DVD Review: Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 2)
Written by: Kage Alan

Film Rating: B
DVD Special Features: D

After having watched Star Trek: The Next Generation Season One, I'm amazed itwas renewed for another season.  Why?  It wasn't terrible, but it is quite dated by today's standards.  Oh, it's unlikely it would have been canceled
right away anyway.  After all, this is Star Trek we're talking about.  I'm
just glad we have the foresight to see how it all came together in later
seasons.  This did start to happen in Season 2, but even that was found
lacking in some categories.  Look at the opener.

"The Child" was a great Troi story, but not exactly the kind of opener we
were looking for and reminds me of the second season opener for "Star Trek:
Voyager".  Just ugh.  Another "ugh" matter was the replacement of Gates
McFadden with Diana Muldaur as Dr. Pulaski.  The problem wasn't with her as an actor, but perhaps it was that she mirrored Dr. McCoy, only as a woman.   While that's fine and dandy, her role felt like it belonged in the original series and not "The Next Generation".  Fans apparently agreed and the studio was able to work out its difficulties with McFadden and she returned for the third season.

Okay, that's the bad.  There was quite a bit of good in Season 2 and it's
worth mentioning.  First and foremost, they hired Whoopi Goldberg as the very wise barkeeper, named Guinan, of the new lounge on the ship, Ten Forward.  Q comes back and introduces us to the next evolution of bad guys that would haunt Star Trek crews in "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager"; the Borg.  Not only was it a special effects extravaganza, but it allowed us to feel genuine fear for the first time about what was yet to come.  Another extremely well written episode is "The Measure of a Man" in which Data is put on trial to
determine if he is a true life form or a piece of Starfleet property.  It was
going to happen sooner or later, but the writers outdid themselves with it.

Other worthy episodes included "Loud as a Whisper", "Where Silence Has
Lease", "The Outrageous Okona" and "Time Squared".  Unfortunately, Season 2 ends with Riker in sickbay fighting an infection that subjects us to
flashbacks.  I HATE episodes like this!  Fortunately, I don't believe they
repeat this mistake and instead started to give us cliffhangers beginning in
Season 3.  Those worked MUCH better.  To get to the good stuff, though, we're going to have to make it through these first two tenuous seasons.

Paramount has once again delivered a topnotch transfer of these 22 episodes.  
Video and audio quality is better than I had originally expected, though
there is a tiny bit of grain showing up in the darker shots.  The transfer is
a blessing and curse at the same time due to the advancements made in special
effects.  Many LOOK like special effects instead of blending seamlessly in.  
Still, these are keepers and well worth adding to the collection.  What I
wanted to know is how Paramount reacted to fans' reaction of the extras on
Season 1 and if they improved on them, if at all.  They didn't.

First up is a 14 minute Mission Overview featuring interviews with Gene
Roddenberry, Diana Muldaur and other cast and crew who introduce Ten Forward, the Borg, Whoopi Goldberg, the hiring of Diana Muldaur, the new shuttle craft and other various improvements made this season.  As per usual, there's too many executives patting their own backs as well as the show's, which make it ridiculous and lacking much meat.  Yes, we know it's good, so it's time to move past that.  Following that is a 14 minute Selected Crew Analysis.  Like the previous short, it features cast interviews (lots of Patrick Stewart and Marina Sirtis), yet there's not much depth here either.

We have a section called Starfleet Archives that showcases 17 minutes of Star
Trek Coordinator Penny Juday, who's basically in charge of Star Trek archives
from the show.  Such archives include blueprints, logs, documents etc. as
well as several models and props used in the films and many television
series.  Hmm..  Okay, that's nice, but what does this have to do with
learning about Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2?  I'll tell you.  
Nothing.  After two disappointing and thin featurettes, this was NOT a
welcome addition.

The Departmental Briefing on Production is 17 minutes and concentrates on the creation of the Borg cube as well as the Borg drones/weapons/shields etc. for the episode "Q Who".  Writers during this season also concentrated on
enhancing the characters, such as what to do with Wesley Crusher since his
mother was gone and the idea of making Data cry.  Wardrobe personnel discuss the redesigning of cast members' wardrobe (Worf, for example), dressing Klingon women, designing Guinan's outfit and how they arrived at the Borg look.  Another gentleman talked about designing Klingon food while music composer Dennis McCarthy discussed his take on creating a score that doesn't interfere with the dialogue or sound effects and has an early 1900s feel to it.  This feature more than the others focuses in on Season 2.  Too bad they
all weren't like it.

The Memorable Missions area of the disc is really starting to piss me off.  
Paramount made it sound like this area would be used for cast and crew to
discuss their favorite episodes of the season, so whey didn't they follow
through with it?  Instead we get 16 minutes of John Tesh discussing his brief
role, Q's wife lamenting over her character getting killed, Executive
Producer Rick Berman's favorite episode that season and then it switches to
the Property Master informing us how his favorite farm animal made it into an
episode.  What a crock!  THIS was the best that Paramount could come up with? We totally got the shaft with this sad bunch of extras.  To add insult to
injury, there are only 22 episodes for the season instead of the usual 26.  
Did Paramount price this season accordingly?  Of course not.

I am a huge Trek fan and look forward to being able to pull my favorite
episodes out and stick them in the DVD player at will, but I cannot help but
feel extremely irritated at how Paramount is treating the series.  The whole
point of fans asking for extras is to spend some quality time with the actors
and people responsible for making the show, not watch the self-indulgent
Executive Producer blow smoke up his own ass and guest stars talk about their limited involvement.  It's nice that John Tesh and Mick Fleetwood were on the show, but I'd rather see the principal cast get a lot more screen time.  
Ironically, if disc sales started to decline, the studio would probably quit
making them rather than find out why.  The episodes are worth having and I
strongly recommend those, but steer clear of the extras.  It's fluff.  Worse
than that, it's insulting fluff.


Kage holds degrees in Creative Writing, as well as Film & Video. He has been featured in a Life Journey Tele-Course, published poems in several national anthologies, been a contributor to The Third Coast Magazine and written several novels. kage@modamag.com