Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek The Next Generation - The Complete First Season

Warping into syndication in 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation successfully launched its seven-season "continuing mission" of the starship Enterprise, and this classy DVD boxed set gathers the show's inaugural season in crisp picture clarity and dazzling 5.1-channel sound. A ratings leader with a sharp ensemble cast, this revamped Trek honored series creator Gene Roddenberry's original Trek concept, nurtured by returning veterans like producer Robert H. Justman and writers D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold. Several first-season episodes have original-series counterparts, and while the season was awkwardly inconsistent for all involved (including Roddenberry's heir apparent, producer Rick Berman), in retrospect the series began on remarkably solid footing.

Patrick Stewart was perfect as Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard, while Marina Sirtis struggled with a wretched hair bun and an ill-defined character, eventually blessing Counselor Troi with delicate nuance. Denise Crosby made a strong but underutilized impression as Security Chief Tasha Yar, and left the series before season's end, allowing writers to develop Klingon Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn) into a fan favorite. Brent Spiner transcended Spock comparisons with his triumphant portrayal of the android Lieutenant Commander Data; and while Jonathan Frakes was accepted as First Officer Will Riker, fans ultimately rejected Wil Wheaton as ensign Wesley Crusher, the teenaged son of the ship's doctor (Gates McFadden). Still, these 25 episodes laid a firm foundation for subsequent seasons, and highlights include the Raymond Chandleresque "holo- novel" of "The Big Goodbye," Data's backstory in "Datalore," the Klingon rituals of "Heart of Glory," and a Romulan encounter in "The Neutral Zone." The DVD supplements (all on the seventh disc) are good enough to make anyone wish for more: four featurettes recall myriad first-season challenges, filled with insider perspective and enough NextGen trivia to satiate all but the most obsessive Trekkers back on Earth. Looking back, it's easy to see why NextGen lived long and prospered. --Jeff Shannon

25 episodes on 7 discs: Encounter at Farpoint, The Naked Now, Code of Honor, The Last Outpost, Where No One Has Gone Before, Lonely Among Us, Justice, The Battle, Hide and Q, Haven, The Big Goodbye, Datalore, Angel One, 11001001, Too Short a Season, When the Bough Breaks, Home Soil, Coming of Age, Heart of Glory, The Arsenal of Freedom, Symbiosis, Skin of Evil, We'll Always Have Paris, Conspiracy, The Neutral Zone. Four new exclusive featurettes: "The Beginning" (the genesis of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Gene Roddenberry's vision), "Selected Crew Analysis" (first-season cast members discuss their roles), "Making of a Legend" (first-season production staff reminisce about their favorite episodes), "Memorable Missions" (cast and crew discuss key episodes and events of the first season).

Star Trek The Next Generation - The Complete Sixth Season

As the sixth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation went into production, everyone knew that attentions would soon be permanently divided by the debut of Deep Space Nine. Sure enough, that meant crossovers ("Birthright"), guest stars, and references back and forth. The sense of baton-passing drew the TNG family closer, however. Directorial debuts begun in season 5 allowed for repeat group-huddle ownership of several shows. Jonathan Frakes bettered "The Quality of Life" by "The Chase," which finally offered an explanation why most races in the Trek universe are humanoid with knobbly foreheads. Patrick Stewart crowbarred a Western into the franchise in "A Fistful of Datas." LeVar Burton introduced the far more exciting Riker clone Thomas in "Second Chances." But here we still find an inability to follow through a good idea, since it was intended for the clone Tom to replace the real Will. Barclay outstayed his welcome with a lackluster "Ship in a Bottle" (despite a hammy cameo from Stephanie Beacham) after he'd injected creepiness into "Realm of Fear." The same happened with Q and the painfully weak "True Q" contrasted by the philosophically challenging "Tapestry," in which Picard faced the decisions of his youth.

