Star Trek (Three-Disc Edition) [Blu-ray] (2009)

The greatest adventure of all time begins with Star Trek, the incredible story of a young crew’s maiden voyage onboard the most advanced starship ever created: the U.S.S. Enterprise.

On a journey filled with action, comedy and cosmic peril, the new recruits must find a way to stop an evil being whose mission of vengeance threatens all of mankind. The fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of bitter rivals. One, James Kirk (Chris Pine), is a delinquent, thrill-seeking Iowa farm boy. The other, Spock (Zachary Quinto), was raised in a logic-based society that rejects all emotion. As fiery instinct clashes with calm reason, their unlikely but powerful partnership is the only thing capable of leading their crew through unimaginable danger, boldly going where no one has gone before.

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The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)

A genuinely old-fashioned Hollywood romance with a science fiction angle, The Time Traveler's Wife stars Eric Bana as Henry DeTamble, a Chicago librarian with a genetic disorder causing him to travel through time involuntarily. The screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin (My Life), based on a novel by Audrey Niffenegger, incorporates some of those crazy paradoxes that are a part of time-travel fiction, but without beating one over the head. Take Henry's introduction to his future wife, Clare (Rachel McAdams), who tells him they've already met even though they haven't actually met.

Brain teasers, however, are not what The Time Traveler's Wife is about. In a quite haunting way, the story really concerns what it means to know and love someone at every phase of his or her life. The fact that Henry's life, from Clare's perspective, is hardly linear--he can disappear and turn back up again at different ages--means that she must cherish what is essential about him. Which doesn't mean the couple is immune to periods of unhappiness, including a painful sequence about trying to bear a child--perhaps a child that might also carry the time-traveling gene.

While there is nothing particularly exciting stylistically about The Time Traveler's Wife, in many ways it has the simple charms and clear emotions of a 1940s weepie assigned by a studio to one of its journeyman, contract directors. (The film was directed by Flightplan's Robert Schwentke.) A couple of supporting players, Arliss Howard (as Henry's father) and Ron Livingston (as Henry's friend), provide even more reason to recommend this movie as a satisfying experience.

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Cranford: Return to Cranford

Welcome to Cranford, where all changes and all remains the same. Miss Matty's house is full of life and bustle. Her dream of having a child in the house has been realised in the birth of Tilly, daughter of her maid Martha and carpenter Jem. The shadow of the railway still looms but, to the relief of Matty and the Amazons, the line has been halted five miles outside of Cranford because of Lady Ludlow's refusal to sell her land.

Elsewhere Miss Matty’s friend Mr Buxton returns to town with his son, William, and his niece, Erminia. Miss Matty decides to introduce them to Peggy Bell, a young woman who lives in an isolated cottage with her mother and domineering brother, Edward, in the hope of building friendships. But, when tragedy strikes, she comes to believe that she has opened Pandora's box and fears Cranford will never recover.

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