Category: Reviews

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Review: ‘Glee the Complete First Season’

[[[glee-season-11-4779684Glee]]] is frothy, delightful television that is as prone to being over-the-top as it is to be emotionally powerful. That it can successfully veer from one extreme to the other is one of the more impressive aspects of the Fox series, created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. The show burst into the public consciousness with the clever airing of the pilot in the waning days of the 2008-2009 season and got people excited with something fresh and seemingly original (at least for prime time; no doubt Fox saw its potential after Disney’s success with [[[High School Musical]]].

When the show arrived last fall, it proved it was able to blend soap opera, music, and dance with an oddball assortment of characters with several vying for breakout status before Jane Lynch’s Sue Sylvester captured pop culture’s heart. The plight of the misfits that find themselves forming a glee club at Ohio’s William McKinley High School is the overarching theme as the team grows from a sextet to a full squad and prepares for sectionals and then regionals. As a result, we see them working on numerous pieces and with the show’s ratings climb, they stuffed in even more musical numbers which has neatly resulted in several soundtrack CDs already available.

When the show took an extended hiatus, Fox Home Entertainment released Glee, Volume One: Road to Sectionals to tide fans over. Now, in time for the premiere of season two this evening, Glee; The Complete First Season is out in both standard DVD and Blu-ray sets.

The show revels in its absurdity and doesn’t once try to make us think any of these characters are real or that the high school is really a place for learning. After all, we never see the kids in any academic class nor is homework ever a factor. Apparently, few of them need jobs or when they do can take them without breaking a sweat. We know there’s a faculty because we see them in the lounge where some of the more embarrassing adult shenanigans get discussed.

Where the series fell down was properly making us care for the dilemma Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) faced with his ditzy, desperate, deceptive wife Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig). Her fake pregnancy sub-plot was totally wasting time for other stories and her expulsion from the marriage seemed pre-ordained and yet, she remains attached to the show like a barnacle that won’t go away.

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Review: ‘The Big Bang Theory the Complete Third Season’

1000149528brdlef1-7176949By the beginning of its third season, CBS’s [[[The Big Bang Theory]]] had crossed over from well-reviewed sitcom for geeks to a ratings blockbuster. The characters remained oblivious to this elevation in esteem while their performers and creators didn’t let the success get to their heads. Instead, the season’s 22 episodes remained sharp and funny, delving deeper into the characters, revealing back stories, and expanding on the work place dilemmas.

As seen in The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Third Season, now out from Warner Home Video, the major arc of the year was Penny and Leonard’s relationship, with her making efforts to understand his working world while he tried to socially adjust to her world. And when they broke up, the repercussions are keenly felt among the others – Sheldon, Raj, and Howard. The show nicely builds up the Sheldon/Penny relationship, which hit a dramatic point halfway through the second season and the chemistry between Kaley Cuoco and Emmy-winning Jim Parsons makes their scenes sheer delights. Penny’s romantic entanglement with Leonard also altered the roommate dynamic with Sheldon, which played out nicely throughout the season.

The four guys remain geeks that ComicMix fans recognize, for better or worse. As a result, episodes such as “The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary” and “The Wheaton Recurrence” with guest nemesis Wil Wheaton and “The Precious Fragmentation” are particularly enjoyable. But, the show begins to bring in stunt casting gimmicks such as “The Excelsior Acquisition” and the legendary Stan Lee, which is fine once a season, but can easily devolve if not kept in check. And as the third season begins, mastermind Chuck Lorre will be overseeing not only this gem, but [[[Two and a Half Men]]] and the newcomer, [[[Mike and Molly]]], so if the show jumps the shark, it could be this season.

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Review: ‘Avengers: The Ultimate Character Guide’

Avengers: The Ultimate Character Guide

by Alan Cowsill
208 pages, DK Publishing, $16.99

avengers-guide1-9804420It’s a new Age of Heroes in the Marvel Universe but as always, the clarion call for champions is answered by Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers. With the hoopla surrounding the Marvel Studios’ announcements regarding the 2012 live-action [[[Avengers]]] movie, the timing is perfect for this book from DK Publishing.

