The Star Trek films were the first franchise properties to be released on DVD in Region 1, when Paramount Home Video began releasing basic, "vanilla", releases of the first nine films – usually containing the film and its associated trailers only. The films were released in a mostly reverse chronological order, starting with Star Trek: First Contact. Star Trek: Insurrection saw release during this time (slotting in between Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home), and the last prime universe film, Star Trek Nemesis, was released in 2003. The majority of these releases included very limited special features, typically only comprised of theatrical teasers and trailers, though televised franchise promotional production shorts were, one each, added on Insurrection and The Voyage Home, whereas Nemesis even featured a modest selection of especially produced special features.
As it turned out however, more Nemesis special features had been produced for the hereafter mentioned "special edition" film collection (which by the time of the Nemesis "vanilla" release was already up and running), but part of the remainder was only offered on a separate disc through the by the franchise selected preferred chain store retailer Best Buy [1], a market discrimination strategy called the "retailer exclusive format", and one that is particularly loathed by fans and customers – especially by those who had only access to the "vanilla" releases. [2] At the time several scrupulous Best Buy patrons bought the Nemesis release in bulk and subsequently offered the special feature disc up at premium prices on eBay, the market site that was at the time rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with. [3]
With an one to two year lag, these were released in Region 2 as well, starting with Insurrection in 2000. Some of the Region 2 releases in the UK came in Special Numbered Edition packaging, and included bonus discs, containing Star Trek-related computer applications. These two-disc editions were packaged in steelbooks in soft-board slipcases.
Left out of the original film "vanilla" release run, Paramount released Star Trek: The Motion Picture on DVD in 2001. For this release, the studio was persuaded to have the film reappraised as a whole, introducing new CGI visual effects, and re-cutting the film to better reflect Director Robert Wise's original intentions, resulting in that a theatrical cut of the film was not released on DVD until the 2009 Region 2 Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection. This "Star Trek: The Motion Picture (The Director's Edition)" was a two-disc release featuring for the first time extensive special features. These special features were produced by the DVD's co-producers David C. Fein and Michael Matessino, who actually were the pioneers of the phenomenon when their company Sharpline Arts produced these for popular genre films on the preceding LaserDisc format, much to the acclaim of collectors and film buffs. Building upon their experience gained, the ones on The Director's Edition were likewise favorably received by fans. Noteworthy was that it was this release that introduced Star Trek fans to the phenomena of text (written by "Treksperts" Mike and Denise Okuda) and audio commentaries, which went on to become a staple on subsequent DVD releases. The Director's Edition therefore became the first Star Trek DVD title to make the fullest use of the intrinsic qualities of the DVD format. While having received the blessing and support from Paramount Pictures, the studio has had itself no production input; rather the DVD project was an initiative of Robert Wise Productions, Wise's own production company, on the suggestion of Fein and Matessino under whose aegis the project was ultimately realized. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 8, p. 25) As such, Wise's company is the officially credited one, not Paramount whose role was limited to the promotion and distribution of the production.
Following the enormous success of The Motion Picture Director's Edition however, Paramount was motivated to re-release the other nine prime universe films on their own accord in a similar fashion in the era 2002-2005 as the two-disc "special editions" collection – into which the originally intended stand-alone Director's Edition was retrofitted as the first one. As with the Director's Edition, these also included many newly produced special features (now primarily produced under the auspices of Patricia Rose Duignan, Donald R. Beck and Stephen R. Wolcott), along with the few ones that were previously featured on the "vanilla" releases, including those for Nemesis (which had been produced for the two year later release in this collection to begin with), redressing the perceived injustice as far as the fanbase was concerned, but still having to "double-dip" if they wanted the superior release. The region 2 editions all came packaged in slip cases and were, unlike the "vanilla" releases, released very quickly after the original Region 1 release. Various film collection box sets for both the "vanilla" and "special edition" versions have followed suit in the wake of the original individual releases.
