The Original Series Season Three

Star Trek’s five-year mission was, as everyone knows, cut short after just three years. The third and final season marked a temporary reprieve from the network axe that had already been set to fall after Season Two – the show was saved by a massive letter-writing campaign of a sort never seen before. Trek fans became Trek ‘activists’, bombarding Paramount and NBC executives with mail and getting prominent science fiction writers on board to try and preserve what they saw as TV’s only successful attempt to do SF. It worked, but the network effectively scuppered any possibility of the show’s long-term survival by moving it to the ‘graveyard slot’ of 10pm on Friday evenings, when its likely audience would either be out and partying or tucked up in bed. Gene Roddenberry quit in protest, new producer Fred Freiberger was brought in to replace him, and most of the rest of the cast and crew felt that the show suffered as a result of the departure of the show’s creator and guiding light.

Fans have tended to agree, with Season Three being seen as a disappointment after the glories of its predecessors and a sad end for what had been such a groundbreaking series. And while the falling-off in script quality and budgets is noticeable at times – and new cinematographer Al Francis never equalled Gerald P Finnerman’s sterling work – Season Three contains both genuine classics and intriguing oddities. The Enterprise Incident, The Tholian Web or Day of the Dove, for example, would be stand-outs regardless of what season they came from, while episodes like Plato's Stepchildren, Whom Gods Destroy or The Empath are all fascinating in their own way, and at least get away from the ‘parallel worlds’ idea that at times threatened to overwhelm Season Two. Even episodes that have traditionally received short shrift from fans are a lot more fun than anyone has given them credit for: Spock’s Brain is an infinitely better season-opener in its campy insanity, I would argue, than Season Two’s hopeless wannabe-pilot Assignment Earth was a season-closer. Plus you get a great script by Lambchop puppeteer Shari Lewis (The Lights of Zetar), Kirk being body-swapped by an unhinged, vengeful ex in Turnabout Intruder (surely one of the Shat’s most under-appreciated performances as a woman in a man’s body) and the Enterprise taken over by space hippies in the (unintentionally) hilarious The Way to Eden (their jam session with Spock is unforgettable).

One major plus with these remastered versions is that there was plenty for the CBS project team to do; with the show increasingly cash-strapped there was a visible reliance on re-using existing shots, matte paintings and ships from previous seasons. So now, for instance, we get proper Romulan ships in The Enterprise Incident, new matte paintings in Wink of an Eye and a much more impressive version of cloud city Stratos in The Cloud Minders.

On top of all 24 Season Three episodes we get the original full-length Trek pilot The Cage in both its fully remastered form (looking gorgeous) and the old ‘extended’ video version with bookend addresses by Roddenberry and once-lost black and white footage.

All the extras from the original 2004 DVD release are here, as well as more really nice footage from extra Billy Blackburn showing Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley clowning around on set. The only new bonus feature is a much-deserved tribute to the late Star Trek producer (and all-round nice guy) Robert Justman, one of the unsung heroes of the Trek phenomenon who brought his experience, many years later, to The Next Generation. With interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, this is a really enjoyable mini-feature to round the package off.

In conclusion, these three sets of remastered Trek are things of beauty, although the ability to toggle between original and remastered effects shots on the Season One Blu-ray release might make that a more attractive option than the DVD version for those with the technology and the cash to spare. Even on DVD, though, the shows sparkle like never before, the new menus are lovely and the extra features excellent. My only gripe is that the lack of a booklet within each DVD case or contents list on the outside of them means that you have to take all the discs out to get to the contents printed on the inside of the covers – now that is really annoying.

Star Trek: The Original Series Season Three Remastered, Paramount Home Entertainment DVD £39.99