Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season 3 [Blu-ray]

Here it is! The breakthrough season of The Next Generation. With the addition of collars, all of the officer's now look like they're in adult outfits. Crusher's back with an incredibly absurd hair cut (didn't she learn from the one thing Wesley does right?) The shows music heads in a completely new direction - from synthesized dreck to more ambient and tonal accents.Most importantly the writing moves from space viruses and aliens of the week to more personal character driven stories. This season contains some of the best episodes in all seven, including The Best of Both Worlds and Yesterday's Enterprise. In fact this may be the best season of all seven - even more hilarious as, due to the writers strike that caused a shorten second season and birthed a clip show, the writers had virtually no episodes written.Does that mean it's totally devoid of suck? Well...perhaps on the level on the first two seasons, yes. Still, there are a few episodes interspersed in Season 3 that really don't add much by way of character development or mythology, or are just plain awful.My purpose in writing is to speed someone right to the meat and potatoes of the series. I've marked the bad episodes that lack any details about the overall series mythology "skip" - the one-offs that aren't necessarily great but might be worth coming back to "skippable" - episodes that are good or contain required information about the series mythology, "watch" - and the episodes that would be great in any season "must watch."Evolution - Skippable - That darned Wesley falls asleep at his desk while experimenting with microscopic robots called nanites. Instead of eating him they escape and start eating the ships computer. Crusher returns for some nice exchanges between her and Picard. The writing is solid (except for the term "food slot" - hadn't we already coined the term "replicator" by now?) Still, this episode is unusual in that it is mostly about the guest star rather than any of the crew, in this case Doctor Paul Stubbs, the astrophysicist whose one chance at greatness is being ruined by the nanites. There are better episodes beyond.The Ensigns of Command - Watch - The crew is contacted by a reclusive race that is colonizing a planet now inhabited by descendants of a lost group of human explorers. Because of radiation on the planet the only person who can beam down is Data. A few common series cliches crop up here including female characters who find Data's childlike obliviousness sexy, as well as stubborn inhabitants of a planet that don't seem to realize: THEY'RE IN THE FUTURE. Everyone can vaporize you from space. Still, this is a pretty good episode in which Data's character grows a layer or two.The Survivors - Skippable - A mystery episode. The crew answers a distress call from a federation colony to find the surface of the planet completely obliterated except for a house on a tiny patch of land. Inside is an elderly couple that refuses to leave despite the barren planet. Meanwhile Troi starts being driven mad by music...and so will you. If not by the music then by Deanna's relentless screaming and crying. It's not a terrible episode by any means except for the taxing requirements placed on Deanna's acting ability. There is a wonderfully chilling moment at the end of the episode when we discover what it is the couple has been hiding, but once you know the secret the episode isn't worth much beyond the final five minutes.Who Watches The Watchers - Watch - A group of scientist are studying a race of bronze age proto-vulcan's when the holographic generator that keeps them hidden from the natives malfunctions. Leland Palmer, one of the proto-vulcans, is injured and in a stupor, sees the Captain and crew saving him. When he comes-to again on the planet he starts a new religion worshipping his god, "The Picard." This is a fascinating episode in which the show reveals itself to be almost overtly atheist, or at least anti-religious. In an effort to reverse the damage done by their exposure Picard spends an afternoon giving one of the proto-vulcans a tour of the ship culminating in a wonderful scene where he demonstrates to her how any technology sufficiently advanced enough is indistinguishable from magic.The Bonding - SKIP - If you thought that what the show needed was a fresh infusion of child acting than here is your episode! A redshirt member of an away team dies on a mission. While getting counseled through the loss by Deanna, the away member's son starts to get visits from his deceased Mom. It's not a TERRIBLE episode by any means and there are some nice scenes where Worf, a fellow orphan, tries to reach out to the child. Gabriel Damon, the son, doesn't do an awful job but doesn't really have the acting chops to carry this heavy material. In general, the episode suffers from the same problem most of the other episodes have that focus on a guest star character: it's just not all that interesting.Booby Trap - Watch - This a is mythology episode referenced later. The Enterprise is cataloging the ruins of a planet that was the final battle of two species over a thousand years. The crew happens upon one of their battleships in pristine condition, at the same time fall into the same energy sapping booby trap the crew of the ancient vessel did. To help him figure out