How do Niners feel about TNG?

[TheGodBen]

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but Niners have a reputation for acting somewhat superior, and it has recently been put to me that Niners frequently badmouth TNG. So, as a follow-up to my successful poll gauging Niners' opinions on Voyager, I'm curious to see how we as a group view TNG.

(By Niners I'm referring to people who think that Deep Space Nine was the best, or their favourite, Trek series.)

My opinion: I grew up with TNG and my life was heavily influenced by the show, so it's safe to say that I love it. It has its problems, the first season was generally poor and the crew sometimes displayed a smug sense of superiority (indicating that Starfleet is staffed mainly with Niners ) but it was a very well written show most of the time and it told some great stories. And I love the characters, even the ones that are generally considered boring or bland. TNG is like an old friend and to this day when people mention Star Trek, TNG is the show that comes to mind first, even though I prefer DS9 overall.

 

[Tosk]

DS9 is my favorite, but I still love TNG.

I already liked Trek when I was young, but as I grew up TNG came along and made me into a real Trekkie.

 

[mythme]

For me DS9 just took all the great aspects of TNG to the next level. By adding a little conflict, more humanity and more inter-character relation, DS9 just upped it up a notch. I still love TNG. Its what made me a trekkie but even big fans will say that it isn't aging well. its very late 80s/early 90s; a bit PC and sterile.

 

[mattyhugh]

For me DS9 just took all the great aspects of TNG to the next level. By adding a little conflict, more humanity and more inter-character relation, DS9 just upped it up a notch. I still love TNG. Its what made me a trekkie but even big fans will say that it isn't aging well. its very late 80s/early 90s; a bit PC and sterile.

This.

 

[Admiral Shran]

My opinion: I grew up with TNG and my life was heavily influenced by the show, so it's safe to say that I love it. It has its problems, the first season was generally poor and the crew sometimes displayed a smug sense of superiority (indicating that Starfleet is staffed mainly with Niners ) but it was a very well written show most of the time and it told some great stories. And I love the characters, even the ones that are generally considered boring or bland. TNG is like an old friend and to this day when people mention Star Trek, TNG is the show that comes to mind first, even though I prefer DS9 overall.

That sums up my opinion of TNG to a tee, with one notable exception - I couldn't stand Troi or Wesley from Day One.

My opinion of Troi did soften a little toward the end. I can pinpoint it to when she finally started wearing a standard Starfleet uniform. Once she stopped sporting those ridiculous bodysuits I could see her as a professional, not as a bimbo who miraculously got a mental health license. Of course, I also thought she was much more attractive in the uniform as well, as it left room for something called "subtlety" - which I feel DS9 nailed perfectly by not having Kira, Jadiza, or Ezri in Seven/T'Pol catsuits.

Wesley, however, grated on my nerves from the get go and never let up. I can't tell you how happy I was when they finally shipped his ass off to the Academy. I understand what they were trying to do. They wanted a character that the audience could relate to - someone who would share the audience's sense of wonder at what was going on. The problem was - they destroyed that concept by making him a wunderkind. People relate to characters that remind them of themselves, not characters who are "modern day" Mozarts.

Like you said though, it was a very well written show most of the time and told some outstanding stories. I would rank episodes like The Defector, The Offspring, Reunion, and The Pegasus (even though it was damaged by that episode whose name I shall not utter here) right up there with anything DS9 had to offer.

For the longest time I refused to admit to myself that I liked DS9 over TNG. TNG was, after all, the Trek I grew up with and I felt a sense of loyalty to it. But, I now like to think of it this way.... It's like my first crush. It will always have a place in my heart, but I've matured and moved on to more rewarding things.

the crew sometimes displayed a smug sense of superiority (indicating that Starfleet is staffed mainly with Niners )

We're sneaky bastards that way.

 

[RandyS]

This Niner (and TNGer..is that even a term?) loves both TNG and DS9 equally. For me, they are both Star Trek's finest.

 

[Smiley]

TNG is about equal to DS9 in my eyes. It has a ton of great episodes, and Season Three may still be the best season of television ever made.

 

[Jono]

TNG is okay, I've seen between 1 - 2 seasons worth of the show, a mixed bag of stuff stuff not just the 1st and 2nd season of the show. I can't say the characters really grabbed my attention and I have never felt the urge to see it all, or even an entire season. The movies were okay, First Contact and Generations rank pretty high in my list of favourite to least favourite ST films.

Basically I don't have any strong feeling about the show, only that I rank it second or third out of the series depending on how I'm feeling about TOS that day.

 

[TerokNor]

I like both, voted for the second option however, as I find the characters of DS9 a bit more interessting.

