star trek ii the wrath of khan 4k uhd

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Nicholas Meyer's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a gripping naval adventure set in space, the sequel that satisfies hardened loyal fans as well as casual viewers and builds to an emotional climax that remains just as impactful as ever. The sci-fi classic boldly goes into 4K Ultra HD territory refitted with an attractive Dolby Vision video, an identical Dolby TrueHD track, and pretty much the same set of supplements. Paramount now gives  The Wrath of Khan   a new single title release repackaging the same two discs from the  4-Movie Collection   and the recently released  6-Movie Collection . If you haven't picked up the previous set or are aiming to gather these films individually -  Recommended 

Read our single title Star Trek 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Reviews: Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director's Edition Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director's Edition Complete Adventure Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

It is the 23rd century. The Federation Starship U.S.S. EnterpriseTM is on routine training maneuvers and Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) seems resigned to the fact that this inspection may well be the last space mission of his career. But Khan is back. Aided by his exiled band of genetic supermen, Khan (Ricardo Montalban) - brilliant renegade of 20th century Earth - has raided Space Station Regula One, stolen a top secret device called Project Genesis, wrested control of another Federation starship, and now schemes to set a most deadly trap for his old enemy Kirk... with the threat of a universal Armageddon!

Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take

Portions of this review were previously published as part of our coverage for Paramount's previous  Star Trek Original 4-Movie Collection  

"After audiences and critics felt underwhelmed by the first movie, director Nicholas Meyer ( Time After Time , Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ) course-corrected the franchise with what is widely beloved as the best installment of the series, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . The sequel not only delivers a grander sense of adventure and thrills to appease casual viewers, but Harve Bennett's story also enlists material from the original television show to satisfy the more hardened fans, which is one of my favorite aspects of Meyer's film. This is not only a sequel to Wise's underrated first entry, but it is also a direct, feature-length follow-up to the open-ended conclusion of the episode "Space Seed" where the genetically enhanced human Khan (a memorably wonderful Ricardo Montalbán) and his compatriots return from exile. It was an incredibly smart move on the part of Bennett, one that allowed Meyer the opportunity to essentially make a grand naval adventure flick in space."

"At the center of Khan's revenge against William Shatner's Starfleet Admiral James T. Kirk is the terraforming initiative called Project Genesis and a powerful device that could be weaponized. The plot doesn't carry the same weighty, pressing subject matter of its predecessor, but the sequel's ideas about mortality, rebirth and the cycle of life and death are no less heady and substantial. From Khan grieving the death of his wife to the literal birth of a new planet, the theme is prevalent throughout, impacting characters in various ways, even in Kirk grappling with the end of his tenure as Captain of the Enterprise and reconciling with his estranged son. With Meyer all the while aptly focusing on the camaraderie of Kirk, McCoy and Spock, the story skillfully builds to that emotionally memorable climax that has become a piece of cinematic history. And revisiting the film after countless viewings, the impact of that ending has not waned in the least." "Also, it's funny to think that after launching the first in the so-called "Genesis Arc" trilogy with The Wrath of Khan , Meyer would eventually become responsible for the two best installments of the entire franchise when he returned for The Undiscovered Country nearly ten years later."

For a more in-depth take on the film, check out Josh Zyber's review of the 2009 Blu-ray HERE .

Vital Disc Stats: The Ultra HD Blu-ray Paramount beams  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan   back down for a single-title 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray + Blu-ray release. The 4K and Blu-ray discs found in this set are identical to the ones previously issued with the  4-Movie Collection   and the new  6-Movie Collection . For this solo release, the discs are housed in a standard black 2-disc case with identical slipcover artwork replicating the classic poster. The discs load to static image main menus with basic navigation options. 

Video Review

"The adventure continues on Ultra HD with another excellent HEVC H.265 encode that was also reportedly struck from a fresh remaster of the original elements.

