Tuesday 30 May 2017

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE VHS COVER: VOLUME 1 - EMISSARY

From the VHS years: The first STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE VHS tape, released by CIC Video here in the UK.

This one, naturally, has the feature-length opening episode.  The rest of the run, spanning all seven seasons, settled down to the familiar two-episodes-per-tape formula already nailed by the TOS and TNG ranges.  Which was A LOT of tapes.  And worth noting that if a two-part story (either within a season or bridging two seasons) just happened to span two tapes then that's exactly how CIC would release them.  So you had to buy two tapes to get the conclusion.  It would be tempting to think that the producers were told to structure their seasons to increase the chances of this happening... but overseas video releases were probably low on their list of priorities.

DS9, like many Treks, suffered from an underwhelming first few seasons before ramping up to be amongst the best the small-screen franchise ever offered thanks to its complicated multi-season storylines.  Influenced, whether they like to admit it or not, by a very similar space station also based in the LA area.


4 comments:

  1. The first pressing of this volume from CIC included a booklet, including production sketches and comments, the cover of which doubled as the insert sheet of the video box itself; I think a later pressing did away with the booklet and just had a standard cover.

    Regarding the two episodes per tape deal, I was mildly annoyed to discover years later that Blockbuster Video had a couple of exclusive rental-only four episode tapes of the series.

    Quite amusing now when for the same shelf space you can easily have a seasons' worth of episodes even on DVD.

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  2. That's interesting. I remember some form of booklet at some point but i think it was shrink-wraped to the tape itself. Maybe I am thinking of another promotion at another time on another tape. I'm certain I would have purchased this tape on the day/ week of release so it is probably one of the originals. I will have to have another look...

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  3. Would that have been with the season 4 opener WAY OF THE WARRIOR ?



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  4. Oh possibly. I probably still have it 'filed away' somewhere.

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