The SmarK DVD Rant For Star Trek The Next Generation: Season 2

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The SmarK DVD Rant for Star Trek The Next Generation: Season Two

And so the second year of TNG dawns, and things start changing all around in the wake of Tasha Yar’s pointless death at the end of the first season. While on-screen people adjusted to new roles and new personas, off-screen things were equally tumultuous, with wholesale writing changes and the addition of several new aspects to the show. The writer’s strike left the staff shortened and hurried, and the season shortened to 22 episodes (well, 21, as you’ll see when we get to the “season finale”), but this was the year where things truly started clicking in terms of the pacing, camera work, and characters.

The Film:

Several changes come right off the bat — LaForge is now a full lieutenant, and the Chief Engineer. Worf is still a junior-grade lieutenant as the season starts, but he’s head of security (and in no happier position could he be) and now wears a gold uniform. Riker has a beard, and Beverly Crusher has departed for Starfleet Medical after Gates McFadden was fired between seasons for reasons that to this day no one will talk about in detail. In her place, Dr. Katherine Pulaski, whom everyone hates almost as much as Wesley. The aesthetic differences are noticeable, too — camera moves are smoother and more polished, the music is less intrusive, and there’s a cool new bar called Ten-Forward where the crew can hang out and talk about stuff. An expanded budget can do wonders for ship’s morale, I guess. Sadly, no one has yet explored the great question of whether people in the 24th century now use communicators for phone sex, but I’m sure Braga & Berman will look into that soon enough. Best of all, Planet Hell (the stage used for all planetary “locations” in season one) was retired and actual location shooting was done for beam-downs in the second season. And with all that in mind, we begin season two

Disc One

– The Child. All the new changes are introduced rapid-fire in the first ten minutes, as the new jobs are introduced, along with Pulaski (who immediately gets on Data’s nerves by mispronouncing his name) and Ten-Forward (and with it, Guinan). This is a fairly notable episode because it’s one of the first where it’s mainly about an idea rather than a crisis. Troi is immaculately impregnated by an alien lifeforce (although it’s no virgin that it’s impregnating, to be sure) and since it’s a one-hour show, she’s discovered to be carrying a baby that’s growing at a ridiculous rate. And of course, Troi Gets Hysterical. This is really the first time that it happens, because this is the first true expansion of her role, what with the bitchy female quotient reduced by one with the departure of Beverly. Turns out that the poor alien just wants to experience life as a human being, but unknowingly gives off radiation that endangers the containment of a deadly virus on board. So, he commits suicide, and Troi Gets Hysterical Again. Plus Riker develops a weird nervous habit of holding his hands under his armpits for some reason. Maybe he was developing the character, I dunno, but it doesn’t work. Much his early attempts at a beard in this season. The pacing and dialogue here were 110% improved over the first season, as this is one of the first episodes that really feels like a Next Generation episode, the way most people remember them. Plus Troi gets a NORMAL hairstyle instead of that weird braid she had in the first season, AND she debuts the Purple Jumpsuit. Historical significance abounds, indeed.

– Where Silence Has Lease. Ever too nosy for their own good, the Enterprise finds a big region of blackness in space (Blackness? In SPACE?) and decides to investigate. Before you can say “Riker’s a whore”, they’re sucked in and stuck there, unable to go anywhere and apparently at the whim of a cosmic intelligence that likes to play mindgames with them. After toying with Riker & Worf for a bit, the alien decides to kill a crewmember, just to see what death is like. Of COURSE, he kills the brother in the red shirt, even though Wesley was RIGHT THERE. That’s like the WORST possible combination of things to be in a Star Trek episode. I bet Levar Burton was glad to change into a gold uniform after the first season. Picard does the first thing he ALWAYS does in these situations — sets the ship on auto-destruct. “Out of marmalade again, Number One? Dammit, we’ll have to blow up the ship!” Well, maybe not, but you get the idea. Oddly enough his attitude did a 180 degree turn for First Contact, where he had to be talked into doing it. Not one of the stronger episodes of the season, shall we say.

– Elementary, Dear Data. Yup, it’s the first Something Goes Wrong With the Holodeck ep of the season, albeit a good one. Data and Geordi are playing Sherlock Holmes, but it becomes apparent that Data is just memorizing all the pertinent details of the books and then reciting them by rote. So they decide to make it more interesting, by having the computer create a fantasy in the STYLE of Holmes, but entirely original, and with a villain who can defeat Data. Ah, but that last part proves to be sticky, as the computer creates a self-aware hologram of Professor Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis) who in turn takes over the entire ship while trying to come to grips with his own existence. This is both the first Data-as-Holmes episode, and the first one where they struggle with the moral questions involved in the Holodeck. The antagonistic relationship between Pulaski and Data is also built upon further here, as she takes longer than just about anyone to come around to thinking of him as a living being.

