There is no greater argument to Science Fiction aficionados than that of whether or not James T. Kirk or Jean-Luc Picard. I´ve always been a Kirk man, myself. His interstellar gunslinging and blue alien womanizing was always far more entertaining than the intellectual and calculating Picard. However, I grew up watching the old "Star Trek" re-runs on Saturday mornings and never got fully involved with "Star Trek: The Next Generation" when it debuted on September 28, 1987. There were just so many things to do in my freshman year of high school and "Star Trek" was not among my hot list. The debate as to who was the better captain will never end and will always meet with heated discussion amongst the so-called "Trekkies." However, the debate as to which television show was more successful is hardly a debate, as "The Next Generation" lasted seven seasons and was met with critical and popular success, unlike the original series which found success in syndication, but not during its initial run.
Twenty years later, Paramount has released a magnificent box set containing all seven years of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." With a sizable $440 dollar price tag and an equally astounding forty nine DVDs, this "20th Anniversary Collector´s Gift Set" is a mouth-watering treat for the die-hard Trekkies who sit on the Picard side of the "Who was a better captain" argument. Contained in a large green cube of plastic and shiny platters, this captivating collection of all 176 episodes of the long running science fiction series is simply awe-inspiring. With a complete running time of 134 hours and fifteen minutes for the episodes alone and a couple of hours of supplements, this box set had captured about two weeks of my life to sit through selected episodes and pay a long standing visit with the crew of the USS Enterprise and its familiar crewmembers. I had initially anticipated watching just two or three episodes a season and then sit through the complete array of bonus materials, but ended up enjoying six or seven episodes a season. I typically try to watch an entire series before posting a review, but admittedly fell short of that standard. Sometimes, one needs to break one´s own policies
From the Pinocchio-like Data (Brent Spiner) to the Kirk-like William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), "Star Trek: The Next Generation" is filled with memorable and well acted characters. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is a caring and kind Captain who strives to always do what is best for the better good. He stays out of heated action unless it is absolutely necessary. His First Officer, Riker, is usually sent as the leader of the away teams. Riker is the show´s ladies man and the charismatic warrior who is not afraid of using his phaser. After watching "Star Trek: The Next Generation," I realized the show did not need William Shatner doing what he did best in the original series, it had a capable facsimile in William Riker. Data is easily my favorite character and is an android that was build as the perfect example of artificial intelligence. However, he yearns to become human and find emotions and continually undergoes experiments and studies to attempt at better understanding the human condition and becoming as human as possible.
Joining Riker and Data in Picard´s staff are a number of other likeable crew-members. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) is a blind Starfleet engineer who is able to see because of a high tech visor and is the closest member of the crew to Data. Geordi began his time on the Enterprise as the ship´s Conn Officer, but soon moved on to becoming the Chief Engineer. He was the voice of reason in the show among the crewmembers and aided Data in understanding humans. The show broke convention and added a member to the crew who was among the race of the most hated villains from the original show: a Klingon. Worf (Michael Dorn) is the ship´s security officer after Natasha Yar (Denise Crosby) is killed off in season one and the ship´s muscle. By having a Klingon as part of the Enterprise crew, "The Next Generation" was able to greatly expand its universe and provide a figure to look at social topics plaguing modern day Earth civilization. Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) is the ship´s counselor and is part Human and part Betazoid. She is able to read feelings and is also the primary love interest of Riker. The ship´s doctor is Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) and she is a personal friend of Picard and maintains a healthy sick bay. Her son Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) spent four years aboard the Enterprise and served as a Conn Officer in a Internship-like mode under Picard. Finally, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) was the bartender at the Ten-Forward lounge on the Enterprise and a close confidant of Picard´s.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" began its first season and was an instant success. Although the first season suffers from the characters trying to find themselves and many of the crew members not taking the roles they would later hold for the six following seasons, the show established many key storylines and relationships between the characters. Many of the first season shows were self-contained stories that had little bearing on what occurred later in the season. They were singular adventures that did not borrow from previous adventures and in general, the show didn´t seem to have a lot of direction in this first season. This mish-mash of plotlines and the ´feeling in´ period for the characters slowly started to become more structured and more polished as the first season continued. The show would kill off a principal character when Denise Crosby wanted to leave. Many episodes featured Wil Wheaton coming up with an amazing solution to a problem and saving the day. The saucer-section and holodeck were also common devices used during the first season. The first season, however, did introduce one of the series primary villains in the Romulans and laid down the groundwork for the most villainous television bad-guys in history: the Borg.
The second season found a lot of shuffling among the crew of the Enterprise. With Tasha Yar removed as the security officer after her death to a large black puddle of intelligent oil, Worf took over in that position. Geordi moved to become chief of engineering and much of his work was taken over by the previously unnamed Miles O´Brien (Colm Meaney). After much hesitation in the first season, Wesley Crusher is now an Ensign and part of the crew on the bridge. Sadly, Dr. Beverly Crusher has left her position as ship´s doctor and was replaced by Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur), but Dr. Crusher would return for season three. The Ten-Forward club was introduced, as was its well-informed bartender Guinan. Data became more and more curious of what makes a human tick and Riker grew a beard and gained more power as the second in command on the Enterprise. The second season found consistent storylines and more fleshed out characters that the first season. With some stories spanning the entire season, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" moved past being a one-season wonder and became a show that would survive for many more seasons.
