Volume Eight - "The Menagerie" Parts One and Two
And now the answer to the question, "What do we do with that expensive pilot
we made? Seems a waste to just let it rot!" "The Menagerie" (broadcast
eleventh and twelfth) depicts the logical Spock as he apparently acts
illogically to aid his former captain Pike. Pike has been horribly crippled
since his earlier days as Spock's boss, and Spock wants to help him as best
he can, even if that means direct violation of the most severe Starfleet
regulations.
Much of "The Cage" has been edited into "The Menagerie" as footage that
current Enterprise crew view during Spock's court martial. I'm sorry, but
this method didn't work for me. The whole episode seems so contrived as a
way to use the old footage that I felt unstimulated. Spock presents the
earlier material to illustrate why he had to take his insubordinate actions,
but the whole thing feels fake and forced. Plus, the ending is far too neat
and cute. "The Menagerie" reminds me too much of those cheesy compilation
episodes shows do when they want to crank out a "new" show on the cheap.
It's interesting to see the shots from "The Cage" but overall "The
Menagerie" feels like a "fantasy" episode that doesn't count, like when they
discarded that whole season of Dallas by saying it was a dream.
Footnote: unsurprisingly - since he told them what they could do with their
little space show prior to the second pilot - Jeffrey Hunter does not appear
as Pike in the "current day" shots; another actor - Sean Kenney - plays him
there. You'd never know the difference, since Kenney's heavily made up and
doesn't say a word.
Okay, so there're my opinions of these first sixteen episodes. So how about
the quality of the DVDs themselves? While clearly a mixed bag, I find
myself really quite pleased.
When you first opened this review, you probably noticed that I gave the
picture quality for these shows only a "C-". I must say that this was one
of the most difficult to award "C-" ratings I've yet issued, because
although I think it's legitimate, it doesn't tell the whole story.
These Star Trek episodes appear in their original broadcast aspect
ratio of 1.33:1; because of those dimensions, they have not been enhanced
for 16X9 televisions.
Since I wasn't yet alive when Star Trek first aired, I have no direct
observation of how the show looked during its first run. I do know that
through eight billion reairings since the Sixties, things haven't looked too
hot. Of course, not many TV shows from the Sixties appear that great; after
all, it wasn't like they were worried about saving them for posterity.
A great number of problems can be seen on these DVDs. Sharpness generally
seems adequate but it can vary greatly; most scenes appear relatively crisp
but some serious softness can - and will - intrude on the image. Moiré
effects are largely nonexistent, at least, although I witnessed occasional
jagged edges; inspect Harry's hat in "Mudd's Women", for example. However,
these problems are rare.
More frequent are issues related to print quality. Grain often intrudes
upon the image, and other flaws appear; I saw scratches, speckles, streaks
and black spots on not-infrequent occasions. These aren't a constant
nuisance, but they're there in some form pretty often.
Color is very heavy on Star Trek, which I think was a production
decision. At the time, NBC billed itself as the first "all-color" TV
network, and one of the reasons they wanted ST was so their corporate
parent, RCA, could sell colors sets. Hey, if folks are going to pay big
bucks for a new TV, they want something to take advantage of the medium, and
Trek was a perfect showcase; even as it foundered in the overall
ratings, closer examination of just households with color TVs ranked it
among the top shows.
Anyway, based on this knowledge, I surmise that the producers jacked up the
color higher than it should be in an attempt to make it even brighter and
bolder. Many viewers confuse "more" of some part of an image as meaning
"better" - like all of the people with the sharpness cranked all the way up
on their TVs - so I'd guess that the producers wanted Trek to display
really intense colors. I'd also think that the quality of those sets wasn't
very good, so "pushier" tones were needed to make the colors observable.
Well, for whatever reason, the colors on these DVDs seem very oversaturated.
I wouldn't say they bleed, really, but they just appear much denser and
heavier than they should. While this does make the show colorful and
honestly seems impressive at first, once I adjusted I realized how
off-kilter the hues really were. The tones weren't wrong; they were
just too vivid and strong.
