Watch William Shatner Discuss 55 Years Of Star Trek In New Promo For 4K TOS Movies Box Set

Today, Paramount Home Entertainment has shared a new promotional video with Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, discussing the phenomenon of Star Trek as we approach the 55th anniversary on September 8th.

Shatner talks Trek 55

As announced in July, we are fast approaching the release of newly restored 4K versions of the first four original cast Star Trek films. The following promo video features Shatner talking about the enduring legacy of Star Trek and his role as Kirk.

4-movie UHD set arives next week

On September 7th, Paramount is releasing a brand-new set featuring the first four Star Trek feature films in 4K Ultra HD. The movies are newly remastered from original film elements and presented with Dolby Vision® and HDR10. The collection includes four Ultra HD Blu-ray discs as well as four remastered standard Blu-ray discs with all the previously released bonus content.

You can pre-order the set on Amazon for $77.99 with a low price guarantee.


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The artwork for this set looks cheesy, though.

agreed

yeah agreed , the artwork and package not that great, hopefully in person it looks better

I hope you’re joking

I kinda love it. I like bright colours though.

Yeah – looks like someone that just learned Photoshop was assigned the task of designing the cover.

i think its a pretty cool cover. but shouldve had saavik on there

Which Saavik?

You decide

Kim Cattrall

As cheesy as the cheap library music track used on the clip, too! :-)

Shatners toupee looks so much better since he switched From Edward Katz Hair Design to Denise Johnson Originals

Meanwhile “Bill” waits for his film to be upgraded to 4K ULTRA HD…

The next set will include The Final Frontier, The Undiscovered Country and Generations. The set after that will include First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis. If there’s a point you’re trying to make I’m not entirely sure what it is.

So we have to buy 2 films we don’t want to get the one we do want? Honestly now that i have 1-4 , i only want VI and First Contact. Sure i’ll pony up the money for final frontier, generations and insurrection and nemesis but those are going to be coasters.

Hopefully , I will be adding this 4K Set to my Christmas List !

I’ve just picked up the UHD disc-only box set here in Australia and have just watched a few moments from each film to ‘test’ them ahead of a proper watch soon.

All four films look the best that they’ve ever looked in my opinion. There is still some lovely film grain, but not too much. The colour is subtle and not over saturated (I was worried about those red uniforms, for example). The effects have had some age-related imperfections ironed out without replacing the vintage look. Trek III’s Enterprise arrival at Spacedock looked shoddy on BD but looks beautiful in 4K. Just a lovely remaster.

The audio in the clips I watched appeared to be an upgrade to my ears. It could be that they’re using the same audio mix to the BDs but the bass channel was more vibrant…certainly on TMP…along with the surrounds. The Vox are clearer to my ears too – I always found Treks II and III’s centre channel was fairly muffled and sounds clearer on the 4K mix. Again, could be my ears!!

All in all is a lovely upgrade I am overjoyed to have in my collection.

TS
P.S. Personally I have no issues with the artwork. Anything that uses TMP’s original Trek logo with the long tails on the S and the K gets my vote.

Thanks for posting! Looking forward to receiving the set I had pre-ordered.

But no original 35mm stereo mixes. They left them off again. I wonder if its because they think nobody cares about original audio, or a space limitation or both.

I have a 4K player that can play the 5.1 , 7.1 , 10.1 or higher formats , but aural or surround stereo is my preferred sound , and it’s hard to come by on discs by these days .

That’s an interesting point. I haven’t seen original 2.0 stereo mixes on discs for a long time. Occasionally they pop up on something older.

It may interest you that TMP and Trek II (I haven’t checked Treks III and IV) include stereo mixes in German and French (not sure how ‘original’ to the 35mm audio those are) and an isolated score track (which is a nice touch) on TMP.

I think it is likely to do with space. It’s another several gigs of space that the 4K data could take up. If they were to include the original stereo mixes I’d want them lossless and that’s quite a chunk of space.
I reckon because amps are fairly reliable at compressing 5.1 or 7.1 down to 2.0 for headphones they figure they can leave it off and save some space.