The third season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" would find Dr. Beverly Crusher returning to the starship Enterprise and continuing her work as the ship´s doctor and hint as a love interest to Picard. She would initially have difficulties in accepting her son´s role as a member of the ship´s crew, but her return was a great improvement over Dr. Pulaski. Pulaski was supposed to be a female equivalent of the original series Dr. McCoy, but her character simply did not have the same chemistry that Bones had in the original series. Perhaps the most memorable part of the third season aboard the Enterprise-D was the season finale and its introduction of the Borg. The season gave Guinan and added presence on-board the Enterprise and showed that she perhaps knew more than anybody else when it came to intergalactic happenings. Her family was killed by the Borg and this frightening collective of cyborgs introduced the most memorable villains in television history. Season three took the solid ground created in the second season and made "Star Trek: The Next Generation" a fast-paced and entertaining hour of television. It´s too bad that it wasn´t until this DVD set that I was finally aware of how good the show became.
The fourth season began with the Borg and found Locutus of Borg returned to the Enterprise, while the ship was under the command of Riker. A massive fight between the Borg and Starfleet occurred during the fourth season premiere and had established that the Borg would be the biggest and baddest threat in the universe from this point forward. This middle point of the series found Wesley Crusher leaving the Enterprise to join Starfleet Academy. Crusher was my least favorite character of the primary crew and I certainly enjoyed watching him depart from the crew and not returning as a primary character from the fifth season on. He did have a recurring role and I saw him once or twice during my episode-hopping, but he wasn´t nearly as pivotal or commonplace after he left for the Academy.
The fifth and sixth season did not see a lot of change aboard the Enterprise, but found the crew investigating many themes popular during the show´s long run. Time travel and the potential of interfering with the time and space continuum was very popular and even Mark Twain made an appearance on the show. Klingon relations were another popular point and Worf´s son Alexander would soon take residence on the Enterprise and have a focal episode during the show´s final season. The Borg would return and Hugh would be introduced during this timeframe. These seasons also took place after the death of the show´s creator, Gene Roddenberry. The show did not miss a beat after losing its creator and although many of the themes started to feel repetitious and not quite as fresh as the third and fourth seasons, the characters continued to build on their wonderful chemistry.
Season seven started slow, but ended perfectly. The show´s longest running antagonist, Q (John de Lancie) was a focal point in the show´s pilot and played a pivotal point in the two hour finale. Q was an odd and powerful nemesis that straddled the line at being friend of foe to Picard. He showed an odd fascination with the ship´s captain and although he routinely put the Enterprise into hazardous situations, he was always helping them out in a roundabout way. Where the show began, it ended and the manner in which the finale revisited the pilot was brilliant. It´s reintroduction of Tasha Yar was a nice touch and I was happy to see one of my favorite characters from the first season return. Q appeared in a large number of episodes and helped the show end on a high note. Picard found some peace at being the ship´s captain and even joined his highest ranking officers for a game of poker.
I did not follow "Star Trek: The Next Generation" during its seven year run on broadcast television. I had watched a few of the first season episodes, but aside from finding Denise Crosby as being a rather attractive blonde, I didn´t find much else of interest during the show. Data was the only other character that held my interest, but he wasn´t enough to watch the show. At the time, I didn´t want intelligent and though-provoking stories. I wanted action that could rival "Star Wars" and I wanted my captain romancing blue aliens. Now I know that I did not give "Star Trek: The Next Generation" enough time to grow on me. I quickly grew tired of watching Wil Wheaton always fix the ship and odd situations to release the saucer section. For me, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was too tame and too much of a ´thinking´ show to be entertaining enough to follow it.
With revisiting the show and finally giving it its due with the massive 49 disc box set, I have discovered just how rich and fulfilling the show became during its next few seasons. The formulaic approach to the show was left behind after the first year and the actors grew into their characters. Data became the perfect Pinocchio and found a wonderful father-son relationship with Picard. William Riker found almost as much power as the Captain and fulfilled my desires for a Kirk-like adventurer. The stories became better and the show became stronger. I found the second, third and fourth seasons to be among the fresher and more adventurous seasons. The show was on the upswing during these three years and I wish I had the time to watch each and every episode before typing up this review. Of course, I could have spent the time watching the shows when they first aired two decades ago.
A plateau was reached during the final three seasons. The show was more polished and the actors had perfected their characters. There was no longer any great room to grow and the pinnacle third-season finale / fourth-season premiere was left in the rearview mirror of the Enterprise. The stories were still nicely-written and the show still had plenty of strange new worlds to explore, but nothing was fresh and groundbreaking. The show started to become a little stale and lose the momentum from the earlier seasons. I´m sure the creators were aware of this and this came into play when the seventh season was determined to be the last. Some of the stories that fell flat involved a Romulan woman who was Tasha Yar´s daughter. Intended to be a tremendous plot-twist, it became confusing in disinteresting. The finale was awesome and I enjoyed watching the show end strong, but the final three seasons only served to show more adventures and extend the voyage of the starship enterprise.
