Coming
into the home stretch, STAR TREK: VOYAGER delivered another season
of good quality sci-fi entertainment, certainly worthy of the Trek
moniker. Sure, there were a few mediocre episodes in the show’s seventh
year on the air, but for the most part, the show delivered the goods with
solid, character driven stories. Personally, I think there is a lot for a
fan to enjoy across the seventh year of STAR TREK: VOYAGER, with
the series finale proving to be proving to be one of the brightest, most
shining moments of the show’s entire run. Of course, the last season of STAR
TREK: VOYAGER started off with the crew, still many decades away from
returning home to the Alpha Quadrant and little sign of them finding any
shortcuts across the vastness of space.
For
those unfamiliar with STAR TREK: VOYAGER, the basic premise of this
forth Trek incarnation finds the crew of the Federation Starship
Voyager transported halfway across the galaxy and trying to make their way
home from the Delta Quadrant- a seventy-year journey at maximum speed. The
Voyager ship’s crew complement features Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn
Janeway, Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay, Roxann Dawson as Lieutenant
B'Elanna Torres, Robert Duncan McNeill as Ensign Tom Paris, Ethan Phillips
as Neelix, Robert Picardo as The Doctor, Tim Russ as Lieutenant Commander
Tuvok, Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine and Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim.
STAR
TREK: VOYAGER- SEASON SEVEN ($130) comes to DVD in a seven-disc set
that features all twenty-six episodes that were produced for the seventh
year. The twenty-six featured episodes are as follows: Unimatrix
Zero Part 2, Imperfection, Drive, Repression,
Critical Care, Inside Man, Body And Soul,
Nightingale, Flesh And Blood Part 1, Flesh
And Blood Part 2, Shattered, Lineage, Repentance,
Prophecy, The Void, Workforce Part 1,
Workforce Part 2, Human Error, Q2,
Author, Author, Friendship One, Natural
Law, Homestead, Renaissance Man, Endgame.
Personal
favorites among season seven’s episodes include: Unimatrix Zero
Part 2 is the second part of the Borg cliffhanger, in which
several members of the crew have been assimilated into the collective. Imperfection
finds Seven of Nine facing death as some of her life sustaining Borg
implants begin to fail. Inside Man features appearances by
Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi and Dwight Schultz as both Lt. Barclay and
his holographic counterpart in this story involving a dangerous potential
shortcut home for Voyager. Flesh And Blood Part 1 & 2
offers a very interesting story involving a group of sentient holograms
that want their own home and freedom from the Hirogen hunters that have
used them as prey. Lineage finds Tom Paris and B'Elanna
Torres facing the prospect of being parents, which resurrects feelings of
self-loathing in B'Elanna, when she discovers the child will have
predominantly Klingon features. Q2 marks an appearance of
John de Lancie as the omnipotent Q, who deposits his errant offspring on
Voyager’s doorstep, with hopes that some of humanities virtues will rub
off on him. Endgame is the series finale that finds Janeway
breaking all the rules and undertaking a dangerous gambit involving a
final showdown with The Borg in an effort to get her crew home sooner,
rather than later.
Paramount
Home Entertainment has made all twenty-six episodes from STAR TREK:
VOYAGER- SEASON SEVEN available on DVD in the proper full screen
aspect ratios of their original television broadcasts. Once again, these
are great looking presentations, equal to the previous six sets. The image
is generally sharp and really nicely defined for a television production.
There is some softness here and there, but it is all forgivable on this
type effects laden television series. Colors are generally strong,
producing vivid hues with out noise or noticeable fuzziness. Blacks are
accurately rendered and the whites are crisp. Contrast is good for a
television level production, as is the shadow detail. Even with four
episodes on a dual layer disc, digital compression artifacts are always
nicely camouflaged.
As
with the earlier boxed sets, all the episodes that comprise STAR TREK:
VOYAGER- SEASON SEVEN have had their soundtracks upgraded to Dolby
Digital 5.1 channel format. As with the preceding DVD set, the 5.1 sound
mixes offered for season seven appear to be direct transcriptions of the
pre-matrixed surround sound stems that were prepared for the show’s
original television broadcasts. Considering that STAR TREK: VOYAGER
was a well-mixed TV show from late 1990’s, the soundtracks are quite
effective and engaging. Not surprisingly, however, the forward soundstage
usually dominates the sound design, with the surround channels augmenting
the front with a goodly amount of ambient sounds, engine rumble and
musical fill. As expected, sequences involving space battles provide more
sonic fireworks than the talky ship bound portions of the show. Fidelity
is really great for a television level production, with the episodic
scores producing a clear musical presence and the sound effects coming
across in a convincing manner. Dialogue is always crisply rendered, plus
the bass channel is fairly solid for a television caliber production.
