Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Whoever thought of this at CBS Video should be ashamed. I love Star Trek. I have watched every episode multiple times. I recently began to watch the series with my kids and they love it too. We rented episodes of the 2004 series on DVD. These were great--5 stars. The original episodes, in their original format, with the original songs, the original visuals of the ship, everything. Totally Awesome! We were renting so much I decided to take the plunge and buy the series. The 2004 wasn't available easily (you can find it on E-bay and used from Amazon), so I got the 2007 series. I figured "remastered" meant better picture. I could not be more disappointed. Where to start.... Let's start with the simple--There are *NO* labels on the DVDs. 1. Each DVD has no label on it whatsoever (unless you count the illegible 2 point font ring around the center). Unlike the 2004 release (which had both the title of each episode and cool pictures on each DVD) these DVDs have nothing. So, you are confronted with the problem of what episode on which disk. Should I label them with a sharpie, etc... Better not because ... Season 1 has the defunct HD DVD on one side (the one that plays when the tiny font ring is facing up) and regular DVD on the other. The rest of the DVDs have the normal format on the side that plays when the font ring is facing up. Confused? Read on! The DVD's are packaged in a clear hinged case that is like a stack. You cannot tell which DVD is which, which episode is on which DVD. You cannot separate the individual cases from the stack. This is such exceedingly bad design (especially given that they did such a nice job in 2004) it is maddening. There is no apparent way to label the DVDs either. There is a set of translucent plastic "playing cards" at the back of each of the three stacks corresponding to each season. These don't fit in the DVD case and you have to pull them out each time to see what episode is on what DVD. Arg!! Now for the Heresy--these episodes have all been ALTERED! 2. ***ALL*** scenes of the Enterprise (and other ships/stations and planets) have been removed and replaced with digitized versions of the ship, a la "Star Trek TNG". (the sole exception is the 2 second clip of the ship that appears in the trailer of each episode). This is supposed to be a "feature," and I suppose it is for folks who never actually saw the original series. I cannot emphasize this enough. They have removed every single shot of the ship and replaced it with digitized versions. Gone are the cool hokey wobbly ship scenes from "The Galileo Seven," and the paper mache cone from "The Doomsday Machine". Replaced with digitized stuff. It frankly beggars the imagination to understand folks who rejoice in this set! Really, the original show was great, no need to redo it. Even if one likes the new digitized ships, the poor packaging and lack of labels on the DVDs would limit this to at the most 3 stars. Oh yes, the intro classic Star Trek theme has been redone. Suppose that is the coup de gras to all the mangling. Finally, they seem to have removed the English subtitles in this version (a real pain for watching via a DVD player on the plane or when you need to keep the sound down). Yes, the 2004 version had very nice English subtitles. There is closed captioning in the 2007 release, but that feature doesn't work on most DVD players, just TV sets. My personal theory is that all the 5* reviews are execs or shills of CBS Video, its affiliates, or folks interested in pushing the release of the new JJ Abrams Star Trek movie. Otherwise, it is baffling. Summary--go thou and find the 2004 release, it is really cool and your kids will appreciate you for it.