I easily spent forty hours with this box set and learned much about "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Some of my thoughts to the few episodes I had originally watched from the first season were quite valid, but the show evolved and improved greatly. Data was a simply awesome character and stood out among a strong cast of characters. Riker, Geordi, Dr. Crusher, Worf and Picard were all nicely written and well acted. Q and the Borg were strong antagonists and I only wish the show had spent just a little more time with each of them. It has now been a long time since the crew of the Enterprise-D appeared on either television or film, but their long journey to seek out new worlds was worth a trip and thankfully, those of us that missed the trip the first time around can at least share in their experiences on DVD. This is a great show and a huge time investment, but I think it is worth it.
Twenty years later, Paramount has released a magnificent box set containing all seven years of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." With a sizable $440 dollar price tag and an equally astounding forty nine DVDs, this "20th Anniversary Collector´s Gift Set" is a mouth-watering treat for the die-hard Trekkies who sit on the Picard side of the "Who was a better captain" argument. Contained in a large green cube of plastic and shiny platters, this captivating collection of all 176 episodes of the long running science fiction series is simply awe-inspiring. With a complete running time of 134 hours and fifteen minutes for the episodes alone and a couple of hours of supplements, this box set had captured about two weeks of my life to sit through selected episodes and pay a long standing visit with the crew of the USS Enterprise and its familiar crewmembers. I had initially anticipated watching just two or three episodes a season and then sit through the complete array of bonus materials, but ended up enjoying six or seven episodes a season. I typically try to watch an entire series before posting a review, but admittedly fell short of that standard. Sometimes, one needs to break one´s own policies
From the Pinocchio-like Data (Brent Spiner) to the Kirk-like William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), "Star Trek: The Next Generation" is filled with memorable and well acted characters. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is a caring and kind Captain who strives to always do what is best for the better good. He stays out of heated action unless it is absolutely necessary. His First Officer, Riker, is usually sent as the leader of the away teams. Riker is the show´s ladies man and the charismatic warrior who is not afraid of using his phaser. After watching "Star Trek: The Next Generation," I realized the show did not need William Shatner doing what he did best in the original series, it had a capable facsimile in William Riker. Data is easily my favorite character and is an android that was build as the perfect example of artificial intelligence. However, he yearns to become human and find emotions and continually undergoes experiments and studies to attempt at better understanding the human condition and becoming as human as possible.
Joining Riker and Data in Picard´s staff are a number of other likeable crew-members. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) is a blind Starfleet engineer who is able to see because of a high tech visor and is the closest member of the crew to Data. Geordi began his time on the Enterprise as the ship´s Conn Officer, but soon moved on to becoming the Chief Engineer. He was the voice of reason in the show among the crewmembers and aided Data in understanding humans. The show broke convention and added a member to the crew who was among the race of the most hated villains from the original show: a Klingon. Worf (Michael Dorn) is the ship´s security officer after Natasha Yar (Denise Crosby) is killed off in season one and the ship´s muscle. By having a Klingon as part of the Enterprise crew, "The Next Generation" was able to greatly expand its universe and provide a figure to look at social topics plaguing modern day Earth civilization. Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) is the ship´s counselor and is part Human and part Betazoid. She is able to read feelings and is also the primary love interest of Riker. The ship´s doctor is Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) and she is a personal friend of Picard and maintains a healthy sick bay. Her son Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) spent four years aboard the Enterprise and served as a Conn Officer in a Internship-like mode under Picard. Finally, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) was the bartender at the Ten-Forward lounge on the Enterprise and a close confidant of Picard´s.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" began its first season and was an instant success. Although the first season suffers from the characters trying to find themselves and many of the crew members not taking the roles they would later hold for the six following seasons, the show established many key storylines and relationships between the characters. Many of the first season shows were self-contained stories that had little bearing on what occurred later in the season. They were singular adventures that did not borrow from previous adventures and in general, the show didn´t seem to have a lot of direction in this first season. This mish-mash of plotlines and the ´feeling in´ period for the characters slowly started to become more structured and more polished as the first season continued. The show would kill off a principal character when Denise Crosby wanted to leave. Many episodes featured Wil Wheaton coming up with an amazing solution to a problem and saving the day. The saucer-section and holodeck were also common devices used during the first season. The first season, however, did introduce one of the series primary villains in the Romulans and laid down the groundwork for the most villainous television bad-guys in history: the Borg.
The second season found a lot of shuffling among the crew of the Enterprise. With Tasha Yar removed as the security officer after her death to a large black puddle of intelligent oil, Worf took over in that position. Geordi moved to become chief of engineering and much of his work was taken over by the previously unnamed Miles O´Brien (Colm Meaney). After much hesitation in the first season, Wesley Crusher is now an Ensign and part of the crew on the bridge. Sadly, Dr. Beverly Crusher has left her position as ship´s doctor and was replaced by Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur), but Dr. Crusher would return for season three. The Ten-Forward club was introduced, as was its well-informed bartender Guinan. Data became more and more curious of what makes a human tick and Riker grew a beard and gained more power as the second in command on the Enterprise. The second season found consistent storylines and more fleshed out characters that the first season. With some stories spanning the entire season, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" moved past being a one-season wonder and became a show that would survive for many more seasons.
