Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4 (1990)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Series Concept by Gene Rodenberry
Starring Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Wil Wheaton, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, Levar Burton, Michael Dorn, and Marina Sirtis

Features:

• All 26 episodes of Season 4 (1990-1991)
  
• Four making-of documentaries
  
• Cast and crew interviews
  

Rating: NR, suitable for audiences 13+

Anamorphic: N/A

My Advice: Umm...you have heard of Star Trek, right? Own it.

Season 4 of Star Trek: The Next Generation continued in the character development tradition of Season 3, broadening the audience's understanding of the now fairly stable crew (though this season also marks the departure of Wil Wheaton's Wesley Crusher, so the crew wasn't quite finished changing). After concluding the two-part Borg cliffhanger from the end of the previous season (both halves of which rank among the finest episodes ever created for this or any other Trek series), this season sets about putting these characters in greater context by introducing various familial ties. While this provides some rich character history for the crew of the Enterprise, it marked a distinct departure from the "alien of the week" phase of Trek history. Experimentation with running subplots, recurring secondary characters, and new levels of intercharacter relationships made Season 4 an exciting run.

It's always difficult to peg the highlights of a show that was so consistently entertaining, but Season 4 offers a few obvious choices. The aforementioned conclusion to "The Best of Both Worlds" is phenomenal, and showcases Stewart's acting chops by putting him in the role of an emotionless member of the Borg collective. The various family episodes are all quite good, including "Family," wherein we meet Picard's brother; "Brothers," where Data and Lor are summoned by their creator for an impromptu family reunion; "Reunion," with its appearance of Worf's old flame and surprise son; and the return of Denise Crosby as the half-Romulan child of Tasha Yar in the cliffhanger "Redemption." For plain fun episodes, it's hard to top "Qpid," which sends the crew off into the legend of Robin Hood, courtesy of everyone's favorite omnipotent trickster. But Dwight Schultz does his finest in "The Nth Degree," featuring the bumbling Lieutenant Barclay.

As you might guess, there really aren't many soft spots in the season. Season 4 continued the tradition of actors moving behind the camera, with Patrick Stewart's debut directing "In Theory," and Jonathan Frakes directs "Reunion" and "The Drumhead." Season 4 also marked a couple of milestones for cast and crew, as Next Generation surpassed the length of the original series' run with episode 80, and also hit their 100th episode, cementing the future of the show in rampant syndication.

The features for Season 4 are largely the same as those for Season 3. There are featurettes that provide an overview of the season, selected cast and crew analysis of their favorite episodes, a production documentary, and an effects docu that talks about building futuristic sets and, in particular, the difficulty of creating the cataclysmic showdown with the Borg for the season opener. There's also a discussion with the show's writers about their particular favorites from the season, which actually includes quite a bit of overlap with the cast and crew's favorites, so a few of the episodes get a pretty in-depth discussion.

Again, there are no commentaries, which I would dearly love to hear (particularly on the cast-directed episodes, as the anecdotes related in the featurettes paint a picture of serious cast heckling any time one of their own stepped behind the lens). The video is flawless, as is the sound. Basically, there's very little else one could ask for in a DVD treatment of the show, aside from grubbing for more extras. Count up your pennies and pick this one up, so you can start saving for Season 5.