Encounter at Farpoint. 27 million people watched.
Having recently read The Makng of Star Trek before STNG, I considered a new TV show vindication for all the failed efforts of TOS on a network. I was certainly not sickened.
When was TNG generally accepted and liked by Trek fans?
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Encounter at Farpoint. 27 million people watched.
Having recently read The Makng of Star Trek before STNG, I considered a new TV show vindication for all the failed efforts of TOS on a network. I was certainly not sickened.
A minor backlash, just like the one over Nutrek today.
To me, it's similar to the Geneviève Bujold as Janeway discussion. We can't imagine anyone other than Kate Mulgrew in the role, because that's who we watched in the role for 7 years.
We often compare the much bigger picture of 7 seasons of TNG to the first couple seasons.
Not only were some fans not cool with a spin-off with different characters, I remember many of the TOS actors saying that they thought it was a terrible idea. All along the lines of "It won't have the spark that makes Trek work", but it's hard to blame them for feeling like they would no longer be the chosen few.
Sequels are often flops or inferior to the original. So I can understand a sceptical attitude. It's no bigee. It's just that some Trek fans are more militant in expressing that scepticism than might otherwise be proportionate.
I would expect that the backlash lasted until they started enjoying the show.
Same with the backlash against Battlestar Galactica, only BSG's better episodes are concentrated toward the start so it happened sooner.
I started watching TNG when I was like 10 in 1993, so at that point TNG was 'Trek' for me and it's impossible to imagine what it would have been like for fans of the original. But I do remember thinking the aesthetic blended in with other TV shows at the time a lot more than it does now. It wasn't old enough for the very culture-specific aesthetics to seem dated. I didn't start seeing a big difference in quality between early seasons and later seasons until I started watching them on syndication around 2000 or so. But then again back then I had no idea Wesley was hated.
Same with the backlash against Battlestar Galactica, only BSG's better episodes are concentrated toward the start so it happened sooner.
I started watching TNG when I was like 10 in 1993, so at that point TNG was 'Trek' for me and it's impossible to imagine what it would have been like for fans of the original. But I do remember thinking the aesthetic blended in with other TV shows at the time a lot more than it does now. It wasn't old enough for the very culture-specific aesthetics to seem dated. I didn't start seeing a big difference in quality between early seasons and later seasons until I started watching them on syndication around 2000 or so. But then again back then I had no idea Wesley was hated.
I met a fan at a marathon screening of the movies, in 1991, who was convinced it was a British version and therefore wouldn't watch it. Ironically, this was in Britain.
Me...I liked it from first watching a dodgy VHS of the pilot, watched it religiously, and shed a tear for Tasha. Spent years wanting to be Data, then had my friends at school tell me what was happening in it and ds9 because it was only on paid TV. I preferred the galaxy class to even the film constitution, though the Connie was easier to draw.
I think many of my friends actively preferred it to TOS, not least because this one felt like it belonged to us.
Me...I liked it from first watching a dodgy VHS of the pilot, watched it religiously, and shed a tear for Tasha. Spent years wanting to be Data, then had my friends at school tell me what was happening in it and ds9 because it was only on paid TV. I preferred the galaxy class to even the film constitution, though the Connie was easier to draw.
I think many of my friends actively preferred it to TOS, not least because this one felt like it belonged to us.
At the time, I did.
I felt they improved over the course of Season 1, and I felt season 2 continued that trend, with Season 3 hitting the stride.
But even the not so good episodes were welcome at the time, because it was the first live action Star Trek TV series since TOS.
I also remember in the first season especially, I was waiting for original cast members to make cameos, like Kelley did in Farpoint, and also wishing to see Constitution Class ships appear, as well. We ended up getting the former, but never the latter, except in split second technical displays.
I do remember a backlash, but it seemed more polarizing than NuTrek is.
Here's some easy anecdotes at a convention about the 'backlash' to TNG. There's also an anecdote involving Muldaur there as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtezvuunW10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtezvuunW10
I actually read the novelization of "Encounter at Farpoint" before I ever had a chance to see an episode - ran across it at a grocery store bookrack, and I had NO idea that a new series was coming at that point, so it was quite a surprise. Our cable system did not have a channel that was carrying the show, and it took a little while for me to figure out that if I sat really still in one particular corner of our apartment behind my dad's recliner with my portable set with the antenna set just so, I could get a channel out of Milwaukee, 150 miles away, that carried it, with only a little fuzz here and there most of the time.
Needless to say, putting in that much effort just to watch, I loved it from the start - although I still think my imagination while reading the book provided better effects and production values.
Needless to say, putting in that much effort just to watch, I loved it from the start - although I still think my imagination while reading the book provided better effects and production values.
To relate my own experience, I was a relatively recent convert to Trek in the mid-80s and wasn't connected with Trek fan circles of the day. As someone with an interest in RPGs (including FASA's Trek RPG), I thought of Trek more as a world to be explored than the adventures of a single group of characters. I was surprised to learn later of how much resistance there was to the idea of TNG in fandom.
