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Star Trek The Next Generation - The Complete Sixth Season

Star Trek The Next Generation - The Complete Sixth Season

List Price: $139.99
Your Price: $111.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: TNG Sixth Season: The Plateau
Review: One of the neatest things about these DVD sets are the documentaries. I haven't mentioned them in my reviews up to this point and that is a failure on my part. I mention them now because I was somewhat disappointed in the sixth season extras as opposed to the extras on the previous five box sets. I'm only grumbling because the bonus material included a trailer for DS9, which is not my favorite Trek series. It also contained a trailer for Star Trek Nemesis. Obviously it was meant to be viewed before the movie came out, but I've already seen the movie and was angry that Paramount wasted good DVD space on a trailer for such a mediocre movie. Still, the profile on Data was great and as always, its nice to see the insights that the writers, directors and producers give us into the episodes. In one of the documentaries, someone mentioned that the sixth season of TNG was their best season ever. I disagree with this assertion. I've always championed seasons three and four as being top quality. Still, the sixth season delivered consistently superior drama and contained fewer clunkers than did the fifth season. We started out with the worst of the two-parters, "Time's Arrow," and continued with the mediocre, "Realm of Fear," but after that, the season took off with the arrival of Scotty. It was a delight to see Spock make his appearance and it was equally fun for me as an original series fan to see Scotty again in the episode, "Relics." It was also nostalgic to see the old Enterprise bridge. Q makes two appearances in this season in, "True Q," and "Tapestry." In the former, we get to see a slightly softer side of Q as he tries to mentor a young girl who discovers she has the power of the Q. "Tapestry," is one of my all-time favorite Trek episodes because we learn more of Picard's past and Q teaches him a harsh lesson about life. This is De Lancie and Stewart at their best! Worf also confronts his past in the two-part, "Birthright," when he journeys to a Romulan prison camp to find his father. Troi also sees more action when she goes undercover as a Romulan officer in, "Face of the Enemy." It is worth noting that Spock's Romulan underground movement is mentioned in this episode. Unfortunately, this would be the last time we see a major plot thread involving the Romulans. We also see the continuing plot thread involving the Klingon Empire come to an end in, "Rightful Heir," as a new leader challenges Gowron as ruler of the Klingon world. We would hear of the Klingons and Romulans again in later seasons of Deep Space Nine, but DS9 never did justice to them as TNG did. Other gems include "The Quality of Life," "The Chase," "Rascals," "Aquiel," "Frame of Mind," and "A Fist Full of Datas." The only clunkers worth noting are "Second Chances," and "Realm of Fear." Many other reviewers have mentioned, "Chain of Command," and I think this was probably the best offering of the sixth season. Watching Riker clash with a new captain of the Enterprise was classic, but the most riveting drama came as Picard was tortured by a Cardassian officer, played by Trek veteran David Warner. It was interesting to note that Patrick Stewart did research on torture before performing in this episode. Finally, unlike the previous season, the finale of "Descent," was another great cliffhanger. Its always fun when Lore appears to provide the psychotic counterpart to Data's cool presence. Throw Lore in league with a group of renegade Borg and you can't help but have suspense at its best. All and all, the sixth season of TNG is a great addition to anyone's collection. I would not recommend it to beginners, only because many plot threads are more easily understood after viewing previous seasons.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: TNG Sixth Season: The Plateau
Review: One of the neatest things about these DVD sets are the documentaries. I haven't mentioned them in my reviews up to this point and that is a failure on my part. I mention them now because I was somewhat disappointed in the sixth season extras as opposed to the extras on the previous five box sets. I'm only grumbling because the bonus material included a trailer for DS9, which is not my favorite Trek series. It also contained a trailer for Star Trek Nemesis. Obviously it was meant to be viewed before the movie came out, but I've already seen the movie and was angry that Paramount wasted good DVD space on a trailer for such a mediocre movie. Still, the profile on Data was great and as always, its nice to see the insights that the writers, directors and producers give us into the episodes. In one of the documentaries, someone mentioned that the sixth season of TNG was their best season ever. I disagree with this assertion. I've always championed seasons three and four as being top quality. Still, the sixth season delivered consistently superior drama and contained fewer clunkers than did the fifth season. We started out with the worst of the two-parters, "Time's Arrow," and continued with the mediocre, "Realm of Fear," but after that, the season took off with the arrival of Scotty. It was a delight to see Spock make his appearance and it was equally fun for me as an original series fan to see Scotty again in the episode, "Relics." It was also nostalgic to see the old Enterprise bridge. Q makes two appearances in this season in, "True Q," and "Tapestry." In the former, we get to see a slightly softer side of Q as he tries to mentor a young girl who discovers she has the power of the Q. "Tapestry," is one of my all-time favorite Trek episodes because we learn more of Picard's past and Q teaches him a harsh lesson about life. This is De Lancie and Stewart at their best! Worf also confronts his past in the two-part, "Birthright," when he journeys to a Romulan prison camp to find his father. Troi also sees more action when she goes undercover as a Romulan officer in, "Face of the Enemy." It is worth noting that Spock's Romulan underground movement is mentioned in this episode. Unfortunately, this would be the last time we see a major plot thread involving the Romulans. We also see the continuing plot thread involving the Klingon Empire come to an end in, "Rightful Heir," as a new leader challenges Gowron as ruler of the Klingon world. We would hear of the Klingons and Romulans again in later seasons of Deep Space Nine, but DS9 never did justice to them as TNG did. Other gems include "The Quality of Life," "The Chase," "Rascals," "Aquiel," "Frame of Mind," and "A Fist Full of Datas." The only clunkers worth noting are "Second Chances," and "Realm of Fear." Many other reviewers have mentioned, "Chain of Command," and I think this was probably the best offering of the sixth season. Watching Riker clash with a new captain of the Enterprise was classic, but the most riveting drama came as Picard was tortured by a Cardassian officer, played by Trek veteran David Warner. It was interesting to note that Patrick Stewart did research on torture before performing in this episode. Finally, unlike the previous season, the finale of "Descent," was another great cliffhanger. Its always fun when Lore appears to provide the psychotic counterpart to Data's cool presence. Throw Lore in league with a group of renegade Borg and you can't help but have suspense at its best. All and all, the sixth season of TNG is a great addition to anyone's collection. I would not recommend it to beginners, only because many plot threads are more easily understood after viewing previous seasons.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Missing DVD
Review: Over all, I am satisified with season 6. I would have given it a higher rating but the boxed set I purchased has two DISC 5 in it and no DISC 6.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Some good, but contrived, episodes
Review: Season 6 of Star Trek the Next Generation has many middle of the road episodes with a few really strong thrillers and character episodes. Chain Of Command (with the superb David Warner from "Titanic" "The Omen" and other Star Trek episodes / films) deals with the capture and torture of Picard by the Cardassians while a new captain takes command of the Enterprise much to Riker's distain. The other 2 parter, "Birthright" is a wasted opportunity to integrate with Deep Space Nine. The 2 shows ran concurrently for 2 years yet once twice did they attempt to cross over. We really wanted to see a 3 or 4 parter with all the Next Gen / DS9 crews in the same story. "Birthright" has the Enterprise docked at DS9 while Worf spends yet another episode dealing with his family and honour.

