The follow up was better.
Choose your most favorite Extraordinary Characters in Star Trek Series
- Thread starter Brainsucker
- Start date
QuandrantDon't you mean galaxy?
Yes, they are. But it is unfair to choose Spock just because he started the tradition. it just like you choose TOS just because it was the first Star Trek Series. It is more fair if we choose one of them based on their character, not because they're Spock derivative.
If I choose Spock or TOS in a poll it's because I like them more than the others.
I chose Data for a very specific reason. When TNG aired, it was the first crew of the Starship Enterprise to not have Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. at the helm. This new crew, in all fairness, should NOT have worked. But it did, and I'll use Data as an example as to why. You see, each new character in TNG was essentially one from the original series, turned on its head. Data was the flip side of Spock. While Spock was logical, rational, and dare I say cold (and he could be at times, for those who wish to debate me I refer you to episodes such as "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "City on the Edge of Forever" and TMP) he was ultimately flesh and blood. He strove to be more than he was, in a way that made him seem like a living machine at times. Then there is Data, who literally WAS a machine, albeit a warm and friendly one. Data's quest to be a mortal human is the penultimate lens through which to analyze the human characters. His perspective shaped the series in ways it couldn't have otherwise, if it had been just another Vulcan or other "Spock"-type character. Like I said, TNG should theoretically have not worked at all, but it did so because it chose to take apart the stereotypical Enterprise crew and examine them from a different angle, and Data exemplifies this.
Picard was, in a sense, the anti-Kirk.
Crusher was very different from McCoy.
And Geordi was decidedly different from Scotty (tell the truth about how long repairs will take?! Who DOES that?!).
Troi, Yar/Worf, and Wesley had no prior opposite numbers.
Riker was the answer to Kirk, and
So, TNG turned a lot of things upside down... and it was at its best when it stopped trying to echo TNG and charted it's own path.
Crusher was very different from McCoy.
And Geordi was decidedly different from Scotty (tell the truth about how long repairs will take?! Who DOES that?!).
Troi, Yar/Worf, and Wesley had no prior opposite numbers.
Riker was the answer to Kirk, and
So, TNG turned a lot of things upside down... and it was at its best when it stopped trying to echo TNG and charted it's own path.
It divided things up.
Picard and Riker are Kirk. Picard is close to the early season one serious Kirk. While Riker fills the dashing young hero part.
Data, Worf and Troi have each taken part of Spock's character. Data is the super smart info dump. Worf is the alien. Troi is the psychic hybrid. All are outsiders to humanity. (Troi less so)
Crusher like McCoy is an old friend and confidant. (Guinan takes that role too). Pulaski got a good dose of being cranky and contrarian
Geordi and Yar were for the most part button pushers and deliverers of exposition like Sulu, Chekov and Uhura. Some back ground quirks, but not much.
Wes, for all his faults might be the most original character in the mix. Touch of Chekov, maybe.
Wes is Will Robinson.
You have a point. I think Wes was an effort to target the younger demographic.
No, Picard is Professor X, Worf is Wolverine, Troy is Jean Grey, Geordi is Cyclops, etc. Basically, TNG characters are X-Men derivative. Only Riker and Data are different.Riker is Kirk while Data is Spock.
Also, Vulcan is High Elf, Romulan is Dark Elf, Klingon is Orc, Ferengi is Goblin.
Basically TNG is X-Men in the world of Tolkien, or Dungeon & Dragon.
Riker is Corsair from the Starjammers. Data is Warlock.
Its amazing how hard that failed for me.
LOL. I don't know about that.
So is Kirk, Riker, and Picard, the bookworm turned dashing hero turned aloof philosopher. Spock/Data/Worf/Troi (the Outsider character) is probably an insert of Roddenberry's mythical war buddy friend, Kim Noonien (Singh/Wang) (shades of pan-Asian Sulu in there as well).
Definitely a misstep. Jake, Nog, and Naomi were much better child characters.
So Jean married Cyclops dad? Awkward...
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