Has TNG Aged Well?

[KirbyHawk]

I am 40. I grew up watching TNG. It started when I was in 6th grade and ended when I graduated from HS.. I would watch reruns until my early 30's. Things happened, marraige, family, etc. Now this summer I have started watching it again. With the exception of the first 2 seasons (especially season 1) the show really has aged well in my opinion It does not look corny like TOS did in the 80's, 90's, and today.

Thoughts? Opinions?

 

[RAMA]

The remastering really made it look more up to date visually.

Aside from a few minor design choices, STNG looks less dated after 22 years than TOS did after 8 when SW came out.

 

[BillJ]

With the exception of the first 2 seasons (especially season 1) the show really has aged well in my opinion It does not look corny like TOS did in the 80's, 90's, and today.

I tend to think the first two seasons have aged better than what came later. There's a very stilted LA Law feel to the later seasons. All in my opinion.

 

[AdmiralBruno]

I watched the entire series in 2009-2010, and I was hooked. I honestly struggle with TOS because it's so primitive by today's standards. TNG really pushes the envelope for its time.

 

[BillJ]

I watched the entire series in 2009-2010, and I was hooked. I honestly struggle with TOS because it's so primitive by today's standards. TNG really pushes the envelope for its time.

Considering most people didn't really understand what computers were in 1966, I'd say TOS pushed the envelope every bit as much.

 

[OtherGene]

Yes.

 

[2takesfrakes]

The stories TNG employed, mainly, are timeless. Stories that explored The Human Condition, the questions that Man will always ask of himself and the world around him. In this sense, TNG holds up magnificently. But Robert Blackman's tasteless costuming throughout the show has aged it, and not for the better.

I love some of the cinematography, peppered throughout the series' run, especially in the first season, or two. Highly stylised and very pleasing, it was. But a lot of it ... wasn't. The lighting switched to using it the way every show had done it - House Style. I mean, yes, I get to see everything in all of its sort of glory, if you like, but it hasn't helped the show age well, at all.

The cheapness of some of the sets could've easily been offset by using lighting to convey a mood ... Oh! but that takes time and time is money. What am I thinking? God forbid any other money's spent after the sets are paid for. This also dates the show. But the performances, like the Classic Themes employed by most of the stories are completely memorable and thoroughly engaging.

 

[Trek Survivor]

I am a HUGE TNG fan, and have been since the first time I saw it back in 1989. However, even I have to admit there are aspects of the show which haven't aged quite so well; I think the often static pacing, slow moving scripts and pedestrian direction (some episodes are like watching a recording of a stage play) harms some repeat viewings; not in all episodes of course, but certainly noticeable.

When I first saw TNG I thought the sets, VFX etc were amazing... as you would expect, many years later, the budget constraints are a little more apparent.

Having said all that, there is SO MUCH of TNG which has aged just fine. Many of the stories are still engaging, much of the acting (when it's allowed to be more 'natural') is very good, and the overall themes of the show, characters and stories are holding up very well.

 

[SPCTRE]

paging @King Daniel Beyond

Spoiler

 

[RAMA]

When you look at ILM's FX for the pilot, they are really cinematic, and not out of place today after the remastering.

Unquestionably, the way TV is shot today is different, in that sense the style of STNG is out of date, but the remastering reveals so much detail we didn't know about. It's still pretty cool in it's own right.

RAMA

 

[suarezguy]

I generally am not bothered by shows and movies from the past looking and feeling like they come from the past, I think that generally doesn't decrease their quality.
Regardless, I think TNG quite strongly holds up today although you do have to accept that the style is a bit direct and even somewhat predictable.

 

[TheGoodStuff]

I think all the shows age well because of the concepts they explore.

TNG [especially with its Blu-ray upgrades] holds up very, very well to me. Especially once it 'gets going' in seasons 3-6. I think many of the topics TNG discusses [and many of Picards speeches as a result] are just as, if not more, relevant today as they were then.

