Trekking in HD: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Two
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Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Two
Background:
Capt. Picard: There's still much to do; still so much to learn. Mr. La Forge - engage! –“The Neutral Zone” (Season One finale)
Star Trek: The Next Generation’s (ST-TNG) first season officially ended with these optimistic words on May 16, 1988. On that date, many television stations broadcast The Neutral Zone, the 26th and last first-run episode of the syndicated show’s premiere season.
Created by Gene Roddenberry at the insistence of Paramount Pictures, ST-TNG was a daring concept for its time. Intended to be a sequel to the canceled Star Trek TV series that aired on NBC in the late 1960s,The Next Generation was one of the first direct-to-syndication series produced.
Paramount had shopped the show’s concept to ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, but – to the studio’s relief – was turned down. Paramount Television and Roddenberry were secretly glad about the big networks’ rejection. The producers were now free from network censorship, and the show’s existence wasn’t at the mercy of ratings-hungry executives.
The question was: “Would a new Star Trek show succeed where no other science fiction show had worked before?”
In May of 1988, no one really had a clear answer to this question.
Although most TV shows have growing pains during their first season, ST-TNG had to overcome a string of problems which threatened its viability as a profitable series for Paramount.
The most glaring problem facing Roddenberry and his show-runner Rick Berman was a creative brain drain that began almost as soon as the first batch of Season One episodes aired. David Gerrold and Eddie Milkis, two of the Original Series staffers who helped create ST-TNG, left shortly after production started.
To make matters worse, Roddenberry’s insistence that every story had to have a “message” placed creative limits on writers. While Roddenberry’s thematic ideas were noble in theory, in practice they restricted stories to two basic archetypes. One was: “the Enterprise crew learns a lesson from its encounter with Alien Society A.” The other archetype was, with rare exception, “Alien Society B learns a lesson from theEnterprise crew.”
Star Trek in all its incarnations has always been a medium for social commentary. However, such obvious moralizing in TNG’s freshman year was heavy handed and made for poor drama. Season One’s batch of 26 episodes contains decent exceptions – Heart of Glory and The Neutral Zone come to mind – but many of the stories are watchable only because the performances are decent.
The show also lost two major cast members by the end of the first season. First to beam off the Enterprisewas actor Denise Crosby, who believed her character, Lt. Tasha Yar, was being underutilized. Frustrated, she asked the producers to release her from her contract and to write off her character. This they did, and Yar was killed in the episode Skin of Evil. (There were rumors among fans that Crosby was fired becausePlayboy magazine reran a 1979 pictorial in which she posed nude. However, Crosby had already quit TNGbefore the May 1988 issue of Playboy hit newsstands.)
Gates McFadden’s departure was a bit more complicated than Crosby’s. McFadden, who played Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher, had never done a recurring role on a TV series and was naïve about behind-the-scenes politics. After having too many arguments with Roddenberry and co-executive producer Rick Berman, McFadden was fired. (To their credit, though, the producers left the door open for McFadden’s return and transferred her character to Starfleet Medical on Earth.)
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Two: New Faces, New Writers
Though the quality of TNG’s scripts was still uneven due to the “revolving door” in the writing staff, the second season showed some hints of the show’s future glory. Maurice Hurley was promoted from his job as a producer to co-executive producer. Under his watch the writers coped with constant staff changes and the 1988 Writers’ Guild Strike. (This strike is why The Child, Season One’s first episode, was a rewritten version of an unproduced script originally intended for the aborted Star Trek: Phase II TV series.)
Another Hurley contribution was the creation of the Borg, a new and more dangerous antagonist worthy of Capt. Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his new Enterprise-D starship. Introduced in Q Who? and shown to be almost invincible, the Borg would become Star Trek’s most formidable villains. The Borg, the Romulans, renegade Klingons, and the Cardassians would give Starfleet a run for their money and viewers more exciting baddies than the silly Ferengi.
The instability in the writing department had its detrimental effects on the second season’s abbreviated run. Hurley’s Q Who? and Melinda Snodgrass’ The Measure of a Man are considered to be among the best episodes written for the show. So is Burton Armus’ A Matter of Honor. However, Unnatural Selection is a slightly rehashed version of The Original Series’ The Deadly Years, and Shades of Grey is a budget-mandated “clip show” forced upon by the producers by the Writers’ Guild Strike.
In front of the camera, there were several changes. The sets were repainted and reupholstered during the hiatus, and the lighting was subtly changed to give the Enterprise a slightly more welcoming look.
In addition, a new location aboard the ship, The Ten Forward Lounge, was introduced, along with the mysterious Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg in a recurring guest role).
