The subtitle-less Star Trek tells the story of the troubled early lives of the soon-to-be-legendary Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Mr Spock (Zachary Quinto). After a Romulan vessel appears seemingly out of nowhere, Kirk's father manages to save the crew of his own ship at the cost of his own life. Year later, his rebellious son - and the hero of our tale - struggles to find his place in the world. Meanwhile, on Vulcan the half-human/half-Vulcan Spock comes to terms with his own identity when he goes against the wishes of his people and joins Starfleet. Fate has bigger plans for both of them...

Star Trek is a kind of prequel to the original 1960s series, while simultaneously acting as a way of bringing a new generation (the next, next generation?) of fans to a franchise that has been running for over forty years. Being a die-hard Trek fan (declaring my bias up front!) this could have gone either way for me. While I had no doubt that this would be an improvement over the last few Next Generation films, which had almost descended into self-parody by the time Star Trek: Nemesis was released, there was always that lingering fear that this new film was going to take this classic somewhere quiet, bend it over and do things to them that would make a Romulan blush. Thankfully, Star Trek is the best thing to happen to the franchise in over twenty years.

While I won’t spoil the film by going into details, the film simultaneously pays tribute to the original series while rebooting the entire story in continuity. If that sounds impossible enough, it also manages to be a cracker of an action film to boot. Some may argue that the idealism of Gene Roddenberry’s Utopian vision of the future has lost some of its sheen in this production – and the inclusion of heavily-accented Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin) seems quaint my 2009’s standards – but it manages to bring the appeal of the show to a mass audience while keeping this Trekker very happy for its all-too-brief running time. Don’t tell me there aren’t a few of you who always wanted to see Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and Spock get it on? (No really, don't tell me).

The casting is impeccable. From his first appearance as Sylar in TV's Heroes, it was a dead-cert that Zachary Quinto would make a perfect Spock; and within minutes of Chris Pine appearing on screen, you’ll be wondering “Shatner who?”. I admit to doing a little jump for joy over the casting of Shaun of the Dead’s Simon Pegg as Scotty, and while his screen time is brief, he steals absolutely every scene he is in. The real surprise is action-man Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, who brings every-inch of the grizzled and cantankerous role made famous by DeForest Kelly to this new screen outing. Some fans are never going to forgive the recast, but it is hard to imagine doing a better job than this. Oh, and even if you don't recognise him, that's our Eric Bana as the villain. Uncle Chop Chop has got nothing on this guy...

Let’s not mince words: Trek is back, and it's bloody brilliant. Any series that has lasted this long has to reinvent itself now and again, be it James Bond or Star Trek. With this new film, director J.J Abrams (Lost, Alias) gives non-believers a cracker of an action film, with enough sly references to the original series and films to keep us keen to see the next one. With the global box office takings already looking excellent, it won’t be long before we are seeing the next one ‘on screen’. Let’s hope that this new series lives long and prospers.

Being a die-hard, I caught this at box IMAX and a regular cinema (although even regular cinemas are eVents in Australia) and both looked amazing. This Blu-ray kicks it up a notch. While few of us have a display that can match an IMAX screen, this 1080P transfer is going to look good on almost any screen. If any of us wondered for a second whether this would look anything less than pristine, then those thoughts would have been wrong. So very, very wrong. Originally shot on film using anamorphic lenses, this has an epic feel to it throughout. Absolutely everything about this Blu-ray looks magnificent, from the panels on the Enterprise to the sweeping exteriors of a frostbitten planet. Definitely one to show off your new home entertainment system with.

NB: The photos in this review are not direct screencaps from the Blu-ray.

Plus, if you've ever wanted to hear the Beastie Boys in True-HD, just crank up that volume and surround yourself in pure joy.

There are also more subtitle tracks than there are Trek series, and that's a lot because they got their share.

Disc 1 features the audio commentary with J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof and Roberto Orci. It's a lighthearted and informative track, and definitely worth a listen. The disc also contains the BD-Live functionality if you player is compatible (and hopefully most people are now). It links to a NASA News RSS feed, which you can probably get online but the interface here is rather nice.

Disc 2 has masses of material. Three hours or thereabouts (and even more with all the branching sequences). Kicking off with To Boldly Go (16:41), this is a making of/background piece. It explores the question "Can we make Star Trek cool?", to which I responded by yelling at the screen that it already was! Alone in a room, I realised it really wasn't. It also comes as an Extended version, which starts a branching process into 4 clips that can also be viewed separately. A neat idea, but it would have been just as good as a single featurette. Casting (28:53) is a lengthy piece giving us some background on the casting process, and comparing them to the original cast. Fans will be pleased to see some of those cast members (notably Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig) appearing in this featurette. 

A New Vision (19:31) explores how the filmmakers tried to make the film look epic and realistic, to relate to a modern audience, but also the visual trickery used to pull us into the world. There is also an extended branching version of this. Starships (24:33) follows the visual design of the ships in the show, and its impressive running time is also significantly extended with X branching sequences. Aliens (16:30) is pretty self-explanatory, and its branches in extended mode are on individual races (including the Klingons). Don't make me tell you what Planets (16:10) is about, and Props and Costumes (9:22) rounds out the visual design sections of the visual design.

Ben Burtt and the Sounds of Star Trek (11:45) is a single featurette without branching that details the work of a legend. If you think you've heard the name, check the credits of the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies - he's also the voice of WALL-E. Suffice it to say he has created some of the most famous sound effects of the last thirty years. Keeping on the sound theme, Score (6:28) sees Michael Giacchino talk about his inspirations for the soundtrack and how much and little of the original score was used.

Ok, deep breath we're on the home stretch. Gene Roddenberry's Vision (8:47) pays tribute to the utopian vision of the original Star Trek creator, almost ironic given that much of this utopia is absent from this new film. Fans will enjoy seeing creators from the other series and films interviewed. There are 9 Deleted Scenes (13:30) with optional commentary, and some of these are very cool and at least three would have given Winona Ryder more screentime. However, one can see where they would have slowed the film down. Starfleet Simulator is like one of those old PC interactive encyclopedias of the Enterprise, which let you view and play with the ship. It's much cooler on Blu-ray though! You also get to play with the Romulan ship. The Gag Reel (6:22) is nicely edited collection of fubs and fun on set. Finally, we get a collection of four Trailers and the Disc Credits (bless those chaps)!

Disc 3 is a Digital Copy of the film. Instructions are all in the box, and you can get this for both Mac and PC. It is nice to see these being included in Australian discs, as we got shafted there for a while. Also nice to be able to boldly take your film wherever you've gone before. 

Star Trek fans will always be divided over every revision, but the same could be said for every new episode. Anything new added to something so loved and so influential will no doubt cause a stir amongst the faithful. However, as a Star Trek fan for almost two decades, it is difficult to do anything but heap praise on this. It ain't your daddy's Trek, but that's the point. It's a fun, rollicking adventure that screams "new franchise", and all we can say back is "Bring it on!"

The Blu-ray is top notch in every way. An excellent audio/visual transfer is matched by hours of quality bonus features that leaves very little to be desired.

Highly recommended.