– The Outrageous Okona. Here’s an oddball concept for a sci-fi show — an episode roughly based on a traveling salesman joke. In fact, the whole episode is about jokes and the concept of humor, although the episode itself isn’t that funny. The Enterprise finds a cargo ship with only one passenger: Captain Okona, a roguish and impudent rascal who lives by no rules but his own. See, they even have caricatures in the 24th century. Anyway, he hangs out on the Enterprise while his ship is being repaired, and immediately beds three women (one of whom is played a young and SMOKIN’ Teri Hatcher, before she hit it big doing Radio Shack commercials with Howie Long *cough*), thus causing Riker to presumably take notes for the future. However, Data is perplexed as to why everyone thinks he’s so funny (really, he’s not, but you have to go with it) and begins annoying Guinan with his questions about what’s funny. In order to alleviate his concerns, he tries constructing a holodeck program with a comedian as an example of human humor. And of course, when you think HILARITY in the 80s, you think that’s right Joe Piscopo. Yes, JOE FREAKIN PISCOPO. That’s like asking about 20th century medicine and getting Jack Kevorkian to teach you the basics. Of course, Data continues to be completely not funny, but no one stops to think that maybe it’s because the source material sucks (apparently, the writers are such dorks that they actually think Jerry Lewis is funny), and sooner than you can say “self-parody”, it turns out that Okona may have knocked up the daughter of an official on a small planet that the Enterprise is passing by. And isn’t THAT an awkward situation. It’s a funny idea for an episode and the concept is funny in theory, but even Brent Spiner hamming it up with A-list B-comedy can’t save this one from the dung heap. Maybe they should have had Whoopi Goldberg write the jokes instead of just doing the guest appearance.

Disc Two

– Loud as a Whisper. Yes, it’s another “Aw gee shucks isn’t Troi great” episode as Marina Sirtis becomes the dominant female on Star Trek. This one is an interesting look at overcoming disabilities, as a deaf-mute negotiator uses a “chorus” of telepaths to communicate his thoughts in place of speaking. Many of his thoughts seem to involve getting freaky with Troi, in fact. However, once they get down to the business of negotiating a deal between two warring species, his interpreters are quite brutally murdered by a radical dissident and he’s left communicating through Data, who becomes fluent in sign language faster than I can type this review. The negotiator is forced to confront his own shortcomings, and decides to use that new perspective to help negotiate peace between the factions. A fine episode with a strong message that isn’t bogged down with preachiness. However, there’s a really interesting subplot with LaForge, as his talk with the negotiator leads him to examine alternatives to the VISOR. Pulaski tells him about having ocular implants (which he got in time for First Contact, in fact) or else regrowing the optic nerves so he could have real eyes again (and in fact, THAT happened in Insurrection, and he still had normal vision as of Nemesis as far as I can tell, although I’m sure hardcore fanboys will correct me if I’m wrong). Anyway, I thought it was kind of neat that his major vision change was actually foreshadowed here. And hey, maybe it was Pulaski who did the eventual surgery — he does say that “he’ll get back to her”, so I guess he just took a REALLY long time to make up his mind.

– The Schizoid Man. It’s the debut of another future Star Trek cliché, the Data Gets Possessed episode. In this case, they respond to an emergency call from the brilliant doctor Ira Graves, who lives in isolation on a planet with his assistant, and is dying. Data and substitute doctor Selar (who later returned to the ST universe in New Frontier have I enticed you to go out and buy all of that series yet?) go down to the planet to check things out, and Data learns that Graves is basically his grandfather — the man who taught Dr. Noonian Soong the basics of robotics. Unfortunately, he’s also an abrasive, stubborn, egotistical, chauvinistic jerk, but nobody’s perfect. However, when Data returns to the ship having declared Graves dead in his arms, he begins acting strangely abrasive, stubborn, egotistical and chauvinistic, to be exact. Of course, this allows Brent Spiner to cut loose and chew the scenery like a maniac until they basically convince Graves that he’s being an asshole and should leave, which he does. Too bad, Data was getting close to macking on the hottie assistant before he was discovered. And speaking of hotties, Selar makes an amazing transformation after this episode, undergoing a complete DNA reconstruction and returning as Worf’s lover K’Ehlayr later in the season. Okay, so it was just Suzie Plakson playing a different role (and she returned in a THIRD role recently on Enterprise as a rogue Andorian), but I figured I’d make it sound all sci-fi and stuff.

