|
The Enterprise crew once again face mortal danger
from Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians, while Q returns to
plague Captain Picard not once, but twice. And personalities
clash when a new captain takes command of the ship...
In
my opinion, the sixth season of TNG is one of its best,
second only to Season 3 in terms of powerful storytelling
and direction.
However,
things don't get off to a good start at all with Time's
Arrow 2. The documentaries that comprise the extra features
reveal that the creators hadn't really thought out how this
complex time-travel narrative was going to be resolved...
and it shows! All of a sudden Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton)
decides to try and reactivate Data's (Brent Spiner) disembodied
head, which would have come in useful during part one if anyone
had thought of it. In addition, countless questions about
the mysterious aliens and their motives are left unanswered.
The
season doesn't end particularly well, either. Descent
robs the Borg of most of their menace by doing away with their
chilling hive mentality. (Fortunately this did not affect
the entire Collective, and the Borg were back on form in the
movie First Contact.) Data's conversion to the dark
side is presented without any subtlety whatsoever, and Picard's
(Patrick Stewart) plan to beam down all but a skeleton crew
is frankly insane.
Some
other episodes aren't bad per se, just not too inspiring.
The Quality of Life recycles a lot of plot elements
from Season 3's Evolution. Aquiel is a worthy
but slightly dull Geordi love story. Birthright is
a rather slow-moving two-parter, in which Data's subplot during
part one (which guest-stars Deep Space Nine's Alexander
Siddig) is more interesting than the main story concerning
Worf's (Michael Dorn) search for his father. The episode The
Chase seems to exist solely for the purpose of explaining
why so many aliens look humanoid in the Star Trek universe.
However, these few indifferent episodes are more than compensated
for by classics such as the two-part Chain of Command,
which makes use of two excellent guest stars. Ronny Cox plays
the abrasive Captain Jellico, whose methods of command come
as a great shock to the Enterprise crew. Meanwhile,
Picard is captured by the Cardassians while on a secret mission,
and is tortured in some particularly harrowing and well-played
scenes featuring the excellent David Warner as his cruel interrogator.
Tapestry
is of the same high standard, and is quite possibly the best
Q (John de Lancie) episode ever. Although the concept of Picard
inhabiting the body of his younger self is very Quantum
Leap, this story is an excellent examination of his character,
and ties in well with his recollections from Season 2's Samaritan
Snare. There's a heart-warming It's a Wonderful Life
flavour to this show.
Among the remaining episodes, Realm of Fear is another
welcome Reg Barclay (Dwight Schultz) episode - although the
notion of a traveller being able to perceive the passage of
time while in a transporter beam goes against the evidence
that is suggested by most other episodes, including this season's
Relics. Speaking of which, this irresistible tale is
justly famous for its touching guest appearance by James Doohan
as Scotty, and for the production team's brilliant re-creation
of the bridge from the old Enterprise.
A
couple of instalments stand out particularly because they
establish new Trek sub-genres which would be used again
and again in Deep Space Nine and Voyager. A
good one for fans of Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) and/or the
Romulans, Face of the Enemy is the first of several
"crewmember wakes up with an alien face" storylines. Starship
Mine is the first of Trek's exhilarating Die
Hard pastiches, with Picard standing in for Bruce Willis.
He would fulfil the role again in First Contact, while
even Kathryn Janeway would don the trademark vest in the Voyager
episode Macrocosm. Similarly seminal is Frame of
Mind, which itself is clearly inspired by the movie Jacob's
Ladder - neither the main character, in this instance
Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), nor the audience can be sure
of what is real, what is illusion, and what is madness until
the very end of the show.
Schisms
is a memorably creepy piece of work, while True Q is
another strong Q episode - apparently to make up for the lack
of a Q episode in Season 5, we get two this season. Rascals,
in which three of the crew are regressed to childhood, is
great fun, as is the Patrick Stewart-directed Western spoof,
A Fistful of Datas. Ship in a Bottle marks the
long-overdue return of the holodeck's Professor Moriarty (Daniel
Davis), while the LeVar Burton-directed Second Chances
is another strong Riker show, with a convincing dual performance
from Frakes. Lessons is a moving, though not too slushy,
love story involving Picard. Finally, there's further Romulan
action in Timescape, an engaging time-warp tale.
The final disc also includes the customary documentary features
- running to two hours in total - covering all aspects of
the season, as well as special profiles on Brent Spiner and
effects supervisor Dan Curry, who has contributed a great
deal to the visualisation of Klingon weaponry and architecture
over the years.
All
in all, this excellent box set should hit you for six!
Richard
McGinlay
Buy
this item online
We
compare prices online so you get the cheapest
deal!
(Please note all prices exclude P&P - although
Streets Online charge a flat £1 fee regardless
of the number of items ordered). Click on the
logo of the desired store below to purchase
this item.
|
|
|
£63.74
(Amazon.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
£67.99
(Blackstar.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
£73.99
(Streetsonline.co.uk) |
All prices correct at time of going to press.
|
|