To fill the vacuum created by Gates McFadden’s absence, actor Diana Muldaur was cast as Dr. Kate Pulaski, the ship’s new Chief Medical Officer. Older and more outspoken than Dr. Crusher, Muldaur’s character was intended to remind viewers of the Bones/Kirk relationship from Star Trek: The Original Series.Trekkers already knew Muldaur from two guest appearances in The Original Series. A consummate performer, she was witty and stubborn as Pulaski. However, fans missed the chemistry between Patrick Stewart and Gates McFadden, so Pulaski’s assignment on the Enterprise was as ephemeral as her “Special Appearance By…” credit in the cast list.
The Blu-ray Set:
CBS Blu-ray, which produces Star Trek HD home media for Paramount after CBS acquired the franchise’s copyright several years ago, released Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Two on December 4, 2012. The five-discs are ensconced in a slim Blu-ray jewel box package. Its cover art (which is duplicated in the cardboard slipcover) features ST-TNG’s Starfleet insignia against a orange backdrop. Within the Starfleet delta are portraits of Capt. Picard, Counselor Troi and Lt. (JG) Worf. The background art depicts theEnterprise-D cruising near a Saturn-like planet, with distant stars lying further away.
My Take: I’ve never owned previous Paramount’s VHS or DVD issues of Star Trek: The Next Generation, so I can’t offer a comparison between the Blu-ray edition and its forebears. According to the package blurb and some of the behind-the-scenes materials in the set:
Star Trek: The Next Generation- Season Two returns to the final frontier at warp speed in brilliant 1080p high definition and digitally remastered 7.1 sound. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) leads the crew of the Enterprise through a new season of new friends, new foes and amazing adventures. Introduced this year are Whoopi Goldberg as mysterious Guinan – bartender of the Ten Forward lounge, Diana Muldaur as the ship’s Chief Medical Officer Katherine Pulaski, and the deadly, unstoppable Borg. The voyage also explores powerful moments including Riker (Jonathan Frakes) serving on a Klingon ship, and Data (Brent Spiner) on trial for his life.
In contrast to the remastered versions of Star Trek: The Original Series, the wizards at CBS Video did not replace the 1988-1989 special effects with 21st Century updates. They did, however, digitally clean up the images directly from the original film used during the show’s production. The result: a vast improvement in video and audio quality that doesn’t compromise the vision of the original directors and effects supervisors.
As in the Season One set, Star Trek: The Next Generation features a ship’s cargo bay’s worth of extras.
There are two behind-the-scenes documentaries: Reunification: 25 Years After Star Trek: The Next Generation reunites the series’ cast members for a historic session of reminiscing and intriguing anecdotes about the series’ second year.
Making It So: Continuing Star Trek: The Next Generation is a two part look at the production of the 1988-1989 batch of episodes. Like Season One’s Stardate Revisited, cast and crew interviews shed light on why TNG’s second year was almost as problematic as its first. At the same time, participants point out what went right for Star Trek even with all the turmoil in the writing department and fans’ still-present “wait and see” attitudes.
Note on Languages (Subtitles and Audio)
Though the product listing on Amazon only lists “English” in the Language category, Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season One features various languages in both audio and subtitle options. English is the default selection on the preliminary menu, but viewers may also choose Danish, French, Japanese, Castillian Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, and Swedish. (Some of these options apply to audio and subtitles, though some apply only to subtitles.)
Season Two Episode List
Disc One:
The Child
Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Outrageous Okona
Loud as a Whisper
Episode Promos
1988 On-Air Season Two Promo
“Energized!” Season Two Tech Update (HD)
1988 Reading Rainbow segment with LeVar Burton
2012 Reading Rainbow iTunes Promo (HD)
Archival Mission Log: Departmental Briefing Year Two: Production
Disc Two:
The Schizoid Man
Unnatural Selection
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
Episode Promos
The Measure of a Man (HD Extended Version)
Audio Commentary by Melinda Snodgrass and Mike & Denise Okuda
The Measure of a Man (Hybrid Extended Version)
Disc Three:
The Dauphin
Contagion
The Royale
Time Squared
The Icarus Factor
Episode Promos
Gag Reel
Archival Mission Log: Inside Starfleet Archives: Penny Juday: Star Trek Coordinator
Archival Mission Log: Selected Crew Analysis Year Two
Disc Four:
Pen Pals
Q Who? – Audio Commentary by Dan Curry. Rob Bowman, and Mike & Denise Okuda
Samaritan Snare
Up the Long Ladder – Deleted Scenes
Manhunt
Episode Promos
Archival Mission Log: Departmental Analysis Year Two: Memorable Missions
Disc Five:
The Emissary
Peak Performance
Shades of Grey
Episode Promos
Reunification: 25 Years After Star Trek: The Next Generation (HD)
Making It So: Continuing Star Trek: The Next Generation (HD)
Part 1: Strange New Worlds
Part 2: New Life and New Civilizations
Archival Mission Log: Mission Overview Year Two
Background:
Capt. Picard: There's still much to do; still so much to learn. Mr. La Forge - engage! –“The Neutral Zone” (Season One finale)
Star Trek: The Next Generation’s (ST-TNG) first season officially ended with these optimistic words on May 16, 1988. On that date, many television stations broadcast The Neutral Zone, the 26th and last first-run episode of the syndicated show’s premiere season.