– Unnatural Selection. As if that pun hasn’t been beaten into the ground by bad horror writers more times than Troi. Anyway, it’s Star Trek meets the Island of Dr. Moreau, as they encounter a derelict ship where everyone is dead of old age at 30. This naturally seems a bit suspicious to Picard, so he traces things back to the science lab they visited a week before, and discovers everyone THERE dying of old age, too. In fact, the only ones who seem to be unaffected are the mutant children who have been genetically engineered by the scientists. And you know Roddenberry’s feelings on what happens to people who play God. Dr. Pulaski is absolutely, positively certain that the children are immune and badgers Picard until he allows one on board and then she gets infected as a result. Whoops, told you so. As she dies quickly of old age, they race to find a way to modify the transporter with technobabble and save her. Personally I would have used Wesley to pilot the infected shuttlecraft instead of Data, since no amount of genetic mutation could cause him to grow up and stop being a whiny little punk, but that’s their call. This one was basically trying to get Pulaski over as the new McCoy (down to her fear of the transporter), and like every other attempt, it failed miserably as fans continued to await the return of Beverly Crusher.

– A Matter of Honor. The slow burn of the Klingon plots develops further here, as Riker takes part in an exchange program with a Klingon ship, acting as temporary first officer for a slightly-crazed captain. Space herpes on the outside of the ship’s hull leads the paranoid captain to think that Enterprise betrayed them, but Riker appears to have made more friends than enemies on his new ship and eventually sorts things out with some well-timed deceit and a minimum of bloodshed. Just a good, solid episode with the right amounts of humor and a peek into the Klingon military system.

Disc Three

– The Measure of a Man. This would be the 500 pound gorilla of the second season, as the writers FINALLY start to scratch the surface of the philosophical questions that are brought up from time to time in the first season. Specifically, the question of whether Data is actually a living being is raised and then put on trial for the first time. While visiting a Starbase, the Enterprise meets with Commander Bruce Maddox of the Daystrom Institute, and in a nutshell he wants to take Data apart and see what makes him tick, in hopes of creating a whole line of Datas for use in Starfleet. Problem: Data doesn’t want to go. So Picard goes to the JAG and asks for a ruling, which ends up being that Data is property of Starfleet, and thus can neither refuse nor resign from Starfleet. So they go to a trial instead to challenge the ruling, with Riker prosecuting and Picard defending, and it’s some awesome stuff. Riker’s argument and demonstration of shutting Data off is nearly a slam-dunk win for him (much to his own chagrin), but when Picard makes the babyface comeback and starts arguing about how slavery of an entire race will result, it’s finally the meat-and-potatoes acting moment that Patrick Stewart had been waiting for. His summation (“Starfleet was founded to seek out new life, well THERE IT SITS!”) is just spine-tingling stuff. This is the one that really starts to define the introspective nature of the show and presents bigger concepts rather than better aliens. And as I always note, Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart in an acting duel always leads to good things. Probably the best episode of the entire season, hands down.

– The Dauphin. The title (which means “heir to the throne” more or less) refers to the Enterprise picking up a mysterious princess and her overprotective guardian, in order to transport them to another planet as the new ruler, in order to stop an eternal war between them. The planet in question is split into perpetual day and night due to an irregularity in the rotation, and while this would have been a FASCINATING thing to see in action and explore more, it’s never even touched on other than one mention. Bummer. Anyway, the dauphin in question is a little hottie, and she immediately falls madly in love with Wesley, who in turns becomes a bumbling idiot overcome by hormones. Some funny stuff actually ensues when Wes starts asking various crew members for advice (his conversation with Worf is hilarious — “Klingon women roar and throw heavy objects.” “So what do the men do?” “Read love poetry and duck.”) and soon he’s putting the moves on the alien princess. However, it soon becomes apparent that when angered, the alien women turn into hideous, snarling beasts who will kill anyone in sight. Now, you’re probably thinking “How is this different than normal?” but they actually physically change into snarling beasts, which is one of the early flirtations with having Changelings in the Star Trek universe. Sadly, the pressures of getting funky with a 7 foot tall monster prove to be too much for Wesley to handle, the relationship ends up being a doomed one. He doesn’t even get to save the ship to console himself.

