Star Trek: The Next Generation (4-Movie Collection): 4K UHD Review

Set phasers to stun, The Next Generation of Star Trek films arrived on 4K UHD this week. While the film’s themselves may be a mixed back (just like the original 6-film series), Paramount has delivered beautiful looking transfers in the new 4-film collection. If you are reading this, odds are you have seen the all of the films in the long-running Star Trek franchise, so I won’t be spending time on detailed reviews of each film. Having said that, I will be sharing general thoughts.

Released three years after the sixth and final film for the original Star Trek crew, Star Trek: Generations was created to give Captain Kirk and Picard a chance to meet, while also being a final send-off for Kirk. Sadly, very little in this bridge between new and old worked. It was nice seeing a few of the original cast members, even for a minimal time. However, the overall narrative lacked excitement and to top it off, Kirk’s final moments were not nearly as memorable as they should have been.

While Generations failed to boldly go anywhere interesting, Star Trek: First Contact righted the starship and wound up being the best Next Generation film by far. Bringing back Picard’s most impactful villains from the television series, The Borg was the right way to go. It was also smart to borrow the time travel elements from Star Trek: The Voyage Home, which is one of the most beloved ST films to date. First Contact has a lot more action that the previous film. It is also a much darker story but definitely has lighter moments involving James Cromwell’s historical character. This is the perfect example of a Star Trek movie done right.

Insurrection might be the most forgettable Star Trek movie ever made. This was the only film in the series that I remembered very little about before revisiting it for this 4K release. While the environmental elements of the narrative have meaning, there just isn’t much of a story. F. Murray Abraham makes for a decent villain here, but so did Malcom McDowell in Generations. Neither one of these fine actors could save the films.

Finally, we get to Nemesis which is easily the second-best film in the Next Generation films. While it is filled with numerous ideas and unable to handle each one fully, Nemesis manages to be quite entertaining. Here our villain is a young Tom Hardy, who plays a clone of Picard. I really enjoyed the interactions between the two characters, but I also felt Data was given much a much stronger send-off than Kirk’s demise in Generations. Far from perfect, Nemesis still manages to make for a solid Trek adventure.

Truth-be-told, I had never revisited any of the The Next Generation films on Blu-ray aside from First Contact. Prior to this new 4K UHD release, I had only seen the films in the theater, DVD or on television. Having said that, there is a massive improvement with the First Contact UHD over the 1080p Blu-ray. Despite my personal feelings towards some of these installments, there is no denying that each one looks absolutely incredible. Paramount continues to set a high bar with their 4K restorations. Much like the original crew 4K disks, The Next Generation films look pristine here.

While watching Generations, the scenes between Kirk and Picard in nature and within Kirk’s home stand out the most. The browns and greens of the location pop, as do the captain uniforms. Same goes for the nature scenes in First Contact. However, it is the space battle between the Starfleet and the borg ship in the film’s opening minutes that looked phenomenal. Insurrection makes the most use out of the nature setting, which does make it one of the best-looking films in the series, even if it is one of the least interesting. Nemesis, while much more entertaining than most, it seems like there is a greater use of CGI here that hasn’t aged as well as the practical effects used in the films prior. Despite that issue, the new 4K transfer looks quite good. If you are a Treker and are looking for the best presentation, I highly recommend grabbing these Dolby Vision upgrades. They are sure to please. It also helps that a new Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mix has been added to each of these titles.

STAR TREK: GENERATIONS Bonus Content

• Commentary by director David Carson and Manny Coto
• Commentary by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore
• Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
• Library Computer
• Production
  • Uniting Two Legends
  • Stellar Cartography: Creating the Illusion
  • Strange New Worlds: The Valley of Fire
  • Scoring Trek
• Visual Effects
  • Inside ILM: Models & Miniatures
  • Crashing the Enterprise
• Scene Deconstruction
  • Main Title Sequence
  • The Nexus Ribbon
  • Saucer Crash Sequence
• The Star Trek Universe
  • A Tribute to Matt Jeffries
  • The Enterprise Lineage
  • Captain Picard’s Family Album
  • Creating 24^th Century Weapons
  • Next Generation Designer Flashback Andrew Probert
  • Stellar Cartography on Earth
  • Brent Spiner – Data and Beyond Part 1
  • Trek Roundtable: Generations
  • Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 007: Trilithium
• Deleted Scenes
• Archives
• Trailers

 

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT Bonus Content

• Commentary by director and actor Jonathan Frakes
• Commentary by screenplay writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore
• Commentary by Damon Lindelof and Anthony Pascale
• Text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
• Library Computer
• Production
  • Making First Contact
  • The Art of First Contact
  • The Story
  • The Missile Silo
  • The Deflector Dish
  • From “A” to “E”
• Scene Deconstruction
  • Borg Queen Assembly
  • Escape Pod Launch
  • Borg Queen’s Demise
• The Star Trek Universe
  • Jerry Goldsmith: A Tribute
  • The Legacy of Zefram Cochrane
  • First Contact: The Possibilities
  • Industrial Light & Magic – The Next Generation
  • Greetings from the International Space Station
  • SpaceShipOne’s Historic Flight
  • Brent Spiner – Data and Beyond Part 2
  • Trek Roundtable: First Contact
  • Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 008: Temporal Vortex
• The Borg Collective
  • Unimatrix One
  • The Queen
  • Design Matrix
• Archives
• Trailers

 

STAR TREK: INSURRECTION Bonus Content

• Commentary by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis
• Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
• Library Computer
• Production
  • It Takes a Village
  • Location, Location, Location
  • The Art of Insurrection
  • Anatomy of a Stunt
  • The Story
  • Making Star Trek: Insurrection
  • Director’s Notebook
• The Star Trek Universe
  • Westmore’s Aliens
  • Westmore’s Legacy
  • Star Trek’s Beautiful Alien Women
  • Marina Sirtis – The Counselor Is In
  • Brent Spiner – Data and Beyond Part 3
  • Trek Roundtable: Insurrection
  • Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 009: The Origins of the Ba’ku and Son’a Conflict
• Creating the Illusion
  • Shuttle Chase
  • Drones
  • Duck Blind
• Deleted Scenes
• Archives
• Advertising

 

STAR TREK: NEMESIS Bonus Content

• Commentary by director Stuart Baird
• Commentary by producer Rick Berman
• Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
• Text Commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda
• Library Computer
• Production
  • Nemesis Revisited
  • New Frontiers – Stuart Baird on Directing Nemesis
  • Storyboarding the Action
  • Red Alert! Shotting the Action of Nemesis
  • Build and Rebuild
  • Four-Wheeling in the Final Frontier
  • Screen Test: Shinzon
• The Star Trek Universe
  • A Star Trek Family’s Final Journey
  • A Bold Vision of The Final Frontier
  • The Enterprise E
  • Reunion with The Rikers
  • Today’s Tech Tomorrow’s Data
  • Robot Hall of Fame
  • Brent Spiner – Data and Beyond Part 4
  • Trek Roundtable: Nemesis
  • Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 010: Thalaron Radiation
• The Romulan Empire
  • Romulan Lore
  • Shinzon & the Viceroy
  • Romulan Design
  • The Romulan Senate
  • The Scimitar
• Deleted Scenes
• Archives
• Trailers

By: Marc Ferman