This Year Has Seven Seasons:

“STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION”

The Entire, Highly Anticipated Series Beams to DVD in 2002, Loaded with Extras, With New Seasons Every Two Months

~ Launching with Season One on March 26 ~

HOLLYWOOD, January 11, 2002 – Setting the stage for an entire year of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, Paramount Home Entertainment is proud to bring the series to DVD for the first time, beginning in March, 2002. The year-long campaign will launch on March 26 with SEASON ONE, a seven-disc collector’s box set containing all 26 episodes from the first season, along with four newly created documentaries exclusive to the DVD release. A new season will be released every other month and the entire series is presented in newly remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. Order cut-off for SEASON ONE is February 12.

Each season of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION is presented in a highly collectable box set, with seven discs* and a pull-out booklet of episode information and panoramic montage of the crew. Moving forward, each season of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION will be released as a box set to create an attractive library of the entire series. This will appeal not only to fans of Star Trek but any consumer who loves DVD.

* Season 2 has 6 discs

“STAR TREK is one of our most popular and enduring video franchises,” said Eric Doctorow, president, Paramount Home Entertainment Worldwide. “We are very excited to be releasing STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION on DVD because we are now offering consumers the ultimate home viewing experience for this immensely popular show.”

Paramount Home Entertainment is supporting the DVD release of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION – SEASON ONE with consumer advertising on network, cable and syndication TV as well as ads in TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, Discover, Sci-Fi, Star Trek: The Magazine, Star Trek Communicator in the U.S. and in TV Guide in Canada and on the Web.

DVD Contents:

Disc 1: Encounter at Farpoint Parts 1 & 2 (episodes 101, 102), The Naked Now (103), Code of Honor (104)

Disc 2: The Last Outpost (107), Where No One Has Gone Before (106), Lonely Among Us (108), Justice (109)

Disc 3: The Battle (110), Hide and Q (111), Haven (105), The Big Goodbye (113)

Disc 4: DataLore (114), Angel One (115), 11001001 (116), Too Short a Season (112)

Disc 5: When the Bough Breaks (118), Home Soil (117), Coming of Age (119), Heart of Glory (120)

Disc 6: The Arsenal of Freedom (121), Symbiosis (123), Skin of Evil (122), We’ll Always Have Paris (124)

Disc 7: Conspiracy (125), The Neutral Zone (126), Special Features

Disk 7 of the DVD includes the following special features:

· The Beginning: focusing on the challenges of creating a new series and keeping to Gene Roddenberry’s vision. Includes interviews with Roddenberry, Patrick Stewart, Robert Justman (former producer of the Original Series), Rick Berman (Co-Executive Producer at the time), Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Denise Crosby and other cast members.

· Selected Crew Analysis: features first season cast members talking about their roles, their acting backgrounds prior to being cast and their impressions of the Star Trek legacy. Also features a comparison between the launch of the series in 1987 and the comments from the cast seven years later (1994), using archive interviews and b-roll to present a fascinating ‘before’ and ‘after’ look from the series cast members.

· The Making of a Legend: features commentary from the first season production staff members: Michael Westmore (Make-up), Herman Zimmerman (Production Designer), Mike Okuda (Scenic Artist), Richard Stembach (Scenic Artist), Dan Curry (Visual Effects), Peter Lauritson (Co-Producer), Rick Berman and others, as they discuss the making of the new series. Uncovers information on how the beaming effect is achieved, Worf’s make up process and how much time and effort goes into creating each episode.

· Memorable Missions: cast and crew discussions of specific episodes and events that occurred during the first season.

Picking up decades after Captain Kirk and his original crew left off, Emmy-winning STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION follows the exciting adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) as he leads an all new U.S.S. Enterprise on adventurous missions into deep space. The series also stars Jonathan Frakes as William T. Riker, LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge, Denise Crosby as Tasha Yar, Michael Dorn as Worf, Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher, Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, Brent Spiner as Data and Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher.

The DVD of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION – SEASON ONE is presented in a full frame version and the audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. The DVDs are sub-titled in English and closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired.

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION – SEASON ONE carries no suggested retail price but is expected to be priced by retailers for their customers at under $100. It is not rated in the U.S. by the Motion Picture Association of America and is rated G in Canada. Each disc has a running time of approximately 176 minutes, with the exception of disc seven, which has 88 minutes of features and approximately 60 minutes of special features. All seven discs are encoded with the MacrovisionÔ AntiCopy process.

