Thoughts of This Show Before It Started
- Thread starter indycar
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Can't say how it will compare to Discovery, but there was a lot of anticipation on the part of myself and my friends when TNG was announced. There was so little good scifi on TV in the 1980's. After we saw Encounter At Farpoint we were somewhat surprised at the direction Roddenberry had taken. Especially when it came to Captain Picard, he was so different from Kirk it took a while to accept him as the new Captain of the Enterprise. We all liked Q and Data, of course.
In retrospect I thought it was funny that TV Guide trashed the show after it's first season. I remember the lame line from their article - "the Enterprise looks good, but somebody removed the Spock plugs." Instead it spawned a huge resurgence of Trek that still continues today, they couldn't have been more wrong.
In retrospect I thought it was funny that TV Guide trashed the show after it's first season. I remember the lame line from their article - "the Enterprise looks good, but somebody removed the Spock plugs." Instead it spawned a huge resurgence of Trek that still continues today, they couldn't have been more wrong.
I'd say there was excitement crossed with some reservations. Some were adamant it wouldn't work and condemned every misstep along the way, while others were won around as it went along, still others (including myself 
) were drawn in from the start, as it was our first experience with Star Trek.
My earliest memory of Trek as a whole is watching the first broadcast of "The Arsenal of Freedom" at around 5 years old, and I was an avowed Trekkie from that day forward. I was hooked.
We tend to forget how risky 'new' Star Trek was at the time. Untested. DISCOVERY has actually got it relatively easy in that the bubble of 'Can this actually work?' has been well and truly answered, "Yes it can".
) were drawn in from the start, as it was our first experience with Star Trek.My earliest memory of Trek as a whole is watching the first broadcast of "The Arsenal of Freedom" at around 5 years old, and I was an avowed Trekkie from that day forward. I was hooked.
We tend to forget how risky 'new' Star Trek was at the time. Untested. DISCOVERY has actually got it relatively easy in that the bubble of 'Can this actually work?' has been well and truly answered, "Yes it can".
Excited & gratified, but also somewhat worried, knowing it was an all new cast. That worry grew some when it began airing too. The 1st season or 2 were very unsure, just as the TOS movie franchise had become right around that time with the 4th & 5th installments in the late 80s as well. I think most people were genuinely willing to give them a chance though. There were naysayers & objections, but on the whole, everyone just stuck with it
I refused to watch it. No, I am not and never have been a TOS purist, I just thought the show title was hopelessly lame. A friend who lived with us during the work week convinced me to watch "Just one episode" which turned out to be "The Measure of a Man". The rest is history.
Many others might think this too, I'm going to say it.
I was alive before TNG began but when it began I was about 5 years young so...
It was yearlong anticipation, the highest level of any TV show since because it was the first Trek show of the modern era. Everything was literally new, and I like many others followed the monthly updates on Starlog and the Fan Club magazine with bated breath. I recall the naysayers being a minority and easily dismissed as closed-minded, backwards fools, just as those of today are, though today they have a bigger forum. Needless to say, STNG set records right off the bat and became the most successful non-game show syndicated series in history. Point proven.
RAMA
RAMA
I was alive at the ripe age of eight.
I was a casual viewer, catching an episode time to time until around the fourth season I think.
I have no memory of awaiting for TNG to premire. I was aware of TOS and the animated series, but I didn't really follow it as it wasn't captioned. Before TNG, televisions didn't come with captions feature (it started in 1993), and deaf folks had to get a decoder machine for captions. And back then, a lot of shows weren't captioned anyway.
I was a casual viewer, catching an episode time to time until around the fourth season I think.
I have no memory of awaiting for TNG to premire. I was aware of TOS and the animated series, but I didn't really follow it as it wasn't captioned. Before TNG, televisions didn't come with captions feature (it started in 1993), and deaf folks had to get a decoder machine for captions. And back then, a lot of shows weren't captioned anyway.
Glad I could offer you a sarcastic chuckle. To be clear, there's more to the story. I was up to my ass in engineering school and near full-time work during the first run of TOS. I was immediately put off by Shatner's hammy performance and made little effort to watch the show. When TNG came along, I was an engineering manager engaged in global travel, all while being the best husband/dad I could with out two young daughters. A hopelessly derivative title to a Star Trek sequel just sealed the deal for me. Once hooked on TNG, I stayed on the ride through DS9, VOY and ENT. Only in recent years did I finally watch all of TOS seeking the best of the stories without a bias toward Shatner. For what its worth, I AM looking forward to Discovery next year, unburdened by artificial expectations.You didn't WATCH because of a TITLE??? LMAO
I thought it was a radical remake of TOS. I thought the same of the TOS movies. I actually engaged with Star Trek for the first time via the TOS movies. I thought TNG was like NuBSG, separate universes because of the radical aesthetic differences between TOS, TOS movies and TNG.