– Contagion. Real good episode here. The Enterprise travels into the Neutral Zone to assist their sister ship, the Yamato (previously seen in “Where Silence Has Lease”), which is being overrun by malfunctions, and quickly blows up before their eyes, killing all 1000 people on board. A Romulan ship arrives, and things start getting tense. Even more so when the Enterprise starts suffering the same malfunctions. Turns out that the Yamato was investigating the possible homeworld of an ancient civilization called the Iconians, who were legendary “Demons of Air and Darkness” that traveled to various worlds as if by magic. (Sidenote: The Iconians sort of returned to the book-version of the universe in a mammoth crossover series a couple of years back, which I only mention as another chance to pimp Peter David’s awesome New Frontier portion of it.) With the ship falling to pieces, Picard takes Worf and Data down to the planet and discovers a machine that seemingly generates gateways to anywhere in the universe, and that’s where they discover the solution to the mystery just in time to save the ship and get the hell out of there. This was just a good, solid sci-fi show about messing with what you don’t understand.

– The Royale. And then we take a 180 with perhaps one of the worst episodes ever of Star Trek. With a ridiculous premise, bad acting, and a stupid plot, it’s hard to find a worse one outside of the finale of the second season. Basically, they stumble across an energy source floating in the middle of space, and beam down to find a door to nowhere floating in the middle of nowhere. The away team discovers that it leads to what appears to be a hotel from the 19th century, and they quickly get into wacky hijinx dealing with the inhabitants, and discover that they’re basically living out the plot of a bad novel from the early 20th century that was brought to life by an alien intelligence that found it when it captured astronauts from Earth. Why this couldn’t have been done as a holodeck show, for instance, is beyond me, but seeing the crew interacting with a casino and deliberately bad dialogue is not what I’m looking for from the show. On the upside, it’s not as bad as “Shades of Grey”, which we’ll get to later.

Disc Four

– Time Squared. This is kind of the spiritual prelude to season five’s “Cause and Effect”, namely a time-travel puzzle with no real solution to it. The Enterprise finds one of their own shuttlecraft in the middle of nowhere, and even stranger, finds Captain Picard inside it! Or at least someone who looks exactly like him. After some fiddling with the connections, they are able to download the logs from the shuttlecraft and find out that it’s actually from the future, 6 hours to be exact, and the Enterprise is destroyed by a giant cosmic vortex of some sort. The nature and purpose of it are never explained. They find themselves locked into the same path again, with all the same events occurring the same way as the first time, and the Picards have to piece together how and why the decisions were made the first time and what can be done the second time. Present Picard’s solution to stopping future Picard’s solution would probably give Freud enough material to rise from the grave and write another book on. This one ultimately felt unsatisfying because nothing was ever explained in any detail, but the premise of repeating a loop of time was used for a much better story, as noted, in “Cause and Effect” three years later.

– The Icarus Factor. This is one I don’t even remember from initial viewing, and I quite enjoyed it. It focuses on two main plots — Riker is offered his own command (again) and his estranged father comes on board as an advisor should he take the dangerous new assignment. Unfortunately, Kyle Riker is also a famous and flamboyant name in the galaxy, and the Rikers butt heads over years of resentment until they decide to settle things with the 24th century version of American Gladiators. And speaking of bizarre rituals, Worf nearly rips Wesley’s head off after an innocent remark (well, maybe next time), leading his friends to figure out what the heck is wrong with him. It turns out that it’s the tenth anniversary of his Rite of Ascension, and he would be much happier having fellow Klingons shock him with the equivalent of high voltage cattle prods. So that’s just what they arrange, and Worf is in Klingon heaven. Look for John Tesh as one of the holographic Klingons. Maybe they should have played some of Tesh’s music instead — it’d be just as painful and wouldn’t leave any scarring.