Visit www.paramount.com/homevideo and www.startrek.com to learn more about Paramount Home Entertainment’s new releases, as well as other classic Hollywood films, television programs, animated titles and family and special interest programming. Paramount Home Entertainment is part of the operations of Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.

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SYNOPSES

In STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION – SEASON ONE, it is 78 years after the adventures of the original crew of the starship Enterprise, taking place in the 24th century. Captain Jean-Luc Picard commands the all-new Enterprise NCC 1701-D as the crew travels to distant planets seeking out new life and adventures.

Disc 1: In the series’ two-part pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint,” (Episodes One and Two), the U.S.S. Enterprise crew is assigned to determine how the native Bandi inhabitants created the energy-powered Farpoint station. This first mission introduces “Q,” the mysterious and powerful being who challenges the crew to prove that humans are not a barbaric race. Thus begins the adventures of THE NEXT GENERATION. In “The Naked Now,” the Enterprise and crew are summoned to investigate strange occurrences aboard the research vessel U.S.S. Tsiolkovsky, only to return to their ship unknowingly carrying a contagious virus, while “Code of Honor” finds U.S.S. Enterprise on the planet Ligon II, sent to obtain a rare vaccine necessary to avert a plague on Stryris IV.

Disc 2: “The Last Outpost” follows the crew as they are rendered powerless above an unknown and mysterious planet, while “Where No One Has Gone Before” finds the starship in uncharted territory, when a test on the ship’s propulsion system backfires and blasts the starship more than a billion light years away from their own galaxy. “Lonely Among Us” finds the crew of U.S.S. Enterprise passing through a mysterious “cloud” that contains combinations of complex energy patterns, and “Justice” finds the crew anxiously awaiting a shore leave on the pastoral planet of Rubicon III.

Disc 3: “The Battle” unveils the old style starship U.S.S. Stargazer on a direct course with Enterprise, and containing a mysterious mind-altering devise onboard. In “Hide and Q,” the dangerous “Q” stops the U.S.S. Enterprise as they attempt to aid the survivors on a planet rocked by a lethal explosion, while “Haven” presents an unexpected visit from Counselor Troi’s mother. “The Big Goodbye” finds Captain Picard at a crossroads, as he must deliver a precise greeting to the Jarada, the insect-like race inhabiting the quadrant Korona IV, where the U.S.S. Enterprise wishes to enter.

Disc 4: In “DataLore,” the crew investigates the mystery surrounding the disappearance of an earth colony in the Omicron Theta star system, and “Angel One” finds the crew traveling to Angel One, a planet run by women, to search for survivors from a Federation freighter disabled by an asteroid collision seven years earlier. “11001001” focuses on the computer intelligence aboard U.S.S. Enterprise, as the starship docks at Starbase 74, where the Bynars are scheduled to upgrade the ship’s computer system, and “Too Short a Season” finds the crew transporting the infamous Admiral Mark Jameson to Mordan IV, where several Federation officials have been taken hostage by the planet’s governor.

Disc 5: In “When the Bough Breaks,” U.S.S. Enterprise accidentally discovers a planet with advanced technology that provides every need or want a person could have, while “Home Soil” follows the starship on a visit to Velara III, where a group of terraformers are working to transform the seemingly desolate planet into one capable of supporting life. In “Coming of Age,” Wesley beams down to Relva VII to take the grueling Starfleet Academy entrance exam, while “Heart of Glory” finds Lt. Worf having to choose between his loyalty to Starfleet and his Klingon heritage, when two Klingon fugitives take over the Enterprise.

Disc 6: “The Arsenal of Freedom” follows an investigation into the disappearance of the U.S.S. Drake, while “Symbiosis” finds Enterprise receiving a distress signal from a disabled freighter ship. “Skin of Evil” follows U.S.S. Enterprise to a rendezvous with Troi’s shuttlecraft, when a bizarre malfunction occurs, causing the transport vehicle to crash on Vagra II, and in “We’ll Always Have Paris” Captain Picard is reunited with an old flame.

Disc 7: “Conspiracy” follows the Enterprise on a journey to Pacifica, only to be halted by an emergency message for Captain Picard to attend a secret and important meeting. In “The Neutral Zone,” as the U.S.S. Enterprise awaits Captain Picard’s return from a Federation conference, only to discover a disabled 20th century Earth satellite containing three perfectly preserved bodies, frozen for over 300 years by cryogenics.

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