Product Description

26 episodes on 7 discs: 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3427 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2002-12-03
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 7
• Dimensions: 1.15 pounds
• Running time: 1177 minutes

Amazon.com
As the sixth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation went into production, everyone knew that attentions would soon be permanently divided by the debut of Deep Space Nine. Sure enough, that meant crossovers ("Birthright"), guest stars, and references back and forth. The sense of baton-passing drew the TNG family closer, however. Directorial debuts begun in season 5 allowed for repeat group-huddle ownership of several shows. Jonathan Frakes bettered "The Quality of Life" by "The Chase," which finally offered an explanation why most races in the Trek universe are humanoid with knobbly foreheads. Patrick Stewart crowbarred a Western into the franchise in "A Fistful of Datas." LeVar Burton introduced the far more exciting Riker clone Thomas in "Second Chances." But here we still find an inability to follow through a good idea, since it was intended for the clone Tom to replace the real Will. Barclay outstayed his welcome with a lackluster "Ship in a Bottle" (despite a hammy cameo from Stephanie Beacham) after he'd injected creepiness into "Realm of Fear." The same happened with Q and the painfully weak "True Q" contrasted by the philosophically challenging "Tapestry," in which Picard faced the decisions of his youth.

Yet ultimately the year provided more memorable moments than either year 5 did or year 7 would. There was the fun of a pint-sized Starfleet in "Rascals," the shocking comment on political torture in "Chain of Command," the endless Matrix-like guessing game of reality in "Frame of Mind," and even a jokey genre nod often called "Die Hard Picard" instead of its official title, "Starship Mine." The two biggest attention-drawing moments came via stellar cameos. There was the bittersweet sight of James Doohan revisiting the original Enterprise bridge on "Relics," then a quick contribution by Stephen Hawking in the cliffhanger "Descent." Both were attempts at keeping TNG the connoisseur's Trek incarnation of choice. --Paul Tonks

Customer Reviews

STNG Season Six - STNG's Best overall season!
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

Some good, but contrived, episodes
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

EASILY the best TNG season ever. And I mean that.
Alright some people say that Seasons 3-5 were the best. I beg to differ. I, along with the producers and the cast of the show agree that Season 6 had the most solid line-up of episodes in any season. There wasn't hardly one episode in this season that was a stinker. The only episode that I really didn't care for was "Man of the People." The rest were just superb. Granted a few were a bit contrived or a bit lsow-paced at times, but for the most part, every episode in this season showcased just how good TNG had become.

For example, there were several good Klingon, and this time, Romulan shows. "Face of the Enemy" along with "Timescape" were probably some of the best Romulan episodes in the entire series. In "Rightful Heir" we meet Kahless, the legendary Klingon leader from years past. In "Birthright Part II", we have a somewhat weak attempt at Worf showing a bunch of Klingon prisoners what it means to be Klingon after years of captivity under Romulans. Season 6 also integrates the Cardassians a little better since DS9 started up this same time, with episodes, "Chain of Command, I & II" and "The Chase". And then of course the season ending cliff-hanger "Descent" deals with the "individuality" Borgs led by Lore.

However even the non-classic adversary episodes are nice strong Trek-ish stories involving the growing Trek universe.

"Second Chances" introduces us to William Riker's twin clone "Tom Riker" which was Levar Burton's directing debut. Be sure and watch the extras on Disc 7 for more info on this episode.

But anyway, I would recommend Season 6 to anyone who wants to see just how great TNG really was.