Yet ultimately the year provided more memorable moments than either year 5 did or year 7 would. There was the fun of a pint-sized Starfleet in "Rascals," the shocking comment on political torture in "Chain of Command," the endless Matrix-like guessing game of reality in "Frame of Mind," and even a jokey genre nod often called "Die Hard Picard" instead of its official title, "Starship Mine." The two biggest attention-drawing moments came via stellar cameos. There was the bittersweet sight of James Doohan revisiting the original Enterprise bridge on "Relics," then a quick contribution by Stephen Hawking in the cliffhanger "Descent." Both were attempts at keeping TNG the connoisseur's Trek incarnation of choice. --Paul Tonks

26 episodes on 7 discs: Time's Arrow Part II, Realm of Fear, Man of the People, Relics, Schisms, True-Q, Rascals, A Fistful of Datas, The Quality of Life, Chain of Command Part I, Chain of Command Part II, Ship in a Bottle, Aquiel, Face of the Enemy, Tapestry, Birthright Part I, Birthright Part II, Starship Mine, Lessons, The Chase, Frame of Mind, Suspicions, Rightful Heir, Second Chances, Timescape, Descent Part I.

Star Trek The Next Generation - The Complete Fourth Season

7-Disc Set Features Over 21 Hours of EntertainmentOver One Hour of Brand-new Featurettes:Mission Overview: Year Four-reveals the challenges in resolving the cliffhanger episode "The Best of Both Worlds"; provides a whimsical look at the Robin Hood-themed "Q-Pid"; and celebrates the historic 100th episode with Gene Roddenberry.Selected Crew Analysis: Year Four-an in-depth look at the departure of Wesley Crusher; cast memebers discuss their experiences performing stunts; and a profile of Jennifer Hetrick as "Vash".Departmental Briefing - Year Four: Production-a behind-the-scenes look at directors Patrick Stewart Jonathan Frakes and David Livingston. Includes a special makeup section featuring Brent Spiner.New Life And New Civilizations-an inside look at creating alien landscapes and shooting on location. Also explains the challenges of shooting the effects-packed episode "The Best of Both Worlds."Chronicles From The Final Frontier-a discussion of Season Four's most extraordinary episodes and characters with preeminent writers Ronald D. Moore Brannon Braga and Jeri Taylor.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating:  UPC: 097360813340 Manufacturer No: 081334

Season 4 of Star Trek: The Next Generation seemed like the year of family. After quickly resolving the breathtaking cliffhanger of "The Best of Both Worlds," the show took pains to show some of what the Federation was fighting for. We meet Picard's brother, Data's father, Tasha's sister, and Worf's adoptive human parents, plus an old flame with a surprise son in tow. The Klingon heritage subplot that begins here and builds to the cliffhanger finale ("Redemption") would continue to the show's end and through into Worf's reappearance in Deep Space Nine.

The year also explored the implications of Data, Lwaxana Troi, Geordi, and Dr. Crusher being in love, while Miles O'Brien (given a first name at last) married Keiko. There were old friends revisited: the ubiquitous Q in a hilarious Robin Hood romp ("Qpid"), perennial screwup Reg Barclay ("Nth Degree"), and even the mysterious Traveler from season 1's "Where No One Has Gone Before" (played by Eric Menyuk, who was nearly cast as Data). There were new races introduced who would have an important bearing on Trek's destiny: the Cardassians and the Trill. Most of all, though, there were the one-off stories that impressed: "Clues," with its memory-loss mystery; "Night Terrors," with some genuine frights; and "Identity Crisis," with possibly the only time Trek technology really helped Geordi solve a puzzle. Then right at the end, reinforcing the year's familial theme, Denise Crosby returned as her own half-Romulan daughter! --Paul Tonks

Star Trek The Next Generation - The Complete Second Season

To the delight of Star Trek fans everywhere, the stellar second season of The Next Generation (1988-89) belonged to Lieutenant Commander Data. As the Enterprise-D's resident android, Data (in the Emmy-worthy hands of Brent Spiner) would gain legal sentience in the season highlight "The Measure of a Man," and his increasingly "human" personality would refine itself in such diverse episodes as "Elementary, Dear Data" (Data as Sherlock Holmes), "The Outrageous Okona" (a misfire, but worthy from the Data perspective), and "Pen Pals." While Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) took a sabbatical of then-unknown duration (gracefully replaced by original Trek guest star Diana Muldaur as Dr. Pulaski), the remaining bridge crew would match Data's vitality: Riker grew a handsome beard and proved his command potential; Worf became richly nuanced in "The Icarus Factor," and met his match (and mate) in guest Suzie Plakson's fiercely Klingon sexpot K'Ehleyr; Wesley matured admirably, despite continuing fan disapproval; Betazed culture emerged as Troi locked horns with her eccentric mother, Lwaxana (Majel Barrett, in a recurring role); and La Forge made good on his promotion to chief engineer while Chief O'Brien (Colm Meaney) flawlessly rode on Geordi's coattails.

