10 reasons why TOS is better than TNG

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

For all who put in their two cents worth, please give your particular ten reasons why the Original Series has vastly less suckage than the Next Regurgitation Generation. Or, if you are misguided or born after 1975, tell us why you feel it is TNG which is superior to TOS. Here are my chief ten reasons TOS is king.

1. No Troi. Nuff said.

2. No teenage regulars (though Wesley seemed to inherit an offshoot of the dorky kids' costumes from TOS).

3. When Kirk smirks, he has his reasons. When Riker smirks, it's almost always at Picard, and seems kind of....ah....um...

4. Consistently dangerously body count and crew kill ratio of 16 percent (or 60 out of 430 or so).

5. Doesn't fill valuable minutes of script with totally useless technobabble. The terms on TOS were valid and understandable.

6. No ''way teams.'' I call them way teams because Picard pronounces it so. TOS has ''parties'', and they're so hot and heavy you may not even survive them.

7. Uhura and Scotty. No TNG supporting characters can truly compare to them.

8. No cutesy names like Worf or Data. (Klingons never had names ending in ''f'' until Worf. It's almost like they wanted to make him sound cuddly).

9. No children or nurseries were permanent occupants on the ENTERPRISE. So there was no need to slow down the action on their account or disengage the saucer section.

10. Most importantly, Kirk didn't surrender his ship ten minutes into his first episode/mission to a soap opera actor in a funny hat.

Now for the rest of you.

 

[Sandoval]

The comment about Worf's name is perverse.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Explain.

 

[Green Shirt]

Explain.

"F" is a cuddly letter.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Cuddly names end in a vowel.

 

[Mr_Homn]

7. Uhura and Scotty. No TNG supporting characters can truly compare to them.

lost me here.

uhura was a glorified extra and characters like geordi or worf, or hell, even the one season wonder tasha yar, are more interesting characters.

 

[Timewalker]

Cuddly names end in a vowel.

Lwaxana obviously thought he was cuddly. She always called him "Mr. Woof."

The TOS version of "baffle them with bullshit" meant that you confused or outwitted the enemy.

The TNG version of "baffle them with bullshit" meant that you confused or annoyed the viewing audience.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

But TNG's version of it was more blatant. It was carried over to a tedious level onto DS9 and VOYAGER. I can't testify for the fifth show as I've only seen its first two installments. When a script reads INSERT TECHNOBABBLE HERE, all it really means is that the actors aren't meant to have a clue, and we might as well not either. Time-chewing filler.......

Also, there are lots of moments when Geordi will begin ''If we can...'' then continue with a snore-inducing scenario. The technical conversations with Scotty and/or Spock never just threw in random Whocaresish for its own sake. They kept it specific, relevant and often added humor in the process.

''If I can reduce the polarity on the dampening chip, I'll never have to hear Crusher babble about anomalies again.''

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Agree on 2. and 5.

The rest not so much.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

One aspect of the later shows which definitely improves on TOS is the equal shared spotlight. Every regular is guaranteed to have not only a plot, but a few episodes to themselves. But that can backfire if some characters are less compelling than others, which I feel was definitely the case in TNG.

The Original Series never came close to the shared spotlight principle......and despite being an Uhura fan, I concede she had little to do compared with future show regulars. Scotty on the other hand is still the supporting pinnacle. Were any supps on the other shows truly as lasting or memorable?

Or does anyone have ten points why TNG is preferable to them?

 

[OneAngryRomulan]

No comparison. TOS is infinitely superior to TNG.
TOS was all about episodes where they visit planets where people are vaporizing themselves to simulate the effects of a fake war.

TNG is all about pretending to be a cowboy in a Holo-deck.

TOS had philosophical concepts addressed on a regular basis.
TNG was mostly just a science fiction show.

TNG is the most watchable spin off of Star Trek because Picard was such a great Kirk alternative as Captain but without Picard TNG would have been epic fail. Patrick Steward carried the series on his shoulders alone.

TOS was epic win. I saw the episode "Mirror, Mirror" not long ago. Pure ownage.

I didn't watch any of the last series with the Quantum Leap guy but as a rule the newer the series the crappier it became.
TOS > TNG > DS9 > Voyager

 

[sbk1234]

Speaking as one who genuinly liked TNG, I think it boils down to this:

TNG was a first-rate, well-done series.

TOS was a pure, unadulterated CLASSIC.

Plus, it had those miniskirts.

 

[AtoZ]

For all who put in their two cents worth, please give your particular ten reasons why the Original Series has vastly less suckage than the Next Regurgitation Generation. Or, if you are misguided or born after 1975, tell us why you feel it is TNG which is superior to TOS. Here are my chief ten reasons TOS is king.

1. No Troi. Nuff said.

2. No teenage regulars (though Wesley seemed to inherit an offshoot of the dorky kids' costumes from TOS).

3. When Kirk smirks, he has his reasons. When Riker smirks, it's almost always at Picard, and seems kind of....ah....um...