I viewed the first 10 episodes of TNG with interest and a good amount of enthusiasm, but lost interest when the show went on hiatus. That owed more to things going on in my life at the time than the quality of the show, but it didn't help that they'd closed that group of episodes with "Haven," which I had a lot of trouble getting through. I caught the odd episode from the second half of the season here and there in its original airing, but wouldn't see most of them until I was able to get them in syndication several years later. By that point--somewhere around the original airings of Seasons 5 and 6--I found the Season 1 episodes that I'd missed to be...underwhelming.
Back in 1988, I'd regained interest in the show during early Season 2. I was never as hard as most fans were on the infamous clip show "Shades of Grey," because when it originally aired, it gave me a then-intriguing glimpse at many of the episodes that I hadn't seen.
I viewed the first 10 episodes of TNG with interest and a good amount of enthusiasm, but lost interest when the show went on hiatus. That owed more to things going on in my life at the time than the quality of the show, but it didn't help that they'd closed that group of episodes with "Haven," which I had a lot of trouble getting through. I caught the odd episode from the second half of the season here and there in its original airing, but wouldn't see most of them until I was able to get them in syndication several years later. By that point--somewhere around the original airings of Seasons 5 and 6--I found the Season 1 episodes that I'd missed to be...underwhelming.
Back in 1988, I'd regained interest in the show during early Season 2. I was never as hard as most fans were on the infamous clip show "Shades of Grey," because when it originally aired, it gave me a then-intriguing glimpse at many of the episodes that I hadn't seen.
I think you're right. My sense is that it was around the middle of season three. There seemed to be a run of impressive episodes that brought a lot of original fans on board.
Season 1-2 is them finding their place. It peaks at 3-5 and then slows up for season 6-7.
Very symmetrical and of course with some good episodes in every season.
Very symmetrical and of course with some good episodes in every season.
umm. No. Actually, there was quite a split. There was even a split among the original cast. Doohan and Kelley were against it; Shatner was surprisingly open to it. Not sure what Nimoy's take was - probably didn't give a rip.
Objection. Assumes facts not in evidence.
I remember watching the pilot with a bunch of friends in my dorm. When it was over we all just sort of looked at each other and shrugged.
Totally different perception from mine. Stewart was very clearly at sea for the first season, and beyond. He was obviously very much a fish out of water, constrained by a medium that was completely unfamiliar to him and a character that was about 150 degrees away from what he really was. He didn't really settle in until thy started writing the character more like him - that is, with less of a stick up his shaft.
He was at sea in the episode where he was "possessed" by an alien gas. But the sprawling writing meant that episode couldn't be anything other than give a sprawling performance. He was nothing other than very convincing in every other episode insofar as I remember. In any event, playing it with a high emphasis on the curmudgeon is smart because it gives him that authority he needed to lead the show and therefore engage the audience. If it was a generic American actor been given that role or or even a Kirk 2.0, I don't see TNG surviving the first or second seasons, frankly.
What happened is that in the earlier seasons there was supposed to be much more emphasis on Picard being this kind of older figure whose been there and done it all. Picard was supposed to be distanced, and something of a curmudgeon, and Stewart played that well IMHO.
By the later parts of the series (and certainly in the movies) he was being routinely written and played as a much more accessible, avuncular figure. But that's character development, it isn't necessarily an indication of Stewart's uneasiness with the part in season one (I actually think most of the cast fell into their roles pretty easily, even though none of them are quite what we became familiar with later on.)
By the later parts of the series (and certainly in the movies) he was being routinely written and played as a much more accessible, avuncular figure. But that's character development, it isn't necessarily an indication of Stewart's uneasiness with the part in season one (I actually think most of the cast fell into their roles pretty easily, even though none of them are quite what we became familiar with later on.)
Picard is quite snappy and uptight in season one and season two. I wonder whether that snappiness is driven by the uncomfortable uniforms which Stewart found particularly trying and was vocal in wanting them replaced.
We go to season three, Stewart is decked out in his new outfit and Picard is almost a new man!
We go to season three, Stewart is decked out in his new outfit and Picard is almost a new man!
Yes, I thought they were uneven at the time. Actually, I spent a lot of the time convincing myself that the show had to be better than what I was seeing, and that it really just needed, like, one more draft of the script to be written to be unquestionably good. There'd be enough episodes that were basically all right, like 'Where No One Has Gone Before' or '11001001' or 'Heart of Glory' to keep the promise alive. But it was hard not to notice that the first seasons were a lot less mature than the Original Series.
The debut of season three was like the lifting of a burden. Even my high school physics teacher mentioned what a relief it was seeing an episode we didn't have to tell ourselves we like to enjoy.
That bit in the pilot "You'll ensure that's what I project!!!" makes him seem like a fucking psycho.
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