Our friends over at
TrekMovie.com and
The Digital Bits have cross-posted reports this morning, following up on recent news out of Norway about high definition Blu-ray Disc releases of the first group of
Star Trek theatrical films, and for classic "TOS"
Star Trek - Season 1 episodes as well.
The word from Region 2 yesterday, originally posted at the www.Release.no (the ".no" suffix indicates Norway) and relayed at The Bits, was that this May 13th would see Blu-ray Disc releases over in Europe of both the first season set, and a group of the six "Kirk & Spock" films (but possibly not all of them). Our good friend Bill Hunt, who runs The Digital Bits, had much more to say about the movie-related releases, for those of you interested. Since TVShowsOnDVD does not cover theatrical films here (even when they spun off of television properties), we're going to skip that stuff and move on to what was said about the TV episodes. Visit the links above, though, to get their scoop about what's happening with the movies.
The upshot, though, is that the new J.J. Abrams-produced
Star Trek film will premiere at the box office on May 8th, and that the Blu-ray releases of the original
Trek films will probably occur in May here in the USA as well, just in time to tie in with the new cinema event. But what is significant to us is that TrekMovie and The Bits have posted that
Star Trek - Season 1 is likely to arrive on the same
May day as the films would. That date hasn't been revealed yet, but speculation here is that it would either be the 5th or the 12th, which are the Tuesdays just before and just after the new movie's debut. Here is the exact quote from TrekMovie.com:
TOS coming to Blu-ray
The biggest news we’ve learned is that CBS will finally release Star Trek: The Original Series - Season One on Blu-ray on the same street date in May as the movies. The release is currently planned to include both the original broadcast versions as well as the new Remastered versions of each episode. If this happens as planned, it’s obviously very cool news, though we’re still waiting to hear whether the Blu-rays will include all of the special features that were offered with the previous DVD and HD-DVD/DVD Combo releases of the series.
The biggest tidbit in there is that it would include both the "remastered" episodes, complete with new special effects in selected scenes, and the original "as-aired" versions of the first season's stories...something that wasn't available in the HD-DVD release of the same title. There's no certain word yet on what the bonus material would look like on this release. And no definite package art for a North America/Region 1 set, either, as the studio hasn't announce it yet. However, due to popular demand, below we relay the picture seen at Release.no, TheDigitalBits.com and TrekMovie.com of the Region 2
Star Trek - Season 1 package. It may or may not reflect the packaging that CBS DVD and Paramount Home Entertainment decide upon for the USA release, so take it with a grain of salt. But it is fun to look at, isn't it?
Our thanks to our friends Bill Hunt of The Digital Bits, and Editor-in-Chief Anthony Pascale of TrekMovie (two extremely reputable websites), and to every one of our readers who e-mailed this morning (there were a TON of you!) for info about this story. When will the studio make an official announcement? Well, Paramount hasn't even released info about their April titles just yet, so it seems like we're weeks away from formal word about anything that might happen in May (unless they jump this one up to the front of the line, considering it would be a more special announcement than many others). Stay tuned for updates, and we'll keep you filled in!
