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Star Trek The Original Series - The Complete Second Season (Remastered) | 
 enlarge | Actor: William Shatner
Studio: CBS Paramount International Television
Category: DVD
List Price: $84.98
Buy New: $58.89
You Save: $26.09 (31%)
New (31) Used (13) from $55.98
Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 1070
Format: Ac-3, Box Set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Original Recording Remastered, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Dubbed)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 8
Running Time: 1311 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 5.5 x 2.3
UPC: 097361326641
EAN: 0097361326641
ASIN: B0017VG69U
Theatrical Release Date: September 8, 1966
Release Date: August 5, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: promo copy; factory sealed; will upgrade postage
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
I've fallen in love with Trek again! August 26, 2008
KaiMac (Snellville,GA USA)
Well, technically I never stopped loving the original Trek, but this remastering has made it so enjoyable to watch. I don't have the first season but will get it soon. Bear in mind I'm watching this on a standard def TV. One thing about 60s TV is how colorful it is, and the remastering makes those colors look amazing. The show could have been shot yesterday. In terms of effects, the most obvious improvement is the Enterprise itself. She looks amazing, very similar to the filming model they used for DS9's Trials and Tribble-ations. It's wonderful to hear the Captain order a "hard about" or "full speed ahead" and actually see the ship perform the maneuvers, not to mention seeing other angles of her, since in the original the ship always went left to right on the screen (the filming models cables and controls were on the port (left) side, that's why it was never shown). Also I enjoy seeing the ship orbit different planets, I especially enjoyed seeing her orbiting Earth with the moon behind her in Assignment:Earth. Beautiful shot!
The lion's share of the producer's budget must have gone into "The doomsday machine" which was not a particular favorite of mine, but is now a delight to watch. In the damaged Constellation, you can see the decks exposed to space, the doomsday machine itself gets redone, and you see the Enterprise doing all sorts of maneuvers, firing her phasers, the shuttlecraft lifting off and leaving the hangar deck. The producers achieved their purpose brilliantly here: the entire episode looks like it would have looked back in the 60s if Gene Roddenberry and co. had had a limitless sfx budget. I think he would have been pleased.
I also enjoyed the little details: in "I,Mudd" when the android Norman lifts his shirt to show Kirk and Spock the circuitry on his belly, I was surprised to find they had replaced the original with a more modern look.
The only reason I don't give 5 stars is the packaging. I don't like the brittle plastic. The DVDs are hard to remove without making the plastic crack. Beautiful design, poorly executed. Also, some effects pretty much look the same, especially the hand phaser shots. Still, this is a great set, and I intend to buy Season One, and Three when available.
 Don't Expect Collector's Condition August 25, 2008
P. S. Khanna (Woodbridge, VA United States)
Star Trek The Original Series - The Complete Second Season (Remastered)
The shows are great, but don't expect a collector-quality product in the mail. Amazon fails to pack it properly and the plastic case is easily shattered where the two halves come together. That's not a big deal if you're just looking for the DVDs to watch, but if you wanted a collector's item that could increase in value over the years, this is not the way to go.
 great condition August 25, 2008
John W. Mullin (Blaine, Mn)
the disks were in great shape and there was no problems encountered. They were also delivered in a quick and orderly fashion
Remastered Special Effects and Casualty Report--Part Deux! August 22, 2008
Chuck Ruck
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The fabulous remastered Second Season is here! Much of the special effects--not all--have been mastered to what they should be. Some notable examples include:
--Amok Time: the combat arena is now on top of a CGI butte, overlooking a Vulcan city in the distance.
--Who Mourns for Adonais?: when Adonais grows two stories high, there is no thick black line around him, like the 1960's effect shows.
--The Changling: an explosion of "Nomad" resembles a space nuke explosion, back before the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.
--The Doomsday Machine: THE BEST REMASTERED EPISODE! Terrific shots of the Enterprise are shown dodging asteroids, with some exploding around a thrashed Constellation. Best of all, the Doomsday Machine no longer looks like elementary school, crepe-paper art.
--Catspaw: haunted castle is CGI, and the two aliens at the end no longer have black strings holding them up.
--Metamorphosis: better shuttle effects, but the image of the "Companion" STILL looks like COLORED PLASTIC WRAP.
--Journey to Babel: Great shot of the shuttle entering the Enterprise's hanger, with planet Vulcan in the background. The Orion spaceship is CGI, but they should have put CGI eyeballs in the Telerite's hollow mask!
--Friday's Child: the Klingon ship is no longer a flourescent green smudge
--The Ultimate Computer: Great starship dogfights!
--The Deadly Years: TEN Romulan warbirds surround the Enterprise and take shots at it. WOW! A nice ending to a slower episode.
--The Trouble with Tribbles: a pre-Season 3 Klingon ship. This one is orbiting spacestation K-7, but the latter still looks like a model.
--Gamesters of Triskelion: the Enterprise orbits a Saturn-like planet.
--The Immunity Episode: The galactic amoeba is STUNNING! The Enterprise actually accelerates backwards through protoplasm, with some of the goo splattering on the ship's swan-neck.