Although the opening scenes during the simulation exercise at first don't appear very promising, the native 4K transfer is nonetheless a welcomed upgrade, showing a visible uptick in overall definition and clarity. The majority of the picture admittedly falls on the softer side, but it's important to keep in mind that it was intentionally shot in soft focus and is inherent to the elements. This creates a slightly smoother appearance in the faces of Enterprise's older crew members. But in the scenes with Khan and his gang of young pirates, detailing is significantly sharper, revealing lifelike textures in the faces and Montalbán's chest while the threading in his crew's tattered clothes is distinct and the individual hairs are discrete. Many of the visual effects and composition shots stand out a bit more, which is to be expected, but they hold up remarkably well. Overall, this is a notable step-up from previous home video editions.

Awash in a very fine layer of natural gain, the Dolby Vision HDR presentation also furnishes the forty-year-old film with a cleaner, livelier contrast balance and brighter whites throughout. It may not look it, at first, considering the filmmaker's deliberately dark, toned-down creative intentions, but the contrast is an improvement. And mixed with the richer, truer black levels and the strong shadow details, the 2.35:1 image comes with an attractive cinematic appeal and appreciable dimensionality, particularly in those scenes with Khan aboard the starship Reliant. Likewise, the cinematography of Gayne Rescher favors a more earthy, natural palette, bathing the visuals in richly-saturated browns, animated ginger-amber tones and deep rust-orange marigolds. Primaries are nonetheless accurately rendered and bolder than its HD SDR counterparts, such as the ruby-burgundy reds of the uniforms and vibrant, electrifying cobalt blues in the starship's computer consoles.

All in all, this is a satisfying upgrade, and the film has never looked better." 

(Dolby Vision HDR Video Rating: 82/100)

Audio Review

"As with the first movie, this Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack is identical to the one on the Blu-ray, which is not a bad thing though an object-based track would have made a welcomed addition.

Faithful to the original stereo design, the front-heavy presentation displays good channel balance with plenty of good background activity, especially during the action sequences to generate a relatively wide, broad soundstage. However, the mid-range isn't particularly dynamic or extensive, feeling more uniform and somewhat limited in the upper ranges, yet it maintains clarity and definition decently well in James Horner's score and during the loudest segments. The same can be said of the dialogue, but the conversations remain intelligible nonetheless. The low-end adds a bit of weight to the visuals but doesn't make much of an impression overall. There's little activity in the surrounds, mostly reserved for some mild bleeding and a few random ambient effects. The receiver's Dolby Surround or DTS: Neural:X up-mixing functionality does well in expanding some of these atmospherics into the top heights with satisfying effectiveness. All in all, it's an enjoyable lossless mix that does great to complement the on-screen visuals."

For a more in-depth take on the audio quality, you can read Josh Zyber's review of the Blu-ray HERE . (Audio Rating: 78/100)

Special Features

Ultra HD Disc

• Audio Commentary featuring Nicholas Meyer
• Audio Commentary (Theatrical Cut Only) featuring Nicholas Meyer & Manny Coto

Remastered Blu-ray Disc

• Text Commentary (Director’s Cut Only) featuring Michael and Denise Okuda 
• Library Computer Viewing Mode (Theatrical Cut)
• The Genesis Effect: Engineering The Wrath of Khan (HD, 28 min)
• Production (SD, HD)
• Captain’s Log (27 min)
• Designing Khan (24 min)
• Interviews (11 min) with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and Ricardo Montalbán
• Where No Man Has Gone Before: The Visual Effects of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (18 min)
• James Horner: Composing Genesis (10 min)
• The Star Trek Universe (HD, SD)
• Collecting Star Trek’s Movie Relics (11 min)
• A Novel Approach (29 min)
• Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 002: Mystery Behind Ceti Alpha VI (3 min)
• Farewell: A Tribute to Ricardo Montalbán (HD, 5 min)
• Storyboards (HD)
• Trailer (HD)

Final Thoughts

Arguably, in the eyes of casual mainstream audiences, director Nicholas Meyer course-corrects the franchise with the sequel Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan while simultaneously satisfying loyal fans of the original television series. Serving as both a sequel to the first movie and a follow-up to the episode "Space Seed," the film is a rousing naval adventure set in space with an emotional climax that remains just as impactful forty years later. The sci-fi classic boldly goes into 4K Ultra HD territory equipped with an attractive Dolby Vision HDR presentation, giving fans a notable upgrade over its Blu-ray counterpart, but it features the same Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack and pretty much the same set of supplements. Paramount has repackaged these discs previously found with their original  4-Movie Collection   set for this single title release as well as the  6-Movie Collection . If you're not into the entire franchise or just want to pick them up individually with that classic poster artwork, this is still an excellent release of  Wrath of Khan   -  Recommended

