That's outstanding, sir! That's the spirit!
How was season 1 received at the time?
- Thread starter TalkieToaster
- Start date
Well as it's been said TNG was a runaway hit when it started, I think the seires generated a new generation of fans since many of the hardcore TOS fans wrote the series off. Here in Columbus it aired twice a weekon our Fox channel, once on Saturday and again on Thursday night I'd tape it on Saturday while watching the ep., see the tape and then see it again on Thursday, I did that for most the first two years. .
While some of the camera work was similar to TOS, the bridge set was alittle too bright, but the show didn't look like anything else on the air at the time. The cast I think worked better after Tasha died. And Tasha's death as well as the phasering of Maddox's head in Conspiracy was different and pretty daring compared to TOS.
While some of the camera work was similar to TOS, the bridge set was alittle too bright, but the show didn't look like anything else on the air at the time. The cast I think worked better after Tasha died. And Tasha's death as well as the phasering of Maddox's head in Conspiracy was different and pretty daring compared to TOS.
There were parts The Naked Now that did work, when giving us insight to the characters' true selves. Wesley really wanted to be the Chief Engineer (I base that on all the experiments and ideas he had to make the ship run faster, better, or just differently). He had an engineer's mind, not a Captain's mind, as it were.
Tasha made it clear that she'd had a hard life in her younger years - a childhood mostly devoid of love or even friendship, and she had a softer side to her personality that she never let out.
Geordi wanting normal vision...? Well, when he's offered it courtesy of Riker's Q powers and medical advances he always says no, so I have to wonder just how badly he really wants it.
But Picard/Beverly and Riker/Troi was just a mess. It's too bad Miles wasn't in this episode - it would have been interesting to see his inner conflict.
Tasha made it clear that she'd had a hard life in her younger years - a childhood mostly devoid of love or even friendship, and she had a softer side to her personality that she never let out.
Geordi wanting normal vision...? Well, when he's offered it courtesy of Riker's Q powers and medical advances he always says no, so I have to wonder just how badly he really wants it.
But Picard/Beverly and Riker/Troi was just a mess. It's too bad Miles wasn't in this episode - it would have been interesting to see his inner conflict.
There are a few gems amongst the first season. The Battle, Datalore, When the Bough Breaks, Coming of Age and Conspiracy standing out as very strong episodes.
Wow, "When the Bough Breaks"?
Anyway, my stand outs are "Where No One Has Gone Before", "The Big Goodbye", "Datalore", "11001001", "Too Short A Season", "Heart of Glory", and "Conspiracy".
I enjoy "Angel One" - Ramsey was cute.
And to this day I have no idea how the actress said the line about the color of Riker's tunic bringing out the color of his eyes (paraphrase) with a straight face.
We all have different tastes. I think "Too Short a Season" was dreadful, and "The Battle" and "Coming of Age" weren't much better.
And I haven't enjoyed "Datalore" as much since I realized its premise doesn't make any sense. It reveals that Data's origins were previously unknown, but it also reveals that he's got a positronic brain and that Noonien Soong was the only human scientist who believed positronic brains could actually work and had devoted his life to trying to create them. So how could they not have known, or at least suspected, that he was Soong's creation? (And that problem existed even before they cast Brent Spiner as Soong, making it even more unlikely that it was ever a mystery.)
Oh, and then there's the fact that Data uses contractions several times in the episode before it's suddenly asserted that he prefers not to use them.
And I haven't enjoyed "Datalore" as much since I realized its premise doesn't make any sense. It reveals that Data's origins were previously unknown, but it also reveals that he's got a positronic brain and that Noonien Soong was the only human scientist who believed positronic brains could actually work and had devoted his life to trying to create them. So how could they not have known, or at least suspected, that he was Soong's creation? (And that problem existed even before they cast Brent Spiner as Soong, making it even more unlikely that it was ever a mystery.)
Oh, and then there's the fact that Data uses contractions several times in the episode before it's suddenly asserted that he prefers not to use them.
When the Bough Breaks is a show with so much potential. Again, it just went about it the wrong way, to give Wesley a chance to shine. The idea that, "oh noes! We gave control of our lives to a faulty computer" is Old Reliable, to this blessed franchise and it's handled so predictably, that I'm not sure which is more shocking: that, or this episode's bent on kidnapping children. Today, we willingly, willfully, put so much of our lives on the internet, choosing to rely on it for everything, that an episode like this could have such impact, even retrospectively, if it were done "right." It's so easy to knock STAR TREK for its shortcomings, but it's done, here, in a kindly way. If loving TNG is wrong ... then, I don't want to be right!