It’s not the same, of course. I also realise what you’re after (I suspect) is the original audio before it was remixed – perhaps even edited to include slightly updated sound effects (see ‘The Terminator’ which to my ears sounds terrible with out-of-place gunshots etc).
I think, sadly, you’ll have to keep your old DVDs or even VHS tapes to get that audio.

All part of the collector’s journey!

TS

Hey, I’d enjoy that. But what I really find puzzling is why the original discrete 6.0 channel mixes for the 70mm releases are never squeezed onto a 7.1 disc sound option?

Thanks for sharing!

I’ve watched the new transfer/remaster of the first three films which is now available on iTunes. Looks fantastic—I often don’t notice much difference when things get remastered, but the picture is greatly improved. Movie Trek has never looked better!

I’ve been checking iTunes waiting for this happen and I still don’t see it in my region yet (NYC). Did you have the films already in your library and they were automatically updated, or were you browsing the store and saw the 4K option?

Was their even one second of TMP footage in this promo?

The opening shots of the Enterprise around Earth and in dry dock. Also a quick shot at about 1m17s where they are at the Voyager probe.

Looking forward though to the 4k DE of TMP coming out next year though.

And with Daren Dochterman and Mike Matessino overseeing it its going to be great. They can take the time they need and not rush it. That Atmos sound mix is going to rock. I only wish they had brought in Doug Trumbull to remaster the original 65mm elements for 4K. But i’m sure Paramount knows what they are doing.

Shatners office looks abit like Kirks quarters with added lensflare

The key phrase is “There is nothing like it in show biz. I don’t understand this phenomenon.”

Exactly. And this is where he got stuck back in the 80s… Saying stuff like “It’s just a TV show. Get a life.”… It was never “just” a TV show. There is no “just” in that sentence that’s justified. Because then, the Bible would ge “just” a book, Shakespeare would be “just” a long-dead playwright and the Declaration of Independence would be “just” an insignificant scroll.

There are things in history and culture that are A LOT larger than life. Star Trek is one of those things. Even if I may not like every incarnation of Trek to the same degree I take it very seriously. This may be the very reason why some of us passionately hate the bits of Trek they don’t like. Because we love this universe so much.

This universe is so much more than just the sum of its parts. There may be even bigger fictional worlds these days: the Marvel and DC multiverses come to mind. But there isn’t a single MCU movie or Batman flick that has the same meaning as even the worst episode of TOS or TNG. And when I like the original X-Men movies, I like them mainly because they got Sir Patrick in them and now in retrospect Commander Una.

There are people who like only parts of Trek which is fine. There are people who love other franchises equally and that’s okay. Yeah, I love Star Wars, I love Tolkien, I love Doctor Who and Harry Potter. But equally? For sure I don’t…

And no, Mr Shatner… I didn’t “get a life”… I am married to the USS Enterprise. My oath of celebacy is in my Starfleet records. I don’t remember much about my childhood. I was reborn the moment I read an article on Trek in a German youth magazine back in 1992 at the age of 12. The Christmas I remember the most will always be the one I got those GEN bedsheets and a CD-Rom with early Star Trek trailers… The 1993 UK Trailer single-handedly created by entire interest in learning the Englsih language. GEN was the first movie I saw in cinema on my own. And from that very moment time stood still like in the Nexus. Maybe my Asperger soul has never left the Nexus at all.

The only thing I still miss in Trek are truly strange new worlds… Avatar or Valerian have shown me that Trek could still be so much more on a visual level.

i always remember an advert in ‘star trek communicator’ for TMP DC dvd around 2001 – ‘get a life?..nah get this instead’ lol

I love this!

From Spock to Data to Seven of Nine, Star Trek has portrayed a lot of very fine people with Aspergerish personalities. And those characters are among the most beloved!

