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.

The seasons should be re-re-released in 2006 for less $$$

As reported at wikipedia, the Star Trek TNG seasons are being re-re-released at a better price: ''Paramount Home Enertainment UK have announced that they will be re-releasing all seven Seasons of Star Trek The Next Generation in smaller boxsets and at a reduced price.'' The price has been reduced from ?84.99 ($158 USD) in the UK to ?34.99 ($65 USD). They are coming out on May 22, 2006 in the UK with no announced release date in the US. In the past, Paramount has released the US product a couple months ahead of the UK. I'd still wait until they release the 7-season box, which I expect to roll out some time after the single-season packs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_The_Next_Generation_DVD

One of the best series of all time

This show is arguably my favorite TV show series. The first two seasons do have some cheesy effects, but buy the 3rd and 4th season, the special effects hold up today. I loved this show when it first aired back in late 80's and early 90's, and only rediscovered how good the series was by watching the reruns that are again on cable TV. Don't make the mistake I did and think that you'll just buy one or two seasons and be satisfied. Once you buy one you can't stop. It's better to just buy the entire series and save yourself over a $100 if you buy them separately. However, if you insist on buying separate I would rate the best seasons in this order:

1) Season 6-Best episodes(Tapestry, Relics, Chain of Command 1&2, Descent part1 )
2) Season 4 -Best episodes(Best of both words part 2, Legacy, Redemption part 1)
3) Season 5 -Best episodes(Redemption part 2, The Inner Light, Unification 1&2)
4) Season 3 -Best episodes(Yesterdays Enterprise, Deja Q, Best of both worlds part1)
5) Season 1 -Best episodes(The Big goodbye, Naked now, The battle)
6) Season 2 -Best episodes(Peak Performance, Q Who, A Matter of Honor)
7) Season 7 -Best episodes(All Good things part 1 &2, Descent part 2)

I believe season 6 has a constant flow of really good episodes, especially the deep and emotional stories of "Tapestry" and "Chain of Command". Seasons 4 and 5 are really a tie, but season 4 gets a slight edge because the lack of a Q episode in season 5, and the way Tasha's sister fills out that jumpsuit in the episode"Legacy" in season 4.

Both Good and Bad

The Bad
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- Video Quality.
I would have expected the producers of the DVD sets to take the original film and produce at least DVD quality. It appears (so far) to be television quality. Although I would have preferred the 16:9 aspect ratio, I knew I was getting 4:3 prior to purchasing.

- Shipping Packaging.
I am a bit on the perfectionist side of things, especially when I'm talking about hundreds of dollars (hey, some people don't have to think twice, but that isn't me, LOL). The "carton" with the faces of the main characters that holds each DVD set (see graphic) was not "new" quality, in that there were slight tears which I reinforced with clear shipping tape. I can only assume this came from shipment and not the warehouse. Also, the box was much bigger than the product itself, yielding about 6 inches of wiggle room on each side, with no packaging whatsoever to keep it from moving around within the shipping box.

- Box Set Packaging
Again being a perfectionist I did immediately notice the "bumps" and "pokes" in the boxed sets. Some of the silver covers do not set right. It just seems that there are indications of "wear" on them. A few of the inner casing that holds the DVDs have impurities on them as well, like white spots.

The Good
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- Delivery Time
Using the complimentary Amazon Prime subscription, I indeed got this within a day using next day shipping.

- DVD Condition
Although the boxed set packaging left much to be desired, the physical DVDs were all in tact and if they were used I couldn't tell, they all look brand spanking new without any scratches, dents, or rivets.

- Its Star Trek
Enough said. ;)