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 4K UHD Review

• September 6, 2021

Star Trek’s first film lavished praise on and swooned over what humanity built with Starfleet. It was a progressive, endearing “what if” that assumed civilization could one day build a centralized force for good. Star Trek II shreds those ideals.

Inevitably, Starfleet will make controversial decisions. People will separate from this galactic monolith for the usual pitfalls, whether politics or bureaucracy. Kirk (William Shatner) isn’t only dealing with the direct assault of a space-faring threat in this sequel, but an attempt to bury and suppress past mistakes.

Star Trek II’s stellar tug-of-war on values and purpose is effectively flawless

There’s additional nuance too, as Kahn (Ricardo Montalban) sees himself as a religious deity, whose purpose is to eradicate Kirk. Where most universes war over weapons that destroy life, Star Trek II considers a technology which can create entire ecosystems; Kahn is its human-esque manifestation.

Often Star Trek populates its adventures with obvious villains, as in the visually evil, if not cultural. The Genesis project, which can bring life to dead planets, isn’t a cruel entity. Like Starfleet, the purpose is sound; its potential use is not. Science fiction often explored similar concepts, such as weather machines that can allow plant life to grow in deserts to end starvation. Those ideas lead to corruption, sometimes equivalent to nuclear bombs, even if the core idea promises to do right.

Star Trek II then surrounds itself with a looming moral catastrophe, one of logic and the greater good, centered on Kirk and Spock’s (Leonard Nimoy) bond. It’s not as if Star Trek II delivers on the sci-fi elements, rather than it so intelligently embeds them among the key characters. Kirk’s steady command and willing heroism is always in consideration of his crew – by the book. Spock’s choices rely on the same, minus the needs of his own self.

It’s a perfect antithesis to Kahn, who cares little for others, and will use a life-creating machine to simultaneously end others. Spock reprimands Saavik (Kirstie Alley) as she can’t comprehend the human ego. That line defines much of Star Trek II’s action as Kahn believes he’s superior, and Kirk never thinks of a plan that puts himself amid a deadly radiation leak. Only Spock can, because Vulcans don’t suffer from ego or see themselves as important to the wider universe. Star Trek II’s stellar tug-of-war on values and purpose is effectively flawless because as the Starfleet test suggests, there is no solution.

A new 4K master raises suspicions. Worries surround the grain structure, which looks curiously artificial. Or, possibly filtered. It’s easy to see smearing as characters move, and minor glossiness on close-ups indicate a mild noise reduction. It’s faint, but apparent.

Those qualms aside, Star Trek II shows substantial gains from the Blu-ray. Fidelity boosts pick up texture on uniforms. Close-ups deliver fine detail. Encoding suffers a touch when trying to resolve haze or the sandstorm on an alien planet, but it’s otherwise capable in allowing definition through. The resolution boost can’t be denied.

Dolby Vision adds its own spark, black levels awesome, and stars piercing space’s void. It’s not an overly vibrant or unnatural, careful to preserve the film stock’s organic quality. A slight crush in spots barely matters, a small trade off for the exquisite dimensionality gained elsewhere. Color density gives Starfleet uniforms a brilliant, deep red. Primaries glow alongside the natural flesh tones.

While not the most intense in range, Star Trek II’s TrueHD 7.1 mix finds some bass worth celebrating. Explosions rumble a bit, as do ship engines. In that regard, the mix doesn’t sound like something from the 1980s. Only the dialog gives it away, since the score’s masterful treble doesn’t strain itself at all.

Extra rears drive heavy ambient winds around the soundstage. Ships pass by smoothly and naturally. Small touches like a crowd of trainees leaving a meeting and shuffling their feet into the stereos give the track small touches that bring it life.

