Star Trek: Alternate Realities
Paramount

For those who don’t want to fork out (albeit some price reductions lately) for full season sets of different Star Trek shows from various eras, these theme sets do the trick. Star Trek: Alternate Realities includes 20 episodes culled from the original series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. Six of those focus on the mirror universe that first showed on the original Trek with a bearded Spock (so well-known it led to a bearded Cartman from an alt-universe in South Park). That still great tale, “Mirror, Mirror,” would be picked up decades later by the writer-producer of DS9 for “Crossover,” “Through The Looking Glass,” and “Shattered Mirror.” However two eps are missing: “Resurrection” and “The Emperor’s New Cloak.” A few years on, though, the mirror-verse saga picks up with a prequel to it all in “Enterprises In A Mirror Darkly, Parts I and II.”  The other multi-verse tales are hit-and-miss, though among the best of the lot are Next Gen’s great “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (revealing what happend to the NCC 1701-C) and “Inner Light,” as Captain Picard lives a different lifetime in an instant.  Also quite moving is father-and-son DS9 story, “The Visitor.”  One more note on it all: The Original Series episodes are “remastered” versions with new special effects, with Season Three’s “Turnabout Intruder” making its DVD debut.

Smothers Brothers Best of Season 3
CBS Home Video

Sharp-witted and smart, The Smothers Brothers TV show was truly unique to its time, and this collection spotlights 11 shows, all uncensored from the programs that originally aired on CBS (including one that actually never aired). The brothers shot new intros for each episode, and also includes the “Pat Paulsen For President” TV special (with restored footage of 1968 presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, pulled because of his assassination), Paulsen at the White House, censored sketches, censored anti-war proponent Benjamin Spock, and more bits. The musical guests from this 1968-69 season is one knockout after another too: The Doors, George Harrison, Ray Charles, Ike & Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, and Donovan, plus comedy from George Carlin, Bob Newhart, Jackie Mason, Jonathan Winters, and David Steinberg.

Horatio Hornblower Collector’s Edition
A&E Home Video

Hornblower is a grand nautical adventure hero, his tales chronicled by CS Forester.   As he goes from midshipman to rise in ranks to, ultimately, Captain, he’s a hero in the classic mold, and this UK TV series does a wonderful job of translating the books to a visual format.  Welshman Ioan Gruffudd (now also known as Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four films) nails the character, from his heroism to moments of questioning doubt.  Also terrific is Robert Lindsey as Captain-to-Admiral Pellew.  And oh those mighty ships of the British Royal Navy! The collection includes all eight Hornblower TV films, along with a Gruffudd interview, commentaries on the episodes “Loyalty” and “Duty,” plus looks at “England’s Royal Warships,” and “The Making of Horatio Hornblower.” There’s also an interactive 3D Naval Cannon, a C.S. Forester and cast and Crew Biographies, and a fine photo gallery.

Win a copy of the Hornblower Collectors Set from Buzzine. Tell us what famous TV Science Fiction Hero was modeled, in part, after the Hornblower novels. Send you answer — and mailing address — to: DVD Giveaways@buzzine.com

Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Definitive Collection
A&E Home Video

Most Christie devotees will agree that David Suchet IS Hercule Poirot, and this is the original “Murder She Wrote” with a Belgian brilliant analyst of a hero who’s a man of perception rather than one of action, and that’s just fine. This special set is a dream collection featuring 12 feature-length Poirot tales. The stories include “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” set in a quaint country village; “Murder in Mesopatamia,” sort of an Indiana Jones-ish mystery; “Evil Under the Sun” and “Death on the Nile,” both Christie Poirot classic; the probing “The Mystery of the Blue Train;” and “Cards on the Table,” as Poirot is one of four investigators out to solve a murder at a card game. For those who’ve long watched Suchet at Poirot on PBS then A&E, this is a holiday gift you should pick up for them now.

Ax Men - Season 1 (History Channel)
A&E Home Video

From the makers of the fascinating Ice Road Truckers comes Ax Men, a look at the realities of logging in Oregon country.  Generations have followed fathers, grandfathers, and even great-grandfathers as timber cutters, and some of these men are profiled here along with the many dangers, from the machinery of the blades to equipment failures, and other unexpected turns. The series looks at the work of four logging crews — their diverse personalities and attitudes — on one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S. The set comes packaged in a sturdy SteelBook case.

Win a copy of Ax-Men!  Just send an e-mail with your address to: DVD Giveaways@Buzzine.com.

Jewel In The Crown: 25th Anniversary Edition
PBS
(Due September 30th)

Adapted from Paul Scott’s The Raj Quartet, The Jewel in the Crown looks at an era when the British Empire still flew its flag around the world, though its global power was on the wane.  Chronicling years from 1942 to post-World War II 1947, with settings from England and Wales to India, the stories of colonization, family, politics, and cultural conflicts all play a part here in this Emmy-winning series from the ’80s.   There’s sophisticated though still soap-opera-style drama and story arcs, with secrets, romances, hidden agendas, and the like. The series became a true television classic, aired again and again, and holds up well in this latest DVD edition.

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