Unfortunately, the book itself is already dated because they made little effort to make certain the status quo matched what was being published in the comic books. This is, of course, an exceedingly tricky proposition but thankfully, both Marvel and DC have recently hit demarcation points where you could say the information contained in these books are concurrent. (I managed to make next month’s [[[The Essential Superman Encyclopedia]]] information reflected the end of the [[[New Krypton]]] story so it can be done.) Reading through Alan Cowsill’s text, it is largely set during he events of Siege although some information is from the subsequent Age of Heroes so its inconsistent and confusing.

A book like this, especially from DK, prides itself on clarity of information and yet organizations and events are referred to and there’s no context or explanation provided, so it’s one thing to tell readers someone belonged to the Initiative, but what was the Initiative? The book also lacks any source material so you don’t have the usual listing of first appearances which is a major factual omission. Even more grievous is that for a book called Avengers, not once is there anything about the team. I was interested to see the line-up by line-up examinations along with explanations for the West Coast and New incarnations of the team.

Instead, this book features just over 200 heores and villains with information blocks, pointless power rankings, and lots of pop-ups with additional details. Visually, the material is mostly showing us the current incarnations of the character with smaller images culled from throughout Marvel history. This, though, may be the first time a book of this nature lacks substantial images culled from the first Marvel Age so Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, and John Romita are severely underrepresented. Heck, titans like John Buscema, John Romita, Jr., John Byrne, and many others are also missing in action.

Over two dozen of the entries are out of date given the end of the Siege storyline. Perhaps the most inaccurate page is the one for Ant Man which gives us the deceased Scott Lang and never mentions the current Eric O’Grady, while the callout image of Hank Pym shows him as Giant Man.

There are some other serious gaffes such as giving us Clint Barton pages, one for Hawkeye and one for Ronin, which was superfluous. Similarly, Hank Pym gets pages as both Wasp II and Giant Man. The [[[Captain America]]] page is Steve Rogers with no page for Bucky as either the Winter Solider or Captain America II. In much the same way, the Black Panther page is all about T’Challa despite his sister being the current Panther (even in comics coming out this fall) but she gets merely a brief mention.

Characters who recently died such as[[[ Hercules]]], [[[Black Bolt]]], and [[[the Sentry]]] are said to be hale and hardy and while Jessica Jones’ page tells us she and Luke Cage had a child, Luke’s page neglects that detail as does the Invisible Woman entry neglect to mention Franklin and Valeria.

Books like these are great to thumb through and make a handy reference work but this one volume is a wee bit too all over the place to be anything more than a pretty picture book.

Review: ‘Forbidden Planet’

Last week, Warner Home Video released six of their science fiction films on Blu-ray for the first time. While all were greatly appreciated by genre fans to one degree or another, it can be safely said that the most eagerly awaited one is also the best one of the set. MGM’s Forbidden Planet is clearly a class act and the loving restoration is evident in just how fabulous the movie looks in high definition.

The 1956 was one of the studio’s last major releases before its decline in quality, and it was also their first real attempt at science fiction. All the resources that made their musicals shine brightly were brought to the feature production and as a result, this is the single best science fiction movie made that decade. Its influences go far beyond imagination considering the enduring popularity of Robby the Robot and how much the film’s look and feel influenced young producer Gene Roddenberry when he conceived Star Trek only eight years later.

Sure, some of the science remains implausible, but it was a terrific story inspired by William Shakespeare’s The Tempest transplanted to an alien world. The strong cast was anchored by Walter Pidgeon’s Morbius and Leslie Nielsen as Commander John Adams. Filling out the ensemble was Anne Francis as Morbius’ innocent daughter Altaira and familiar genre vets Richard Anderson and Warren Stevens.  The Bellerophon expedition had gone silent and Adams’ crew was sent to investigate, discovering two survivors and the remnants of an incredible alien civilization, the Krell. Morbius’ genius is evident in the robotic servant, Robby, he designed and built, but Adams is troubled by the man’s reluctance to leave the world and rejoin humanity. Menacing them, though, was an unseen horror that had to be stopped before anyone could leave the world.

The sets and costumes were unlike any science fiction film previously made and the scope and spectacle to the matte paintings and special effects also raised this film beyond so many of the low budget atomic horror films that categorized the genre that decade. Everyone took the film seriously, playing things straight, and making it a tale of humanity among the stars. Also helping us consider this something different was the electronic score, credited in the release as “electronic tonalities”, a dramatic departure from what had been used before.

