6th Season holds up well, 28 Dec 2002

By	Wayne Klein "If at first the idea is not absu... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews

Ship in a Bottle returns the AI endowed Moriarty from season two. He returns when a glitch in the holodeck Holmes program is being repaired by Barclay. It's a marvelous episode that, again, does what Trek always did best. The idea (unlike some of the sixth season episodes)is well developed and directed well. The performances are all outstanding. The conclusion may be a bit pat but it's quite imaginative and concludes a brief but interesting story telling arc.

The transfers are beautiful although the image is occasionally soft on a couple of episodes. There aren't any noticable analog artifacts nor are there some of the compression problems apparent on some of the earlier sets. The early CGI imagery is more apparent due to the high quality DVD transfer (and particularly on a big screen television). It's not a problem but it does date the series a bit. Nevertheless, the effects work is, on the whole, outstanding.

The remixed 5.1 dolby digital sound is terrific. There's considerable improvement over the previous stereo surround version that appeared on the video cassettes. The extras are quite nice as well. There's an indepth look at Data's character and discussion of Patrick Stewart's terrific performance in Chain of Command. Also, some of the more challenging optical effects and character developments that occurred during the season are explored indepth.

Although the sixth season doesn't have quite the bite or power of seasons four and five, it more than holds it's own. While it's clear that Deep Space Nine had an impact on the Trek creative team, there were enough fresh performances and innovative scripts to keep the series in good shape. The only disappointment is that the episode featuring Q is fairly weak although the two part conclusion during season seven more than makes up for that problem.

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