The Energon Pub

...and I need a little guidance into purchasing this fantastic series! I like to watch Star Trek The Next Generation on Sci Fi whenever I go see my folks (it's still just me and my bunny ears at my apartment). I've been thinking about getting it on DVD and the movies as well. Is this a smart investment? I've really only seen a handful of episodes, and I have no idea what season each one is from. I also don't know where the movies fit in with the series.

Those of you who own the series on DVD—did you buy each one individually? Or is there a complete set? Each season is about $50 on Amazon. Is buying each one individually the way to go?

Any help is much appreciated.

Welcome, to the Final Frontier these are... err sorry bout that.

TNG is a fantastic series in my opinion. The DVD sets are quite expensive still, but they are very much worth it in terms of entertainment, and production. Though I'd be more inclined to buy the earlier seasons, if they weren't so expensive.

I still haven't gotten the complete set as I'm missing a few seasons , but I'm working on it.

The sets are very nice silvery book cover with a colored stripe. They look really nice in a shelf.

There is a complete series box set, but its around 330 dollars. Which means its just Marginally cheaper than buying the separate Seasons on their own. The Individual season sets I think have the better looking packaging.

I'd say go for it and buy them.

Now there are definite changes and improvements from seasons 1, 2 and 3. Season 3 marks the beginning of what the look of the series would be for the rest of it.

I prefer the Season 3-7 era rather more than the first 2.

For the Movies, I believeGenerations is the only one that occurs in within the time frame of the show. (actually it occurs before and during). The 3 other movies all occur after the events of the show.

Ah, TNG... my first love of the Trek series.

Since your're just getting into it, the first season is a good place to start, though at this point I find it painful to watch at times cause it gets much better later on (actually about the time they time they ***SPOILER(to you possibly)*** kill off Yar)
{/spoiler]
If you happen to have a high speed internet connection I'd recommend downloading a few episodes off some p2p program or maybe even youtube might have some episodes... it'd at least give you a better idea of the series and whether or not you want to buy them.

If you do decide to buy I'd try second hand stores, cause buying these sets brand new is friggin' murder on the wallet.

good luck

Overcracker wrote:The Individual season sets I think have the better looking packaging.

I'd say go for it and buy them.

Now there are definite changes and improvements from seasons 1, 2 and 3. Season 3 marks the beginning of what the look of the series would be for the rest of it.

I prefer the Season 3-7 era rather more than the first 2.

Bun-Bun wrote:If you do decide to buy I'd try second hand stores, cause buying these sets brand new is friggin' murder on the wallet.

good luck

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll try some of the used DVD stores or maybe look for them used online. And I am looking for more of the "established" feel of the show, so I'll probably start at season 3. Thanks again!

Great choice in television shows!

If you can I'd say get the whole series: but it does end up being about $50/season. Some times Wal-Mart or Amazon have specials and you can get them cheaper.

The end of season 2/the beginning of season 3 is really where the show comes into it's own. But that doesn't mean the first 2 seasons are bad, and there is lots of good back story. So, if you can I would start at the beginning and watch all the way through sequentially - I find that to be the most rewarding.

Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis all take place after the final episode of season 7.


You may also enjoy Deep Space 9 (DS9)and Voyager as well; they take place during the same time period. In fact it is the Enterprise-D that drops of supplies and personnel to DS9, and Voyager departs from DS9 in its series opener.

Furthermore, this website may help you brush up on details: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Portal:Main

Best of luck, lmk if you have more questions.
I.P.

Iron Prime wrote:Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis all take place after the final episode of season 3.

Uhm, well after...
IIRC Generations didn't come out until after season 7 and the rest of the movies are definitly set after the series was over.

Bun-Bun wrote:

Iron Prime wrote:Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis all take place after the final episode of season 3.

Uhm, well after...
IIRC Generations didn't come out until after season 7 and the rest of the movies are definitly set after the series was over.

Oops! I corrected it to season 7 - sorry! Not sure how I managed to fat-finger that since 7 and 3 aren't by each other on the keyboard...

Season 3 is a good place to start if your looking for "uniformed" story telling and characterization.

But as Iron Prime said seasons 1&2 do have a few good episodes.If you looking to know which is the Best of all the Treks you really need to get into Deep Space Nine.

sto_vo_kor_2000 wrote:If you looking to know which is the Best of all the Treks you really need to get into Deep Space Nine.

Seconded.

8 bit wrote:Those of you who own the series on DVD—did you buy each one individually? Or is there a complete set? Each season is about $50 on Amazon. Is buying each one individually the way to go?

When they first came out the DVDs were $120+ per season - ridiculous (especially for 7 seasons). However, this was well before 'TV on DVD' became so popular - around 2005 Wal-Mart (among others I believe) set the price at $45-$55 per season and started selling TNG and DS9 again, rolling out one season every other month (one every two months). Personally, at an average of $25 this was great and very affordable! So I just started picking up TNG from time to time.

Later, I asked everyone who normally buys me a Christmas present to just give me cash (wife included) so that I could buy all seven seasons of DS9 at once from Wal-Mart's website (I think it was like $25-$30 cheaper than buying individual seasons). Shortly after that Voyager's price came down and I did it again. (hopefully I can find a similar way to get The Original Series and Enterprise like this soon! )

I know they repacked the TNG complete series with similar price tag and also rolled out and HDDVD set as well (not sure when Blu-ray comes). Personally I like the seven individual seasons much better; the packaging is really nice.

I'm confused. Isn't Worf a Lt. Commander by the end of Season 7?

Yet the ceremony for his promotion occurs in the Generations movie.

So I assumed hat story wise Generations Occurs (Before TNG, and During TNG). Even though the movie itself was made after TNG ended.

