Star Trek - The Motion Pictures (Special Edition) (DVD, 2005, 20-Disc set)

I grew up on the original Star Trek series on TV, and like many girls my age, couldn't decide which of the main male characters I was most in love with. I was not ultimately enthralled with the spin off series that came later; it seemed that they were trying way too hard, and the original innocence of the story was lost.

Later, when the movies started coming to the theater, it was like a gift to be able to see the original characters in their original roles, and for the most part the innocence of the story was carried to the movies as well. I have to admit to having seen only the first four of the movies, so the opportunity to purchase all ten on DVD was just too good to pass up.

The format is in Widescreen, which is not my favorite; I prefer Full Screen movies so that there is no distracting black band at the top and bottom of the screen. I also have no desire to acquire one of the cumbersome space-hog Widescreen televisions; they are ugly and unwieldy in addition to being one of those items that takes an unreasonable amount of space for whatever benefit it supposedly provides.

Even considering the second-choice format, the purchase of the set is now an indispensible part of my video library; I am one of those who can watch a movie over and over and still be entertained by it, which is why it is my preference to own rather than rent these movies. The ten of them each have the thicker covers with excellent graphics and the heavy clear covers over them, and each of the ten contains a second DVD of special features, so you get a total of 20 DVDs for many hours of first rate viewing.

I would recommend this purchase to anyone who loved the original TV series as well as anyone who was thrilled by the second series; I guarantee that it will be a priceless part of your movie collection. I would also recommend it to people who are too young to remember the original TV series so that they can get at least an idea of how it all started. The original series was actually responsible for some ground-breaking television in social ways as well as being one of the best futuristic series of the past century; it left earlier characters like Flash Gordon and series like Lost In Space looking like the poorly done pretenders that they were.

This is a must have for anyone who enjoys movies in the futuristic space venue, and also for people who are tired of movies that want to make you socially aware, to make you think and consider aspects of our actual lives. Movies are supposed to entertain unconditionally without requiring you to ponder the ramifications later; our day to day lives make us do that already, and we watch movies for a respite from that, however brief. This set will do that admirably, and leave you wanting to find other movies in the same venue.

I much prefer buying boxed sets over finding the movies in a series one at a time. I am impatient by nature and do not have the tolerance for being denied one part of a series because of current unavailability; I want what I want, and I want it all together, right now, in one neat package.

So make space on one of your DVD storage shelves, and buy this set for yourself. If the seasons of the original TV series are either now or in the future available, I will certainly buy those as well, and would recommend that you do the same. To own the entire package, thereby owning an entire concept from start to finish, would round this boxed set out perfectly.