Warner had previously released this in a nifty package designed for the now defunct HD-DVD format, so this has been an eagerly awaited release. The care that went into restoring it in 2007, especially boosting the fading Eastman Color stock, has been preserved here and the film has never looked better.

The disc is packed with plenty of special features, making this a true celebration of the film and its legacy. All are carried over from the HD release and none were prepared for Blu-ray so appear in standard format. Still, they are all worth your time and attention. Kicking things off is the TCM special, “Watch the Skies!” as you spend nearly an hour listening to Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, James Cameron, and Ridley Scott discuss what SF films were like prior to Forbidden Planet. Nice perspective, terrific clips and a solid Mark Hamill narration make this a strong entry.

There’s also “Amazing!” a well-produced 27 minute feature talking to the surviving cast and crew of the film, talking about its production. Great archival drawings are unearthed to illustrate this piece. Robby gets his due in the 14 minute “Engineering a Sci-Fi Icon”.

There are plenty of deleted scenes all of which comes with captioning to introduce each one and explain what was changed or why it was dropped from the final print. Some are missed, but most are interesting from a historic perspective only.

The robot’s popularity is demonstrated by the inclusion of the 1957 quickie, The Invisible Boy, a feature about a young boy and his robot. When the robot’s programming is altered, he becomes a threat to the Earth and Timmy, who can somehow turn invisible, is the only one who can stop it. Robby also guest starred on countless television series and The Thin Man episode from 1958 is included as an example.

Walter Pidgeon appears in two excerpts from the prime time MGM Parade series when he appeared to promote the film.

No fan of the genre can be without this wonderful film that has been well-preserved and endures the passage of time. If you haven’t seen it lately, now is the time to rediscover the marvels of intelligent science fiction at a time when paranoia ruled the day.

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Review: ‘The Black Cauldron’

blackcauldron25thanndvd-1979969Fantasy author Lloyd Alexander was beloved for his imaginative series, the [[[Chronicles of Prydain]]] so anyone who read the series, originally released between 1964 and 1968, were no doubt apprehensive to see the entire story collapsed into an 80 minute animated feature from Walt Disney.

The filmmakers decided to focus on the second book, [[[The Black Cauldron]]], and substantially altered characters, settings, and events so when it opened July 24, 1985, fans of the material were not happy. Worse, people unfamiliar with the source material were not particularly entertained leading to a box office collapse. That this film came at the tail end of a period where creativity was clearly lacking meant that it looked and felt like a generic Disney animated film. Jeffrey Katzenberg arrived on staff just prior to the film’s release and he could merely nip and tuck sequences, but recognized their most expensive feature to date, and the first to use computer-generated animation, was not working.

Now released in a standard DVD 25th Anniversary edition, the movie has been cleaned up a bit but still lacks suspense and imagination. Rather than visually embrace the Welsh mythology that Alexander mined for his novels, Disney made everything look fairly bland.

In short, the Horned King (John Hurt) is attempting to find the legendary Black Cauldron which would give him the power to rule the world. According to a trio of witches, no one had been looking for the magical artifact in over 2000 years, but now the time seemed ripe. What the tall, shadowy figure did not count on was the plucky band of adventurers to stand in his way towards global domination. Leading the charge was the teenaged Taran (Grant Bardsley), who we meet as he laments his having just missed out on participating in the last war. Instead, he works as the assistant pig keeper to a wizard, unaware the prize pig, Hen Wen, can conjure up images of the future. When the pig goes missing, Taran goes in search only to encounter a talking creature named Gurgi (John Byner), followed by a dim-witted princess Eilonwy (Susan Sheridan) and Fflewddur Fflam (Nigel Hawthorne), a broken down balladeer.

The movie barely resembles the book with characters altered beyond recognition and the Horned King a possible threat, as opposed to the malevolent force he is in the books. Instead, the standard quest story and coming of age for Taran are inserted much to the disappointment of the readers. Comical elements are there for the children but overall there’s no spark to ignite the imagination.

The new edition comes complete with a deleted scene, “The Fairy Folk”, that would have added to the exposition and you see it in semi-complete and pencil form with the soundtrack. A scene Katzenberg ordered cut, is not here. Also new to this set is “The Witches’ Challenge”, a trivia game for the youngsters. “The Quest for the Black Cauldron” game and art gallery are preserved from the previous release along with the 1952 Donald Duck short “Trick or Treat” included merely because it featured a witch.

