Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Two Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Follow-up to my post on Season One just 11 days ago.

As you are aware, I waited for these sets to drop in price
before ordering so I am behind everyone else in finally
being able to watch them. Don't even know who is reading
my comments at this point.

Found Season Two to be more solid than the preceding
one which should come as no surprise.

My favorites include Elementary Dear Data, Unnatural Selection,
A Matter of Honor, and Q Who. Nice to hear that Moriarty will
be back in Season 6.

Of course, there are some real duds here. Hated The Dauphin,
The Royale, Pen Pals and Up The Long Ladder. Hated to see the
season end with a flashback episode which I primarily fast-forwarded
through. I am aware of the toll the show took due to the writers strike
so I can forgive Shades of Gray.

Going to start Season 3 today knowing full well that I am going to be
waiting a long time for a price drop in Season 4. That means a delay
in seeing part 2 of the finale. I think I can handle the wait.

Will report back after watching Season 3 in that review thread.

My thanks to Neil for an excellent job covering these seasons and giving
a great deal of background information as to where the show heading
at that very moment. I read his reviews just prior to watching the next
season.

 

[Ockeghem]

"Don't even know who is reading my comments at this point."

Ron,

I am. I love Unnatural Selection (probably my favorite episode from that season), but I also liked The Royale. I thought the novel aspect of it was kind of interesting. And I thought Data was hilarious in a few scenes. But I understand fully if that episode (and others) is not everyone's cup of tea.Enjoy your blu-ray sets!

 

[Jason_V]

My partner and I just finished a rewatch of S2 on BD last week and one thing strikes me more than anything else: the inconsistent nature of the season. You can have a fantastic episode (Q Who, for example) followed by a steaming pile of...well, you know (Up the Long Ladder). Most of what the writing staff was trying to do didn't work and served to demean and regress the characters back to early S1 days.

The staff couldn't string together a series of good episodes. There were flashes of brilliance followed by periods where you couldn't help but think WTF. There's still this fascination with sex in the season and not taking it seriously, but nowhere near the level in S1 (thanks to Justice). Thankfully nearly this entire staff left in the summer and Michael Piller was able to right the ship, so to speak.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Going to start Season 3 today knowing full well that I am going to be
waiting a long time for a price drop in Season 4. That means a delay
in seeing part 2 of the finale. I think I can handle the wait.

Have you considered finding a dirt cheap copy of the Best of Both Worlds single disc collection? You get your cliffhanger resolution then and there.

/that's what I did when S3 came out. Still wish they had included "Family", too.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Ockeghem and Jason,

S2 did feel very inconsistent.

Very excited to have just started Season 3. New show intro,
uniforms, and Beverly Crusher returns.

I don't remember much of these episodes. I became a big
fan of the show in its later years and during its theatrical films.
So, much of this is kind of new to me sans the Borg episodes.

Have you considered finding a dirt cheap copy of the Best of Both Worlds single disc collection? You get your cliffhanger resolution then and there.

Thanks for the recommendation. Don't want to buy it twice.
I will wait it out.

 

[Jason_V]

For my money, Ron, S3 is the best TNG has to offer. There are great episodes in all the later seasons, but S3 doesn't have any real duds from my perspective. This is where the writing staff went through a trial by fire and came out stronger in the end. Not only for later TNG, but also for the subsequent shows (DS9 and VOY). Enterprise didn't benefit from this since those people had moved onto other projects by the time 2001 rolled around.

 

[Bryan^H]

My favorites include Elementary Dear Data, Unnatural Selection,
A Matter of Honor, and Q Who. Nice to hear that Moriarty will
be back in Season 6.

Of course, there are some real duds here. Hated The Dauphin,
The Royale, Pen Pals and Up The Long Ladder. Hated to see the
season end with a flashback episode which I primarily fast-forwarded
through. I am aware of the toll the show took due to the writers strike
so I can forgive Shades of Gray.

Nice picks for your favorite episodes. I loved all of the ones you mention, of the ones you hated however, I thought The Royale, and The Dauphin were fine episodes. "The Dauphin" was great for me for one reason only, Wesley falling in love for the first time. It is a theme that hit close to home with me. I still remember my first girlfriend/love, and what a great/painful experience that was deep in love, and breaking up. I think it gives the character Wesley some much needed depth for us to care about him more.
"The Royale" is regarded as a bad TNG episode from most everyone I know, but I always liked it. I think the mix of Data, Reiker, and Worf is great. I really enjoy it.