TerokNor

 

[Pemmer Harge]

I've never called myself a Niner, but it's the only Trek of which I've seen every episode (and I own it on DVD) and I seem to post more on this bit of the BBS than the others, so I feel entitled to vote.

Anyway, for me, TNG is probably roughly equal to DS9. They're different (although not as different as all that), but I love them both.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

smug sense of superiority?

Wait, was that talking about DS9 fans... or the characters in TNG.

 

[flemm]

TNG was my first Trek love, and for a long time I have tried to deny the truth, but the reality is I like DS9 even more

 

[Eyes]

TNG was my first exposure to Trek, loved it, especially in the later seasons, but I love DS9 more, since while TNG will often seem to me more Trekky, I can always enjoy an episode of DS9, with very few exceptions, while some of TNG's more.. mundane.. episodes get very boring.

 

[Praxius]

As mentioned before in other threads, I originally got sucked into Trek because of TNG. I was a huge fan and it took me a long while to accept or get into any other series, especially DS9 when it first came out.

But after I wore myself on TNG over the years, and dabbled into a few DS9 episodes beyond the first couple of seasons, I grew more impressed with DS9..... to the point now where I consider DS9 better then TNG.

But that isn't to say I hate TNG now or like it less then I did before, in fact, TNG does touch on a few things a lot better then DS9 does, but so does DS9 in some areas in regards to TNG.

Each have their pros and cons. Where TNG is superior to DS9 is in character development, DS9 sacrificed some of their character development for more action based story lines, which is where I can only see any major difference between the two overall.

Some feel TNG is a bit bland and boring because the action isn't consistent and it's more talk & thinking then anything else, and others feel DS9's characters are shallow, one dimensional people who revolve around war and action to substitute what is missing that's not there from TNG..... but both are exaggerations and a bias for one or the other.

I personally appreciate both in equal fashion but for different reasons. Since TNG was what brought me into trek in the first place, I hold no justification to trash TNG in anyway.

And that's why this Niner is so superior in the first place.... because I don't pass judgment on either I personally like DS9 more then TNG but only in a marginal degree of difference.

 

[Damask]

Loved TNG. It was my first Star Trek series and I remember watching the pilot when it first aired. My childhood could get past the ropey season 1. It had some tremendous episodes and I still punch the air when Data does something awesome. Chain of Command, Best of Both Worlds, Inner Light, Remember Me, Pegasus, Face of the Enemy and plenty more.

However DS9 just surpassed it for me. For a show labelled as static, it's changing of the Trek universe was unreal. The characters, I mean compare Bashir of S1 to S7. Hell Nog got more character development than people like Troi! DS9 is my favourite novel and I will constantly revist it. TNG will never do that for me but I still love it.

 

[indolover]

Both were excellent series. DS9 had better continuity and character development, but I think TNG had over DS9 a superior enemy. The Dominion rocked, but the Borg were near invincible! Picard and co. were lucky to defeat them. The Dominion showed little sign of being technologically superior to the Federation, and the Federation even managed to counteract their polaron beams.

The arc with the Prophets was never properly explained - were they transfigured Bajorans from the future? Did they create Bajorans and long ago tell them to worship them?

There were too many open questions there. And why did they choose Sisko as their Emmisary? Why him, from trillions around the galaxy? Why not a Klingon from Qo'nos, or a Cardassian, or a Tzenkethi or a Talarian, or a Romulan?

 

[Mary Ann]

The first Trek I watched and loved was TNG, but, as others have mentioned, I think DS9 surpassed it. It was while first watching reruns of TNG that I really picked up on the smugness of some of the characters (Picard going on about how noble humans are makes me gag) and the more I come across Wesley the more I dislike, well, not so much Wesley the kid as what the writers allowed Wesley to do (I don't care what the Traveller said and how much of a wunderkind Wesley is; teenagers do NOT belong on the bridge or in senior staff meetings IMO). DS9 had deeper character development and the characters had a wider range of strengths and weaknesses. The more often I watch it the more I enjoy it, while my feelings stay the same about TNG.

 

[Damask]

There were too many open questions there. And why did they choose Sisko as their Emmisary? Why him, from trillions around the galaxy? Why not a Klingon from Qo'nos, or a Cardassian, or a Tzenkethi or a Talarian, or a Romulan?

My own theory to this is that Sisko only became the Emissary after he met the Propehets in Emissary. Once he explained what linear time was etc, the Prophets then created Sisko. As timelines don;t mean anything to them.

Also telling the Jem'Hadar to sleep really wouldn't work!

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I hate TNG, I hate it with every fibre of my being. And I curse the day Gene Roddenberry came up with it!

Just kidding... voted for option 2.

 

[Damask]

I say will that DS9 needed to have a TNG before it to be what it could be. It needed to be different and almost a counterpoint at times.