Director Nicholas Meyer and Manny Cotto provide the commentary, on both the theatrical and director’s cuts. The Blu-ray and 4K offer the same tracks, while the Blu-ray carries the additional extras, beginning with a pop-up feature on the theatrical cut. A making-of lasts 28-minutes. A five-part menu includes interviews, effects featurettes, and a piece on James Horner’s score, among others. Bits on Star Trek II’s legacy, including one that details props, are excellent. Ricardo Montalban earns a deserving tribute that lasts nearly five minutes. Storyboards and a trailer finish things.

Full disclosure : This Blu-ray was provided to us for review. This has not affected the editorial process. For information on how we handle review material, please visit our about us page to learn more.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

A powerful and morally complex sequel, Star Trek II is the epitome of the franchise as it delves into religious and life-affirming challenges.

User Review

The following six screen shots serve as samples for our subscription-exclusive set of 57 full resolution uncompressed 4K screen shots grabbed directly from the UHD:

Matt Paprocki

Matt Paprocki has critiqued home media and video games for 20 years across outlets like Washington Post, Variety, Rolling Stone, Forbes, IGN, Playboy, Polygon, Ars, and others. His current passion project is the technically minded DoBlu.com . You can read Matt's body of work via his personal WordPress blog, and follow him on Twitter @Matt_Paprocki .

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Other Editions

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - Director's Cut (4K Ultra HD)

The 4K UHD standalone version of the film was released on the occasion of the completion of the long awaited [1] in 4K HD 2160p resolution remastered version of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture   (The Director's Edition) in 2022, and was simultaneously released as part of the Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture 6-Movie Collection 4K UHD set. Actually, the remastering of The Wrath of Khan had already been completed in 2016 for an intended 4K UHD release the pursuant year to celebrate the film's 35th anniversary , though it was eventually decided to postpone that release as the 4K UHD format had yet to make more substantial inroads into the physical home video disc market at that time. That postponement decision was only reinforced by the two years later made decision to remaster the The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition as well for a Star Trek franchise 's 55th anniversary release. [2] Still, an individual downscaled standalone Blu-ray version was released internationally in 2016.

As usual with these releases (geo-restricted to North America only, as the – former Blu-ray Region B [3] – European/Australasian releases do not have these) a redeemable code is included to download the film in 4K resolution digitally.

As is increasingly becoming commonplace, no DVD counterpart was issued for this particular release. Those dwindling number of DVD customers still wanting one, had to make do with the original Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  (The Director's Edition) DVD DVD release from 2002.

• 1 Special features
• 2 Background information
• 3 Footnotes
• 4 External link

Special features [ ]

As well as all extras originally featured on the prior Director's Edition DVD, excepting the Easter egg, the release also featured the special features in high definition, as included on the 2016 release.

• Audio commentary by Director Nicholas Meyer (Director's Cut)
• Audio commentary by Director Nicholas Meyer and Manny Coto (Theatrical Version)
• Text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda (Director's Cut)
• Library Computer (Theatrical Version, embedded)
• The Genesis Effect: Engineering The Wrath of Khan † (28:11)
• The Captain's Log (27:21)
• Designing Khan (23:55)
• Original interviews with DeForest Kelley , William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy and Ricardo Montalban (10:57)
• Where No Man Has Gone Before: The Visual Effects of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (18:15)
• James Horner : Composing Genesis (9:33) †
• Collecting Star Trek's Movie Relics with Alec Peters (11:00) †
• A Novel Approach (28:56)
• Starfleet Academy SciSec Brief 002 : Mystery Behind Ceti Alpha VI (3:07) †
• Farewell: A Tribute to Ricardo Montalban (4:43) †
• Storyboards
• Theatrical Trailer (2:22) †

Background information [ ]

• Contrary to the Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition and last two original crew films, Scandinavia waived the standalone version release of The Wrath of Khan - Director's Cut , as it had already seen a release a year earlier, albeit as part of their Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection only, but which was not that much of an issue for the customer base over there as any import would do.
• In similar fashion, the two Australasian (Australia and New Zealand) releases had dispensed with the separate Blu-ray disc in the set, as that territory had already seen its own original 2016 individual standalone release, as mentioned above.

