A bit of a note here, first: TVShowsOnDVD is a "Region 1" website: our focus is exclusively on DVDs made for sale in the USA and/or Canada, or on a very few releases that are A) TV Show episodes, B) Made for "All-Region" play (does not scan for region coding on the player), and C) is in "NTSC" video format for use on North American TV sets. So it is not often that we talk about overseas releases, but sometimes it is just necessary.
Enterprise is just such a situation. Over the weekend, folks in Europe got treated to
a post at "The R2 Project" website, showing off a picture of Scott Bakula as Captain Archer , and with a look at the Region 2 (European) packaging for the DVD set of
Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 1. To be fair, though, this wasn't the first time that this box design was seen. Two days earlier, Nelson Au - a sharp-eyed member of the Home Theater Forum discussion website - spotted (with help from the TrekWeb site)
an R2 Enterprise listing at HMV's e-tail site which contained slightly different pics of the same packaging (HMV is a British chain of music/video stores). Nelson then relayed that info to the folks at the Home Theater Forum. Thanks, Nelson!
Yesterday morning our good friends at the USA-oriented DVD website "The Digital Bits" posted
a news relay of The R2 Project's pics, with some additional info that has a bearing on North American customers:
We've got a little something interesting this morning for you Star Trek: Enterprise fans. Our friends at The R2 Project have gotten their hands on images of the DVD packaging for Star Trek: Enterprise - Season One over in Europe. It's a stylish sliver plastic outer shell, containing translucent plastic disc holders. Our sources are telling us it's likely to be the Region 1 packaging as well...
That final line intrigued us here at TVShowsOnDVD, so we contacted Paramount directly and asked about this. Paramount's brass, while upset at the early leak, did indeed confirm that this is the official Region 1 package in that artwork. Now that it's out anyway, Paramount is working on getting better pics together for the press to use. In the meantime, we've taken the scan from The R2 Project and isolated the packaging elements. Here's what it looks like:
Neat, eh? Don't forget that by the end of next year you will have all four currently existing seasons of
Enterprise on DVD, including the episodes which are airing right now! Here once more is Paramount's tentative schedule:
- Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 1: May 3, 2005
- Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 2: July 12, 2005
- Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 3: September 6, 2005
- Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 4: November 1, 2005
Bear in mind, please, that those dates are subject to change. So, for that matter, is the packaging, but Paramount's confirmation indicates to us that this is unlikely. It looks like this will be the design for all four seasons, marking one of the few times that a
Star Trek release overseas has had packaging that was released identically in the USA and Canada. They will certainly look interesting on the shelf, no doubt.
Stay tuned, and we'll bring you Paramount's new artwork, plus any additional details that become available, just as soon as we can. Our thanks to reader Mark Talmadge for his heads-up about the story at The Digital Bits, and our gratitude to Bill Hunt and The Bits website itself: they have certainly led the way with
Enterprise DVD information, no doubt in part to Bill's enthusiasm for the series. Our thanks also, of course, to the folks at The R2 Project and to their sources for the pics themselves.
