The Captains Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Captains Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 31, 2020

In The Captains Collection, Star Trek legend William Shatner boldly goes where no man has gone before: deep into the hearts, minds, and essences of Starfleet's greatest captains, interviewing the individuals who sat in the big chair over five decades of Star Trek small- and big-screen adventures. The first two films in the collection, The Captains and The Captains Close-Up, grant audiences inside access to the men and women who commanded starships (and space stations) and commanded respect from fans around the world. Chaos on the Bridge conversely explores the tumultuous making of the franchise's most popular program, Star Trek: The Next Generation. Get a Life is Shatner's exploration of Trek fandom both at its superficial and deeper psychological levels.

The Captains (1:36:11)

In The Captains, Host William Shatner concerns himself less with the characters who were captains – Jean-Luc Picard, Benjamin Sisko, Kathryn Janeway, Jonathan Archer, and the new take on his own legendary James T. Kirk – and more so with the persons who brought them to life. He travels to Oxford, England to meet with the legendry Sir Patrick Stewart; Princeton, New Jersey to chat with Avery Brooks; New York City to meet Kate Mulgrew; Los Angeles to speak with Scott Bakula; and outside of Paramount Studios to talk, and arm wrestle, with his younger self in Chris Pine. The chats begin with more superficial and lighthearted explorations of their lives before Trek, but Shatner – and his subjects – quickly steer the discussion to more relevant topics centered on Star Trek, including Stewart’s nerves and personal growth on the set, Brooks’ grasp of the world’s rhythm, Mulgrew’s work hours away from her family, Bakula’s admission that Enterprise’s cast didn’t mesh quite so well as Kirk’s, and Pine’s take on the legendry captain. One of the best scenes comes towards the end when Shatner and Stewart intimately share their working techniques on their respective shows and the styles they brought to the roles. Beyond the show the discussions evolve to also include broken families, life philosophy, and death. It’s a joy to find so much commonality and shared understanding even within several disparate personalities. Shatner brings his ever charming and delightfully infectious personality to every meeting while also making sure to explore his own background, his career build-up to Captain Kirk (including a break replacing Christopher Plummer, whom he briefly interviews about his General Chang character), and the joy he experiences interacting with fans and Trek alumni on the convention floor.

The Captains Close-Up (2:28:19)

This follow-up to The Captains delves even deeper into the individuals behind the captaincies, spurred on by Shatner’s own fascination with the world opened to him with the original project and what he, in turn, learned about himself along the journey. While this program uses existing footage from The Captains, it’s not simply a “director’s cut” or a reworking of the original. While some small elements are recycled – scenes in which Shatner meets the actors, for example – far more depth and detail is revealed, focuses are shifted, and much new information comes to light and life. This is a far lengthier, and in many ways more personal, exploration with some added insight from the actors and crew surrounding them on the show, all of them revealing detail beyond the superficial and the artificial and granting audiences legitimate access to the truths behind the show. But perhaps more interesting than the stories from the making of the various Star Trek series is the way in which Shatner and his subjects talk life, love, triumphs, failures, regrets, and so many of the hidden details and raw emotions that define the people behind the uniform. In that way, yes, it’s similar to The Captains but with both a broader focus and a more intimate portrayal of humanity. The program is divided into several segments, beginning with an exploration of Shatner’s success as an actor and personality but conversely, and with much more emotion, his life beyond the screen and the public eye: loves, successes, and failures. The piece looks into his work on Boston Legal, his musical career in spite of his admitted lack of talent, and much more. In the segments to follow, he continues his conversations with Stewart, Brooks, Mulgrew, Bakula, and with less attention to detail, Pine.

Chaos on the Bridge (59:14)

These are the stories behind the franchise’s most successful television property, The Next Generation. Its 59-minute mission: to offer a multifaceted and multi-opinionated look at both the series and the man behind Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry. The piece delves deeply into his life and personal beliefs and how his vision of a future utopia influenced TNG. The film follows the series’ challenged origins, creative differences, D.C. Fontana and Gene Roddenberry’s authoring of the “Encounter at Farpoint” script and the writing rumbles that plagued the early show, casting, Gene’s failing health, Denise Crosby’s departure, Gates McFadden’s exit and eventual return, the show’s improvements after its first two seasons, Michael Piller’s arrival and refocusing the show from “plot” to “character” driven, and Roddenberry’s death and legacy. For such a serious topic with wildly divergent insights and emotions, there’s a clear comedic overtone apparent throughout the film.