Footnotes [ ]

• ↑ Talks of a High Definition release of the Director's Edition had been floating around since April 2013, but various reasons conspired against such a release for nearly a decade. For further background information on this subject matter, see main article .
• ↑ It turned out that the franchise's 55th anniversary release encompassed more than just the 4K UHD versions of The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition and The Wrath of Khan - Director's Cut alone, as the other four Original Crew film were to be remastered to 4K UHD standards as well. By the time of the anniversary in 2021, only the remastering of the first four films was completed, resulting in the release of the Star Trek: The Original 4-Movie Collection set release that year of which The Wrath of Khan - Director's Cut was a part. And while individual downscaled standalone Blu-ray version were (which in the case of Khan merely consisted of a reissue of the 2016 release, contrary to the other three which were actual technological upgrades), it was decided to wait with the individual releases of the standalone 4K UHD versions until the remastering of the last two original crew films was completed a year later. Incidentally, a happy coincidence was that 2022 was also the year of The Wrath of Khan 's 40th anniversary , as emphasized on the North American slipover sleeve.
• ↑ The Region geo-restricting encoding had, for all intent and purposes, been dispensed with all together by the industry upon the advent of the UHD format, even though that policy change has never been made public officially. This incidentally, has also applied for the Blu-ray disc format, whose region encoding was since late 2009 silently, but gradually, abandoned as well – which in Star Trek 's case started with the Blu-ray releases of TOS Season 2 and Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection [1] (X) – only to pick up speed from the mid-2010s onward.

External link [ ]

• Review at Blu-ray.com
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• 2 Obi Ndefo
• 3 Gabriel Bell

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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan [4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital] (Bilingual)

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Product description

One of the most celebrated and essential adventures from the STAR TREK universe, STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN comes to 4K UHD with HDR-10 and Dolby Vision, boldly remastered from the original film elements. On routine training maneuvers, Admiral James T. Kirk seems resigned that this may be the last space mission of his career. But an adversary from the past has returned with a vengeance. Aided by his exiled band of genetic supermen, Khan (Ricardo Montalban)—brilliant renegade of 20th century Earth—has raided Space Station Regula One, stolen the top-secret device called Project Genesis, wrested control of another Federation starship, and now schemes to set a most deadly trap for his old enemy Kirk… with the threat of a universal Armageddon. Both the original theatrical cut and the Director’s cut are included, alongside an array of special features.

Product details

• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Parcel Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 17.4 x 13.8 x 1.7 cm; 99.79 g
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ Digital_copy, 4K, Blu-ray, NTSC
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 56 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ Sept. 6 2022
• Actors ‏ : ‎ William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols
• Dubbed: ‏ : ‎ French
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Paramount Pictures
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B6JW1LSS
• #576 in Science Fiction (Movies & TV Shows)
• #1,466 in Action & Adventure
• #2,985 in Blu-ray

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• September 3, 2024 | ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ Actor James Darren Has Passed Away
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Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery – The Final Season’ On Blu-ray Comes To A Satisfying Conclusion

| August 27, 2024 | By: Matt Wright 20 comments so far

The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery arrives on home video this week in the USA. We take a detailed look at the Blu-ray set which includes over 2 hours of special features.

Star Trek: Discovery – Season 5

Season 3 redefined Discovery, as it started with a “great leap forward” (and a fairly successful soft reboot for the show), then season 4 gave us an intriguing mystery with extragalactic aliens; now in season 5 Discovery finally seemed comfortable connecting back to what came before, a major advantage of being so far in the future is that effectively all of Trek was open to the writers.

The earliest trailers for the final season hinted at a 24th-century Romulan scout ship being looted by our antagonists, L’ak and Moll, which started off a wave of fan theories. One of the strongest was that this may have something to do with the Progenitors as seen in TNG: “The Chase.” Sure enough, viewers were rewarded in the first episode with the confirmation that this season would continue the chase (pun intended) for the technology that created life as we know it in most of the galaxy. Thankfully, the rest of the season continued to buck the “mystery box” trend of trying to hold back everything until the last possible moment. Instead we got a very satisfying, more episodic scavenger hunt all over the galaxy, with homages to Indiana Jones and Bonnie & Clyde, among others.

