and final season are collected in an inspired
conversation of a box set: 13 discs line up in a rack carved inside a plastic
reproduction of a human skull. Just lift off the skull cap and dig in. The discs
also feature commentary tracks, behind-the-scenes featurettes, still and
storyboard galleries, trailers, screenplays and other supplements.
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In addition to his regular contributions to MSN Movies, Sean Axmaker is a
film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a DVD columnist for MSN
Entertainment. He is also a contributing writer for GreenCine.com, Turner
Classic Movies Online and Asian Cult Cinema, among other publications.
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Get Smart! Please!In honor of bumbling Maxwell
Smart, a brief history of our favorite clueless detectives On the RocksWith 'Iron Man' and 'Hancock' featuring
heavy-drinking protagonists, we reflect on the most memorable drunks in movie
history UnclassicsThough they may be listed among the
greatest films of all time, these 10 movies deserve to be
downgraded | |
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