Customer Reviews

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 4

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Regarded by most fans of The Next Generation as the series finest hour. Everything about this season seems to gel incredibly well.

This is the season to show non-Trekkies (Trekkers for the purists), and those who say "They never will enjoy it" - I have converted a few myself *grin*

Starting off with the conclusion to the shocking Best of Both Worlds and ending with Redemption Part I, this season is packed full of action, character development and some first rate stories.

This boxed set should be top of your list to purchase - ideally this season and seasons 6 3 and 5, unless you are determined to go in chronological order.

All in all fabulous!

This is the fourth season release of Star Trek The Next Generation on DVD. During the fourth season the Borg are defeated, Wesley leaves the show, Worf resigns from Starfleet, we see a Romulan officer that resembles Tasha Yar and the Cardassians & Trills are introduced.

All 26 episodes are contained on 7 disks.

1) The Best of Both Worlds (Part 2) - Riker is promoted to Captain, who then leads a fleet of starships to Wolf 359 to confront the Borg, but the fleet's efforts are in vain and almost every starship is annihilated.

2) Family - The Enterprise is undergoing extensive repairs while the crew recovers from the Borg invasion attempt. Picard returns home to see his brother.

3) Brothers - Data is "called" home to be given "an emotion chip" but his brother Lore arrives and put things in jeopardy.

4) Suddenly Human - Finding a Talarian training vessel in deep space, the crew discovers that one of the crew is actually a human teenager. Crusher's examinations reveal that his injuries may have been intentional.

5) Remember Me - Dr. Crusher finds herself inside a warp bubble, and the crew on the real Enterprise must enlist the help of a mysterious alien known as the Traveler to pull Dr. Crusher back into reality before her warp bubble shrinks to nothing.

6) Legacy - On Turkana III, the Enterprise is looking for an escape pod containing two men who left a damaged vessel. The Enterprise's liaison is the younger sister of the late Tasha Yar, and no one knows whether or not to trust her.

7) Reunion - The Enterprise is intercepted in deep space by a Klingon battle cruiser occupied by K'mpec, leader of the High Council of the Klingon Empire. Picard is the neutral arbiter to oversee the handover of the dying K'mpec's powerful to one of two contenders.

8) Future Imperfect - While investigating suspicious energy readings on Alpha Onias III, the Enterprise "loses" Riker. He awakens in the sick bay of the Enterprise, told by an older Dr. Crusher that 16 years have passed since that event, and that a virus he contracted on the mission to Alpha Onias III recently became active, causing him to lose all memory back to that event.

9) Final Mission - Picard reveals that Wesley has been accepted into Starfleet Academy. Wes's final assignment on the Enterprise is to accompany Picard on a trip.

10) The Loss - Shortly after counseling crewmember Janet Brooks over the loss of her husband, Troi begins to experience severe pain, and at the same time, the Enterprise is suddenly unable to go to warp speed.

11) Data's Day - Data records his observations of an average day in the Enterprise to be relayed to Dr. Bruce Maddox, a Federation cyberneticist who once wanted to disassemble Data to learn about how he worked.

12) The Wounded - Captain Maxwell of the Phoenix has severed contact with Starfleet and he has been raiding the vessels of Cardassians, a race once at war with the Federation but now peaceful under a treaty.

13) Devil's Due - The Enterprise arrives at Ventax III to retrieve a Federation anthropological team, only to discover that the planet is in a state of chaos and the team has been taken hostage by the Ventaxians.

14) Clues - The Enterprise goes through a wormhole that appears without warning and renders everyone but Data unconscious. As the rest of the crew investigates what happened, they begin to discover that someone's keeping secrets from everyone i.e., Data.

15) First Contact - Riker, having undergone surgery to look like a Malcorian beams down to Malcor III to coordinate other surgically disguised observers, is injured in a riot and taken to a hospital, where Malcorian doctors figure he is not one of them.

16) Galaxy's Child - Geordi is delighted to welcome Dr. Leah Brahms aboard the Enterprise, having already gotten to know through the holodeck in the past. But the real Dr. Brahms is nothing like her holodeck alter ego.

17) Night Terrors - The missing starship Brittain is found by the Enterprise and the away team finds that the entire crew of the Brittain went berserk and murdered each other, leaving a Betazoid who can't speak and whose telepathic "ramblings" to Troi are puzzling.

18) Identity Crisis - Starfleet officers who were on an away team five years ago investigating a mysterious migration of previous explorers to the planet Tarchannen III are beginning to mutate into aliens and migrate to the planet themselves.

19) The nth Degree - Lt. Barclay accompanies Geordi on an away mission and after being scanned, Barclay receives a massive mental "upgrade."

20) Qpid - Q turns Picard and his away team into Robin Hood, and his merry men, Q becomes Guy of Gisbourne, and Vash, is the damsel in distress.