In a crucial series development, Guinan (special guest Whoopi Goldberg) revealed a connection to Q in her helpful capacity as Ten-Forward's enigmatic host, while Q himself (John DeLancie) precipitated the Enterprise's first, fateful encounter with the Borg (in the suspenseful "Q Who?"). Through it all, Patrick Stewart brilliantly intensified all of Picard's renaissance qualities (especially in the dazzling "Time Squared"), exploring the captain's facets with equal measures of curiosity, fascination, amusement, courage, and philosophical insight. Despite its lame finale with the money-saving clip-show "Shades of Gray," season 2 charted a warp-nine course to the even better season 3. --Jeff Shannon

22 episodes on 6 discs: The Child, Where Silence Has Lease, Elementary Dear Data, The Outrageous Okona, Loud as a Whisper, The Schizoid Man, Unnatural Selection, A Matter of Honor, The Measure of a Man, The Dauphin, Contagion, The Royale, Time Squared, The Icarus Factor, Pen Pals, Q Who?, Samaritan Snare, Up the Long Ladder, Manhunt, The Emissary, Peak Performance, Shades of Gray.

Star Trek The Next Generation - The Complete Seventh Season

The seventh and final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation will always remain a curiosity in TV sci-fi history. Despite the end being definite, despite Deep Space Nine taking over, despite knowing there'd be a movie six months after the series' end, and despite Babylon 5 starting that year with its predetermined story arc, there is nothing here to suggest things were coming to a close. Wesley finally gets dispatched ("Journey's End"), but everyone was waiting for that anyway. Some continuity was attempted: there's a sequel to season 1's "The Battle" ("Bloodlines"), Alexander follows the Klingon soap saga through ("Firstborn"), the Maquis and the Cardassians are mentioned several times, and there are final installments for Lwaxana Troi, Barclay, Lore, Guinan, and Ro Laren. None of this brings any form of resolution, however.

The one-off story lines seem to throw out ideas that beg for development. "Force of Nature" suggests frequent high-warp travel is damaging the very fabric of space/time. "Parallels" has Worf experiencing multiple realities, including one in which the Borg won at Wolf 359. "Lower Decks" finally introduces some secondary crew from the more than a thousand supposedly supporting Picard and company. There are even hints at some romance at long last between Dr. Crusher and Picard as well as Worf and Troi. In the long run, even after terrific guest spots from Trek alumni Armin Shimerman and Robin Curtis, and from Paul Sorvino and Kirsten Dunst, there's one thing for which the final year is remembered: "All Good Things..." is a near-perfect denouement for the show. With terrific production values and FX, not to mention standout performances from all concerned, it was an amazing surprise to have Q suggest there'd been a story arc right from the get-go. If only this final script had been fully conceived earlier on, The Next Generation might not have been overshadowed by the glut of TV sci-fi that followed in its wake. --Paul Tonks

26 episodes on 7 discs: Descent Part II, Liaisons, Interface, Gambit Part I, Gambit Part II, Phantasms, Dark Page, Attached, Force of Nature, Inheritance, Parallels, The Pegasus, Homeward, Sub Rosa, Lower Decks, Thine Own Self, Masks, Eye of the Beholder, Genesis, Journey's End, Firstborn, Bloodlines, Emergence, Preemptive Strike, All Good Things... Part I, All Good Things... Part II.

Star Trek The Next Generation - The Complete Fifth Season

The fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation saw some of the very best of all 178 shows. "Darmok" had the feel of a "classic Trek" episode, dealing with language as metaphor. "The First Duty" challenged Wesley Crusher's loyalties. The season closer "Time's Arrow" (which concluded in year 6) ranks as one of the best TNG cliffhangers, and treats fans to canon-changing story lines and tons of in-jokes. Best of all was the painfully melancholy "The Inner Light," in which Picard experiences an alternate lifetime. There were great guest stars--Paul Winfield ("Darmok"), Ashley Judd ("The Game"), Kelsey Grammar ("Cause and Effect"), Famke Janssen ("The Perfect Mate"), and Jerry Hardin ("Time's Arrow")--and as always there were contributions from Q, Lwaxana, and Barclay, too.

