Customer Reviews

Star Trek The Next Generation - The Complete Third Season

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Now this is where it gets interesting! After the shortened and varied second season, The Next Generation finally gets going in the third season. Not only is the writing brilliant but the production values have had a shot in the arm. The revised title sequence is much stronger and the title music is re-mixed. The entire ship looks and sounds better too, with the new uniforms with the collars (much better).

A new director of photography was brought whose lighting technique allowed them to get rid of that "this is obviously filmed in a studio" look when creating planet side sequences. This season also has some of the best scores to accompany the series before it became a constant rehash of the same orchestral sequences later on in the programme. Ron Jones does a particularly excellent job, especially with "The Best of Both Worlds" and newcomer Jay Chattaway's score to "Tin Man" turned a mediocre episode into something more emotional.

This season shines with great episodes such as The Enemy (Romulans!), The Defector (real spy thriller stuff), The Hunted, The High Ground (terrorist episode). There are however 2 stunners: "Yesterday's Enterprise" and "The Best of Both Worlds." Alternative timelines and the Borg have always made some of the best episodes - Yesterday's Enterprise gives Tasha Yar a chance to return for an episode where the Federation is still at war with the Klingons. The Best of Both Worlds is the high point of the entire series - great story, great effects, great music, and that feeling of "they can't do that" when the "To be continued...." line appeared on the screen. Great stuff.

Episode List:

Evolution
The Ensigns of Command
The Survivors
Who Watches The Watchers?
The Bonding
Booby Trap
The Enemy
The Price
The Vengeance Factor
The Defector
The Hunted
The High Ground
Deja Q
A Matter of Perspective
Yesterday's Enterprise
The Offspring
Sins of the Father
Allegiance
Captain's Holiday
Tin Man
Hollow Pursuits
The Most Toys
Sarek
Ménage à Troi
Transfigurations
The Best of Both Worlds, Part I

Is this the same TNG? Wow, so much so that I think fans often look back at season 3 as what propelled the show to its legendary status. Lets review the changes: first, it appears that many of the officers get new quarters. Data's quarters in seasons 1 and 2 resemble a receiving room in an airport hangar; here he and everyone else get really nice, spatious living areas. The uniforms have been mentioned by a number of people: they go from tight stretched, peel-off-to-undress-looking T-shirts and tights to collared, sweatshirt-resembling uniforms without that annoying seam down the middle of the chest. Now there is a place for command rank pips (there's a 1st season episode where Picard's pips are bunched together at one end and spread out at the other end!). There is a new and better title sequence. The crew begin to settle into their positions and pesonalities as well. Troi is more at ease, her empathic powers more even and toned down. Geordi, perhaps my favorite of the characters, settles into his chief of engineering position for good (in season 1, you never knew what the crew would be doing each episode - Data might be chief of security and Worf the transporter chief). Q is back and isn't so malevolent as in the 1st and 2nd seasons; he becomes more of a trickster character from here on through Voyager. Riker and Picard are more trusting of each other, and thank goodness Dr. Crusher is back to stay! Why didn't Dr. Pulaski work out? Because she was supposed to be like Dr. McCoy. Two things are wrong with that: no one could ever be like Dr. McCoy, and the restriction banning any personal conflict between characters was still in place then.

That leads me to say as well that what helped the show this season more than anything was the stability in the front office. The new staff shifted focus from quasi political stuff to harder science fiction. The "We're perfect in the 24th century" thing is vitually non existant from here on out too, or at least its not as in your face. Starfleet indeed takes on more of a military feel (why else would a ship have multiple phaser banks and 150 photon torpedoes?) from the Picard attitude of "Oh no, we're not the military!" in season 2. This is all why Voyager is such a favorite of mine - it's a little more wild, willing to do stuff you would never have seen in TNG.

