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January 3, 2003

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7 DVD Boxset REVIEW
By Kevin Knight

Overview

For seven years, we all watched Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D boldly go where no man has gone before. The Star Trek: The Next Generation Legacy ended on May 23, 2994 when we all watched the now legendary series finale "All Good Things."

Now the whole series has finally come home to DVD, and this boxset is a fitting finale to what many fans consider the best of Trek.

As with all the previous seasons, we see new DVD menus which change with every season. The season 7 menu introduction is the best of all the sets. The introduction consists of entering the Captain's Ready Room and moving around Picard's desk until we receive a transmission on his desktop terminal. As usual, the graphics, effects and sound during this sequence is outstanding.

Video

For a television series shot in the early '90's and in the 4:3 broadcast aspect ratio, the video looks great. The images do not look blurred, and the colors do not bleed or have noise. The aged special effects, as always, still look good.

Sound

As with the rest of the season boxsets, the season seven boxset is presented for the first time in Dolby Digital 5.1 surroundsound. With the right DVD player and sound system, the room can vibrate with the background noise of the Enterprise-D and the "whoosh" sound made when the Enterprise warps by. The speech doesn't appear to be dubbed, and the music is clear and evenly balanced with the speech.

Extras

The season seven set contains the most extra material of any of the previous sets. Mission Overview - Year 7 shows how hectic season seven really was because of Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Star Trek: Generations all in the works.

Also included is A Captain's Tribute, an extensive featurette by Patrick Stewart and his feelings and experiences as Jean-Luc Picard over TNG's seven year run. Another featurette is called Starfleet Moments and Memories which includes more interviews from various cast and crew about the TNG run.

Lastly, this DVD set includes The Making of "All Good Things...", an extensive overview about how the finale was made, and all the other madness happening at the same time.

If you haven't got the previous seasons, the season seven set is a must buy, and the included featurettes will move almost any Trek fan's emotions.

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