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 - I call these The "Under" YearsUnderrated. Underdog. Underappreciated. Somewhere along the way Season Three got a bad wrap. People seem to view the budget cuts as a sort of "barometer of quality". Quite a shame, indeed. Often unmentioned are the characters stepping into the foreground and becoming total and complete. I'll take that over "fancy props" any day. Then again, even with the cuts, who can deny such ingenious and often amazing sets like Mr. AtoZ and his Atavacron? I suppose I could rail on about how Seinfeld's new boxset has so many extras I should live as long as it would take to watch them and these boxsets tepid excuse for them:) But I won't. I'd much rather converse about Joanne Linvilles absolutely perfect performance as the Romulan Commander or Sharon Smith's show ending and heart stopping (all at once:) perfect finale. It's far more fun and far more productive. Who can forget Spectre of the Gun? The Cloud Minders?? All My Yesterdays??? I will say, the sets are priced too high compared with other shows on the market, then again, Paramount really did a nice job on the packaging. This Season may contain the most shows I dislike the most but it still is an absolute buy, so why split hairs? Lastly, I must mention Spocks Brain (the episode:). I honestly do not see what the fuss is all about. IMO, the Paradise Syndrome, which is even on the same disc as Spocks Brain is FAR FAR worse in terms of acting and story, and yet SB takes the media fall. It surely isn't my favorite, but the only truly regrettable thing about the show is Spock helping with the operation at the end. The rest of it has some basis for Science "Fiction" where as the Paradise Syndrome is so totally unfathomable... ok, tell me why the Enterprise will take 59 days to get back to Kirk because their Warp Drive is out and they DO NOT INFORM STARFLEET to send another ship...? I'm sorry, but 2 months...? The entire basis of the show is founded on a writer not knowing there are other ships in Starfleet! All the bells and whistles are here, 5.1DD, clear as crystal picture, and of course the nice sturdy/beautiful plastic case. Please buy this so Paramount will stop making new editions:) Edit: More Lore; Ok, in All Our Yesterdays people (even Nimoy) seem to have a problem with Mr. Spock eating meat. Why? The story fully explained why, because he was reverting to his primitive past. Also, in The Cloud Minders, Spocks flirtatious relationship can be explaied: A. Droxine points out her race are intellectual peers to Vulcans and B. Spock IS half HUMAN for gosh sakes, that half must peak out from time to time and I see no harm or foul in it presenting itself here. Rating:  - Lazy, poorly edited & disappointing extras... It's already been stated again & again how Season 3 of "Star Trek" is by far the weakest. It would have been nice if the makers of the extras involved in this new DVD release saw fit to trumpet the few merits it had, but overall, the extras are amazingly weak for such a high-priced set... lazily written, with questionable interviews that either are irrelevent, poorly edited or just plain depressing. First off, when I say depressing, I mean the James Doohan interview, made within the past year. While I'm sure some fans will relish owning what looks like to be his last interview, for others, it'll simply be a sad experience. Mr. Doohan was such a powerful, jolly, energetic personality over the years, but it's a shame to see old age and Alzheimer's take such a dramatic toll on him physically. His mind still seems to be sharp, but his speech and appearance have been SEVERELY affected, and what should have been a fun interview instead turns out to be extremely poignant to watch. Just a little too much of a downer. While certainly no one can fault Mr. Doohan, the makers of the other extras have a lot to answer for. The "Making of Season 3" featurette is way too brief and not the least bit comprehensive, covering familiar ground that any self-respecting Trekkie will know already. Curiously, interviews with the likes of Shatner and Nichols seem to go on FOREVER, with very little editing to break up the monotony as they ramble (Shatner about having a cold--huh???... and Nichols taking forever to get to the point about "Plato's Stepchildren"), all while intrusive TREK music is blasted in the background, in a very distracting way that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the interview at hand. Oddly, the featurette ends with NO music playing whatsoever over the credits, where it SHOULD HAVE BEEN in the first place. Disappointingly, all