|
 Movie
B |
Video C- | Audio B+
| Extras A-
William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley,
James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Merritt
Butrick, and Christopher Lloyd
director Leonard Nimoy | Paramount Home Entertainment
1984 | Science Fiction- Adventure |
PG | 105 minutes
Region 1 | DVD-9
anamorphic
widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio
| Dolby Digital 5.1
Summary: Star Trek fans will remember that
at the end of Star Trek II:
The Wrath of Khan, Spock dies from excessive radiation when he
sacrifices his life to save his starship, the U.S.S. Enterprise. Among his last
few words were "The needs of the many outweigh the
need of the few or the one." Those fellow crew members who he saved
sadly
buried him on the once-barren planet that the Genesis Device miraculously
turns into an inhabitable planet. Star Trek III picks up with
Captain Kirk and the crew returning to a large StarFleet space dock. There, Dr. McCoy mysteriously takes on some behaviors of
the late Spock, in a psychotic and insane manner. Confused, Admiral Kirk consults with
Spock's father, a prominent Vulcan. Spock's father explains that
Vulcans usually transfer their knowledge via a Vulcan Mind Meld before
death, to pass on their knowledge and experiences to other Vulcans. With
this fact and a suspicion, Kirk desperately attempts to conduct a
renegade mission back to the Genesis planet to salvage whatever he could
for Spock and to relieve Dr. McCoy's pain. In this case, Admiral
Kirk thought that "the needs of one outweighs the needs of
the many". With this, Kirk leads an unauthorized mission
with the help of his most loyal crew members on may be the U.S.S.
Enterprise's last mission.
Do you need to see Star Trek II before seeing this
film? I don't think you absolutely need to, since Star Trek
III does a nice job of recapping the Star Trek II ending that I described above.
But even the most casual Star Trek fans will want to see Star
Trek II: The Wrath of Khan before seeing this film, for two
reasons. One, it's a much better film. Two, you'll get more
out of Star Trek III. If you're like me, a casual Star Trek
fan, you may find
that Star Trek III leaves much to be desired. I thought the script
was not up to par with the other Star Trek motion pictures. As this
is Leonard Nimoy's directing debut, fellow cast members and producers
naturally held some apprehension about the idea of his directing the
film. This is documented in detail in one of the bonus material
featurettes. However, I remain unconvinced that a more seasoned
director would have made much of a difference in the outcome of this
picture. There was not a whole lot of plot material here to work
with, in my opinion.
As a final note, I was quite disappointed with the
video transfer of this "Special Collector's Edition" DVD.
The film stock was old, with scratches and believe it or not,
drop-outs! The missing picture frames made a scene jump, reminiscent
of second runs of classic films in old, deteriorating movie
theaters. I believe DVD collectors deserve much better. Such
poor video quality is unacceptable in this day and age of DVD's digital
video. Paramount should pay more attention to the quality of the
transfer of their older movies and use better film stock (and take better
care of them).
Special Features: In contrast to the movie,
the bonus features were quite compelling, especially the segment on
"Terraforming and The Prime Directive".
Disc 1: audio commentary by
actor/director Leonard Nimoy, writer/producer Harve Bennett, director of
photography Charles Correll and Robin Curtis, and text commentary by
Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda, co-authors of the Star Trek
Encyclopedia.
Disc 2: "Captain's Log" featurette
(retrospective look at the making of the film, from inception to premiere
with new interviews); The Star Trek Universe with three featurettes
("Space Docks and Birds of Prey" featurette about model making,
"Speaking Klingons" featurette about the linguistics of of
Klingons and Vulcans, and "Klingon and Vulcan Costumes"
featurette about the costumes, jewelry, and makeup); "Terraforming
and The Prime Directive" featurette (a NASA scientist sheds light on
the prospects and issues of making a new planet - very compelling for
science buffs); archive storyboards and photos; and theatrical trailer
DVD released on 10/22/2002 | Reviewed 11/3/2002
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Additional Notes: Unless we specify otherwise, the
video and audio quality are very good when their grades are "A-"
or better. Only the highest number of channels of surround sound
format is listed (e.g., Dolby Digital 5.1). If there are both Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, then both are listed. All
DVD-Video discs are backwards compatible with stereo-only playback
systems.
Let us know what you think about this DVD review, write to us at
Staff@TimeForDVD.com.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four
B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers
and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable
Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable
Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug
connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio
rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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