Tell me what to buy, please.

[thefourthvine]

Thus far, we've been watching TOS mostly off of a Best of Star Trek DVD that appears to be marketed solely to me. ("You met Kirk and Spock as young men on the big screen, now join them on their later journeys." Yes, I know. The comma problem bothers me, too.)

So, now Best Beloved and I are arguing over whether or not to buy Star Trek: TOS. (BB: You like them. You never like TV. We should get them! Me: Have you seen what they cost? That's ridiculous! For that price, Leonard Nimoy should deliver them to me in person!)

Help us out, please. The three-season set works out to be cheaper per season, though it's still nothing like a bargain, but I've heard the third seasons sucks. Also, FYI, I can't obtain these through less legal means if I want to watch very many of them; I need subtitles.

[Poll #1506089]

Comments

[amireal.livejournal.com]

But wait for one of those Sales of Awesome. They come up pretty regularly.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

This is excellent advice! Except I'm not sure I CAN wait. I find myself twitching, knowing I have no more TOS in the house. It's like a sickness, ami! I am in real trouble, here!

[(Anonymous)]

*cough* What about getting someone to copy them for you? *cough* *hides behind anonymity*

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

*ducks behind veil with you*

Would copying provide subtitles? I don't know how these things work!

[brooklinegirl.livejournal.com]

DUDE. Star Trek: The Original Series is an ALL OR NOTHING thing! you cannot - CANNOT - just MEH away season three! There is CANON TO CONSIDER. It is WHERE SLASH CAME FROM. You must see it ALL. Dammit. You life will be UNFULFILLED without all three seasons! Besides, the final TOS episode is the worst omg so bad it turns the corner into BEST THING that ever happened to my TV.

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

♥ILU♥

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

You could always watch them online (http://www.cbs.com/classics/star_trek/video/video.php)...

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I totally can't. I spend so much time pausing and going back and so on that I inevitably crash my browser. I am a terrible, terrible TV watcher, and I can just about manage it with a DVD and subtitles and a remote and a Best Beloved there providing helpful commentary. ("That's the same guy as before, you know. And that's the girl he was talking to. And they're in a bar, you get that, right?") Anything else is a total disaster.

[claire.livejournal.com]

I have all 3 seasons so I believe that everyone else should too! Even you who is one of the few people who is weirder about TV than I am ;)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Have you WATCHED all three seasons? And if so, how come everybody seems to have seen this show and NO ONE has provided me with detailed episode reviews that might have gotten me to watch it years ago?

*eyes you with great suspicion*

the poll wouldn't let me vote

[kungfunurse.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it thinks I'm an illegal alien? Betazoid perhaps?

Anyway, the 'Best Of' really does what it says on the tin. Trust me. In 6 months you're going to want that money that you've spent on all those really really *bad* eps to spend on something super shiny, like the next ST movie...

Re: the poll wouldn't let me vote

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Obviously, even the LJ poll wants me to buy TOS, since it prevented a no-voter from voting!

CONSPIRACY OMG.

I don't know! I really like the eps I've seen! And, let's face it, I'm going to watch the shiny next ST movie no matter what. This is a DISEASE, and I am just sad that no one warned me going in that it was a one-way trip.

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

ONE A DAY. EVERY DAY. BUY THE THREE SEASON SET OMG.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I kind of knew how you would vote! I mean, I was not sitting there thinking, "I wonder if Speranza will think I should get just maybe one season and see if I like it?" Because I knew that if they offered a three-season set that including one episode per disk, with all the rest of the disk filled up with commentary and special features and still photos and early commercials and just a thing that made your TV go "ST ILU <3 <3 <3," you would not find it at all illogical for me to be considering buying THAT.

Also: THIS IS A SICKNESS OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HEAD? AND WHY HAVEN'T YOU WRITTEN SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND WORDS OF KIRK/SPOCK? I FIND MYSELF WANTING SOME!

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

All three seasons. No more than two or three eps suck -- though several will cause any sensitive person to pee themselves. (See: Yangs and Kooms).

I have long found that every time I say "Oh, I'll never need *that* functionality", I need it within months. It's the same here!

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I'm always the person going, "IPod? Why in god's name would I want one of those?" And then three years later I buy one, and within a week I love it so much I am making elaborate plans to be buried with a scale model so I will have it in the afterlife.

(Except cell phones. I have had one for a decade - not the same one all that time, of course - and I still hate it.)

[j00j.livejournal.com]

It's really unfortunate that CBS doesn't seem to have captions in the online one. However, might your library have the DVDs for you to borrow? This is also a solution that allows you to see more episodes captioned without buying.

Season 3 contains episodes which are so horrible that they're actually wonderful, e.g. "Spock's Brain." It's AMAZING. I kind of love it for its sheer awfulness. The plot! The dialogue! The costumes! OMG.