Another boon for season 5 is that Discovery had 2 years of backstory in the 32nd century to draw upon, which helped to flesh out the world this season. Also, I didn’t think we’d ever see the Breen again, so it was an interesting choice to make them the villains of the season. The addition of Rayner, a Kellerun (a one-episode species from early DS9) was also welcome world-building. Callum Keith Rennie’s Burn-weary Rayner provided a much needed counterpoint to Burnham. While his gruff energy kept the Disco crew on its toes, Rayner, far from being one-note, was shown as being capable of growth and change.

The Blu-ray set

Discovery season 5 comes to home video titled “The Final Season.” The 10 episodes and special features are spread out across four Blu-ray discs. As we’ve come to expect for a Paramount/CBS home video release, each disc has the names of the episodes it contains printed on them, as well as a full listing for the set on the inside back of the case. There’s a special Steelbook edition of the Blu-ray set too. For those who want it, it’s also available on plain old DVD as well. For those who haven’t purchased the previous seasons, season 5 is also available as part of the new Complete Series boxed set (DVD or Blu-ray) release.

Video quality

Discovery season 5 follows the slick, modern style it initially helped to define for the CBS/Paramount+ Trek universe. Season 5 follows last couple of season’s trend of still dynamic but thankfully less nauseating camera moves. Having the higher bitrate available on disc means the image quality in the many darker and atmospheric scenes can be a bit better than streaming.

Audio quality

The episodes have losslessly compressed DTS-HD MA 5.1 channel soundtracks. Discovery sounds great and has consistently sounded cinematic since season 2; as noted in my other reviews, the producers and Emmy-nominated sound mixers are at the top of their game with these latest seasons.

Special features

All special features are found the fourth disc of the Blu-ray set.

Documentary features

Star Trek: Discovery – The Voyage Of Season 5 (39 mins) – As they’ve done with the past seasons, this feature documents the making of the season. Writers, producers, directors, and cast are interviewed about the making of the 10 episodes as well and the epilogue, once they found out the fifth season would be the last.

Being Michael Burnham (13 mins) – Another in the continued series of features season to season: In this final entry, Sonequa Martin-Green takes fans through her personal journey as Captain Michael Burnham. This entry is particularly bittersweet since season 5 was the last season, and includes reflection on her entire time on Discovery plus a visit behind the scenes of filming the epilogue, where  Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala in old age makeup meet Sawandi Wilson, the actor who will be playing their adult son, for the first time in the makeup trailer.

Sawandi Wilson stops for a picture with his space parents in the makeup trailer.

A Team Effort (20 mins) – This feature focuses on the production departments that make Discovery come to life. Co-showrunner Michele Paradise talks about the pressure of making a high quality show and how it comes down to teamwork to pull off a show.

Character Development (23 mins) – The cast and showrunners discuss the characters’ growth over all 5 seasons.

Discovery’s Creative Force (10 mins) – A tribute to Olatunde Osunsanmi. Known to most as ‘Tunde, he’s been a driving force on set in Toronto as the on-site executive producer and in-house director for Discovery . He’s by all accounts a very nice guy, and he really took the role of being the “producer on the ground” for all 5 seasons with a lot of heart and dedication to the production.

Commentary: Episode 410 – “Life Itself” – Episode writer and co-showrunner Michelle Paradise, producing director Olatunde Osunsanmi, and cast members Sonequa Martin-Green and David Ajala contribute to the single commentary on the set.

Deleted scene

Sadly, there’s only deleted scene this time, from the finale “Life Itself”:

• Saru and Nhan talk about wedding planning and the challenge of balancing duty with personal lives while prepping to leave on their mission to stop Primarch Tahal’s armada.

Gag reel (4 mins) – Found on the fourth disc. These “blooper reels” tend to be a nice look into the reality of making a TV show. Sonequa Martin-Green kicks off a fun montage of flubbing lines, Doug Jones flubs the word “nuptials” repeatedly, and director Jonathan Frakes takes responsibility for encouraging the flub from offscreen. We also get a few prop mishaps and other fun unplanned moments.