Of course, let us honor the memories of the thin red line of extra crewmen, by recalling how they heroically died in the line of Federation duty:
--The Changling: 4 Red Shirts incinerated by half-breed probe "Nomad," and possibly two engineering crewmembers.
--The Apple: 1 Red Shirt dead after a planet's poisonous flowers shoot darts into his chest. 1 Red Shirt incinerated by bolt of lightening. 1 Red Shirt blown up by land-mine rock. 1 Red Shirt clubbed to death by a Child of Vahl.
--Catspaw: 1 crewman dead (as dead as Chekov's girl whig) after beaming back from a haunted planet.
--Friday's Child: 1 Red Shirt stabbed in chest by a Capellan's boomerang.
--The Deadly Years: 1 science lieutenant chick dies from accelerated old age.
--Obsession: 5 Red Shirts dead after getting their red corpuscles sucked out by a honey-smelling smog
--Wolf in the Food: 1 crew woman stabbed to death by Jack the Ripper via Scotty.
--By Any Other Name: 1 Red Shirt chick turned into one of Gene Roddenberry's Tijuana octogon souvineers...then crushed.
--The Omega Glory: 1 Red Shirt killed by the captain of the Exeter, who turns traitor in a commie village (Mao would be proud).
--The Ultimate Computer: 1 Red Shirt gets desintigrated by the M5
--Mirror Mirror: 5 Red Shirts are killed in the "mirror universe" as part of the evil crew. Should we honor them, too? Probably not. I'll just let the evil 'Chuck Ruck' in his mirror universe do it.
May these TWENTY extra crewmen IN OUR UNIVERSE rest in peace!
 Current Season One Remastered owners may be disappointed... August 21, 2008
rcfbz95 (East Providence, RI)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Note to owners of the Season 1 Remastered (HD/Standard DVD) set. Season 2 doesn't come close to the quality of Season 1 Remastered, even when compared to the Standard DVD Side presentation of that set.
Apart from the digitally recreated special effects / exterior shots, the only 'remastering' that I can detect in the new Season 2 Remastered set is a garish increase in color saturation, along with a harsh increase in contrast levels. Facial skin tones that appeared washed out due to color fading in the Standard Season 2 set released a few years ago, now look even more bleached out in this edition, especially when viewed against the darker shadows which were introduced by the increase in contrast levels.
Unfortunately, the increased contrast also sends a lot of subtle visual shadow detail into complete darkness. The effect is pervasive. Here are a couple of examples. Compare for yourself each of these scenes in the Remastered Edition vs. the Standard Edition released in 2004:
- The Ultimate Computer, @ 2mins:47secs. Note the actor in the foreground. The increased level of shadowing now almost completely covers the left side of his face in darkness. The outline of the actor's chin against the black collar of his Starfleet uniform is now practically indistinguishable. Meanwhile, in the background, Spock's facial coloring looks much more bleached than in the Standard edition, where his skin tone exhibits much warmer huma-, er, um, I mean Vulcan coloring.
- Catspaw, @ 0mins:10secs. The upholstery piping on the top edge of Uhura's chair, clearly visible in the 2004 Standard Edition is now completely hidden in shadow. Furthermore, the subtle visual shades of black delineating the edge of her chair against Kirk's black pants have been lost. Now we see just a big indistinguishable blob of black on the TV screen. (Hey! Can someone turn the lights back on?? I feel like I'm on the bridge of Voyager!)
Wow, I am soooooo disappointed, especially after having been so blown away by the fantastic job that was done with the Remastered Season 1 edition (and again, I'm referring strictly to the Standard DVD presentation, not HD). Clearly, the same level of care that went into the Season 1 remastering effort was not duplicated for Season 2 (and probably won't be for Season 3, either?). To me, it looks like the source material used for this season set was the same as what was used for the previously released 2004 Standard Season set.
And yes, some of the same video blemishes present on that set are still present in the remastered edition: Take a look at the Patterns Of Force episode, in between the1min:35sec and 1min:40sec marker. At the moment Kirk says `Fire!', a rather blatant film scratch momentarily appears across one side of his face. The fact that a blemish such as this is still present in this remastered edition points to a relaxing of the quality standards set with Season 1. Ironically, I am reminded of one of the special features in the Season 1 Remastered set, where exactly this type of digital touchup was being touted and demonstrated on original footage from The Cage / The Menagerie.
As with Season 1 Remastered, this season also includes Spanish & French audio with subtitles. Kudos to the production team for finally adding this. I recall reading a review here on Amazon from a frustrated native Spanish speaking fan, lamenting the lack of attention to this detail on the earlier releases.
If all you're after are the updated special effects, then this is definitely the version for you. Many of the updated digital exterior shots in the Season 2 Remastered set appear to be even closer replicas of the original 1960's effects than what was presented in Season 1 Remastered. They really are very cool (although on some level, I still prefer the monotone disc planets of old). If, on the other hand, you're more interested in watching a pristine video print of the same caliber as you saw in the Season 1 Remastered set, you're probably going to have to wait for the inevitable BluRay transfer, and hope that the High Def remastering effort for that edition includes the same folks who worked on the The Cage / The Menagerie episodes.
Meanwhile, I think I'll take a pass on the upcoming Season 3 release...
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