The sophomore season of any series can be a trying time. But for Star Trek: The Next Generation, its second year couldn't have started out worse: The year was 1988, and the Writers' Guild was on strike. The strike delayed the start of the season, and affected the scripts and future story development for series like Star Trek, which was just trying to find its sea legs after an uneven�at best�first year out of the gate.That production snafu is the only explanation for "The Child," one of the most lackluster season premieres on record. "The Child"�in which Counselor Troi wakes up to find herself with child, a child who turns out to be an alien entity�gave Marina Sirtis a chance to explore her character's emotions, but it did little else to advance the mission of the
Enterprise and its crew. (Although it did help introduce Diana Muldaur, who replaced Gates McFadden as the ship's doctor, and infused the doctor with a crotchety, stubborn dimension very reminiscent of classic
Trek's Bones McCoy.)
Fortunately, the quality of season two progressed more soundly, if not perfectly, from there. Season two does not represent
Next Gen�s best foot forward; however, unlike
season one, both feet were at least moving in the same direction. And as the year passed, the cohesive voice that would ultimately distinctly define
Next Gen became more and more evident.
This is the year that delivered some of the series� more memorable episodes: "The Measure of a Man," "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Time Squared." It was a year of particular evolution for Data: His status as android, and a sentient being, is put before the courts in "Measure," and his hobby of exploring Sherlock Holmes adventures on the holodeck takes an unexpected turn when he must match wits with Moriarty in "Elementary."
But for as many intriguing episodes as there are, there are some ringers scattered throughout this season�foremost being the Riker-in-jeopardy clip-fest "Shades of Gray"�arguably the weakest episode, let alone season finale, in all seven years of the series.
Old friends remember the future The six-disc boxed set has an aesthetic design; however, like its predecessor, it's a little tough to extract the fold-out enclosure containing the discs from the box it sits in. The design aesthetics carry over to the inside of the discs, where you'll find clever menus fashioned after the LCARS interface used on
TNG's computer displays.
There are five behind-the-scenes featurettes (all between 15 and 20 minutes long) on the sixth disc�none of them will blow you away with its content or new revelations. Kudos to Paramount for adding date stamps to the interviews with the actors and production crew; this subtle addition makes viewing the interviews more enjoyable, since you know which comments are contemporary to the year the show was shot ... and which were done as recently as last November.
However, the featurettes' content could be better organized (still): For example, the "Departmental Briefings" are broken down by "Production" and "Memorable Missions." Unfortunately, there�s some overlap in the kind of content covered under these headers (not to mention between "Memorable Missions" and the "Mission Overview" for year two); the "Production" featurette would better serve viewers if it were presented in individual sections for different departments, such as costumes, music and props. Producers Maurice Hurley and Rick Berman typically represent the show�s producers in these segments and the "Mission Overview," although there are some precious few clips of Gene Roddenberry himself.
The "Selected Crew Analysis" has some great bits with Patrick Stewart talking about settling into life in the captain's chair, and with Sirtis discussing the emotional filming of "The Child." True
Star Trek aficionados will appreciate the final documentary, which offers a fascinating look at the
Star Trek archives�where all of the props, drawings, costumes and more live on in perpetuity.
The only problem with the discs is the occasional, poorly encoded special-effects shot; we witnessed several scenes that had surprisingly mediocre quality on our Samsung 709 DVD player.
If you can block out the dismal aspects of season two for a moment, then focus on the positives: "The Measure of a Man," "Elementary, Dear Data," "Time Squared" (not to mention the quirky, oft-underrated episode "The Royale"�a personal favorite of mine). If you can remember how great those episodes were, then this set is worth the price of admission. Otherwise, you might want to put your dollars toward season three, due out this summer. � Melissa