There are less of the great episodes that we've been used to from the 3rd to 5th seasons. Face of the Enemy, Starship Mine, Second Chances, The Chase and Timescape are all good if somewhat contrived. Descent features the return of the individual Borg faction led by Data's brother Lore. It's not strong enough as a Borg episode, the feeling of them being invincible has gone from "Q Who". Every time Star Trek faces a new, deadlier enemy, several episodes later they are made out to have human values after all - which isn't the point.

Episode list:

Time's Arrow, Part II
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True-Q
Rascals
A Fistful of Datas
The Quality of Life
Chain of Command, Part I
Chain of Command, Part II
Ship in a Bottle
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright, Part I
Birthright, Part II
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent, Part I

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Star Trek TNG is the Best
Review: Star Trek TNG is the Best!
Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner are brilliant. Even though this DVD has not yet been released, I have seen all the episodes on it and I love them all!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great with some more twists
Review: Starts out with the second half of yet another cliffhanger involving a mystery centered around Data and alot of diferent kinds of plot twists and finishes up with one last clifhanger involving the Borg.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Season Of The 2 Parters
Review: The 6th season of Star Trek-TNG began on right foot with some really exciting episodes. Then in its latter half got a bit muddled. This season had the most 2 parters, of any TREK series to date. Aside from the usual resolution to the cliffhanger from the previous year, and the cliffhanger at the end, there were two more multipart stories. Some of the remaing shows were true clunkers. For the most part. TNG kept its cool though, even as the next spin-off, Deep Space 9, made its debut.