a way to escape Geordi recreates one of the Enterprise Warp Drive designers on the holodeck, Dr. Leah Brahams, and becomes attached to her. It's a nice character building episode for Geordi and lingers a lot building chemistry between the crew members. It's a joy to watch Picard's glee over getting to live out a boyhood fantasy he had while building ships in bottles. The "relationships on the holodeck" theme had been touched on earlier in 11001001 where Riker met Minuet - but unlike where Riker lingered bizarrely over his digital date here the results are much more believable when Geordi realizes his infatuation and decides to step away.The Enemy - Watch - Geordi finds himself marooned on a planet, the captive of an injured Romulan named Bochra. The planet plays hell with their different physiologies, blinding Geordi and paralyzing Bochra. As the episode progresses, Geordi, who has the means to save them both, eventually earns Bochra's trust and willingness to see through mutual hatred. For the most part, antagonists in Star Trek episodes are lacking in complexity. Their evilness tends to lack motivation as they're in the story simply to provide conflict. This episode contains both. The scenes between are convincing exchanges between two people whose dislike is based on systematic cultural propaganda and not each other. However, on the bridge the more prototypical Star Trek conflict is occurring between Picard and the one-armed-Romulan, Admiral Tomalok. Tomolak is the stock xenophobic Star Trek adversary, lying at all times, unreasonable, and reckless - a contrast to Patrick Stewart's measured and even-handed Picard. The nicest bit in the entire episode though occurs with Worf's refusal to donate some mojo in his cells that could save a second Romulan dying in sick bay. Despite numerous pleas from different crew members the writers don't sell Worf out and have him see the error of his ways. Instead Worf refuses and we learn something about his character. The Enemy is a nice episode breaking a bunch of new and interesting ground with only a few of the nagging problems of the first two seasons.The Price - Skip - The Enterprise hosts a group of alien's negotiating for the rights to a stable wormhole. One of the negotiators, Devinoni Rall, who has an uncanny knack what he does, begins negotiating his way into Troi's pants. After Troi lets herself be seduced in several creepy scenes of spectacularly bad chemistry, she finds out that Rall is actually half Betazed too. This presents her the "complicated" choice of having to protect the creepy unethical negotiator she's now sleeping with or do her job. Simply a bad episode, not a terrible one. Wesley is barely around, Lwaxanna never appears, and Troi never has to cry. Still, it's a shame that often times the writer's only ideas for what to do with a Troi-centric episode in these early seasons is to have her be romanced...badly. The prelude to this cringe-worthy romance between Devin and Troi consists of him coming to her office and within 30 seconds running his hand on her arm and messing up her hair. When I tried that at my last job I ended up unemployed and writing episode guides for 17 year old television shows. WTF Star Trek? You lied to me! (side note: technically this is a mythology episode. There's a scene where two Ferengi get marooned in the Delta Quadrant. They return later in an episode of Voyager. I'm still giving this one a pass though.)The Vengeance Factor - Skippable - The crew is negotiating a peace between a species with butts on their heads and marauders they cast out a hundred years before. The marauders, who look like members of The Kiss Army, are starting to show up dead and one of the servants of the negotiators is the cause. Just kind of a dull episode with a nice premise buried beneath a convoluted setup: The servant in question, Yuta, is a 100 year old genetically altered assassin whose entire life has been about killing. That might have been an interesting premise with implications about personal identity and self-determination. Instead it takes twenty minutes of exposition about this species before we even realize that Yuta matters to the plot at all. There's a nice scene toward the end when Riker confronts her but it isn't worth sitting through the entire thing.The Defector - Skippable - The Enterprise receives a distress call from inside the Romulan neutral zone and comes to the aid of defecting Romulan, Admiral Ja'Rok. Ja'Rok says he has information about a Romulan base in the neutral zone intended to be the spearhead to an invasion. The crew must try to figure out if he's telling the truth. This is another episode focused on someone other than a primary cast member however in this case, thanks to a quality performance by James Sloyan, this one is actually pretty good. In a Romulan-centric season Sloyan brings some diversity to the Federation enemy by playing Ja'Rok as a patriotic countryman who sacrifices everything for what he believes to be the greater good. In his jousts with Picard we see two men who want to trust each other but are too worn by years of cultural hatred. It's all enjoyable and the episode teases some epic-ness-ness but ultimately doesn't go very far, ending up a small blip in the series. A good one to circle back to if you find yourself addicted. One thing that starts to irk me at this point in the