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Posted:
15:15:52 on May 08 2002
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: TrekWeb Features
The Adventure Continues: “Star Trek: The Next Generation” –
The Complete Second Season on DVD
Written for TrekWeb by Bill Williams, edited by Steve Krutzler
One part of my enjoyment of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was that this was a series I could truly enjoy from the start since its inception in 1987. Having been born at the time of the original series and too young to enjoy the series during the 1970’s, I could not really connect with the original “Star Trek” series, though I got into their feature film adventures. This new series, however, I connected with because of the fact that this was a “Star Trek” series for my generation of 20-somethings throughout its entire run. To this day “The Next Generation” ranks (along with “Deep Space Nine” and “Enterprise”) as my favorite “Star Trek” series.
At the time of its second season launch in 1988, “The Next Generation” had proven itself as a ratings success in syndication and paved the way for many more syndicated science fiction and adventure series that continue to this day. At the time there was no major competition to “The Next Generation” except reruns of the original “Star Trek”. But its real challenge lay not in the ratings but in the creative production of the series itself. At the time, every television series was affected by the Writers’ Guild of America strike, and this resulted in a delayed launch of TNG until November 1988. But when it premiered, I was glad that it was back. The series had a much bigger, epic feel to it that gave it a sense of grand adventure, despite its apparent cheesiness and its limited budget per episode. That didn’t matter to me, though. TNG was back, and it was back to stay.
Part of the appeal of this second season was in the growth and development of the main cast members – Geordi LaForge in engineering, Worf taking a more active role as security chief, Deanna Troi’s counseling, Riker’s beard that gave him that added dash of character, and even Wesley Crusher’s maturity - and the addition of new supporting cast members such as Dr. Katherine Pulaski, Guinan, and Chief Miles O’Brien. More importantly, I got to see the growth of more interpersonal relationships among the characters through many scenes that would become “Star Trek” staples: characters indulging in holodeck adventures for fun and relaxation, Worf’s workout training, issues of his Klingon heritage, and his relationship with the attractive and appealing K’Ehleyr, Data’s further exploration of humanity through understanding sentience and friendships, Guinan’s strength in counseling in the Ten-Forward lounge (wonderfully played with understatement by Whoopi Goldberg), the return of Q, and who can forget the weekly, often hilarious weekly poker game that would become a TNG staple (itself a nice tip of the hat to “M*A*S*H*”)? And all of the guest stars that made notable appearances in the second season: Whoopi Goldberg, Diana Muldaur, Joe Piscopo, Billy Campbell (from “The Rocketeer” and “Once and Again”), Teri Hatcher (“Lois and Clark”), Madchen Amick (“Twin Peaks”), John Tesh, Mick Fleetwood, and so many others who found later success in television and film – truly this became a “Star” Trek for the current generation. But the success of the series lay in the strength of the issues explored: birth, life, death, humanity, fear, family crises, bittersweet romance, and action that not only captivates but also hits you squarely in the face, as in “Q Who?”
Flash forward to May 2002 and the release of the complete second season of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” on DVD. Seeing this second series on DVD was like a breath of fresh air. As opposed to releasing two episodes per DVD, similar to the Columbia House Video Club and British VHS releases, Paramount wisely decided to venture into territory previously tread by “The X-Files”, “Twin Peaks”, “The Simpsons”, and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” by releasing all of the episodes of each season in boxed set editions. This was a definite improvement over the previous DVD releases of the original “Star Trek”. Since then many more series have seen DVD boxed sets of “M*A*S*H”, “All in the Family”, and “Friends”, to name a few. But unlike the other series, Paramount chose a bold marketing tactic in releasing each season of “The Next Generation” on DVD every other month, staggering its releases within a single year. And in viewing each episode of the second season, it’s like coming home to an old friend and looking back at old photographs, forever frozen perfectly in time, forever young.
