Fans, what don't you like about TNG?

[VDCNI]

My only problem with TNG, apart from its lapses into blandness, was the overuse of certain characters - mainly Data. I like all the characters but I preferred them as an ensemble or with all of them getting their fair share of spotlight episodes. Season 7 especially felt a bit too much like the Data show for me at times - though in retrospect it is nowhere near as bad as the Doctor/Seven show we got on Voyager.

As for Troi, I always liked her though she worked better as diplomat/advisor than as counselor and Sirtis was fine and did the best she could with a under written part. Apart from Patrick Stewart and some of the DS9 cast Star Trek has never had actors that really stood out from the crowd.

 

[Jayson]

Don't forget though that people's views on the show will change with the passing of time. TNG was the trek that I first got into and made me a fan. Eventually though I felt it was surpased by the other shows(even Voyager and Enterprise at least when it comes to characters) and even other sci-fi shows.

Surpassed by <hurrrrrr...hurrrr...> Voyager and <hurrrrr..HUUuuurrrr...ukl..> Enterprise? I'm sorry, but I just barfed a little in my mouth. I admit I've started to view TNG as a sort of sanctimonious circle jerk where human beings are so degraded they can't even drink real alcohol for fear of losing their socially enforced sensitivity for a moment, but Data alone is probably a deeper character than all the other characters on DS9, VOY, and ENT combined.

I like Data but in away I think he would have worked better on a show like "Ds9" were he would be dealing with people who might just see him as a advanced robot. His struggle to be accepted would have been harder and thus more fun.

Also I don't know if I would say "Enterprise" and "Voyager" are better shows so much as they had characters I liked better such as the EMH and Trip to name a few. If "Voyager" had "TNG" quality stories it would have been the best trek show of them all IMO, including TOS and Ds9.

Jason

 

[Jayson]

You know thinking about these threads, I have to wonder if some of the posts here are from actual "fans." I mean talking about the main cast, or Geordi's Visor, or just stuff like that I have to wonder if this thread has turned into a stomping ground to bash TNG. This was supposed to be one of those fun type things for fans to talk about stuff they didn't like, but some of the posts in here just seem mean spirited and I already think this whole "experiment" is a failure. The same goes for the other series too.

Don't forget though that people's views on the show will change with the passing of time. TNG was the trek that I first got into and made me a fan. Eventually though I felt it was surpased by the other shows(even Voyager and Enterprise at least when it comes to characters) and even other sci-fi shows. TNG is a show that doesn't hold up that well to repat viewings. The writing isn't bad and the plots were okay but the characters are just not intresting enough to me in reruns and I think most people watch reruns just for characters since they already know how the plots will go. When I watch "TOS" it basically to see Kirk,Spock and McCoy interacting. I watch Ds9 to see those type of character interactions. TNG doesn't have characters you just love to watch, even when the plot that week might not be so great.


Jason

Well, then that doesn't it make you a fan. Oh, and I love to watch the TNG characters, but to each their own.

Depends on how you define being a fan? I consider myself a sci-fi/genre fan and thus anything that fits under that umbrella is something I am intrested in and if I have seen the show or movie I will have a opinion on it. Then there is fact that I was a Trek fan before a Sci_Fi fan which means anything dealing with Trek always gets my intrests above everything else,even though there have been several sci-fi shows that have surpased Trek IMO. There is still something special about the Trek franchise that IMO keeps you a fan even if your opinions have changed about some of the shows or characters.

Jason

 

[Amaris]

I figure as long as you like a show, you're a fan. I don't know if there's anymore criteria than that. I love TNG, and I am a big fan. I have been so delighted with the receiving of two Seasons of TNG on DVD (1 & 2), and I get to relive when I was 8 and 9 years old again, laying on the floor on my stomach staring at our 19" floor model television, eyes transfixed to the screen as I watched my heroes save the day.

However, this is a what you don't like thread, so I better add something. Let's see:

I didn't like Gene's insistence that humans were above their humanity, that they had somehow become perfect. This was ironed out later on as the series went, but it's very prevalent in the first two seasons.

That's about it. I still love the show.

J.