[kungfunurse.livejournal.com]

Ok, actually this is true. "Spock's Brain" is perhaps the best ep ever created in TV history. It's even better when MST3K'd.

[grey-bard.livejournal.com]

You can also watch them free and legal on Youtube. This is much easier than the CBS website which borks a lot.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I can't. I am such a terrible TV watcher that I can barely follow what's going on with DVDs; YT, with the lower quality and the stutters and the lack of subtitles and so on, would kill me.

[mosca.livejournal.com]

Definitely purchase rather than YouTube: the cheesy special effects are so much shinier on the medium screen.

And you will want them all. Repeatedly. When you least expect it.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

You make it sound like I will just wake up in the middle of the night and be all, "I can't possibly sleep without watching Amok Time again! MUST. GO. WATCH. AMOK TIME."

That won't happen, right? RIGHT?

[spiffikins]

I have no opinion on this, other than to be flabbergasted to realize that there were only 3 seasons of ST:TOS ? I remember them being on *constantly* throughout my entire childhood...

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

BB was shocked, too! (I wasn't. I looked it up.) It seems like it should have had at least five seasons, what with the "its five-year mission" thing. (Plus, given what they CHARGE for the seasons now, and the fact that lots of people buy new sets every time there's an upgrade, I bet they are kicking themselves OMG for not leaving it on for longer.)

tos

[laceymcbain.livejournal.com]

Heh, I just borrowed the set from my brother. I would suspect, though, that watching them will be a bit addictive. I've realized that, although I feel like I've seen a lot of TOS, I've seen many of the same episodes over and over. I'm looking forward to checking out all of them in some kind of broader context - or at least, rounding out my sense of canon. If you can afford the set, I'd say go for it - especially if you kind of deep-down like the cheesiness of it all (and from your glorious meta recaps, I'd have to say it seems like you do.)

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

I vote you get all of them because your commentaries are the best thing since sliced bread, so I need you to watch them all... why yes, I am a selfish baggage *g*

[(Anonymous)]

While the third season *does* kinda suck, you get to see such gems as Leonard Nimoy singing about his heart breaking, the first!ever onscreen interracial kiss (and the story as told by Shatner and Nichols in the extras is really cute and made!of!win too), Spock and McCoy fighting over who gets to disobey Kirk's video will in order to save him, and girl!kirk. I vote to get the three season set. Like the movies, the third season on balance ends up in the win column.
(you can always skip Spock's Brain ;D)

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

You should definitely watch, and provably buy, the third season, because it has some classic episodes:

• The infamous "Spock's Brain"!
  
• "The Enterprise Incident", with the female Romulan commander!
  
• "The Spectre of the Gun", in which Kirk et al are trapped in aliens' re-enactment of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral!
  
• "The Tholian Web" -- Kirk's disappearance threatens to tear Spock and McCoy apart!
  
• "Plato's Stepchildren", AKA the one with the interracial kiss!
  
• "Elaan of Troyius", a mash-up of My Fair Lady and Tristan and Iseult in spaaaaaaace!
  
• "Whom Gods Destroy", the origin of Xander Harris's "Shoot us both, Spock!" joke!
  
• "Requiem for Methuselah", which ends with Spock helping Kirk to get over a tragic romance via mind meld!
  
• "The Way to Eden" -- space hippies! A jam session featuring Spock on Vulcan Lyre! Kirk is called "Herbert"!
  
• "Al Our Yesterdays", in which McCoy and spock travel back in time and the latter gets in touch with his savage, pre-Surak Vulcan roots!
  
• "Turnabout Intruder", featuring girl!Kirk!
  

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

"His name ... was Adam."

[vickita.livejournal.com]

You're hooked. You're going to want to know what people are talking about, even about the bad ones. *g*

[ratherbe4gotten.livejournal.com]

Can your DVD player play region 2 DVDs? For some reason DVDs are often much cheaper over here (UK). If you decided to go for the individual series they are about £30 each here, which is about $47... but I don't think there's a UK release for the three season set.

Option 4 -- does your city have a library?

[truestories.livejournal.com]

If you're part of any fairly large interlibrary network, you're pretty much guaranteed to be able to get at least season one on DVD through interlibrary loan, and probably all three seasons. It's a good way to try before you buy.
On the other hand, I'm in the northeast, where we take our libraries *very* seriously, so your experiences elsewhere may be different.

[cellia.livejournal.com]

I only own 6 dvds, 3 of these are TOS. (but waiting for a sale is a good idea)

[cellia.livejournal.com]

oh wait, I remember now that it is 3 cases (each w/ more than 1 dvd), but the argument still stands!

[lknomad.livejournal.com]

Get them all so I can borrow them.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

The third season wasn't quite as bad as it's been made out to be. Yes, there are some real stinkers but even they have their redeeming features. As bad as "And the Children Shall Lead," is, you can't miss the turbolift scene.