I guess we subconsciously ralley behind those who stand apart… like your Vulcan science officer :-)
I haven’t even known about my special condition up until watching Predator 4. That movie caught my attention as the Asperger boy hunted by the Preds was portrayed as the next course of evolution. I did some research and eventually did some tests. My Midichlorian count was off the charts, even higher than Master Yoda’s :-)
Everything made sense: my radical special interests, my focus on colors, designs, artwork, musical scores (but not so much on characters), my few special savants, my fascination with box office numbers and statistics, my unease with big gatherings of people, my inability to tell advisatory age ratings from morality and/or hard laws etc… fish out of water all my life, alien planet syndrome, but PROUD of it!
It’s ironic: before I became Garth Lorca, I used to call myself Smike, harkening back to that autist character on ENT S4 (who himself goes back to a Charles Dickens character). I did not do this on purpose as back then I had no idea what I was… but yeah, here we go…

One of the things I love about Star Trek is that there’s room for everybody (well, everyone except small-minded bigots). Some people are really invested in the characters, and others care most about the ships and technology, and as long as you love Star Trek, you’re one of us!

The first time I went to a science fiction convention, I discovered that nearly everyone there had felt like a fish out of water all their lives. It was a relief to find that there were SO many others who didn’t feel like part of the mainstream. Not all of us who attend science fiction conventions have an Asperger’s diagnosis, by any means, but that feeling of being an alien on the planet of one’s birth … there are a HUGE number of people who feel like that.

I fell in love with Star Trek because of the Filmation show. But when i first saw the motion picture and the Enterprise Refit my jaw hit the floor. It was breathtakingly beautiful. And that Goldsmith score. I’m not a Trekkie by any means i don’t dress up and go to cons, but i very much appreciate the franchise. No its not my go to comfort like Star Wars is, but it gets me to ask questions about humanity and the possibilities of the future, and to dream. A wonderful progressive vision where people work together and solve problems and everything seems possible.

Well, I also love Star Wars. But it’s vice versa with me. Trek is my home, Star Wars my holiday resort of choice :-) The one thing I cannot stand is this old rivalry between both fanbases. That’s so pointless. It’s my prerogative to like both and I’m so glad there is someone called “skyjedi” at a Star Trek site. Both franchises are forever linked in so many ways. The Star Wars hype made the Trek movies possible, ILM provided the 80s SFX for Trek. The PT helped to create ENT and in the end, both franchises ended up with crazy copy-paste superfleets that couldn’t possibly exist… :-)

it. was. a. joke.
in a SNL sketch.

I had to laugh at the rumpled and stretched t-shirt. Shatner, as they say, has no f*@k’s to give. He’s always been that way. One would think that he would want to put on something a little nicer for a PR interview – but that’s just his way. I had the pleasure of working with him for a two week shoot back in the late ’90’s and he showed up on set in a t-shirt and jeans and wanted to go on camera that way. It took a great deal of discussion and gentle persuasion, and sending a production assistant back to his house to get several changes of clothing, to get him to wear something else. Ah, Bill, you’re a piece of work. :)

Love him or hate him, there’s no one like Bill! :-)

I’m pretty much done purchasing these films – have them all and no plans to upgrade, but just seeing that clip of Shatner and the movie scenes gives me chills. Trek has been such a huge part of my personal life, it’s as old as I am! So thankful.

As far as i understand it only TMP and Star Trek VI were in bad shape and needed remastering for Blu Ray, but they all had to be redone for 4K. Wrath of Khan was done years ago. Maybe they were quietly remastering them for the anniversary. But outside of a couple of months ago nobody even believed they would spend the money on the upgrade.

I don’t have UHD but this is finally the Director’s Cut of TMP in UHD / HD? That’s a reason to get the regular BDs once again… 4K… I don’t need that. But Spock crying in HD, that’s reason to get it…

The DE of TMP will be put out separately next year. It will take more work to get that one done since it was originally only rendered to DVD resolution. The added effects shots need to be fully redone and that will take time.

Oh… thanks… then I’ll wait for that one :-)

Thanks for the info. I was wondering if TMP was the DE. I will wait for that version.

I’m kind of disappointed they aren’t including the rough cut of Wrath of Khan, or the deleted scenes on these releases. The ones we’ve never seen i mean. I also kind of want the TV cut for Star Trek I and II. And the original 35mm audio from theaters to be represented on the discs. But we can’t have everything.

I must admit my preferred preference is for a Collecto’rs Set , with all the extras possible . But they are expensive , as well as being a limited release !

They could have at least made new, additional extras for this set.

Only having one isolated track is a bit lackluster.