The third season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" would find Dr. Beverly Crusher returning to the starship Enterprise and continuing her work as the ship´s doctor and hint as a love interest to Picard. She would initially have difficulties in accepting her son´s role as a member of the ship´s crew, but her return was a great improvement over Dr. Pulaski. Pulaski was supposed to be a female equivalent of the original series Dr. McCoy, but her character simply did not have the same chemistry that Bones had in the original series. Perhaps the most memorable part of the third season aboard the Enterprise-D was the season finale and its introduction of the Borg. The season gave Guinan and added presence on-board the Enterprise and showed that she perhaps knew more than anybody else when it came to intergalactic happenings. Her family was killed by the Borg and this frightening collective of cyborgs introduced the most memorable villains in television history. Season three took the solid ground created in the second season and made "Star Trek: The Next Generation" a fast-paced and entertaining hour of television. It´s too bad that it wasn´t until this DVD set that I was finally aware of how good the show became.
The fourth season began with the Borg and found Locutus of Borg returned to the Enterprise, while the ship was under the command of Riker. A massive fight between the Borg and Starfleet occurred during the fourth season premiere and had established that the Borg would be the biggest and baddest threat in the universe from this point forward. This middle point of the series found Wesley Crusher leaving the Enterprise to join Starfleet Academy. Crusher was my least favorite character of the primary crew and I certainly enjoyed watching him depart from the crew and not returning as a primary character from the fifth season on. He did have a recurring role and I saw him once or twice during my episode-hopping, but he wasn´t nearly as pivotal or commonplace after he left for the Academy.
The fifth and sixth season did not see a lot of change aboard the Enterprise, but found the crew investigating many themes popular during the show´s long run. Time travel and the potential of interfering with the time and space continuum was very popular and even Mark Twain made an appearance on the show. Klingon relations were another popular point and Worf´s son Alexander would soon take residence on the Enterprise and have a focal episode during the show´s final season. The Borg would return and Hugh would be introduced during this timeframe. These seasons also took place after the death of the show´s creator, Gene Roddenberry. The show did not miss a beat after losing its creator and although many of the themes started to feel repetitious and not quite as fresh as the third and fourth seasons, the characters continued to build on their wonderful chemistry.
Season seven started slow, but ended perfectly. The show´s longest running antagonist, Q (John de Lancie) was a focal point in the show´s pilot and played a pivotal point in the two hour finale. Q was an odd and powerful nemesis that straddled the line at being friend of foe to Picard. He showed an odd fascination with the ship´s captain and although he routinely put the Enterprise into hazardous situations, he was always helping them out in a roundabout way. Where the show began, it ended and the manner in which the finale revisited the pilot was brilliant. It´s reintroduction of Tasha Yar was a nice touch and I was happy to see one of my favorite characters from the first season return. Q appeared in a large number of episodes and helped the show end on a high note. Picard found some peace at being the ship´s captain and even joined his highest ranking officers for a game of poker.
I did not follow "Star Trek: The Next Generation" during its seven year run on broadcast television. I had watched a few of the first season episodes, but aside from finding Denise Crosby as being a rather attractive blonde, I didn´t find much else of interest during the show. Data was the only other character that held my interest, but he wasn´t enough to watch the show. At the time, I didn´t want intelligent and though-provoking stories. I wanted action that could rival "Star Wars" and I wanted my captain romancing blue aliens. Now I know that I did not give "Star Trek: The Next Generation" enough time to grow on me. I quickly grew tired of watching Wil Wheaton always fix the ship and odd situations to release the saucer section. For me, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was too tame and too much of a ´thinking´ show to be entertaining enough to follow it.
With revisiting the show and finally giving it its due with the massive 49 disc box set, I have discovered just how rich and fulfilling the show became during its next few seasons. The formulaic approach to the show was left behind after the first year and the actors grew into their characters. Data became the perfect Pinocchio and found a wonderful father-son relationship with Picard. William Riker found almost as much power as the Captain and fulfilled my desires for a Kirk-like adventurer. The stories became better and the show became stronger. I found the second, third and fourth seasons to be among the fresher and more adventurous seasons. The show was on the upswing during these three years and I wish I had the time to watch each and every episode before typing up this review. Of course, I could have spent the time watching the shows when they first aired two decades ago.
A plateau was reached during the final three seasons. The show was more polished and the actors had perfected their characters. There was no longer any great room to grow and the pinnacle third-season finale / fourth-season premiere was left in the rearview mirror of the Enterprise. The stories were still nicely-written and the show still had plenty of strange new worlds to explore, but nothing was fresh and groundbreaking. The show started to become a little stale and lose the momentum from the earlier seasons. I´m sure the creators were aware of this and this came into play when the seventh season was determined to be the last. Some of the stories that fell flat involved a Romulan woman who was Tasha Yar´s daughter. Intended to be a tremendous plot-twist, it became confusing in disinteresting. The finale was awesome and I enjoyed watching the show end strong, but the final three seasons only served to show more adventures and extend the voyage of the starship enterprise.
I easily spent forty hours with this box set and learned much about "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Some of my thoughts to the few episodes I had originally watched from the first season were quite valid, but the show evolved and improved greatly. Data was a simply awesome character and stood out among a strong cast of characters. Riker, Geordi, Dr. Crusher, Worf and Picard were all nicely written and well acted. Q and the Borg were strong antagonists and I only wish the show had spent just a little more time with each of them. It has now been a long time since the crew of the Enterprise-D appeared on either television or film, but their long journey to seek out new worlds was worth a trip and thankfully, those of us that missed the trip the first time around can at least share in their experiences on DVD. This is a great show and a huge time investment, but I think it is worth it.
