We left the crew of the Enterprise as they were venturing into "The Expanse," an uncharted region of space that is only known for destroying any ships that have gone in. Unfortunately, there is no choice for the Enterprise as they are on a mission to stop an alien species known as the Xindi from destroying Earth as they have been told the human race will be the cause of their extinction in the future.
While this season is light years ahead of the second, it does have its flaws as the writers seem hell bent on episodes that have absolutely no meaning or point. On top of that there is far too much time travel that leaves a lot of room for error, but I won't get into that here. If you want to rap about that email me and we'll chat.
As for the DVD set itself, I wanted to avoid any redundancies between my review of the first season and second season DVD sets so I went back and made sure I wasn't regurgitating any complaints just so I knew I could make a few here that should have been mentioned but weren't. Yup, you heard me right... complaints.
While the season is good, the presentation Paramount has on not only this set, but all their DVDs, needs some work.
First of all, not being able to skip over the Paramount logo, the FBI warnings or the animated menus is a pain in the ass. I know this is a small complaint but I don't think I should be forced to watch stars circle a mountain or have to read that I can be sent to jail and fined if I copy these DVDs. I guess that second part is to be blamed on the ass holes that are bootlegging DVDs because they are too lazy to get a real job to pay for them, but that is another story.
Secondly, where is the "Play All" feature that is found on all other TV series DVDs, even those from Paramount? I am yet to see a "Star Trek" box set that comes with a "Play All" function. Instead you are forced to choose your episode, then watch another animated menu, then hit play. This doesn't take a major amount of time, but it is just frustrating when a "Play All" feature can't take more than a couple of seconds to put together.
Now, the features, they are limited but they are here with a good deletion from prior sets. First off, the "Star Trek" staples are here, and by that I mean the text commentaries by Michael and Denise Okuda on "The Xindi," "Impulse" and "Countdown." These are really the best part of any "Star Trek" DVD set in my opinion as they go back and forth between trivia and fact based information on the episodes they accompany.
Next there are only two commentaries with this set and they can be found on "North Star" and "Similitude." Honestly, "Star Trek" audio commentaries interest me very little and these were no different. There are some deleted scenes to be found on three of the episodes but disc seven is where the bulk of the goodies will be found.
First off is the one feature that is not found that was on the two previous sets and that is the "Enterprise Secrets" feature, which was interesting the first time but that was only because it was the first time. Instead you get a gag reel in its place and while it is no diamond in the rough, it is a fair replacement. As for featurettes, you get the following: "Enterprise Moments: Season Three," "Enterprise Profile: Connor Trinneer" and "A Day in the Life of a Director: Roxann Dawson."
These three features continue where the other sets left off as they look back at the third season, profile one of the cast members this time it is Trinneer who plays Captain Tucker and then a director profile with Roxann Dawson who played B'lana Torres on "Star Trek: Voyager" and was the director on the "Exile" episode. Honestly, I think you need to be an uber-fan of the show to enjoy these because I just didn't care. While this show does try to dig deep into its characters it is really just the story that I care about, which leaves me numb to the extra stuff they try to build up.
Overall season three is a success. While I have a few trivial complaints about the set up it really doesn't mean much compared to the quality of the actual product. I am still surprised this show was cancelled after only four seasons considering I thought the first and third seasons where damn good, but I guess the fourth can still be a let down, we will just have to wait and see when it is released in November.