As
a television series, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION was on more
than solid ground by season three. Season four confirmed that the series
had found its definitive voice and allowed the writers greater flexibility
to explore the characters. With no signs of age in sight, STAR TREK:
THE NEXT GENERATION eased into season five with a great number of
superior episodes that were able to excite longtime fans of the show and
push the characters into new and interesting areas. Season five also allowed
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION to pay homage to the original series,
with a two-part story that featured a very special guest star. Continuing
to move the series out the door at warp speed, Paramount Home Entertainment
has made all twenty-six episodes of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
SEASON FIVE available on DVD in a seven disc boxed set for an approximate
retail price of $149.98.
Disc
one contains the episodes Redemption Part II, Darmok,
Ensign Ro, and Silicon Avatar. Redemption
Part II is another top-notch episode that resolves the season
four cliffhanger, in which Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) resigns his Starfleet
commission to fight in a Klingon civil war. Although the Federation will
not interfere with what they consider a Klingon internal affair, Captain
Picard (Patrick Stewart) suspects that the Romulan Empire has already
intervened in an attempt to shift the balance of power in the alpha quadrant.
Darmok is an interesting episode in which Captain Picard
is kidnapped by the captain of an alien vessel, whose language defies
translation. Ensign Ro brings a new crewmember (and reoccurring
character) to the Starship Enterprise. Ensign Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes)
is a disgraced and court-martialed junior officer who is given a second
chance in Starfleet, since she has had some association with a wanted
terrorist leader. Silicon Avatar finds android officer Lieutenant
Commander. Data (Brent Spiner) facing a scientist’s prejudice for his
brother Lore, who was responsible for a crystalline space entity killing
all of the colonists on the world where Data and Lore were both created.
Disc
two contains the episodes Disaster, The Game,
Unification Part I and Unification Part II.
Disaster is another standout season five episode, in which
the Enterprise is crippled after colliding with a space anomaly- this
leaves much of the crew isolated in various portions of the heavily damaged
Starship, while on the bridge, an ill-prepared Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina
Sirtis) finds herself in command. In The Game, Commander
Riker (Jonathan Frakes) returns from shore leave in possession of a highly
addictive game that begins to take control of the crew, which leaves the
visiting Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) as the only person able to save
his former shipmates. The original generation meets the next generation
in Unification Part I, which tells of a possible defection
by Vulcan Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) to the Romulan Empire. Unification
Part II uncovers Spock’s mission to Romulus as a bit of cowboy
diplomacy to reunite the Vulcans with their Romulan cousins, but Captain
Picard begins to suspect that Spock may be on a fool’s errand.
Disc
three contains the episodes A Matter of Time, New
Ground, Hero Worship and Violations.
A Matter of Time finds Picard and crew on a historic mission,
or at least that is what they are lead to believe, when a scientist from
the future arrives to witness their latest exploits. In New Ground,
the Enterprise is scheduled to participate in an experiment involving
a new form of Warp propulsion, while at the same time, Worf’s visiting
mother informs the Klingon officer that his son will be living with him
on board the Enterprise from now on. In Hero Worship, the
Enterprise crew rescues a young boy, who was the only survivor of an ill-fated
spacecraft; as a way of coping with his grief, the boy begins emulating
the emotionless android Data. Violations finds the Enterprise
transporting a group of telepathic aliens, who become the prime suspects
in the unexplained attacks that leave a number of crewmembers comatose.
Disc
four contains the episodes The Masterpiece Society, Conundrum,
Power Play and Ethics. The Masterpiece
Society involves the Enterprise crew in an attempt to save a group
of genetically engineered colonists from an approaching space body. Conundrum
finds the entire crew of the Enterprise suffering from amnesia and about
to go into a battle with an ill matched enemy that they don’t remember.
In Power Play Data, Troi and Cheif O'Brien (Colm Meaney)
come under alien influence and then attempt to take control of the Enterprise.
