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October 18, 2002

Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits has reviewed the Star Trek III: The Search For Spock The Special Collectors Edition DVD, which will be released on October 22. Below is a snippet of the review:

As is the trend with all the films in the Star Trek franchise, Paramount previously released a bare-bones version of this film on DVD, and has now created a 2-disc special edition to make fans happier. The anamorphic widescreen film transfer on this new DVD is the same one that was featured on the previous edition, simply spread over 2 layers of a disc rather than one. The video is generally very nice looking, but the print is occasionally a bit lacking. It starts off showing a lot of rough grain, and there are plenty of bits of dust and dirt that could have (and should have) been removed. On the other hand, the print does get better, and the color exhibited here is gorgeous - vibrant and true at all times. Better still, the contrast is outstanding, with deep blacks and terrific shadow detail. A touch of edge-enhancement is visible, but it's not at all distracting. On the whole, the disc is quite nice looking for a 1984 film released on DVD.

As with the previous DVD, this disc's audio also doesn't disappoint. All of the Trek films on DVD thus far have featured very active Dolby Digital 5.1 sound fields, and this one is no exception. There's plenty of nifty panning and directional effects in the mix, and the bass is simply thunderous. Just listen to the sound of the Klingon ship decloaking in chapter 1 (about 9 minutes into the film) - it's just outstanding. Thankfully, the dialogue level problem seems to have been fixed from the 5.1 mix on the previous release. On the old version, dialogue was a little lacking in the mix - now it seems to have better presence.

As expected, Paramount has produced a substantial batch of bonus material for this re-release. Disc One includes a decent audio commentary track by director Leonard Nimoy, joined often by writer/producer Harve Bennett, and less often by cinematographer Charles Correll and actress Robin Curtis. Nimoy is fun to listen to, and chimes in with lots of interesting insights and anecdotes. This film was his first foray into directing, and the story he tells on how he got the job is quite entertaining all by itself. Let me just say that there are several references (both here and in the featurettes) to then Paramount head Michael Eisner that, while polite, really make the guy seem like a buffoon (anyone surprised? No? I thought so.). I'll let you enjoy them in greater detail yourself.

As with the previous Trek special editions, in addition to the audio commentary, there's also another great text commentary on Disc One by authors (and Trek consultants) Michael and Denise Okuda. There are enough interesting factoids here for even the most ravenous Trekkie/Trekker (for example, did you know that the Klingon Bird of Prey is roughly the same length as the Saturn V rocket that launched astronauts to the Moon? No? I thought so.).

Sadly, while Disc One doesn't disappoint, Disc Two once again features the same kind of uninspired, "talking heads" featurettes we saw on the Star Trek II: CE. Don't get me wrong - there's still interesting stuff to be found here, and the interview subjects are all fairly interesting. They're also all presented in 16x9, which I appreciate. But the production quality of these featurettes again shows a real lack of both enthusiasm and basic camera skills. Once again, the camera is zoomed in too tightly on people's faces, you have shaky hand-held footage, interviews are staged with people sitting in shade against a brightly lit sky, the footage is washed out looking... etc. I could go on, but it would frankly take more energy that I care to apply to the task. Given the high quality of the documentary work we're seeing on most other DVDs these days, this kind of lackluster effort really sticks out like a sore thumb. I'm hoping Paramount makes some badly needed production team changes for future Trek special editions.

But... let's deal with what we have. Captain's Log takes a general look back at the production, featuring mostly talking heads intercut with a little film footage and production stills. Interviewed are Nimoy, Shatner, Bennett, Curtis, Christopher Lloyd and other production team members. And yes, Shatner still is a ham (ya gotta love him). Terraforming and the Prime Directive features talking head interviews with JPL scientists and sci-fi author David Brin. I'm a real space exploration buff, and so all of the stuff discussed here is Space Science 101 to me. But this could have been a really interesting look at the real science behind the ideas in the film for the uninitiated. Unfortunately, this featurette makes it all seem about as exciting as watching paint dry. I had more hope for Spacedocks and Birds of Prey, Speaking Klingon and Klingon and Vulcan Costumes (which take a look at the ILM special effects, the development of the languages seen in the film and the costumes, respectively). I mean, here's a cool chance to visit the achives, crack open a few dusty crates and get an up-close look at some of the amazing models, props and costumes from the film, right? Wrong. Other than a few small study models, sketches and production photos, you don't get to see much here. Once again, it's mostly talking heads. Frankly, the best extra on Disc Two is a gallery of the storyboard art for every major scene in the film (10 in all). You also get a gallery of photos (broken into behind-the-scenes production shots and film images), an anamorphic trailer for this film and a non-anamorphic preview trailer for Star Trek: Nemesis (a FULL FRAME trailer for the newest film?! Doh!). Finally, there's an Easter egg on Disc Two, that lets you view a featurette on the film's creature effects.

To read more, click on the link below:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews2/startrek3ce.html