Although die-hard Trekkers won’t need incentives to pick up the second season of the original Star Trek on DVD, Paramount offers plenty, starting with bright, crisp transfers (all the episodes in this box set are valentines to late-’60s, “In living color!”–period TV, particularly the highly theatrical “Amok Time,” “Who Mourns for Adonais?” and “The Apple”). The set also devotes a whole disc to the show’s most popular hour, the comedic “The Trouble with Tribbles,” which finds the Enterprise crew hip-deep in furry, insatiable critters. This disc includes “Trials and Tribble-ations,” the time-travel episode from Deep Space Nine that used nostalgically re-created sets and digital effects to join the casts of the two series; and “More Tribbles, More Troubles,” from Star Trek’s 1973–74 animated incarnation. The former is detailed in two making-of featurettes; the latter boasts an informative, amusing commentary by David Gerrold, who wrote both the original and the animated Tribble episodes and had a cameo in the Deep Space Nine installment.
Other extras include an appreciation of the interplay among Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy; portraits of costar Nichelle Nichols (a.k.a. Lt. Uhura) and story editor D.C. Fontana (Gerrold’s mentor); and a short documentary about the production design. Note to purists: This set is taken from the remastered 2006 syndicated episodes, which beefed up the space imagery and certain view-screen shots with CGI effects. They’re faithful to the series’s design and color palette, and thus not too obtrusive, but hard-core fans may still miss the endlessly recycled footage of the original starships with their chunky black matte lines.