Today is, or will be, one of the most important days in human history. Fifty-two years from today mankind will encounter creatures from another world, for the very first time. Strangely enough, they won't look all that difference from us, except for the pointed ears.
On April 5, 2063 the Vulcan survey ship T'Plana-Hath (they suck at naming ships) will land in Bozeman, Montana after detecting mankind's first successful attempt to use warp drive, in a ship called Phoenix, designed by Zefram Cochrane. For Star Trek fans, this will be no surprise, since they've already seen the movie. For everyone else, it'll change the course of human history forever. Start practicing your Bat'leth skills, we're going to end up fighting the Klingons, eventually.
To celebrate the most important day in mankind's history, we've been researching great geeky deals to make sure you're prepared for the rigors of the twenty-first century, and beyond. Here's a few things every Star Trek fan and fans of Star Trek fan should own. If you don't, get moving, and celebrate First Contact Day, the right way.
Star Trek: First Contact Remastered Blu-Ray
I can't in good conscience recommend that anyone own all of the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies. The thing is, most of them suck. This one, however, does not. Star Trek and time travel go together like peanut butter and jelly, and in what is not just the best Next Generation movie but one of the best science fiction movies of the 90s, Captain Picard and his crew end up chasing the Borg (best villains ever?) to save the creator of Warp Drive. It's also the movie where you'll get to see humanity's all important first contact happen. Good thing it doesn't suck.
You can get the remastered version of Star Trek: First Contact on Amazon right now
for only $15.99. That's actually cheaper than the movie's "First Contact" day sale price on Star Trek's official site, where they've only been able to knock it down to $19.99. Go buy it now!
Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection Blu-Ray
A friend bought this for me, after I'd spend years procrastinating about replacing my old, standard DVD set. Those old DVD cases were like old friends, but after watching all six of the original movies on Blu-ray… yeah I don't miss it. It's Blu-ray, so it looks spectacular and all the special features you want are there.
Right now the entire Blu-ray collection is available on Amazon
for only $76.43. That may sound like a lot, but we're talking about all six movies, and a lot of bonus features. The original list price for it was $139.99, so we're talking almost 50% cheaper. It's a good time to replace that worn out, DVD set. Go buy it now!
Star Trek 3-disc Blu-ray
This reboot should have sucked. It didn't. Its great and, even if for some insane reason you don't like it, it's worth having if only to show off the eye-popping abilities of that new HD TV you just set up in the living room. This is the movie I used to demo my surround sound set up, whenever I feel like showing off. You need it.
The 3-disc version is currently available on Amazon for $19.99
. Maybe you think you don't need the 3-disc version, but the 3-disc is actually 4 bucks cheaper than the single disc version. That's a deal worth getting behind. Buy it now!
Star Trek: Alternate Realities (contains The Visitor from DS9)
Here's something a lot of people aren't aware of: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was one of the best shows in the history of television. It never got a lot of attention, somehow it spent season after season flying under the radar, but it was really, really good. Sadly it's pretty hard to convince people, even Star Trek people, to give it a chance. If I could get you to watch only one Deep Space Nine episode, it would be "The Visitor". Here's a simple, non-Trek explanation: A boy's father is lost in a freak accident. The boy spends the rest of his life trying to find him. The episode spans decades, with the boy growing into a man, and then an old man, as he abandons everything he ever was or could have been in a mad quest to bring him back.
"The Visitor" happens in the fourth season of Deep Space Nine, and odds are you don't want to buy an entire season set just to watch it. This relatively affordable set solves that problem by including it amongst a series of cherry-picked Trek episodes. Those are good too, but this would be worth owning just for "The Visitor". It's the perfect gateway to prove to just about anyone how utterly brilliant Deep Space Nine often was. It left my wife on the couch sobbing uncontrollably when she watched it with me, even though she'd never watched anything from Deep Space Nine before.
You can get "The Visitor" as part of the Star Trek: Alternate Realities set on Amazon for only $30.99
. They even have used copies for as low as $24. As a gateway to discover whether or not DS9 is worth your time, it's a good price. Buying a full season set will cost you $51.99 and buying the three season sets leading up to the fourth season where "The Visitor" airs will cost you that plus three times more. This just make sense. Get it.
Share it. Force it on your friends.
Star Trek T-Shirts
My wife walked out of the house today wearing this t-shirt, in celebration of First Contact Day. She's not a Star Trek fan, not exactly, more a casual observer of my obsession (though after The Visitor she was locked in for at least five more episodes of DS9). But she is a really cool person and is also keenly aware that somehow, girls get even cuter when they're wearing something ridiculously geeky.
or some other equally geeky Trek t-shirt. Save it, use it as a test to see if you're dating the right girl. If she won't wear it, you don't want her. Or just click through the link to buy some other t-shirt for yourself. We're Star Trek fans, and sometimes that means we don't have dates n' stuff… unless you count our ongoing relationship with Jadzia Dax.
