Product Details

• Actors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden
• Directors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Gabrielle Beaumont, Robert Becker, Cliff Bole
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English, French
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: November 10, 1998
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792147413
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #386,681 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Having already gone down the "evil twin" route (with Data and Lore) but still wishing to explore ideas of doubles and doubling, the writers of "Second Chances" involve Riker in a plot that would later be exploded into the Gwyneth Paltrow indie film Sliding Doors. Once upon a time, young Lieutenant Will Riker was the last crew member beamed off of a planet as its distortion field intensified. Eight years later he returns to the same planet as Commander Will Riker and learns that he both did and he didn't make it off the planet. The distortion field caused him to split into two, one of whom made it and one who didn't get away. Like bickering brothers, once the two Rikers meet, they don't get along. One thing that helped Lieutenant Riker get through his eight years as a castaway was thoughts of his main squeeze at the time, counselor Deanna Troi. When Lieutenant Riker finds out Commander Riker chose career over romance, he sees it as a chance to make things right. Then again, maybe it's just in his nature to choose career first. Jonathan Frakes hams it up in his dual role, while the true second chance belongs to Troi, who quickly falls back into a relationship with the Riker who didn't leave her on purpose. She's the true heart of the story, even though the twin Rikers get all the screen time. --Andy Spletzer

From the Back Cover

The Enterprise returns to Nervala IV to retrieve data left behind by researches who were forced to evacuate the planet eight years previously. Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes), who led the evacuation as a lieutenant on the U.S.S. Potemkin, is shocked to find his exact duplicate alone on the station. Geordi (LeVar Burton) learns of an anomaly in the planet's distortion field, which explains the transporter phenomenon that caused Riker's dual existence.

Now, Lieutenant Riker wants to pick up where he left off - in the middle of a romance with Troi (Marina Sirtis), but learns that Commander Riker's behavior in the past has forever altered his future. Of course, there's always time for a second chance at life and love.

Guest starring Dr. Mae Jemison, the first real-life space traveler to appear in a Star Trek episode, as Ensign Palmer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Road Not Taken, July 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 150: Second Chances [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In "Second Chances," the consequences of a long-ago accident resurface to give Commander Riker a glimpse of the road not taken, in his life. In the process, we get a more thoughtful look at one of Star Trek's most basic premises.

A few key science fiction concepts have always been Star Trek staples: phaser weapons, warp drive, transporters. However, surprisingly few Trek stories have dealt directly with the issue of how such technologies might "warp" basic facts of human life. "Second Chances" really does so, imagining the unsettling results of a transporter malfunction. As anyone who's ever watched the show knows, "transporters" enable matter to be instantaneously "de-materialized" at one location & "re-materialized" at another--literally recording the (molecular?) "pattern" of an object & faithfully reproducing it at second site. As difficult & dangerous as this sounds, the Trek universe presupposes that ordinary people routinely (& safely!) travel this way, 300-400 years from now.

Earlier stories have dealt with some obvious risks of this technology: for example, travellers killed as their "patterns" were lost or scrambled in transit. They have also dealt with improbable outcomes: a man split into "good" & "evil" twins, for example. Here, something more intriguing happens:

Years before the episode, a malfunctioning transporter had re-materialized Will Riker *both* at his intended destination & at his point of departure, in effect creating 2 absolutely identical men out of 1 original. One is left stranded & alone in an abandoned base on a remote planet. The other has a brilliant career, leading to his assignment to the Enterprise. Originally the same man, they have lived lives as different as Robinson Crusoe & Horatio Hornblower. Despite these different experiences, neither can be said to be the "true," "original," or "real" Will Riker. So that when the castaway Will Riker is rescued, both men must come to grips with the their different lives--as well as their feelings for the same woman: Riker's longtime love & best friend, Deanna Troi.

The story of the "castaway" Riker later resumes in the pivotal DS9 episode, "The Defiant," in which TNG & DS9 storylines involving the Maquis, the Cardassians, & the Dominion also come to an important crossroads.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Second Chances and Roads Not Taken, July 7, 2000

By 

Joe White (Layton, Utah United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 150: Second Chances [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Transporter accidents seem to be one of the biggest threats in the Star Trek universe. Why, oh why does anyone even use those things? It seems there is at least one transporter mishap per season of not just The Next Generation but Classic Trek, DS9 and Voyager as well. But if the story warrants it and the writers know what they're doing, the transporter accident can be used as a wonderful story device.

In the sixth season episode "Second Chances", we find out that a transporter malfunction split First Officer Riker into two seperate beings some half-dozen or so years ago. This second Riker is as much a "true" Riker as the one we've seen walking around the Enterprise for the last six seasons. He's not a duplicate but he's the same Riker who, because of the accident, has lived a very different life over the past several years marooned on a planet, a planet that has an atmosphere that will not allow communications or shuttles or transporters in or out except once every several years or so. This atmosphere is what caused the accident when part of the transporter beam "bounced" off the atmosphere and sent one Riker to a ship and the other to the planet, trapped for over six years.

I've hoped I've explained the situation good enough. Anyway, the Rikers meet face to face when a "window" opens and the Enterprise discovers the other Riker. This is a fascinating episode. When the marooned Riker finds out the Enterprise Riker has lost his ambition and has turned down command after command, it makes for good drama. The marooned Riker still is ambitious and wants to get his own command as soon as possible. And he wants to romance Troi again as well (the Enterprise Riker broke off their romance AFTER the accident) because HE was still romantically involved with her before the malfunction.

Cool episode and a good look at Riker: Who he is now, who he was and who he could have been. The creators of this episode were fairly bold in leaving both Rikers alive (even though the marooned Riker joins another starship at the end). But, according to insiders, this episode could have been a lot better.

The writers of this episode originally wanted to kill off the Enterprise Riker and replace him as first officer with Data. In turn, they wanted the ambitious and young-acting second Riker to become the flight control/helm officer on the Enterprise. These writers wanted to shake things up and alter the status quo. But the producers, acting cowardly, killed the idea. Too bad! It would've been great to see an ambitious and cocky LIEUTENANT Riker flying the ship every episode! Instead, we get the same ol' stuffy COMMANDER Riker. Oh, well. This was a great episode, anyway. And one of three TNG episodes that make-up, what I consider, the "essential guide to William Riker collection" (the other two are "A Matter of Honor" and "The Pegasus").

"Second Chances" is one of my favorite episodes--of any Trek series.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Subsequent Events Raise Some Disturbing Questions, January 11, 2005

By 

J. Reynolds (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 150: Second Chances [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In this interesting episode, Riker is found to have been duplicated... thus this universe now contains William Riker and (as he dubbed himself) Thomas Riker. Thomas Riker, unaware of developments in the lives of William Riker and Deanna Troi during the past eight years, moves to "resume" his romantic relationship with Deanna -- but, in a water-under-the-bridge fashion, she turns him down, advising that life has simply moved on. Thomas Riker leaves the Enterprise, to make his own separate way in the Federation.

Then, later, we have the film "Star Trek - Nemesis." In this movie, likely the wrap-up for the TNG franchise, Riker and Troi finally get married... that is, Troi weds WILLIAM Riker.

BUT: Thomas was the one whose love and desire for Troi never faltered. Can you imagine how he felt, when he learned that Troi had finally decided to marry... uh, "him"? Can you imagine what the Riker family reunions must be like, when both Thomas and William (with wife Troi in tow) show up?