There aren't any real clunker episodes in the third season; it gets off to a bit of a slow start, but those first several episodes are very focused and have a lot of dramatic quality. "Sarek," "Allegiance," "The Enemy," "The Defector," "Sins of the Father," "The Offspring," and "The Best of Both Worlds, part I" are top notch in one of TNG's top notch seasons. We learn much about Worf as an individual in "The Enemy," including his prejudices. Worf fans will love it as well as "Sins of the Father." Action/suspense fans will enjoy "Booby Trap," "The High Ground," and "Yesterday's Enterprise." Drama critics will go wild over "Sarek," one of the finest actor's scripts to date. There is a lot in season 3; I recommend it highly. For those who haven't seen these box sets yet, they're stunning. The picture quality of these episodes is far above and beyond anything you've seen on the VHS versions.

We have a theory at home that it takes until the third season for shows like TNG, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, to really come alive and get the jitters out. They seem to need that amount of time to get good cast interaction and to rid the scripts of all kinds of bad mistakes. Well, almost all bad mistakes. The Ferengi still cropped up after the second season; without a doubt they are the most annoying race Star Trek ever created, making even "Q" look adorable.

The Third Season of Star Trek Next Generation really showed us what Picard and his crew were capable of. This DVD is worth it for just a few of the episodes such as "Yesterday's Enterprise" which is a perennial winner in "vote for your favorite" polls. The development of Data as more than a circuit-filled Pinocchio is welcome and really set the stage for the later seasons. But I love the last episode "Best of Both Worlds I" most of all. I was totally blown away by this episode, some of the most exciting science fiction to hit the small screen ever.

It always amazes me how this show progress from some real blunders in the first two seasons (Troi's bad hair and worse accent, that episode where Tasha Yar has a cat fight, complete with claws to earn some vaccine, puh-leeze!) The third season takes all the promise of the first and second season (and there were many bright spots) and totally delivers. Great stuff.

Episode list:
Evolution
The Ensigns of Command
The Survivors
Who Watches The Watchers?
The Bonding
Booby Trap
The Enemy
The Price
The Vengeance Factor
The Defector
The Hunted
The High Ground
Deja Q
A Matter of Perspective
Yesterday's Enterprise
The Offspring
Sins of the Father
Allegiance
Captain's Holiday
Tin Man
Hollow Pursuits
The Most Toys
Sarek
Ménage à Troi
Transfigurations
The Best of Both Worlds, Part I

Star Trek: The Next Generation didn't really hit its stride until the middle of the third season. After the shaky first season and the short second season, in the third season we finally get to see some The Next Generation in all of its glory.

Unlike most of the 1st and 2nd season episodes, the third season took the time to explore more of the backround of the characters:
1) Worf's backround was thoroughly explained in "SINS OF THE FATHER." In that episode we meet his long lost brother and learn more about his true father.
2) Another noted episode is "THE ENEMY," where Geordi is stranded on a desolate planet with a Romulan. It's great to see the La Forge character actually do something besides speaking techno-babble.
3) "THE OFFSPRING" was a great Data episode and "SAREK" showed that Patrick Stewart is a magnificent actor.
(Keep in mind that there are also other character-driven episodes to watch that are also enjoyable.)

That aside, there were many action-packed episodes:
1) In "THE HIGH GROUND," the Enterprise must battle terrorists after they kidnap Dr. Crusher. A great scene is when the terrorists come aboard the Enterprise and try to hijack it by force so they can destory it.
2)Another action-packed episode is "THE HUNTED," which is about a genetically superior veteran of planetary war that comes aboard the Enterprise. The last 10 minutes of this episode are some of the best minutes I'sve ever seen in an TNG episode.

For comedy lovers, there are also some humurous episodes that let the crew lighten up for a few episodes:
1) In "DEJA Q," Q comes aboard the Enterprise with all of his powers lost, but no one belives him. The "going away present" that he gives to Data at the end is great.
2) In "MENAGE A TROI," Riker, Troi and her mother are captured by Ferengi. Troi's mother ends up giving "ear foreplay" to a Ferengi and Picard is forced to use his knowledge of poetry.

