n its third season, Star Trek: The Next Generation found its footing—and its own unique voice within the Star Trek universe. By the time the fourth season rolled around in 1991, the series was prepared to build on the strong foundation established by producers Michael Piller and Rick Berman the previous year. And Next Gen did so with flair, starting with its satisfying conclusion to the no-win situation of season three's cliffhanger, "The Best of Both Worlds."
Next Generation's season-four box set follows in the footsteps of seasons one, two and three. The menu interface is fashioned after the Next Gen computer consoles, and it's easy to navigate the menus intuitively. Four episodes are packed on a disc, with the final two episodes of this 26-episode season sharing space with the extras on the seventh disc.
Season four isn't the flashiest or most memorable season in Next Gen's seven years, but it does rank up there with the best. The season starts out on a strong note by concluding the Borg two-parter, hints at unrest in the Klingon empire in "Reunion" (guest-starring the sharp-tongued Suzy Klaxson as K'Ehleyr, a woman from Worf's past), and then surges in the end with another cliffhanger, "Redemption, Part 1," which continues the Klingon story arc.
Also notable about this season is the writers' trend of making the characters' personal journies integral to the primary storyline. This development made it easier for viewers to become more vested in the characters and in the show itself. The second episode, "Family," is a perfect example of this: A dramatic character piece, "Family" showcases Stewart's admirable range as an actor and serves as an appropriate bridge between the intense events of "BoBW" and the Enterprise crew's ensuing adventures in space. Similarly, the third episode, "Brothers," provides a unique opportunity for Spiner, who pulls triple duty as Data, his malevolent brother, Lore, and Dr. Noonian Soong, the scientific wizard who created the two androids.
More enjoyable than "Brothers," though, is the leisurely paced "Data's Day," an episode that provides a peek inside the android's typical day, both on duty and off. Lots of other milestones are achieved in season four: Wesley Crusher leaves for Starfleet Academy in "Final Mission," Tasha Yar's daughter surfaces in "Legacy," Worf learns he has a son in "Reunion." And, of course, the series' annual dose of comic relief is again provided in spades, courtesy of John DeLancie's Q in the Robin Hood spoof episode "Qpid."
Enterprise extras were lost in space
Unfortunately, the season-four DVD set also has the same Achilles' heel as some of its predecessors: a largely disappointing collection of extra material. By the time season four rolled around, Next Generation was an unqualified hit; surely somewhere in the archives there are long-unseen publicity tapes and behind-the-scenes materials that would be ideal for inclusion on a DVD release. At the least, it would be nice to see Paramount's DVD producers arrange for audio commentaries by the writers and directors of popular episodes.
This time out, we get five original, but haphazardly organized, featurettes highlighting past and recent perspectives from the show's cast and crew. The high point of these five is "Departmental Briefing—Year Four: Production," a 16-minute segment marked by interesting and detailed reflections on directing by Frakes, who directed season four's "Reunion" and "The Drumhead", and Stewart, who made his directorial debut on the series with the Data-has-a-date episode "In Theory".
The weakest link of the five is the "Selected Crew Analysis," which makes the fatal transgression of devoting much of the first eight minutes—half the length of the entire featurette—to a recent interview with Wil Wheaton, who waxes nostalgic about the departure of his character, Wesley Crusher, from the show. The remaining time is occupied by other wildly disjointed views of the characters. For example: We get two minutes of soundbites from Sirtis talking about "The Loss," and why she didn't mind that she didn't get more "A" storylines—and then we end up with guest star Jennifer Hettrick on her character Vash (a role she reprised for "Qpid").
Falling somewhere in between the aforementioned extremes are the remaining three featurettes. The mildly interesting "Mission Overview" reveals no secrets, and is marked by Piller's insights on resolving "BoBW," as well as Stewart's thoughts on being a Borg and reuniting with Jean-Luc Picard's family. Also in this random 16-minute segment are recollections of "Qpid" from Delancie, Frakes, Sirtis and Piller; Entertainment Tonight's footage of Gene Roddenberry and the show's 100th-episode celebration (subtract points, though, for the decision to intercut the archival footage with a current interview's comments by Wil Wheaton on reaching the 100th episode); and the decidedly misplaced explanation from Piller about the writers' motivations in killing off K'Ehleyr in "Reunion" (these comments would have fit better in with the "Chronicles" section).
Neither "The New Life and New Civilizations" nor the "Chronicles from the Final Frontier" segments are better executed or better presented. The 13 minutes of "New Life" ramble on about production design and visual-effects issues, as recollected by behind-the-scenes types like producers Peter Lauritson, David Livingston and other crew members. Inexplicably, we also get yet another dose of Wheaton, too. Meanwhile, although the concept behind the 17-minute-long "Chronicles" is a strong one—to delve into the creative process with leading writers like Ronald Moore, Michael Piller, Jeri Talor and Brannon Braga—the editing of the featurette leaves much to be desired (for example, more than halfway through, the conversations shift to focus on Tasha Yar and on writing Klingons; yet both of these segments feel misplaced and tacked on to this particular featurette).
