Review of Star Trek Fan Collective - Captain's Log

This collection should be a blockbuster punch in the guts kind of collection, in theory anyway. The problem is that the selection is so varied that it's not possible for any narrative to build up, unlike the other themed collections.

(Disc 1) Star Trek
"The City on the Edge of Forever"
"The Enterprise Incident"
"Balance of Terror"

The first episode on this disc, 'The City on the Edge of Forever', is a classic, one of the best episodes in the original series. William Shatner's introduction is weird, incomprehensible in parts and I'm not convinced he knew what the episode's plot actually was.

The other two episodes revolve around the Romulans. 'The Enterprise Incident' is really good, though it's more of a Spock episode than a Kirk one and I'm not sure why it's included here. 'Balance of Power' is so-so, a straightforward combat story that doesn't leave much of an impression. Not one of my favourites, and that fact that it is popular enough to warrant inclusion baffles me.

(Disc 2) The Next Generation
"In Theory"
"Chain of Command"
"Darmok"

My favourite on this disc is 'In Theory' which is directed by Patrick Stewart and largely centres around Data. One of the better episodes in this series.

'Chain of Command' is one of those episodes that leaves an impression the first time around, but once the shock wears off, you realise that the story is relatively weak. Patrick Stewart gets a chance to flex his acting muscles, which makes it worthwhile to watch again.

'Darmok' is a very good episode based on the theme of trying to understand an incomprehensible alien language. It's a theme that's been used by Star Trek writers for pretty much every show in the universe and usually results in an interesting episode.

(Disc 3) Deep Space Nine
"Far Beyond the Stars"
"What You Leave Behind"
"In the Pale Moonlight"

Deep Space Nine is a hard beast to fathom. It's largely episodic, which makes it difficult pick out individual episodes of excellence. The whole disc, while not boring for a Trek fan, is pretty flat.

'Far Beyond the Stars' bucks the trend. It's basically social commentary on racism with a clever plot and steps outside of the DS9 continuity, making it easy to enjoy individually.

'What You Leave Behind' is the series finale and I'm confused at to why it's in this collection, since the Captain is one character is an ensemble cast.

'In the Pale Moonlight' is very focused on Sisko and deserves to be here but the story also makes little impact outside of the DS9's larger context.

(Disc 4) Voyager
"Counterpoint"
"The Omega Directive"
"Flashback"

Another reasonably solid set of episodes on this disc, 'Counterpoint' being the best of the lot. Voyager's penchant for building up the tension till the very end and finishing up with a relatively weak quasi-scientific plot construct has always bothered me. Both the other episodes suffer from this problem. They are still enjoyable, but not my favourites from the series.

(Disc 5) Enterprise
"Judgment"
"These Are the Voyages..."
"First Flight"

A very good set of episodes from Enterprise. I'm not sure how so many series finales ended up in this collection, but 'These Are the Voyages...' is another one. The good thing about Enterprise was always it's penchant for plugging into the history of the Trek universe created by the other series that preceded it.

All the episodes here follow that trend, and personally, I enjoy them all the more for that. The finale ends with the formation of the Federation, 'Judgement' digs into Klingon history and 'First Flight' is about the history of the Earth Starfleet. Interesting plots, all of them.

This disc is the only one that maintains some sort of narrative, that of the history of Starfleet / the Federation, and is more enjoyable for it.