And finally, to the classic of the season, "THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, PART 1." Just a little better than the second part, this episode is the best overall epsiode. It has great music, stellar acting, awesome special effects, some good action, and THE BEST ENDING EVER TO A TNG EPISODE. The last 7 minutes are outstanding.

Overall, the 3rd season of TNG isn't only a great one; it's the season that started TNG on its four-season greatness. (Seasons 3-6) Finally TNG has hit its stride.

1989-1990; Approx. 20 hours; All episodes are Rated PG for for brief language and mild violence.

The Star Trek Collection is a worthy hobby and certainly the largest of the television series DVD Collections (The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise). At around 1100 minutes per box (a few hours less than the TOS seasons) we are still looking at approx 30 boxes with 700 hours of viewing. That is 1 month of non-stop Star Trek. No DVD series comes remotely close to that. Get going collecting right now and build up on each succession over the years. By the end you will have a very serious anthology that defines the word awe. This is the kind of item that requires 1 hour a day of your time for the next few years. It is a cherished memory that served your fathers and will serve your children also. Our very planet, Earth, has advanced because of Gene Roddenberry's admirable concept. Roddenberry nailed the premise of the series when he said that he wanted to create a show with characters that we could look up too. `The Bridge' members are like our family. Watch what they do. Then go and spend your life striving for the same on Earth. What engineer, medic, scientist, teacher, worker can not say that Star Trek has not influenced them? The show is this significant in the development of our species. Even Christians respect and quote its authority and it is not hard to see why. The DVD case is not quite as fancy as the TOS (The Original Series) cases. The TNG case is supposed to resemble a TNG crew briefcase. The case opens to reveal the disc booklet inside a sleeve. Sliding the disc booklet out of the sleeve and flipping it open reveals a spread of 7 discs. There are 4 episodes per disc. However the last disc, disc 7, only has two episodes, for a grand total of 26 episodes (TOS has 8 Discs, 30 episodes). The rest of disc 7 is devoted to Star Trek interviews and trailers with the usual expected extras...and then some more. The episodes are ordered not in the sequence they where filmed, but in the sequence that they aired, however each episode has been numbered according to the order they where filmed in. This means on one disc you have shows 4, 2, 12 and 1, in that order although Season Three was aired fairly much according to the chronological produced order except for episode one and two which are switched around. The sound has also been remastered to 5:1 Dolby Digital! Since the show was shot in full frame, these dimensions are retained.

