roddenberry-vaultParamount/CBS Home Entertainment, out December 5

A whole new perspective on the original series of Star Trek…

The very simple version of this review is: if you are a Star Trek fan, then you need to buy this and enjoy every moment of the new material that’s on show.

There are plenty of anecdotes from and enjoyable interviews with those involved on both sides of the camera, and they’ll hold your interest depending on how steeped you are in the lore of the series, but it’s the new footage that’s interspersed into the six short documentaries that will blow you away. It’s stuff that we all knew must exist out there – some of it is material that’s been talked about in interviews, in terms of lost scenes, alternate takes and innumerable bloopers – but didn’t come to light until comparatively recently. At the same time as the CBS team were working on creating the remastered version of the original shows, replacing the effects footage with something deemed more suitable for the 21st century, some of the same people were also going through this footage, showing sides to the original series that hadn’t seen the light of day before. It’s not Blu-ray quality footage – but frankly, who cares? It’s new material featuring Shatner, Nimoy et al!

On top of this treasure trove comes a beautiful presentation of 12 classic episodes, with isolated music tracks (on all bar one) and three new audio commentaries – with writer Dorothy Fontana on This Side of Paradise with Gabrielle Stanton; writer David Gerrold on The Trouble with Tribbles alongside David Goodman; and Roger Lay Jr. with uberfans Scott Mantz and Mark A. Altman on City on the Edge of Forever (of course they couldn’t get Harlan Ellison to do it; that really would have been a coup!). Think there’s nothing new to learn about these episodes? Think again.

Verdict: If you’re a Star Trek fan, make sure someone has put this on their Christmas list for you! Not to be missed. 10/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order The Roddenberry Vault from Amazon.co.uk