Review: ‘Chuck: The Complete Third Season’

[[[Chuck]]] is the ultimate fanboy dream television show. We all wish we could be accidentally zapped with the Intersect and be a walking computer, filled with espionage details. This way, we too could be protected by the CIA and NSA in the form of the rough Colonel John Casey and the gorgeous Sarah Walker. The show’s producers know this and Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak have carefully built up the television series reeling in the fans and finding new ones along the way with a delightful mix of humor, action and pathos.

The show, though, has never been a ratings hit and NBC has been cautious with its episode orders so there has always been a campaign to ensure the series is renewed annually. Last year, a 13 episode commitment and a spring debut seemed to be the most the Peacock Network would offer up and the producers made certain each episode would further the theme. If season one was about the boy, then season two was about the boy becoming a man and season three was all about the man becoming a spy. When [[[Heroes]]] tanked early, NBC rushed Chuck onto the schedule earlier than expected and an additional six episodes were ordered, giving the producers more room to play with.

The results can be found in the excellent [[[Chuck the Complete Third Season]]], now out from Warner Home Video. All 19 episodes are included along with a handful of bonus features and they’re well recommended.

Season recap and spoilers ahead…

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Review: ‘Wall Street: Insider Trading Edition’

“Greed is good” and “Lunch is for wimps” became the two catch phrases that helped turn Oliver Stone’s [[[Wall Street]]] into a smash hit. The feature film also debuted at just the perfect moment as Wall Street blazed across the headlines with a serious financial collapse. The film cemented Michael Douglas as the leading man of the decade and gave us a stellar cast of newcomers, most of who have gone on to do other good work.

In time for the unexpected sequel [[[Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps]]], 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has released [[[Wall Street: Insider Trading Edition]]] and it’s a greedy cash grab without delivering the ultimate edition for fans. Several features found on the standard DVD, 20th anniversary edition, and the Blu-ray release are absent, which is a shame since “Greed is Good”, the nearly one hour documentary is worth seeing.

On this standard DVD set, you get the complete film on the first disc (with Stone’s so-so commentary track) while the second has the Fact Exchange, which is the entire film with a bonus trivia track. There is a constant running commentary placing musical cue and cultural references into perspective. After all, newcomers today may not recognize the early reference to former baseball slugger Dave Winfield. So, this is a nice, welcome addition.

We don’t get the deleted scenes or “Money Never Sleeps: The Making of Wall Street” but do get a trailer for the new film, [[[Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps]]] – A Conversation and “Fox Movie Channel Presents: Fox Legacy with Tom Rothman”. These are fine but are aimed at the new film so the featurettes that help explain why the original is so well-regarded should have been here.

Wall Street depicts an energetic New York City, filled with rich and fashionable and those desiring to be rich and fashionable. The offices of Gordon Gecko are sleek and scream money as does his home and suits. He is knowledgeable, charismatic, and cut-throat, typical of a class of businessmen Tom Wolfe called “Masters of the Universe”. His stratospheric career is enticing to young account exec Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) who allows himself to compromise his morals and principles just to breathe the same air as Gecko. In so doing, he uses insider information from his dad (Martin Sheen), a 24 year veteran mechanic for a small airline. Dad is centered and content with his place in the world, always having a few bucks to lend his constantly strapped son, who is never content. Gecko and Fox the Elder are competing father figures with Bud lost between them.

Gecko has his own rival in a fellow ruthless wheeler and dealer, coolly played by Terence Stamp. Their enmity plays out across the film and while they say its just business, it’s also clearly personal. Stone plays with the characters and the Wall Street business world with verve, drawing from his experience of watching his father survive in the financial sector. The film is filled with actors such as James Spader, John C. McGinley, Saul Rubinek and others who have gone on to their own fame and fortune. On the other hand, this was one of the final strong roles for Daryl Hannah before she withdrew from an active acting career.

While the film is well-worth watching, owning yet another version is not called for. The $14.98 list price, though, makes this worth investing to fill the void in your library.