Star Trek, The Next Generation (TNG), Season Two continued with the amazing impact TNG had when it was first broadcast but made it more Enterprise based with less beaming down than Season One. Season Three corrects this somewhat critical tilt with Season Two by reintroducing us to lots of planet based exploration stories... and good ones at that too. Season Three has a whole new opening sequence to improve on the first computer generated images of our solar system as Captain Picard utters the immortal words... `To baldly'... I mean... `To boldly go where no man'... I mean... `To boldly go where no one has gone before.' It was the dawn of the 90s and since CGI had undergone some development, the improvements can be seen not only in the new opening sequence, but with better looking planets (complete with moving gaseous atmospheres) and major enhancements in particle effects. Towards the end it undergoes new model development, lighting and subspace effects of a movie budget look. The crew uniform has changed with a new type of collar. Most of the main characters from Season Two are here, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Commander William T. Riker (now with a bigger belly), Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge, Lieutenant Commander Worf (letting his hair grow even more), Commander Deanna Troi (with more makeup, costume changes and even an aerobics outfit [that really isn't as good as it sounds]), Lieutenant Commander Data and Ensign Wesley Crusher (new hairdo). Dr. Beverly Crusher is back (initially with a terrible hairdo that gets better) and Doctor Katherine Pulaski has been dropped from the show never to reappear again. Pulaski's disappearance is not officially explained (in reality Diana Muldaur was told her character was not working and she was offered a role in L.A. Law instead. McFadden was asked to rejoin the series again) the crew do act like she has just left because her time was up with Dr. Crusher making reference to Pulaski's work in Episode four. Commander Lieutenant Tasha Yar makes a surprise guest appearance for one episode! Dwight Schultz (Murdoch from the A-Team) makes his first appearance as Lieutenant `Reg' Barkley, who would have a reoccurring role. Colm Meaney is here again as Miles Edward O'Brien, Navigation, doesn't have much of a role boost since Season Two, while the Whoopi Goldberg's Guinan character of the wise El Aurian, the bartender in 10 Forward, has her background further developed. Season Three of TNG is mostly about nanotechnology, colonization, super aliens, the prime directive, orphans, ancient space booby traps, Romulans, wormholes, peace negotiations, defectors, super humans, terrorism, Q, court inquisitions, parallel universes, AI, Klingon high councils, captivity experiments, time travellers, biological space crafts, morale, the first law of robotics, Vulcans, Sarek, evolutionary speciation, and the Borg. Unlike Season Two there is much more planetary exploration and lots of alien encounters. There are loads of unforgettable episodes in this Season, "Evolution" where nanotechnology takes over the Enterprise, "The Survivors" is a mystery about a single household that is the only structure to survive an alien invasion on a whole planet, "Who Watches The Watchers?" is about the prime directive failing when the Enterprise team are spotted and kidnapped, "Offspring" sees Data creating another sentient android, "Sins of the Father" has Worf return to his Klingon homeworld to defend his family honour, "Hollow Pursuits" has Lt. Barkley fantasizing about crew members in the Holodeck, "Sarek" is about the Vulcan of the same name from Star Trek: The Original Series, who is back for what looks like his final peace negotiation, and of course the pot-boiler end episode of "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I" (widely acclaimed as one of the best Star Trek episodes ever!) marks the grand entrance of Locutus of Borg onto the scene. The bottom line for TNG: Season Three is that it is often cited by fans as the best TNG Season and is probably the first of the Seasons to really be worth the price tag demanded of these very expensive box sets. In Season Three everyone seems to have matured, included the writers who are giving us exactly what we want and the series has a serious enough budget to make every episode look like a movie, especially towards the end. There is lots in this season to enjoy and of course not since J.R. Ewing had been shot did we get the kind of cliff-hanger episode that "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I" would deliver on, meaning every Trekie (and who wasn't at this time) across the planet from LA to Hong Kong had to wait all summer to learn how Picard could be saved. There is no time to loose!!! Onto Season Four.... wooosshhhh.

This is where Star Trek TNG carved its own niche in television history. This is where it finally grew its own identity and stood alone. Dr. Crusher's return is the precursor to consistently good stories over the next season. Many have already mentioned the classics, "Yesterday's Enterprise," "The Best of Both Worlds," and "Deja Q." In this season, Data will become a father in, "The Offspring," Riker will be accused of murder in, "A Matter of Perspective," and Spock's father will make an appearance in, "Sarek." We also begin a major plot thread concerning Worf and the Klingon Empire in, "Sins of the Father." Geordi falls in love with a holodeck woman in, "booby Trap," not knowing that he'll meet her real version next year. Picard finally gets more action than his first officer in, "Captain's Holiday." Probably the only episode I wasn't crazy about was, "The Bonding," but it has its appeal. The crew finally seems to attain that comfortable, friendly chemistry that eluded them in the first two seasons. Picard has mellowed, Troi stops being a sex symbol and becomes credible and Worf finally gets more screen time. This season combined the perfect blend of drama, action, suspense and character development. It was TNG at its best and it foreshadowed the superior entertainment that TNG would give us until the end of the sixth season. If you are only going to purchase one DVD gift set from TNG, make it this one!

The third season seems to be the turning point in many ST spin-offs- both TNG and DS9 became amazing once they started their third season.

