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

Standard episodes from a standard-setting series
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...

Still not all of the best...
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...

Not a bad value if you want to see remastered shows
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...

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