There is no greater argument to Science Fiction aficionados than that of whether or not James T. Kirk or Jean-Luc Picard. I´ve always been a Kirk man, myself. His interstellar gunslinging and blue alien womanizing was always far more entertaining than the intellectual and calculating Picard. However, I grew up watching the old "Star Trek" re-runs on Saturday mornings and never got fully involved with "Star Trek: The Next Generation" when it debuted on September 28, 1987. There were just so many things to do in my freshman year of high school and "Star Trek" was not among my hot list. The debate as to who was the better captain will never end and will always meet with heated discussion amongst the so-called "Trekkies." However, the debate as to which television show was more successful is hardly a debate, as "The Next Generation" lasted seven seasons and was met with critical and popular success, unlike the original series which found success in syndication, but not during its initial run.
Twenty years later, Paramount has released a magnificent box set containing all seven years of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." With a sizable $440 dollar price tag and an equally astounding forty nine DVDs, this "20th Anniversary Collector´s Gift Set" is a mouth-watering treat for the die-hard Trekkies who sit on the Picard side of the "Who was a better captain" argument. Contained in a large green cube of plastic and shiny platters, this captivating collection of all 176 episodes of the long running science fiction series is simply awe-inspiring. With a complete running time of 134 hours and fifteen minutes for the episodes alone and a couple of hours of supplements, this box set had captured about two weeks of my life to sit through selected episodes and pay a long standing visit with the crew of the USS Enterprise and its familiar crewmembers. I had initially anticipated watching just two or three episodes a season and then sit through the complete array of bonus materials, but ended up enjoying six or seven episodes a season. I typically try to watch an entire series before posting a review, but admittedly fell short of that standard. Sometimes, one needs to break one´s own policies
From the Pinocchio-like Data (Brent Spiner) to the Kirk-like William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), "Star Trek: The Next Generation" is filled with memorable and well acted characters. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is a caring and kind Captain who strives to always do what is best for the better good. He stays out of heated action unless it is absolutely necessary. His First Officer, Riker, is usually sent as the leader of the away teams. Riker is the show´s ladies man and the charismatic warrior who is not afraid of using his phaser. After watching "Star Trek: The Next Generation," I realized the show did not need William Shatner doing what he did best in the original series, it had a capable facsimile in William Riker. Data is easily my favorite character and is an android that was build as the perfect example of artificial intelligence. However, he yearns to become human and find emotions and continually undergoes experiments and studies to attempt at better understanding the human condition and becoming as human as possible.
Joining Riker and Data in Picard´s staff are a number of other likeable crew-members. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) is a blind Starfleet engineer who is able to see because of a high tech visor and is the closest member of the crew to Data. Geordi began his time on the Enterprise as the ship´s Conn Officer, but soon moved on to becoming the Chief Engineer. He was the voice of reason in the show among the crewmembers and aided Data in understanding humans. The show broke convention and added a member to the crew who was among the race of the most hated villains from the original show: a Klingon. Worf (Michael Dorn) is the ship´s security officer after Natasha Yar (Denise Crosby) is killed off in season one and the ship´s muscle. By having a Klingon as part of the Enterprise crew, "The Next Generation" was able to greatly expand its universe and provide a figure to look at social topics plaguing modern day Earth civilization. Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) is the ship´s counselor and is part Human and part Betazoid. She is able to read feelings and is also the primary love interest of Riker. The ship´s doctor is Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) and she is a personal friend of Picard and maintains a healthy sick bay. Her son Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) spent four years aboard the Enterprise and served as a Conn Officer in a Internship-like mode under Picard. Finally, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) was the bartender at the Ten-Forward lounge on the Enterprise and a close confidant of Picard´s.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" began its first season and was an instant success. Although the first season suffers from the characters trying to find themselves and many of the crew members not taking the roles they would later hold for the six following seasons, the show established many key storylines and relationships between the characters. Many of the first season shows were self-contained stories that had little bearing on what occurred later in the season. They were singular adventures that did not borrow from previous adventures and in general, the show didn´t seem to have a lot of direction in this first season. This mish-mash of plotlines and the ´feeling in´ period for the characters slowly started to become more structured and more polished as the first season continued. The show would kill off a principal character when Denise Crosby wanted to leave. Many episodes featured Wil Wheaton coming up with an amazing solution to a problem and saving the day. The saucer-section and holodeck were also common devices used during the first season. The first season, however, did introduce one of the series primary villains in the Romulans and laid down the groundwork for the most villainous television bad-guys in history: the Borg.
The second season found a lot of shuffling among the crew of the Enterprise. With Tasha Yar removed as the security officer after her death to a large black puddle of intelligent oil, Worf took over in that position. Geordi moved to become chief of engineering and much of his work was taken over by the previously unnamed Miles O´Brien (Colm Meaney). After much hesitation in the first season, Wesley Crusher is now an Ensign and part of the crew on the bridge. Sadly, Dr. Beverly Crusher has left her position as ship´s doctor and was replaced by Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur), but Dr. Crusher would return for season three. The Ten-Forward club was introduced, as was its well-informed bartender Guinan. Data became more and more curious of what makes a human tick and Riker grew a beard and gained more power as the second in command on the Enterprise. The second season found consistent storylines and more fleshed out characters that the first season. With some stories spanning the entire season, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" moved past being a one-season wonder and became a show that would survive for many more seasons.