Early on, yet another original series character, bridged the generation gap. "Relics" saw the return of Captain Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) What a great episode that was. Picard's first nemesis Q (John De Lancie) made up for being absent last year with 2 appearances "True Q" and the wonderful "Tapestry" saw the charater raise the stakes a bit. Fan favorites Barclay (Dwight Shultz) and Ensign Ro (Michelle Forbes) made return trips as well. The best 2 parter though was called "Chain Of Command" It saw the Enterprise being commanded by Captain Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox) and Picard (Patrick Stewart in his best performance in the series) being kidnapped and tortured by an evil Cardassian (the great David Warner) Semi regular character Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) departed for DS9, while actress Whoppi Goldberg ended her episodic tenure as Guinan with only 3 episode appearances A "crossover" with DS9's Doctor Bashir (Alexander Sidig) fell kind of flat in "Birthright Part 1" while the 2nd half saw a klingon mishmash The year's cliffhanger missed the mark as well. Actor Levar Burton, joined fellow cast members Jonathan Frakes and Stewart, and got a directing gig with "Second Chances" Finally Leonard Nimoy's Son Adam, got a chance to follow in dad's footsteps and directed the clever "Rascals" and "Timescape"

The 7 DVD box set has about an hour's worth of feturette that discuss the 6th year in depth. The extra stuff is fashioned in the same way as it was on the other sets in the collection. Mixing old and new interview footage, nothing you see or hear on the documentaries should suprise you, if you are already a fan of the show.

Thanks to some strong shows at the start and a couple towards the end of the season, this is another recommended box set. Then again, if you have all of the other sets in the series, you didn't really need me to tell you that, did you?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Number 6, a lucky number!
Review: The best season of Trek was, by far, the sixth. IT has the second half of Time's Arrow, which is an episode that scored an Emmy for the Next Generation series. It has two two-part episodes, one of which is Chain of Command, which is not only a well-acted episode involving Cardassian brutality, but also quite subversive. Tapestry was, easily, one of the greatest episodes to involve Q. Rascals was a memorable episode in which some of the crew gets turned back into children via a transporter accident. And after all of this, it ends with Descent! A Star Trek version of World War II that uses Lore as Hitler, and Data as a sort of Mussolini with a cluster of renegade "free-thinking" borg under their command. If you save your money for just one TNG gift set, make it this one!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Sixth Season disappoints.
Review: The makers of Season 6 of STTNG were faced with a bit of a dilemma.Their STTNG script called "the storyteller" was given to DS9 despite the objections of the staff,so with a lack of scripts and a smaller budget,the answer was to make more two-parters.Unfortunately,this led to some boring and overlong stories such as the Klingon two-parter "Birthright".After the eccellence of seasons 3-5,season six was the start of the poorer storylines due to so many episodes being made for the two Trek shows.It simply isn't as entertaining as the previous seasons.STTNG also lost their lighting team to DS9 as well as writers,directors and the O'Brien character.Despite this,there are some good episodes such as the Scotty episode "Relics","Face Of The Enemy" where Troi shows her aggressive side and "Timescape" directed by Adam Nimoy(son of Leonard).But there are silly episodes like "second chances" where two Rikers argue with each other and the totally flat "Aquiel" which just doesn't work at all.For big NG fans only,season 6 is disappointing and is not as entertaining as the previous three seasons.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: STNG Season Six - STNG's Best overall season!
Review: The sixth season of this marvelous series in my opinion is the best overall, well rounded season of the entire seven year run. It is loaded with exceptional, thought provoking and heart warming episodes that resound of exceptional script writing and superb performances by the primary and guest actors. From the season opener to the closer, few episodes fall out of the "superb" category! This season is another marvelous example of Gene Roddenberry's vision.

A brief synopsis of the "stand out" episodes of this particularly great season:

Relics - This superb episode is one of the most treasured episodes of the season as Scotty makes an appearance in the twenty fourth century and is befriended by the crew of the current Enterprise.

True Q - This is another great Q episode where John de Lancie makes his first of two sixth season appearances as Q. Amanda Rogers, a young honor student is aboard the Enterprise and she is beginning to display some "Q" powers.