series: Why in all the universe is the One-Armed-Romulan the only one the Enterprise always seems to run into?The Hunted - Skippable - While considering a planet's application for entrance into the Federation, the Enterprise becomes involved in the recovery of one of their escaped prisoners. Troi senses he may be more than he seems. Her discovery leads to the Enterprise being embroiled in a conflict between a society and it's cast offs from war. Kind of. James Cromwell (Zerphram Cocrane) plays the Prime Minister of the planet seeking Federation entrance and, while it's nice to see him there isn't a lot for him to do with this part. For the most part the writing in this one is a little misdirected. The action in the story is centered around the prisoner, Roga Danar, running rampant through the ship. The problem is that since the story has painted him as such a martyr we never really feel any sense of danger because we know the writers wouldn't have him kill anyone (though it might have been a little more interesting if he had.) There are some nice Machurian Candidate and brainwashing ideas here that are toyed with briefly when Data and Danar have a conversation about their mutual programming and being more than the sum of their parts. Mostly the episode is about action and the ending is an anti-climax.The High Ground - Skippable -While delivering medical supplies, Beverly gets abducted by terrorists whose enigmatic leader wants her to find a cure for a transport system they use that's killing them. I really WANT to give this one a watch. It's fantastic new ground for the series. Beverly and Finn, the leader of the terrorists, have conversations about the nature of terrorism, the difference between a terrorist and a revolutionary is just the difference between winning and losing. In fact the episode seems strangely pro-terrorist, especially when Data tells Picard that according to his research, terrorism seems an effective way of promoting social change. There's also a nice bit at the end between Picard and Beverly when Beverly thinks they might die and touches on their relationship that's always just below the surface. The problem is the scenes that aren't between Picard, Beverly, and Finn are flat and cliched. In order to provide Finn's intellectual terrorist an adequate counterbalance, there are a number of scenes between Riker and the head of police, Alexana. Alexana is an impassioned officer...a little TOO impassioned - her melodramatic ramblings border on Tasha Yarr's Season 1 suck. And after such interesting discussions on the moral ambiguity of terrorism the writers try and wrap a happy bow around the episode by having a child terrorist lay his weapon down at the end and Riker and Alexana share a platitude. Icky.Deja Q - Must Watch - Q is made human as punishment from the continuum. Picard grants him temporary sanctuary on the ship and assigns Data to follow him for the duration of his stay. This is one of the top ten episodes of the series, easily the best pure "Q" episode (considering Q-Who was really about the Borg.) Q's brief struggle with being human is funny and incredibly well written. The scenes between John De Lancie and Brent Spiner are addictively watchable and the episodes finale is clever and pitch perfect.A Matter of Perspective - Skippable - Continuing Season 3's overall trend of, "Yeah...that was Ok," is A Matter of Perspective. The episode actually begins with a great teaser. The crew is researching the progress of a Doctor Apgar who is looking into harnessing Kreiger waves on a Federation space station. We see the bridge of the ship with the space station on the viewer. Riker's voice comes over communicator saying he's ready to leave. As he does, the space station explodes. After the opening credits, Riker is accused of the Doctor's murder by the local police, whose governmental politics are (GASP) guilty until proven innocent. Picard convinces him to hold an investigation on the holodeck where Riker's visit to the destroyed space station is recreated, as seen by various members of the ship and station personnel. It's an interesting idea but the Riker created in the police recreations is such a mustachio'd twirling lunatic that it kind of ruins any of the suspense in the episode. Part of the promise of the opening tease was that we didn't get to see exactly what happened on the space station, which means that we don't KNOW if Riker is guilty or, short of that, culpable for something. It's an opportunity to at least see the ordinarily blandly stalwart first officer in another light. However about the point that the sheriff's holo-decked version of Riker yells, "YOU'RE A DEAD MAN APGAR!!" we know the episode isn't going to be revealing any interesting nuances to Riker's personality. It would have been much more interesting had the recreations built a plausible setup based on what we already know of Riker's character. Doesn't matter anyway because Wesley solves the problem for everyone. Swing and a miss.Yesterday's Enterprise - Must Watch - When most Trek fanatic's I know list their top five, Yesterday's Enterprise is in there someplace. While not one of my personal favorites, it is one of the best hard sci-fi episodes in the series and an incredibly important episode in the show's mythology. The Enterprise is investigating a temporal rift in space when a vessel from the past