English Dolby Surround soundtracks are also encoded onto the DVDs, as are
English subtitles.
3-D
animation, plus sound serve to enhance the DVD’s interactive menus.
Through the menus one has access to the set up and episode selection
features, as well as the supplemental materials, which have been relegated
to disc seven of the set. Braving The Unknown: Season Seven
runs eighteen minutes and provides a retrospective of the highlights from
the show’s seventh and final year on the air. Voyager Time
Capsule: The Doctor is a fifteen-minute program that features
actor Robert Picardo discussing the development of his character across
the seven seasons, as well as his own personal influence on the character.
Coming
Home: The Final Episode clocks in at twelve minutes and features
vintage interviews with the cast and crew talking about the series coming
to an end. Real Science With Andre Bormanis is a very
interesting twelve-minute program that looks the technology of STAR
TREK: VOYAGER and compares it to the real world of scientific
possibilities and impossibilities. As someone who has been to the very
cool attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton (a must see for any Trek
fan coming to Vegas), The Making Of Borg Invasion 4-D is a
fun nine-minute program that gives a nice look behind the scenes. A Photo
Gallery, Storyboard Gallery and the usual complement
of Easter Eggs close out the supplements.
As
the series comes to an end, STAR TREK: VOYAGER may not have been a
best of breed in the Trek litter, but it certainly delivered more
than its share of interesting stories and sci-fi entertainment. As for the
DVD set, Paramount has done their usual wonderful job, delivering the
episodes with strong video and audio presentations. If you are a Trek
fan, or a Voyager fan in particular, it goes without saying that
you’ll want to add STAR TREK: VOYAGER- SEASON SEVEN to your
Starfleet library.
Coming
into the home stretch, STAR TREK: VOYAGER delivered another season
of good quality sci-fi entertainment, certainly worthy of the Trek
moniker. Sure, there were a few mediocre episodes in the show’s seventh
year on the air, but for the most part, the show delivered the goods with
solid, character driven stories. Personally, I think there is a lot for a
fan to enjoy across the seventh year of STAR TREK: VOYAGER, with
the series finale proving to be proving to be one of the brightest, most
shining moments of the show’s entire run. Of course, the last season of STAR
TREK: VOYAGER started off with the crew, still many decades away from
returning home to the Alpha Quadrant and little sign of them finding any
shortcuts across the vastness of space.
For
those unfamiliar with STAR TREK: VOYAGER, the basic premise of this
forth Trek incarnation finds the crew of the Federation Starship
Voyager transported halfway across the galaxy and trying to make their way
home from the Delta Quadrant- a seventy-year journey at maximum speed. The
Voyager ship’s crew complement features Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn
Janeway, Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay, Roxann Dawson as Lieutenant
B'Elanna Torres, Robert Duncan McNeill as Ensign Tom Paris, Ethan Phillips
as Neelix, Robert Picardo as The Doctor, Tim Russ as Lieutenant Commander
Tuvok, Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine and Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim.
STAR
TREK: VOYAGER- SEASON SEVEN ($130) comes to DVD in a seven-disc set
that features all twenty-six episodes that were produced for the seventh
year. The twenty-six featured episodes are as follows: Unimatrix
Zero Part 2, Imperfection, Drive, Repression,
Critical Care, Inside Man, Body And Soul,
Nightingale, Flesh And Blood Part 1, Flesh
And Blood Part 2, Shattered, Lineage, Repentance,
Prophecy, The Void, Workforce Part 1,
Workforce Part 2, Human Error, Q2,
Author, Author, Friendship One, Natural
Law, Homestead, Renaissance Man, Endgame.
