Star Trek on VHS

[ZapBrannigan]

The instantly-closed thread has got me thinking about this subject, so here's a new thread.

Before Star Trek came to stores on cassette, wasn't it first released by mail order, two episodes per tape? I can't recall if it was Paramount, Time-Life, Columbia, or CBS (long before they merged with Paramount), but there was a frequently-run mail-order ad in Starlog magazine with slick color photos that made you lust for those tapes.

I also recall Lost in Space, I Love Lucy, and The Twilight Zone coming out as multi-episode VHS tapes by mail order.

And then Paramount Home Video put out the single-episode Star Trek tapes, which is what I bought. Several anyway.

On VHS I bought:

WNMHGB
The Menagerie
Mirror, Mirror
The Doomsday Machine (obviously)
The Cage (color version)
Requiem for Methuselah (love Rayna, love the music)

and possibly some others (I'm not at home now to check). Also most of the movies. I really had to watch my pennies in those days. Plus, they took up a lot of shelf space, more than my DVD sets of the entire series and all the original-cast movies put together.

 

[BillJ]

Starting with VHS, it is incredible how much money I've spent over the years on the various home video releases of TOS.

 

[Kelso]

I grew up on the Columbia House tapes. My uncle had the entire collection.

 

[erastus25]

Starting with VHS, it is incredible how much money I've spent over the years on the various home video releases of TOS.

Sighhh. Me too. I don't even want to think about inflation.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

There were 5 volumes of 2-episode tapes released in 1980 that you could order from Paramount Home Video. I still have volumes 4 and 5 from that collection; couldn't afford to get them all back then.

Volume 1: The Menagerie parts 1 and 2
Volume 2: Amok Time/Journey to Babel
Volume 3: Mirror, Mirror/The Tholian Web
Volume 4: The Trouble with Tribbles/Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
Volume 5: Balance of Terror/City on the Edge of Forever

Then there was a special 1982 Gateway Video release of Space Seed, to tie in with The Wrath of Khan, before they started releasing the complete series on tape. There was a trailer for Wrath preceding the episode.

This was for North America; I'm sure the release schedule was different elsewhere.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

There were 5 volumes of 2-episode tapes released in 1980 that you could order from Paramount Home Video. I still have volumes 4 and 5 from that collection; couldn't afford to get them all back then.

Thanks for that info. I'll have better luck looking for the ad now.

 

[RandyS]

Starting with VHS, it is incredible how much money I've spent over the years on the various home video releases of TOS.

Tell me about it.

Thank God we're done, huh?

 

[BillJ]

Starting with VHS, it is incredible how much money I've spent over the years on the various home video releases of TOS.

Tell me about it.

Thank God we're done, huh?

I'm in my early-40's. I'm sure I'll probably buy the series one more time in some future video format. I just never get tired of TOS.

 

[RandyS]

Starting with VHS, it is incredible how much money I've spent over the years on the various home video releases of TOS.

Tell me about it.

Thank God we're done, huh?

I'm in my early-40's. I'm sure I'll probably buy the series one more time in some future video format. I just never get tired of TOS.

Neither do I.

I'm in my mid-40's, and with any luck my DVD's will last the rest of my life (bought them new in 2004), money's getting tight though.

 

[BillJ]

I'm in my mid-40's, and with any luck my DVD's will last the rest of my life (bought them new in 2004), money's getting tight though.

Money is always tight here, but I tend to save up for the things I really want. But they usually end up revolving around Star Trek and video games.

 

[bbailey861]

Starting with VHS, it is incredible how much money I've spent over the years on the various home video releases of TOS.

Tell me about it.

Thank God we're done, huh?

I'm in my early-40's. I'm sure I'll probably buy the series one more time in some future video format. I just never get tired of TOS.

I'm hoping not to have to buy them in another format any more. I am hoping the Blu-ray discs last me the rest of my life.

 

[doubleohfive]

I vividly recall these same 2-episodes-per-tape approach being employed on the first DVD edition of the series and how enormously angry some people became when the series were released in season sets in 2004.

 

[Indysolo]

There were 5 volumes of 2-episode tapes released in 1980 that you could order from Paramount Home Video. I still have volumes 4 and 5 from that collection; couldn't afford to get them all back then.

Volume 1: The Menagerie parts 1 and 2
Volume 2: Amok Time/Journey to Babel
Volume 3: Mirror, Mirror/The Tholian Web
Volume 4: The Trouble with Tribbles/Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
Volume 5: Balance of Terror/City on the Edge of Forever

Then there was a special 1982 Gateway Video release of Space Seed, to tie in with The Wrath of Khan, before they started releasing the complete series on tape. There was a trailer for Wrath preceding the episode.

This was for North America; I'm sure the release schedule was different elsewhere.

I never made the connection before, but those are the same episodes, sometimes in different configurations, released on the RCA CED format in the early 80s.

Neil

 

[ZapBrannigan]

So TOS had partial releases on VHS (2 eps per tape), CED (which was like a video phonograph record), and Laser Disc.

And then it had complete releases on VHS (1 ep per tape), DVD (2 eps per disc), DVD box sets, and Blu-ray box sets.

I have the DVD box sets plus some odds and ends. I was fortunate not to double-dip too much. I think the DVDs will see me out.

 

[Saga]

the only official VHS tape i had was The Cage. i got it for my birthday one year, i think i was 11 or 12 maybe. i was content with taping my favorite eps off TV. i still have some 4th of July TOS marathons on VHS somewhere. it was WPIX or KTLA i think.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

the only official VHS tape i had was The Cage. i got it for my birthday one year, i think i was 11 or 12 maybe. i was content with taping my favorite eps off TV. i still have some 4th of July TOS marathons on VHS somewhere. it was WPIX or KTLA i think.

Around 1985 and 86, I home-taped nearly the entire series. Six episodes per tape at the slow speed. The years were not kind to this format. The last time I checked them, around the mid-1990s, the picture was soft, bordering on blurry.

 

[Lance]

Different regions had their own distributors back then as well. Not everything was under the one company, or brand. In the UK and Australia it was different distributors to the US. It wasn't until later that everything was brought under the single banner.

 

[Forbin]

the only official VHS tape i had was The Cage. i got it for my birthday one year, i think i was 11 or 12 maybe. i was content with taping my favorite eps off TV. i still have some 4th of July TOS marathons on VHS somewhere. it was WPIX or KTLA i think.

Around 1985 and 86, I home-taped nearly the entire series. Six episodes per tape at the slow speed. The years were not kind to this format. The last time I checked them, around the mid-1990s, the picture was soft, bordering on blurry.

Hey, I taped all of TNG on Betamax, taped at Beta III speed. Talk about a waste of time and money!

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

I never made the connection before, but those are the same episodes, sometimes in different configurations, released on the RCA CED format in the early 80s.

Neil

Thanks for telling me the name of the CED format; I had never known what that was called.

 

[Jptrekker]

I subscribed to the Columbia House Star Trek VHS tapes. They released the entire series on 2 episode per tape sets (and one three episode tape). They were delivered every 4 weeks for about $20 per tape. I also collected the first 3 seasons of TNG that way. I sold them off years ago.