the extras can be watched within the course of an hour or two. George Takei makes his umpteenth pitch for a "Captain Sulu" TV series, while Walter Koenig wastes our time showing us his Big Little Book and pin collections (I'm not kidding... what this has to do with "Star Trek," I don't know). There is a nice little featurette about a prop maker who turned his TREK hobby into a real Hollywood job, while Eugene Roddenberry Jr. is interviewed for what is essentially a fluff piece--his take on what TREK means. Maybe nice to watch once, but hardly intriguing stuff. The "Production Art" option, featuring various TREK sketches by Matt Jeffries, is a neat-enough time-waster, but I was extremely frustrated by the "Red Shirt Logs" Easter Eggs. I assumed, because of the name, that this would be a humorous look back at all the red-shirt security guards that got knocked off during the course of TREK's 3-year run... instead, we're treated to outtakes from earlier interviews of Shatner, Takei, et al. Quite frankly, I was too annoyed to bother sitting through all of them. Finally, the text commentary by the Okudas, while always informative, are only on TWO episodes, and curious choices at that ("The Savage Curtain" and "Turnabout Intruder"). Where are the archive interviews with Gene Roddenberry as to why the third season failed and TREK was ultimately cancelled? Or DeForest Kelley, explaining why "The Empath" was one of his favorite episodes? As another reviewer has already mentioned, why haven't they digitally remastered and cleaned-up the famous "Star Trek" bloopers? Surely there are guest stars from Season Three that could have been interviewed? Isn't Michael Ansara still alive, for pete's sake??? If you don't already own Volumes 29-40 of the earlier STAR TREK DVD releases, then I suppose you're going to have to get this new box set anyway... it's definitely the cheaper way to go. However, if you already own them and are looking to upgrade to this set, do yourself a favor and HOLD ON TO THEM FOR NOW and simply wait until the price comes WAAAAAAY down on this new set and try to buy it used. To be blunt, the extras just aren't worth it. Rating:  - Big letdown from the second season The third, and last, season was in general a huge disappointment from the peak it reached in the second season. Some of the worst episodes of the series are found in the embarassing "Spock's Brain" and the unintentionally hilariously bad episode of the space hippies search for a nonexistent galactic Eden. There are far more disasters than Picassos in this season. It was evident that the writers and other creative people were running on fumes and the series clearly had jumped the shark. Stick with the first 2 seasons for consistent entertainment. Rating: - Great valueThis collection is a must have for all fans of the original Star Trek series. These collections (1st, 2nd & 3rd seasons) represent a great value with around 6 discs, and 4 episodes each, plus bonus features discs, they represent the quintessential collection for die hard fans of this classic 60's TV series. With superb video quality (digitally mastered?) and a slick menu interface, you can't beat these complete season collections. Rating:  - Another great set, but I've got a few complaintsDespite its well-discussed high points, there is little room for doubt that season 3 is inferior to its predecessors. But for fans of Star Trek, and science fiction television in general, this is still a must-have. For one thing, the supplemental materials outshine even the season 1 & 2 sets. I particularly enjoyed the piece on Star Trek's cultural impact, and the one about the Trek collector designing his own props. And if you don't tear up just a bit watching how frail James Doohan has become, you are (as Kirk might observe) "a Klingon bast**d." Now I have TWO complaints, levelled at Paramount. With the (mostly) fantastic job you guys did on the picture and sound, how could you POSSIBLY have not cleaned up some of the space footage? In many instances, our beloved Enterprise looks terribly grainy, as if shot with an old Super 8 movie camera under low light. With today's technology, there's just no excuse for it. And by the way, seasons 1 and 2 suffer from the same problem. The other thing is: We've probably all seen the infamous Trek "bloopers" reel at conventions and on bootleg tapes. Wouldn't that have made a great extra on the DVD's? Now...how about the last two years of the "five year mission" on DVD? True fans will know that I'm talking about the ANIMATED SERIES. A logical choice, no?
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