How was season 1 received at the time?

Wow, that sounds much more interesting and what would have been a real TNG take on "The Naked Time", getting glimpses into the characters we're getting to know, rather than just "everyone gets horny, shenanigans happen". Sounds like Roddenberry got so eager with his "in the 24th century, everyone has orgies" mantra that he wanted to splice it in an episode as soon as possible.

 

The Naked Now that we got was a joke, in the unfunny sense of the word. My thoughts were like, OMG, I can't believe I sat through that.

It really sounds like we missed out, though most anything different would have been preferable. The original being such a good episode (and certainly a good one by comparison) made it all the more painful.

The only thing really positive I have to say about the Naked Now that we got is that it's a source of good one-liners.

 

As with any version of Star Trek, there were good and bad things about it - some of which were noticed almost immediately.

TNG's premiere happened on the same night as our local SCA group's annual Harvest Feast. Most of our group were also Star Trek fans, but had no plans whatsoever to skip the feast to watch TV, since the King & Queen of An Tir were going to be attending (we lived a long way from the major population centres for our kingdom, so this was a Really Big Deal). But one of the people in the group had both a VCR and a large living room, so after the feast about 30 people all went over to her house - still in our medieval costumes - and watched Encounter at Farpoint.

We were really happy to see DeForest Kelley's Doctor McCoy still alive and curmudgeonly at the age of 137, and when Q came along, somebody immediately said, "That's Trelane, all grown up" (not said in a disparaging way - just pleased at the continuity... after all, nothing on-screen has ever contradicted the possibility that Q and Trelane could be the same individual).

We had a wonderful time that night, getting to see a different kind of Star Trek, and enjoying Patrick Stewart's performance (hey, medieval re-creationists, and we're not going to enjoy watching a classically-trained Shakespearean actor?).

Maybe among the male fans... but there were a lot of female fans of both shows who loved the romance between Vincent and Catherine, and also wrote copious amounts of TNG fanfic that explored a romantic relationship between Beverly Crusher and Jean-Luc Picard (I wasn't among the latter; I never could stand Beverly).

You didn't like the episode that introduced Lwaxana Troi?

Okay, the arranged marriage was dumb, and I can't think why Deanna's father would have gone along with it, nor why Deanna would have pursued a relationship with Riker if she knew she'd have to marry somebody else some day.

TNG was not to blame for TFF's failure. The movie was just a really bad movie.

I have a button that says, "Wesley's not so bad... at least he didn't try to write and direct a major motion picture."

I kept thinking that the TNG Enterprise looked more like a hotel than a working starship. I kept waiting for the staff to come along with their vacuum cleaners and the room-service carts.

Okona is one of those "charming rogue" characters who may grate on the nerves at times, but proves to ultimately be better than you think he is.

William T. "Puppy-dog eyes" Riker? Uh-uh. Right from the get-go I didn't like him. I watched him get saucer-eyed about the cool way the ship's computer would give him directions or tell him where people were, and immediately wondered, "Hey, you just transferred off another starship - why didn't you notice all this cool stuff there?"

I first saw Patrick Stewart as the villainous Lucius Aelius Sejanus in I, Claudius, and in several movies. I was happy to see him in TNG, but not the initial holier-than-everyone-else way his character was written. The "we're so enlightened" attitude and the "the ship is falling apart and we're about to be killed, so it's time to have a meeting" stuff was ludicrous. I actually stood up in my living room and cheered, the first time Picard actually decked somebody. Happily this was made more balanced in later seasons so Picard had a better grasp of when to persist with diplomacy and when to fight.

I know a lot of people like Data. They find him intriguing, for some reason that has always escaped me. Maybe if Denise Crosby had stayed on the show, there might have been other personal interactions between them (even though she was embarrassed by what happened in "The Naked Now").

Troi, in Encounter at Farpoint, was just painful to watch. Her miniskirt and go-go boot costume, that wild mop of hair, her doing a really bad parody of Spock's speech when he mind-melded with the Horta ("Pain! Pain!") when she was in contact with the Farpoint alien... yikes. Just shut up. I wish they'd made her more grown-up like Ilia was.

And Worf... wasn't so bad at first. Another reason why I wish Denise Crosby had stayed is so that in later seasons, Worf wouldn't have eaten not only TNG, but DS9. First-season Worf was interesting.

I really don't understand how Wesley managed to survive. It's a mystery why nobody shoved that annoying brat out an airlock in the first season. In fairness, though, he did eventually grow up into a somewhat responsible person... for awhile. He improved after his mommy left the ship in the second season and he had to grow up more quickly.

