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Free Shipping Released: 2007-10-02 Rating:  More Details: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Complete Series Star Trek: The Next Generation - Complete Series @Amazon Star Trek: The Next Generation - Complete Series @aStore |
Description
Finally, the complete, epic sci-fi television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation is available in a complete series set for the first time ever. Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the landmark series and own all 176 classic episodes in one definitive collector’s boxed set, featuring all-new special features. This is the definitive release that fans have been waiting for!
After Star Wars and the successful big-screen Star Trek adventures, it's perhaps not so surprising that Gene Roddenberry managed to convince purse string-wielding studio heads in the 1980s that a Next Generation would be both possible and profitable. But the political climate had changed considerably since the 1960s, the Cold War had wound down, and we were now living in the Age of Greed. To be successful a second time, Star Trek had to change too.
A writer's guide was composed with which to sell and define where the Trek universe was in the 24th Century. The United Federation of Planets was a more appealing ideology to an America keen to see where the Reagan/Gorbachev faceoff was taking them. Starfleet's meritocratic philosophy had always embraced all races and species. Now Earth's utopian history, featuring the abolishment of poverty, was brandished prominently and proudly. The new Enterprise, NCC 1701-D, was no longer a ship of war but an exploration vessel carrying families. The ethical and ethnical flagship also carried a former enemy (the Klingon Worf, played by Michael Dorn), and its Chief Engineer (Geordi LaForge) was blind and black. From every politically correct viewpoint, Paramount executives thought the future looked just swell!
Roddenberry's feminism now contrasted a pilot episode featuring ship's Counsellor Troi (Marina Sirtis) in a mini-skirt with her ongoing inner strengths and also those of Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) and the short-lived Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby). The arrival of Whoopi Goldberg in season 2 as mystic barkeep Guinan is a great example of the good the original Trek did for racial groups--Goldberg has stated that she was inspired to become an actress in large part through seeing Nichelle Nichols' Uhura. Her credibility as an actress helped enormously alongside the strong central performances of Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Jonathan Frakes (First Officer Will Riker), and Brent Spiner (Data) in defining another wholly believable environment once again populated with well-defined characters. Star Trek, it turned out, did not depend for its success on any single group of actors.
Like its predecessor in the 1960s, TNG pioneered visual effects on TV, making it an increasingly jaw-dropping show to look at. And thanks also to the enduring success of the original show, phasers, tricorders, communicators and even phase inverters were already familiar to most viewers. But while technology was a useful tool in most crises, it now frequently seemed to be the cause of them too, as the show's writers continually warned about the dangers of over-reliance on technology (the Borg were the ultimate expression of this maxim). The word "technobabble" came to describe a weakness in many TNG scripts, which sacrificed the social and political allegories of the original and relied instead upon invented technological faults and their equally fictitious resolutions to provide drama within the Enterprise's self-contained society. (The holodeck's safety protocol override seemed to be next to the light switch given the number of times crew members were trapped within.) This emphasis on scientific jargon appealed strongly to an audience who were growing up for the first time in the late 1980s with the home computer--and gave rise to the clichéd image of the nerdy Trek fan.
Like in the original Trek, it was in the stories themselves that much of the show's success is to be found. That pesky Prime Directive kept moral dilemmas afloat ("Justice"/"Who Watches the Watchers?"/"First Contact"). More "what if" scenarios came out of time-travel episodes ("Cause and Effect"/"Time's Arrow"/"Yesterday's Enterprise"). And there were some episodes that touched on the political world, such as "The Arsenal of Freedom" questioning the supply of arms, "Chain of Command" decrying the torture of political prisoners and "The Defector", which was called "The Cuban Missile Crisis of The Neutral Zone" by its writer. The show ran for more than twice as many episodes as its progenitor and therefore had more time to explore wider ranging issues. But the choice of issues illustrates the change in the social climate that had occurred with the passing of a couple of decades. "Angel One" covered sexism; "The Outcast" was about homosexuality; "Symbiosis"--drug addiction; "The High Ground"--terrorism; "Ethics"--euthanasia; "Darmok"--language barriers; and "Journey's End"--displacement of Indians from their homeland. It would have been unthinkable for the original series to have tackled most of these.
