Devoted Star Trek fans will surely cite the "even number" rule in evaluating the Original Crew Movie Collection, but all six of these films qualify as rousing entertainment. Undeniably, the even-numbered films in Paramount's lucrative Trek franchise tended to be the best, as demonstrated by the superiority of The Wrath of Khan, The Voyage Home, and The Undiscovered Country. And yet each film has something to offer die-hard Trekkers, beginning with the epic-scale wonders of the first Motion Picture (presented here as a two-disc special edition). Evolving from Gene Roddenberry's aborted attempt at a second Star Trek TV series, the effects-laden Motion Picture divided fans while proving that Star Trek had a promising big-screen future. Nicholas Meyer's The Wrath of Khan made good on that promise, reviving the Star Trek spirit and proving, in the case of Mr. Spock, that beloved characters "never really die." It's widely regarded as the best of these half-dozen features.

With its deadly Klingon confrontation, the Leonard Nimoy-directed Search for Spock was a thrilling (albeit contrived) excuse for Spock's inevitable resurrection, and its somber tone was readily countered by the Earth-based humor of Nimoy's The Voyage Home, combining a planetary crisis with a lively--and phenomenally popular--time-travel plot line. Unfortunately, William Shatner then lobbied for the director's chair, and The Final Frontier--an uneasy mixture of cheesy humor and grandiose themes--was the regrettable outcome. Paramount rallied by inviting Nicholas Meyer to repeat his Khan success, and Meyer rose to the occasion with the sharply scripted thrills of The Undiscovered Country. By ending the film with an official signature send-off from the "classic Trek" cast, the original crew brought their big-screen legacy to a graceful and upbeat conclusion, setting the stage for a transitional adventure in Star Trek: Generations.

Star Trek: Voyager began life in 1995 with some truly fascinating prospects in its two-hour pilot episode. Opening in the 24th century, a setting contemporary with that of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and carrying over story elements from each of those series, "Caretaker" finds Starfleet Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) stepping into the middle of Federation troubles with the Maquis, an army of rebels violently resisting the interplanetary organization's treaty with the brutal Cardassians. In the process, both Voyager and the Maquis ship under surveillance are accidentally catapulted out of the galaxy's Alpha Quadrant (the familiar stomping grounds of Starfleet personnel) by a benign but dying being called the Caretaker. Voyager ends up in the unexplored Delta Quadrant, some 70,000 light years away.

There's a rare treat in the first-season set of Star Trek: Voyager: scenes from the pilot episode featuring the original captain Janeway, played by Genevieve Bujold. She was quickly replaced, and with the benefit of hindsight, it's easy to see that she lacked sufficient presence for the role. That segment is part of the set's 78 minutes of bonus features, including a spotlight on the eventual captain Janeway, Kate Mulgrew (mostly comprised of 1994 and 2003 interviews); a season overview; reflections by the cast; and spotlights on visual effects, location, Startrek.com, and the science behind the show (wormholes, time travel). The basic format of the discs is the same as The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine: full screen, 5.1 and 2.0 surround sound, English subtitles, and easy-to-find Easter eggs. The discs are housed in a nicely compact Digistak case like DS9, though with a bolder color scheme and a plastic outer casing that fits together awkwardly. But unlike any previous Star Trek DVD series, the opening credits of every episode come at the very end of track 1, making it easy to skip past them.