I liked Geordi, and agree that he should have been the Chief Engineer from the start. The only thing that annoyed me about his character was the VISOR. Levar Burton is a good-looking man and it was a shame that he had to wear that ridiculous hair clip over his face throughout the whole seven seasons.

I really liked Pulaski (well, except for her bigotry toward Data). She provided a dose of practicality that the rest of the crew lacked.

 

Is there a reason for the snarky attitude?

 

I have issues with Troi's arranged marriage too. It seems strange that the Betazoids would have arranged marriages anyways, it just doesn't seem like their style from everything else we see of them, what we see suggests they'd pursue love, but then perhaps the Betazoids we mostly get to know, like Lwaxana and Troi are untraditional. Even still, it's hard to believe a 24th century Starfleet man like Ian Troi would allow an arranged marriage for his daughter. I assume that Troi followed her heart with Riker, and if he hadn't left her she'd have ended the engagement.
I like Data a lot, but then I don't know anything about this Questor Tapes show. I generally like all the main characters. Troi is another favorite, I like that she has a different approach to things, is more gentle and sensitive. This did work better when you had a stronger female character like Yar around.
Pulaski I like ok, but I like Beverly better. Pulaski's issues with Data made an interesting story,and it was good to explore a different pov towards Data, someone who at first didn't accept him as a person. Unfortunately, this also alienated a good portion of the audience against Pulaski,who did come off as mean spirited and bigoted at times. By the time the character started to come around I think she'd already turned a lot of the audience against her.
Wesley was annoying a lot in the early years. I'd have been interested in giving him another chance as a young adult once the show got rid of him.
Worf did get too much focus on TNG and DS9. I refer to him as the Wolverine of Star Trek, as Wolverine in the X-Men also gets too much exposure and focus. I'd like him better if he'd had a more balanced role. My take on that may be biased since I knew some guys that really annoyed me with their Worf/Klingon worship. I've mellowed out a bit on the issue over the years and can appreciate some of the good qualities of the Worf and Klingon storylines. Ezri Dax's more critical and pragmatic approach to Klingons in the last season of DS9 went a long way toward making them more likable than all the years where it seemed like nobody would say anything bad about them no matter how difficult and obnoxious they could be.
I'm a massive Lwaxana/Majel fan for what it's worth.

 

I like Worf more as I get older, I can appreciate the qualities that make him interesting, as an outsider caught between two worlds.
I don't see TNG characters as being perfect. They're good people, but still flawed. Riker turned his back on true love to chase his ambitions instead. Picard was too distant and detached from other people at first, just as examples.
Of course, compare them to the more dysfunctional characters of DS9 and they do look pretty squeaky clean.

 

Not a show, but a pilot movie that never went to series. It's available as a print-on-demand DVD.

 

Okay, thanks for clarifying. I misunderstood the post.

When the writers gave the character more than just comedy relief, Lwaxana could be a pretty wise woman.

I have a feeling she and Neelix would have gotten along great, as they were both always trying to get the so-serious people around them to relax and enjoy life.

 

The irony is that according to the book, Fontana's version was actually the *second* draft script. Yes, Roddenberry actually did the first draft version, which was basically very similar to what we eventually got, but Fontana took on second draft duties because everybody in the writer's room agreed that Roddenberry's version sucked... only for Roddenberry to then rewrite Fontana's second draft again to put it back to how he originally wrote it. Complete madness, no wonder there was a mass exodus behind-the-scenes in season 1.

I've tracked down the book in question ('Creating The Next Generation', by Mark Altman and Edward Gross, ISBN 0-7522-0843-8', in case anybody is interested in checking it out, it's a great book that has got synopses and observations about nearly all of the early draft storylines of season 1, and exactly how the constant rewriting, mainly from Roddenberry himself, made things worse rather than better).

I actually was mistaken in some of my assertions above (I misremembered the Tasha plot). For the record, the sequence of events in Fontana's draft of 'The Naked Now' is (very broadly) described as follows:



- The Tsilkovsky distress message is not somebody looking for "pretty boys", but is instead a scared and panicking female voice who has apparently locked herself in the transporter room. The Enterprise crew are horrified that, while talking to her and trying to determine what the situation aboard the Tsilkovsky is, they can actually hear the sound of Hand Phasers being fired in the background of the transmission, with a tell-tale pitch that confirms they're set on 'Kill'. Suddenly, the lady's voice cuts off, replaced by another voice declaring that the Enterprise should stay away from them, "unless you've been sent on the wings of angels". This voice then goes on to declare the Tsilkovsky crew "sinners" who will "repent or go to hell". After a moment, this voice then adds that they've decided they're all going to hell anyway, and *then* we hear the sound of an emergency hatch being released... and silence. Cue opening titles.