"Datalore" isn't without its flaws, and it does have the trope with the crew not knowing what's happening until the last second, a horrible trope that seemed consistent in the fist season. What makes it stand out for me is Spiner's performance, and I do love Ron Jones' score. This track is great, I love the nod to Jerry Goldsmith's "Alien" score.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVhWrVeGDpw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVhWrVeGDpw
What's always frustrated me about "When the Bough Breaks" is that they overlook the obvious solution that would satisfy everyone. Even in Trek's utopian future, there must be orphans. All Picard needed to do was put the Aldeans in touch with a good adoption agency. That way, the Aldeans could've had the children they needed, and a lot of orphans could've gotten the parents they wanted. And in real-life terms, an episode promoting adoption could've helped encourage more people to adopt, and that would've helped a lot of kids. Which is why I find it such a grave disappointment that the episode completely ignored the possibility.
As for "Datalore," I agree that while the writing is a mess, it excels in the performances and production values. The score was indeed excellent, and the split-screen work was innovative for its time. I was always very impressed by the shot where Lore put down a champagne glass and Data then picked it up. It's easy enough to see how the effect was done -- they just left the glass where it was while Spiner changed costumes and then shot the Data side of the shot -- but it was one of the first times that interaction across the divide in a split-screen shot had ever been attempted, as far as I know. (The same sort of technique was used extensively a few years later in Back to the Future Part II.)
As for "Datalore," I agree that while the writing is a mess, it excels in the performances and production values. The score was indeed excellent, and the split-screen work was innovative for its time. I was always very impressed by the shot where Lore put down a champagne glass and Data then picked it up. It's easy enough to see how the effect was done -- they just left the glass where it was while Spiner changed costumes and then shot the Data side of the shot -- but it was one of the first times that interaction across the divide in a split-screen shot had ever been attempted, as far as I know. (The same sort of technique was used extensively a few years later in Back to the Future Part II.)
Exactly, especially the champagne glass. Today it's something you wouldn't give much thought on, but at the time a small thing like that was pretty impressive for 1987. I always wondered maybe that wasn't Lore's arm, but rather a stand in placing the glass and they just did a clever job placing Spiner over him. IRRC, they did something similar for "Second Chances" when Will Riker grabs Tom Riker by the shoulder and turns him around.
I remember watching the episode as a kid and totally misunderstanding the ending because of that. Picard asks Data is he's okay and Data replies, "Yes, sir, I'm fine."
I thought, "OMG! It's Lore! Data's dead!"
That's what they would've had to do if Lore had handed the glass directly to Data (and it was done several times a few years later in the original Human Target TV series, all seven episodes of it, to show interaction between the disguised hero and the people he was impersonating). But since Lore simply put the glass down on the table and Data then picked it up, it was an easier effect to achieve, as I outlined above.
Back To The Future Part II came out two years later actually and they had to create a special jig for the camera. But with Datalore it seems like they did something easier, you can see from the picture on the videotape for Datalore that a body double was used and he really didn't look much like Brent Spiner, he was taller and skinner than Spiner but in full makeup, so he was used in some scenes.
Actually, that kind of trick is ancient. It was done to rather striking effect 50 years years earlier in THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937) with Ronald Coleman playing two characters. In the scene where they first meet they shake hands with each other across a split screen (at 7:14 in the clip below).
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Uw46KHMkg[/yt]
Last edited:
I have a lot of time for it. Wil Wheaton really steps up to the plate when Wesley takes charge of the other children, leading them in peaceful protest. He moves beyond the irritating Boy Genius stereotype and we see what The Traveller and Picard see in him - courage, integrity and leadership.
Wow, that's amazing. And it can't be the usual "someone else's arm matted in" trick, because the right-hand Ronald Colman clasps his hands together at his waist immediately before he extends one to shake the other Colman's hand. I daresay they must've used a split-screen effect to merge Colman's head with a double's body for that shot, but the image quality of the clip is too poor for me to discern the matte line.
Similar threads
