My project is underway. I have secured VHS copies of the 79 episodes of the original series.
I have obtained the CBS Home Video set which I believe was issued through Columbia House.
I have a capture card and software and am able to preserve the episodes to a digital file. Because the source is vhs, I am not making huge files. The picture quality is never going to match blu-ray or even dvd. I’m more interested in watching with the (mostly) original audio. The episodes also end with the Desilu logos.
My blu-ray player is able to play it and actually upscale. I’m still watching a vhs capture, but it’s at least watchable.
Of course, as a previous reply mentions, laserdisc would be the preferable best source. I’d love to do that some day. If I ever obtain those, I’d likely do a larger capture to preserve the audio and better picture quality.
Other items on my “wish list”:
The ORIGINAL vhs issues.
There was a set of 5 vhs tapes called Television classics collection from 1980.
1). Vol 1 The Menagerie, part 1 / The Menagerie, part 2
2). Vol 2 Amok Time / Journey to Babel
3). Vol 3 Mirror, Mirror / The Tholian Web
4). Vol 4 The Trouble with Tribbles / Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
5). Vol 5 Balance of Terror / The City on the Edge of Forever
Particularly interested in volume 5 as the tape of City on the Edge of Forever has a music substitution. This was later corrected on the DVDs and blu-ray. Not sure if that volume 5 had the original song “Goodnight, Sweetheart” or not.
6). There was also a one-off Paramount Gateway VHS issue of the episode “Space Seed” which came out at the time of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
7). Also, it’s disputed this even exists, but I believe it does, a vhs issue of “The Cage” by Columbia House in the silver cardboard packaging, similar to the others, but with Pike and crew as artwork rather than Kirk and crew. I am certain, if it exists, it is only the black and white print.
As another reply mentions, I am no expert, but I understand “The Cage” has also been tinkered with. It was cut up and used to produce the two episodes called “The Menagerie” and somehow in that process some of the audio was re-done or doesn’t match the original. Sources online indicate the voice of the Talosian Keeper was messed with and the colorized version found on dvd doesn’t match. I read someplace on blu-ray the voice has been tinkered with even further, modulating it in an attempt so that the voice matches.
If anyone has access to these items on my wish list, please reach out to me. I’d LOVE to see them and preserve them. Will treat them as bars of latinum. I’d happily pay for postage and return them undamaged.
Somewhere at my parents house was (is?) a vhs tape with the Star Trek: From One Generation to the Next special hosted by Patrick Stewart where the full color version of “The Cage” was aired for the first time. If I come across that tape, you bet I’m going to preserve it too (I have seen it available online, it would just be cool to have my local station ID and commercials).
Live long and prosper.