Get a Life (58:18)

This is a fun and focused look at Star Trek fandom, not quite so wild and real as Trekkies but clearly a healthy, vibrant glimpse into hardcore passion for the property. It explores an eclectic, and eccentric, cross-section of fans: their passions, their collectibles, their costumes, their loves, and the like. It also spends time exploring the rituals of fandom and the philosophy behind the show and the psychology behind the draw towards it.

The Captains Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Across all four of the films in The Captains Collection, there's a fairly consistent level of video output quality that rises above mediocre but falls below excellent. The picture quality is not robust in sum, showing excessive banding over the opening titles for The Captains and moving on to reveal mostly improved imagery throughout. Various examples of noise and macroblocking are apparent, too, fortunately in low quantities. The modestly budgeted video source does manage to reveal a stable of good, clear images, particularly in some of the static close-ups of various interview subjects, though to be sure several variables – lighting, location, and the like – cut into the consistency a bit and leave some sharper and more pleasant than others. Some of the most interesting visuals come in Get a Life where the Blu-ray reveals memorabilia, fan costumes and makeup, and the like with enough definition and resolution muscle to do well to bring the audience onto the convention floor. It's about as close as Blu-ray comes to allowing for "people watching" and it makes good enough on that front. At its best, the picture is very capable. Take a look at the meeting with Scott Bakula in chapter five of The Captains for an example of the image at its most crisp and revealing. Colors largely follow suit, appearing very well saturated with good contrast and tonal nuance in many places but some of the divergent sources, locations, and lighting occasionally leave the image veering away from excellence and lowering all the way down to "pedestrian." But colors largely hover in that above-average area, critical particularly in, again, Get a Life to get the best look possible at the fun costumes and toys and the like so prevalent through that film.

The Captains Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Captains Collection warps onto Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack (2.0 lossless is also included). The audio quality is generally fine, but the production does not necessarily lend itself to an extravagant output, and neither does its sound design. It's a mostly straightforward listening experience with few bells and whistles, particularly through The Captains, The Captains Close-Up, and Chaos on the Bridge, which are largely driven by dialogue (center focused and clear) and some music (nicely spaced and detailed). There is some very infrequent output variance (listen to an interview at the 108-minute mark of The Captains Close-Up), though admittedly such are usually a product of the environment and the understandably limited source recording of that particular snippet. Chaos does offer some sound expansion beyond the more focused Captains and Close-Up, including more obvious front side musical stretch and a healthier surround integration, but the most dynamic listen comes with Get a Life with the highest energy music and convention floor din frequently in play.

The Captains Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Captains Collection includes extras on all four Blu-ray discs. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

The Captains:

• The Making of The Captains (1080p, 11:02): A brief recap of the narrative and construction, project origins, bringing the captains on board, logistical challenges, conducting the interviews, revelations, and more.
• Trailer (1080p, 1:01).

The Captains Close-Up

• Still Kicking (1080p, 47:03): A far lengthier take on Shatner's interview with Christopher Plummer which was given only a brief preview in The Captains. Shatner also spends some time at the Stratford Festival Archives in Stratford, Ontario to dig through some old memories of his time on the stage.
• Shatner the Firefighter (1080p, 1:15): Shatner recalls a time in which he extinguished a fire on the Paramount lot.
• When the Wall Came Down (1080p, 1:41): Shatner and Paramount's John Campbell take a look at, and talk the history of, the famous water tower on the Paramount lot.
• Music Video (1080p, 3:37): "Ponder the Mystery" with William Shatner.
• Captains Close-Up Trailer (1080p, 1:16).
• Still Kicking Trailer (1080p, 0:56).

Chaos on the Bridge

• Trailer (1080p, 1:49).

Get a Life

• Shatner & The Fans (1080i, 3:03): Shatner signs autographs for fans.
• The Jue Family (1080i, 4:34): Introducing a family of Star Trek fans, including renewed wedding vows on the bridge of the Enterprise-D in Las Vegas.
• Conversation with Robert Walter (1080i, 6:04): Additional scenes with Walter, the President of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, who plays a prominent role in Get a Life.
• Fanaddicts Sizzle (1080i, 5:05): Lightning quick behind-the-scenes snippets.
• Peter and Charlotte (1080i, 1:31): Introducing a couple of very special fans.
• Dr. Scott Richards (1080i, 3:03): A San Diego-based psychiatrist talks about the psychology of fandom.
• Trailer (1080i, 1:25).

The Captains Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Trekkies will certainly want to beam this set into their Star Trek collections. Fascinating interviews, insightful stories, and a good bit of fun all add up to a welcome array of Star Trek history, personality, and fandom. Shout! Factory's four-disc set delivers sturdy video and audio a few extras to boot. Very highly recommended, and hardcore collectors should also be on the lookout for a pair of special edition versions.