After the confidence of the previous two years, however, year 5 often disappointed by not seeing a good idea through to the end. Denise Crosby was swept back under the carpet in the Klingon soap opener ("Redemption, Part II"). No one could make the prospect of Deep Space 9 attractive enough to Michelle Forbes, so her fantastic performance as Ensign Ro seems wasted in retrospect. And no one could reschedule Robin Williams to guest star, so we had Matt Frewer instead ("A Matter of Time"). Of all stories to use Leonard Nimoy in, "Unification" wallowed in Romulan politics instead of anything emotionally engaging. Gene Roddenberry wanted to introduce a gay character, but mere months after his death all we got was the trite "The Outcast." This was inarguably where the series weakened, without the Great Bird overseeing what was going on. Worst of all, his hard-as-nails bad guys the Borg were given a touchy-feely side in "I, Borg." Fans and critics now appreciate that the behind-the-scenes focus had shifted from The Next Generation to the next spinoff, and it would never fully return.

26 episodes on 7 discs: Redemption Part II, Darmok, Ensign Ro, Silicon Avatar, Disaster, The Game, Unification Part I, Unification Part II, A Matter of Time, New Ground, Hero Worship, Violations, The Masterpiece Society, Conundrum, Power Play, Ethics, The Outcast, Cause and Effect, The First Duty, Cost of Living, The Perfect Mate, Imaginary Friend, I, Borg, The Next Phase, The Inner Light, Time's Arrow Part I.

Star Trek The Next Generation - The Complete Third Season

Star Trek: The Next Generation's third year was an important development in syndicated television. After two shaky years, Paramount nonetheless decided the franchise still had plenty to do. Their confidence was bolstered by two significant factors. First, cast uncertainties were finally settled: Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) was back for good; Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar) regretted her first-year departure, and so contrived a return in the Emmy Award-winning "Yesterday's Enterprise"; and Whoopi Goldberg happily continued her actor's-scale contributions.

Second, after the show had survived the previous year's writers' strike, new writing blood revitalized both characters and ideas: Data experienced fatherhood ("The Offspring"), Worf's Klingon heritage kick-started a huge story arc ("Sins of the Father"), and Picard got a saucy vacation ("Captain's Holiday"). There were memorable star cameos: John de Lancie played more mischief alongside Corbin Bernsen ("Déjà Q"); Dwight Schultz played truant in a gentle warning about addiction ("Hollow Pursuits"); and pleasing fans even more was Mark Lenard as Spock's dad ("Sarek"). The strongest evidence that TNG would continue for some time was the trend-setting cliffhanger finale. Fans and critics still agree that "The Best of Both Worlds" (properly introducing the Borg) was one of the greatest tricks ever pulled on TV to make audiences come back for more. --Paul Tonks

26 episodes on 7 discs: Evolution, The Ensigns of Command, The Survivors, Who Watches the Watchers, The Bonding, Booby Trap, The Enemy, The Price, The Vengeance Factor, The Defector, The Hunted, The High Ground, Deja Q, A Matter of Perspective, Yesterday's Enterprise, The Offspring, Sins of the Father, Allegiance, Captain's Holiday, Tin Man, Hollow Pursuits, The Most Toys, Sarek, Menage a Troi, Transfigurations, The Best of Both Worlds Part 1.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Complete Series

Nearly two decades after the cancellation of the original STAR TREK television series creator Gene Roddenberry launched the first of what was to be four phenomenally successful spinoffs with STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. Set in the 24th century (nearly 100 years after the stewardship of Captain Kirk) the series introduced an all-new cast of intergalactic travellers exploring the farthest reaches out of outer space on a mission to chart new planets and alien civilizations. Ship commander Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) anchored the crew of the Starship Enterprise-D with a sensitive reserve that marked a distinct contrast to his trigger-happy predecessor whose role was assumed by the Kirk-like second-in-command William Riker (Jonathan Frakes). Rounding out the cast were the Spock-like android Data (Brent Spiner); blind officer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton); Klingon officer Worf (Michael Dorn); ship doctor Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden); her teenage son Wesley (Wil Wheaton); and psychic psychiatrist Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis). THE NEXT GENERATION was considered one of the best STAR TREK spinoffs for its intelligent writing and superb sci-fi special effects. This collection presents the series in its entirety.System Requirements:TRT: 7722 mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097361311746 Manufacturer No: 131174

After Star Wars and the successful big-screen Star Trek adventures, it's perhaps not so surprising that Gene Roddenberry managed to convince purse string-wielding studio heads in the 1980s that a Next Generation would be both possible and profitable. But the political climate had changed considerably since the 1960s, the Cold War had wound down, and we were now living in the Age of Greed. To be successful a second time, Star Trek had to change too.

