Season FOUR OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

[Flake]

I think the fact that Roddenberry was going a bit loopy when he made TNG made the show much better

Making it fresh and different was the way to go, if they had gone with a different producer we would have ended up with a ripoff of TOS instead. He took a big risk because he believed 100% in his abilities and believed in his concept while all around him producers were stating he show would undoubtedly fail.

Without the foundations that Roddenberry laid I think the second Trek series would have not been as successful. It is fortunate that people were able to build upon his work as he became more ill and made the show better.

I tend to think the people around him -- Justman, Fontana, Gerrold -- were as much responsible or even more so for TNG having any chance. These were people who actually co-created TNG but were robbed of getting any of the credit by Roddenberry's massive ego. If it hadn't been for them, TNG may have been DOA.

Roddenberry was in charge though so he should get the credit IMO because if it failed and was DOA you can bet he would've got the blame. He came up with the concept and the characters etc I think? He had some lame ideas but some good ones too. Berman refined it later on. Sure the people around him and Berman were a huge part of the success but Roddenberry came up with it! He assembled the team?

 

[Makarov]

I gotta hand it to that actor who plays the admiral Thomas Henry in The Drumhead. He does a great disgusted walk off, without even having any lines.

Funniest line in the season is after Riker flips out "Shut up! As in close your mouth and stop talking!" Troi says "I can sense you're upset" That's some betazoid skill right there.

 

[Trekker4747]

Funny moment for me is as the special envoy during "The Drumhead" whatshername is badger Picard as he's on the stand he says, "You know... There are some word's I've known since I was a boy..." and I always half-expect him to launch into a profanity-laden tirade on her.

 

[tomalak301]

Funny moment for me is as the special envoy during "The Drumhead" whatshername is badger Picard as he's on the stand he says, "You know... There are some word's I've known since I was a boy..." and I always half-expect him to launch into a profanity-laden tirade on her.

One of the things I love about picard is his ability to be badass but still keep that calm composure. I watched "The Wounded" this week and the way he tells off Macet while giving him the death stare is funny and awesome at the same time.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, Picard is good at the subtle badassery.

 

[Flake]

_finally_ got season 4 blu-ray yesterday and finally just now found a minute to watch it. First episode I want to see is 'Brothers' and the first thing I am greeted with is that awful fly-by! (blurry windows) How can they pass that? Oh well.. only a die hard trekkie would complain about such things

 

[tomalak301]

Man "The Drumhead" is more timely today than it's ever been. Still a great episode after all these years.

I guess I should admit that "QPid" is a guilty pleasure, yet I don't feel guilty for liking it. I liked seeing Picard has Robin Hood and it was great to see Vash back. However, I think the reason I love this episode was that it was the first episode I ever remember watching in all of Star Trek. I know because I was watching with the family, I would always look forward to when the "Robin Hood" episode was re-airing because it was just so much fun. As someone who was 5 years old at the time, that fun meant more than it does today. I also think I fell in love with Q after this episode. So many memories for an episode I find out later isn't that well liked.

 

[Trekker4747]

It's shocking to me how much "The Drumhead" resonates true i in this day, probably a heck of a lot more than it resonated back in 1991.

 

[BillJ]

I'm near the end of season four and damn, it's pretty. But so much of it is just so "sterile". So much of the dialogue is stilted and dull, many of the supposed emotional moments just feel forced. There's just no other way to explain it.

With each passing season I become less emotionally invested in the characters.

 

[RAMA]

I'm near the end of season four and damn, it's pretty. But so much of it is just so "sterile". So much of the dialogue is stilted and dull, many of the supposed emotional moments just feel forced. There's just no other way to explain it.

With each passing season I become less emotionally invested in the characters.

Interesting, but I dont see that at all. It's the best STNG season, only two weak ones in the entire bunch.

 

[tomalak301]

Watched The Host tonight and the trill are so different in TNG than they were in DS9. I wonder if there is a logical in universe explanation to the discrepancies, like using the transporter would kill the symbiant. As for the end, everyone seems to always have a problem with the ending, but I'm not sure if TNG would have been capable of covering a subject like that. They tried in the next season but it seemed to just take the easy way out. Unfortunately, the concept of LGBT was really taboo back then, much moreso than it is today.

I do feel like Crusher's reaction was pretty much normal from the episode though. We get a character who loses the person she loves, that person comes back as a fellow officer, and then that same person comes back again as a female. That's a lot to take in, even if the plot logistics leaves a lot of questions, such as why didn't Crusher know who Odan was when he got on board.

 

[Trekker4747]

Watched The Host tonight and the trill are so different in TNG than they were in DS9. I wonder if there is a logical in universe explanation to the discrepancies, like using the transporter would kill the symbiant. As for the end, everyone seems to always have a problem with the ending, but I'm not sure if TNG would have been capable of covering a subject like that. They tried in the next season but it seemed to just take the easy way out. Unfortunately, the concept of LGBT was really taboo back then, much moreso than it is today.

I do feel like Crusher's reaction was pretty much normal from the episode though. We get a character who loses the person she loves, that person comes back as a fellow officer, and then that same person comes back again as a female. That's a lot to take in, even if the plot logistics leaves a lot of questions, such as why didn't Crusher know who Odan was when he got on board.

