Star Trek: The Original 4 Movie Collection [4K UHD] [2021]

When it comes to Star Trek, we haven’t had much in the way of quality in some time. We’ve had to suffer through poor film transfers in 2009, the television shows Discovery and Picard as well as a god awful Rick & Morty wanna-be show, Lower Decks. It’s a sad time for the franchise and felt like a lost cause for older fans, like myself. It’s because of this that the announcement of the first four Star Trek movies in 4k came as one big surprise. Now that they have arrived, I am shocked to see how bad those old bluray discs really were.

As mentioned above, this box-set contains new stunning 4k transfers of the first four movies. This obviously includes The Motion Picture, Wrath of Khan (both theatrical and director’s cuts), The Search For Spock and The Voyage Home. All four movies are not just represented here as 4k movies, but also as standard bluray editions. These editions are downscales of the new 4k releases and feature all the extras, none of which are feature on the 4k discs themselves. The packaging is fairly simple. It’s two plastic cases, one for the 4k and another for the standard bluray discs. These are housed in a very colourful cardboard box with some interesting art.

As far as the actual video content is concerned, this is without a doubt the best these movies have ever looked. It’s a striking contrast to the previously released 2009 bluray’s and it is kind of shocking that Star Trek fans put up with those prints for so long. They’re atrocious in comparison. All four films have had the film grain, contrast and colour restored to how it should look. This gives us a nice range of detail and depth, to the likes we’ve never seen in these movies. Long gone are the weird colour and contrast issues, preserving the fantastic model work, costumes, sets etc.

There’s many scenes that will have star ship enthusiasts drooling from every possible orifice. The multiple flyby’s of the Enterprise refit, the battle in the Mutara nebula, the fly by over V’Ger, the reveal of the Klingon Bird of Prey, return to space dock etc are all fantastic. The clarity and detail is impressive with many little things to see that you’d never have seen in any other format. Especially when it comes to the gigantic mass that is V’Ger.

There is a moment or two where the screen looks a little soft. These are usually in the effects heavy shots but they are very much few and far between and only for a couple of seconds at a time. You can read multiple complaints about these scenes online and even see detailed pictures. But when these scenes are in motion, they all look fine and don’t take anything away from any of the films.

As far as I’m aware, the audio used for these editions is the same as the previous discs. These include a number of audio tracks, including 7.1 Dolby TrueHD for all the films and multiple language options. The 7.1 tracks all sound magnificent, especially when cranked up loud with a heavy sub woofer. It does a good job of preserving the excellent scores whilst not over powering the dialogue, atmospheric sound effects etc. The quieter moments on the bridge all sound excellent. You can hear all the bleeps and bloops of the computers spread out along the soundscape from the back speakers to the front, all the while the subwoofer hums with the engine noise and the dialogue comes out the centre channel. It’s extremely immersive and doesn’t sound like it’ll get old anytime soon.

This box-set is honestly a no brainer. The jump in quality from previous releases is shocking and is well worth the upgrade for real Star Trek fans. This set brings new life to The Motion Picture and shows us that it isn’t as drab and dull looking as we were led to believe. It brings new life to an old under appreciated movie whilst making the classics look just as good. If you don’t have a 4k television yet, this may be that push over the hill that you need. It’s a fantastic set that does an incredible job of preserving some of the finest science fiction movies of our time.