Star Trek, the Original Series - The Complete Third Season (DVD)

With the final release in the original "Star Trek" series, Paramount Pictures has given fans a set they can proudly display on their shelves and with this final set they also give fans a look at "Star Trek" history with two different versions of the original series pilot that never actually saw the air.

With 24 episodes including the well known episode where Captain Kirk and Lt. Nyota Uhura make television history with the very first interracial kiss plus an episode where Spock somehow has his brain stolen, go imagine. The 24 episodes that make up the third and final season of "Star Trek" are well-worthy of the series and with the addition of the pilot episode, "The Cage," and the excellent packaging all these box sets have come in this is a pleasing conclusion to the newly restored versions.

On top of the episodes, as with the prior two releases, the special features take a special look behind-the-scenes of the show and the third season, which almost never happened. After listening to the featurettes on the eighth disc in the set you would almost think the third season was a failure as it almost never happened and due to poor television ratings and a 10pm Friday night timeslot, the whole team seemed totally downtrodden on even speaking about the season.

The best of the bunch is listening to Nichelle Nichols talk about the interracial kiss and William Shatner's attempts to ensure it saw daylight on television. Another great moment was listening to James Doohan (Scotty) talk about his time on the series and what it meant to him, even though he is not in the best of shape, health wise, in the interview, it is nice to see him talk about the series one last time.

The presentation of "The Cage" is probably going to be a Trek fan's ultimate highlight in this set as their is a fully restored, color version of the episode on the disc as well as an original feature, which includes bits and pieces of the original black-and-white production, at least what was left of it. For those not familiar with what "The Cage" is, it is the first pilot shot for "Star Trek", a pilot episode that was not picked up. Footage from the episode was used to create the two-part episode "The Menagerie" in season one and it is quite impressive to watch the one and then the other, just to see what they did to put the old footage to good use.

On top of those features you also get to listen to the egocentric Mr. Sulu, a look at an ultimate "Star Trek" collector, production art from the season and much more. This is a good bit of nostalgia for semi-Trek fans and a great gift idea for all those Trekkies out there this Christmas.