The Captains: A Journey Through Time (DVD)

DVD release
No. of discs:	4 (Germany) 2 (UK) 5 (Australia)
Run time:	360 minutes (UK, Germany) 436 minutes (Australia)
Director:	William Shatner
Region free release date:	18 July 2016 (Germany) 3 October 2016
Region 4 release date:	7 September 2016
Rating(s):
Language:	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (Australia)/5.1 (UK)
Reference:	ASIN B01KOWQ372 (UK, Region 2) ASIN B01BKJTH62 (region2, Germany) ASIN B0771NJ5L9 (Australia, Region 4)
Year:	2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
Region 4 cover

The Captains: A Journey Through Time is DVD documentary set, released in the UK and Australia only, on the occasion of Star Trek's 50th anniversary. The set collects four older, William Shatner-as director/(co-)producer/host/star-centered documentaries, previously released as individual standalone DVDs,

• The Captains
• William Shatner Presents: Chaos on the Bridge
• William Shatner's Get A Life!
• The Captains Close Up

As such, the set is the DVD version of the German Blu-ray counterpart set, released earlier that year by New KSM in July along with its DVD version under the tile Unendliche Weiten - Die William Shatner Edition für alle Star Trek Fans. A Blu-ray version however was not released in the UK and Australia, though one was in the US four years later.

German box cover

The otherwise in content near-unaltered discs came mounted in a single regular plastic snapcase packaged within a cardboard slipcover, but there were noticeable differences between the UK and Australian sets. The UK set had two documentaries pressed on a disc, in the process also dispensing with the special features that were present on the originating releases, [1] whereas the Australian set had each documentary pressed on its own individual disc, the special features included. The originating German release had its four discs mounted in their own individual slimline plastic snapcases, which came stored in a hardboard slipcase.

However, the most pertinent difference was that the Australian release – as an Australian ViaVision Entertainment production actually released first – had a fifth disc included which contained as extra bonus the even older likewise Shatner-centered Mind Meld: Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime documentary. [2] The later UK release was therefore the lesser of the two releases despite its higher quality soundtrack.

While not specifically indicated as such on the packaging, the Australian release at the very least has been confirmed as region free by customers; this was actually already implied on the Australian set backcover where it was indicated that it was playable in NTSC television system regions (such as the US), despite the fact that Australia itself is a PAL television system region.