Star Trek is always at it’s best when it’s at it’s most mind-bending, and with the new movie coming Paramount is all about reminding us of the good times we’ve had with Trek. So on September 16th they’re releasing a 5-disc set containing 20 episodes selected from all five of television’s Star Trek series, all based around the alternate realities theme. That means you’ll be able to see evil goatee Spock and The Q Continuum all in one, big DVD set.

Sounds great doesn’t it, except of course for the parts where you’ll have to sit through Star Trek: Voyager episodes. Except… I’m suspicious.

Ever since JJ Abrams started working on his new Star Trek movie, the film has been surrounded by complete secrecy. Nobody, (save Kevin Smith), really knows for certain the plot. The only consistent tidbit that’s been rumored again and again is that the plot somehow involves time travel, and they may be using time travel as a device to launch a new Star Trek franchise using the same characters, but in an alternate universe where their lazy writers won’t have to worry about fitting into established Star Trek cannon.

This notion has, unsurprisingly, been meant with a degree of hesitation and concern on the part of Star Trek fans. So what’s Paramount doing to allay their fears? Hello Star Trek: Alternate Realities, a DVD reminder that Star Trek is often at its best when exploring alternate dimensions, parallel worlds, and a reminder that doing so is and always has been a big part of the Star Trek universe. Come on, this DVD set can’t be a coincidence. I smell a conspiracy.

Here’s the thing though: yes it’s true that Star Trek has always been all to happy to dive feet-first into alternate dimensions and skewed time paradoxes. But it was never done as an excuse to avoid having to worry about Star Trek history. At the end of every episode, we leave evil goatee Spock in his universe, and come back to ours, a place which is quintessentially Star Trek. If JJ Abrams proposes dipping into his equivalent of evil Spock world and leaving the franchise there for the next 2, 3, 4, or even 10 films, then I fear no amount of DVD reminding is going to do much for fans. I know I don’t want to live in a world where Spock has facial hair.

Anyway, the DVD set is coming next week, and motivations aside, it looks pretty great. Paramount has given us three sample clips from the set, showing off three of the best episodes they’ll include on it. Well scratch that, two of the best episodes and one episode of goddman Voyager. Click play on the videos below for a reminder of just how good Star Trek can be, when bending through the walls of parallel words, alternate universes, and freaky dimensional rifts.