Text commentary

A text commentary is a type of DVD commentary in which information appears on the screen, predominantly of a production background, or behind-the-scenes nature, also referred to as "trivia". As such, they are considered a form of special features when included in/on home video format releases. The text commentary of Star Trek DVDs take the form of standard subtitles, or, on rarer occasions, of PiP (Picture-in-Picture) pop-up text boxes, like the one pictured on the right. All text commentaries were written by Michael and Denise Okuda – a natural choice for the franchise as the couple were also the authors of both the Star Trek Chronology and the Star Trek Encyclopedia.
, and are the only series that have text commentaries included in their box sets, although one episode in the second season of , , contained a, PiP pop-up, text box commentary. The other episodes listed below have received these commentaries in the Fan Collective DVDs, the majority of these not ported over to later released home media formats, the Blu-ray Disc one in particular.
All of the Special Edition DVDs of the have text commentaries, but like the television DVD productions, those of Enterprise excepted, none of these were ported over to their later released Blu-ray Disc counterparts – save for the 2016 and 2022 releases. Indicative of a generic trend of the phenomenon somewhat losing its appeal in the Blu-ray era as of late, and contrary to the audio commentary counterpart, none of the alternate reality films and home video releases, be it DVD or Blu-ray, consequently carry text commentaries as of 2019.
The very first text commentary for Star Trek, had been the one included on the 2001 release, as was the audio commentary for that matter.
==Episodes with text commentaries==
===The Original Series===
* (found on TOS Season 1 DVD)
* (found on TOS Season 1 DVD)
* (found on TOS Season 1 DVD)
* (found on Time Travel Fan Collective)
* (found on TOS Season 1 DVD)
* (found on TOS Season 2 DVD)
* (found on TOS Season 2 DVD and Klingon Fan Collective)
* (found on TOS Season 3 DVD)
* (found on TOS Season 3 DVD)
===The Animated Series===
* (found on Star Trek: The Animated Series (DVD))
* (found on Star Trek: The Animated Series (DVD))
* (found on Star Trek: The Animated Series (DVD))
===The Next Generation===
* (found on Q Fan Collective)
* (found on Time Travel Fan Collective)
* (found on Borg Fan Collective)
* (found on Borg Fan Collective)
* (found on Klingon Fan Collective)
===Deep Space Nine===
* (found on Q Fan Collective)
* (found on Klingon Fan Collective)
* (found on Time Travel Fan Collective)
* (found on Klingon Fan Collective)
===Voyager===
* (found on Season 2 of Star Trek: Voyager)
* (found on Q Fan Collective)
* (found on Borg Fan Collective)
===Enterprise=== 
* (found on Season 1 of Star Trek: Enterprise and Klingon Fan Collective)
* (found on Season 1 of Star Trek: Enterprise)
* (found on ENT Season 1 DVD)
* (found on ENT Season 2 DVD)
* (found on ENT Season 2 DVD)
* (found on ENT Season 3 DVD)
* (found on ENT Season 3 DVD)
* (found on ENT Season 3 DVD)
* (found on ENT Season 4 DVD)
* (found on ENT Season 4 DVD)
* (found on ENT Season 4 DVD)
==Errors==
In the commentary of "Little Green Men", the text mentions that the Bell Riots took place in the episodes "Future Tense, Parts 1 and 2". The commentary confused the DS9 episodes and with the ENT episode .
In the commentary of "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", the text claims that a set used as the 's battle bridge was later reused as the bridge of the in . However, it is the bridge of the that appears in that episode, not the bridge of the Enterprise-B.
The commentary on seems to imply that, prior to appearing in that film, the observation lounge of the appeared in . The room actually does not appear in that film, its only other appearance being in .
In the commentary of Star Trek Generations, the character of Tuvok is referred to as "the Vulcan science officer on ," though he was actually the tactical officer on that show.
The commentary of claims that Lawrence H. Styles' quarters aboard the appear in "Star Trek II" when, in actual fact, they are shown in .
The commentary of alleges that views of planet 's surface terrain were created and embellished with matte paintings, whereas such vistas were actually accomplished using a series of three backdrops created by Tom Lay.
The commentary of "The Counter-Clock Incident" cites the Capellan flower as being a reference to and states that that episode is set on Capella IV. However, both of these statements are actually true of .
According to the commentary of "The Andorian Incident", the Vulcan mummies in this episode were re-used for the fourth season episode . But the Vulcan mummies were instead re-used for the fourth season episode .
The commentary of "Impulse" states that all Vulcan zombies were played by stunt performers but most of them were played by background performers and only a handful by stunt performers.
Not exactly an error, but a misleading one nonetheless, the commentary on stated that the Motion Picture bridge set was virtually destroyed during a storm while being stored outside. This actually happened, but not before all the bridge scenes for The Final Frontier had been shot. It has necessitated the build of a new one for , not for The Final Frontier as implied – though not explicitly stated – in the commentary. As such, this commentary excerpt would have been better placed on the DVD release for the latter, instead of the former.
==See also==
*Audio commentary
*Starfleet Access
 Text commentary