The Movie: If the third season of ST:TNG is the one where the show really took off running, the fourth season is the one where the show started to grow up. The season starts off with the conclusion to the cliffhanger, "The Best Of Both Worlds", where you see what happens after Captain Picard was assimilated by the Borg. During the fourth season of TNG, a lot of the episodes center around learning more about the characters we have come to know and love.

The fourth season is also the one (to the joy of many Trekkies) where Wesley Crusher finally leaves the Enterprise for the Academy. We meet the Cardassians for the first time. We see Data learning more about being human (hell, we see him meet his father!). We see Picard (and the rest of the crew) returning home to Earth, including Worf visiting his adoptive parents. Beverly falls in love with a trill whose host dies and is then transferred to a new host -- a woman -- can she still love him now that he's a woman? Troi loses her empathic abilities and becomes a total bitch. Riker gets taken to an alien prison hospital where a female wants to make alien love to him while the rest of the aliens decide if he's a threat to their way of life.... etc. etc...

Some of my favorite episodes from this season besides the conclusion to "Best Of Both Worlds" are: "The Nth Degree" where Barclay gains superhuman intelligence, "Remember Me" where Beverly gets stuck in an ever shrinking universe, and "Future Imperfect" where Riker wakes up 16 years later, in command of the Enterprise.

The major low point of this season? I would have to say it's the introduction of Alexander, son of Worf to the series. "But I don't wanna be a warrior!!... ugh.

But, overall, this is a great season, with great episodes. TNG by this point was a well oiled machine, cranking out some very original, engaging, and thought-provoking episodes.

The DVD: We get more of the same great video and audio here that we got from the third season of TNG, so I'll just talk about some of the differences between this season and the others. The menus this time around have an engineering display look to them, and the background sound effects to match.

For the fourth season set, we've got five featurettes, instead of four, examining everything from character development, to special effects and makeup, to cast reflections on the fourth season. It's more of the same that we saw from the third season, but slightly better than before.

Also, if you buy your season 4 DVD's from Best Buy (at least, for the first couple weeks), you'll get an extra bonus DVD with two more featurettes on the fourth season! That's more behind the scenes stuff than you can shake a stick at!

Overall, a worthy season to own, with many good episodes, but still worth having, even if only to have the conclusion to "Best of Both Worlds" if you've already got season three.