Product Description

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/22/2009

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #265 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2009-09-22
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 522 minutes

Customer Reviews

Tremendous Quality and Value - TNG arrives in serious style on Blu-Ray
I just received my TNG Blu-Ray set from Amazon. After the TOS set, which had a decidedly mixed quality, I was ready to give this set some tough scrutiny. Happily, I can report that A/V quality is superior to the previous set, and the extras and packaging share the same quality with that set.

The films:

Generations - I find this movie to be underrated. The Intro sequence aboard the Enterprise B is just a terrific bit of continuity expanding coolness. The emotional weight of the movie is great, and although it falls into the "big villain" syndrome, the big villain is 1. played by Malcolm McDowell, 2. is realistic in his motivations and his abilities. The only failings in my book are some torpid pacing in the "Nexus" scenes, and some painful Data scenes. Still, this is a movie that I appreciate more each time I watch it.

First Contact - this is everyone's pick for "2nd best of all time" (after "Kahn" of course). I'm not going to disagree. It's got a whiz bang action story, the Borg, time travel, good continuity, and great effects. I do think the story sullies the Borg somewhat by introducing the "Queen." But, then again, she is played very well by Alice Krige. As far as time travel, while this wasn't the straw that broke the camel's back, it did probably contribute to the trend of too much time travel in Trek.

Insurrection - More like an extended episode than a movie, this film has the germ of a good sci-fi story: how much of its scruples will the Federation trade for a technology that could render humanity immortal? Unfortunately, this movie more than most falls prey to the "big villain" syndrome, with an extremely irritating antagonist, the Sona. There is some good fan service, however, with Troi and Riker finally getting together for good. I'd rate this along with some of the so-so two parters in TNG's TV run.

Nemesis - Ah, Nemesis. The film that "killed the franchise." The one which necessitated a "Reboot." The one which pooped on several characters and even a few races. This movie is riddled with problems from concept through to execution. It ret-cons the Romulans and adds the "Remans." It brings back Wesley as a Starfleet lieutenant, even though he dropped out of the academy to cross dimensions with the Traveler. It introduces Data's retarded brother "B-4," even though this is specifically contradicted by several TNG episodes. It shamelessly rips off a TNG episode in which Troi is mentally assaulted. It posits an outlandish clone plot with Captain Picard, as if the Romulans could both obtain his DNA several decades ago and anticipate its usefulness in the future. It kills a main character for no apparent reason. About the only thing worthwhile in this film is the wedding of Troi and Riker. The more I see this film, the angrier I get at the complete lack of care that went into its making.

The Blu-Rays:

Unlike the TOS set, the video quality of these 4 films is in general extremely good, and at times spectacular. Though there is a tiny bit of edge enhancement visible at times (Especially on the sailboat in Generations), Digital Noise Reduction is not obtrusive at any point. Detail is extremely strong for the most part, and colors are absolutely vibrant. Black levels are deep and strong, but detail in shadows is still evident. You will want to be sure to check the calibration of your brightness, contrast, and gamma, to get the most from these films (for those without a disc like AVE, try the THX calibrator on "Star Wars" DVDs for some good brightness/contrast patterns).

I would say First Contact is the best transfer of the bunch, but truthfully, all of the final three films are competitive with the upper tier of Blu-Rays on the market today. Only Generations shows its age a bit, but it still looks very good - better than all but ST2 in the TOS set. Insurrection and Nemesis betray a bit of color banding in clouds and space scenes, but it is not oppressive. Some standout scenes from all the films in terms of visual quality: Data and Geordi discussing the emotion chip (Generations). The opening pull-back in First Contact. The establishing shot of the Baku homeworld in Insurrection (known as a torture test for 3:2 pulldown on DVD).

Audio is presented in a set of aggressive 5.1 channel Dolby TrueHD mixes. All of them work well, with lots of surround action, deep bass, and clear dialogue.

Packaging is identical to the previous set, with a slipcase and 5 slim BD cases. Art and inserts are all tasteful and good-looking.

