Small things you'd've liked to've happened in TNG

Given that Picard possessed his own saddle, he likely rode more than once on the holodeck and maybe also on shore leave.

Horseback riding is fun, in my opinion.

 

The things I'd use it for would be so visually spectacular as to completely overshadow the episodes themselves (and completely break the budget)

I was reading one of the New Frontier novels a while ago, and a crewman was playing Avengers on the holodeck, with Thor throwing his hammer and the Hulk chucking cars, and I thought, "That's more like it!"

 

One thing that always bugged me about the holodeck is that it gave the writers the excuse to do plots that aren't "strange new worlds". Instead of our crew getting out there and exploring the universe, you'd end up with the plot of an episode being 'The Enterprise is sitting stationary waiting for the USS Victory to show up, so here's an hour of Data pretending to be Sherlock Holmes'. In a lot of ways the holodeck eroded the Star Trek format rather than enhanced it... holodeck episodes sometimes just felt like filler, like they always ran on the spot and didn't go anywhere... and that feeling was carried through to DS9 and VOY as well. Something like 'Our Man Bashir' is a fun romp, but it's also utterly pointless.

 

QFT

 

Without the holodeck, they would have just stopped by the Dixon Hill planet. For some weird reason, their culture developed according to Dixon Hill novels, and Picard, who happens to be a fan of the novels, uses his knowledge to solve a problem in an undercover mission.

It didn't erode the Trek universe. It made it possible to remove those Earth 2 stories from the reality of the Trek universe, because instead of existing Earth copy planets, they just did those stories on the holodeck.

 

Enterprise's officers are shocked by Steppenwolf in First Contact movie, so we can easily imagine them finding Princess of the Night as noisy as Aktuh and Maylota. Post-TOS and TMP Klingons are defintely metalheadish (google Destruction - Sentence of Death and you will see the three brothers of Klaa) and the most kligonish 80's Metal band is definetly Manowar. (I can also imagine Chekov arguing that Aria influenced british bands like Saxon or Maiden.)

About Worf, I also feel he lacked of human culture. It's always the pattern "Damn, they're so ugly and it tastes like shit" and Worf happens to find it delicious and them beautiful. He could had been a huge fan of Slavic warrior stories or I don't know...baseball?

On the other hand, we have the so British Captain from Franche-Comté. There's no problem with the absence of French stereotypes, but he's not even able to say his name. At least, don't make him always drinking tea.

 

If an episode is entertaining, how the heck is it pointless?? Shows like "Elementary Dear Data" and "Our Man Bashir" were good fun; hardly filler, and hardly pointless.

 

They're definitely not pointless but they kinda are fillers. They answer those questions about what the crew does on their time off. Because of episodes like those, we know during their time off, O'brien and Bashir spend time in the holodeck, Riker plays Jazz, Picard rides horses, Sisko watches movies, and Janeway's a masochist.

They're kinda fillers but they're kinda not.

I'm just kidding, Sisko plays baseball.

 

Never agreed with Wesley turning into some arrogant jerk, being disrespectful to his 'family' if you will. Yes, I understand he's super smart and is redeemed at the end of the Indian episode, but if making him a arrogant jerk was to make him more adult and less of a goody-two-shoes, I don't think it was done well.

"Preemptive Strike" - Picards behavior to Ro Laren.

 

Perhaps they could have replaced the Earl Grey and Shakespeare with Coffee and Voltaire?

 

Picard drinking tea isn't un-French. In fact, France invented the currently most widely accepted method of preparing tea (by adding milk to taste), something it never occured to Britain to do.

On the other hand, Picard takes his tea without milk.

 

I think a decent consensus about the holodeck is that it's nice to have, just don't base entire episodes on them, especially episodes about accidentally malfunctioning holodecks.

I'll admit though, that there are a couple neat applications of the holodeck from a narrative standpoint. Voyager encountering a race that communcated to them through the holodeck was a nice idea (execution was kinda lacking, and several things were contrived, but the premise was good).

 

Shakespeare is not so much a problem, he has a lot of francophone readers. Picard's habits are simply too modeled on what Stewart appreciates. I would have hired Thermians of Galaxy Quest to developp a more frenchy character. They really convinced me with the food scene. Or renaming him John-Locke Picker. (Of course, Picard is not Picker in french. A Picard is a dude from Picardie. There's also a lot of Huron-Wendot called Picard...WHO SAID SHUT UP!?!?!)

 

How was Wesley "redeemed?" First he endangered a Starfleet away team composed of friends of his. Later when a fight broke out, Wesley simply left.

 

Not only would I have liked to have seen a proper TNG/DS9 crossover but it should have been a movie and them fighting in the Dominion War.

 

Crusher meeting Pulaski. = Cat fight....

Riker punching Jellico in the face.

And she should have had 3

 

^I would have liked it if they had a better Pulaski exit and a cat fight could have shown Beverly's temperate side better.

 

Three what?

Not sure what Crusher and Pulaski would have to fight about. It's not like they're into the same men.

About the only advantage I can see that Crusher would have is that she can tap dance.