TNG could so easily have been a failure, but it wasn't. It survived a writer's strike in its second year, the tragic death of Roddenberry just after Trek's 25th anniversary in 1991, and plenty of competition from would-be rival franchises. Yes, its maintenance of an optimistic future was appealing, but the strong stories and readily identifiable characters ensured the viewers' continuing loyalty. --Paul Tonks
- AspectRatio: 1.33:1
- AudienceRating: NR (Not Rated)
- Binding: DVD
- Brand: Paramount
- EAN: 0097361311746
- Format: AC-3
- Label: Paramount
- Languages
- Language
- Name: English
- Type: Original Language
- Language
- Manufacturer: Paramount
- MPN: 097361311746
- NumberOfDiscs: 49
- OriginalReleaseDate: 1987-09-26
- PackageQuantity: 1
- ProductGroup: DVD
- ProductTypeName: ABIS_DVD
- Publisher: Paramount
- RegionCode: 1
- ReleaseDate: 2007-10-02
- RunningTime: 8085
- Studio: Paramount
- TheatricalReleaseDate: 1987-09-26
- Title: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Complete Series
- UPC: 097361311746
Customer Reviews:
A Decent product for Trekkies and non-Trekkies alike
The following review covers the main areas in which I believe people ordering this product on-line consider important.
A. DELIVERY SCHEDULE
1. Importance to me = medium
2. Rating = 5/5
3. Comments: I ordered this product from archair_boogie, an Amazon Marketplace seller. The order was fulfilled promptly, and I received it within 5 days of placing the order, even though I did not request expedited delivery. I consider this excellent delivery service. However, keep in mind that other sellers may not be quite as prompt.
B. DELIVERY PACKAGING & CONDITION
1. Importance to me = high
2. Rating = 5/5
3. Comments: The boxed set was packed in a (USPS) cardboard box, which was then placed in the FedEx cardboard box with paper padding between the boxes to provide cushioning. The box arrived intact, and in good condition.
C. PRODUCT PACKAGING & CONDITION OF PACKAGING
1. Importance to me = medium
2. Rating = 1/5
3. Comments: The product came in a sealed plastic wrapping. The outer "shell" of the boxed set is reasonably attractive, and consists of "bookends" within which is a clear plastic "dome" that encases the DVD containers. Despite being stylish, this plastic case is not easy to put back on the containers. The DVDs are stored in twin-disk trays made of brittle green plastic, some of which had broken off. What was worse is that in some instances the clamping teeth for the disks were broken off, causing the disks to come loose upon opening the casing. The set is arranged into 3 sub-sets, each of which is held together by clear packing tape, allowing the disk trays to be opened like a book. Two of the three sub-sets in the boxed set that I received were encased in clear plastic sheaths, allowing them to be better held together. The third did not have this sheathing.
Judging by the cheap packaging I believed I was the victim of a bootleg scam. However, upon further research it turns out that people who bought this product from other (non-Amazon) vendors, such as Best Buy, also complained about this. I also found out that many people are discarding the original disk trays and replacing them with sturdier and more attractive DVD cases. One example, from a reputable manufacturer (Maxell) can be found at [...]:
[...]
D. PRODUCT CONDITION
1. Importance to me = high
2. Rating = 4.5/5
3. Comments: The DVDs were all undamaged and intact. However, I noticed a few scratches on the disk surfaces, and I wonder if those were originally present or occurred after I opened the box and the DVDs started slipping out because they were not secured in the trays. All the DVDs were included, but I did notice that a couple of them were not inserted in the correct order.
E. PRODUCT APPEARANCE
1. Importance to me = medium
2. Rating = 3.5/5
3. Comments: Each DVD has a label showing an image of a main character on the show, providing the season number and volume number within the season, and a listing of episodes by number and name. All of this is more than adequate; however, the print quality is somewhat low and the text can appear blurry.
F. ADDITIONAL CONTENT INCLUDED WITH PRODUCT
1. Importance to me = medium
2. Rating = 0/5
3. Comments: Pretty much the only content within the outer plastic covering of this boxed set are the DVDs themselves. Ordinarily, with a boxed set is included a catalog of the contents - a booklet that, at the very least, lists the episodes. To top things off, the disk trays have no labels - not even to indicate the season and episode number. Unless you keep your trays in the proper order at all times (and good luck with that, given the flimsy packing tape holding the sub-sets together) you may have to open several disk trays to find the disk you're looking for.
G. PRODUCT QUALITY
1. Importance to me = high
2. Rating = 4/5
3. Comments: I am a fairly dedicated Star Trek fan, and I've put my money where my mouth is by purchasing the entire movie line-up in the franchise, and have all of them in DVD format; for the earlier movies I also have them in VHS format. I have purchased the DVD boxed set of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (which, in my opinion, rivals ST: TNG for drama and surpasses it in production value). I have some other merchandise. And so on. Therefore, I will most likely be biased if I talk about the show itself. Moreover, most people buying this product probably already enjoyed the show during its 7-year run, or at least are sold enough on it to be willing to buy the entire 7 seasons. So I'll focus instead on the 3 key elements of a DVD production - video, audio, features.