Stardate 43125.8 "Evolution" This is one of those annoying ones where Wesley breaks the rules and sets a disaster (this time it's tiny computeres that eat the Enterprise) loose on the ship, and then miraculously, he's the only one who can fix it. Just skip it, it's not worth it. 1 star

Stardate 43133.3 "The Ensigns of Command" Data has to convince a colony of 15,000 humans that they must evacuate their planet so an alien race can come and colonize. Data is awesome. 3 stars

Stardate 43152.4 "The Survivors" After an attack on a planet, the crew finds an elderly couple that somehow survived. 3 stars

Stardate 43173.5 "Who Watches the Watchers?" A bronze age race of Vulcanoids think that Picard is a god. Excellent episode. 5 stars

Stardate 43198.7 "The Bonding" A ship's achaeologist is killed, leaving her son alone. Worf, who was in commmand of the mission, tries to find a way to help him. 2 stars

Stardate 43205.6 "The Booby Trap" Enterprise gets caught in radiation trap. Geordi uses hologram of ship's engine designer to solve the problem and falls in love with her. 3 stars

Stardate 43349.2 "The Enemy" geordi gets stuck on a stormy planet with an injured Romulan. 4 stars

Stardate 43385.6 "The Price" A wormhole is discovered and the Federation has to decide who to sell it to. They discover that it is unstable, but the Ferengi go through it anyway and get stuck in the Delta Quadrant. (Watch out for them in VOY) 3 stars

Stardate 43421.9 "The Vengeance Factor" Two warring factions are trying to reunite, but the woman Riker falls in love with tries to stop it. 3 stars

Stardate 43462.5 "The Defector" A Romulan of foermerly high rank gives Picard information, but it is false because he was used by his superiors. 4 stars

Stardate 43489.2 "The Hunted" New planet seeking membership in the Federation loses a prisoner, and it is discovered that they genetically programmed soldiers. 3 stars

Stardate 43510.7 "The High Ground" Dr. Crusher was kidnapped by a terrorist group. An interesting look at the fine line between terrorist and freedom fighter. 3 stars

Stardate 43539.1 "Dejá Q" Q is condemned to live as a human. One of the funniest episodes of the whole show and a great look at the Q Continuum and at Q's character. Only Q would order ten chocolate sundaes. 5 stars

Stardate 43610.4 "A Matter of Perspective" Riker is accused of murder. Good re-enactment. 3 stars

Stardate 43625.2 "Yesterday's Enterprise" The Enterprise-C comes through a portal from 22 years in the past and the whole future is changed- the Federation is at war with the Klingons and Tasha Yar never died. They set things right and Tasha Yar goes with the Enterprise-C, leading to some very interesting episodes later on. And, Worf laughs, for the only time in two series. 5 stars

Stardate 43657.0 "The Offspring" Data creates an android to be his "daughter". A great look at Data's personality. 4 stars

Stardate 43685.2 "Sins of the Father" Worf must answer charges against his father as a Romulan spy. 3 stars

Stardate 43714.1 "Allegience" Picard is captured by aliens who want to learn about leadership and is replaced. 3 stars

Stardate 43745.2 "Captain's Holiday" Picard goes to Risa and meets a young adventurer, Vash, and they thwart the plans of time-travelers to steal a valuable artifact. 4 stars

Stardate 43779.3 "Tin Man" Enterprise crew discovers organic-ship and make contact with it through a pwerful Betazoid. 3 stars

Stardate 43807.4 "Hollow Pursuits" This one goes down in ST history. Lt. Barclay and his holodeck fantasies of Counselor Troi and evil crew members. 4 stars

Stardate 43872.2 "The Most Toys" Data appears to have been killed, but was actually kidnapped by a man with a mania for collecting one-of-a-kind objects. 4 stars

Stardate 43917.4 "Sarek" The re-introduction of one TOS's much loved characters. Ambassador Sarek comes aboard the Enterprise_d with his new human wife, and it is discovered that he is suffering from Bendii syndrome. 4 stars

Stardate 43930.7 "Ménage à Troi" Counselor Troi and her mother are kidnapped by Ferengi. The Ferengi at this point are so annoying that they are impossible to watch. 2 stars

Stardate 43957.2 "Transfigurations" A humanoid with remarkable abilities is discovered. 3 stars

Stardate 43989.1 "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I" The Enterprise chases after the Borg who destroyed a Federation colony. They find the Borg, who capture Capt. Picard, intending to use him to communicate with the human race as they conquer them, thus ruining everyone's summer. 5 stars

This was the turning point of TNG, where it really started to be excellent. And it still gets better.