Rascals - This is another one of the exceptional episodes of the season where a transporter accident turns Picard, Guinan, Ro Laren and Keiko O'Brien into children. Not longer after this "accident," Ferengi end up in control of the ship. Picard and the other "rascals" must find a way to regain control of the Enterprise.

A Fistful of Datas - Star Trek meets the old west in a hilarious and quite memorable episode. Alexander convinces his father to join him on the holodeck in an "ancient" western. Unfortunately the holodeck safeties become defective when Data performs an experiment that goes awry and he becomes integrated with the holodeck, putting Worf, Troi and Alexander in danger.

Chain of Command, Parts I & II - In this exceptional two part episode Starfleet Command has a new mission for Picard and part of that plan is replacing him with the irascible Captain Edward Jellico in command of the Enterprise. While Jellico is dealing with the Cardassians, Picard's team sets off on their mission but is captured. We meet Gul Madred who is played superbly by David Warner. In some of the most heart wrenching scenes of Trek ever, we're forced to watch as Gul Madred tortures Picard.

Ship in a Bottle - In this particularly great episode, the producers bring closure to the second season episode that introduced Professor James Moriarty and his being put in computer memory.

Face of the Enemy - This episode is probably one of the best Troi episodes of the entire seven year run. She awakens and looks in the mirror only to find she looks like a Romulan. Troi finds that she must act out the role of a Tal Shiar agent and help the Romulan "unificationists" in order to hopefully get away from the Romulans.

Tapestry - In a rare second "Q" episode in one season, Q returns when Picard is injured and his artificial heart is damage beyond repair. Q begins to explore the "tapestry" of Picard's life. Q takes Picard all the way back to when a Nausicaan ran him through with a sword, causing him to get the artificial heart. Tapestry in my opinion is probably the best Q/Picard episode of the series.

Birthright Parts I & II We are treated to an excellent episode as the Enterprise is docked at Deep Space Nine and Worf is approached by a Yridian named Shrek who wishes to sell him some information about his father. Worf agrees to purchase the information as long as Shrek takes him to where his father is supposed to be alive. What followed was one of the best "Klingon" episodes ever done in Star Trek.

Lessons - For the first time in his career, Picard meets a fellow officer under his command who he becomes attracted to. This is a beautifully well written episode as we see Picard falling in love with Commander Darren and then go through gut wrenching anguish as he fears his orders may have caused her death.

The Chase - In another excellent episode, we meet Professor Galen who was one of Picard's professors at the Academy. He offers Picard the opportunity of a lifetime for an archaeologist by joining him for an extended period of time. Unfortunately he must refuse as he cannot leave the Enterprise. Not long after Professor Galen departs, he is killed and Picard embarks on a mission of the utmost importance to find what Galen was looking for. They make an astonishing discovery in the end that falls on end. Of particular note is the "humanoid" at the end of the show played by Salome Jens whose later performances on DS9 as the leader of the Changelings are spectacular.

Rightful Heir - In another one of the most outstanding "Klingon" episodes, Worf seems to have lost his faith and requests leave to go to Boreth and seek Kahless, his people's mythic spiritual leader. One can only imagine his surprise as while he's seeking Kahless, Kahless appears before him in flesh and blood.

Timescape - This is one of the more intriguing episodes as it begins with Picard, Troi, Data and LaForge returning from a conference in a runabout. While on approach to the Enterprise's position, they begin to experience some temporal pockets. They then discover the Enterprise and a Romulan Warbird frozen in the middle of what "appears" to be a battle. {ssintrepid}

Special Features:

Mission Overview: Year Six
Special Crew Profile: Lt. Commander Data
Bold New Directions
Departmental Briefing: Year Six - Production & Dan Curry Profile
Bonus Trailers: Star Trek Nemesis & Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on DVD

Episode list:

Time's Arrow, Part II
Realm of Fear
Man of the People
Relics
Schisms
True Q
Rascals
A Fistful of Datas
The Quality of Life
Chain of Command, Part I
Chain of Command, Part II
Ship in a Bottle
Aquiel
Face of the Enemy
Tapestry
Birthright, Part I
Birthright, Part II
Starship Mine
Lessons
The Chase
Frame of Mind
Suspicions
Rightful Heir
Second Chances
Timescape
Descent, Part I


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