slips through, altering the present. The Federation is now at war with the Klingons, Tasha is at tactical, Data Worf is gone, and the only one who realizes anything has changed is Guinan. She pleads with Picard to send the vessel from the past back, something that they both know would mean the deaths of everyone on board. It's a great alternate history kind of story where the ordinarily plushy universe of Trek gets a little more dystopic, including an oddly gory battle at the end. One of the reasons to watch the show.The Offspring - Watch - Data creates his own child, a daughter named L'al. If you haven't seen this one go watch it right now. When you're done come back and we'll talk about it. Seen it? All right. I like this episode but didn't we cover this in Measure of a Man? If Data is a sentient self determining being then it would follow that so is his offspring. Yet here again we have some cliched Federation honcho demanding that an artificial person be moved against their will. It's a contrivance simply to lend the story some conflict and is completely unnecessary and a little anti-climactic given...how the episode ends. The real joy in the story is in Data's relationship with his daughter and exploration of parenting. Had the story really needed a conflict to hold our interests it could have been Data's battle with L'al's "sickness" throughout the entire episode which eventually resulted in her death. As long as we're splitting hairs here about a decent episode: Hallie Todd's performance as L'al is incredibly grating. She spends most of the episode doing a robot voice rather than exuding the childlike essence that Brent Spiner does so well with. Regardless, it's a wonderful episode and I still get dust in my eyes at it's conclusion everytime. Must remember to not chop onions whenever I watch this one...Sins of the Father - Watch - Worf meets his younger brother and returns to the Klingon homeworld to defend the honor of their father, accused of being a traitor against the empire. This is an incredibly important episode in Worf and the Klingon's story arc. We are introduced to the Klingon government and it's inner-workings, Worf's brother, and the House of Durass. It's all very well and good if you like Klingon's but whenever I watch these episodes I end up fixated on the same thing: How the hell did the Klingon's achieve space travel? They're portrayed as such murdering back-stabbing petulant cave men. It doesn't make sense to me that a species who never appears to demonstrate any intellectual prowess what-so-ever could have even made it to the rocket age. Still, this is one you have to watch.Allegiance - Watch - Picard is kidnapped and replaced with a doppleganger. While the real Picard struggles to figure out a way to escape his prison with three other captive aliens, his double takes the Enterprise into danger. I'm going to use the excuse that this is the first episode that introduces the nausigans...that's why it gets a Watch and not a skippable. The nausigans are an intimidating looking alien that are somewhat significant in Picard's story arc later in the series. Really though I just like this episode. The real Picard ends up in a fascinating Cube-esque scenario he needs to figure his way out of, and his double plays nicely against our expectations of Picard. His scenes are fun and sometimes cringe inducing. The ending doesn't quite provide the payoff that the setup promises but it's still an enjoyable ride in getting there.Captain's Holiday - Watch - In this season's special features there is an interview with Patrick Stewart in which he says that he felt his character was becoming a bit dry. Picard's roll on the show was becoming little more than that of a negotiator - someone who stood on the bridge and talked. Apparently this was the reason for Captain's Holiday: keeping the show's anchor cast member happy. So, Picard is burnt out and forced to take a vacation by Crusher. He heads to Risa and tries to spend some time reading and relaxing by the pool, but ends up with a woman named Vash searching for a relic left by a time traveler. Frankly, it's a pretty lame episode. There are a couple of nice bits between the crew and the Captain in the first ten minutes but otherwise the story is mostly devoid of humor or any intrigue. There are a pair of time traveler's that are trying to retrieve a relic, a ferengi that I think is supposed to be funny (he isn't), and a makeout session that doesn't make a ton of sense. In fact when Picard kisses Vash, her personality seems so in contrast to his own that it's almost as though he's just doing it to either shut her up or have a fling...which isn't really keeping with Picard's character. It's all kind of a mess but Vash reappears later in this series and another. Watch with a friend or a bottle.Tin Man - Watch - The Enterprise takes a psychic diplomat named Tam Elbrun on board who is to help the crew make first contact with a ship that might be a living being. Tam has a volatile personality sculpted by years of being overwhelmed by his powerful psychic ability he is unable to turn off. This is an episode you see often in trailers and retrospective's concerning the series. The art design and special effects used to bring Tin Man to life were some of the most interesting in the series to that point. Some of the best music in the series also finds