Plot: What’s it about?
By the time the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation had rolled around, it was a bonafide hit. Gene Roddenberry’s risk to re-ignite the Star Trek franchise some 25 years after it had “died” had paid off and Capt. Picard and the crew’s mission to “seek out new life and new civilizations” was both a critical and commercial success. The previous season, love him/hate him Q (John De Lancie) had introduced the crew of the Enterprise to a new and deadly enemy, the likes of which they’d never seen. Their name? The Borg. This collective travel through space in a cube that’s more organic circuitry than the sleek and stellar Enterprise, still having been exposed to the Borg was a big step in the new cast’s maturing process.
To somewhat “celebrate” the ending of the third season, the third season ended with somewhat of a cliffhanger when Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) was captured as a casualty of war with the Borg, who had tracked down the Enterprise and crew. The Borg’s ultimate goal was to assimilate the crew of the Enterprise and move onto sector 001, better known as Earth. The episode introduced us to a headstrong young Lt. Commander by the name of Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehey) who spends more of her time fencing with Cmdr. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) than anything else. As we might guess by the cover, we know that Capt. Picard is indeed kidnapped by the Borg and assimilated into the Borg collective. Riker, having been given a battlefield promotion to Captain, now has to assess the situation – how to destroy the Borg while at the same time, possibly save Capt. Picard? Decisions, decisions…
The Best of Both Worlds is actually the end of Season Three and the first episode of Season Four, so you get a bit of a head start with this on Blu-ray, though the VHS and DVD’s of the entire series have been around for quite some time. This is where the show really took off, so to speak and showed not only the range of the cast and crew, but introduced us to a new and bolder enemy as well. Many cite this episode as perhaps the best of the entire series, showcasing not only some great writing but also some superior acting, namely by Stewart. Though I won’t give away the ending for those that haven’t seen it, suffice it to say that anyone out there that associated this “Next” generation with that of the previous version, is sorely mistaken.
Video: How does it look?
The Best of Both Worlds: Parts I and II have both undergone the same arduous process that the other seasons of the show have. Presented in a full-frame, AVC HD image that’s quite simply the best the show has ever looked. New digital effects have been added in, the print cleaned up and it’s given the show new life, so to speak. There is a disclaimer prior to the episode in which three seconds (around the 1 hour mark) weren’t able to be found, to the standard definition was “upconverted” to high definition. I kept looking for it and, yeah, it’s pretty obvious. It’s when Riker is talking to Locutus (Picard) on the Battle Bridge. It’s as if everything went fuzzy for a few seconds. Personally I find it difficult to believe that a studio could “lose” three seconds of a television show, but to their credit they did own up to it and told us about it. And their work on the series so far has been nothing short of magnificent. That aside, the episodes look amazing, with a hint of grain in some of the process shots, but with detail being much improved overall. A nice effort.
Audio: How does it sound?
Each and every episode has also been given a new DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack and though the quality varies from each episode, these two do sound a bit better than most. Dialogue resonates via the front speaker, the photon torpedoes and phasers sound amazing and the constant hum of the Enterprise in the background is always present. I keep telling myself that this show is now over a quarter of a century old (and these episodes were broadcast in 1990), but you could have fooled me with the way these sound. Granted, they can’t really compare to those of modern day tracks, but having heard these when they first aired, on VHS and then DVD – there’s no comparison.
Supplements: What are the extras?
To celebrate the release of this Blu-ray the episodes have been digitally re-mastered and are actually being shown at theaters around the country. Having said that, this set does include an audio commentary by Cliff Bole, Mike and Denise Okuda and Elizabeth Dennehy. It’s actually a pretty lively track with plenty of information, though most is touched on in the included featurette “Regeneration: Engaging the Borg” in which we get the history of the show, the cast, crew and some insight into the makeup, special effects and Elizabeth Dennehy’s acting process. Also included is a gag reel.
