Info on 2004 Original Series Clamshell box set.

I was so stoked to buy those clamshell sets. And I still have them. At that point TOS never looked better. In a way I still feel that way given BluRay sometimes shows too much we were never meant to see.

And don’t get me started on TOS-R.

 

I went to get them this morning from the shop and he had just sold them at £15 for all three clamshell sets. Series 2 and 3 were still shrink wrapped inside the sleeves. Am a bit gutted I didn't get them yesterday and was a bit slow there!

 

Ugh man, I'm sorry you just missed them. Keep an eye on auction and "marketplace" sort of sites and social media pages. You may get lucky. Or simply put the set together piecemeal.

@Warped9 I agree totally. The DVDs are my go to. There's a point where the detail is just too much for me. The DVDs are just right. The blu rays have edge sharpness to a point where even the credits look off to me. But I'm a lit of a weirdo when it comes to these things.

I still have the single DVD 40 volume run because it's easier to grab an episode. Also, when I'm in the mood for production order, that makes it a bit easier.

 

Thanks guys and I will look out for them piece by piece or the entire set!

 

I never hoped to collect all of TOS on VHS. I felt it was just too cost and space (to store) prohibitive. The clamshell sets, while not cheap initially, were a lot more affordable (at that time) to own the entire series.

For me the two most significant purchases to satisfy my interest in Star Trek were the clamshell DVD sets and the Polar Lights 1/350 scale Enterprise model kit. I had waited decades for each of them.

 

I am a recovering collect-aholic. I needed every damned release of the original series and, well, a lot of shows. Mostly I am fine with the best version of any show, but some shows are screwed with so badly, I wind up going backwards and getting multiple releases to to have something closer to the original versions. Or a new repackaging will suck because they stack discs and I go back and find an earlier version. But I imagine most people just get the most up to date transfer and be happy with that. I wish I could be that way!

 

I will try and be patient and collect all three series on clamshell 2004 versions. I want them in their cardboard stands as well so it might take a while to find them at a reasonable price!

 

Getting them individually won't be that hard if you're willing to pay around $35 a pop (US dollars) If you want the box that holds all three, that's a little more of a search but at some point you will have to decide which is more important: the shelf appeal or cost?

 

Getting the 2001 TMP-DE was also a significant pickup for me. Of all the Trek films, even with its missteps, it was and remains the Trek film that resonated the most with me. With the DE it was finally closer to what it should have been, what we should have gotten in 1979.

But, of course, it had shortcomings as well with it being rendered only in standard definition for home video release. And this was before the advent of ever bigger flatscreen televisions with ever higher resolutions.

So while the 2001 DE was closer to what we should have gotten originally the 2022 DE will be what the previous DE should have been. At least now, like rwenty years ago, it won’t be cost prohibitive to buy it.

 

I thought this too, but I recently checked, and I believe some violent shots were just replaced with Dehner lying on her belly on the ground, for broadcast.

I'll check again, but pretty sure the music cue in the broadcast version is in tact, suggesting no cutting of length time.

 

These clamshells were how I first watched TOS and (though I loved the TOS movies as a kid) my gateway into Star Trek fandom.

 

You're right, they only inserted shots of Dehner on the ground to cover the knees-to-the-face shots. The fight is the same length.

 

Even at the original MSRP of $80 each or whatever it was for the clamshell sets, it was still way cheaper than any previous home video release of the series. Whenever I see complaints about price because a TV season set on DVD or blu-ray costs more than about $35, I kind of chuckle and remember the days when you had to pay that much just to get two episodes.

Kor

 

Man, yeah the Columbia House days. $19.95 (plus $4.95 shipping and handling) for two episodes a tape. I paid that gladly but holy moly. That's like $1000 for the series.

 

$1000 in 1985 would be like $2600 today, adjusted for inflation. And the bulky tapes would eat your bedroom.

I look at my complete series Blu-ray sets of Star Trek, Lost in Space, and The Twilight Zone as historic bargains.

 

I had shelves put up just for those tapes. I treasured them.

 

I've now got the 2 and 3 episode UK VHS and the complete laserdiscs. I really need to get them out and on display.

 

And to watch!

 

I had a mate who’d collected every Doctor Who VHS tape released circa 1999. He had them on a shelf that extended all the way around the top of his living room. VHS tapes over 4 walls.

These days you can buy a Doctor Who season on blu-ray and it all fits in something the size of a novel. VHS was nuts. For Star Trek you’d need to buy 40 tapes to own TOS? 80 or so for TNG?

For TNG+DS9+VOY that’s around 240 tapes?

Lunacy.

 

Unless you taped them directly off the air... (Then you could get 6 episodes per tape.)

Of course with TOS - you got an edited for time version; but for me with TNG and beyond, I got them directly off a C-Band satellite feed back in the day which was how the episodes were distributed to the various syndication affiliates. ENT I got over the air first run as by that time my C-Band Satellite dish was retired.