Black levels aren't much of an issue of Trek; such an emphasis was
placed on color that we don't see too many dark hues. What we witness seems
okay, and shadow detail - which also doesn't appear too frequently in the
brightly-lit sets - looks similarly acceptable but unspectacular.
Those are all of the objective reasons I felt I had to give these Star
Trek episodes a "C-". I definitely flip-flopped quite a lot, especially
because the quality does vary somewhat from episode to episode. However,
these differences are pretty minor so I felt comfortable with the one
overall grade.
So with all of that evidence, why do I feel so bad about awarding the low
rating? Because I really think that all things considered, these
Trek episodes look darned good. I was so accustomed to the memories
of the scarred, flat appearances of the syndicated broadcasts that I found
these to be a revelation and I initially thought they looked really great.
Once I got used to the look, I was able to find the flaws, but I still feel
that these shows have aged surprisingly well. Yeah, they're still just a
"C-", but it's a happy "C-".
My praise for the newly-mixed Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks of all these
episodes is much less equivocal. Put simply, they sound absolutely great.
Because I grade audio on an age-related curve, don't confuse the "B+" of
these shows with a "B+" for a more recent production; the two don't compare.
However, for material the age of Trek, these mixes really do sound
fantastic.
This audio comes from original monaural tracks. The soundfield remains
pretty heavily oriented toward the center, but it has been opened up quite a
bit. Many sounds come from the front right and left channels, and we also
hear occasional activity from the rears. The surrounds often give off some
good ambient information - like the hum of the Enterprise - and split
surround usage occurs on occasion, such as when the ship flies by or when a
phaser blast heads to one side. No one will mistake these tracks for recent
efforts, but the effects work quite well.
Even more pleasantly surprising is the good quality of the sound. Dialogue
appears very clear and reasonably warm and natural, with absolutely no
intelligibility problems. Music seems a bit flat but generally nice, and
effects come across quite well for the most part. Although some distortion
can interfere with effects, they're usually very clean and they even boast
some good bass at times. Whoever remixed these suckers deserves a serious
pat on the back; the results are fantastic.
The only genuinely unsatisfying part of these DVDs stems from their lack of
supplements. Each disc offers four "original broadcast preview trailers."
These are one-minute ads that offered viewers a glimpse at what would happen
on next week's show.
On each DVD, two of these trailers are readily found; when you highlight a
particular episode from the main menu, the preview appears as an option on
the next screen. However, in addition to ads for the two shows found on
that DVD, trailers for the episodes on the next disc also appear. To
see those, highlight and click on the Starfleet insignia at the top of the
main menu. When you do that, you will gain access to all four trailers.
Other than these trailers, the DVDs are virtually devoid of extras. Each
disc's booklet contains a few pictures, some trivia and production credits
in addition to a DVD checklist; that beats a kick in the head but doesn't
offer much extra value. While the continuing nature of the series makes it
harder to add in supplements - there'll be forty DVDs in all, and that would
require a lot of content. Still, I can't help but feel something could have
been added. While the Gene Roddenberry audio commentary one DVD newsgroup
participant demanded seems rather unlikely to appear (unless Ouija
technology has improved), interviews with other participants would have been
nice.
Well, even without extras, these DVDs are compelling. Episode quality
varies, of course, but most of the first eight volumes are quite good; the
first four DVDs and number seven all make solid purchases, and the other
three have some merits as well, with only number six appearing to be a dog.
While somewhat weak, picture quality surpassed my expectations and seems
more than acceptable, and the remixed audio shines. I don't know if I or
many of you will feel compelled to amass a complete Trek collection
on DVD, but many shows are worth owning, particularly at a relatively low
MSRP of $20. The first eight DVDs are quite impressive overall; future
reviews will examine whether or not that trend continues all the way through
the fortieth release (unless I go nuts before that time).
Related Sites
Current as of 3/19/2000
DVD MovieGuide: Star Trek - The Original Series--Visit our special coverage of the series on DVD. The section includes full sypnosis of each episode, reviews, recommendation to the best sites, and more.
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