- Aboard the Tsilkovsky, instead of discovering signs of a wild party as in the transmitted version, the away team instead find signs of battle between the crew. There are dead bodies everywhere, and the room where the hatch was blown open is described as having the remains of exploded crewmembers splattered across it's walls. A much grimmer determination. The basic gist of events remains the same however: Geordi discovers the frozen bodies in the shower, and is the first to catch the virus.

- Back aboard the Enterprise, Geordi is ordered to the bridge, but instead decides to visit Wesley, pretty much exactly as in the transmitted version. In this scene he begins to show remorse for his inability to see (and he transmits the virus to Wesley). He then wanders the ship and is eventually tracked down to the ship's lounge, where Tasha finds him and is the third person aboard to pick up the virus (again, all pretty much as in the transmitted version). The difference here is that instead of hitting on her, Geordi tries to hit her... as in, he's filled with "pain and rage", and he actually takes a swipe at Tasha. Tasha renders him unconscious and drags him to sickbay, but Doctor Crusher can't find anything wrong with him.

- Riker looks up the events of TOS:'The Naked Time' (as in the transmitted version). Tasha visits Troi in her office, asking Troi about different types of clothes she can wear to "change my image". Troi senses uncertainty and helplessness in Tasha, and Yar says she wants to be less authorative, more approachable.

- Having discovered the apparent cure to the virus in the ship's records, Picard goes to sickbay and is surprised to find two security men laughing hysterically outside the door. Inside, he finds Beverly, who hits on him. Her beef is that she feels no man ever wants to try and have a relationship with her, because she's the widow of a Starfleet hero. She feels alone. Naturally this whole thing makes Picard a little nervous, but she passes the virus to him. Picard orders her to focus on her job and she immediately puts on a professional face, but the moment he leaves she slumps face down at her desk and starts to cry.

- Wesley The Brat takes over engineering in pretty much the same way he does in the transmitted version.

- On the bridge, reports come in about various events onboard ship, and Data questions the mental state of the crew. Fights are breaking out on board just like they did over on the Tsilkovsky. Picard seems distracted, but tries to contact Tasha, she doesn't respond. He sends Data to go look for her. Data finds her in her quarters, where she is "dressed down". As in the transmitted versions she comes onto him, but says it's her sensual side. "This is how I want people to see me" she says, that she's "got a softer side" underneath her tough, exterior shell. But the crucial difference: they do *NOT* have sex. Data simply tells her that he can not help her with her emotional needs, "although I wish that I could". He then innocently wishes her well and he leaves.

- Wesley contacts Picard, and declares his hand. He's going to "make the engines sit up and do tricks". Deanna contacts Riker, asking him to come see her. When he gets to her office, he finds her curled up on the ground, in a fetal position, screaming in agony. She cries that she's in pain from feeling all the negative emotions that are floating around the ship as a result of the virus, and further adds (bitterly) that she hates never being alone in her own mind. Extremely disturbed, all Riker can do is take her to sickbay, where he receives a frosty reception from Beverly. Bev has created the cure, but is annoyed when it apparently doesn't work. She decides it must be a different strain of the virus, and sets to work trying to discover it... but she is having trouble concentrating.

- Fire fights are breaking out among the crew. In engineering, the chief engineer fights off an attack by some of the crew, even as Wesley sits there and continues not to give her access. Back on the bridge, Data reports that Tasha isn't well, but is somewhat preoccupied with being Pinocchio: he asks Picard if he can ever become a "real human-boy". Meanwhile, the star is collapsing, and things are beginning to get heated. Picard is wracked with tension, feeling the stresses of so many lives being under his command, and so many potential deaths on his conscious.

- Riker, still by Deanna's side, has fallen into the virus. He takes her by the shoulders and declares his love for her, but then declares just as determinedly that he should be professional and not give in to these feelings. He is conflicted about having a family or having a career. He worries that he's falling into the trap that Picard did, of rising up the ranks but being forever alone at the top.