Overcracker wrote:I'm confused. Isn't Worf a Lt. Commander by the end of Season 7?

Nope he wasnt.

Iron Prime wrote:Oops! I corrected it to season 7 - sorry! Not sure how I managed to fat-finger that since 7 and 3 aren't by each other on the keyboard...

lol
Thought it was something like

Iron Prime wrote:

sto_vo_kor_2000 wrote:If you looking to know which is the Best of all the Treks you really need to get into Deep Space Nine.

Seconded.

Aye, thar be sum truth to that matey

(no idea why the pirate sh*t came out )

Iron Prime wrote: (hopefully I can find a similar way to get The Original Series and Enterprise like this soon! )

The only way I've been able to find TOS at a reasonable price has been second hand. The big box stores around here don't carry them anymore so to get them first hand I'd have to go to Suncoast and pay $90 a season Absurd !

sto_vo_kor_2000 wrote:

Overcracker wrote:I'm confused. Isn't Worf a Lt. Commander by the end of Season 7?

Nope he wasnt.

Seconded

I checked a couple of episodes from season 7. And yes he is still a Lt. "2 full pips on his neck".

I may have been confused with DS9 then.

Overcracker wrote:I checked a couple of episodes from season 7. And yes he is still a Lt. "2 full pips on his neck".

I may have been confused with DS9 then.

You may have also been confused because on 1 season 7 episode called "Parallels" in which our Worf was travelling to different alternate universes in which he held different ranks.

Overcracker wrote:I checked a couple of episodes from season 7. And yes he is still a Lt. "2 full pips on his neck".

I may have been confused with DS9 then.

He was actually promoted to Lieutenant Commander in "Generations."

Darth Bombshell wrote:

Overcracker wrote:I checked a couple of episodes from season 7. And yes he is still a Lt. "2 full pips on his neck".

I may have been confused with DS9 then.

He was actually promoted to Lieutenant Commander in "Generations."

He knows that....follow his last few post and you'll see what he was asking.

Darth Bombshell wrote:

Overcracker wrote:I checked a couple of episodes from season 7. And yes he is still a Lt. "2 full pips on his neck".

I may have been confused with DS9 then.

He was actually promoted to Lieutenant Commander in "Generations."

I know, that's not the point.

Anyway, it seems Worf is the only senior staff member to not have been promoted past Lt. in the series.

LaForge made it all the way to Lt. Cmdr.

Dr. Crusher made it full fledged Commander (Captain, if you count the very last episode)
Even Counselor Troi got the rank of Commander.

Yet Worf remained a lowly Lt. all through the series. The only reason he got promoted to full Lt. was because Lt. Yar died. Talk about your under appreciated Klingon.

I guess fiddling with Warp Coils and crawling through Jeffries tubes is the way to get promoted. Rather than risking your life for the captain over and over and over again.

Overcracker wrote:I know, that's not the point.

Anyway, it seems Worf is the only senior staff member to not have been promoted past Lt. in the series.

LaForge made it all the way to Lt. Cmdr.

Dr. Crusher made it full fledged Commander (Captain, if you count the very last episode)
Even Counselor Troi got the rank of Commander.

Yet Worf remained a lowly Lt. all through the series. The only reason he got promoted to full Lt. was because Lt. Yar died. Talk about your under appreciated Klingon.

I guess fiddling with Warp Coils and crawling through Jeffries tubes is the way to get promoted. Rather than risking your life for the captain over and over and over again.

Your a bit mis-informed on 2 points.

Worf became a full LT. a year after the death of Yar.

And DR.Beverly Crusher held the rank of full Commander from the very first episode.

I just another thought this morning for you 8 Bit:
Check your local library. Libraries have all sorts of surprising/random things (including DVDs) for you to barrow. When I was in grade school and jr. high the library in my town had about 15 episodes of TNG on tape - it stands to reason that now-a-days a library might at least have some of the fan collections.....

Happy hunting!

Iron Prime wrote:I just another thought this morning for you 8 Bit:
Check your local library. Libraries have all sorts of surprising/random things (including DVDs) for you to barrow. When I was in grade school and jr. high the library in my town had about 15 episodes of TNG on tape - it stands to reason that now-a-days a library might at least have some of the fan collections.....

Happy hunting!

My library has the Star Trek sets for at least TOS and TNG, plus other TV shows like the new Doctor Who and Red Dwarf, so I know this is a fact. The problem is, if you go this route, you run the risk of finding the discs scratched beyond playability, so be careful.

Unfortunately Half.com and ebay aren't much better with pricing than amazon

I'd personally go the library route. Even if the disks are scratched, if you have a Game Crazy near you they can buff the scratches out of the DVDs.

Best of luck

OptimusN1701 wrote:Unfortunately Half.com and ebay aren't much better with pricing than amazon

I'd personally go the library route. Even if the disks are scratched, if you have a Game Crazy near you they can buff the scratches out of the DVDs.

Best of luck

Hey long time no see.

sto_vo_kor_2000 wrote:

OptimusN1701 wrote:Unfortunately Half.com and ebay aren't much better with pricing than amazon

I'd personally go the library route. Even if the disks are scratched, if you have a Game Crazy near you they can buff the scratches out of the DVDs.

Best of luck

Hey long time no see.

Hola. How you been? So what's been going on in my absence?

OptimusN1701 wrote:

sto_vo_kor_2000 wrote:

OptimusN1701 wrote:Unfortunately Half.com and ebay aren't much better with pricing than amazon

I'd personally go the library route. Even if the disks are scratched, if you have a Game Crazy near you they can buff the scratches out of the DVDs.

Best of luck

Hey long time no see.

Hola. How you been? So what's been going on in my absence?

In my world or in trek world???