Ethics finds Worf paralyzed after a spinal cord injury and
asking Riker for his assistance to commit ritual suicide.
Disc
five contains the episodes The Outcast, Cause and
Effect, The First Duty, and Cost of Living.
In The Outcast, Riker falls in love with the member of an
androgynous society, where male/female relationships have become taboo.
Cause and Effect is another standout season five episode
in which the Enterprise is destroy during the first few minutes of the
show, only to have the process repeat time and again, with minor variations.
The First Duty has Captain Picard visiting Starfleet Academy
on Earth, where Wesley Crusher and members of his fighter squadron have
been involved in an accident that killed one of their fellow cadets. Cost
of Living finds Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) paying
another visit to the Enterprise, where she takes Worf’s son Alexander
(Brian Bonsall) under her wing.
Disc
six contains the episodes The Perfect Mate, Imaginary
Friend, I, Borg and The Next Phase.
The Perfect Mate finds the Enterprise on a diplomatic mission
that entails transporting a beautiful metamorph to another world, where
she will serve as a peace offering to end a centuries old war. Unfortunately
for all concerned, the metamorph falls in love with Picard, who finds
it increasingly difficult to resist her. The Imaginary Friend
of a young girl on the Enterprise turns out to be not so imaginary, and
a genuine threat to everyone onboard the ship. In I, Borg
the crew rescues a lone Borg drone, but then have reservations about using
him as a weapon against The Borg, in an effort to completely obliterate
the Federation’s deadliest foe. The Next Phase finds Chief
Engineer Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) and Ensign Ro involved in a transported
accident, which leaves them out of phase with the universe and seeking
a way to contact their fellow crewmates, who believe them to be dead.
Disc
seven contains the episodes The Inner Light and Time's
Arrow. The Inner Light is another season five standout,
in which Captain Picard is attacked by a mysterious alien probe, then
awakens to find himself living another life on a long extinct alien world.
Time's Arrow is the season ending cliffhanger that opens
with the discovery of Data’s head on Earth, buried amongst artifacts dating
from the 19th century. It quickly becomes apparent to Starfleet experts
that the android officer was somehow transported into the past, where
he was destroyed. Unfortunately, the Enterprise crew soon finds themselves
investigating an alien race that has been traveling into Earth’s past,
where they have been draining the life force of the humans they encounter
there.
Paramount
Home Entertainment has made all of the episodes from STAR TREK: THE
NEXT GENERATION SEASON FIVE available on DVD in their proper full
screen aspect ratios of their original television broadcasts. I would
judge the visual quality of the season five episodes to be on par or just
slightly better than those of season four, which was quite demonstrative
of the improvements that were afforded the show as its production budgets
increased. Film segments without any special effects or other forms of
image processing look the best, since all the special effects work and
other visuals were completed on analogue video. Effects footage is slightly
weaker in appearance and displays a number of analogue video anomalies,
but is still cleaner than the work done in earlier seasons. For the most
part the image appears reasonably sharp and well define, not at the theatrical
presentation level, but certainly quite good for episodic television.
Colors are strongly rendered, without any signs of noise or smearing.
Blacks appear accurate, although contrast is a little flat, due to the
nature of cinematography for television shows. Digital compression artifacts
never are a concern, even with four episodes being encoded onto the dual
layered discs.
As
with the previous sets, all the episodes have been upgraded to Dolby Digital
5.1 channel mixes, which continues to be impressive for television fare.
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION was a well-recorded show for its
day and the television caliber surround has always managed to sound pleasing.