Created by Gene Roddenberry at the insistence of Paramount Pictures, ST-TNG was a daring concept for its time. Intended to be a sequel to the canceled Star Trek TV series that aired on NBC in the late 1960s,The Next Generation was one of the first direct-to-syndication series produced.
Paramount had shopped the show’s concept to ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, but – to the studio’s relief – was turned down. Paramount Television and Roddenberry were secretly glad about the big networks’ rejection. The producers were now free from network censorship, and the show’s existence wasn’t at the mercy of ratings-hungry executives.
The question was: “Would a new Star Trek show succeed where no other science fiction show had worked before?”
In May of 1988, no one really had a clear answer to this question.
Although most TV shows have growing pains during their first season, ST-TNG had to overcome a string of problems which threatened its viability as a profitable series for Paramount.
The most glaring problem facing Roddenberry and his show-runner Rick Berman was a creative brain drain that began almost as soon as the first batch of Season One episodes aired. David Gerrold and Eddie Milkis, two of the Original Series staffers who helped create ST-TNG, left shortly after production started.
To make matters worse, Roddenberry’s insistence that every story had to have a “message” placed creative limits on writers. While Roddenberry’s thematic ideas were noble in theory, in practice they restricted stories to two basic archetypes. One was: “the Enterprise crew learns a lesson from its encounter with Alien Society A.” The other archetype was, with rare exception, “Alien Society B learns a lesson from theEnterprise crew.”
Star Trek in all its incarnations has always been a medium for social commentary. However, such obvious moralizing in TNG’s freshman year was heavy handed and made for poor drama. Season One’s batch of 26 episodes contains decent exceptions – Heart of Glory and The Neutral Zone come to mind – but many of the stories are watchable only because the performances are decent.
The show also lost two major cast members by the end of the first season. First to beam off the Enterprisewas actor Denise Crosby, who believed her character, Lt. Tasha Yar, was being underutilized. Frustrated, she asked the producers to release her from her contract and to write off her character. This they did, and Yar was killed in the episode Skin of Evil. (There were rumors among fans that Crosby was fired becausePlayboy magazine reran a 1979 pictorial in which she posed nude. However, Crosby had already quit TNGbefore the May 1988 issue of Playboy hit newsstands.)
Gates McFadden’s departure was a bit more complicated than Crosby’s. McFadden, who played Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher, had never done a recurring role on a TV series and was naïve about behind-the-scenes politics. After having too many arguments with Roddenberry and co-executive producer Rick Berman, McFadden was fired. (To their credit, though, the producers left the door open for McFadden’s return and transferred her character to Starfleet Medical on Earth.)
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Two: New Faces, New Writers
Though the quality of TNG’s scripts was still uneven due to the “revolving door” in the writing staff, the second season showed some hints of the show’s future glory. Maurice Hurley was promoted from his job as a producer to co-executive producer. Under his watch the writers coped with constant staff changes and the 1988 Writers’ Guild Strike. (This strike is why The Child, Season One’s first episode, was a rewritten version of an unproduced script originally intended for the aborted Star Trek: Phase II TV series.)
Another Hurley contribution was the creation of the Borg, a new and more dangerous antagonist worthy of Capt. Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his new Enterprise-D starship. Introduced in Q Who? and shown to be almost invincible, the Borg would become Star Trek’s most formidable villains. The Borg, the Romulans, renegade Klingons, and the Cardassians would give Starfleet a run for their money and viewers more exciting baddies than the silly Ferengi.
The instability in the writing department had its detrimental effects on the second season’s abbreviated run. Hurley’s Q Who? and Melinda Snodgrass’ The Measure of a Man are considered to be among the best episodes written for the show. So is Burton Armus’ A Matter of Honor. However, Unnatural Selection is a slightly rehashed version of The Original Series’ The Deadly Years, and Shades of Grey is a budget-mandated “clip show” forced upon by the producers by the Writers’ Guild Strike.
In front of the camera, there were several changes. The sets were repainted and reupholstered during the hiatus, and the lighting was subtly changed to give the Enterprise a slightly more welcoming look.
In addition, a new location aboard the ship, The Ten Forward Lounge, was introduced, along with the mysterious Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg in a recurring guest role).
