In the middle of last week, we
showed off Paramount Home Entertainmet's key artwork for the upcoming (and long-awaited!) DVD release of
Star Trek: The Animated Series. Since then we've seen a lot of criticism about this artwork, most surrounding two points: the uniforms (especially the "pirate boots") don't look right, and the
Enterprise looks like the film verison of the ship.
At the bottom of this story we have the new key artwork shown last time, and below that we have shots of Paramount's old VHS and LaserDisc releases of
ST:TAS. As you can see, the character shots are exactly the same on each of them. So, as silly as the uniforms may seem on that art, it's all been used before...with few complaints (and profitable sales for the studio). As to the design of the ship: yes, it's a new graphic inserted into this composition. I agree it would be better to use the ship pic from the LD cover art; it's more in keeping with the cartoon designs. However, please bear two things in mind: first, that the artwork isn't final and is still very subject to change. Second, that it really doesn't matter WHAT the box art looks like: Trekkies everywhere (myself included) should be dancing around the room naked for shear joy that this series, long considered the bastard stepchild of the
Trek franchise, is FINALLY coming to DVD!
And when is that? Okay, enough editorializing: on to the news: Our industry sources tell us that Paramount Home Entertainment has revealed to retailers that the pencilled-in street date for
Star Trek: The Animated Series - The Complete Series is:
November 21st
Note that this date is still subject to change. Will there be any extras? We don't know. Two years ago there were
reports of this set being in the works then, "
with commentaries from cast and writers." But it was later
revealed that the DVD plans at the time were those of subscription-club Columbia House. Since then CH has shut down those plans, and indeed shut down their entire TV-DVD subscription program, we're told by members. So this release started from scratch with Paramount Home Entertainment, and we can't count on the special features being included that a separate entity was planning on but never produced. We certainly hope that the extras will be there, but right now we're just not sure.
I'm very, VERY excited about this release (can you tell?), and hope to stay on top of this and bring you all the details very soon now. Stay tuned!
