All three seasons of this show were somewhat recently released on DVD, so what's so special about this version, besides the fact that it is on HD DVD? A group of Paramount employees started a project a year or so ago remastering the original series' negatives. Besides just cleaning up the film to get rid of stains and scratches, the group also enhanced many of the visual effects from the show and removed quite a few of the short cuts used when the series had little or no budget.
On the first disc, there is a feature called "Spacelift: Transporting Trek into the 21st Century" that explains many, if not all, of the changes the team did to the show. When I first heard about this project, I, like many fans, felt like Paramount was messing with history and was seriously worried about how the "improvements" would turn out. Let me say this, the enhancements were pretty good, and since the previous DVD release contained all of the original footage, there is still the option to go back and watch that if need be. The most obvious change is that all of the external shots of the Enterprise have been replaced with CG shots, that while looking good, feel very computer generated. There was some kind of simple eloquence about the model that was previously used - it felt more real. Besides the model change, a lot of the on-planet shots that had very bland backgrounds have been touched up and enhanced so that the backgrounds are "what they were supposed to be."
While this boxed set has everything from Kirk's first encounter with Khan in "Space Seed" to the crew's discovery of a duplicate Earth in "Miri," what is noticeably missing is the original pilot "The Cage" featuring Christopher Pike as the ship's captain instead of Kirk. Of course, the call-back two-part episode, "The Menagerie" is there, but it would have been nice to see Pike both walking and in HD.
One of the best parts of this boxed set is that it not only has the series in HD DVD, but each disc also has a Standard DVD version of it on the other side. So if you're a trekker who hasn't had a chance to pick up series yet, but you don't have an HD DVD player yet either, this is still a viable purchase. But be aware, the dual-formatted discs come at a high price. This isn't really a cheap collection, at least not for a single season of a show.
