In the past few years, Paramount has re-released these early voyages of the starship Enterprise a few times. First, it was the standard DVD release in those big tricorder-like boxes. It wasn't long though before they were re-released because of an effort to remaster the original series and redo all of the special effects. The first season of that effort was released as an HD-DVD/DVD combo set where one side featured the DVDs of the shows and the other, the same remastered episodes in high definition. Well, this latest version of Star Trek - The Original Series: Season One doesn't feature a nifty DVD/Blu-ray combo disc, but it does put both the original and remastered versions of the shows together for the first time ever. So not only do you get to see the classic episodes in high definition (and this time with a format that should be around for a while), but if you prefer the original visuals over the remastered CG, then you don't really have to choose.

So what does Season One have to offer as far as shows are concerned? Well, not only is it a nice mix of time travel, strange new aliens and crazy diseases, but it also introduces villains like Khan, Klingons and Romulans. While this release doesn't contain the series' original pilot, "The Cage", featuring Christopher Pike as the captain (if these releases follow the remastered's pattern, that will show up in Season Three), it does have the two-parter, "The Menagerie." In these episodes, Spock kidnaps Pike and starts heading to a strange quarantined planet. During Spock's ensuing court-marshal, clips from "The Cage" are used to show why Spock felt he needed to return to the place where Pike was left wheelchair-bound and only being able to beep once for yes, and twice for no.

There are also quite a few special features scattered across the seven discs. "Spacelift: Transporting Trek in the 21st Century" is all about the enhancements made to the remastered versions of the show. These changes range from completely replacing The Enterprise as it flies through space, to cleaning up the planets in the background or even minor tweaks to phaser-fire and other special effects. Other featurettes include interviews with Leonard Nimoy in "Reflections on SpocK" and William Shatner in "Life Beyond Star Trek."

Ultimately, the question of whether or not you should get Star Trek - The Original Series: Season One (on Blu-ray) comes down to just how much of a fan you are. If you, like me, ended up getting the remastered DVDs as they came out just a few months back, then you might not be so inclined to picking up these Blu-ray releases as they hit the shelves. Granted, I was fortunate enough to get those DVDs for review, but there wouldn't have been anything keeping me from buying them anyway. As for quality, there is a definite jump when you go to Blu-ray, and the ability to have both versions of these episodes together should make the effort worthwhile, but there aren't any additional special features here when compared to that HD DVD/DVD combo set that you may already own.