Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Complete Series (DVD, 2007, 49-Disc Set)

Star Trek: The Next Generation (often abbreviated to TNG) is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production. Created 21 years after the original Star Trek, and set in the 24th century from the year 2364 through 2371; about 100 years after the original series, the program features a new crew and a new starship Enterprise.“ Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before. ”


It premiered the week of September 28, 1987 to 27 million viewers[1] with the two-hour pilot "Encounter at Farpoint". With 178 episodes spread over seven seasons, it ran longer than any other Star Trek series, ending with the two-hour finale "All Good Things..." the week of May 23, 1994.

The series was broadcast in first-run syndication, with dates and times varying among individual television stations. The show gained a considerable following during its run and, like The Original Series, remains popular in syndicated reruns. It was the first of several series (the others being Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise) that kept new Star Trek episodes airing until 2005. Star Trek: The Next Generation won 18 Emmy Awards and, in its seventh season, became the first, and currently only, syndicated television show to be nominated for the Emmy for Best Dramatic Series. It was nominated for three Hugo Award and won two. The first-season episode "The Big Goodbye" also won the Peabody Award for excellence in television programming. The series formed the basis of the seventh through the tenth Star Trek films.

I purchased the Next Gen. Box set as a cost cutting alternative to purchasing each individual season separately. As has been mentioned by many others who have reviewed this set, the packaging does leave quite a bit to be desired. The boxed set looks nice, but getting it open, fighting with the flimsy green cases and finally putting it all back together when you’re done is just ridiculous. Immediately after I bought it I bought a case to store them all in. That way the box it came in stays really nice and it's much easier to flip through the case than to go through the process with the box.

The series itself is really great TV. The fact that it was made in the late 80's early 90's is apparent in the first season, but by the second and third seasons the special effects become more realistic, and the overall quality of sets, costumes ec cetera, get better. There is chemistry between the Actors that brings it all together. There is also a great blending of character development and action/adventure. It enables the viewer to have some emotion invested in the characters and what happens to them.

I already own the complete series of Voyager, Enterprise, and the Original, but The Next Generation is my personal favorite out of them all. You don't have to be a trekkie or sci-fi fanatic to enjoy watching Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Oh, and Patrick Stewart ROCKS!

Star trek the next generation is a great show. A claasic from that era!!! Its almost the same idea as the origional series just new people. Instead of kirk you have Jean-Luc Picard. A SMART AND GREAT CAPTAIN, always puting his crew befor himself. To replace spock they have Commander William T. Riker. A stong smart second in commend. Although i find hes got kirk spirit the act first think later. I have to say that Ive always loved the origional and this is a Great series so if you want more trek deff give this a shot!

This is an awesome and comprehensive collection of the entire STNG series over seven seasons with excellent bonus material that masterfully explains the work as a whole. It's a must-purchase for anyone whose interest in the series is deep because the bonus material is unavailable anywhere else. Watching the series, episode by episode, two per night over a long time enables one to see how the writers, producers, actors, and characters matured and improved, and especially how the actors deepened and improved the characters, and evolved them into sometimes really masterful performances. The ensemble of principle characters did grow into a complex living thing - and by the end of the series, they worked so well together that I thought of a Swiss mechanical watch. I was struck by how many episodes were affected by then-contemporary political developments, such as the political division between East Germany and West Germany and anticipation of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. (Romulans and Vulcans, and the underground in Vulcan.) Yes, one can also find periods in which the acting and occasional plots reverted to cardboard - and bounced back until the final season. The pervasive New Age philosophy and the frequently mentioned lack of serious conflict between the principle characters does sometimes get tedious and silly, but the occasional duds are more than counterbalanced by some episodes that are truly gems. The two - part episodes can be viewed by the purchaser as a unitary whole, like a mini-movie, and the two-parters in STNG are where is shined most brilliantly. Finally, one can see why, by the Seventh Season, why it was time to pull the plug as the creative talent started to stall. This was an amazing series, probably the best science fiction/fantasy series after Twilight Zones.

My only strong negative reaction has been commented upon frequently by other reviews. The physical assembly of the box set consists of three units of green plastic trays that are each loosely and cheaply bound into what amounts to a book or codex, each page/tray holding two discs. Even with the most careful handling by someone who knows about their tendency to disintegrate, the binding falls apart, leaving loose trays. On the second or third use of the box set, I'm sure that the binding will totally fall apart, leaving unconnected trays. This is a serious disappointment for a set that originally retailed around $400.0, and shows both cheapness by the manufacturer and a lack of insight that some serious viewers would watch episodes again and again. If you're serious about this, you will simply have to re-assemble the discs into a serious binding.

Also, the menus are poorly engineered (though very attractively designed) so that it's not obvious where bonus material has been inserted on any particular disc. You must go searching carefully to learn if a disc has bonus material.

Finally, there are no decent printed materials accompanying the box set to explain where bonus material exists, carefully indexing the many discs, or providing supplement.

The project should have had better binding, clearer disc menus, and rich printed materials. Somewhere along what looked like a great project created with much talent and serious purpose, someone ran out of time and released a technically inferior boxed set. Despite all of that, content is kind and it prevails to save this work. A must-buy for serious fans.

By the time you're reading this, you've seen DS9 and you like it, to even consider spending this kind of money (I got my package for around $300, which seems to be the going rate for buy-it-now). So, I won't rehash what this series is all about. Suffice to say I would never consider buying all the original series, Next Generation, Voyager or Enterprise series, but Deep Space 9 was well worth it. You really notice the continuity when you have the entire series to watch sequentially. This suppliments the character development that is already very well done, the characters are very three dimensional. Season 1 and to a degree, Season 2 are like Next Generation episodes, but around the third season, things turn darker, more real, and there is a total departure from any Trek previous, or, in hindsight, since. Excellent scripts. I can only think of one episode I would call "bad." The rest are very entertaining. Note to Star Trek fans: If you blew off this show like I did in the 90's because the first episodes were nothing new and you didn't like the idea of a stationary crew that waited for adventure to come to them, go back! Find it on television and start watching it! You'll be bidding on one of these before you know it. After a quick search on the internet, you'll find out that this show won all kinds of awards for scripts and has international acclaim. I can see why. If you simply can't afford the entire set, I recommend picking up the last season, 7. The final episodes of this show look like movies, with tremendous budgets on special effects. Phasers cutting through hulls, ships smashing into each other and large-scale destruction during fleet to fleet starship battles. Wow! I should also add, if you've only seen Worf in Next Generation, then you don't know Worf. I HATED the Klingon episodes of Next Gen, and in this series, they are some of the best ones! No more kinder, gentler Klingon, Worf is breaking necks left and right in this one. A true warrior. Quark provides some hysterically funny episodes as well, obviously a talented actor. Whenever I buy a DVD I try to picture myself actually taking it out one night and putting it in the tray. I find a lot of movies don't re-watch very well, and it saves me from buying the DVD. This series has a very high re-watch factor, you WILL go back to your favorite episodes, of which there will be many.

My overall impression, I stole it for $300.