4. Consistently dangerously body count and crew kill ratio of 16 percent (or 60 out of 430 or so).

5. Doesn't fill valuable minutes of script with totally useless technobabble. The terms on TOS were valid and understandable.

6. No ''way teams.'' I call them way teams because Picard pronounces it so. TOS has ''parties'', and they're so hot and heavy you may not even survive them.

7. Uhura and Scotty. No TNG supporting characters can truly compare to them.

8. No cutesy names like Worf or Data. (Klingons never had names ending in ''f'' until Worf. It's almost like they wanted to make him sound cuddly).

9. No children or nurseries were permanent occupants on the ENTERPRISE. So there was no need to slow down the action on their account or disengage the saucer section.

10. Most importantly, Kirk didn't surrender his ship ten minutes into his first episode/mission to a soap opera actor in a funny hat.

Now for the rest of you.

Excellent post. I have no qualms with your points.

TOS seems to have aged better. At least it has IMO.

I also feel that many many many of TNG's episodes seemed to suddemly just "end". The stories often seemed to lack that certain exclamation mark that TOS had. Again, IMO.

And of course there were the many moments where Picard would hold court in his ready room and season everybody with the PC mindset via smug administration....even though I liked Picard as a character.

I never liked the whole "having kiddies on board" thing. It didn't work for me on any front.

And a ship's counselor on the bridge right next to the Captain? Ridiculous.

Plus Picard's chair didn't swivel. Just sayin'.

 

[Anwar]

1. No Troi. Nuff said.

I don't see what's wrong with a Psychiatrist onboard, even TOS had them at least once.

2. No teenage regulars (though Wesley seemed to inherit an offshoot of the dorky kids' costumes from
TOS).

TOS only had 3 regulars, so it's not comparable.

3. When Kirk smirks, he has his reasons. When Riker smirks, it's almost always at Picard, and seems kind of....ah....um...

Look, I know that was taboo back in the 60s but we have to accept change, man!

4. Consistently dangerously body count and crew kill ratio of 16 percent (or 60 out of 430 or so).

TOS killed plenty of folks too, TNG was just following the tradition...

5. Doesn't fill valuable minutes of script with totally useless technobabble. The terms on TOS were valid and understandable.

TOS didn't really use technobabble at all, but then again it only lasted three seasons compared to TNG's 7. Make three seasons out of all the episodes from TNG's 7 seasons and you could fill them up with non-technobabble ones too.

6. No ''way teams.'' I call them way teams because Picard pronounces it so. TOS has ''parties'', and they're so hot and heavy you may not even survive them.[/quotes]

Got a thing against British pronunciation?

7. Uhura and Scotty. No TNG supporting characters can truly compare to them.

TNG didn't need lots of supporting characters, they had a big ensemble as is.

8. No cutesy names like Worf or Data. (Klingons never had names ending in ''f'' until Worf. It's almost like they wanted to make him sound cuddly).

....Not touching this one.

9. No children or nurseries were permanent occupants on the ENTERPRISE. So there was no need to slow down the action on their account or disengage the saucer section.

It was a social experiment within the show itself, got dropped within the show itself after a while.

10. Most importantly, Kirk didn't surrender his ship ten minutes into his first episode/mission to a soap opera actor in a funny hat.

If any of the Godlike beings Kirk ran into that were on similar levels to Q ever did outright demand he do so (The Organians, Trelane, etc) he would've done so to protect his crew. Only a fool Captain would try to sacrifice his crew in an impossible battle against a God when there were perfectly non-violent ways of resolving the situation, and Kirk is no fool.

 

[Therin of Andor]

If you haven't done so before, I recommend you pick up a copy of "The World of Star Trek" by David Gerrold. In one of the final chapters, Gerrold takes off the gloves and criticizes numerous elements of TOS that he perceived as weak but fixable, particularly Kirk's habit of placing himself in dangerous situations and leading landing parties himself. He suggested some things he would change about the show if it were to air again.

Among these were a focus on the executive officer as leading man, adding a Klingon as member of the crew, adding a regular counselor to look after crewmembers' inner lives, making the security chief an important lead character when on landing parties, the need for a transporter signal receiving device to be planted at a dangerous destination (to increase believability), and crewmembers being allowed to bring their families and children (like the old wagon trains of the US west) along on an extended exploratory mission that will not be returning to Earth regularly.

While the OP's list is greatly critical of TNG, Gerrold's list, most of which made it into the first writers' bible of TNG, was probably of huge importance to TNG being able to set a new, interesting, fresh approach.

 

[BillJ]

Not wading into this pissing match...

 

[Hartzilla2007]

particularly Kirk's habit of placing himself in dangerous situations and leading landing parties himself.

