Star Trek Trilogy: The Kelvin Timeline (4K Ultra HD)

Real world article

(written from a production point of view)

Cover
4K Ultra HD release
Series:	Star Trek films
No. of discs:	3 (4K UHD) 6 (Blu-ray, US 2019) 3 (Blu-ray, UK, US 2020 reissue)
Run time:	381 minutes
Director:	J.J. Abrams, Justin Lin
Release date:	15 July 2019 (North America) 12 May 2020 (re-released)
Other release date(s):	30 September 2019 (UK)
Rating(s):
Language:	English (Dolby TrueHD 7.1, Dolby Atmos)
Subtitles:	Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese
Dubbed:	French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese (all DD 5.1)
Reference:	ASIN B07RX2K38M (North America) ASIN B07WBT2P11 (UK) ASIN B085HQNRJ3 (US reissue)
Year:	various
Alt cover Alt cover

Star Trek Trilogy The Kelvin Timeline 4K UHD contents — Set contents 2019 North American release

Star Trek Trilogy: The Kelvin Timeline is a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/Blu-ray Disc/Digital combo triple pack, released in July 2019, collecting the previous, 2016 4K UHD releases of Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek Beyond.

The set was released on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the alternate reality Star Trek films launch with Star Trek in 2009. It is the second home video release after its one month earlier released Blu-ray counterpart to be endowed with the "Kelvin timeline" moniker, the Star Trek franchise settled upon in 2016 as its official designation for the alternate reality on the occasion of the release of the fourth edition of the Star Trek Encyclopedia in that year.

↑ Snapcase shown as included in the first edition set with the extra bonus disc. Notice absence of the "digital" option in the red band which was present on the snapcase of the prior Blu-ray standalone release.
↑ Notice "6-disc set" notification on reissue spine

Remarkably, the set did not debut in North America, but in Germany where it – without the digital version – was released a year earlier under the "Star Trek - 3 Movie Collection" moniker of its 2016 Blu-ray predecessor.

All discs are mounted in two standard Viva Elite cases (one containing the three 4K UHD discs and one containing the six Blu-ray discs), accompanied by a fold-out poster detailing the chronology of the alternate reality films, the whole packaged in the customary cardboard slipcover. As usual with these releases, to North-America geo-restricted redeemable codes are included to download the various digital versions.

While the official release date was slated to be 15 July 2019, several Amazon.com customers have reported to have already received their set as early as 29 June, being given preferential treatment as (original) Amazon Prime subscription members. [1]

A particular issue these customers had, was that an UHD digital version of Beyond was apparently not available, they instead having to make do with the standard HD digital version.

Released in fairly small numbers, as the 4K UHD BD format had by 2019 yet to make substantial inroads into the home video format market, the set was nonetheless reissued on 12 May 2020, the first pressing having apparently sold out. However, just like the 2018 German source release and the subsequent 2019 UK release, that second pressing and this time packaged in a plastic Viva Elite six-disc snap-case (also like the German and UK releases), had all the special features collected on the Blu-ray disc version of each individual film, and did not include the contents of the bonus disc for Beyond, making them the inferior versions of the 2019 release.

Contents[]

For the disc contents, see the individual 4K UHD releases of

Extra disc[]

The 2019 release set had one extra Blu-ray disc included, collecting the Star Trek Beyond bonus special features, previously only available as a "retailer exclusive" for the 2016 Star Trek Beyond Blu-ray disc release as sold by retailers Target (in the US), Sainsbury's (in the UK), and JB Hi-Fi (in Australia). Nonetheless, neither disc nor its contents were included in the German source, and/or 2020 reissue releases of the set. The contents of the bonus disc included the following,

Small World
The Battle of Yorktown
Properly Outfitted
Set Phasers to Stunning
Spliced
Beats and Shouting
Visually Effective
Rihanna Sledgehammer Music Video
Trailers

The inclusion of this disc has therefore resulted in the hitherto most complete collection of all three alternate reality films commercially available, as the individual 4K UHD releases of the first two films already contained all the bonus contents as included on the 2014 Star Trek: The Compendium Blu-ray release – though still lacking the missing contents for that release. Also physically missing on this (first-pressing) release, remains Director Justin Lin's "Picture-in-Picture enhanced audio commentary" iTunes Store exclusive, which could be accessed by redeeming the digital codes included in prior home video format releases of the film. This code is not included on this release, nor are any for the special features for that matter beyond those for the Blu-ray disc contents, only the Paramount standard digital codes for the films themselves, as confirmed by Amazon customers.