The video quality is reasonable, but not high quality. I am watching it on a 60" LCD display at 780p and for the most part the images are crisp. There is the occasional "ghosting" when there is movement under low lighting conditions, but that's par for the course when talking about something that was produced more than 20 years ago and reproduced in the compressed format of DVD. However, I wonder if Paramount could not have spent a little more time cleaning up the video.
The 5:1 audio is much like it was when the show was being broadcast. With a decent sound system you can hear a lot of the ambient sounds, and surround effects are occasionally put to good use.
This set is somewhat modest in the features category. Yes, the menu looks & sounds cool. However, there is no (obligatory, for DVD releases) commentary, and there are no language options. On the plus side, there is a bonus disk that contains features that have not been previously released, but this is something that would likely appeal to Trekkies rather than the general public. [But then, for that matter the entire boxed set is probably targeted at the Trekkie market.] In addition, the last disk for each season has "Mission Logs", which provide insights into the respective season and the Star Trek universe at large.
H. OVERALL VALUE
1. Importance to me = high
2. Rating = 4/5
3. Comments: This is a rather pricy item, and the customer has a right to expect a lot out of it. However, the first impression most people will get is the cheapness and throw-away quality of the product. But for those that look past the shoddy packaging and poor organization of the disks, this is undoubtedly a collector's item. I obtained the boxed set at a discounted price, so I'm willing to overlook the outward examples of lousy craftsmanship and focus, instead, on the show itself. And there, good readers, it shines.
Great series, but presentation has flaws
As a whole, I am pleased with purchasing this collection. It is my opinion that this series does an excellent job of keeping the spirit of the original series, while significantly raising the bar for science fiction of its time. Even in 2010, Star Trek: The Next Generation is easily able to compete with other series, whether one is considering science fiction or other genres. I found all to easy to watch entire discs in one sitting, yet only one questionable episode. ("Shades of Gray", apparently the first clip show in Star Trek) In terms of content, this DVD collection is nothing short of awesome.
However, there are some greivances with the way that this series is packaged. The most annoying "feature" of this particular collection is the casing it arrives in. For instance, the DVD casing is made of a cheap plastic which is flimsy and easily cracked. The design of the casing also makes it difficult to remove the DVDs safely. The grips that hold each DVD in place are difficult to release, and even if you are extremely careful, it is too easy to end up accidentally scratching the suface the disc you are trying to remove. Oddly enough, the tray that houses the bonus disc does not have this problem, and implements a simple release mechanism seen in modern DVD cases. While the issues associated with storing 49 discs are an important problem to overcome, I feel that low profile DVD cases would have been a better choice here.
Additionally, the DVDs themselves have a few user interface issues. There is either no "play all" option the disc's menu, or it is very well hidden. It is also worth mentioning that the chapters are not defined consistently: most of the time, the second chapter starts directly after the title clip; however, it will occasionally start well past this point, and will continue to do so for a few episodes. If you are like me and wish to watch the entire series sequentially, this can be annoying, as the title clip can eventually get old.
If you can live with these things, this collection is a steal at its current price. If you purchase this product, I strongly recommend that you move its discs into a safer container. Be extremely careful when you do this, as I cannot stress enough the ease at which the DVDs can be scratched. Try to avoid any lateral motion if you can; when the DVDs in my collection have been scratched, it has usually been because of this kind of accidental movement.
star trek tng complete series 
am having difficulty with some of the discs. about half of them will not play and about a third that will play skip or stop. i love star trek but the disc quality is realy poor.
Great series
I bought this about five months ago and have already found it elsewhere for $100 less than what I paid for it here. I do have to point out though that I do not know the trust level of the other site I found this product but they were advertising on Facebook. As far as the product itself I am very pleased. At first I thought the quality looked less than DVD standards and more like VHS copies but recently I watched a few episodes on television and realized that this is just how the show looks and the DVD format cannot improve on that. I am slightly disappointed in the packaging as it is awkward. You have to remove a green plastic cover from the top, then remove the DVD cases from a even larger bulky gray casing. Then the DVD cases are not attached by a spine, instead they are tapped together in three separate units. Then each of the individual DVDs were wrapped in a small plastic bags. Compared to other complete TV series like The Twilight Zone which had much better packaging, I have to wonder what they were thinking when they designed this thing. However being a Star Trek fan it's worth it to have every episode of TNG.
Not worth the trouble 
This review is not about the actual show "Star Trek: The Next Generation". I love it or I would not have purchased this set. My problem is the way it was manufactured. There are no inserts, No Cover art. The Trays containing the DVDs break very easily. And usually are shipped broken.
If you can find this set as cheap as I got mine then it might be okay (I spent $75.00 for mine). But unless you can get it that cheap, it is more advisable to buy each season individually. This way you get a decent case and artwork to store your set. Otherwise you will have to create your own cover art and purchase case to keep your collection safe.
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