The 5.1 channel mixes clean up the sound and give it better defined music
and sound effects separations. Utilizing the pre-matrix sound stems results
in a sound mix that favors the forward soundstage. However, when the surrounds
do come into play they are usually very effective in conveying active
sound effects, as well as providing musical fill and engine rumble. Dialogue
is crisply rendered and always completely understandable. Fidelity is
always very good, with the both music and sound effects being rendered
distinctly and without compression. The bass channel is very solid; giving
the sound of the Enterprise’s engines a nice sense of depth. English Dolby
Surround soundtracks are also encoded onto the DVDs, as are English subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s interactive
menus, which utilize an interface reminiscent of the Enterprise’s holodeck
and computer system. Through the menus, one has access to individual episodes
and scene selection within the episodes, as well as each disc’s set up
features. The menu system on disc seven also provides access to season
five supplemental materials, which are similar to those found in the previous
box sets, but with some mild variation and one very significant addition.
Season five of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION marked the passing
of Trek creator, executive producer and great bird of the universe Gene
Roddenberry, so it should come as no surprise that this set should feature
a tribute to the man. A Tribute To Gene Roddenberry runs
twenty-nine minutes and features a number of misty-eyed interviews with
cast & crewmembers from The Next Generation.
The
other programs that comprise Mission Logs: Season Five include
Mission Overview, Memorable Missions and Departmental
Briefings: Production & Visual Effects. Mission
Overview is an eighteen-minute look at the highlights of season
five that features recent interviews with members of the cast and crew.
Memorable Missions is another eighteen-minute program that
allows cast & crewmembers to talk about their favorite season five
episodes. Departmental Briefing: Production runs fifteen
minutes offers a behind-the-scenes looks at the various aspects of producing
the season five episodes. Departmental Briefing: Visual Effects
runs seventeen minutes and offers a fascinating look at producing special
effects on a television budget. Also included in the DVD box set is a
bonus STAR TREK: NEMESIS 3 inch CD-ROM with PC extras and a theatrical
trailer for the movie.
STAR
TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION SEASON FIVE offers fans another box set
of solid, very entertaining episodes. This release looks and sounds great,
especially when one considers that the episodes were produced on a television
budget. If you are a fan, don't hesitate in picking up this terrific DVD
release from Paramount.
As
a television series, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION was on more
than solid ground by season three. Season four confirmed that the series
had found its definitive voice and allowed the writers greater flexibility
to explore the characters. With no signs of age in sight, STAR TREK:
THE NEXT GENERATION eased into season five with a great number of
superior episodes that were able to excite longtime fans of the show and
push the characters into new and interesting areas. Season five also allowed
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION to pay homage to the original series,
with a two-part story that featured a very special guest star. Continuing
to move the series out the door at warp speed, Paramount Home Entertainment
has made all twenty-six episodes of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
SEASON FIVE available on DVD in a seven disc boxed set for an approximate
retail price of $149.98.
Disc
one contains the episodes Redemption Part II, Darmok,
Ensign Ro, and Silicon Avatar. Redemption
Part II is another top-notch episode that resolves the season
four cliffhanger, in which Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) resigns his Starfleet
commission to fight in a Klingon civil war. Although the Federation will
not interfere with what they consider a Klingon internal affair, Captain
Picard (Patrick Stewart) suspects that the Romulan Empire has already
intervened in an attempt to shift the balance of power in the alpha quadrant.
Darmok is an interesting episode in which Captain Picard
is kidnapped by the captain of an alien vessel, whose language defies
translation. Ensign Ro brings a new crewmember (and reoccurring
character) to the Starship Enterprise. Ensign Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes)
is a disgraced and court-martialed junior officer who is given a second
chance in Starfleet, since she has had some association with a wanted
terrorist leader. Silicon Avatar finds android officer Lieutenant
Commander. Data (Brent Spiner) facing a scientist’s prejudice for his
brother Lore, who was responsible for a crystalline space entity killing
all of the colonists on the world where Data and Lore were both created.
Disc
two contains the episodes Disaster, The Game,
Unification Part I and Unification Part II.