It's "possible" that the Trill are composed of two societies (and "races" that look different) that treat the host/symbiont concept different.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Roddenberry was in charge though so he should get the credit IMO because if it failed and was DOA you can bet he would've got the blame. He came up with the concept and the characters etc I think?

Nope, not by himself he didn't.

I'm near the end of season four and damn, it's pretty. But so much of it is just so "sterile". So much of the dialogue is stilted and dull, many of the supposed emotional moments just feel forced. There's just no other way to explain it.

With each passing season I become less emotionally invested in the characters.

Interesting, but I dont see that at all. It's the best STNG season, only two weak ones in the entire bunch.

I agree with Bill. As bad as many of the early season episodes are, there was a sense of wonder about the TNG universe, a feeling of actually being in the future, which all but disappears by the fourth season.

 

[jimbotron]

^The music had a lot to do with that. By the fourth season, most of the musical scores had lost their bite. Melodies were gone, and much of it felt like filler. It made a lot of episodes feel plain.

 

[BillJ]

^The music had a lot to do with that. By the fourth season, most of the musical scores had lost their bite. Melodies were gone, and much of it felt like filler. It made a lot of episodes feel plain.

That is definitely part of the issue.

 

[Hober Mallow]

^The music had a lot to do with that. By the fourth season, most of the musical scores had lost their bite. Melodies were gone, and much of it felt like filler. It made a lot of episodes feel plain.

That was a big part of it, but it wasn't just that. Everything was familiar. There wasn't the sense of being out in uncharted space. It was just Klingon stories, Romulan stories, and going from one starbase to the next. It got kinda dull. The dull music didn't help, of course.

 

[tomalak301]

Season 4 might have been the year of Family, but it was also the year of awesome development of the relations between the Federation, Klingons, and the Romulans. It expanded the Star Trek universe to where DS9 could take it and run with it. Hell, everyone calls Season 4 the year of the family, yet those were only in the first few episodes of the season. Season 4 was much more about expanding the good stuff TNG laid in the previous 3 seasons than it was about Family.

I just saw "The Mind's Eye" and I had forgotten how awesome this episode was. The Grim music, taking one of the more innocent regular characters, laying the groundwork to Redemption, it's like watching this episode, TNG tried to do arc storytelling in Season 4 and somewhat succeeded. I think the worst missed opportunity this series had going for it was it never followed up the brainwashing. After Redemption II, it seemed to drop the Klingon/Romulan arc almost entirely, yet just imagine if those threads were weaved throughout the series and we did get a Brainwashing follow up. With that, and more contact with the Cardassians, this series could have been even better than it was.

 

[Nero's Shadow]

Season 4 might have been the year of Family, but it was also the year of awesome development of the relations between the Federation, Klingons, and the Romulans. It expanded the Star Trek universe to where DS9 could take it and run with it. Hell, everyone calls Season 4 the year of the family, yet those were only in the first few episodes of the season. Season 4 was much more about expanding the good stuff TNG laid in the previous 3 seasons than it was about Family.

I just saw "The Mind's Eye" and I had forgotten how awesome this episode was. The Grim music, taking one of the more innocent regular characters, laying the groundwork to Redemption, it's like watching this episode, TNG tried to do arc storytelling in Season 4 and somewhat succeeded. I think the worst missed opportunity this series had going for it was it never followed up the brainwashing. After Redemption II, it seemed to drop the Klingon/Romulan arc almost entirely, yet just imagine if those threads were weaved throughout the series and we did get a Brainwashing follow up. With that, and more contact with the Cardassians, this series could have been even better than it was.

Since watching the season again I've didn't realise how big the worf Klingon and romulan story arc was . Some really good stuff never noticed it before never noticed it when I watched it 1st time on BBC 2 and Worf was my favourite character.

I can always remember when Worf leaves the enterprise and thought they would write him out . I can always remember loads of rumours that he would be killed off in season 5 !!! So glad he didn't. Always thought his character had some good stories and had a good impact to DS9.

 

[Scotty]

^The music had a lot to do with that. By the fourth season, most of the musical scores had lost their bite. Melodies were gone, and much of it felt like filler. It made a lot of episodes feel plain.

Actually, the opposite is true. Season 4 features some of TNG's best scores. Ron Jones composed some of his most memorable music for episodes like BOBW2, Final Mission, Devil's Due, Night Terrors and of course The Nth Degree. Guest composer and future replacement for Jones, Jay Chattaway scored Remember Me, probably his best score ever. And even though Dennis McCarthy's scores began to sound familiar, they were still exciting in season 4. As soon as Jones was fired near the end of season 4, the music changes dramatically. But by that point, there were only 4 or 5 episodes left in the season. The sonic wallpaper sound became part of the show during season 5, not 4.

 

[jimbotron]

I don't count Jones in my criticism. But I include season 4 in my criticism because that's when he was fired, even though we didn't feel the drop yet. He clearly had a different opinion about how scores should be done, and was fired because of it. I enjoy some of Jay Chattaway's scores. McCarthy less so.

In season 1, Ron Jones' music alone could turn a crappy episode into something watchable, such as When the Bough Breaks. Early on, I could always detect a Ron Jones episode just by the opening notes in the episode.