Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

In "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," it's the 23rd century, and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise must return to Earth to stop an alien force that is destroying the atmosphere. To save mankind, Kirk (Shatner) and his crew must travel back to 1986 San Francisco, and what they encounter there is every bit as alien as what they've seen in the outer reaches of the galaxy! (Tricia Spears)

Special features include commentary by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy; commentary by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman; and a "Library Computer" interactive experience that allows you to access information about people, technology, locations, and more at the moment each appears in the film. Under "Production" there are the following featurettes: "Future's Past: A Look Back" (SD 27:32), "On Location" (SD 07:26), "Dailies Deconstruction" (SD 04:13), "Below-The-Line: Sound Design" (SD 11:45), and "Pavel Chekov's Screen Moments" (HD 06:09). "The Star Trek Universe" includes the following featurettes: "Time Travel: The Art Of The Possible" (SD 11:15), "The Language Of Whales" (SD 05:46), "A Vulcan Primer" (SD 07:50), "Kirk's Women" (SD 08:19), "Star Trek: Three Picture Saga" (HD 10:12), "Star Trek For A Cause" (HD 05:40), and "Starfleet Academy Scisec Brief 004: The Whale Probe" (HD 03:42). There are two featurettes under "Visual Effects": "From Outer Space To The Ocean" (SD 14:43) and "The Bird Of Prey" (SD 02:48). Also included are the original interviews with William Shatner (SD 14:33), Leonard Nimoy (SD 15:40), and Deforest Kelley (SD 13:02); "Roddenberry Scrapbook" (SD 08:17) and "Featured Artist: Mark Lenard" (SD 12:44) under "Tributes"; a production gallery (SD 03:55); eight storyboards; the theatrical trailer; BD-Live interactivity; and up-front ads.

The 1080p AVC encoding looks clean and well defined, with source element artifacts almost completely removed and fine details displayed beautifully. Images have a slightly soft appearance, though details and definition are generally nicely rendered. Colors appear a bit dated and occasionally border oversaturation, but can otherwise seem pleasantly balanced. At times, shadow delineation seems to drop off, lacking definition in the darker scenes. Still, contrast is generally satisfying, and black levels are deep and consistent. While the source element is rather clean of flecks of dirt and minor film grain, what is there can expectedly appear amplified in some of the effect shots. (Danny Richelieu/Suzanne Hodges)

The Dolby® TrueHD 7.1-channel remastered soundtrack sounds slightly more refined in the rendering of dimensionality and the midrange over the DVDs, and also has a bit more prominence in the low-end. Fidelity is quite remarkable, considering the age of the production, as hissing and humming distortion have been cleaned up very well. Sound effects are effectively placed throughout the listening space, with each of the channels used effectively. The addition of the surround back channels helps create a more refined surroundfield, with good integration with each of the used channels. The music is spacious and dynamic, with an expansive, engaging presence, and dialogue production is quite exemplary. Low-frequency output from this soundtrack is powerful, with extension down to below 25 Hz from the LFE and other channels. (Danny Richelieu/Perry Sun)