Personal
favorites among season seven’s episodes include: Unimatrix Zero
Part 2 is the second part of the Borg cliffhanger, in which
several members of the crew have been assimilated into the collective. Imperfection
finds Seven of Nine facing death as some of her life sustaining Borg
implants begin to fail. Inside Man features appearances by
Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi and Dwight Schultz as both Lt. Barclay and
his holographic counterpart in this story involving a dangerous potential
shortcut home for Voyager. Flesh And Blood Part 1 & 2
offers a very interesting story involving a group of sentient holograms
that want their own home and freedom from the Hirogen hunters that have
used them as prey. Lineage finds Tom Paris and B'Elanna
Torres facing the prospect of being parents, which resurrects feelings of
self-loathing in B'Elanna, when she discovers the child will have
predominantly Klingon features. Q2 marks an appearance of
John de Lancie as the omnipotent Q, who deposits his errant offspring on
Voyager’s doorstep, with hopes that some of humanities virtues will rub
off on him. Endgame is the series finale that finds Janeway
breaking all the rules and undertaking a dangerous gambit involving a
final showdown with The Borg in an effort to get her crew home sooner,
rather than later.
Paramount
Home Entertainment has made all twenty-six episodes from STAR TREK:
VOYAGER- SEASON SEVEN available on DVD in the proper full screen
aspect ratios of their original television broadcasts. Once again, these
are great looking presentations, equal to the previous six sets. The image
is generally sharp and really nicely defined for a television production.
There is some softness here and there, but it is all forgivable on this
type effects laden television series. Colors are generally strong,
producing vivid hues with out noise or noticeable fuzziness. Blacks are
accurately rendered and the whites are crisp. Contrast is good for a
television level production, as is the shadow detail. Even with four
episodes on a dual layer disc, digital compression artifacts are always
nicely camouflaged.
As
with the earlier boxed sets, all the episodes that comprise STAR TREK:
VOYAGER- SEASON SEVEN have had their soundtracks upgraded to Dolby
Digital 5.1 channel format. As with the preceding DVD set, the 5.1 sound
mixes offered for season seven appear to be direct transcriptions of the
pre-matrixed surround sound stems that were prepared for the show’s
original television broadcasts. Considering that STAR TREK: VOYAGER
was a well-mixed TV show from late 1990’s, the soundtracks are quite
effective and engaging. Not surprisingly, however, the forward soundstage
usually dominates the sound design, with the surround channels augmenting
the front with a goodly amount of ambient sounds, engine rumble and
musical fill. As expected, sequences involving space battles provide more
sonic fireworks than the talky ship bound portions of the show. Fidelity
is really great for a television level production, with the episodic
scores producing a clear musical presence and the sound effects coming
across in a convincing manner. Dialogue is always crisply rendered, plus
the bass channel is fairly solid for a television caliber production.
English Dolby Surround soundtracks are also encoded onto the DVDs, as are
English subtitles.
3-D
animation, plus sound serve to enhance the DVD’s interactive menus.
Through the menus one has access to the set up and episode selection
features, as well as the supplemental materials, which have been relegated
to disc seven of the set. Braving The Unknown: Season Seven
runs eighteen minutes and provides a retrospective of the highlights from
the show’s seventh and final year on the air. Voyager Time
Capsule: The Doctor is a fifteen-minute program that features
actor Robert Picardo discussing the development of his character across
the seven seasons, as well as his own personal influence on the character.
Coming
Home: The Final Episode clocks in at twelve minutes and features
vintage interviews with the cast and crew talking about the series coming
to an end. Real Science With Andre Bormanis is a very
interesting twelve-minute program that looks the technology of STAR
TREK: VOYAGER and compares it to the real world of scientific
possibilities and impossibilities. As someone who has been to the very
cool attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton (a must see for any Trek
fan coming to Vegas), The Making Of Borg Invasion 4-D is a
fun nine-minute program that gives a nice look behind the scenes. A Photo
Gallery, Storyboard Gallery and the usual complement
of Easter Eggs close out the supplements.
As
the series comes to an end, STAR TREK: VOYAGER may not have been a
best of breed in the Trek litter, but it certainly delivered more
than its share of interesting stories and sci-fi entertainment. As for the
DVD set, Paramount has done their usual wonderful job, delivering the
episodes with strong video and audio presentations. If you are a Trek
fan, or a Voyager fan in particular, it goes without saying that
you’ll want to add STAR TREK: VOYAGER- SEASON SEVEN to your
Starfleet library.