Final thoughts

For fans who weren’t sure what to make of Discovery, especially as it’s morphed itself each season, I think season 5 is worth another look. It’s Discovery at its most comfortable—both with the storytelling and the characters. As usual, we also recommend it for completists or anyone who wants an offline copy of the show; this includes those who cannot or do not want to stream the show and folks who have concerns about the fleeting rights to streaming media.

Discovery season 5 is the fourth recent Trek season produced in HDR and 4K ( Strange New Worlds S1 and Discovery S4 were the first seasons produced using newer 4K+ resolution ARRI Alexa cameras) and it is available to stream in HDR and 4K on Paramount+, so it’s a bit of a disappointment that there’s no UHD Blu-ray release to let the detailed sets, costumes, and cinematography really shine. This is especially odd considering Paramount Home Entertainment has released both seasons of Strange New Worlds on UHD Blu-ray.

Available now in the USA

You can order  Discovery  Season 5  at Amazon on Blu-ray for $34.99  or  DVD for $29.99 . There is also a limited edition Steelbook Blu-ray, which can be can be ordered for $39.99 .

Season 5 Steelbook Blu-ray

Also available now, is Star Trek: Discovery – The Complete Series box set which costs $59.95 on Blu-ray or $49.95 on DVD . The set features all 65 episodes and over 15 hours of special features including a bonus disc “that takes you on a never-before-seen journey through all five seasons with the cast and crew.”

The Complete Series Blu-ray edition

DISCLAIMER: We link to products to buy on Amazon in our articles with customized affiliate links that support TrekMovie by earning a small commission when you purchase through them.

Trailer & special features video clips

Availability in other countries

The home video release is also available now (or coming soon) in these countries:

• UK  – Final Season & Complete Series: 19 August 2024
• Italy  – Final Season & Complete Series: 19 August 2024
• Benelux  – Final Season: 19 August 2024
• Denmark  – Final Season & Complete Series: 19 August 2024
• Finland  – Final Season & Complete Series: 19 August 2024
• Norway  – Final Season & Complete Series: 19 August 2024
• Sweden  – Final Season & Complete Series: 19 August 2024
• Spain  – Final Season & Complete Series: 22 August 2024
• Germany  – Final Season: 22 August 2024, Complete Series: 10 October 2024
• France  – Final Season & Complete Series: 28 August 2024
• Australia  – Final Season & Complete Series: 18 December 2024

Keep up with all the  home video and streaming news, reviews, and analysis at TrekMovie.com.

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I love it that modern Trek comes out on physical media, even though I wouldn’t pay a cent for a show as worthless as Discovery. SNW and Lower Decks on the other hand are worth every penny!

The desperation some fans have to attack something they don’t like will never not be tedious. Was there any reason to trash the show? None whatsoever. Stop trolling.

There is utility in expressing one’s dislike of a show. It’s not trolling or desperation at all.

I can never understand why people who dislike a TV show they feel compelled to keep posting comments and tell people that they dislike it. If you don’t like something then simply scroll past the articles talking about said shows. I don’t post in comment sections for shows that I don’t like as I would rather spend that time posting in comment sections for shows that I do like.

It’s a little childish to shoehorn in a negative opinion the way it’s done above though.

When appropriate. They bend over backwards and scream into everything including Wendy’s drive-thru menus about their hate of Disco. It’s absolutely trolling.

I love this show and as a life long Trekkie who grew up watching TNG this show will forever be special to me and has earned itself the position of being my 2nd favourite Trek show. (DS9 is and will always be my Number 1 favourite.)

Like a dumb dumb I always buy all of star trek canon on physical media. Like a sucker I bought Star Trek: Discovery – The Complete Series because it had a “bonus disc”, even though I had already bought Season 1-4 in Steelbook. Star Trek: Discovery – The Complete Series came with discs rattling around in the case, some disc were almost impossible to pull out with out breaking the discs, the printing on the discs did not change from the Steelbooks and did not match each other (looking at you season 4 with just basic text.)