Star Trek was released simultaneously in vanilla (one-disc) and Special Edition (two-disc) formats in 2009, becoming the last one to see both "vanilla" and "special" edition as of 2019.
Also, starting in 2009, the first ten movies were re-released in "remastered" editions, digitally enhanced versions of the theatrical releases to meet High Definition standards. These single-disc editions featured newly-made "specials", actually produced by Tim King for their Blu-ray Disc counterparts. Ironically, these counterparts also contained the special features originally done for the "special edition" DVDs, which were now lacking on the remastered DVD releases. The remastered editions were actually first released as two boxed sets, Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection and Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection, before being individually released – albeit out of order in some regions – with the run not being completed in Region 1 until 2013.
2013 also saw the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, though this time only a single-disc DVD was made available. A single disc DVD of Star Trek Beyond was released in 2016. Of these two no "vanilla" variant was released as, the application of "retailer exclusive" format for variant releases notwithstanding, even the standard retailer version contained an adequate selection of special features. That being said however, all three alternate reality DVD film releases contained far less of these specials than their Blu-ray counterparts, as it has become commonplace for the industry to favor Blu-ray over DVD in order to further push reluctant consumers, film buffs and specific fanbases (those of Star trek included) in particular, to make the switch to Blu-ray after all. For a variety of reasons Blu-ray has not succeeded in making the DVD home video format obsolete as intended, and as a result Hollywood studios, forced to acknowledge the consumer reluctance, are as of 2019 still releasing their productions in both home video formats (see main article for further particulars).
| DVD releases |
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| The Original Series • The Animated Series • Star Trek films • The Next Generation • Deep Space Nine • Voyager • Enterprise • Discovery • Short Treks • Picard • Lower Decks • Prodigy • Strange New Worlds Star Trek: Fan Collective • Star Trek documentaries and specials |
Releases[]
Original releases[]
Special Editions[]
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Unlike the region 1 editions, the initial region 2 releases came in matching softboard slipcases from The Wrath of Khan onward. The Motion Picture was treated indiscriminately for both regions, with the exception of the Netherlands and Flanders where the first release came within a dark-blue hardboard gold-embossed slipcase.
| Release | Cover | Release date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | ||
| Star Trek: The Motion Picture | 
|
6 November 2001 | 6 May 2002 |
| Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
6 August 2002 | 18 November 2002 |
| Star Trek III: The Search for Spock |  Region 1 cover Region 2 cover |
22 October 2002 | 13 January 2003 |
| Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
4 March 2003 | 2 June 2003 |
| Star Trek V: The Final Frontier |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
14 October 2003 | 22 December 2003 |
| Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
27 January 2004 | 1 March 2004 |
| Star Trek Generations |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
28 September 2004 | 20 December 2004 |
| Star Trek: First Contact |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
15 March 2005 | 6 June 2005 |
| Star Trek: Insurrection |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
7 June 2005 | 1 August 2005 |
| Star Trek Nemesis |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
4 October 2005 | 12 December 2005 |
| Star Trek |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
17 November 2009 | 16 November 2009 |
Remastered editions[]
| Release | Cover | Release date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | ||
| Star Trek: The Motion Picture |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
10 September 2013 | 22 March 2010 |
| Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
22 September 2009 | 11 May 2009 |
| Star Trek III: The Search for Spock |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
10 September 2013 | 11 May 2009 |
| Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
22 September 2009 | 11 May 2009 |
| Star Trek V: The Final Frontier |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
10 September 2013 | 22 March 2010 |
| Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
22 September 2009 | 11 May 2009 |
| Star Trek Generations |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
10 September 2013 | 22 March 2010 |
| Star Trek: First Contact |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
22 September 2009 | 22 March 2010 |
| Star Trek: Insurrection |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
10 September 2013 | 22 March 2010 |
| Star Trek Nemesis |  Region 1 cover  Region 2 cover |
10 September 2013 | 22 March 2010 |
Collections[]
| VHS • VCD • LaserDisc • DVD • Blu-ray • 4K Ultra HD • Digital |