it's way into this one. Tin Man's journey through space isn't painted with loud fanfare or obvious strokes, but with subtle strings and woodwinds almost as though he were a whale floating in the ocean. However what makes this episode interesting to me is Tam and his ability to read thoughts that he can't turn off. In his scenes with the crew we see him responding to things the crew say to him out loud as well as what they're saying in their own heads. We get a sense of what an awful, self-esteem destroying life it must have been to be constantly assaulted by the things people think but don't say. It's a compelling and thoughtful episode.Hollow Pursuits - Must Watch - Hollow Pursuits introduces Lieutenant Barclay. Barclay is a new transfer to Geordi's engineering team, shy and reclusive. Geordi can't stand him but is instructed by Picard to draw the reclusive engineer out of his shell just as strange malfunctions begin occurring on the ship. In doing so, Geordi discovers Lieutenant Barclay has a bit of a holodeck addiction. It's a theme that the series has been screaming for since the holodeck gained the ability to simulate people. A holodeck is potentially a more addictive escapist medium than television, video games, or drugs combined. Finally we get an episode that deals with it in a somewhat realistic, if amusing fashion. It's a wonderful episode that digs a layer or two deep beneath the conventions of the universe to consider the ramifications of it's inner workings.The Most Toys - Watch - Data is captured by a collector of rare items named Kivas Fajo who makes the crew believe he was destroyed in a shuttle accident. Perhaps one of the best guest star appearances in the entire series, Saul Rubinek plays Fajo with such energy and self love that it's hard for us not to love him too, despite his status as Data's captor. The best sequences in the episode occur in conversations between Fajo and Data where he tries to make Data behave more like a piece of property than a captive. Fajo's manipulations serve as a wonderful medium for exposing the outer limits of Data's personality that we see only brief glimpses of throughout the series. Despite a mostly humorous tone throughout the episode (due to Saul's giddy performance) the ending has a chilling moment and leaves the viewer to decide what Data might be capable of, as he stares blankly into the faces of his comrades who are wondering the same thing. It's a complex and thoughtful episode.Sarek - Watch - The famous Ambassador Sarek comes on board the Enterprise to negotiate a peace treaty. When he does, strange emotional outbursts begin occurring among the crew and it seems that Sarek's questionable emotional state may be the cause of it. The episode bridges the gap between some of the original shows lore and the Next Generation and there are some fun sequences including a brawl in Ten Forward. Perhaps most famous is a sequence that could have been a throwaway in an otherwise mostly average episode. Picard, under the duress of Sarek's psychic emotional baggage, freaks the hell out and Patrick Stewart shows everyone he could read the classifieds and make it sound like Hamlet. In his rants we hear bits and snippets of events in Sarek's life to which we have no background or insight and yet we feel the anguish and regret of Sarek's lifetime in Stewart's performance.Menage a Troi - SKIP - Lwaxanna, the Ferengi, and Wesley create a trifecta of badness in this slap-sticky scholck ridden monstrosity. Lwaxanna, Troi, and Riker are kidnapped by a horny ferengi that wants Lwaxanna to read his opponents minds and play with his lobes. Wesley saves the day. It isn't season one bad but it's close. As usual in these terrible episodes, Patrick Stewart provides the lone moment of redemption as he's forced to fake a smitten rage at the ferengi to get Lwaxanna back. When he tells Wesley to set course for Betazed at Warp 9, we feel his pain and are hoping for an equally speedy end to the episode. Oh and that plucky Wesley gets a field promotion to ensign. Avoid this mire of misguided camp at all costs.Transfigurations - Skip - Beverly suffers the Florence Nightingale (Lorraine McFly?) over a patient the crew finds crashed on an alien planet. The patient suffers from amnesia and is experiencing a cellular mutation. As the crew investigates this John Doe's past he and Beverly form a bond. There isn't a lot of fun to be had in watching the Dr. Crush on this character. In fact I found her scenes between Troi and Wesley to be a bit shallow as she struggles to make a simple crush sound more profound. It doesn't help that John Doe speaks in slow deep bass like he's just fallen out of a romance novel or a self-hypnosis tape.The Best of Both Worlds Part 1 - Must Watch - One of the top ten episodes of the entire series. The Borg send a single ship toward Earth. At this point in the series the Borg had only been seen in the single episode where Q tossed the ship into their territory. Before the movie and Voyager sapped them of almost all of their fright and intimidation (the shark in Jaws is scariest when you DON'T see him) this was how bad-ass the Borg were. One single vessel could assimilate all of humanity. With this two-parter the show reaches an epic level of story telling not yet seen even in the movies.What do you think the best and the worst episodes from this season are?