Review: ‘Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time’

I found myself interested in seeing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
entirely based on the trailer, and the engaging banter between Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton. Not being a game player, I had no frame of reference and therefore no preconceived notions when I sat down to watch the Disney production.  The visuals, largely CGI-generated, are enticing, with enough period costuming and countless extras to make it feel like a timeless Persia of story and legend.

The movie was considered a disappointment, opening weakly and garnering mixed reviews. Now, Disney Home Entertainment is releasing the film Tuesday as a single-disc Blu-ray or a combo pack. Gyllenhaal’s acrobatics makes it clear he would have been an excellent replacement for Toby Maguire in the second [[[Spider-Man]]] film, as he leaps, jumps, and acrobatically performs as Prince Dastan. While he does not at all look Persian, he also is the most empathic member of the cast, constantly looking at people with gentle eyes.

An orphan whose bravery impressed the King, he was taken into the palace and made a brother to the King’s sons. As we open the film, they have been manipulated to attack Alamut to end their treachery. Dastan, though, discovers Princess Tamnia (Arterton), attempting to hide a special dagger. From that point on, the story becomes a standard high-octane adventure story mixed with the Princess’ spiritual responsibilities. Of course, the twin themes mesh into a noisy climax set at the Hourglass of the world, or whatever it’s called.

The film is populated with stock types, the wise father, treacherous Uncle (Ben Kingsley, phoning it in), cannon fodder brothers — Tus (Richard Coyle) and Garsiv (Toby Kebbell) — and comic relief in the form of a gambler (Alfred Molina) who rails against taxes. Dastan’s greatest obstacle seems to be surviving the central casting figures to defeat the leader of the Hassansins in an overly drawn out set piece.

All the banter that appealed in the trailer was never expanded upon or deepened in the actual film and Tamina rarely acts like a princess or the keeper of a legendary trust. She certainly cowers well, though.

Director Mike Newell seemed to go out of his way to give us anything fresh and original, so scenes were reminiscent of many other genre features or even other video games. None of the characters rise above their roles so the end result is a mediocre popcorn experience.

On blu-ray, the film looks lovely, especially the exterior settings of the various kingdoms. This is one of the strongest video transfers I‘ve seen in a while. The single blu-ray contains one extra: a 1:30 deleted scene while the version in the combo pack also comes with the CineExplore feature. The Sands of Time offers up about two hours of extra material, some 40 behind-the-scenes tidbits about how the film was constructed. The annoying aspect, though, is that you have to literally sit through the film and look for a dagger icon, which triggers that moment’s video tidbit. There’s no other way to access it as there should be which makes it quite vexing. The standard DVD in the combo pack contains the obligatory Making Of featurette, which reuses much of the same material.

Review: ‘Star Trek the Original Series 365’

star-trek-365-cover-7408359Star Trek: The Original Series 365

By Paula M. Block with Terry J. Erdmann
744 Pages, Abrams, $29.95

Just in time for the television icon’s 44th birthday and your Christmas list, Abrams adds to their delightful 365 library with [[[Star Trek]]] the Original Series. Let me state upfront that co-authors Paula Block and Terry Erdmann are friends and colleagues of mine but I cannot imagine any duo better suited to select the images and write the accompanying text for this volume.

Every episode and the original pilot are covered in this book with a nice design element with the page numbers colored to denote each season. The paper stock allows for strong color photography reproduction and even if you’ve seen many of these pictures before, you have not seen them this sharp.

Star Trek may be the most exhaustively covered prime time television series in history so the question immediately becomes, do I need this book? Well, completists certainly need it, but trust me, you want this. The authors take the best known stories regarding the series’ creation and production and cover them here, plus additional tidbits even we grizzled veterans might not have known. Visually, there are some personal pictures people involved in the series provided the book along with rare production drawings and images. One of the new images is one of Spock and Carol Burnett from [[[The Carol Burnett Show]]], an appearance I never knew about.

Each episode is recapped along with a few pages discussing stories regarding its creation or filming. Obviously, we can quibble over which ones got short-shrift (“[[[Whom Gods Destroy]]]” needed a picture of Yvonne Craig, for example) but the information brings some fresh perspectives. Threads from episodes that played out in the features or subsequent series or even novels are covered.