 

[Red Ranger]

Well, I like TNG. Some of my complaints will mirror others, but here are my main ones:

-Wesley: Could have been a more interesting character, but there was so much baggage put on him from the get-go -- saving the day too often, how naive he was, making him the "Mozart" of space and time -- all annoying character traits.

-Beverly: Never developed much beyond "possible but never" love interest for Picard. They had established in one ep that she studied the medicinal properties of roots and herbs through her grandmother I think (The Arsenal of Freedom), which I think was a failed opportunity to make her a high-tech alternative medicine type.

-The phasers: They looked lke car vacuums for crying out loud! Some kind of anti-gun backlash, perhaps? I may be liberal, but even I think that's just damn silly!

I liked the other characters and concepts just fine, but I do think they did make the crew a bit too nice. It is supposed to be Starfleet's flagship, but no malcontents at all? That's why I liked the character of Ensign Ro.

It's too bad Riker wasn't like a reclamation project for Picard -- a formerly fast-rising officer who'd suffered a few setbacks and Starfleet decides to place him under one of their top captain's wings to get him back on track. That would have been interesting!

Red Ranger

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

-Beverly: Never developed much beyond "possible but never" love interest for Picard. They had established in one ep that she studied the medicinal properties of roots and herbs through her grandmother I think (The Arsenal of Freedom), which I think was a failed opportunity to make her a high-tech alternative medicine type.

Or as I like to call Beverly Crusher... Janice Rand with a medical degree.

 

[flemm]

-Beverly: Never developed much beyond "possible but never" love interest for Picard. They had established in one ep that she studied the medicinal properties of roots and herbs through her grandmother I think (The Arsenal of Freedom), which I think was a failed opportunity to make her a high-tech alternative medicine type.

Or as I like to call Beverly Crusher... Janice Rand with a medical degree.

I don't know... I've always thought Crusher basically worked as a motherly figure, nurturing, but capable of being stern if needed.

Also, I don't think her relationship with Picard can be summed up so easily. It is an example of a relationship that became deeply emotional and spiritual without passing through the medium of physical love along the way, because of circumstances and professional reasons. At a certain point, it is hard to backtrack and "reboot" so that the relationship is emotional, spiritual and physical all at once. You don't see this kind of relationship portrayed much in popular culture, but I feel that this is its strong point. It makes the Picard/Crusher relationship unusual.

Meh, I certainly understand why Crusher is not popular, but I thought what was there was simple, believable, and basically worked. Not every Trek character needs to be torn between two cultures like Worf, tormented by her past like Kira, or endowed with superhuman intellect or whatever.

 

[RandyS]

I don't like Shades of Gray.

Who does?

 

[startrekwatcher]

I don't like Shades of Gray.

Who does?

I enjoy it. I thought the framing scenes were well done and I really thought it did a good job showcasing Riker/Troi.

 

[momrobare]

HI
I didn't like Tasha Yar or Ro Laren!

I didn't like any of the Klingon/Worf honor stories. I never understood why Worf was the only character who actually got SEVERAL episodes in a row dedicated to his HISTORY! To me they were boring.

I LOVED the Duras Sisters though and hated to see them killed in Nemesis!

 

[arasam22]

Meh, I certainly understand why Crusher is not popular, but I thought what was there was simple, believable, and basically worked. Not every Trek character needs to be torn between two cultures like Worf, tormented by her past like Kira, or endowed with superhuman intellect or whatever.

me, i just didn't really like her acting... and i basically hate almost all women characters from anything (i am female... so what does that make me, a reverse sexist? :P). why couldn't we at least have had some eye candy?

 

[tim851]

1. Too little character development. Ironically, the Android got most of it.
2. Boring characters to begin with. Worf was the worst Klingon ever. Riker, Troi, Crusher & Data were all interchangable line-givers.

That's it.

I don't need more action. There are so many action shows out there. TNG was very similar to TOS in that both shows were just collections of (sometimes great) sci-fi narratives, little ideas, that could have been short stories or more and they turned them into great, original episodes, the Enterprise and crew were just the strings that made those episodes into a serial.

DS9 was much more conventional when it came to the ideas behind the episodes, but far better in the drama department. That's what puts it a smidge ahead in my book.

VOY and ENT were just hopeless. Uninspired and without original ideas (esp. ENT).

So no, I don't think TNG had much I didn't like.