Star Trek

This question is about the movies with the original cast. I read a review about the DVD box set that said some of the movies did not have directors cut. does the blu ray versions have directors or is the blue ray versions the same as the DVD versions ?

The Blu-rays of the original movies are the Theatrical Releases.

Star Trek The Motion Picture on the DVD is a director's edition where new special effects were added and some scenes were re-cut, actually shorter than the theatrical release.

Wrath of Kahn on DVD is a director's or extended cut where a small amount of extra footage is added.

The rest of the original movie DVDs are theatrical releases, not director's cuts.

This is to the best of my knowledge and off the top of my head. I own both sets.

There exists a 1983 television cut of The Motion Picture that is 12min longer than the theatrical release, but you would have to find that on VHS or yes...BETA.

Actually, with respect to Rawscoe, he/she is partially mistaken. The original double disc editions of the films are the directors cuts, but The Motion Picture, Wrath of Kahn and The Undiscovered Country are longer with the director's versions.

The Undiscovered Country really suffers significantly with the scenes missing in the theatrical versions.

The other films didn't have a director's cut, at least not that I'm aware of.

I've watched the originals and the director's cuts, and the director's cuts are WAY better. Unfortunately yes, the new dvds and the blu ray set are the same and they are both the original editions. I really hope that one day they do a blu ray of the director's cuts for 1, 2 and 6.

Good points Sora, you sent me running down to my DVD shelf to try and sort this all out in my head. (and I am a he)

First, regarding The Motion Picture, I should have been more clear when I was referring to the Director's Edition being shorter. You are correct the running time of the movie is longer than the theatrical release. What I was referring to; and not very well at that, was that Mr. Wise had actually shortened some of the acting scenes in the Director's Edition. Two scenes to compare:

1) Kirk asking Uhura to "Viewer Off" on the rec deck, in the theatrical release he says it a second time sounding irritated, which is not in the Director's.

2) "Klingon Imperial Cruiser Amar Continuing to attack", part of Epsilon 9's observation of the Klingons encountering V'Ger, another line missing from the Director's edition.

As I said you are correct, the running time in the Director's Edition is longer, but due to the additional and improved special effects, the actor's screen time is actually shorter.

Regarding the two disc DVD Editions, if you look closely on the spine, only TMP and TWOK are titled Director's Editions, the rest including TUC, are tiltled as Collector's Editions and have no additional footage. The quality of these editions over the original DVDs is a marked improvement including importantly widescreen versions.

Regarding The Undiscovered Country. The original DVD and the Two Disc Collecor's Edition, and the Blu-Ray all list the same running time of 113min. But I did remember seeing additional scenes somewhere, and agreeing that they were a benefit to the film. I looked back at a VHS copy of the film I have, and that is the only reference to an additional 3min of footage added. I have not watched the separate releases and especially the VHS in a long time. I cannot confirm if that additional 3min was incorporated into the DVDs/Blu-Ray. Maybe you can confirm that. (I don't think it was).

Well, I think it's safe to say we have hijacked the intent of the original post and I hope Jim doesn't mind. I am trying to bone back up on all things Trek as I am going to go to the Vegas Convention next year. I am really enjoying conversations of this type. 

hahaha Alright, yeah I see what you were saying now. That makes sense.

And yeah, what it is, and I'm not entirely sure why, the original Undiscovered Country is in the normal Letterbox widescreen format, and then the double disc is in this wierd warped 16:9 apspect, but not completely 16:9, it's just weird.

Now I actually do own all of the older 2 disc versions of every Trek movie, and I also have the new releases that are of the theatrical versions, and yes in the older Star Trek VI edition, there is additional footage.

Michael Dorn gets more screen time, and in the theatrical release, I don't think Rene Aberjonis has any screentime at all, and in the extended version he plays an Admiral in the film.

The scenes that are not included in the theatrical version really take away from the film, because it's more or less showing us Kitomer or some form of a prelude to it. The scenes added even though it is only 3 to 4 minutes of footage really adds to the plot.

I really reccomend watching both versions. I don't mind cut footage if it doesn't affect the plot, but in this case it really does. At least I think so.

I've held off getting any of the Trek blu-rays, other than the 2009 film, because I really want all the extended director's versions in blu ray. And I haven't gotten TOS or TNG on blu ray yet because I want to see if DS9-ENT and TAS will be released in blu ray as well. I am very OCD about completion, and I want the whole franchise in blu ray, not just some of it. So I'm just biding my time. I have the dvds to every season and every movie, and would be perfectly happy to buy it all again, but again I want all of Star Trek in it's entireity, not just bits and pieces of it.

Thanks for all the info

Happy to help