The third season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" would find Dr. Beverly Crusher returning to the starship Enterprise and continuing her work as the ship´s doctor and hint as a love interest to Picard. She would initially have difficulties in accepting her son´s role as a member of the ship´s crew, but her return was a great improvement over Dr. Pulaski. Pulaski was supposed to be a female equivalent of the original series Dr. McCoy, but her character simply did not have the same chemistry that Bones had in the original series. Perhaps the most memorable part of the third season aboard the Enterprise-D was the season finale and its introduction of the Borg. The season gave Guinan and added presence on-board the Enterprise and showed that she perhaps knew more than anybody else when it came to intergalactic happenings. Her family was killed by the Borg and this frightening collective of cyborgs introduced the most memorable villains in television history. Season three took the solid ground created in the second season and made "Star Trek: The Next Generation" a fast-paced and entertaining hour of television. It´s too bad that it wasn´t until this DVD set that I was finally aware of how good the show became.
The fourth season began with the Borg and found Locutus of Borg returned to the Enterprise, while the ship was under the command of Riker. A massive fight between the Borg and Starfleet occurred during the fourth season premiere and had established that the Borg would be the biggest and baddest threat in the universe from this point forward. This middle point of the series found Wesley Crusher leaving the Enterprise to join Starfleet Academy. Crusher was my least favorite character of the primary crew and I certainly enjoyed watching him depart from the crew and not returning as a primary character from the fifth season on. He did have a recurring role and I saw him once or twice during my episode-hopping, but he wasn´t nearly as pivotal or commonplace after he left for the Academy.
The fifth and sixth season did not see a lot of change aboard the Enterprise, but found the crew investigating many themes popular during the show´s long run. Time travel and the potential of interfering with the time and space continuum was very popular and even Mark Twain made an appearance on the show. Klingon relations were another popular point and Worf´s son Alexander would soon take residence on the Enterprise and have a focal episode during the show´s final season. The Borg would return and Hugh would be introduced during this timeframe. These seasons also took place after the death of the show´s creator, Gene Roddenberry. The show did not miss a beat after losing its creator and although many of the themes started to feel repetitious and not quite as fresh as the third and fourth seasons, the characters continued to build on their wonderful chemistry.
Season seven started slow, but ended perfectly. The show´s longest running antagonist, Q (John de Lancie) was a focal point in the show´s pilot and played a pivotal point in the two hour finale. Q was an odd and powerful nemesis that straddled the line at being friend of foe to Picard. He showed an odd fascination with the ship´s captain and although he routinely put the Enterprise into hazardous situations, he was always helping them out in a roundabout way. Where the show began, it ended and the manner in which the finale revisited the pilot was brilliant. It´s reintroduction of Tasha Yar was a nice touch and I was happy to see one of my favorite characters from the first season return. Q appeared in a large number of episodes and helped the show end on a high note. Picard found some peace at being the ship´s captain and even joined his highest ranking officers for a game of poker.
I did not follow "Star Trek: The Next Generation" during its seven year run on broadcast television. I had watched a few of the first season episodes, but aside from finding Denise Crosby as being a rather attractive blonde, I didn´t find much else of interest during the show. Data was the only other character that held my interest, but he wasn´t enough to watch the show. At the time, I didn´t want intelligent and though-provoking stories. I wanted action that could rival "Star Wars" and I wanted my captain romancing blue aliens. Now I know that I did not give "Star Trek: The Next Generation" enough time to grow on me. I quickly grew tired of watching Wil Wheaton always fix the ship and odd situations to release the saucer section. For me, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was too tame and too much of a ´thinking´ show to be entertaining enough to follow it.
With revisiting the show and finally giving it its due with the massive 49 disc box set, I have discovered just how rich and fulfilling the show became during its next few seasons. The formulaic approach to the show was left behind after the first year and the actors grew into their characters. Data became the perfect Pinocchio and found a wonderful father-son relationship with Picard. William Riker found almost as much power as the Captain and fulfilled my desires for a Kirk-like adventurer. The stories became better and the show became stronger. I found the second, third and fourth seasons to be among the fresher and more adventurous seasons. The show was on the upswing during these three years and I wish I had the time to watch each and every episode before typing up this review. Of course, I could have spent the time watching the shows when they first aired two decades ago.
A plateau was reached during the final three seasons. The show was more polished and the actors had perfected their characters. There was no longer any great room to grow and the pinnacle third-season finale / fourth-season premiere was left in the rearview mirror of the Enterprise. The stories were still nicely-written and the show still had plenty of strange new worlds to explore, but nothing was fresh and groundbreaking. The show started to become a little stale and lose the momentum from the earlier seasons. I´m sure the creators were aware of this and this came into play when the seventh season was determined to be the last. Some of the stories that fell flat involved a Romulan woman who was Tasha Yar´s daughter. Intended to be a tremendous plot-twist, it became confusing in disinteresting. The finale was awesome and I enjoyed watching the show end strong, but the final three seasons only served to show more adventures and extend the voyage of the starship enterprise.
