This review is primarily meant for fans, as I will not be describing the villains or each episode in great detail, this is about the DVD set as whole.

When Paramount began to release the Star Trek series by season onto DVD, I was excited. Finally, a show I regularly watch and enjoy is coming to DVD, uncut with great quality picture and sound. Then...I saw the price....$160 Cnd per season. My dreams were crushed right then and there. I couldn't believe how much Paramount was overcharging for these DVD's, when programs like CSI, with a similar run time and number of episodes per season was only $70 Cnd. To this day in April 2006, the Star Trek seasons are still over $100 a piece, too much money for a University student to spend, even with a steady part time job.

Then, as luck would have it, startrek.com had fans vote for their favourite episodes, and in April of 2006, two sets were released to the public, Star Trek Fan Collective: Time Travel, and the one I'm reviewing today, Star Trek Fan Collective: Borg.

This DVD was only $30 Cnd, and featured 14 episodes of my favourite Star Trek villain, the Borg. The Borg have been featured in 3 of the 5 series of Star Trek, most heavily featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation (STTNG) where they were introduced, in the 4th series, Star Trek: Voyager (STV)and are probably the most powerful villain in the Star Trek franchise. This set appeals to me a lot and to many fans because the Borg episodes were some of the most exciting episodes in all of Trek. They often featured great story lines, and high production values (aka big budgets!) that resulted in best you could get on the small screen (some stuff was even movie quality, the Borg ship sets for example) In any case, this was worth my $30, read below to find out why...

EPISODES (In order of the Star Trek Timeline)

1) Star Trek Enterprise - Regeneration
2) STTNG - Q who?
3) and 4) STTNG - The Best of Both Worlds pt 1 and 2
5) STTNG - I Borg
6) and 7) STTNG - Descent pt 1 and 2
8) and 9) STV - Scorpion pt 1 and 2
10) STV - Drone
11) STV - Dark Frontier
12) and 13) STV - Unimatrix Zero pt 1 and 2
14) STV - Endgame

DVD PACKAGING

The DVD packaging is well done. It features a protective hard outer sleeve with the main section sliding out of it. The main section is designed like a book; flip it open to reveal a DVD disc, 4 in total, each on its own plastic base that you flip over to reveal the next disc. The outer cover has a raised image of a Borg drone, with bold Star trek fonts next to the image. The colours are dark and very borgish. Inside the main section, there are no small booklets or leaflets included. Each of the 4 discs displays what episodes are on that disc, and the back of the hard outer sleeve also shows the episodes and their corresponding discs. Overall, an efficient and effective way (like the Borg themselves) to present this set.

PICTURE QUALITY

The episodes are all presented in the full screen as they were originally aired (1.33:1) except for the Star Trek Enterprise episode, which was filmed in widescreen (1.78:1) as it was the newest series and took advantage of the growing popularity of the wide screen format at home. The picture overall on all the episodes is great, very crisp, with good colour and very little artifacts that can spring up from bad rendering or authoring. The older STTNG episodes are starting to show their age however, even after being cleaned up, especially in the effects dept. Although excellent at the time, they don't really compare to the visuals found in later STTNG episodes and especially episodes in STV and Star Trek Enterprise. Overall, I was pleased with the DVD quality, and it sure beats the quality you get from cable or satellite.

SOUND QUALITY

I'm happy to say that every episode is presented in either 2.0 stereo sound, or my favourite, 5.1 surround sound. The mix for surround sound is pretty good, with all the channels being engaged quite a bit, although I wish the rear channels were used a little more for a better surround experience. However, the quality is excellent, at high volumes the sound doesn't distort and the sound design in the episodes is great, very realistic and exciting. Hearing the U.S.S Voyager attack the Borg Tactical Cube in "Unimatrix Zero" was amazing, it felt like a movie. The higher sound quality makes the episodes sound brand new.

SPECIAL FEATURES

The one thing that I felt lacking on this DVD set was special features. Don't get me wrong, there are some good commentaries on the DVD's. There is one audio commentary on the Star Trek Enterprise episode, Regeneration. It was refreshing and provided alot of good information and things the writers wished they had done different to make it better which is nice to hear on a commentary. The other commentaries are text commentaries, which go into great detail about the story development of the episode, how it came to be, details behind the effects and behind the scenes tidbits of information. They are featured on 4 of the 14 episodes in the set. I enjoy them the most because they are non-intrusive and you can still easily watch the episode and read the comments that appear. However, like I said, I would have liked to see some behind the scenes featurettes featuring the Borg episodes. Even just a few minutes would have been nice. This DVD set was primarily created for the fans, and the fans enjoy seeing how the show was created, so having featurettes would have been the icing on the cake.

Overall, I am very pleased with this DVD set; it's a great thing to add to any fans collection who wants to see some of the best Star Trek episodes without having to shell out over $100 per season. There could be more special features but the picture is great, the sound is crisp and clear, and the episodes themselves make for a great hour (or two) of storytelling and action that makes Star Trek such a great show to watch.

Live Long and Prosper and Enjoy!

James Poremba



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older