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3.0 out of 5 stars
NextGen, Year 2: pickin' up momentum, 13 May 2004
You know, it's just not fair. I plunked down just as many shekels for this NextGen box set as I did for the first one. Now that might not seem like much of a problem to most, but here's the messed-up part: this set contains only six DVDs, rather than its predecessor's total of seven . So why am I paying the same price for something that has less? Wouldn't it make more sense for me to pay six-sevenths as much? Of course, if that screenwriters' strike hadn't cut down NextGen's second-season eppie total, I wouldn't've had to worry about it in the first place......but enough griping, at least for the moment. Compared to the original series DVDs, the NextGen platters have more episodes per disc (four to Classic Trek's two), and the and the box set takes up about the same space as three standard-width snap cases. Which means the entire run of NextGen DVDs will take up about two-thirds as much space as the entire run of original series platters presently do. Of course, this makes me wonder why Paramount didn't give the classic show a similar treatment in the first place? After all, when it comes to collecting Star Trek on video, shelf space becomes an essential commodity. This is after all a franchise made up of five series, nine (soon to be ten) movies, and a cartoon show, with endless sequel & spin-off possibilities! With these facts staring a DVD-collecting UberTrekkie in the face, one can NEVER have too much shelf space, and... um... whoops, I did it again, didn't I? Sorry 'bout that. Gimme a mome to get back on track, okay? Thanks... While not particularly exceptional, NextGen's second year was a fair improvement over the first in many respects. It displayed a potential that would eventually make it a worthy successor to its 23rd-century forebear. The follicular abilities of Riker & Picard went in opposite directions as our beloved overly-dramatic-pose-prone executive officer sprouted facial hair. Worf & LaForge receive new uniforms and new duties. Also noted here is Ten-Forward and the first poker games between the members of the bridge crew. Then there was THE big shake-up: Dr. Crusher was temporarily replaced by a somewhat McCoy-ish woman who wasn't too keen on the notion that Data might actually be more than a mere machine. Sadly, Dr. Crusher neglected to take her son Wussley-- whoops, I mean Wesley with her, much to the chagrin of most NextGen trekkies outside of the adolescent female demographic. A few of the show's high points in Year Two: Being a big fan of the Borg, I consider 'Q-Who' to be the best moment of the second season. In this show, Q introduces our star-hopping protagonists to the Borg-- and the rest is history. 'The Measure of a Man' is probably one of the best Data-showcase eppies ever made. In fact, a good portion of the second season was dedicated to the further character development of Starfleet's most valuable android: There's 'Elementary Dear Data', as he plays the part of Sherlock Holmes tracking down a self-aware holodeck creation of Prof. Moriarty. I found it to be a better-than average entry in the show's run of 'Holodeck Malfunction' eppies. In 'The Schizoid Man', Data's taken over by the consciousness of a dying cyberneticist. 'Pen Pals' has our beloved android making covert contact with an alien child on a dying world. Riker also gets some development in 'A Matter of Honor' and 'The Icarus Factor', both of which have a bit more action than the average NextGen eppie. Then of course there's the shows I'll likely skip past when I host my next NextGen marathon:
Being a Wesley Crusher anti-fan (as any self-respecting NextGen Trekkie should be), viewing his first crush with a young lady who can morph into a weird furry wookiee-thing in 'The Dauphin' was almost unbearable. And although 'The Royale' is kinda fun to watch in a cheeseball way, it's definitely not one of the series' more able entries. To top things off, they saved the worst for last: the season finale 'Shades of Grey'. I prefer to call it 'Riker's Greatest Hits', since about half of the footage for this show was culled from the first two seasons, all of it featuring our beloved Number One's greatest moments of both blissful pleasure and hellish torture from the show's first two years. As I expected, the sound quality of each episode is really good, far better than their preceding VHS presentations. The subtle background sounds are more perceptible. The picture quality, however, is not as consistently good as that of the First Season set. There are a few parts here and there that look a bit grainy. Of course, this may be due more to the quality of the source film than the digital transfer, but I couldn't tell you for sure one way or the other. The extra features include several documentary featurettes, which cover pretty much what you'd expect from TV docs: behind-the-scenes looks, memories of the show's second year from both cast and crew, and other info. If nothing else, these featurettes are a good way to prep you for that trivia contest they'll be holding at the next convention that blows into town! I found the doc about the Star Trek archives- a vast collection of props, models, backdrops, and set pieces from all the shows and films- to be the most interesting of the lot. And now, my biggest gripe about this set: Paramount decided to make the foldout disc holder out of cardboard, which means you'd better expect this storage unit to disintegrate faster than a Romulan hit by a full-power phaser beam after several NextGen marathons. Well, unless you have some duct tape ready that is. 'Late
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