I easily spent forty hours with this box set and learned much about "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Some of my thoughts to the few episodes I had originally watched from the first season were quite valid, but the show evolved and improved greatly. Data was a simply awesome character and stood out among a strong cast of characters. Riker, Geordi, Dr. Crusher, Worf and Picard were all nicely written and well acted. Q and the Borg were strong antagonists and I only wish the show had spent just a little more time with each of them. It has now been a long time since the crew of the Enterprise-D appeared on either television or film, but their long journey to seek out new worlds was worth a trip and thankfully, those of us that missed the trip the first time around can at least share in their experiences on DVD. This is a great show and a huge time investment, but I think it is worth it.
Twenty years later, Paramount has released a magnificent box set containing all seven years of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." With a sizable $440 dollar price tag and an equally astounding forty nine DVDs, this "20th Anniversary Collector´s Gift Set" is a mouth-watering treat for the die-hard Trekkies who sit on the Picard side of the "Who was a better captain" argument. Contained in a large green cube of plastic and shiny platters, this captivating collection of all 176 episodes of the long running science fiction series is simply awe-inspiring. With a complete running time of 134 hours and fifteen minutes for the episodes alone and a couple of hours of supplements, this box set had captured about two weeks of my life to sit through selected episodes and pay a long standing visit with the crew of the USS Enterprise and its familiar crewmembers. I had initially anticipated watching just two or three episodes a season and then sit through the complete array of bonus materials, but ended up enjoying six or seven episodes a season. I typically try to watch an entire series before posting a review, but admittedly fell short of that standard. Sometimes, one needs to break one´s own policies
From the Pinocchio-like Data (Brent Spiner) to the Kirk-like William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), "Star Trek: The Next Generation" is filled with memorable and well acted characters. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is a caring and kind Captain who strives to always do what is best for the better good. He stays out of heated action unless it is absolutely necessary. His First Officer, Riker, is usually sent as the leader of the away teams. Riker is the show´s ladies man and the charismatic warrior who is not afraid of using his phaser. After watching "Star Trek: The Next Generation," I realized the show did not need William Shatner doing what he did best in the original series, it had a capable facsimile in William Riker. Data is easily my favorite character and is an android that was build as the perfect example of artificial intelligence. However, he yearns to become human and find emotions and continually undergoes experiments and studies to attempt at better understanding the human condition and becoming as human as possible.
Joining Riker and Data in Picard´s staff are a number of other likeable crew-members. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) is a blind Starfleet engineer who is able to see because of a high tech visor and is the closest member of the crew to Data. Geordi began his time on the Enterprise as the ship´s Conn Officer, but soon moved on to becoming the Chief Engineer. He was the voice of reason in the show among the crewmembers and aided Data in understanding humans. The show broke convention and added a member to the crew who was among the race of the most hated villains from the original show: a Klingon. Worf (Michael Dorn) is the ship´s security officer after Natasha Yar (Denise Crosby) is killed off in season one and the ship´s muscle. By having a Klingon as part of the Enterprise crew, "The Next Generation" was able to greatly expand its universe and provide a figure to look at social topics plaguing modern day Earth civilization. Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) is the ship´s counselor and is part Human and part Betazoid. She is able to read feelings and is also the primary love interest of Riker. The ship´s doctor is Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) and she is a personal friend of Picard and maintains a healthy sick bay. Her son Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) spent four years aboard the Enterprise and served as a Conn Officer in a Internship-like mode under Picard. Finally, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) was the bartender at the Ten-Forward lounge on the Enterprise and a close confidant of Picard´s.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" began its first season and was an instant success. Although the first season suffers from the characters trying to find themselves and many of the crew members not taking the roles they would later hold for the six following seasons, the show established many key storylines and relationships between the characters. Many of the first season shows were self-contained stories that had little bearing on what occurred later in the season. They were singular adventures that did not borrow from previous adventures and in general, the show didn´t seem to have a lot of direction in this first season. This mish-mash of plotlines and the ´feeling in´ period for the characters slowly started to become more structured and more polished as the first season continued. The show would kill off a principal character when Denise Crosby wanted to leave. Many episodes featured Wil Wheaton coming up with an amazing solution to a problem and saving the day. The saucer-section and holodeck were also common devices used during the first season. The first season, however, did introduce one of the series primary villains in the Romulans and laid down the groundwork for the most villainous television bad-guys in history: the Borg.
The second season found a lot of shuffling among the crew of the Enterprise. With Tasha Yar removed as the security officer after her death to a large black puddle of intelligent oil, Worf took over in that position. Geordi moved to become chief of engineering and much of his work was taken over by the previously unnamed Miles O´Brien (Colm Meaney). After much hesitation in the first season, Wesley Crusher is now an Ensign and part of the crew on the bridge. Sadly, Dr. Beverly Crusher has left her position as ship´s doctor and was replaced by Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur), but Dr. Crusher would return for season three. The Ten-Forward club was introduced, as was its well-informed bartender Guinan. Data became more and more curious of what makes a human tick and Riker grew a beard and gained more power as the second in command on the Enterprise. The second season found consistent storylines and more fleshed out characters that the first season. With some stories spanning the entire season, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" moved past being a one-season wonder and became a show that would survive for many more seasons.