Extras include a plethora of commentaries. The most interesting of these are Ron D. Moore and Brannon Braga on Generations and First Contact, and Jonathan (Riker) Frakes and Marina (Troi) Sirtis on Insurrection. Most of the films have multiple commentaries, some have three! The same amount of detail goes into the extras on each film as did the previous set, with most discs recapitulating all of the DVD extras and adding some new ones (such as the execrable "Starfleet Briefings" from the TOS set). Like the previous set, trailers include the 2009 Trek film and a promo for all the recent Trek Blu-Rays. Thankfully, these are skippable.

As far as deleted scenes go, it seems that the DVD extras have been replicated for Blu-Ray. The most interesting are for Nemesis, the deleted scenes being excised "character bits" including "Wesley's New Mission" and "Crusher At Starfleet Medical" that would have made this film feel a lot less generic. Why Paramount has not authorized an extended edition with this material edited into the film is beyond me. It would certainly take some of the bad taste out of true Trekkies' mouths that their favorite characters got short shrift. Unfortunately, all are presented in non-anamorphic 480p, so they look terrible, for the most part.

The main extra is the bonus Blu-Ray, with 77 minutes of new HD documentary footage split into 7 programs. These include investigations into the evolution of the Enterprise, a spotlight on villains, a piece on the movies' influence on fans and Trek creators, an interactive map of the Trek Galaxy, and three (?!) pieces on the Star Trek Experience from Las Vegas. The Enterprise and Villains segments are the best (though still not very good), and I wish they had been expanded and improved. The other pieces are a bit more frivolous. All told, it's definitely not as impressive as the interview disc from the TOS set, but it still should entertain fans at least marginally.

Summary:

For this price, a Trek fan really can't go wrong with this set. You're getting 4 feature films (two great movies, one good one, and one stinker) with loads of special features and a full disc of (so-so) HD extras. The A/V quality is almost uniformly spectacular, especially in comparison with the TOS set. As far as I'm concerned, this is a must buy for a Trekkie/Trekker with an HD setup. Worth every penny.

The final four - Nice but Not an Essential Upgrade
The final bloc of old school Trek films hits Blu-Ray with surprisingly few differences from the standard DVDs. There are no "directors cuts" or variations to make this set a must buy. At the same time, there's little here to make one annoyed at the possibility of a later, better release. Unless Paramount decided to include finished deleted scenes via branching next time around, this is pretty much it. Unless you are bugged by the DNR. Some people are. I'm not since these are the nicest I've seen the films since their first run. However, since they are all recent films, there's little to get excited about in that area. Sounds quality is excellent, I didn't notice anything negative there either.

One really nice thing: they FINALLY provided the trailers to Generations. For some reason, Paramount pulled them at the last minute from the SE DVDs, siting music rights issues (does this make any sense?). Also, the final Nemesis trailer is included on that disc, rather than just the teaser trailer.

Speaking of trailers, the final Star Trek (2009) trailer is on every disc. It is the best of the three trailers, but did we need it on EVERY disc? You can skip right to the menu if you like, and it IS a very nice piece of film. But there you go.

Insurrection was of interest to me as I was excited to finally have a director's commentary by Jonathan Frakes. The SD DVD was lacking one, and since I really enjoyed the First Contact commentary by Frakes, which was informative as well as hysterical, the lack of one on the DVD was a bummer. Becareful what you wish for. Frakes is here, this time partnered with Marina Sirtis. Sadly, it is utterly worthless. She remembers NOTHING about the film and continually asks inane questions about the plot, like a kid seeing it for the first time. Frakes is no better, dropping comments which tell us nothing about the making of the film. Some of it is amusing, particularly when he rags on Sirtis for not remembering a single plot point about the film, but there's a lot of dead air waiting for them to watch more movie before speaking. It's less than two hours; couldn't they watch it once before doing the commentary to refresh the old memory? It's not like Sirtis has a full acting schedule these days. The rest of the time Frakes reads cast and crew credits ("Marty Hornstein...nice guy. Bill Teddmann - rest his soul.") or makes jokes about how great his work is (he's a really funny guy, but this was not worth having on the disc).