Disaster is another standout season five episode, in which
the Enterprise is crippled after colliding with a space anomaly- this
leaves much of the crew isolated in various portions of the heavily damaged
Starship, while on the bridge, an ill-prepared Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina
Sirtis) finds herself in command. In The Game, Commander
Riker (Jonathan Frakes) returns from shore leave in possession of a highly
addictive game that begins to take control of the crew, which leaves the
visiting Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) as the only person able to save
his former shipmates. The original generation meets the next generation
in Unification Part I, which tells of a possible defection
by Vulcan Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) to the Romulan Empire. Unification
Part II uncovers Spock’s mission to Romulus as a bit of cowboy
diplomacy to reunite the Vulcans with their Romulan cousins, but Captain
Picard begins to suspect that Spock may be on a fool’s errand.
Disc
three contains the episodes A Matter of Time, New
Ground, Hero Worship and Violations.
A Matter of Time finds Picard and crew on a historic mission,
or at least that is what they are lead to believe, when a scientist from
the future arrives to witness their latest exploits. In New Ground,
the Enterprise is scheduled to participate in an experiment involving
a new form of Warp propulsion, while at the same time, Worf’s visiting
mother informs the Klingon officer that his son will be living with him
on board the Enterprise from now on. In Hero Worship, the
Enterprise crew rescues a young boy, who was the only survivor of an ill-fated
spacecraft; as a way of coping with his grief, the boy begins emulating
the emotionless android Data. Violations finds the Enterprise
transporting a group of telepathic aliens, who become the prime suspects
in the unexplained attacks that leave a number of crewmembers comatose.
Disc
four contains the episodes The Masterpiece Society, Conundrum,
Power Play and Ethics. The Masterpiece
Society involves the Enterprise crew in an attempt to save a group
of genetically engineered colonists from an approaching space body. Conundrum
finds the entire crew of the Enterprise suffering from amnesia and about
to go into a battle with an ill matched enemy that they don’t remember.
In Power Play Data, Troi and Cheif O'Brien (Colm Meaney)
come under alien influence and then attempt to take control of the Enterprise.
Ethics finds Worf paralyzed after a spinal cord injury and
asking Riker for his assistance to commit ritual suicide.
Disc
five contains the episodes The Outcast, Cause and
Effect, The First Duty, and Cost of Living.
In The Outcast, Riker falls in love with the member of an
androgynous society, where male/female relationships have become taboo.
Cause and Effect is another standout season five episode
in which the Enterprise is destroy during the first few minutes of the
show, only to have the process repeat time and again, with minor variations.
The First Duty has Captain Picard visiting Starfleet Academy
on Earth, where Wesley Crusher and members of his fighter squadron have
been involved in an accident that killed one of their fellow cadets. Cost
of Living finds Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) paying
another visit to the Enterprise, where she takes Worf’s son Alexander
(Brian Bonsall) under her wing.
Disc
six contains the episodes The Perfect Mate, Imaginary
Friend, I, Borg and The Next Phase.
The Perfect Mate finds the Enterprise on a diplomatic mission
that entails transporting a beautiful metamorph to another world, where
she will serve as a peace offering to end a centuries old war. Unfortunately
for all concerned, the metamorph falls in love with Picard, who finds
it increasingly difficult to resist her. The Imaginary Friend
of a young girl on the Enterprise turns out to be not so imaginary, and
a genuine threat to everyone onboard the ship. In I, Borg
the crew rescues a lone Borg drone, but then have reservations about using
him as a weapon against The Borg, in an effort to completely obliterate
the Federation’s deadliest foe. The Next Phase finds Chief
Engineer Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) and Ensign Ro involved in a transported
accident, which leaves them out of phase with the universe and seeking
a way to contact their fellow crewmates, who believe them to be dead.
Disc
seven contains the episodes The Inner Light and Time's
Arrow. The Inner Light is another season five standout,
in which Captain Picard is attacked by a mysterious alien probe, then
awakens to find himself living another life on a long extinct alien world.
