Fifth DS9 Season, Fifth Trek Film DVDs Reviewed

Reviews of the DVD releases of both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's fifth season and the collector's edition of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier have begun to appear, with the third Trek show earning very positive reviews while the fifth film got a mixed reception.

A Home Theater Forum write-up on the DS9 DVDs, released October 7th, praises the development of the Dominion War arc, the "excellent standalone episodes" and "the most famous episode" of the series, "Trials and Tribble-ations."

"Colors are beautifully rendered, vibrant and saturated," wrote reviewer Scott Kimball. "Those who are familiar with the look and sound of previous DS9 outings will find this season to be on par with the rest."

Kimball also praised the featurettes, including documentary material on the making of the crossover Tribbles episode and the interview with Colm Meaney in the crew dossier on Miles O'Brien.

Steve Krutzler of TrekWeb also had high praise for the fifth season release, awarding the package five out of five stars.

Calling the fifth season the series' finest, Krutzler praised the storytelling and the character development, noting as well the superb technical work on "Trials and Tribbleations" and the admirable guest performances of Marc Alaimo and Jeff Combs.

He was less impressed with the features on makeup and graphics on the station, feeling that much of the material had been covered before. But the Section 31 Hidden Files, he added, steal the show with new interviews, including one with Nana Visitor on giving birth during the course of the season.

Krutzler did not have nearly the same praise for the collector's edition of the fifth Star Trek film. At TrekWeb, the DVD release earned only three stars out of five.

"Its aspirations of grandiose storytelling just couldn't match up against the budgetary restrictions of the studio and the inexperience of its director," he wrote. He was also disappointed by the quality of the picture transfer and unexciting commentary tracks.

DVDFile gave the DVD a more positive rating of three and a half stars out of five. The reviewers were more impressed by the video transfer and supplementary material included with the film.

However, DVDFile was unimpressed with the feature film itself, criticizing the plot holes and poor editing.

Kimball of Home Theater Forum said that the film had "a kernel of a good story" though he criticized the pacing of the film and some of the visuals.

The deleted scenes included on the disc, he concluded, add little to the original movie.

The complete fifth season of Deep Space Nine is available from Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de.

The special edition of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier will be released on October 14th by Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. It will be released for Region Two in December, and is available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de.

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