To fill the vacuum created by Gates McFadden’s absence, actor Diana Muldaur was cast as Dr. Kate Pulaski, the ship’s new Chief Medical Officer. Older and more outspoken than Dr. Crusher, Muldaur’s character was intended to remind viewers of the Bones/Kirk relationship from Star Trek: The Original Series.Trekkers already knew Muldaur from two guest appearances in The Original Series. A consummate performer, she was witty and stubborn as Pulaski. However, fans missed the chemistry between Patrick Stewart and Gates McFadden, so Pulaski’s assignment on the Enterprise was as ephemeral as her “Special Appearance By…” credit in the cast list.
The Blu-ray Set:
CBS Blu-ray, which produces Star Trek HD home media for Paramount after CBS acquired the franchise’s copyright several years ago, released Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Two on December 4, 2012. The five-discs are ensconced in a slim Blu-ray jewel box package. Its cover art (which is duplicated in the cardboard slipcover) features ST-TNG’s Starfleet insignia against a orange backdrop. Within the Starfleet delta are portraits of Capt. Picard, Counselor Troi and Lt. (JG) Worf. The background art depicts theEnterprise-D cruising near a Saturn-like planet, with distant stars lying further away.
My Take: I’ve never owned previous Paramount’s VHS or DVD issues of Star Trek: The Next Generation, so I can’t offer a comparison between the Blu-ray edition and its forebears. According to the package blurb and some of the behind-the-scenes materials in the set:
Star Trek: The Next Generation- Season Two returns to the final frontier at warp speed in brilliant 1080p high definition and digitally remastered 7.1 sound. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) leads the crew of the Enterprise through a new season of new friends, new foes and amazing adventures. Introduced this year are Whoopi Goldberg as mysterious Guinan – bartender of the Ten Forward lounge, Diana Muldaur as the ship’s Chief Medical Officer Katherine Pulaski, and the deadly, unstoppable Borg. The voyage also explores powerful moments including Riker (Jonathan Frakes) serving on a Klingon ship, and Data (Brent Spiner) on trial for his life.
In contrast to the remastered versions of Star Trek: The Original Series, the wizards at CBS Video did not replace the 1988-1989 special effects with 21st Century updates. They did, however, digitally clean up the images directly from the original film used during the show’s production. The result: a vast improvement in video and audio quality that doesn’t compromise the vision of the original directors and effects supervisors.
As in the Season One set, Star Trek: The Next Generation features a ship’s cargo bay’s worth of extras.
There are two behind-the-scenes documentaries: Reunification: 25 Years After Star Trek: The Next Generation reunites the series’ cast members for a historic session of reminiscing and intriguing anecdotes about the series’ second year.
Making It So: Continuing Star Trek: The Next Generation is a two part look at the production of the 1988-1989 batch of episodes. Like Season One’s Stardate Revisited, cast and crew interviews shed light on why TNG’s second year was almost as problematic as its first. At the same time, participants point out what went right for Star Trek even with all the turmoil in the writing department and fans’ still-present “wait and see” attitudes.
Note on Languages (Subtitles and Audio)
Though the product listing on Amazon only lists “English” in the Language category, Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season One features various languages in both audio and subtitle options. English is the default selection on the preliminary menu, but viewers may also choose Danish, French, Japanese, Castillian Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, and Swedish. (Some of these options apply to audio and subtitles, though some apply only to subtitles.)
Season Two Episode List
Disc One:
The Child
Where Silence Has Lease
Elementary, Dear Data
The Outrageous Okona
Loud as a Whisper
Episode Promos
1988 On-Air Season Two Promo
“Energized!” Season Two Tech Update (HD)
1988 Reading Rainbow segment with LeVar Burton
2012 Reading Rainbow iTunes Promo (HD)
Archival Mission Log: Departmental Briefing Year Two: Production
Disc Two:
The Schizoid Man
Unnatural Selection
A Matter of Honor
The Measure of a Man
Episode Promos
The Measure of a Man (HD Extended Version)
Audio Commentary by Melinda Snodgrass and Mike & Denise Okuda
The Measure of a Man (Hybrid Extended Version)
Disc Three:
The Dauphin
Contagion
The Royale
Time Squared
The Icarus Factor
Episode Promos
Gag Reel
Archival Mission Log: Inside Starfleet Archives: Penny Juday: Star Trek Coordinator
Archival Mission Log: Selected Crew Analysis Year Two
Disc Four:
Pen Pals
Q Who? – Audio Commentary by Dan Curry. Rob Bowman, and Mike & Denise Okuda
Samaritan Snare
Up the Long Ladder – Deleted Scenes
Manhunt
Episode Promos
Archival Mission Log: Departmental Analysis Year Two: Memorable Missions
Disc Five:
The Emissary
Peak Performance
Shades of Grey
Episode Promos
Reunification: 25 Years After Star Trek: The Next Generation (HD)
Making It So: Continuing Star Trek: The Next Generation (HD)
Part 1: Strange New Worlds
Part 2: New Life and New Civilizations
Archival Mission Log: Mission Overview Year Two
Recommend this product? Yes
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