Oh, where do I begin?
The whole Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher thing was just plain silly. No kids on the bridge, please. It looked like a farce. I have absolutely nothing against Wil Weaton, but is this the best TNG could do with having civvies live aboard starships???
TNG overused the Klingons and the Borg. The inclusion of Worf on the show was originally heralded as the realization of the Organian prophecy that the Federation and the Klingons would become friends and work together. By the third and fourth years of TNG, we were back to confrontation again. And the Borg were worn out before the show was over. They no longer had any mystery or interest to them; the Borg were just bullet-proof super-thugs.
The "TNG Mouseketeer Effect" was extremely annoying and unnecessary. Roddeberry, Berman and crew wanted to avoid the kind of sarcastic banter that TOS had between Kirk, Spock and McCoy by making everyone so ultra-cozy. Boy did TNG go off the deep end. By deliberately avoiding sarcasm in all but the most obvious of situations, TNG's writing became stilted and awkward. In essence, TNG threw the baby out with the bath water. Bringing Pulaski onto the show was too little too late, but Muldaur was still great. What a shame she was shown the door. TNG again had a golden opportunity handed to them with Shelby, and they let it slip away. She should've been kept on board as an XO-in-training. Maybe I'm alone here, but even though Patrick Stewart was a great actor, I think it would've been refreshing to see Riker become captain and Shelby become XO.
The "Cosmic Clique Effect" was related to the "TNG Mouseketeer Effect", only more insidious. TNG's stories took on an uninspired formula approach, wherein the regular cast members acted like some cosmic clique, floating along on some moral island above the rest of the STAR TREK Universe, judging everything and everyone else and solving the problem of the week as only they could do. I was especially offended by the whole Barclay thing. "Hollow Pursuits" was stupid beyond belief and its premise that officers would just break in on someone's goofy holodeck fantasies without cause made the cast look arrogant. I also saw it as a slap in the face to fans of the show.
Worst of all, TNG did not do enough exploring. We went the entire series and, unless I missed something, none of the main cast ever donned a spacesuit until the FIRST CONTACT feature film. Even TOS did better than that.
TNG desperately needed a couple of Runabouts or Delta Flyer-like ships, to break up the monotony and give individual cast members a chance to get away from the mothership and go on some interesting missions on their own. And I would've loved to see Capt. Jellico assume permanent command of the Enterprise-D. Ronny Cox would've made a reasonable successor to Patrick Stewart, and Jellico definitely shook things up with the crew. There's missed opportunity number 3.
And the way TNG's makers neglected and then killed off Yar was a disgrace. Cast turnover and showing the mortality of characters exposed to danger is one thing, but to neglect a character and then toss her so casually was disappointing.
One other thing: TNG never got the uniforms right. The early DS9/VOY uniforms were a huge improvement. And the ENT ones were the most practical looking. The whole spandex tights thing was embarrassing. It looked like another Hollyweird-lame attempt to sex things up because they didn't know what else to do.
The whole Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher thing was just plain silly. No kids on the bridge, please. It looked like a farce. I have absolutely nothing against Wil Weaton, but is this the best TNG could do with having civvies live aboard starships???
TNG overused the Klingons and the Borg. The inclusion of Worf on the show was originally heralded as the realization of the Organian prophecy that the Federation and the Klingons would become friends and work together. By the third and fourth years of TNG, we were back to confrontation again. And the Borg were worn out before the show was over. They no longer had any mystery or interest to them; the Borg were just bullet-proof super-thugs.
The "TNG Mouseketeer Effect" was extremely annoying and unnecessary. Roddeberry, Berman and crew wanted to avoid the kind of sarcastic banter that TOS had between Kirk, Spock and McCoy by making everyone so ultra-cozy. Boy did TNG go off the deep end. By deliberately avoiding sarcasm in all but the most obvious of situations, TNG's writing became stilted and awkward. In essence, TNG threw the baby out with the bath water. Bringing Pulaski onto the show was too little too late, but Muldaur was still great. What a shame she was shown the door. TNG again had a golden opportunity handed to them with Shelby, and they let it slip away. She should've been kept on board as an XO-in-training. Maybe I'm alone here, but even though Patrick Stewart was a great actor, I think it would've been refreshing to see Riker become captain and Shelby become XO.
The "Cosmic Clique Effect" was related to the "TNG Mouseketeer Effect", only more insidious. TNG's stories took on an uninspired formula approach, wherein the regular cast members acted like some cosmic clique, floating along on some moral island above the rest of the STAR TREK Universe, judging everything and everyone else and solving the problem of the week as only they could do. I was especially offended by the whole Barclay thing. "Hollow Pursuits" was stupid beyond belief and its premise that officers would just break in on someone's goofy holodeck fantasies without cause made the cast look arrogant. I also saw it as a slap in the face to fans of the show.
Worst of all, TNG did not do enough exploring. We went the entire series and, unless I missed something, none of the main cast ever donned a spacesuit until the FIRST CONTACT feature film. Even TOS did better than that.
TNG desperately needed a couple of Runabouts or Delta Flyer-like ships, to break up the monotony and give individual cast members a chance to get away from the mothership and go on some interesting missions on their own. And I would've loved to see Capt. Jellico assume permanent command of the Enterprise-D. Ronny Cox would've made a reasonable successor to Patrick Stewart, and Jellico definitely shook things up with the crew. There's missed opportunity number 3.
And the way TNG's makers neglected and then killed off Yar was a disgrace. Cast turnover and showing the mortality of characters exposed to danger is one thing, but to neglect a character and then toss her so casually was disappointing.
One other thing: TNG never got the uniforms right. The early DS9/VOY uniforms were a huge improvement. And the ENT ones were the most practical looking. The whole spandex tights thing was embarrassing. It looked like another Hollyweird-lame attempt to sex things up because they didn't know what else to do.
How did that manage to personally offend you so much you had single out my post as the only one in the whole thread that needed a rolleyes??