A writer's guide was composed with which to sell and define where the Trek universe was in the 24th Century. The United Federation of Planets was a more appealing ideology to an America keen to see where the Reagan/Gorbachev faceoff was taking them. Starfleet's meritocratic philosophy had always embraced all races and species. Now Earth's utopian history, featuring the abolishment of poverty, was brandished prominently and proudly. The new Enterprise, NCC 1701-D, was no longer a ship of war but an exploration vessel carrying families. The ethical and ethnical flagship also carried a former enemy (the Klingon Worf, played by Michael Dorn), and its Chief Engineer (Geordi LaForge) was blind and black. From every politically correct viewpoint, Paramount executives thought the future looked just swell!

Roddenberry's feminism now contrasted a pilot episode featuring ship's Counsellor Troi (Marina Sirtis) in a mini-skirt with her ongoing inner strengths and also those of Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) and the short-lived Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby). The arrival of Whoopi Goldberg in season 2 as mystic barkeep Guinan is a great example of the good the original Trek did for racial groups--Goldberg has stated that she was inspired to become an actress in large part through seeing Nichelle Nichols' Uhura. Her credibility as an actress helped enormously alongside the strong central performances of Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (First Officer Will Riker), and Brent Spiner (Data) in defining another wholly believable environment once again populated with well-defined characters. Star Trek, it turned out, did not depend for its success on any single group of actors.

Like its predecessor in the 1960s, TNG pioneered visual effects on TV, making it an increasingly jaw-dropping show to look at. And thanks also to the enduring success of the original show, phasers, tricorders, communicators and even phase inverters were already familiar to most viewers. But while technology was a useful tool in most crises, it now frequently seemed to be the cause of them too, as the show's writers continually warned about the dangers of over-reliance on technology (the Borg were the ultimate expression of this maxim). The word "technobabble" came to describe a weakness in many TNG scripts, which sacrificed the social and political allegories of the original and relied instead upon invented technological faults and their equally fictitious resolutions to provide drama within the Enterprise's self-contained society. (The holodeck's safety protocol override seemed to be next to the light switch given the number of times crew members were trapped within.) This emphasis on scientific jargon appealed strongly to an audience who were growing up for the first time in the late 1980s with the home computer--and gave rise to the clichéd image of the nerdy Trek fan.

Like in the original Trek, it was in the stories themselves that much of the show's success is to be found. That pesky Prime Directive kept moral dilemmas afloat ("Justice"/"Who Watches the Watchers?"/"First Contact"). More "what if" scenarios came out of time-travel episodes ("Cause and Effect"/"Time's Arrow"/"Yesterday's Enterprise"). And there were some episodes that touched on the political world, such as "The Arsenal of Freedom" questioning the supply of arms, "Chain of Command" decrying the torture of political prisoners and "The Defector", which was called "The Cuban Missile Crisis of The Neutral Zone" by its writer. The show ran for more than twice as many episodes as its progenitor and therefore had more time to explore wider ranging issues. But the choice of issues illustrates the change in the social climate that had occurred with the passing of a couple of decades. "Angel One" covered sexism; "The Outcast" was about homosexuality; "Symbiosis"--drug addiction; "The High Ground"--terrorism; "Ethics"--euthanasia; "Darmok"--language barriers; and "Journey's End"--displacement of Indians from their homeland. It would have been unthinkable for the original series to have tackled most of these.

TNG could so easily have been a failure, but it wasn't. It survived a writer's strike in its second year, the tragic death of Roddenberry just after Trek's 25th anniversary in 1991, and plenty of competition from would-be rival franchises. Yes, its maintenance of an optimistic future was appealing, but the strong stories and readily identifiable characters ensured the viewers' continuing loyalty. --Paul Tonks

Star Trek Fan Collective - Borg

While hardcore Trekkers may not find a lot of new material in Star Trek Collective: Borg, newcomers experiencing 16 action-packed, fan-selected episodes of the Federation's greatest villains may have to prepare to be assimilated. All the episodes have been previously released on DVD, but there are new text commentaries on three of the episodes, and the per-disc price is significantly less expensive than the full-season Trek sets. It's a great entry point for novices, or for budget-minded fans.

