Any word on whther store releases will have bonus discs? Like all the Trek sets at Best Buy have had? Didn't see it even listed in the circular.

This has always been the red-headed stepson of STAR TREK, so why would the studio or retailers exalt it now?

I can think of one reason: $$$$$$$

If this is true, can the Star Wars Holiday Special be far behind?

The Star Wars Holiday Special is the creepy molesting uncle you never invite.

Lucas is holding out for an HD release to make sure that every wrinkle on Bea Arthur is displayed as he originally intended.

Just got ST:TAS today. My collection is complete (for now).

Does the case match the TOS cases?

Case is not exactly the same. About the same height and width but not as deep and squarer packaging. Still has rounded edges but not like the TOS packaging.

That's wrong on so many levels. Actually, I thought it was so we could see the traces of cocaine under Carrie's nose.

Wrong; I answered his question with the very first reply.

God, I'd love the Star Wars Holiday Special on DVD...with commentary from Lucas, or any of it's tortured cast members.

I asked Mark Hamill about it once at a convention, "What was it like on that set? Were people depressed?" He wouldn't speak of it.

An odd thing in the "Yesteryear" episode description, "Mr." Spock is referred to as "Dr." Spock. I'll admit to being pretty ignorant about the animated series, but was he ever a Dr.? If not that is a pretty big gaffe. On another note, has anyone checked out the episodes? How do they look?

Nah, you just asked another question (which was answered )

Are you talking about packaging description? If so, it's likely some copywriter's spellcheck auto-corrected "Mr. Spock". While I'm sure Spock had the equivelant of several doctorates, he was always "Mister", or "Commander/Captain".

Thanks for the straight answer. I appreciate it.

The transfers look very good, considering this is 30 year old animation. If you can look past the re-use of stock footage and soundtrack, the episodes themselves are very good. Menus are nicely animated and the 5.1 sound, while not likely to rattle windows, is a small improvement from the Dolby Surround on the old VHS tapes (I also own the whole series on VHS).

For those new to TAS, some of the writing was fantastic. Particularly strong episodes include Yesteryear, Albatross, The Slaver Weapon and The Pirates of Orion. I have not yet checked out the documentaries on Disc 4, but will this weekend.

"The Slaver Weapon" rocks! It really says something that it is my favorite episode of the animated series and it doesn't even feature my favorite TREK character (Captain Kirk).

I ordered this from DVD Planet using the 20% off deal. I really loved this series back when I first got to watch it on Nick in I guess the 80s. Glad to have it on DVD.

Also interesting in that it was the only episode of Trek (any incarnation) to be adapted directly from an already-published sf story (the original is a Larry Niven "Known Space" story, and if you want to read more about the Slavers and the Kzin, there's plenty where that came from).

It was very strange to see the characters from the original story become Star Trek characters.

RichC

Wasn't "Arena" (original series) adapted from a short story by Frederic Brown?

Although most die hard Trekkers agree that Yesteryear was the best of the animated episodes, The Slaver Weapon is a close #2. It brought in the concept of an empire that ruled the galaxy long before man evolved, and how their technology, in the wrong modern day hands, could have the potential to change the balance of power in the universe.

I knew it was adapted from Niven, but didnt know he had delved into the Kzin and the Slavers as races. Guess I'll need to hit Borders and do some reading over the holidays.

Its interesting in that when I reflected on all the episodes from TOS and TAS when thinking about where they might take TNG movies, that Slaver Weapon and the concepts in it kept coming to mind. The ideas/elements in that 22 minute episode could have fleshed out a nice motion picture....

That's why I said the word "adapted directly." Maybe I should have said "intentionally." Here's a Wkipedia reference:

"Brown's story was not actually the basis for the episode (though it may have been an unconscious inspiration). After Coon had written what he thought was an original script, Desilu's research department noted the similarity. A quick telephone call to Brown got him to agree to accept story credit. "

It seems most likely that someone just made a mistake and mixed up Mr. Spock's name with the famous pediatrician Dr. Spock and no one caught the error.

(And, due to this, Spock would never ever be called "Dr. Spock" due to that form of the name already being taken by a famous real-life individual. In fact, Spock being frequently called "Mr. Spock" was probably done to avoid confusion between the two.)