MISSION: TREK 2009 offers our advanced review of The Best of STAR TREK: The Next Generation which arrives May 12th in time for new TREK fans who want to learn more about the exploding sci-fi franchise!
CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment collect four of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION's best episodes from the Emmy nominated television series. Set in the 24th century, about 70s years after the adventures of James Kirk in the Original Series, THE NEXT GENERATION follows the adventures of the starship Enterprise 1701-D and its captain, Jean-Luc Picard (renowned British actor, Patrick Stewart).
Picard and his crew explore the galaxy in their advanced starship, encountering new and advanced civilizations and battling equally heightened threats including the dreaded Borg. THE NEXT GENERATION expands creator Gene Roddenberry's futurist vision of humanity exploring new frontiers among the stars, and this four-episode DVD collection makes an entertaining, dramatic entry point for new fans to explore more of the STAR TREK universe:
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, PART I
The shocking cliffhanger end to TNG's third season, THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS PART I set up a two-part thriller which elevated the series to new dramatic heights. Responding to a distress call at a distant outpost on the edge of Federation space, Captain Picard and crew find nothing but a gouged scar on the face of the planet — the entire outpost was ripped away. A study of the lingering radiation traces lead to a terrible conclusion: the relentless technological terrorism of the Borg have claimed their first victims of the Federation.
The Enterprise-D scrambles to develop new weapons and strategies to defeat — or at least slow the attack — of the Borg before our planet and culture are assimilated by the inhuman cyborg race. Picard's first officer, Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), battles with an ambitious Starfleet strategist to balance reckless engagement of the Borg with preserving the heart of the Federation from conquest.
The Borg raise the stakes of this conflict to tense extremes by capturing Captain Picard right off the bridge of the Enterprise, implanting their technology into his body and turning him into their newest weapon. With all Picard's knowledge of Starfleet military power now available to the Borg in the implant-modified version of the captain, Locutus, he demands Riker surrender the Enterprise and escort the Borg to assimilate Earth. Face to face with his former captain, will Riker destroying the Borg and Picard with them, or fail and doom the Federation to extinction? The cliffhanger finale was a STAR TREK stunner, leaving fans hanging for three months until TNG's fourth season began.
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, PART II
First broadcast in September 1990, THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS PART II picks up right where PART I leaves off, as Riker makes his fateful choice to attack the Borg ship and his former captain, Picard, in a last ditch effort to defeat this invading race of cyborgs. The attack fails and the Borg ship races toward Earth to assimilate the heart of the Federation. Remaining Starfleet armada gather at station Wolf 359 to make a final stand against the Borg before it arrives at Earth. When the Enterprise catches up, the Borg have destroyed every Federation ship in the battle, leaving Wolf 359 a debris-scattered graveyard of Starfleet ships.
Riker and the crew stage a daring raid aboard the Borg ship to rescue Picard and discover a weakness in the Borg's interdependent technology. Once Picard is returned safely to the Enterprise, the dilemma becomes how to defeat the Borg without killing Picard who remains networked to the alien collective. The solution to saving Picard and ending the Borg invasion is a surprising twist, although the Borg now know where the core of humanity and the Federation can be found.
YESTERDAY'S ENTERPRISE
Similar to the hit new feature film STAR TREK now playing in theaters, this time travel story finds the crew of the Enterprise-D confronted by the battle-scarred Enterprise-C from 22 years before, emerging from a time displacement. Simultaneously, Picard and his crew are thrown into an alternate universe where the Federation is at war with the Klingon Empire, which should be their ally in the 24th century. Federation history previously showed that the Enterprise-C was destroyed defending a Klingon outpost against Romulan attack, and the time-warp emergence of the Enterprise-C has now erased that history, plunging the Federation into a losing war with the Klingons.
Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) is the only crew member who senses the shift into this alternate reality, with the shocking revelation that Lt. Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) is alive again in this timeline (having died in a previous mission). Guinan convinces Picard that the re-appearance of the Enterprise-C has changed history for the worse, and it must return to the hopeless battle against the Romulans on the other side of the temporal rift in space. Picard wrestles with the moral dilemma of convincing Captain Garrett to return to a battle which means the certain death of her crew and the Enterprise-C. Finally Tasha Yar makes a fateful decision to restore history and the galactic peace with the Klingon Empire.
THE MEASURE OF A MAN
Featuring one of TNG's most popular characters, Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner), THE MEASURE OF A MAN is one of the series more philosophical sci-fi stories, asking what exactly it means to be a sentient lifeform. When a scientist claims Data is the property of Starfleet in order to replicate and advance his cybernetic construction, a Starfleet judge advocate holds a trial to legally determine Data's rights as an android.
The drama arises when the JAG officer orders Commander Riker to act as prosecution against Data, his Enterprise comrade, while Picard defends the android's case. Directly ordered to prosecute his case to the fullest in the interest of justice, Riker reluctantly proves that Data is indeed Starfleet property as a commissioned android officer, leaving Picard to mount a nearly impossible defense to save Data from experimental decommission in the name of science. Despite some brilliant courtroom tactics, can Picard use Data's unique existence as proof that the android is truly a sentient lifeform — and indeed, can anyone legally prove their own right to exist?
EXPLORE THE BEST OF STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION
CBS and Paramount offer new TREK fans an excellent entry point to exploring the breadth of the franchise's universe with The Best of STAR TREK: The Next Generation four-episode DVD collection. These four episodes are entertaining and dramatic high points from the first three seasons of THE NEXT GENERATION, though personally I would have picked a different Data-centric episode than THE MEASURE OF A MAN to entice fans — perhaps DATALORE or ELEMENTARY, DEAR DATA.
All four Best Of TNG episodes are presented in their original 4:3 full frame video aspect ratio, with a total runtime of approximately 3 hours. Audio is available in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, or Spanish and Portuguese Mono plus Closed Captioning and multi-lingual subtitles.
MISSION: TREK 2009 gives this entry-level DVD collection 3.5 out of 5 stars as a recommended introduction of the best THE NEXT GENERATION offers as an Emmy-nominated TREK series. If this DVD collection hooks you on TNG, take the next step and explore Star Trek: The Next Generation - Complete Series
or Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Complete Second Season
to enjoy the further adventures of Captain Picard and the Enterprise 1701-D in the 24th century.
Street date: May 12, 2009 •
Runtime: 3 Hours, 1 Minute
MSRP: $14.99 US • Order for $9.99 at Amazon.com
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