The Best of Star Trek: The Original Series - Vol. 2

This is a good -- but not great -- single-disc compilation for Star Trek newbies and cheapskates (such as myself) but not nearly as essential as its companion volume, The Best of Star Trek: The Original Series. That first volume contained four of the Original Series' most vital entries, including the Vulcan adventure, "Amok Time," the amusing "The Trouble With Tribbles" and the immortal "The City on the Edge of Forever." This time around we're given two bona fide classics, a jolly adventure story (on a mob-run planet, no less) and the second pilot episode commissioned by NBC which, while historically important, is a bit of a snoozer in the adventure-and-suspense department. Regrettably, the space (no pun intended... well, maybe just a little) taken up by these two latter episodes could've been occupied by other, better examples (the two-parter, "The Menagerie," comes immediately to mind).

Should you decide to buy this, get it for the tightly paced, well acted "Space Seed" and for "Journey to Babel," which will give you the quick-and-dirty tour of Gene Roddenberry's impressively diverse universe. Beyond that, you may wish to consider purchasing the series boxed sets as any further Best Of collections would only be superfluous to your introduction to -- and enjoyment of -- one of the most innovative and important Science Fiction shows in television history.

Like many reviewers, when Best of Star Trek TOS came out this past summer, I was confused why SPACE SEED didn't make the cut, but TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES, AMOK TIME, CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER, and BALANCE OF TERROR definately rank as top episodes. So when it was announced a second Best of volume was being released, I crossed my fingers yet again and this time, it worked.

Volume 2 does include SPACE SEED, the first appearance of Khan, as well as WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE, A PIECE OF THE ACTION, and BABEL. This is where I disagree with the selections. I'd have gone for MIRROR, MIRROR and ARENA instead of BABEL and A PIECE OF THE ACTION, but then again, who knows - maybe there'll be a Volume 3. Then they could include the two part MENAGIRE or THE GALILEO SEVEN.

From the back of the case:

WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE - Warp speed goes wild when a Starfleet propulsion expert and his alien assistant come aboard the Enterprise to increase efficiency.

SPACE SEED - Kirk discovers a ship carrying cryogenically frozen survivors of the 1990s Earth war known as the Eugenic Wars.

A PIECE OF THE ACTION - Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to a planet run like 1920s gangster America.

JOURNEY TO BABEL - The USS Enterprise is transporting a delegation of diplomats, including Spock's parents, to a conference on Babel when Kirk is stabbed and the ship attacked.

As a fan of Next Generation and Deep Space Nine more than the TOS, these volumes are great for me and anyone else who just wants a sample. But I begin to wonder if it's more practical to suggest buying the entire seasons if they continue to issue best ofs.

I bought this and the other volume for a gift at Christmas. The receiver has the complete TOS collection that was released several years ago (before the "remastering" and new special effects). So, I thought these two collection discs would be a nice taste of the updated episodes. They were. I could see a significant improvement in picture quality (makes me wonder why the older set was even offered). The new special effects (mostly exterior shots of the Enterprise and the planets it visits) are convincing, tastefully done (not extravagant), and consistent with the originals (e.g., the phaser shots in the "Balance of Terror" episode---a very early show---were improved but left as a sort of torpedo effect rather than a beam effect, thus preserving the original intent/experience).

I'd have chosen a few other episodes as the "Best", but hey, for the cost how can I complain?

I will say that seeing these much-improved DVD copies of 8 episodes almost (but not quite) make me want to buy the Blu-Ray versions of all three seasons. But, because I paid a crazy amount for the older ones, I'm not quite ready to take that plunge again. In most ways, I like seeing the TOS episodes as I remember them from my childhood, warts and all. It is wonderful to see that the original quality of the film is intact and that the Blu-Ray conversions will preserve this landmark series for posterity, but I'll wait to buy until the Blu-Ray's are dumped on the secondary market.