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Wesley Crusher may have left for Starfleet Academy, but the
Enterprise soon gains a feisty new ensign in the shape
of Bajoran Ro Laren. Worf's son Alexander returns to the ship
on a permanent basis. And the crew meet a legendary officer
of a previous starship Enterprise - Spock...
The consistency of quality that The Next Generation
enjoyed during its third and fourth seasons lapses a little
during its fifth, though fortunately the strong episodes still
greater outnumber the weak.
The
highlight of the year for me is The Inner Light, closely
followed by I, Borg. The Inner Light is an intensely
moving story in which Picard (brilliantly acted by Patrick
Stewart) lives out his lifetime as a husband and father on
an alien planet.
Though
slightly marred by some over-sensitive liberalism on the part
of Dr Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) - which is at odds
with her own participation in The Best of Both Worlds
- I, Borg brilliantly conveys the message that individual
members of even the most feared nation or political regime
are not necessarily worthy of our hatred. This message is
as relevant as it ever was, as innocent civilians in so many
countries continue to pay the price for their leaders' harsh
policies.
Darmok is often mentioned by fans in the same revered
breath as The Inner Light and I, Borg, but actually
I find the notion of a language composed of metaphors to be
rather silly!
Other
episodes that make this box set worth buying include the thoroughly
entertaining Disaster, a witty homage to the disaster
movie genre, and the trend-setting time-loop tale, Cause
and Effect. There are more eye-popping visuals on display
in the action-packed Power Play and in The Next
Phase, in which La Forge (LeVar Burton) and Ro (Michelle
Forbes) become insubstantial "ghosts". Power Play also
benefits from villainous performances by Marina Sirtis, Colm
Meaney and Brent Spiner as the possessed Troi, O'Brien and
Data. There's also plenty of action and uplifting moments
in Redemption II, which concludes the previous season's
cliffhanger ending, and in Time's Arrow, which provides
this year's exciting conclusion.
Rather more unsettling are Violations, which depicts
mental rape, and The Outcast, which is an evocative
condemnation of prejudice based on sexuality. Riker's (Jonathan
Frakes) justifiable outrage at the treatment of his alien
lover Soren (Melinda Cilea) by her own society is only slightly
offset by the uncharacteristic manner in which Picard turns
a blind eye to Riker's subsequent actions, which clearly contravene
the Prime Directive.
The
First Duty is one of two return visits by Wesley Crusher
(Wil Wheaton), and is definitely the better of the two (the
other one is The Game). In The First Duty the
cadet faces a conflict between his loyalty to Starfleet and
his loyalty to some rather dishonest friends (one of whom
is played by a pre-Star Trek: Voyager Robert Duncan
McNeill). This development makes an excellent contrast to
the sickeningly nice Wesley of Season 1, during which he uttered
the dreadful line, "I'm with Starfleet. We don't lie."
Season
5 is also notable for its introduction of the angry young
Bajoran Ro Laren, who makes her first appearance in Ensign
Ro and injects some fresh character interaction. Following
the introduction of the Cardassians during the previous season,
more groundwork for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is set
up in this episode, which establishes the Cardassian occupation
of the planet Bajor. Had the actress Michelle Forbes been
available, it might have been Ro Laren who ended up becoming
Sisko's liaison officer in DS9 instead of Nana Visitor's
Major Kira.
Another celebrated event of the fifth season is the very special
guest appearance by Leonard Nimoy as Spock in the two-part
Romulan saga Unification, although the story is rather
slow-moving.
The weaker episodes of this season include the dull New
Ground, in which Worf has to face up to his parental responsibilities
and the Enterprise has trouble with a new method of
propulsion called the Soliton Wave. There is a lot of talk
about the Soliton Wave replacing the conventional warp drive,
but this seems nonsensical, because spaceships would still
have to use warp engines whenever they travelled to unexplored
regions of space. The Masterpiece Society and Ethics
are only slightly less tedious. Following a couple of decent
annual guest appearances by Majel Barrett as Lwaxana Troi
in Seasons 3 and 4, Cost of Living returns to the standard
of her first- and second-season episodes - i.e. this frivolous
"story" is embarrassing to watch. The Perfect Mate,
in which Picard falls in love with a woman destined for a
political marriage of convenience, isn't too inspired either,
as it recycles the primary story elements of the Star Trek
episode Elaan of Troyius.
Still,
five real duffers out of 26 episodes isn't too bad, and there
are bags of extras - even more than in the last box set. This
time there is more than two hours' worth of interview material,
including a half-hour tribute to series creator Gene Roddenberry,
who died during the making of Season 5.
As before, in addition to material specific to this season,
there are also thematic discussions that analyse the series
as a whole, this time covering famous guest stars and the
creation of written and spoken alien languages. In fact, there
is so much material here that I am left wondering why some
of the more generic stuff wasn't instead used to fill out
the box set of the shorter Season 2. But that is a very "glass
is half-empty" view to take.
To
accentuate the positive, this collection of episodes - 21
of which range from fair to fantastic - is well worth forking
out for.
Richard
McGinlay
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