I'm almost done with season 3 now, and I'm sure it is my favorite season.
Ronald,
I thought season 2 looked great, but did you notice any "drop in quality" from the 1st season because of the out of house production. All the negativity from some people/reviews has driven me bannanas, because personally I can't see what they are talking about.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I thought season 2 looked great, but did you notice any "drop in quality" from the 1st season because of the out of house production.

Hmm. Never really thought about it. I may be wrong about this,
but there didn't seem to be as many "effects" based episodes in
S2 than there was in S1.

...but I can say from the first episode of Season 3, there is
a HUGE difference in effects work. Far better than anything
I have previously seen.

 

[Sam Favate]

I'm about 10 episodes into season 3. I know the entire run by heart, but the blu-ray presentation is so good, I'm noticing things for the first time. Season 3 is far and away my favorite period of the show. Just saw The Defector last night which may be my favorite episode of the entire series.

 

[Ockeghem]

Sam,You're right about The Defector. I believe that it's first-rate. The performance of James Sloyan in his role is wonderful. The first time I saw the episode, I did not expect the poignant conclusion. In addition to TNG, I also love Sloyan in the roles he did for DS9 and VOY.

 

[Jason_V]

The Defector has an incredible score, too, particularly in the last act with the Picard/Tomalak showdown. I never liked the episode growing up (I was 8 or 9 when it first aired); now, it's easily a top five episode along with Best of Both Worlds I, Conspiracy, All Good Things and Q Who. Yes, I left off both Tapestry and Inner Light...those are top 10...

 

[benbess]

Is someone going to do a review of S4 of TNG?

best watched in full screen HD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKwJt6mwMZg&feature=youtu.be

 

[Osato]

Follow-up to my post on Season One just 11 days ago.

As you are aware, I waited for these sets to drop in price
before ordering so I am behind everyone else in finally
being able to watch them. Don't even know who is reading
my comments at this point.

Found Season Two to be more solid than the preceding
one which should come as no surprise.

My favorites include Elementary Dear Data, Unnatural Selection,
A Matter of Honor, and Q Who. Nice to hear that Moriarty will
be back in Season 6.

Of course, there are some real duds here. Hated The Dauphin,
The Royale, Pen Pals and Up The Long Ladder. Hated to see the
season end with a flashback episode which I primarily fast-forwarded
through. I am aware of the toll the show took due to the writers strike
so I can forgive Shades of Gray.

Going to start Season 3 today knowing full well that I am going to be
waiting a long time for a price drop in Season 4. That means a delay
in seeing part 2 of the finale. I think I can handle the wait.

Will report back after watching Season 3 in that review thread.

My thanks to Neil for an excellent job covering these seasons and giving
a great deal of background information as to where the show heading
at that very moment. I read his reviews just prior to watching the next
season.

Thanks for the reviews Ron. I have seasons 1 and 2 and have yet to start them. I did watch the documentary on Season 1 about the start of the series. Very good!

Looking forward to watching the episodes when I have time.

I've been picking up the shows used for around $30 or so.

I am planning on picking up Enterprise on blu ray as well. Even though it was my least favorite series, I enjoy watching an episode here and there on CBS.com.

 

[Jason_V]

One thing about Shades of Gray:

It wasn't so much the Writer's Strike that created the flashback episode (at least according to director Rob Bowman at Memory Alpha). It was money. They had spent a lot of money on "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Q Who" that the production was asked to produce a very quick and very inexpensive show for the finale. So they did.

And guess what has never happened again in any version of Trek? No more flashback shows. This one scared everyone involved. The writer hated it. Producers hated it. Viewers hated it. And that's saying something, considering some of the crap that came before ("Up the Long Ladder," "Home Soil," "The Outrageous Okona," etc.).

You can tell Season 2 is trying to be more mature than S1...it's just not there yet. However, all the strife behind the scenes (all the writers leaving, no scripts in development) would lead to Season 3...the best season of the series IMHO.

 

[Harry-N]

I'm both behind - and current - with NEXT GENERATION Blu Rays. Current because I'm watching Season 4 at about a normal one-per-day pace - behind because Seasons 1 through 3 are locked up in Santa's vault.

But I'm so used to these episodes as DVDs, it doesn't matter too much regarding any serialization. I will however confess to just a bit of confusion by watching the "Redemption" movie before watching "Reunion". When watching out of order, it's sometimes hard to figure out in what state Worf's discommendation is.

For the most part, TNG stands as hourly self-contained episodes. There are occasional references to past events, but not that many, and they're not that important to the story at hand. Just don't try it with DS9.

Harry

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I found this interesting FXGuide interview with Craig Weiss, the executive creative director at CBS Digital on YouTube:


The beginning explores how CBS Digital came into being; the "Star Trek: The Next Generation"-specific stuff starts about six and a half minutes in.