Rating: 
Country: USA
Release Date: March 7, 2008
Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
Cast:
· Scott Bakula
· Patrick Stewart
· Kate Mulgrew
Related Sites:
· Official Site: Star Trek
Grade: B+
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DVD Review: Star Trek: Fan Collective - Borg
by R.J. Carter
Published: March 1, 2006
Sometimes you may love certain episodes of a series, but not enough to justify purchasing the entire series on DVD. You're the person who looks for those "Best of..." episode sets, and probably the same person who wonders: "Who voted these as the best episodes?"
If your predilection for the Star Trek franchise leaned toward the Borg episodes, then you're in luck. The bulk of those episodes have been selected by the fans themselves, through online voting, and assimilated (I know, I know... it was too easy) into this four-disc set. Featuring episodes from Enterprise, The Next Generation, and Voyager, these fourteen of the supposed creme de la creme are presented in Stardate order -- that is, chronologically by history of the Star Trek universe -- instead of airdate order.
Starting with the first encounter with the Borg in Enterprise -- before the Federation even knew what they were called -- and moving through the season finale of Voyager, if there's a Borg episode you love it's probably in here. Not surprisingly, half the episodes are Voyager episodes, since Jeri Ryan portrays the Borg 7-of-9 who is a member of the crew. I like Voyager; I think of all the Star Trek shows, this series most personified the spirit of "to boldly go..." Too many of the episodes of the other series never boldly went anywhere that the Federation hadn't already gone. It was always checking up on this colony or that one. Voyager gets thrown into uncharted space -- that was exciting for me.
However, Voyager doesn't have my favorite Borg episodes. The two-part "Unimatrix Zero" had too much of another kind of matrix to its components for me to see anything original in it. For my favorites, we have to go to The Next Generation, starting with "Q Who?" (There's a fan collective set following this one, by the way, of time travel episodes; what we really need is a set of Q Continuum episodes, though.) This is the first true encounter with the Borg for the fans, and what a spine-tingling encounter it was. It even sent Picard running for cover. And who can forget that season ending cliffhanger, "The Best of Both Worlds"? When Picard becomes Locutus and Riker gives the order to fire on the Borg vessel, you could hear the collective gasp of fans from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
Now, if you're a die-hard fan of Star Trek and you have already bought the season boxed sets -- don't bother jumping on this. There is nothing new here for you to see. These episodes are literally lifted from where hardcore fans have gone before. This is made quite obvious when you turn on the optional audio commentary on the Enterprise episode, and Michael Sussman announces, "And we're back..." This is the same commentary that accompanied the episode in the series boxed set. Likewise, the other episodes that have the pop-up text commentary by the Okudas. There's no featurette on the development of the Borg, no interviews with the actors and actresses who had to endure the makeup process. In fact, the only thing here that wasn't on the other sets is the Borg spaghetti menu that presents the episode selection.
These episodes are presented in full screen format, with the exception of the Enterprise, which is widescreen. The audio can be set to either English 5.1 Surround or English 2.0, with optional English subtitles.
Star Trek Fan Collective
Borg
Disc Guide
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Disc 1
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Disc 2
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- Enterprise - Episode #049: "Regeneration" (optional audio commentary w/ Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong)
- The Next Generation - Episode #142: "Q Who?"
- The Next Generation - Episode #174: "The Best of Both Worlds", part 1 (optional text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda)
- The Next Generation - Episode #175: "The Best of Both Worlds", part 2 (optional text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda)
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- The Next Generation - Episode #223: I Borg
- The Next Generation - Episode #252: Descent, part 1
- The Next Generation - Episode #253: Descent, part 2
- Voyager - Episode #168: Scorpion, part 1
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Disc 3
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Disc 4
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- Voyager - Episode #169: Scorpion, part 2
- Voyager - Episode #196: Drone
- Voyager - Episode #824: Dark Frontier
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- Voyager - Episode #246: Unimatrix Zero, part 1
- Voyager - Episode #247: Unimatrix Zero, part 2 (optional text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda)
- Voyager - Episode #828: Endgame
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