Watching the brilliant new STAR TREK movie in the cinemas last Thursday evening prompted me to go back to the DVDs I have of the original series, where Captain Kirk was played by the great William Shatner, and Mr Spock was played by the equally excellent Leonard Nimoy. The first disc in this particular set features the episodes WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE and THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER. These were the first 2 episodes of the series, not counting the original pilot episode, THE CAGE, which was turned down by television executives for being 'too cerebral' and did not air on television until the mid-1980s.

These episodes show STAR TREK slowly finding its feet. WHERE NO MAN is the first to feature Shatner (the captain in THE CAGE was Captain Pike, although Spock did appear), and there are some odd differences in this episode to the TREK we would come to know. Spock seems overly emotional (this idea is also used in the new film), and some of the technical terms used are difference to those we would come to know. Also, Kirk's middle initial seems to be 'R' instead of the now more famous 'T' (which stands for Tiberius - I wonder what the 'R' stood for?).

THE CORBOMITE MANUEVER is the other episode on the disc and is a classic, finding our favourite starship crewmembers confronted by a powerful being named Balok who intends to destroy them for accidentally transgressing into the space owned by the 'First Federation'.

These are enjoyable episodes and although they are naturally edited at a much slower pace to the new movie (the episodes were made over 40 years ago after all), they are still definitely worth watching, especially if you have never before had the pleasure.