Showbits

Star Trek: The Next Generation was the first Star Trek to enjoy a full, cancellation-free run. This October 2nd, its 176 episodes will be available in a new box set (watch the trailer, read the press release). Though $40/season is a fair deal, $278.89, after shipping, is still no small amount of change. And, as Trek Nation has been recently reminding us with their retro reviews, some entire seasons of TNG have not aged well.

There are many ways to separate the wheat from the chaff. Various fan collectives offer thematically-related content, so if you like time travel or Q, you're bound to be satisfied — unless you dwell on what these packages miss, such as "Future's End". For my money, The Jean-Luc Picard Collection is the best value, as I prefer episodes that offer not an anomaly of the week, but significant, focused character development. "Tapestry", "Darmok", and "The Inner Light" are worth their weight in latinum, and with the former two both coming from season five, perhaps that is the series' best season. Other fifth-season episodes "I, Borg", "The Perfect Mate" (another Picard episode, and one which first unites Patrick Stewart with Famke Janssen, prior to their X-Men team-up), Spock's return in the two-part "Unification", and the first half of "Time's Arrow" supports this theory.

But only with the new, complete DVD collection can you get all the above along with gems like "The Best of Both Worlds", "Yesterday's Enterprise", and "Relics" — so if you have money to burn, take the good with the bad and splurge on all seven seasons (plus exclusive features and documentaries). But if you don't, then what season (or fan collective) do you recommend, and for what episodes?

Also in the TNG at 20 series:

• T-Minus One Week and Counting
• Where, Oh Where, Has My Little Spock Gone?
• The Human Condition
• The Voyage Continues
• But Don't Take My Word For It
• A Good Day to Die

October 4th marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik. A year after Russia beat America into space, the White House responded with a document, Introduction to Outer Space, urging America to win this race:

The first of these factors is the compelling urge of man to explore and to discover, the thrust of curiosity that leads men to try to go where no one has gone before. Most of the surface of the earth has now been explored and men now turn on the exploration of outer space as their next objective.

"Where no one has gone before…" Gene Roddenberry took these words to heart, and less than a decade later, he went there — and brought the world with him.

His original Star Trek, which turned 40 last year, may not initially have been a commercial success; but its successor, true to its title, inspired the next generation of television viewers to look up. The passion the Star Trek franchise has stirred in its audience has proven timeless, and its impact on not just our popular culture, but on our scientific progress, is immeasurable. One space industry executive wrote, "We are in the commercial space flight industry and would like to testify that at least one out of two of all the actual entrepreneurs involved in this industry has been inspired by Star Trek."

Though Kirk, Spock, and McCoy marked the beginning, it was Picard, Riker, Data, and company that cemented the franchise in our hearts and souls. And we here at Showbits cannot fail to observe the beginning of that golden era.

September 28th marks twenty years since Star Trek: The Next Generation first aired. To commemorate this historic anniversary, we'll be blogging about Star Trek every day this week, culminating on Friday. We'll be providing news, retrospectives, analyses, and more. They'll be fun, nostalgic, thought-provoking, and who knows what else. So please join us on this wagon train to the stars… The sky's the limit!

Also in the TNG at 20 series:

• To Everything, There Is a Season
• Where, Oh Where, Has My Little Spock Gone?
• The Human Condition
• The Voyage Continues
• But Don't Take My Word For It
• A Good Day to Die

The only question Weird Al ever thought was hard was "Do I like Kirk or do I like Picard?" Now Star Trek fans have an opportunity to answer that question for themselves and garner some neat toys in the process.

"Kirk vs. Picard" is a fanfic contest, hosted by fan site FanLib.com and sponsored by CBS and StarTrek.com. In it, George Takei and Wil Wheaton host video segments that describe four scripts (by Star Trek writer Andre Bormanis) that bring Picard and Kirk against each other. All four involve some sort of temporal travel, be it the Guardian of Forever, cryonic suspension, or even the return of Khan (but no Temporal Cold War). Once fans select script, a scene will be presented, with fans invited to write how the scene will play out. Voting will then be held to determine the best scene to adopt into the story's canon before moving on to another round. Authors of the winning scripts will be eligible to win grand prizes.

Too much effort? Simply signing up for the contest and casting your vote will enter you in a drawing to win prizes, which may include MacBooks, iPhones, and more.

Despite posting about it here, I'm not excited by this contest. The videos by Takei and Wheaton are stilted — why can't they look at the camera? — and the scripts seem forced. Besides, does anyone really care which captain would win in a fight? Certainly it isn't as important as the great Mike vs. Joel debate. Can't we already tell that the story will end with both captains cooperating to a common goal, in true Starfleet fashion, and then a giant "reset" button being pushed, returning them to their respective eras?

But just because the contest isn't for me doesn't mean it isn't for everyone. May the best geek win — and may the Schwartz be with you.