- Back on the bridge, things are getting more critical, but Data is no help at all: he's regressed to true 'Pinocchio' mode and is sitting on the horseshoe railing, swinging his legs and singing a happy child's song. The engineer contacts the bridge and says she's got through to engineering, but Wesley's meddling has misalligned the Dilithium Crystals. In 14 minutes the sun is going to explode, but it will take longer than that to get the crystals realligned.

- Picard decides to go down to engineering and survey the situation personally, Data gleefully skipping along behind him. He declares bitterly that if Data really is Pinocchio, then he feels more like Gepetto. He confesses to Data that he is unhappy being Captain of a ship with families aboard, that he's got the lives of civilians to worry about... as well as the welfare of his officers. He doesn't know if he can handle the burden of anything happening to the children...

- In sickbay Beverly discovers the cure, and begins adminstering it to the crew. Contacting the Captain, Riker agrees to meet him in engineering and takes a hypospray of the cure with him. In the engine room, Picard is highly depressed, and more than a little angry at Wesley. Wes for his part is angry back, condescendingly pointing out that the solution to the dilemma is "simple", and that they should "short circuit" the normal restart procedures. At a loss for anything better to do, Picard orders it to be done.

- Cured of the disease, Picard, Data and Riker return to the bridge to oversee operations. The engines are kick-started again just in time to escape the exploding sun, although the Tsilkovsky is less lucky. The crew observe that at least the Tsilkovsky's destruction means the virus onboard is gone with it. Picard declares that they will conduct a memorial service for the "brave crew" of the Tsilkovsky, and then orders the ship to depart for it's next destination.



As you can see, the basic structure of the story is the same, bar for a few isolated events (Dilithium Crystals rather than isolinear chips, for example). But the difference is in the tone of the script, and in the way it (like it's TOS forebear) opens up the inner feelings of our main characters, allowing us a little more insight into them as people. Altman and Gross go on to compare it to the transmitted version, deciding that 'The Naked Now' as transmitted does *nothing* of the sort: several of the characters in the transmitted version, including Riker and Deanna Troi, barely seem to be affected by the virus at all, and the characters who are affected show no inner turmoil or reveal anything about their characters... instead, the virus simply makes everybody horny and want to hump each other.

I'm not saying Fontana's draft of the story is great. I'm not even saying it's good. It's still derivative as hell of the TOS episode from which it borrows it's plot. But it *is* significantly better than what we actually got, if only for the reasons Altman and Gross state above.

 

That does sound a lot better than what we got. That version has some interesting character development going on, instead of just horny hijinx.

 

Thanks, Lance!

I was always bothered by the question of why it was necessary to remake The Naked Time in the first place.

 

^ I believe the idea was that they needed a second episode that could do what 'The Naked Time' had done, and reveal a little more about the inner workings of the new characters. I can understand this line of thinking. As a means of introducing us to the characters, the TOS episode had been deemed highly successful at really opening up those characters, and they felt as a second episode they needed something that did the same thing with the new crew. It was only while spitballing the idea in the writer's room that the concept of actually doing a direct sequel to 'The Naked Time', as an excuse to achieve the above aims, was hit upon as the way forward.

Personally, I agree with you. It might have been better if they'd found a more organic way to achieve the same aim over the course of the season, instead of trying to cram it all into one script. And as has already been pointed out, Roddenberry's original (and subsequent) draft did nothing to explore the inner turmoils of the characters anyway, which is the whole reason why Fontana was tasked with rewriting it in the first place (to introduce to the story a little more of what they actually wanted in the first place: exposition about who these people really are). She must have been particularly exasperated when Roddenberry then used his veto to effectively reaffirm his original "all the characters act drunk and horny" version in it's place.

 

That's what the writers were going for, but they failed miserably at the character. The pickup line he used for Terri Hatcher wouldn't work on a drunken 45 year old at closing time.

TV writers don't know how to write guys who are good at picking up women without approaching Barney-level cartoonishness.

 

"The Outrageous Okana" is so sad to watch. It's clear the writer thought he was gonna make a real stand out with a memorable guest character and the idea of Data trying to learn humor has so much potential. It was clear that humor was not that writers strong suit and that it needed a heavy rewrite, or at least a better rewrite.

 

The Data trying to learn humor part was just pointless. I can't think of very many times in the series when he was funny on purpose.

Accidentally funny? Well, there was the episode where he asked Beverly to teach him to dance, so after he learned to tap dance, he deemed himself ready to dance at a wedding. I wish they'd just left out the part where Beverly teaches him a more appropriate style of dance for that and let Data do his wedding tap dance.

(and if that sounds mean, so be it - Data was never even close to my list of favorite TNG characters)