Skipping the rest of your selective crap...
Tell me, why is it that YOU accuse me of ignoring weak episodes while you have simply zoned in on the first four episodes of a two-decade body of Star Trek that spans more than six hundred?
Because this is >> T H E F I R S T M O V I E << in the franchise.
First chance. First movie = Two Hours. I given you TNG's first five hours. Better than a two - to - one head start development advantage. Because I know you want soooo hard to win. How much advantage do you need? You've got five hours of first stories versus two - more than twice as much time to show me brilliance out of the gate.
Got the concept? First Development? Think, Ruk... I know this puts you at great unease, but try as hard as you possibly can to attempt to be fair. How can a man who uses language as well as you do be so dense on simple conceptual understanding?
"Encounter At Farpoint" tells a strong story at its heart. An omnipotent being places a starship captain, captain of the flagship vessel, and therefore, apt representative of humanity, on trial, for his own pleasure and amusement, forcing the representative to prove his worth for setting out on this maiden voyage, essentially forcing the successor to Kirk and TOS to vindicate himself and the new series. Various characters are introduced and various ideas are touched upon. It may not be a flawless piece of dramatised television, but it does tell a worthy, interesting story. John DeLancie and Patrick Stewart bring considerable gravitas to their scenes, which anchor the episode, too. There is a lot here that goes right to the heart of Roddenberry's humanistic core.
How many places do we need to shoot at here..?
Whatever Q became later, if you take this episode as it is, Q is purely a tangential distraction - I'd be willing to bet they added him to pad the script as an afterthought. I mean really - apart from the time-bandits scenes and the chair on a fork lift, what did he Actually do? "You're stupid." "I'm putting you on trial." "You'll never solve it." "You got lucky. I'll be back." He was a non-threat and a non-contributor. He was a bookend and some script padding.
(In fact, to sidebar conversations about a series of future episodes, one could argue that for all his bluster, future Q episodes suggest that he was more interested in them succeeding than failing. He never actually hindered anything I can remember, without making good later.)
He didn't "force" the representative to prove his worth for setting out on this maiden voyage.They were going there anyway.
First dialog lines of FARPOINT:
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: You will agree, Data, that Starfleet's orders are difficult?
Lt. Commander Data: Difficult? Simply solve the mystery of Farpoint station.
So - if the Enterprise was going to the 7/11 for some smokes, and Q showed up and yammered at them, and then they went to the 7/11 for some smokes, Q "forced" them to do it?
Further, they essentially ignored him.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are.
They did nothing differently in regards to Farpoint with Q than they would have without him. So there is no actual pressure to "prove his worth" involved either. Unless, of course, you're saying that without Q to add additional pressure, Picard would have left the wish-granting jellyfish a prisoner of Gropler Zorn.
Q did nothing, accomplished nothing, was not an inherent part of the actual story of Farpoint Station, anymore than the color commentators are part of a football game.
So, as far as the actual "Heart" of
the story, this is what you've got:
"Encounter At Farpoint" tells a strong story at its heart. <CUT ALL Q REFERENCES> Various characters are introduced and various ideas are touched upon. It may not be a flawless piece of dramatised television, but it does tell a worthy, interesting story. There is a lot here that goes right to the heart of Roddenberry's humanistic core.
In future episodes, he was at the heart of the story, and used to good effect. But again, that was after they had some time to find their footing as a series - a perspective you won't allow STXI, so, out of fairness, will not be allowed in this discussion of the premiere of TNG. I know that breaks your heart, amigo, but cest la vie.
Now, lets go back to that ten minute comparison. Out of TNG's first ten minutes, easily six were spent looking at the CGI fence and going through the Q fashion show - a hunk of business that had absolutely no bearing on the actual story of Farpoint, the development of the plot or the outcome.
You like it because it hammers at that whole "Look how evolved we've become" Roddenberry posit with a jackhammer, spelling out what should have been inherent enough in the story alone. Just...Hammers It - buries you in the obvious, instead of letting the story demonstrate.
Would "Inner Light" have been better if Q kept popping up, "So, Picard - or is it Kamin now? - Look at those blisters! Need some lotion? You'll never figure out what happened to you. Where is your precious ship?" Of course not... but the production had Time to get their storytelling in order.
"The parameters of television and the big screen are inherently different." But the parameters of storytelling are not. FARPOINT is awkward and inept in the way they incorporated Q for no other reason than to put that Roddenberry agenda on the table. Awkward and inept storytelling by stopping the story dead at several points along the way, to toss in a Roddenberry injection via Q, then returning to the actual story at hand and essentially ignoring his existence as part of the development of the story proper, wasting time that may have been better spent incorporating the concept into the actual mission at hand.
First outings are a bitch, aint they?
So - do you want to compare babies, or are you still intent on comparing a 50-year old brain surgeon's brightest moments to a newborn?