However, there are one or two moments of refreshing honesty, particularly when Frakes comments on the "British Tar" bit ("this is a long way to go for a gag") and how the ending bugs him, when Data and Artim are in the haystacks ("this is too cute by half"). Otherwise, mostly pointless. There isn't even an alternate commentary like with the other films.

There is relatively little of interest in the new for Blu-Ray features. I found the round table discussions between fans (Larry Nemecek, Jeff Bond, etc.) to be less interesting than I expected. The closing of the Star Trek Experience was both touching and wacko. Do NOT show that to anyone who thinks Trekkies need to get a life and you are trying to convince otherwise. I mean, I hated to see it close too, but I got over it once I left the airport...

Much as I enjoy every Trek film, I didn't get the same excitement with this set as I did the originals. Probably because I wasn't getting versions unavailable since the theatrical run and also because nothing overy exciting was added to the mix. I would love to have seen all of the deleted scenes for Generations and Nemesis finished, rather than work prints (especially since they WERE finished in many cases). The Generations deleted scenes aren't even in anamorphic w/s.

Anyway, I didn't mind the triple dip. I paid only $50 at Best Buy for the 4 movies on BD, which comes to a mere $12.50 per film (less if you count the bonus disc, but I consider it a freebie - since I'd never buy it separately). The clarity and sound are much better than standard DVD and since they are pretty recent films, the change isn't that crazy.

Honestly, if you DON'T have a Blu-Ray player, don't worry about it over this set. Aside from the trailers for Generations and Nemesis, you're not missing much. And you can see the trailers on YouTube anytime you like. :-) And if you don't want all of the films, some of them are being released separately. They'll all come out individually, I'm sure. The box set comes with slim cases with sleeves much like the TOS films. The individual BDs are the standard cases with nicer covers. I really an not fond of that, but there you have it.

The theatrical voyages of The Next Generation" crew--looks really good some new extras
Review for Blu-ray only.

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"Star Trek: The Next Generation" had a mixed series of films released in the wake of the end of the TV show. This terrific Blu-ray set brings us all four films looking from extremely good to terrific looking. "Star Trek Generations" acted as a transition film between the original cast and the STTNG crew.

Soren (Malcolm McDowell)hijacks material from the Romulans to cause a sun to go nova. His purpose to alter the course of an energy ribbon where one can exist in almost a fantasy world and going backward and forward in time. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart)must face off against Soren and uses the help of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) to stop Soren, save a populated planet and his own crew from death so Soren can relive his own past.

While hardly perfect, "Generations" features a complex almost sympathetic villian as portrayed by McDowell. The Blu-ray looks extremely good with nice inky blacks, solid detail and a crisp image that doesn't suffer from overprocessing like some of the original "Star Trek" films did when they came to Blu-ray.

Extras include a marvelous commentary track by co-writer Ronald Moore ("Battlestar Galatica")and Brannon Braga ("Threshold") as well as a new commentary track by "Enterprise" co-producer/writer and "Odyssey 5" creator Manny Cotot (also "24") and director David Carson. There's also deleted scenes as well as a visual dictionary giving you definitions for many of the things in the film and about the "Trek" universe.

The best film in the series "Star Trek: First Contact" allows Picard and his crew to engage the Borg the best villian introduced on "Star Trek: The Next Generation". Picard discovers that the Borg plan on assimilating humanity in the past while at their most vunerable. Picard and the Enterprise crew survive the change of the future and travel to the past to undo the damage they've done in their attempt to prevent the first flight of Zephram Cochran (James Cromwell). Data must resist the advances of the Borg Queen (Alice Krige in a brilliant performance) who tries to use him to take over the Enterprise.

Featuring exceptional direction by cast member Jonathan Frakes "First Contact" also benefits from a first rate script by Braga and Moore again. The films allow us to see a darker side to Picard's character developing a literary parallel with Melville's MOBY DICK. The entire cast does a terrific job with the material and brings humor, pathos and a stronger sense of humanity to the characters in the film.