I have purchased each season individually, and continued that trend for the final season. However, I did get the complete series set just for the extra disc. And yes, I would say to anyone else who orders it … Open it immediately and make sure all your discs are in place. Any that are loose (rattling around), check them for scratches.

I watch Paramount + on AppleTV and while all of new live action Trek has HDR, only SNW Seasons 1+2 streamed in 4K. Discovery seasons 4 and 5 were HD HDR only. The first 4 episodes only of Discovery season 4 were erroneously listed as 4K and then I believe that was fixed on the app so only SNW has been produced in 4K to date.

Hmm, you’re right. They’re no longer listed with a 4K badge when I look at P+ on my Apple TV 4k. What’s odd is, they filmed Season 4 with primarily 4K capable ARRI Alexa cameras, and the one camera that was a little under 4k will internally upscale to 4k ( source ). Season 5 was definitely filmed in 4k, they used a Sony Venice 6K camera system ( source ). Heck I just found this article that shows even season 3 filmed with 4k capable cameras (ARRI Alexa SXT) ( source ).

I can’t find the article, but I seem to recall an article talking about how when SNW S1 was being prepped, DSC S4 also got the benefit of new cameras, which implied both would be finished at 4k, seemingly only SNW was.

Thanks for the additional information! It’s always seemed strange that all of the live action series, which they spend so much money on and are often referred to as cinematic, didn’t upgrade to 4K years ago. Especially since they all have HDR and Paramount + has had 4K for a few years. I had false hope with Discovery season 4, until after a few episodes it became clear they were mislabeled as 4K on AppleTV +.and the rest of the season was listed as HD. Thanks again.

The VFX were likely not rendered in 4k as this is time consuming and expensive right now.

So for this reason the live action footage would most likely have been downscaled for the finished product so they match.

If you notice, SNW has far less VFX than Discovery. This makes it feasible to deliver the show in 4k as the bulk of material is actors in front of a camera without too much going on in the way of VFX.

I am pretty sure that they could do upscale into 4K and HDR+ for the first 2 seasons, and master (they probably have 4K masters) for the later part of the show. So my money is that we will get a 4K/HDR+ set sometimes in the future, like in 2025 or 2026.

It’s a shame they have stopped putting slip covers on their releases :(

The non-Steelbook Blu-rays have slipcovers.

I’ve heard conflicting reports about the complete series set’s “bonus disc.” Does it have extras that aren’t available on the individual releases, and if so, how many/how long?

I loved this show. First season was a bit rough but I far prefer it to SNW. Sad to see it gone

Ive always had Mixed feelings about the show, but it was constantly improving and my favourite was probably Season 4. I had some Mixed feelings about Season 5, particularly all the mushy stuff between people always seemed a bit overdone in this show. And I was ready to Kind of dimiss it ultimately… but then came hat ending which just got me. The library Episode was fantastic, the Breen Ships really cool in a 80s way and the surreal stuff at the end (minus the forced fistfight) was also cool. And then came hat Epilogue where Michael had her happily ever After and maybe Im just a Sucker for that Kind of stuff, but I really liked it and ultimately Feel despite all its issues (in my eyes) the Journey was Worth taking and I am looking forward to re-experience it one day. Live Long and proper… and Connect xD

Discovery was easily the best Trek show since DS9, better than TNG in my humble opinion (with the exception of episodes/PIC S3 where Picard or his son unwittingly end up working for the Borg). LOVED the Michael Burnham arc. A little sad with the implementation on the future though, they never really stuck the landing in both the Klingon War (the ships were horrid for example until the 1701 and D7 that showed up in S2) and having a 23rd century starship rekindle the spirit of exploration with the V’deration totally fallen apart due to stagnation (mirroring the Renaissance). CGI. Was close though… and salvageable with Academy. Oh and the future starships look like bad / 1980s Also wish they got away from the people talking in front of doors in oversized rooms especially given computers are so easy to buy now. But again love the Michael Burnham arc, Katrina Cornwell saving the Enterprise, Captain Pike, Number One – lots of good.