Review: Star Trek: The Next Generation Blu-ray (Complete Series Box Set)

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Let’s cut to the chase… If you, like me, grew up in the late 80s/early 90s, then even if you didn’t watch this show, you sure as hell knew about it. ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ did the unthinkable, and became just as iconic as its predecessor (Star Trek: The Original Series). For 7 seasons, the adventures of Captain Jean Luc Picard, and his crew on the Starship Enterprise helped give people from all walks of life a true escape from their reality.

And now, thanks to technology, finally allowing for this show to truly gleam across your modern flat screen TVs, you’ll get to enjoy what I believe to be the final iteration it will see in disc media format. Bottom line? If you haven’t seen The Next Generation in HD, then you haven’t seen it at all. It looks magnificent throughout all 7 seasons (with some exceptions I will get to later).

Now, let’s take a glance at this set’s box artwork, and the overall layout of how you’ll access each of the Blu-ray discs for seasons 1-7:

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Pictured above shows off the primary box, along with the 2 separate cases that hold the discs for seasons 1-4, as well as seasons 5-7. The nifty part is the ease of being able to obviously pull out each set of discs from their respective cases. Normally spindle cases can be flimsy at best, but from what I observed, these ones are seemingly quite sturdy! I should also point out, although not pictured here, the inside of each of the two plastic cases lists the episode breakdown per disc so you’re not flying blind.

Pictured below are some more aspects of the box art:

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That covers the look of this 50th anniversary set, but more importantly, does it deliver in terms of video, and audio quality? The answer is a resounding yes. Make no mistake, once the work was done to remaster every episode from its original film negative, along with touching up any original special effects shots where needed, one could argue this show now looks like it was shot yesterday. The main exception in terms of video quality not being quite as pristine as the other 6 seasons would be season 2’s transfer. Apparently, the remastering process for season 2 was sent out to a third party production house, and in the end I’d say you have more of an “over grainy” look to it. However, that isn’t to say it still doesn’t look far and away superior to the previous version that was of tape quality.

Overall, the number one thing you’ll notice about how good this show looks now in HD is how bright the colors of the uniforms, the lighting, and the sets radiate onto the screen like never before. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s a look at the following screen-caps I was able to track down via Trekcore.com:

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Even better, if you have a proper surround sound setup, this series has never sounded so crystal clear, particularly with the DTS 7.1 surround sound mix. And as far as the special features go, there is indeed a plethora of behind the scenes, and very current interviews with members of the cast, writing teams, and production units, etc– We’re talking hours and hours worth of added goodies that will shed some light on this show many of you have never been privy to.

I could really go on, and on, and on about the virtues of owning this set, but if you considered yourself a fan of this classic, or, if you’re interested in getting into a version of Star Trek for the first time, then you absolutely can’t go wrong with this 41 disc, 50th anniversary edition of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ on Blu-ray. What are you all waiting for?? Engage. 🙂 Thanks for reading.

5 out of 5 stars

 

 

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