I got into it because of the FX which was cinema quality delivered to the small screen. Whilst one may see that occasionally in sci fi films on the small screen, I'd never seen that quality in episodic format on a TV series before. The stories were pretty good so I swung my support behind it.
I got into it because of the FX which was cinema quality delivered to the small screen. Whilst one may see that occasionally in sci fi films on the small screen, I'd never seen that quality in episodic format on a TV series before. The stories were pretty good so I swung my support behind it.
I was 12 years old. I subscribed to Star Trek magazine. Reading the comments there was the closest thing thing I had to a message board. I remember reading it would be called The New Generation instead to rule out any characters from TOS appearing. Then they changed their mind on that and went back to The Next Generation. The concerns I remember reading were "will this be an attempt to recreate Kirk, Spock, and Bones." In retrospect I wonder if this was done on purpose to promote the show's differences. I tuned in expecting it to be like TOS but with updated effects. It wasn't, and this sort of confused my 12-y/o mind. When The Naked Now came out, I figured they would just be re-doing the original 79 episodes but with a very different crew and ship. That didn't happen, and the first season's cheesiness didn't bother me at that young age. I ended up loving it. I still love it and watch it sometimes while doing mindless tasks like folding laundry. I probably wouldn't like a similar show if it were new, but I saw TNG at a formative age.
Thought some of the characters had odd names "Riker". "Crusher". Other than that I was hopeful and positive.
I saw the premiere, and recorded the season with commercials on VHS, just in case it didn't make it to a second season.
No one could describe the excitement and anticipation better than Ernie Anderson.
No one could describe the excitement and anticipation better than Ernie Anderson.
Well certainly that's a better reason.
I was 17 in 1987 and already in a lifelong love affair with TOS thanks to my mom. At first, I was a little skeptical of a Star Trek show without Kirk and Spock, but my love of sci-fi in general, and Star Trek in particular was enough for me to check it out. It took a few weeks for me to warm up to the new cast, but in time I came to love the TNG guys every bit as much as I did the TOS guys.
And almost thirty years later, I still do.
And almost thirty years later, I still do.
I was 29 when it premiered. Before that, I'd been a Trek fan since watching the reruns on B&W TV after school in the early '70s. (I did catch the briefing room scene from Balance of Terror while visiting an aunt in Wisconsin during its first airing - but didn't get it enough to watch more.) I think of the early 80s as the Golden Age, where we read novels, and read the Official Fan Club Magazine for news of upcoming movies.
Anyway, I was at a con where DeForst Kelley appeared ('86 or '87?). Richard Arnold announced the new show there, naming Geordie LaForge and a few other characters I can't remember. He also stated it would be further in the future from the original. I was intrigued and wondered how it would work without the original cast, but I realized they were getting too old to want to commit to a new TV series.
Before it premiered on Channel 20 in DC, The Washington Post had a glowing review (can't remember the reviewer, but I respected him), gushing over the lush production values. I agreed when I watched it, and was hooked from the first episode onward. I even remember ignoring a potential girl friend's phone call because I was watching a new episode one Saturday night (it aired on Saturday at 7pm, followed by War of the Worlds and Freddy's Nightmares - talk about a Golden Age of SF-Horror TV!).
At the time, I was awestruck by the bold inclusive humanitarian messages that made me question my own open-mindedness. Now, I still enjoy a few episodes, but can see how some of the early episodes were clunky and obvious, while some later episodes were very soap-opera-ish.
Anyway, I was at a con where DeForst Kelley appeared ('86 or '87?). Richard Arnold announced the new show there, naming Geordie LaForge and a few other characters I can't remember. He also stated it would be further in the future from the original. I was intrigued and wondered how it would work without the original cast, but I realized they were getting too old to want to commit to a new TV series.
Before it premiered on Channel 20 in DC, The Washington Post had a glowing review (can't remember the reviewer, but I respected him), gushing over the lush production values. I agreed when I watched it, and was hooked from the first episode onward. I even remember ignoring a potential girl friend's phone call because I was watching a new episode one Saturday night (it aired on Saturday at 7pm, followed by War of the Worlds and Freddy's Nightmares - talk about a Golden Age of SF-Horror TV!).
At the time, I was awestruck by the bold inclusive humanitarian messages that made me question my own open-mindedness. Now, I still enjoy a few episodes, but can see how some of the early episodes were clunky and obvious, while some later episodes were very soap-opera-ish.
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