Let's face it...the Second Season for Star Trek: The Next Generation was by far the weakest of the seven, but it did manage to keep the show moving. It introduced the BORG, a villain that would remain a part of Star Trek all the way through Voyager and even into Enterprise. At the end of the second season you saw only 22 episodes due to a strike by the writing staff. Everyone was wondering how the third season would shape up and if the show would rebound. Boy did it rebound! The third season began with a brand new writing staff including Ronald D. Moore and Michael Pillar and began the series on its final five SUPERB seasons. In the third season we saw the return of Denise Crosby and Tasha Yar and we got a deeper and more personal look at the BORG. Season three also marks the return of Gates McFadden and Dr. Beverly Crusher (GREAT MOVE!). Season three truely ushered in a new era of Star Trek Storytelling.

Personal favorite episodes:

Evolution, The Bonding, Booby Trap, The Enemy, The Defector, Deja Q, A Matter Of Perspective, Yesterday's Enterprise, The Offspring, Sins of the Father, Sarek, and The Best of Both Worlds

By it's third season, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was, undoubtedly, a great series. Some of the series' finest episodes were made during this season and it is considered to be arguably the finest season of television the people of Star Trek have ever done. That said, it's still a bit of a shame to see them not pull out all the stops for the DVD release - the format that's made for bells and whistles.

Aside from the twenty-six episodes of the series - for which there is little reason to go into detail here given the large number of other reviews that discuss the episodes in detail - the seventh disc of the set features four extra segments - a season overview, a look at the changes in the crew in Season Three, and two "Departmental Briefings": this time around focusing on episode production as well as the usual "Memorable Missions" segment. They're all great segments and they do a great job of bringing the behind-the-scenes community to life. These segments especially illuminate what Michael Piller - who would go on to be one of the most influential backstagers on "Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" - brought to the show when he signed on board that season. Much of the interview footage was shot new for the episode and it highlights and gives anecdotes for many of the episodes.

All that said, though, the set - as with the previous two - seems to be missing something. There are no episode commentaries, no scripts, no storyboards, no deleted scenes, and no TV ads. While much of what would be covered in some episodes' commentaries is in the extras segments, it would still have been very nice to see a play-by-play analysis of "Yesterday's Enterprise" or "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I" - or even "Who Watches the Watchers" by Executive Producer Rick Berman and the aforementioned Michael Piller - or by Michael Okuda or Jonathan Frakes or any of the other Trek actors and creators that make the show so great. Likewise, there must be an absolute ton of material in the vaults - segments cut for time, episode promos, screen tests, etc. - that are still waiting to see the light of day. To really wow us with a box set, it would have been nice to have more of that in here.

Nonetheless, this is still a wonderful DVD set and certainly worth owning - even by the casual Star Trek fan. As many others have said, Season 3 was the breakout season for the show - it's worth having on DVD.

The appearance of the third season box set is no different than the first two. The interior folder for the DVDs, the small fold out booklet, and the listing of which episode is on which DVD is the same as the other two seasons. The difference happens when you put the DVD in. Instead of showing clips of the episodes one after another, the screen is divided into four sections, with clips of each episode playing simultaneously. I think this is a nice change, it's a bit distracting to try and watch all four sets of clips, but if you're looking for one episode in particular, this cuts down on the waiting.

The third season is essentially like the first two, there's special features on the last DVD, and the episodes are laid out the same way on each disk. The consistency is really nice, and if it continues through the whole set it will end up being a nice collectable for Star Trek: The Next Generation fans.