The third season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" would find Dr. Beverly Crusher returning to the starship Enterprise and continuing her work as the ship´s doctor and hint as a love interest to Picard. She would initially have difficulties in accepting her son´s role as a member of the ship´s crew, but her return was a great improvement over Dr. Pulaski. Pulaski was supposed to be a female equivalent of the original series Dr. McCoy, but her character simply did not have the same chemistry that Bones had in the original series. Perhaps the most memorable part of the third season aboard the Enterprise-D was the season finale and its introduction of the Borg. The season gave Guinan and added presence on-board the Enterprise and showed that she perhaps knew more than anybody else when it came to intergalactic happenings. Her family was killed by the Borg and this frightening collective of cyborgs introduced the most memorable villains in television history. Season three took the solid ground created in the second season and made "Star Trek: The Next Generation" a fast-paced and entertaining hour of television. It´s too bad that it wasn´t until this DVD set that I was finally aware of how good the show became.
The fourth season began with the Borg and found Locutus of Borg returned to the Enterprise, while the ship was under the command of Riker. A massive fight between the Borg and Starfleet occurred during the fourth season premiere and had established that the Borg would be the biggest and baddest threat in the universe from this point forward. This middle point of the series found Wesley Crusher leaving the Enterprise to join Starfleet Academy. Crusher was my least favorite character of the primary crew and I certainly enjoyed watching him depart from the crew and not returning as a primary character from the fifth season on. He did have a recurring role and I saw him once or twice during my episode-hopping, but he wasn´t nearly as pivotal or commonplace after he left for the Academy.
The fifth and sixth season did not see a lot of change aboard the Enterprise, but found the crew investigating many themes popular during the show´s long run. Time travel and the potential of interfering with the time and space continuum was very popular and even Mark Twain made an appearance on the show. Klingon relations were another popular point and Worf´s son Alexander would soon take residence on the Enterprise and have a focal episode during the show´s final season. The Borg would return and Hugh would be introduced during this timeframe. These seasons also took place after the death of the show´s creator, Gene Roddenberry. The show did not miss a beat after losing its creator and although many of the themes started to feel repetitious and not quite as fresh as the third and fourth seasons, the characters continued to build on their wonderful chemistry.
Season seven started slow, but ended perfectly. The show´s longest running antagonist, Q (John de Lancie) was a focal point in the show´s pilot and played a pivotal point in the two hour finale. Q was an odd and powerful nemesis that straddled the line at being friend of foe to Picard. He showed an odd fascination with the ship´s captain and although he routinely put the Enterprise into hazardous situations, he was always helping them out in a roundabout way. Where the show began, it ended and the manner in which the finale revisited the pilot was brilliant. It´s reintroduction of Tasha Yar was a nice touch and I was happy to see one of my favorite characters from the first season return. Q appeared in a large number of episodes and helped the show end on a high note. Picard found some peace at being the ship´s captain and even joined his highest ranking officers for a game of poker.
I did not follow "Star Trek: The Next Generation" during its seven year run on broadcast television. I had watched a few of the first season episodes, but aside from finding Denise Crosby as being a rather attractive blonde, I didn´t find much else of interest during the show. Data was the only other character that held my interest, but he wasn´t enough to watch the show. At the time, I didn´t want intelligent and though-provoking stories. I wanted action that could rival "Star Wars" and I wanted my captain romancing blue aliens. Now I know that I did not give "Star Trek: The Next Generation" enough time to grow on me. I quickly grew tired of watching Wil Wheaton always fix the ship and odd situations to release the saucer section. For me, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was too tame and too much of a ´thinking´ show to be entertaining enough to follow it.
With revisiting the show and finally giving it its due with the massive 49 disc box set, I have discovered just how rich and fulfilling the show became during its next few seasons. The formulaic approach to the show was left behind after the first year and the actors grew into their characters. Data became the perfect Pinocchio and found a wonderful father-son relationship with Picard. William Riker found almost as much power as the Captain and fulfilled my desires for a Kirk-like adventurer. The stories became better and the show became stronger. I found the second, third and fourth seasons to be among the fresher and more adventurous seasons. The show was on the upswing during these three years and I wish I had the time to watch each and every episode before typing up this review. Of course, I could have spent the time watching the shows when they first aired two decades ago.
A plateau was reached during the final three seasons. The show was more polished and the actors had perfected their characters. There was no longer any great room to grow and the pinnacle third-season finale / fourth-season premiere was left in the rearview mirror of the Enterprise. The stories were still nicely-written and the show still had plenty of strange new worlds to explore, but nothing was fresh and groundbreaking. The show started to become a little stale and lose the momentum from the earlier seasons. I´m sure the creators were aware of this and this came into play when the seventh season was determined to be the last. Some of the stories that fell flat involved a Romulan woman who was Tasha Yar´s daughter. Intended to be a tremendous plot-twist, it became confusing in disinteresting. The finale was awesome and I enjoyed watching the show end strong, but the final three seasons only served to show more adventures and extend the voyage of the starship enterprise.
I easily spent forty hours with this box set and learned much about "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Some of my thoughts to the few episodes I had originally watched from the first season were quite valid, but the show evolved and improved greatly. Data was a simply awesome character and stood out among a strong cast of characters. Riker, Geordi, Dr. Crusher, Worf and Picard were all nicely written and well acted. Q and the Borg were strong antagonists and I only wish the show had spent just a little more time with each of them. It has now been a long time since the crew of the Enterprise-D appeared on either television or film, but their long journey to seek out new worlds was worth a trip and thankfully, those of us that missed the trip the first time around can at least share in their experiences on DVD. This is a great show and a huge time investment, but I think it is worth it.
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