To many, it may seem a crass movie by a studio to release a stand-alone release of two television episodes, but these are not your typical season ender/opener episodes. Plus, the extra features are almost all exclusive to this release. “The Best of Both Worlds” is a riveting tale from the Star Trek universe that created an intense discussion back when it was first aired some twenty-three years ago. Adding to the intrigue is the fact that the writer for Part 1 had never intended to finish the story; he was going to leave the show. So, he wrote one of the most exciting cliffhangers ever to hit the airwaves but, given that he planned to be moving on after he wrote it, writer Michael Piller never considered how to, you know, actually end the cliffhanger. However, at Mr. Roddenberry’s asking, writer Michael Piller did comeback to write Part 2, and the rest as they say is history.
If you’re reading this review, you’re probably a TNG fan already and have seen this episode. Or, if you simply look at the box art, you can tell that Captain Jean Luc Picard becomes assimilated — he becomes a Borg, Locutus by name, and he’s intent on making the Enterprise and her crew serve the Borg. With Picard’s elite knowledge of all things warfare and of being a captain, the Borg have a distinct advantage in combating the Enterprise, not to mention better tech as well. But the Enterprise crew have humanity; they have each other to push and in classic Star Trek fashion, they ultimately figure it out, but not without a lot of trials along the way. Another major sub-plot in The Best of Both Worlds is First Officer Riker and whether or not he will take up a Captain’s seat in the USS Melbourne or another Federation ship. Series first time star Elizabeth Dennehy, daughter of Brian Dennehy, plays Lieutenant Commander Shelby, an aggressive and skilled Starfleet officer intent on taking Riker’s job. There is some good tension between the two, adding to the over-arching theme of how the Enterprise crew can outwit the Picard-infused Borg.
On Blu-ray, The Best of Both Worlds shines. Continuing with the correct-for-this-series aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and restored beautifully other than three seconds, The Best of Both Worlds looks like it could have been filmed yesterday. I give a lot of credit for Paramount/CBS for even pointing out, from the main menu, that there are these three seconds of SD-quality within this otherwise superbly rendered footage. Apparently, the master for those particular three seconds were lost, so they had to upconvert another source. You could almost blink and miss this segment right around the one hour mark so it’s really not a dealbreaker by any means. Home theater systems will feast on the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track that matches the quality of the image. The roar of the Enterprise engines, also heard in the complete Season Three that I will be reviewing soon, is a rush on its own. So as we’ve come to expect with every Star Trek Blu-ray release, Paramount/CBS has taken pride in their work, and it shows.
“The Best of Both Worlds” has a few extra features included, and all of them but one are exclusive to this release. Here’s what to expect:
-Regeneration: Engaging The Borg (HD, 29m40s) – This is a vintage behind the scenes compilation essentially, featuring some snippets of on set cast interviews, various crew interviews, as well as a lot from Elizabeth Dennehy who goes into detail about how she got the role and the respect she had for the other cast. She apparently first watched The Best of Both Worlds with Michael Dorn over at her house, ha.
-Audio Commentary with Director Cliff Bole, Elizabeth Dennehy, and Mike & Denise Okuda (in Visual Effects) recount their memories of the episodes.
-Gag Reel (HD, 5:30) – This was enjoyable; my favorite part was when Riker comes up to an automatic sliding door and taps the Federation emblem on his chest, confused. Good stuff.
-Promos (SD) – The two promos for the shows as they were originally aired.
-Ultraviolet (UV) Digital Copy – Expires April 30th, 2014.
With that, let’s get to the summary…