The new DVD release of TNG’s second season is similar in formatting to its previous first season release, with four episodes per disc, save for the final disc with the final two episodes and the supplemental featurettes exclusive to the DVD releases. However, because of the truncated season due to the Writers’ Guild strike, this DVD box set is spread across six discs instead of seven. To me this is inconsequential, as each episode has been presented in the best format possible. Each episode is remastered in Dolby 5.1 Digital sound, and the impact of each episode comes apparent in both the larger moments of episodes such as “Q Who?” and “Time Squared” and in the more subdued moments in many of the episodes, including “Elementary Dear Data”, “The Dauphin”, “The Emissary”, and others. Each episode is also presented in their original Dolby 2.0 stereo sound. However, the prints used for this DVD release appear to be much darker than I remember viewing them, even on the Columbia House VHS releases. This is, in part, due to the darker, sometimes shadowy feeling that was evident in a number of the episodes overall throughout the season. The visual effects are on-par with what was at the time top quality visual effects produced for the late 1980’s, not as higher quality as what would later be used on “Deep Space Nine”, “Voyager”, and “Enterprise”, but quite stunning indeed. Even the effects seen in “Q Who?” look almost primitive in contrast to the visual effects seen in “Star Trek: First Contact”, but at the time they were breathtaking. Similar to the previous release, this new edition presents all of the episodes in their original broadcast order (as opposed to the production order for the episodes released on VHS), but with one exception all of the episodes presented on the DVD release simultaneously mirror their production and broadcast orders, so this is a nice little improvement. And each disc presents some really cool LCARS-style animated menus for the episode selection, scene selection, and sound and caption selection, that would fit in nicely on any Galaxy-class starship.
One major complaint I have is that both editions of TNG on DVD are presented only with English captions and subtitles. Nothing is presented for foreign viewers at all. Because this became such a successful series not only in the United States but also around the world, it would have been nice for Paramount to have included foreign language options on these DVD presentations for the benefit of viewers in foreign countries. Since both the first and second season compilations are consistent, it’s foreseeable that this will also remain consistent in future box sets.
As with the previous release, this DVD set contains several bonus featurettes that present a look at the making of “The Next Generation” from cast members and production crew. The five featurettes presented in this collection are: “Mission Overview: Year 2” (15 minutes), “Selected Crew Analysis” (14 minutes), “Departmental Briefings: Production” (17 minutes), “Departmental Briefings: Memorable Missions” (16 minutes), and “Inside Starfleet Archives” (18 minutes). Most are a mixture of scenes from each episode, behind-the-scenes production clips, photographs, storyboards, and interviews with cast and crew members conducted at different times during the series’ production, with some interviews conducted in the latter half of 2001 before and during production of “Star Trek: Nemesis”. Most of the material presented here has been recycled from various publicity interviews, press kits for the series, and for the “Star Trek Saga” and “Star Trek 25th Anniversary” documentaries, so very little that is new is offered to the really die-hard fans like me who are hungry for any new information. The featurette I enjoyed the most was “Inside Starfleet Archives”. Here, Star Trek property coordinator Penny Juday takes viewers on a tour of the various props and models used during filming of “The Next Generation”, as well as “Deep Space Nine”, “Voyager”, and the movies. To see these archives presented here, even just a brief fraction of them, is a testament to how much care and detail goes into the production of “Star Trek” as a whole, and it is wonderful to see how everything has been carefully archived at Paramount. (Pay attention to one interesting little blooper that pops up during this presentation!)
However, these are the only bonus features present. No episode preview trailers, outtakes, deleted scenes, bloopers, actor or production commentaries have been included in this second release, as in the first. This is really a shame, because as a serious fan I, like many other fans, know that there is additional material out there waiting to be seen (for example, the well-documented original ending from “Elementary Dear Data” deleted from the final episode that added another layer of subterfuge to Picard’s character which would have contributed another wonderful subtext to the sixth season episode “Ship in a Bottle” with Moriarity’s return). Why Paramount has not chosen to go with any of this bonus material is beyond me, and this is a significant loss for both DVD and TNG fans. A small compensation was made with the inclusion of the “Star Trek: TNG” Episode Guide CD-ROM with the first season DVD set with all the episode trailers in one concise presentation. In this release we are treated to the “Star Trek: TNG” Interactive Technical Manual of the Enterprise-D, and this is a really nice addition. I’m looking forward to what future CD-ROMs will be included in future releases.
Overall, I was fairly pleased with this second DVD presentation of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” with the best possible picture and sound afforded. This is one area that Paramount should continue in excelling, and they should look into providing more interactivity and bonus features for the fans in future releases of the series. Watching these episodes again brings me back to that time in my youth when anything was possible at 22, and seeing these episodes again have something that, unlike “The Next Generation”, cannot be recaptured: youth and time preserved.