Paula and Terry do an admirable job admitting which episodes worked and which ones didn’t (and why) while only giving you a flash of the dirty laundry that some the books covered in greater detail. If anything, alluding to but not naming Fred Freiberger as the producer who let Star Trek deteriorate in its final season was an oversight.

Throughout, we learn biographical material on much of the cast but better, the spotlight is shared with the production crew from production designer Matt Jeffries to prop genius Wah Chang,

The book also embraces the fan base that kept the show alive for a third season and beyond. Bjo Trimble gets her due her along with the earliest of the fanzines and the final pages are devoted to the birth of the conventions and merchandise surrounding the series. Its cultural impact is also covered with the first space shuttle and the restoration of the 11-foot long model now on display at the Smithsonian.

Given Paula’s 19 year tenure working as publishing director for the consumer products department at Paramount/CBS, she certainly knew where to look for graphics. After combing through the licensing department’s archives for stock shots (a library she helped create!), she cast a wider net which gives the book a nice visual variety. Given the show was produced at a time extensive graphics were not maintained and licensing was usually an afterthought, the fact that she found over 365 good images is a testament. The book even went to the expense of original photography, shooting collector Gerald Gurian’s original series props.

This all-in-one volume is the only book you need in a newcomer’s Star Trek library and it is a most welcome addition to our groaning shelves of Star Trek memorabilia.

Review: ‘Lost in Space’

I should have loved Lost in Space when it debuted on CBS in the fall of 1965. At seven, I was the prime audience for this family adventure about the Robinsons and friends who are literally, hurtling through uncharted territory. Instead, I never warmed up to the show and much preferred ABC’s [[[Batman]]] when that arrived in January 1966. I found the science fiction lacking, the acting over-the-top, and the robot one of the few interesting aspects.

I think I would have preferred the Irwin Allen series had the villainous aspect of Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) remained, rather than using him as a comic foil. Regardless, the series had its following which has led to various revivals as an animated series and even a Bill Mumy-scripted comic during the 1990s. A feature film adaptation seemed inevitable and that’s what we received in 1998. Now, the movie is making its blu-ray debut this week from Warner Home Video.

The film’s themes are certainly high-minded ones as they postulate that in 2058 mankind has so ruined the Earth that a new world has to be found or humanity is doomed to extinction. The Jupiter 2 is sent to find salvation complications ensue when Smith’s treachery sends them off course and they wind up on several strange, new worlds. Then you add in a field of energy that is revealed to be a time distortion bubble with an adult Will Robinson (Jared Stevens) as an antagonist, and well, things get messy.

The movie looks really smart, with over 700 visual effects and some thoughtful set and costume design. There are no real visual cues to the source material with the exception of the robot, which is probably for the best.

Instead, the film fails on two levels. The first is the script that didn’t need to drag in temporal complications while they were already lost in space. It was as if Akiva Goldsman had no faith in the one problem. He also neglected to make any of the characters really engaging or interesting, complicated by a cast that never brings the material to life. While William Hurt makes an interesting scientist in Dr. John Robinson, you never get the feeling he loves Mimi Rogers’ Maureen or is a good father to Judy (Heather Graham), Penny (Lacey Chabert) or Will (Jack Johnson). Matt LeBlanc is amiable but bland as Don West while Gary Oldman seems bored as Dr. Smith.

In reviewing the film years later, it’s interesting to note Penny was vlogging before it was fashionable. Overall, though, the Earth we’re in today is nowhere close to the trajectory seen in the movie’s 2058. Like its predecessor, it is aimed at families and has enough thrills to justify the PG-13 rating but is devoid of the quirky details that people loved in the original. Those fans, though, can look for cameos from original series stars June Lockhart, Mark Goddard, Angela Cartwright, Marta Kristen (Judy Robinson) along with the welcome tones of Dick Tufeld as the voice of the Robot.

The transfer to blu-ray is acceptable although the special features from the standard DVD are carried over without upgrading. We get the deleted scenes, along with caption explanations of what they were. There are two featurettes — “Building the Special Effects” and “The Future of Space Travel” – which are fairly dry.  “The Television Years” includes interviews with original cast members Lockhart, Kristen, and Cartwright but the original series synopses are missing. We do get the “Apollo Four Forty” music video and the original dual commentaries.

If you own the original DVD, there’s little recommend buying this outright as opposed to using Warner’s upgrade program.

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