'Picard Collection' A Good Introduction To TNG

Trek fans who haven't or can't purchase the season DVD sets or viewers looking to sample the franchise will be the main audience for the newly-released Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Jean-Luc Picard Collection, according to online reviewers.

Holly E. Ordway at DVD Talk deems the set highly recommended, and praises the seven episodes selected, especially "The Inner Light" and "Darmok" from TNG's fifth season. She finds the set's sole extra, the documentary "From Here to Infinity: The Ultimate Voyage" somewhat lackluster, noting that "[i]t's completely unrelated to Star Trek. She deems it "an odd little documentary...[t]here's not a whole lot of depth to it, but it's a decent overview that would probably be excellent for younger viewers, and of course it's always pleasant to hear Patrick Stewart's lovely voice as the narrator."

Overall, she finds the set a worthy offering:

If you're interested in Star Trek: The Next Generation but aren't ready to take the plunge to full season sets, the Jean-Luc Picard Collection is a reasonably priced way to dip your toe into the pool, so to speak; it's worth it as a test run. The episodes presented here are a fairly representative sample of Next Generation, showing off the series' inventiveness and variety as well as its overall high quality of storytelling. Dedicated fans will want to go straight to the season sets, but this collection is "highly recommended" for viewers who aren't hooked on the show... yet.

Sheldon A. Wiebe at Eclipse Magazine also finds the set a good "introduction to the world of Star Trek: The Next Generation." Wiebe laments the lack of commentaries from Jean-Luc Picard himself (Patrick Stewart), but finds the documentary "Infinity" to be a "pretty good" extra. Overall, he awards the episodes an A and the extras a C, for an overall grade of a B.

DVD Fanatic's Dan Phelps isn't as impressed with the set. He is disappointed that the set only offers seven episodes, and of the seven, he finds only "The Inner Light" and "Tapestry" worthy of a spotlight collection.

Phelps is even harder on "Infinity," which he deems a "snoozer" of a documentary. "It’s a fairly poor guided tour of most of our solar system, and some of the phenomena within our galaxy. Not even Stewart’s suave voice could overcome the cheesy use of classical music, and atrocious computer generated images," Phelps writes.

Overall, he awards the episodes a C+, the extras an F, and the overall set a D+. "When it comes right down to it, the Jean-Luc Picard Collection is a DVD set for someone who isn’t looking to spend a lot of money to get some half-way decent episodes," Phelps concludes.

The Jean-Luc Picard Collection is available from Amazon.com.

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