Yeah but he's the main character so they kind of have to include him where the main plot is going on even Picard started doing that and I don't think many main trek captains really stayed on the ship most of the time besides him.

Among these were a focus on the executive officer as leading man,

Yeah and how long did that last on TNG again?

adding a Klingon as member of the crew,

Unless its in a time when the klingons are allies or you have a good explaination on why one would join their enemy's military that would be problematic.

adding a regular counselor to look after crewmembers' inner lives, making the security chief an important lead character when on landing parties,

Good ideas but you really need to give a reason why the counselor would be on the bridge though.

the need for a transporter signal receiving device to be planted at a dangerous destination (to increase believability),

Good idea.

and crewmembers being allowed to bring their families and children (like the old wagon trains of the US west) along on an extended exploratory mission that will not be returning to Earth regularly.

Bad idea very very bad idea, just look at Generations and Emissary, star ships are way too dangerous to have children on for long periods of time.

And don't give me that planets and starbases are just as dangerous crap because they aren't major threats that could destroy planets and starbases (ie space monsters, Doomsday Machines, invading fleets, and ect.) were way less common than threats that could destroy star ships (ie. the planet of the week's defense system, ancient wepons left on the planet of the week, a single enemy ship possibly more enemy ships, the anomaly of the week, and ect.)

While the OP's list is greatly critical of TNG, Gerrold's list, most of which made it into the first writers' bible of TNG, was probably of huge importance to TNG being able to set a new, interesting, fresh approach.

Yeah some of that was hit and miss.

 

[Timewalker]

1. No Troi. Nuff said.

I don't see what's wrong with a Psychiatrist onboard, even TOS had them at least once.

TOS didn't really use technobabble at all, but then again it only lasted three seasons compared to TNG's 7. Make three seasons out of all the episodes from TNG's 7 seasons and you could fill them up with non-technobabble ones too.

6. No ''way teams.'' I call them way teams because Picard pronounces it so. TOS has ''parties'', and they're so hot and heavy you may not even survive them.

Got a thing against British pronunciation?

It was a social experiment within the show itself, got dropped within the show itself after a while.

10. Most importantly, Kirk didn't surrender his ship ten minutes into his first episode/mission to a soap opera actor in a funny hat.

If any of the Godlike beings Kirk ran into that were on similar levels to Q ever did outright demand he do so (The Organians, Trelane, etc) he would've done so to protect his crew. Only a fool Captain would try to sacrifice his crew in an impossible battle against a God when there were perfectly non-violent ways of resolving the situation, and Kirk is no fool.

Troi was not a psychiatrist. She was a counselor. She not only counseled the crew, but also the Captain. I wouldn't have a problem if she counseled the captain on matters of the mind, but she also counseled him on other things that would normally be done by somebody like a protocol officer, or legal advisor. Troi just wore too many hats (figuratively) as well as hideous costumes and hairstyles (literally).

Your point about technobabble is not reasonable. Are you saying that if TOS had gone 4 more seasons, they would have been filled with technobabbly episodes?

TOS had "landing parties." TNG had "away teams." Regardless of Patrick Stewart's pronunciation, it greatly irks me to see TOS fanfiction where the writers use the term "away teams." That's NOT what they had! Frankly, the term "away team" seems very childish.

The reason children were dropped from TNG was because the Federation wound up at war with the Borg, the Dominion, etc. If everything had stayed peaceful, I suspect the crews' families would have been allowed to stay on the ships.

Taking unofficial Treklit canon into account, Kirk DID run into the Q Continuum in the form of Trelane. Did he surrender? NO. Instead, he challenged Trelane to a duel. Now why didn't Picard think of doing that?

 

[sonak]

I prefer TOS, but I like TNG a lot too, so I feel I can give some reasons:

-less reliance on technobabble-Scotty didn't say things like "the bolognium generator has a broken thelicon coil and we'll need to fix it with a frugalon spanner."

-less soap opera-esque episode storylines, like "cost of living," "lessons," etc.-if TOS had character stuff, it was part of an overall sci-fi storyline, not an episode unto itself.

-TOS had more of a sense of fun and was less stiff and self-conscious.

-TOS had a much more reasonable and defensible Prime Directive before TNG came and ruined it beyond recognition

-nothing in TNG to compare with the central trio of TOS

 

[BillJ]

I prefer TOS, but I like TNG a lot too, so I feel I can give some reasons:

-less reliance on technobabble-Scotty didn't say things like "the bolognium generator has a broken thelicon coil and we'll need to fix it with a frugalon spanner."

-less soap opera-esque episode storylines, like "cost of living," "lessons," etc.-if TOS had character stuff, it was part of an overall sci-fi storyline, not an episode unto itself.

-TOS had more of a sense of fun and was less stiff and self-conscious.

-TOS had a much more reasonable and defensible Prime Directive before TNG came and ruined it beyond recognition

-nothing in TNG to compare with the central trio of TOS