Star Trek The Original Series - The Complete Third Season (1966)

If you love Star Trek, the DVD series is a must have

Outstanding idea to come out w. the original series on DVD. I own all 3 seasons. Well written, great plotlines and characters - this show was ahead of its time in addressing social issues such as prejudice, custom and tradition, disaster, grief, power, gluttony, etc.

The special effects are not so bad in the 3rd season, as per the first, but this was the way that things were done back in the day. The series does not have to hang its hat on explosions and such to carry itself. June 19, 2008

Too Far Ahead of Its Time

After the first two seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series, the show was set to be cancelled by its network. However, after receiving a flood of letters from devoted fans that wanted to keep the show on the air, the network renewed it for one more season. Of course, since the show was not the culutural phenomena that it has now become, the network buried it in a late-night time slot and forced creator Gene Roddenberry to operate on a shoe-string budget. As a result, the special effects or sets that are needed in a show which regularly shows viewers spectacular events are severely hampered in this season. One episode takes place in an empty Enterprise, one is set in a pitch-black room much of the time, and another takes place in a deserted old West town (as no money existed to pay extras).

Yet, for fans of the first two seasons, this Third Season still delivers some great action, mind-bending drama, and little doses of humor. It is only the physical environment of the scripts that go downhill...not necessarily the scripted material itself.

Here are what I consider to be the highlights of this Third Season:

Day of the Dove: The Enterprise continues its battle with the Klingons.

All Our Yesterdays: Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are thrown into different periods of past galaxies and forced to survive while trying to find a way home.

Turnabout Intruder: A body-switching tale that, while common fare now, had probably never been seen on TV to that point.

To conclude, the Third Season of Star Trek: TOS continued to produce some great dramatic TV hours, but was severely hampered by budgetary issues. Is it still worth your time? An emphatic "Yes"! Essentially, the show was so far ahead of its time that viewers did not know how to handle the "mature" (by 1960s standards!) themes it presented (i.e. many people boycotted the show because they thought Spock represented Satan due to his long ears!), thus its viewerships problems. It wouldn't be until the release of the major motion pictures in the 1970s and 1980s (after space travel was a well-established reality in this country) that Star Trek become the phenomena it is today. June 8, 2008

.....much maligned and misunderstood

No one seems able to write a positive, straight forward review about Star Trek's much maligned Third Season. As the media seem incapable or unwilling to run articles about Birmingham without the need to accompany absurd pictures of Sphagetti Junction, so Season Three is forever handicapped by the casual image of Mr Spock lobotomised without a single loss of hair!

Most observers tend to agree that the majority of the episodes in Season Three are ultimately lacking and the season's unbelievable opener (Spocks Brain) was certainly indicative of the substantial drop in quality to come. But the real betrayal was to sacrifice Star Trek's literary format, continuity and characterisation by foolishly exploiting Spock's box office potential at every opportunity and in doing so, the final season suffered a dreadful lack of plausibility and credibilty. And yet despite this, there remains an artistic voice about Season Three which few observers readily identify. In episodes such as "The Tholian Web", "Spectre of the Gun" and "All Our Yesterdays" you will find delicious, thoughtful scripts to rival any storyline from the revered First Season. Sadly, these gems are buried deep inside a mass of bland mediocrity, which is such a shame as Season Three contains some of Star Trek's greatest adventures (possibly as many as three of the all-time Top 10). Despite the obvious inadequacies, the final season is still in parts an enjoyable experience and worthy of repeated viewing.

The 7-disc DVD boxset is nicely packaged with all the bells and whistles you would expect - featurettes, retrospectives and commentaries. The discs are easy to navigate through with on screen menus resembling perspectives of the Enterprise bridge - a nice touch, but screen characters appear highly pixelated and lack smoothness around the edges. May 7, 2008

This is what I've been waiting for!

I haven't watched the 1st or 2nd season dvd's yet. I ordered the 3rd season because it has my favorite episodes. Spocks Brain and The Tholian web are 2 of my favorites. I really like The Enterprise Incident, where the Enterprise enters the Romulan Neutral Zone, Kirk disguises as a Romulan, Spock gets lucky and they steal the Romulan cloaking device. Way to go Spock! The video and audio quality is great. The packaging is good too. I especially like the video trailers. I can't remember the titles of some of the episodes so the trailers are a good preview. Some other reviews say that the 1st and 2nd seasons got higher ratings. If they are as good as the 3rd season, I'll probably buy them too.

Live long and prosper! May 2, 2008

Staar Trek Season 3 Review

The DVD series is great and the price was excellent. Cheaper than I could buy it for in any store. April 25, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...