While we’re all awaiting the return of new Star Trek episodes, the third Discovery-era Blu-ray set has just beamed down! Star Trek: Short Treks gets a standalone, spotlight release and provides a unique snapshot of the ongoing evolution of the 54-year-old franchise.
Short Treks were launched in 2018 as a new content platform for televised Trek, with the promise of short films that could touch on any number of Star Trek storylines of the past, present or future — and in any type of format (comedy, romance, animation, etc.).
And regardless of your personal take on the success of the Short Treks anthology, there is no arguing that through 10 episodes and two brief seasons of production, it has hit on its promise of telling truly varied stories across the Star Trek universe.
We’ve seen tales of the far future that tease what might become of the USS Discovery (“Calypso”), an origin story for Tribbles (“The Trouble with Edward”) and an animated Tom & Jerry-esque tale aboard Captain Kirk’s Enterprise (“Ephraim and Dot”), not to mention two Pike-centric stories that now justifiably qualify as prequels for the upcoming series Strange New Worlds series. (“Q & A” and “Ask Not”).
The single-disc collection of nine Short Treks episodes also includes about an hour of behind-the-scenes vignettes and two impressive audio commentaries along the way. Unfortunately, the super-stylized Star Trek: Picard prequel “Children of Mars” is not included in this release, presumably held back to be part of that show’s Season 1 Blu-ray set later this year.
Let’s take a look at the Short Treks special features now!
The Making of Short Treks (4:25)
This featurette is an interesting, if not enlightening, look at the new Trek format, as Alex Kurtzman describes how the Short Treks were envisioned to be a way to expand the Star Trek storytelling landscape.
Although touched on very briefly here, the overall presentation in this collection fails to get too deep into the way that Short Treks has served Kurtzman’s production team as a proving ground for new and diverse talent for the CBS Star Trek Universe.
Coming of Age (7:30)
A look at the making of “Runaway,” the first Short Trek ever produced. It includes informative interviews with director Maja Vrvilo and Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), but not Yadira Guevara-Prip (Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po), the future Xahean queen that eventually returned in “Such Sweet Sorrow” (an evolution that isn’t addressed).
Still, it is great to hear from Vrvilo on the challenges of the short-form narrative and the direction she received from Kurtzman relating the piece similarly to the film Monsters, Inc.
Shall We Dance (8:51)
This look back at the much-heralded “Calypso” begins with director Olatunde Osunsanmi discussing the awe he felt tackling Michael Chabon’s script, the first time he had written for Trek. Osunsanmi eloquently details the performance of Aldis Hodge (Craft) and the challenge of shooting a one-person play with the same character in every shot.
The sharp feature also includes Chabon discussing his inspiration for the script, which includes The Odyssey, “A Piece of the Action,” and dancing.
First Contact: Kaminar (5:08)
This one is a pretty thin vignette on Saru’s origin story, “The Brightest Star,” featuring soundbites from writers Erika Lippoldt and Bo Yeon Kim, as well as actors Doug Jones (Saru) and Michelle Yeoh, who has fun discussing her brief return as the actual Philippa Georgiou.
Covered in Mudd (4:52)
An incredible behind-the-scenes look at Rainn Wilson’s directing efforts on “The Escape Artist,” featuring his own Harry Mudd.
Although we don’t get to hear from writer Mike McMahon — the showrunner for the upcoming Star Trek: Lower Decks — on his dynamic script, the never-before-seen shots of Wilson directing himself and the extra details provided on the elaborate motion control camerawork that went into the episode’s final shot, more than made up for it.
Ensign Spock’s First Day (10:16)
Everything you ever wanted to know about Michael Chabon’s creative writing process on Short Treks, and most notably on “Q & A,” from the man himself.
If you love to hear Chabon wax poetic about Star Trek, this wonderful feature is truly special.
Here Comes Tribble (3:43)
Discovery prop master Mario Moreira discusses everything his staff put into creating a myriad of tribbles for “The Trouble with Edward” in this short video — and while he assures everyone that no animals or tribbles were harmed in the process, lots of fun fur in the greater Toronto area was sacrificed.
Score! (6:09)
Another solid special feature highlighting Michael Giacchino’s work directing and scoring “Ephraim and Dot,” an animated Short Trek that serves as a greatest hit’s entry for the beloved NCC-1701.
It’s always good to hear the passionate composer discuss his affinity for Star Trek, which he does here, while also highlighting the inspiration he found in 1960’s lounge music for this score.
Strangely, none of the expanded content released on StarTrek.com in December is included here, which spends time covering the creature design and animation work that went into creating this short story, or the January feature where Giacchino discusses the music of 2019’s Short Treks run.
Bedtime Stories (7:45)
Actor Kenric Green, husband of Discovery lead Sonequa Martin-Green, breaks down his role as Mike Burnham in this emotional take on “The Girl Who Made the Stars,” the second time he’s portrayed Michael Burnham’s father (after last season’s “Perpetual Infinity”).
Joining Green is writer Brandon Schultz who explains he first pitched the impetus for this story (which came from the script of Star Trek: Discovery’s “Brother”) to be included in a second season episode of Discovery, but when that didn’t work out, was later approached by Kurtzman about writing this epic standalone tale based on the /Xam Abathwa of South Africa.
Like “Ephraim and Dot,” none of the interesting material that was released on StarTrek.com in December or in February was included here, where the animation team had the opportunity to discuss the technology and production work that went into making this animated short.
Audio Commentary: “Runaway”
Co-writers Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet take the microphones for this first commentary, and it’s an absolutely superb fifteen minutes.
In much the same way the Short Treks highlight the art of short filmmaking, Kurtzman and Lumet do the same with their time here, covering a lot of ground — including the surprising fact about the original Xahean prothetic makeup design that had to be abandoned about 12 hours before shooting started, forcing a last-minute change of plans.
The two producers also get into quite a bit of detail on the talent of Mary Wiseman (Sylvia Tilly), and how Lumet was responsible for casting New York stage actress Yadira Guevara-Prip as Po, who later returned to Discovery in “Such Sweet Sorrow.”
Audio Commentary: “Ask Not”
As for the “Ask Not” commentary, it is a solo effort from Anson Mount (Christopher Pike), and also shines. Mount’s big reveal here is that both he and co-star Amrit Kaur (Thira Sidhu) had to return to Toronto six weeks after shooting for reshoots, because some of the original takes were too smokey to clearly make out the actors.
Mount’s good nature on the reshoots and in his role as Pike shines through on another strong commentary from the Discovery team.
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The audio and video quality of the Short Treks set is up to par with the high-end presentation we’ve seen in the previous Star Trek: Discovery Blu-ray releases — and like the show itself, each short is presented in its original 2.39:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio.
At under $20, the Short Treks Blu-ray (or DVD, if that’s your preference) is a welcome addition of the Star Trek home entertainment pantheon — especially for those of you in the UK, who haven’t gotten the chance to see most of these shorts on Netflix yet.
Short Treks arrives on Blu-ray in the UK on July 13, but there’s no further international distribution we can find yet — luckily, both the US and UK releases are region-free, so if you’re located in another country and can have the disc sent your way, you’ll be able to watch it just fine.
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If there is another round of Short Treks in the future that eventually make their way to home media, we hope that the CBS team will include all of the content from their web features as well to have a more-complete package of behind-the-scenes material.
What is your take on the Short Treks format — and what stories do you want to see as production continues on new stories? Comment below, but, uh, keep it short.
Jim Moorhouse is the creator of TrekRanks.com and the TrekRanks Podcast.
He can be found living and breathing Trek every day on Twitter at @EnterpriseExtra.
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