Star Trek TNG Season 3 Coming In April, And Best Of Both Worlds Coming To Theaters
April is going to be a big month for Star Trek fans. April 30th will see the arrival of the revamped and refurbished Next Generation: Season Three, the first season where the show really began firing on all cylinders. That would be reason enough for devout Trekkies to mark their calendars, but that’s just the tip of the, er, space iceberg. You’ll also be able to pick up “The Best of Both Worlds,” Parts One and Two, as a standalone Blu-ray release. I’m not quite sure who would want to own just those two episodes, as opposed to the whole season, but mine is not to reason why. If your own personal home entertainment setup just won’t cut it for two of Next Gen’s best episodes, you’ll also be able to see “Best of Both Worlds” in theaters for a special event on April 25th. And finally (deep breath), Paramount will also release new Blu-ray versions of several Trek feature films.
Let’s back up a bit. The Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Three Blu-ray set hits shelves on April 30th. As with the previous two sets, the episodes have been meticulously restored and remastered (hopefully this set will have worked out the problems that plagued the season two set). On the special features front, you’ll get an “Inside the Writers’ Room” featurette including such luminaries as Ronald Moore, Brannon Braga, Naren Shankar, and Rene Echevarria, all moderated by Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane for some reason. The set will also include a blooper reel, commentaries, and a three-part making-of documentary. You can pre-order the set right here.
Next up is the “Best of Both Worlds” set, also releasing on April 30th. It stitches both of the iconic episodes together as one single feature. Which is nice, I guess, but I still think everybody should be left with Riker’s “Fire” and then have to wait three months for the resolution like I did. Kids these days… At any rate, the BoBW set will also include a commentary, gag reel, and some other goodies, and it will retail for $28.88.
The April 25th “Best of Both Worlds” theater event will follow up on similar theatrical episode releases coinciding with the previous two Next Gen releases. The event will screen both episodes along with a behind-the-scenes feature of some sort. You can buy tickets and get more info about the screenings from Fandango and Cinemark Theaters.
Finally, Paramount is releasing new Blu-ray editions for numerous Trek feature films, many of which were previously available only as part of a boxed set. The list includes Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek: Nemesis. Sounds like you can get the jump on early Christmas presents for the Trek fans in your life.
