Picard appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on these Blu-ray Discs. As usual, the shows boasted appealing visuals.
Overall sharpness satisfied. Some interiors demonstrated a little softness, but these occasions didn’t intrude with the proceedings.
No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws didn’t become an issue.
Colors tended toward a palette that favored somewhat grimy greens and blues. The discs reproduced the hues as intended.
Blacks felt deep and dense, and shadows looked smooth and clear. S3 presented positive picture quality.
S3 also came with episodes that brought involving DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio. Of course, the soundfields fared best when the episodes engaged in action, which happened enough to use the five channels in a compelling manner.
Music showed good stereo imaging, and quieter scenes brought convincing environmental information. The soundscapes created a nice complement to the visuals.
Audio quality seemed good. Music brought warm, vivid material.
Speech sounded concise and distinctive, while effects appeared accurate and packed a nice punch. The shows came with above-average audio.
Five episodes provide audio commentaries. Here’s who appears:
“The Next Generation”: actors Jonathan Frakes, Jeri Ryan, Ed Speleers, and Todd Stashwick, writer/executive producer Terry Matalas and composer Stephen Barton.
“Seventeen Seconds”: Matalas and actors Gates McFadden and Michelle Hurd.
“No Win Scenario”: Frakes, Matalas and Stashwick.
“The Bounty”: Frakes, Matalas, and actors LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner.
“The Last Generation”: Frakes, Ryan, Speleers and Matalas.
Across these, we learn about story/character domains, cast and performances, sets and production design, music, links to other Trekprojects/Easter eggs, and connected topics.
Don’t expect a lot of insights over the commentaries. We get occasional useful nuggets but much of the time, the participants just joke around and/or praise the shows and each other.
It can become fun to hear the old TNGactors interact, but even those moments of frivolity don’t appear terribly often. The commentaries lack a lot of real value, though they go down painlessly.
Five episodes come with Deleted Scenes. We find clips for “The Bounty” (2, 2:53), “Dominion” (3, 3:02), “Surrender” (1, 0:47), “Võx” (1, 3:29) and “The Last Generation (2, 1:46).
Most of these offer extensions of existing scenes, so don’t expect a lot of unique material. Still, we get some good stuff, such as an explanation for “Zen Worf” and more Dominion backstory, so the segments merit a look.
On Disc One, three featurettes appear, The Gang’s All Here spans 19 minutes, eight seconds and involves Frakes, McFadden, Spiner, Burton, and actors Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, and Marina Sirtis.
As implied by the title, “Here” looks at the Next Generation reunion found in S3 of Picard. It proves more substantial than the puff piece I expected.
Villainous Vadic goes for 20 minutes, 44 seconds. It brings info from Matalas, Stewart,co-executive producer Christopher Monfette, supervising producer Cindy Appel, senior concept designer Neville Page, prosthetic designer Vincent Van Dyke, production designed Dave Blass, executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Aaron Baiers, and actor Amanda Plummer.
Unsurprisingly, this featurette examines aspects of S3’s main baddie as well as Piummer’s performance. We get more praise than I’d like, but we still find enough insights to make the program useful.
The Final Season provides a 42-minute, 36-second Q&A. Its panel includes Stewart, Frakes, Burton, Ryan, McFadden, Dorn, Spiner, Matalas and Kurtzman.
The chat looks at goals for S3 and aspects of its production as well as story/characters, cast and performances and related Next Generation topics. Like most panels of this sort, matters lean superficial, but we get some decent notes, and it’s simply nice to see so many of the actors together one last time.
Disc One finishes with a Gag Reel. it lasts six minutes, 11 seconds and presents some of the usual goofs and giggles. Still, we get enough fun interplay among the actors to make the compilation more amusing than usual.
Disc Three comes with more featurettes, and The Making of ‘The Last Generation’” goes for 42 minutes, 50 seconds. It involves Matalas, Kurtzman, Stashwick, Ryan, Appel, Speleers, Hurd, Stewart, Burton, Monfette, Spiner, co-executive producers Jane Maggs andSean Tretta, associate visual effects supervisor Brian Tatosky, and actors Orla Brady, Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, and Mica Burton.
Though the program’s title implies a focus on the series’ final episode, instead it gets into broader topics. We learn about story/characters across the season as well as cast/performances, effects, and related areas.
Honestly, I don’t know why they gave the featurette the title they did, since it ends up with little to do with the finale. Still, it delves into some good subjects and gives us a nice season overview.
Rebuilding the Enterprise-D spans 16 minutes, 54 seconds. Here we find remarks from Kurtzman, Matalas, Blass, Stewart, Monfette, Burton, art director Liz Kloczowski, computer playback supervisor Todd A. Marks and graphic designer Michael Okuda.
Just as the title indicates, this piece tells us about S3’s use of the Enterprise-D and topics related to that. It becomes a solid little view of the work done to bring the ship back to life.
If Season Three of Star Trek: Picard truly marks the end of the road for the Next Generation crew, it gives them a thrilling farewell. The 10 episodes create a compelling adventure and send the characters off in splendid fashion. The Blu-rays come with very good picture and audio as well as a decent array of bonus materials. Picard got better with each successive season, and S3 concludes matters well.