– Pen Pals. Another “play fast and loose with the Prime Directive” episode, although to their credit, Picard and Riker have subtle little character moments where they poke fun at that. Anyway, two plots here that end up intertwining — Wesley is given his first command situation (leading a team of geologists to study self-destructing planets) while Data plays around with the sensors and ends up getting into a “pen pal” relationship with a little girl on one of the doomed worlds. Of course, she doesn’t realize who and what she’s talking to, leaving the Enterprise with a huge moral dilemma — do they obey the Prime Directive and allow billions of people to die according to the natural order, or interpret the little girl’s message as a cry for help and interfere? Data’s growing attachment to the girl doesn’t help matters, leading to Picard’s continued battle with blood pressure. The little girl, by the way, is played by an 11-year old Nikki Cox, long before she became one of the hottest babes on TV. I did like that the “Wesley’s first command” story wasn’t the usual cliché about team members not taking orders and needing someone else to step in and kick ass for him — everyone basically understood that he was the guy in charge, and all the conflicts were internalized in Wesley himself. Not a great episode or anything, but Picard indicating to Riker that they’re neck-deep in shit is a great moment.

– Q Who? Speaking of neck deep in shit (and I mean that in the good way), this is the episode that changes things forever. Q returns to stir the pot again, this time wanting to be a member of the crew after the Continuum kicks him out. Picard is of the opinion that he has nothing to offer, so Q throws a tantrum and sends them flying thousands of light-years away in order to prove that they DO need his help. And boy do they ever, when they meet up with The Borg. Long before Voyager turned them in the pussy-ass whipping boys of the galaxy, they were the original badass monster heels who revitalized the Star Trek universe and finally gave the Enterprise opponents worthy of the flagship. And this first meeting is truly an unholy ass-whupping, as the Borg casually invade the ship to scout their defenses, and then start carving the entire saucer section up like a turkey. By the time Picard is retreating like a madman at warp 9.6 with the Borg still hot on his tail, you can feel the tension mounting, and when Guinan provides an ominous warning at the end about the Borg coming to get them again eventually despite their deus ex machine escape via Q look out below. This is the first show of the series to really showcase the new 5.1 mix, by the way — especially check out the Borg’s energy blasts near the end and feel the subwoofer rumble. Minor note: Lycia Naff was introduced as Ensign Sonia Gomez here, seemingly intended as a love interest for LaForge (and a cute one, too), but after only one more appearance she not only was never seen again on the show, but basically disappeared from Hollywood altogether.

Disc Five

– Samaritan Snare. Kind of a goofy one, but with an important bit of backstory in the process. Picard’s famed artificial heart is about give out, so he takes a trip to Starbase 515, and since Wesley is taking another Academy exam there, they make the trip together. For 6 hours. I don’t know who to pity more. To liven up the trip, Picard tells the story about how he got his artificial heart, and that’s the first time we learn about the Nausicans and how he started laughing when he saw the blade poking through his chest. This of course would come full circle in season 6 when that entire event would be played out in “Tapestry”. Meanwhile, the Enterprise gets a distress call from a Pakled ship, which apparently is the galactic equivalent of Kim Bauer. Most of their vocabulary consists of “You are smart”, but they prove to be smarter than Riker, because they trick him into sending over LaForge, who becomes a hostage. Some trickery of their own (although really it’s not like they’re playing mindgames with Brainiac here) turns the tide and they make it back to the Starbase in time to save us from further mundane operating table melodrama with Picard. An hour of Picard and Wesley trying to bond actually would have been neat, but this wasn’t the season to try it, and unfortunately the rest of the episode kind of falls apart.

– Up the Long Ladder. Yes, it’s another heavy-handed “Don’t Play God” message from Roddenberry, this time decrying the evil of cloning. The Enterprise gets a distress signal from a colony they didn’t even know existed — a bunch of backwards Irish farmers living in the middle of nowhere. After effecting a rescue, Riker wastes no time in scoring with the resident hottie of the group. He’s a pro, gotta give him that. However, they discover that the original colony split into two groups, and there’s actually another planet with the more technologically-inclined living there. What they find is a bunch of clones, and clones who are running out of usable DNA at that. The colony’s solution: Kidnap Riker and Pulaski and steal their DNA. This leads to a rather morbid scene of Riker discovering the newly-grown clones of himself and slaughtering them in cold blood. Take THAT, heathens! I’m kinda guessing that Gene wasn’t a cell phone and pager type of guy. The solution to both problems is of course rather simple, and I’m sure you can guess it right now. Cute moments aside, this was mostly a filler episode.