The episodes are presented in Stardate order, which means starting with Enterprise, the latest series but also the earliest in chronological order. In "Regeneration," an exploration team finds a pair of apparently dead humanoid-mechanical hybrids that turn out to be members of the Borg, a nearly invincible race whose simple goal is to absorb--"assimilate"--every individual organism it encounters into its collective being. Because the Borg has the ability to adapt itself to resist any threat, resistance is futile. Shift ahead to The Next Generation and a visit by the quirky god Q turns out to have deadly implications when, in a pouty mood, he throws the Enterprise into their first encounter with the Borg. That's followed by the classic two-part cliffhanger (bridging seasons 3 and 4) "The Best of Both Worlds," in which Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is assimilated into the Borg and a frustrated Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) has to make a fateful decision. "I, Borg" attempts to give the Borg a humanized aspect, and the two-parter "Descent" has some interesting developments for Data (Brent Spiner). Skip Deep Space Nine in favor of Voyager, the series in which Captain Janeway's (Kate Mulgrew) ship is stranded far from home in the Delta Quadrant. That happens to be home turf for the Borg, so they had a number of run-ins. The first two-parter (which bridged seasons 3 and 4) is "Scorpion," which introduces the Borg's nemesis, Species 8472. By the time of "Drone," the ship had its first Borg crew member, the sexy Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), but her loyalties are tempted by the Borg Queen (Susanna Thompson) in the double-length "Dark Frontier." In the "Unimatrix Zero" two-parter, which bridged seasons 6 and 7, Seven discovers an idyllic haven for members of the Collective that the Queen is determined to find and destroy. That eventually leads to an ultimate confrontation with the Queen (now played by Alice Krige, repeating her role from Star Trek: First Contact) in the series finale, "Endgame." --David Horiuchi

The Borg Fan Collection has the top ten most popular Borg episodes as picked by the fans! Witness all the characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Enterprise and Voyager as they defend their ships, galaxies, and their own kind. For thousands of years the Borg have been spreading throughout the galaxy, conquering, assimilating and thus destroying countless civilizations. Following every encounter, the Borg catalogue each new species with a numerical designation instead of a proper name. The goal of the Borg, in most cases, is to completely assimilate each species by incorporating their knowledge and technology into the unified Borg Collective. One by one, each living being is converted into Borg Drones. In many cases, all that remains of an assimilated civilization is the memory of its unique contributions that now resides only within the accumulated knowledge of the Borg. That and the numerical species designation. Often even the name is lost, forgotten or deleted as irrelevant. Conversely, the species designations give a sense of the long and terrible history of the Borg and the thousands of species they have encountered and absorbed.

Star Trek Fan Collective - Time Travel

Boldly go where no "Star Trek" collection has gone before with this four-disc boxed set including 10 of the most popular time-travel episodes from the original "Trek" series "Star Trek The Next Generation" "Star Trek Deep Space Nine" and "Star Trek Voyager" as decided by die-hard Trekkers.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: NR UPC: 097360375244 Manufacturer No: 037524

If you want just one Star Trek DVD set in your collection, Star Trek Fan Collective: Time Travel may be it. Of the 15 time-bending episodes on the affordably priced four-disc set, two are perhaps the most acclaimed in franchise history: the Original Series' "The City on the Edge of Forever" (written by sci-fi giant Harlan Ellison) and Deep Space Nine' s "Trials and Tribble-ations" (in which the DS9 crew is cleverly edited into the original crew's "The Troubles with Tribbles" episode). The other selections are the Original Series' "Tomorrow Is Yesterday"; The Next Generation's "Yesterday's Enterprise," "Cause and Effect," the two-part "Time's Arrow," and the series finale "All Good Things..."; DS9's "Little Green Men"; and Voyager's two-part "Year of Hell" and series finale "Endgame."

One could quibble with the episode selection. Because the Fan Collectives were compiled by vote from fans, Voyager's series finale "Endgame" was included even though it was also on Fan Collective: Borg. It would have been nice to remove that duplicate and substitute the acclaimed DS9 two-parter "Past Tense," which would have been a better representation of that series than "Little Green Men" (in which the Ferengi travel to Roswell) and "Tribble-ations," both of which are deserving selections but considerably lighter in tone than the series as a whole. Also, Enterprise isn't represented at all. The only bonus features are new text commentaries on three episodes by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda. --David Horiuchi