21) The Drumhead - After an apparent sabotage of the Enterprise's warp drive committed by Klingon exchange officer, Starfleet sends Admiral Nora Satie out of retirement to investigate the possibility of a Klingon faction cooperating with the Romulans.

22) Half A Life - Kalon scientist Dr. Timicin is due back on Kalon II so he may carry out a ceremony in which one ends one's life by painless suicide at sixty. Lwaxana tries to convince him to continue living.

23) The Host - Riker risks his own life to serve as a temporary host for a Trill to aid in stopping a war between two moons.

24) The Mind's Eye - En route to an artificial intelligence conference on Risa, Geordi, is kidnapped by Romulans, who send a "copy" to Risa. Under the supervision of a female Romulan who remains in shadows at all times, Geordi is tortured and brainwashed to obey, through his VISOR

25) In Theory - During the Enterprise's investigation of a dark-matter nebula, Lt. Jenna D'Sora, recently having broken up with a longtime boyfriend, becomes attached to Data.

26) Redemption (Part 1) - The Enterprise is summoned to the Klingon home world so Picard may fulfill his final duty as arbiter of the succession of power there. Worf resigns from Starfleet. A Romulan officer shows up from the who bears a very strong resemblance to Tasha Yar.

The third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation laid a new foundation for the series and season four does nothing but continue right where season three left off with more great plot development and story telling. In season four we saw the return of K'Ehlyr accompanied by Worf's son. Season four continued to elaborate on plot elements concerning the Klingon empire that were laid down in Sins of the Father in season three. The season built up to the major conflict with the episodes Reunion, Data's Day, The Mind's Eye, and brings it all to a climax in Redemption: Part I. This season also has a direct effect on many of the plot elements in Deep Space Nine in the episode "The Wounded". There is also a new villain introduced that has yet another direct link to season three, however, that is not brought to light until the second part of the season ending cliffhanger in Season five. A huge underlying theme in the fourth season is family. A great season of continued excellence and not the last.

Personal Favorite Episodes:

The Best of Both Worlds: Part II, Family, Brothers, Reunion, Data's Day, The Wounded, Clues, The Nth Degree, QPid, The Drumhead, The Mind's Eye, Redemption: Part I.

The third season finale,The Best Of Both Worlds Pt 1 make the viewers wait in anticipation for the following season.Although Pt II was somewhat of a letdown,the fourth season was no less than a success.
Classic episodes,including Family,The Drumhead,Reunion,Data's Day,Q-pid,The Host,and the season finale,Redemption ,measured up easily with the best of the original series.
The fact that it reached it's 80th episode(passing TOS's 79 episode run),showed that TNG was a force to be reckoned with.

The fourth season of TNG begins with the rescue of Picard from the Borg collective, and ends with Worf leaving the Federation to join his people during the Klingon Civil War. In between these two landmark shows, lies a fourth season drenched with superior stories and consistently good character development. Star Trek really established itself in the third season and it never looks back as we go forward through the fourth. I liked this season only slightly less than the third, only because of a couple of episodes I didn't care much for. I didn't like "Remember Me," and "In Theory." Data falling in love was good for a subplot, but not the main story. Still, we get top-notch entertainment as the crew continues to explore places no one has gone before. High-lights include, "Reunion," "The Drumhead," "Qpid," "The Mind's Eye," "First Contact," "Clues," and "Future Imperfect." We meet Tasha Yar's sister in, "Legacy." We meet Data's father in, "Brothers." Also, while the Klingons and Romulans still play vital parts, we finally meet the devious Cardassians in, "The Wounded," where O'Brien finally has his moment to shine. All and all, this is a superb DVD set and I highly recommend it to any fan, whether you are a diehard Trekor or just getting started.

This is a must-have set for die-hard Trekkies. It's even a good bet for those of us who'd rather go naked down Main Street than be seen in a Trek uniform at a TrekCon (but that's just me.) The reason I like this set so much is for the conclusion of the Borg cliffhanger "Best of Both Worlds II" and the following episode "Brothers" which reveals much about Picard and is a touching story of family conflict that transcends the science fiction genre.

More of the lesser characters are fleshed out in episodes here, adding to the richness of the storyline. And some of the episodes are purely fabulous Science Fiction, like "Night Terrors." This is excellence in TV Sci-Fi filming and we never tire of watching these.

There are some false notes: Q'pid (rhymes with Stupid) is a shameless attempt on the part of the studio to promote a second-rate Robin Hood film that was being marketed at that time. As if they didn't get enough licks in then, they include MORE background on Q'pid in the DVD extras. ...However, there is SO much more good stuff on this DVD set I could possibly vote for the fourth year as "Best Season Ever" even if Q'pid vies for "Worst Episode, Ever" along with a few clunkers in Seasons I and II.

With season two, TNG began to hit their stride. While some of the episodes from season one were tentative and awkward, there were very few missteps by the time of seasons three and four. Despite comments posted in other reviews (about the great but very different DS9 for one), there was considerable character growth. TNG focused on a ship that went to a variety of port of calls; this gave the show a focus on external stories. DS9 on the other hand focused on the internal conflicts because of the more static environment. Both are outstanding shows with very different approaches to their material.