The DVDs themselves are of good quality; I've rented many seasons' worth and reminded myself which stories throughout the run were good and which were not...$50 per season is on par and is a good price. (So what's coming soon that's compelling people to buy these current sets?)Wish I could afford it; thanks to the prices of necessities gone up so much (food, shelter, and distilled petroleum products being slightly more important than Captain Picard standing around as if he hasn't spent a penny in decades...), $50 is still an effective $100 out of my pocket in the end.Don't get me wrong, the entire series IS fun and seasons 3 and beyond have their appreciable values as well; but they are a change...Evolution: A terrific season opener that reintroduces Dr Crusher with aplomb. Wesley starting the problem is a big boost too.The Ensigns of Command: Another home-run with this entry of Picard having his hands full; fighting a stolid species of inflexible corporate bugs while finding means to persuade a bunch of colonists to vacate the planet that the inflexible corporate bugs claim ownership too. Very good story indeed!The Survivors: An oddball, but highly enjoyable and well cast. Especially if you've never been keen on Troi.Who Watches the Watchers: Badly dated and preachy, but it's got enough set pieces to remain worthy.The Bonding: I think, as with When the Bough Breaks, this one features kids on it as a result of a candy bar write-in contest... It's a bit soapy, and why the alien wants to cajole one little kid seems silly...Booby Trap: Shades of season 2, but this one is back on form with good ideas; especially with seeding an idea to be followed up next season. Though, in reality, the ship caught in the trap would not survive a thousand years...The Enemy: Utterly perfect, with one problem: No Vulcan, a race that is a blood-brother to the Romulans, has the blood type needed to save the captured Romulan - yet Worf, a Klingon - is the sole person who CAN save this Romulan?! Talk about shoehorning rubbish science into a scenario that's otherwise excellent, even with the silly uberdrama... Maybe he should donate some blood and have it transfused into a poodle and see if the poodle survives. That's what it boils down to.The Price: Even today, the romance subplot is heavyhanded, but the Ferengi get just desserts with their meddling. :DThe Vengeance Factor: Well done story about blood feud.The Defector: I used to love this one, but rewatching it reveals the uberdrama petty soap opera it sadly is. It DOES have potential and a few surprise twists, but Picard taking all that time to instill excess drama into a situation that warrants fast response? At that point I'd be cheering for the opposing team!!The Hunted: A decent parallel to Vietnam vets; and hasn't dated much by today's standards either.The High Ground: Whew boy. This anti-terrorism story doesn't fit well today. It's too one-sided...Deja Q: Another Q episode. How can't it be good?! CLASSIC! Q becomes human and the interplay with the crew is classic. Especially when Guinan hears about the development... Picard saving Q's bacon by the end is to be expected, but well handled.A Matter of Perspective: Pity we didn't have that in the terrorism story. :rolleyes: This one is far worse for having it... best left forgotten.Yesterday's Enterprise: Classic. Nice to see Yar back. Also sets up a concept to be revived later on, which all things considered is brilliant.The Offspring: Remake of "The Measure of a Man" and the story, much like Lal, self-destructs because it's 100% derivative.Sins of the Father: Continues the Worf saga. Until season 6 then DS9, this saga is fun.Allegience: Preachy and predictable, but has some nice set pieces.Captain's Holiday: More Ferengi? A few nice set pieces and comedic moments, but naah...Tin Man: Another classic. Reuses some f/x from Star Trek The Motion Picture, but it's easy to relate to Tam and especially To the Tin Man entity.Hollow Pursuits: Unworthy of any spite accorded to it; and Dwight Schultz is inspired casting. great story on a man who isn't like the rest of us. Pity we don't get more background info on him, but it is highly underrated.The Most Toys: Another well-handled gem. The toy collector getting his just desserts in the end, too... Great Data-centric story.Sarek: A plot so good that it got reused in Deep Space 9... Sarek comes aboard and Picard mindmelds because Sarek is past his prime... also sets up for a later story too...Menage a Troi: garbage.Transfigurations: An anti-xenophobia story. A typical entry but has its momenets.Best of Both Worlds: A bit soapy at times, but there's no real reason to even begin to dislike it. The Borg never improved after this story (apart from a novel released in 1991 that isn't considered canon...)

