On DVD: Star Trek Fan Collective: Captain's Log

Created By Gene Rodenberry

Starring William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Kate Mulgrew, Avery Brooks, Scott Bakula

Some Star Trek fans don't have the bucks, or the shelf space, to buy up all the seasons of all the Star Trek series out there. For those fans Paramount came up with the "Fan Collective" affordable compilations that feature fan favorite episodes that share a theme such as the time travel collection, the Borg collection, and the Klingon collection.

The Collection

In previous Fan Collective releases the episodes were always presented on the discs in stardate order rather than in broadcast order.  For you non fans that means the episodes were presented in chronological order, for example an episode from Enterprise would appear on a disc before an episode of Star Trek The Original Series because based on the writing the events in Enterprise would have happened first even though The Original Series aired first.  Having the episodes set up in this order really made them fun to watch for regular fans and rivet counter type fans too.  So, that leads me to what I consider the first flaw in this newest box set, the episodes are presented here in broadcast order.  So, why would they change the presentation now?

The theme for this set is Captain specific episodes.  The coolest thing about the set is that Paramount had each Captain pick their favorite episode and do little intros in front of their episodes.  The rest of the episodes were picked by fans.  Disc one features three stellar episodes of the original series and it leads to my next complaint about these sets in general.  The best episode of the three is "City on the Edge of Forever" and it's so good it appeared on the Time travel set too.  If you are buying all of these sets then you have already felt the pain of doubling episodes.  I feel like these sets weren't planned out enough in advance.  It seems like it would have been simple enough to decide which episodes will appear on which set so there aren't any repeats.  Alas, that wasn't done, so you'll now have this episode on two sets this Captain's Log and the previously released "Time travel" set.  The other two episodes on disc one are The Enterprise Incident" and "Balance of Terror".  These two episodes along with "City on the Edge of Forever" are excellent representations of not only the series as a whole but also of Captain Kirk in the series.

Patrick Stewart picked the episode "In Theory" which he picked because it was the first episode he directed not because his character had something intriguing to do in the episode.  In fact Picard takes a backseat to Data in the episode.  It feels a little out of place in the box set because Picard isn't the focus but I do understand why Stewart chose the episode."Chain of Command parts 1 and 2" are obvious choices for the set because Picard gets a ton of drama as he is tortured for two hours.  The final episode I actually like better than the previous two parter.  It's called "Darmuk".  In that episode Picard must figure out how to communicate with another alien without the use of the Universal translator.

Avery Brooks picked one of the episodes I like least in modern Trek series, the episodes set in the past.  In Deep Space Nine's "Far Beyond the Stars" we are treated to the story of a 1950's black science fiction writer.  The episode isn't bad I just don't particularly like the "let's travel back in time" episodes.  Next up are "What you Leave Behind" parts 1 and 2 are a bit confusing for me.  These episodes make up the finale of Deep Space Nine and since I didn't watch that series when it aired there were times in these two episodes that I just wasn't sure what was going on. The final episode "In the Pale Moonlight" however was a solid way to end the DS9 episodes because it made me want to go back and watch the box sets for the series.

The final series and the final episodes in this set are from Star Trek Voyager.  Kate Mulgrew gets things started with a whimper rather than a bang with her choice of "Counterpoint".  The episode is a little slow and anticlimactic.  It's not terrible but it's nowhere near the best of the series.  "The Omega Directive" and "Flashback" on the other hand are solid episode of the series and both feature unique Janeway story arcs.

Finally Scott Bakula gets to pick his favorite episode from his series Enterprise.  His choice is "Judgment" a good but not great episode from season two.  The big problem with the episode is that it gets compared to the Trek film Undiscovered Country.  In both films the Captains are judged and sentenced by Klingons with the story told in the film much superior to the episode of Enterprise.  "First Flight" the first of the fan picks is a much better episode that to me gives the Captain something more interesting to do.  The final Enterprise episode is "These Are the Voyages".  I don't believe for one minute this episode was voted on and picked by fans.  This episode, the finale of the series, is pretty universally considered the worst of the series and quite possibly the worst of any Trek series.  It does nothing but remind me of how horribly this series was treated by the producers during its short run.

Overall the episodes in this set are really good, other than the final Enterprise episode, and they do a good job of defining who each Captain is.  So I do have to complain about "These are the Voyages" and the repeat episode from the original series even if it is really good I don't need to own it twice.

7.5/10

The Video

There are episodes from every series in the Trek franchise so of course the episodes from the original series are the oldest but surprisingly they hold up quite nicely compared to the other series.  What's more surprising is that The Next Generation episodes are so grainy and there are some minor issues with color blooming.  Overall though detail level is solid as is color and compression artifacts are kept to a minimum.  You'll notice the newer series look slightly better than the older ones but only slightly.

8/10

The Audio

Again, the newer the series the better it sounds but overall every episode in the set sounds great.  Of course the original series features the least dynamic range and the worst use of the 5.1 surround environment provided for each episode and Voyager and Enterprise take the best advantage of the surround environment.

7/10

Packaging and Bonus Features

The box set comes packaged just like the previous sets in a black box with floating heads on the cover.  Not innovative but more subtle than many similar packages.

The first of the extras are several intros done for their favorite episodes by the Captains.  One of the best is William Shatner introducing "City on the Edge of Forever" where he and guest star Joan Collins flirt with each other and occasionally talk about the episode.

Each disc features extras specific to one of the characters.  The extras are mostly made up of sound bites from the captains discussing such subjects as the legacy their captain left and some more specific subjects related to the show.  Stewart talks about his father's military experience, Brooks talks about his character's role as a father as well as a Captain, Janeway discusses her impact on the Trek franchise as a female Captain, Bakula discusses his time with the series and gets a closing statement in for the box set, and they all talk on many other subjects.  None of the segments are really long but it is interesting to hear each of these actors talk about their roles as Captains on Star Trek.

7/10

As I've said before, if you're a fan of Star trek but you don't have the cash to shell out for the complete series then this set along with the others is a good way to get a sampling of some of the best episodes from all of the shows.  If only they'd stop repeating episodes for the various box sets....

Overall (Not an Average) 8/10

The Series 7.5/10

The Video 8/10

The Audio 7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 7/10

Overall (Not an Average) 8/10

-Stephen Lackey