The extras are exceptional here. It appears that the original extras have been ported over along with a new commentary track by the writer of J.J. Abrams' next "Star Trek" film Damon Lindelof ("Lost") and Anthony Pascale that compliments Brannon and Moore's insightful, trivia filled commentary track that gives us insight into the writing process for the film. We get the majority of the special features ported over from the original (many of them in SD)including the visual effects featurettes. We also get "Industrial Light and Magic-The Next Generation", "Greetings from the International Space Station", "Spaceship One's Historic Flight","Data & Beyond", "Trek Roundtable" discussing the "Next Generation" films as well as "Library Computer" and "Star Trek IQ" with the last available only via BD Live.

"Star Trek: Insurrection" the third film fell back into TV territory in terms of scope and story. That's not a bad thing but the theatrical version of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" needed to break free of its TV origins with bigger, broader stories. Where "Insurrection" falls down is a smaller character driven story the late Michael Piller ("The Dead Zone", "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") and producer Rick Berman. Director Jonathan Frakes makes the best of his material and Piller's screenplay does provide us with plenty of "character" moments that stand out in the film. The terrific character actor Anthony Zerbe("The Omega Man", "Matrix Revolutions") and Oscar winning actor F. Murray Abraham ("Amadeus")make the best of their roles. Abraham tries to chew the scenery appropriate given that his villian SHOULD be larger-than-life but he just doesn't have the material here. The film looks exceptionally good with a colorful and sharp BD transfer.

While Data is away observing an alien civilization called the Ba'ku he goes bananas revealing the observation station and not responding to commands. Picard and the Enterprise are called upon to help shut him down and discover a conspiracy to remove the Ba'ku from their planet.

The extras here are feature the original DVD materials ported over along with new material as well including a goofy, endearing if hardly informative commentary by Frakes and actress Marina Sirtis. Sirtis apparently remembers very little about the shooting of the film. We also get "Trek Roundtable" again discussing "Insurrection", "Origins of the Ba'Ku and Son'a Conflict", "Marina Sirtis: The Counselor is In" and the third part of "Data and Beyond". Again, we get "Library Computer" (not my favorite special feature) and "ST:IQ" as a BD-Live extra.

I never understood the hate directed against "Star Trek: Nemesis". It's probably the second best film in the series with a strong performance by actor Tom Hardy, Ron Perlman playing a creature once again and the examination of a number of terrific themes including family, mortality and the path not taken. The transfer itself looks extremely good if a tad overprocessed--I suspect it was pulled from an earlier HD master where a large amount of noise reduction was used as detail isn't quite as sharp although it still looks better than the DVD.

I can only surmise that the sometimes generic action direction of Stuart Baird and lack of character moments (an important element to a "Trek" film)contributed to this feeling. That along with the fact that the film is a bit revisionist--there's never been a mentionof the Romulus' sister planet Remus nor of the "slaves" working there. The other sore point for some is the fact that B-4 was introduced when most fans know that Lore was Data's prototype. Baird a talented editor elected to remove most of the character moments that endear these films to Trek fans. Those scenes are included in SD in pretty bad quality in most instances. The original extra from the two disc set are included. The screenplay by "Gladiator" writer John Logan (who also wrote "The Time Machine" remake)has a number of marvelous set pieces but it fails to add up and doesn't quite hold together as well as "First Contact".

The new extras include a commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda, HD featurettes including "Reuion with The Rikers", "Today's Tech, Tomorrow's Data", the last part of "Data and Beyond" with Brent Spiner, another "Trek Roundtable" about the film, "Robot Hall of Fame" and a "Starfleet Academy" piece on "Thalaron Radiation".

As with the other "Star Trek" boxed set we get an "extra" disc with plenty of HD content including interviews with "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" & "Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country" director Nicholas Meyer, the writers of J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci discussing the villians in the "Trek" universe. We also get an intersting documentary on "The Evolution of The Enterprise".

Overall, this is a very good set with two exceptionally good movies, two entertaining if less than brilliant "Trek" excursions (you decide which is which), plenty of new BD high def material, a bit of BD exclusive material and the original extras ported over from the two disc DVDs from a couple of years back. The transfers look from very good to exceptional.

"Generations" 3 1/2 stars, "First Contact" 5 stars, "Insurrection" 2 1/2 stars, "Nemesis"...well you decide what you want to give it.