There are far fewer skippable episodes in this season of ST:TNG than the first 2. It includes at least three that are essential; Yesterday's Enterprise, Sins of the Father and the finale, Best of Both Worlds, Part 1. The cast are settled into their characters, although there is the continuing question of why Wesley Crusher is allowed on the bridge at all....The remastering to 1080p & multi-channel audio has been very well and seamlessly done, whilst keeping the original 4:3 aspect. There are a reasonable number of extras. Recommended; if you have the DVD copy, sell it and buy this.

With Season Three I'm in agreement with those reviewers who see this as the point where The Next Generation started to impress its audience. The quality of the writing, the cast performances and the look of the show all improved greatly. Whilst it still has some flaws, depending on what your favourite characters and episodes are, it has a consistency that was lacking for the previous two years. This season started out with strong ideas; from Wesley Crusher accidentally creating intelligent nanobots that threaten the ship and a scientist's life work (Evolution), Data's dilemma of how to convince a colony that they leave their homes where they are under threat of massacre (Ensigns of Command) to an unusual drama of two humans living unharmed on a world otherwise destroyed by an alien invasion, which leads to a devastating conclusion (The Survivors).With episodes like "Who Watches the Watchers", "The Defector", "Deja-Q" (a personal favourite for some great lines and Guinan's behaviour to Q), "A Matter of Perspective", "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Hollow Pursuits" and the two-part cliffhanger "The Best of Both Worlds" it puts the show in a much better position. Although there are some misfires and less than dazzling episodes it does highlight that the proportion of good episodes increased and provided entertaining stories that went from Cold War-esque scenes with the Romulans to dealing with emotional subjects such as the effect of death on Enterprise families (The Bonding), mental health issues (Sarek) and the first in-depth look at the Klingon home world (Sins of the Father).Definitely worth viewing to see how much this season improved the show's overall direction.

This box set is the third season of Star Trek: the Next Generation (TNG). After a slightly slow start with the first two seasons, the writing really began to improve and the episode plots had some really strong storylines. Among these, "High Ground" addressed the concept of terrorism, "Yesterdays Enterprise" allowed the temporary return of Tasha Yar, "The offspring" re-opened discussions on the concept of Human rights for Artifical beings; and the last episode "Best of Both Worlds part 1" brought back the Borg for a chilling season climax.The various characters really began to be fleshed out nicely by this stage and this allowed for some very strong acting from the regular cast as well as a number of the guest actors. The special effects also started to look better, and a bit better than some of the previous episodes.The box set also has a number of extra items that I enjoyed; it's really good to see some of the background stuff that goes into the production of the programmes.This is a great addition to any collection, and complememts the other sets really nicely.

What really bugs me (a Star Trek fanatic) is that every time I switch off and then back on, the disc starts in an unexpected place, usually at the beginning of an episode I have just seen yesterday, and if I speed through this and choose the next episode it sometimes/often switches over from English to German. To overcome this I have to eject the disc, push it in again, and go once again from scratch with choose the language, wait through the infuriating endless legal nonsense (who wants to know all this and who pays the slightest attention to it?), choose the episode, then possibly speed through to the place I switched off last night. In spite of this, I love the series and would wish the people who market it would come to their senses. Video tapes were never as annoying. This is not progress, it's regress.I would give it 5 stars for content, but 1 star because of the nuisance value.

I bought this series throughout 2010 but when I came to watch this third series I found I had two discs the same ( i.e two discs 6 and 7) and therefore one of the discs (4 and 5) was missing. Too late to return it as I'd had it a while and I re-ordered it this year as The Next Generation is, for me, a great series.The moral of the story is, open the dvd packaging on receipt and check the right discs are there, even if you are not going to watch it immediately.No one's fault but my own but pleased now have the complete series.