 

[Romo Lampkin]

The space shots don't look dated but they're not dynamic, battles take place on 2D planes etc. This is a trivial issue though. Some of the force field/energy/phaser effects do look dated. The staid pace and sonic wallpaper are what really date it and this is where TOS is less dated, it has the pacing, vibrancy and cinematic music you could associate with BSG or GoT. TNG is stuffy and boring by comparison and this is a problem with DS9 and Voy as well. The whole snail's pace combined with dull music that doesn't go anywhere definite or dramatic but just keeps meandering and balancing out really stifles any excitement. Put it this way, another tedious episode about a spatial anomaly or energy beings in the Berman-Braga era is really fucking boring.

By contrast TOS, while it may have been cheesy, was never dull. It wasn't burdened by the vanilla approach that characterised the spin offs, you had larger than life characters replete with larger than life acting, intense scores and plenty of experimentalism that wasn't muted or reserved but in your face and not ashamed about it either because it was the 60s! Yesterday I saw a season 1 episode of DS9 about imaginary beings that were actually aliens and at the end of it I was like, I want those 40 minutes back. By contrast I could rewatch Who Mourns for Adonais and still think it's a great episode. Or the one where they come under the influence of the spores, or the flying vomit episode, these are unforgettable. That's why TOS is an enduring success, it captures the imagination and while it may lack polish it's not boring, something that got lost in the mix with later franchise installments. TNG is like a nineteenth-century novel, not as instantly gratifying as modern TV but there are undisputable classics, some of which shit all over anything produced today.

 

[Seven of Five]

I find the characters and themes have ages well, like they did for TOS. Sets, costumes and SFX vary a lot though. If it's a good story, I don't notice the dodgyness as mush, but I imagine that's true of anything from a while ago.

Well I managed to watch TOS and TNG yet again this year, and I didn't die.

 

[F. King Daniel]

paging @King Daniel Beyond

Spoiler

Oh god. Here we go...

I grew up with it, and loved it, but I don't think TNG has aged well at all. The direction is often terrible. The crew stand in a half circle, arms staight at their sides and take turns reciting their lines. It's not the way people talk. There's a lot more, but I imagine this'll cause enough annoyance for one post.

*hides*

 

[Kemaiku]

No, it hasn't. It was boring and stilted in the day, now it's unbearable.

 

[Jedi_Master]

TNG's lighting, sets, and costumes have aged very poorly. TOS in all it's cheesy glory looks better now almost 50 years later than TNG does almost 30 years later.

 

[mos6507]

Nobody's mentioning the doogie-howsweresque soundtracks? Plinky fake xylophones and mark-tree chime runs and endless held pads. OMG, it's like fingernails on the chalkboard.

 

[angry apple panda]

It's really a matter of subjective opinion, isn't it? The follow up question to, "Has TNG aged well?" should really be, "How much does a show aging well matter to you?" I think some elements date the show, but that's also, to me, part of the charm.

The early scores for TNG episodes are delightful--the catchy synth beats in "Booby Trap," for instance, are so awesomely 1989 I can't help but bob my head and turn up the volume to annoy my partner. The slight corniness of TNG is one of the major reasons why I am so enraptured with it. So, objectively, I'm not really one to talk about TNG "aging well," now that I really think about it.

Do we mean "aging well" to mean that we could show TNG to some kid out of context without having to be like, "Now, son, this show is quite old and silly," and they would be like, "This is awesome, even for the current chronological age that I currently exist in! I'm a Trekkie now!" If we mean by those standards, I would say many aspects of the show's aesthetics have decidedly not aged well. But does it really matter? Don't the show's aged aspects constitute part of why TNG is so great?

 

[mos6507]

As far as nostalgia goes, 60s aesthetic has more kitsch value than 80s. And if it's gonna be 80s kitsch then it should be early 80s kitsch. TNG occupies the late 80s and early 90s period which is kind of a cultural no-man's-land. That period is best remembered as the era of Married with Children and the peak of hair-metal, neither of which really show via TNG.