Time's Arrow is the season ending cliffhanger that opens
with the discovery of Data’s head on Earth, buried amongst artifacts dating
from the 19th century. It quickly becomes apparent to Starfleet experts
that the android officer was somehow transported into the past, where
he was destroyed. Unfortunately, the Enterprise crew soon finds themselves
investigating an alien race that has been traveling into Earth’s past,
where they have been draining the life force of the humans they encounter
there.
Paramount
Home Entertainment has made all of the episodes from STAR TREK: THE
NEXT GENERATION SEASON FIVE available on DVD in their proper full
screen aspect ratios of their original television broadcasts. I would
judge the visual quality of the season five episodes to be on par or just
slightly better than those of season four, which was quite demonstrative
of the improvements that were afforded the show as its production budgets
increased. Film segments without any special effects or other forms of
image processing look the best, since all the special effects work and
other visuals were completed on analogue video. Effects footage is slightly
weaker in appearance and displays a number of analogue video anomalies,
but is still cleaner than the work done in earlier seasons. For the most
part the image appears reasonably sharp and well define, not at the theatrical
presentation level, but certainly quite good for episodic television.
Colors are strongly rendered, without any signs of noise or smearing.
Blacks appear accurate, although contrast is a little flat, due to the
nature of cinematography for television shows. Digital compression artifacts
never are a concern, even with four episodes being encoded onto the dual
layered discs.
As
with the previous sets, all the episodes have been upgraded to Dolby Digital
5.1 channel mixes, which continues to be impressive for television fare.
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION was a well-recorded show for its
day and the television caliber surround has always managed to sound pleasing.
The 5.1 channel mixes clean up the sound and give it better defined music
and sound effects separations. Utilizing the pre-matrix sound stems results
in a sound mix that favors the forward soundstage. However, when the surrounds
do come into play they are usually very effective in conveying active
sound effects, as well as providing musical fill and engine rumble. Dialogue
is crisply rendered and always completely understandable. Fidelity is
always very good, with the both music and sound effects being rendered
distinctly and without compression. The bass channel is very solid; giving
the sound of the Enterprise’s engines a nice sense of depth. English Dolby
Surround soundtracks are also encoded onto the DVDs, as are English subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s interactive
menus, which utilize an interface reminiscent of the Enterprise’s holodeck
and computer system. Through the menus, one has access to individual episodes
and scene selection within the episodes, as well as each disc’s set up
features. The menu system on disc seven also provides access to season
five supplemental materials, which are similar to those found in the previous
box sets, but with some mild variation and one very significant addition.
Season five of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION marked the passing
of Trek creator, executive producer and great bird of the universe Gene
Roddenberry, so it should come as no surprise that this set should feature
a tribute to the man. A Tribute To Gene Roddenberry runs
twenty-nine minutes and features a number of misty-eyed interviews with
cast & crewmembers from The Next Generation.
The
other programs that comprise Mission Logs: Season Five include
Mission Overview, Memorable Missions and Departmental
Briefings: Production & Visual Effects. Mission
Overview is an eighteen-minute look at the highlights of season
five that features recent interviews with members of the cast and crew.
Memorable Missions is another eighteen-minute program that
allows cast & crewmembers to talk about their favorite season five
episodes. Departmental Briefing: Production runs fifteen
minutes offers a behind-the-scenes looks at the various aspects of producing
the season five episodes. Departmental Briefing: Visual Effects
runs seventeen minutes and offers a fascinating look at producing special
effects on a television budget. Also included in the DVD box set is a
bonus STAR TREK: NEMESIS 3 inch CD-ROM with PC extras and a theatrical
trailer for the movie.
STAR
TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION SEASON FIVE offers fans another box set
of solid, very entertaining episodes. This release looks and sounds great,
especially when one considers that the episodes were produced on a television
budget. If you are a fan, don't hesitate in picking up this terrific DVD
release from Paramount.
