Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season One OUT NOW
Cast:
Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes as Commander William T. Riker
LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge
Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data
Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf
Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher
Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher
Award Winning
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season One is now available to buy on Blu-ray from Paramount Home Entertainment and CBS Home Entertainment. The Blu-ray features all 22 episodes from Season One including the first ever pilot episode. Star Trek: The Next Generation was an award-winning series and looks amazing after being transferred to true high-definition 1080p.
One of the most popular series in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: The Next Generation® celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2012. It premiered in first-run syndication during the week of September 28, 1987 and ran through 1994. All 178 episodes from seven seasons will be transferred to true high-definition 1080p for release over the next two years on Blu-ray.
A look at the storylines and action
There are perhaps far too many episodes to review individually and this review would be many thousands of words long if I did! Most people reading this review will have watched the show on TV, bought it on VHS, replaced them on DVD and will now have to replace them once again on blu-ray. So you probably know the episodes inside out. Of course if you are a newcomer to the show – you’re in for a real sci-fi treat!
But I can tell you that without any doubt that replacing your VHS or DVDs on Blu-ray is well worth it! I’ll give you a few insights into the first season here.
Several of the first half dozen episodes seem to deal with the young Wesley Crusher as he flexes his agile, young mind to figure out problems and save the Enterprise a number of times from various internal and external threats. There is little doubt that he's an annoying little oik. But that said he is right more often than not. His character is also a great way to get teenagers interested in the show – offering them someone to relate to and look up to.
Data, the android, had a quiet season, even more so Worf, the Klingon, as if the writers hadn't yet seen the true potential of the characters or how loved they would become in later seasons and in the hearts of fans. Worf – perhaps the most of any of the Next Generation characters as the only character (apart from Chief O’Brien) to make a truly successful transition into another incarnation of Star Trek moving of course as he did into Deep Space Nine. Worf begins as a Lieutenant - Junior Grade as does La Forge as Helmsmen before they are promoted in later seasons to become Lieutenant, Security & Weapons and Chief Engineer respectively.
Several of the opening episodes at least those not featuring John De Lancie as Q are fairly slowly paced until towards the end of the season things heat up significantly with some bigger action packed episodes, but that’s not to say that the stories are slow or dull, they all have their own individual merits.
One if the finest episodes of the first season of course is Skin Of Evil in which Security Lieutenant Tasha Yar dies. Even back in 1989 seeing this episode for the first time it felt strange to see a character we had quickly come to know and love die such a senseless death, especially considering her role as a Security Officer – as her death is pointless and hardly the death for a warrior – she is hit by an energy blast from a malevolent black tar-like monster and has no chance even to 'go out fighting' as would have been befitting of her character. Crosby says in the extra features that she decided to leave the show but had loved working on it. What else she went onto do I’m not quite sure but she did appear in later seasons as a different character. Her performance as Yar however was her most interesting character and it was a real shame to see her exit the series. Of course it cleared the way for Worf to be promoted to Security Chief & Weapons Officer.
Patrick Stewart is of course the standout performer of the show across all of the seasons. He's simply perfect as Captain Jean Luc Picard. An experienced Shakespearian actor as the Captain of a Starship flying through space solving intergalactic disputes fighting alien races with weird names such as the Romulans and the new alien race - the Ferengi, it's crazy but Stewart pulls it off expertly. He is the perfect Captain, intelligent, strong, disciplined and an excellent negotiator and ambassador for the Federation. Quite the opposite to his Executive Officer – Number One – William T Riker who is quite often bloody useless and arrogant.
Restoration Work
As with the excellent work done on the blu-ray release of Star Trek: The Original Series, the restoration work done here on The Next Generation is excellent. Once again the shows have been entirely digitally re-mastered with the original camera negatives that were originally shot being used. Imperfections such as dirt, tears, scratches and stains have been removed and the contrast and colour have also been hugely enhanced.
I’d been watching The Next Generation on TV several months ago and the image was pretty bad. Grain and scratches being the worst offenders, disturbing the viewing process, as your eyes tend to focus on the imperfections instead of the action. With these imperfections obliterated we can now focus fully on the show and enjoy it.
So have the producers invented new exterior CGI effects shots as they did with the Original Series? No they haven’t perhaps because there are seven full seasons of The Next Generation and perhaps that constituted too large of a job, perhaps simply because once cleaned up the effects shots looked OK. With this series being filmed in the 80s and 90s as opposed to the late 60s many of the special effects shots still look passable, not like the original shots from the original series that really did need to be replaced. So here we have it then, The Next Generation cleaned up very nicely, looking super sharp and super crisp in full 1080p also with newly mixed sound.
Awards
Star Trek: The Next Generation® won numerous accolades, including 18 Emmy® awards, and was the first – and only – syndicated television show to be nominated for the Emmy® for Outstanding Drama Series for its seventh season. It was also ranked #46 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time list in 2002.
Eagerly Awaiting More Star Trek
I’ll be very eagerly awaiting the release of the whole seven seasons and will hopefully be able to bring you reports on them all here. I have a great deal of affection for Star Trek and to see them all presented in High Definition is a real and genuine treat.