The story arcs in TNG began around the second season and, although they aren't quite as convoluted as DS9, TNG didn't really lend itself to those type of stories. Season four opened with a fantastic conclusion to The Best of Both Worlds. This conclusion to one of the series early arcs (begun in the last episode of the first season, continued on in season two in one episode and carried further forward during season three with two pivotal episodes. Season four saw the conclusion to the cliff hanger and at least two episodes that built on the previous stories as Picard tried to deal with what had happened to him)is both powerful and dramatic. It really could have been carried over to a third episode.

The picture quality is outstanding (an improvement over season one and two). The extras have improved as well. For those fans disappointed with seasons one and two, three and four are a great place to start.

Starts out with the second half of the cliffhanger with the borg.Dr. Crusher returns and Wesley Crusher leaves for Star Fleet Academy.The season finishes up with another cliffhanger concerning the Klingon leadership.

After the splendid third season, which kept most people wanting more after the season finale, the fourth season rolled along smoothly with high expectations from viewers. The basis of "character-development over action" was greatly improved upon and put to more use here, even though there are some great action episodes.

The fourth season got to a tremendous start with many action-packed and essential episodes:
1) "THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, PART II. Like the first part, that episode has great music, action, acting, plot, and suspense. Although the first part os just a tad bit better, the second part has all you expect from a borg episode: Spaceship fights, good special effects, stuff exploding, phaser fights, etc.
2) "REUNION." (The second episode out of four in the Worf saga) After Sins of the Father, what I consider to be the first part in the rough quadrilogy involving Worf, came "REUNION," which is even better than the first part. Worf's girlfriend comes back (along with his unexpected son) and so do many characters from the "SINS OF THE FATHER" as Worf must confront old enemies and try to gain back his honor. Directed by Jonathan Frakes, this episode has great special effects, good acting, and a great fight at the end. Bring on the third part!
3) "REMEMBER ME." A great episode which emphasizes on Dr. Crusher. Although this episode is not really known for its action, it does have cool concepts and great suspense.

After those ground-breaking episdoes, there were more character-based and humorous episodes.

1) "DATA'S DAY." I can't say enough about how great this episode is. All of the characters have funny lines, Chief O'Brien gets married, and of course anything with DATA in the title has to be good.
2) "BROTHERS." Yet another Data episode, this brought back Lore and his creator, Noonien Singh. The chemistry between the characters is great in thie episode. Brent Spiner plays THREE roles, all on screen at the same time.
3) "Q-PID." Any episode with Q in the title has be good, and this one is great. The Trek crew goes on a Robin Hood adventure. Worf has some great lines in the episode.
4) "THE MIND'S EYE." A Trek remake of The Manchurian Candidate, this episode emphasizes on La Forge and shows he CAN say some great lines of dialogue besides techno-babble.
5) "FAMILY." Here we meet Worf's adoptive parents and Picard's brother. Some great scenes in this episode, especially the mud fight between Picard andhis brother.
6) "THE NTH DEGREE." This episdoe features Lt. Barclay in antoerh humorous episode, though it's a bit more complicated that the last Barclay episode.
7) "IN THEORY." This is (another) a great Data episode. Basically, he puruses a relationship with a female officer aboard the Enterprise. A very funnny episode that shows that Data is NOT gay.
8) "FINAL MISSION." A great episode which bases on Wesely Crusher and Picard. Will Wheaton is great in this episode.

The season ended with a great cliffhanger: "REDEMPTION." The third part in the Worf quadrilogy, this episdoe retunrs old characters from "SINS OF THE FATHER" and Worf conintues his quest to restore his family honor. Worf's brother also makes another appearance. Filled with great special effects, action, and acting, it will have you biting your nails until you get the second part on the fifth season gift set. Also features a great ending and a Tasha Yar connection through her alternate demise in "YESTERDAY'S ENTERPRISE."

All in all, better than season 3 but will still be surpassed by season 5.

1990-1991; 21 hours; All episodes are rated PG for mild violence and brief language.

I love the ST:TNG cast, but when it originally aired I never did get to see all of the episodes. I can't rate just one season, because all the years it spent on the air I have enjoyed. I purchased this collection for two reasons: (a) I can watch ALL the episodes in chronological order [as they aired], and (b) so that I can watch it again and again. The bonus features that are included with the boxed sets adds to the interest I have in the show. Some people may not enjoy behind the scenes featurettes because it could detract the excitement of the story, but it's the opposite for me -- it adds to the enjoyment.

Because the collection is distributed on DVD it will display great picture quality as I'm sure the producers intended to be. It also won't wear down as quickly as tapes do, which is a good thing for those who like to watch and watch and watch until it's engrained into the subconscious. I think it's worth the money spent.