– Manhunt. Without a doubt the funniest episode of the season, and as you can probably figure out by now, that means Lwaxana Troi. Indeed, she returns for her second appearance, as the Enterprise is on the way to an interplanetary convention and Lwaxana wants to be there on behalf of Betazed. And for another reason: Betazoid menopause is kicking in, and her sex drive is about to quadruple (Deanna: ” Or more.” Riker: “More? You never told me that.” Deanna: “I didn’t want to scare you.”) and she needs a man, pronto. Her unfortunate victim: Jean Luc Picard. A hilarious game of cat-and-mouse follows, with Picard attempting a brilliant swerve by inviting Data to dinner for some of his “legendary anecdotes” in an attempt to bore her to death, before finally taking the coward’s way out and hiding in the Holodeck as Dixon Hill. Meanwhile, weird fish creatures acting as ambassadors (one of whom is played by an unrecognizable Mick Fleetwood) have come aboard the ship, and aren’t saying much. The bang-bang series of payoffs at the end are brilliantly executed, too, and the whole episode leaves you wanting more.

– The Emissary. No, not the DS9 premiere. The Enterprise is sent to stop a Klingon warship that’s been in stasis for 75 years, and thus still thinks that the Federation is the enemy. In order to help them, they pick up special Klingon representative K’ehlayr (as noted, Suzie Plakson, previously seen as Selar), who is half-human, half-Klingon, and all hot mama. Turns out she’s also an old flame of Worf’s, although he’s not taking her return too well. However, a little workout with his calisthenics program leads to a DIFFERENT kind of workout with her, wink wink nudge nudge, leading to the birth of his son Alexander a couple of years later. Once they find the Klingon ship, the solution to save the day is rather elegant indeed. Don’t blink or you’ll miss OSWALD in an early career-making role (hahahaha no) working as an ensign at tactical, and the chick who played Helen Hunt’s sister on Mad About You at Navigation.

Disc Six

– Peak Performance. One of my personal favorites, this is basically the real season finale. The Enterprise is sent for some tactical training in the form of wargames with an older ship, with Riker leading one and Picard the other. The Federation rep, however, is also a master at the game of Strategama, and can’t resist a match against Data. Which he WINS. Data is naturally dumbstruck by the loss, and goes into computer sulking mode until Pulaski basically verbally smacks him around to get him out of it. Meanwhile, Riker and his ragtag crew get the derelict ship back in working order (thanks to Wesley, of course, who hadn’t yet saved the ship this season) and are giving Picard a run for his money when Ferengis appear out of nowhere, and both ships (with weapons in simulation mode only) are helpless. Riker’s solution is so sneaky that it just had to work. And of course Data gets his heat back in the rematch, although not by playing to win.

– Shades of Grey. And finally, we come to hands-down the worst episode of Star Trek ever, as the writing staff was crippled by a strike and they only had 21 episodes in the can. So we get a clip show. Yes, Riker is felled by an alien disease, and to save him Pulaski has to make him watch memorable moments from the first season. I pity everyone involved in making this one. I (and many others) don’t even consider this part of the show’s canon, and it’s not even worth watching for comedic value. Trust me, just stop the DVD after Peak Performance and get on with your life. On the bright side, this is the final appearance of Dr. Pulaski.

Overall, a little better than the first season, but still not the home run that the third season would hit. All the elements for greatness were in place, however, and the show was primed to explode once the writing situation got sorted out for good.

The Video:

Night and day compared to the excellent transfers from the fourth season on, but better than the first. Things are dark, there’s a few compression artifacts, but the major problems from the first season with lighting and dirty prints are essentially cleared up here. Once things go fully digital from about the fourth season on, it gets MUCH improved.

The Audio:

Kudos to Paramount for the excellent job of remixing everything in full 5.1. This is the treatment that the show needed all along — surrounds are used for everything from space battles to mysterious noises in the background to music. The subwoofer rumbles throughout the shows to represent the ever-present engines of the ship. Dialogue is crisp and clear and the sound is aggressive without being overpowering. I’d say this is a better sound mix than many movies I’ve heard on DVD. Great job on this season, and all the others.

The Extras:

A better selection of stuff than the first season, also, although nothing extraordinary. You get

– Mission Overview: Year two. Producers and writers talk about the transition to the second season. 15 minutes or so.

– Selected Cast and Crew Analysis. The actors discuss their roles, again, more talking heads. 15 minutes.

– Inside Starfleet Archives. Some neat stuff showing all the props from the show, like the miniatures of the ships and weapons and the like.

– Production featurette.

– Memorable Missions. Memorable eps from the second season.

All good, solid stuff that I’ve come to appreciate given the total dearth of material on most of the TV show season sets coming out lately.

The Ratings:

The Film: ***
The Video: **1/2
The Audio: ****
The Extras: ***