Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 (1994)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Starring Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Levar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, and Brent Spiner

Features:

• “Mission Overview” for Season 7
  
• “A Captain’s Tribute” interview with Stewart
  
• Production department featurette
  
• Series highlights
  
• Making of “All Good Things” featurette
  
• Deep Space 9 preview
  

Rating: NR, suitable for most audiences

Anamorphic: N/A

My advice: Own it, budget be damned.

Despite a bumpy beginning and a multitude of naysayers that said it would never last a season, The Next Generation not only managed to last as long as the original series, but to outlast it, by several seasons. But with thoughts turning towards motion pictures and another pair of shows in the offing, the creators of the show thought it perhaps to quit while they were ahead. Thus, the show’s seventh season would be its last.

Not interested in coasting through to the finish line, however, the creators and cast stepped up and created an incredibly solid set of episodes, containing some of the finest moments in the series, and closed on a finale that left the show with its dignity and its artistic integrity intact.

Continuing the tradition of inaugurating a new cast member at the helm, Season 7 puts Gates McFadden (better known as Dr. Beverly Crusher) in the director’s chair for “Genesis,” as a bizarre disease sets the crew backwards in evolution several millennia. The episode features some of the most elaborate make-up work ever done for the show, as well.

Other highlights of the season include an exploration of Jordi’s family in “Interface,” and the final resolution of the long-standing questions about Wesley Crusher’s unusual gifts and remarkable destiny in “Journey’s End.” But the entire season pales in comparison with the series finale. “All Good Things” extracts some of the finest performances not only of this show’s cast, but one (Stewart’s) that should have received some attention from the awards committees.

Aside from the quality programming, the extras in the set are what we’ve come to expect from a Star Trek DVD collection. The mission overview and production department featurettes are standard fare for the season sets, full of details of the show’s conception and execution. The “captain’s tribute” is an excellent piece, wherein Stewart provides his personal reflections on the members of the principal cast members, and speaks about the friendships he formed with each of them over the show’s seven-year run.

Pick this set up. Any fan of science fiction will find episodes here that appeal to their particular tastes. The acting is top-rate, the stories are well-written, and the extra features bring enough additional value to the party to help you get over the sticker shock.