The first half is fine. It falls apart once the Enterprise arrives at Deneb.
Encounter at Farpoint Original Draft?
- Thread starter BillJ
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The first half is fine. It falls apart once the Enterprise arrives at Deneb.
Yeah, thats one insane pitch, but damn its bothering me how it cuts off the way it does. No twist, explanation or resolution. Its left me so confused! If it was a "prequel" to II and III, which uniforms would they have used??
Its almost hard to believe it was pitched as the 4th movie; I would have pegged it for an episode pitch for Phase 2 / a post TMP series.
Maybe Gene was just trying to ignore they existed from his personal canon, since he disliked a lot of things they did. I could see this one done as a spiritual companion to TMP.
I'm saying it's the latter, after all Q did say in 'All Good Things...' that "I was the one who got you into it".
I guess he was talking about the trial.
In the original outline, the crew is more active in solving the mystery of Farpoint station. Picard is a lot less reactive in the outline and more take charge--i.e. more like a leading character. Wish we'd had more of Julian Picard than Jean-Luc Picard in those early episodes.
As for Q, I like to think of it as a child playing with his action figures.
As for Q, I like to think of it as a child playing with his action figures.
Trelane? Is that you?
Do you think if they had drawn the correlation between Trelane's race and the Q right at the beginning to forge a TOS connection, that the show would have been better received right back at the beginning?
I don't think it'd have helped. After all, TNG got cruxified for redoing "The Naked Time" by filing the numbers off the original script.
But then IIRC, TNG was rightfully criticized for retreading yet another omnipotent alien toying with the crew.
Wow, I like this version much better than what we got alrhough it's still a little rough and needed some changes, Troi being knocked out by emotions and her pretty much telling Riker they're gonna bone later was not a geat idea.
And I'm not sure what the point of the departing first officer was, he added nothing to the story except establishing that the Enterprise wasn't brand new and had some history but whatever, that really doesn't matter much in the big picture.
I did like Geordi being an inexperienced ensign and I liked ensign green aka the one who didn't make it into Picard's inner circle, if he had been a recurring character it could have given the show another perspective, lower decks b stories from time to time. The Farpoint mystery isn't that great but it works better here as something Picard is supposed to investigate, for a big test by an omnipotent being it was a bit easy to solve especially after Q basically told them "You are accused of being savage and brutal, go to Farpoint and prove me wrong or else ...", even a trigger happy captain would have thought twice about firing on the apparent aggressor at that point.
Leslie is just as annoying as Wesley, making the character a wunderkind was a mistake, "oh, look at me, I pressed the correct buttons almost instinctively"
If they wanted a teenager they should have just written a teenager.
And I'm not sure what the point of the departing first officer was, he added nothing to the story except establishing that the Enterprise wasn't brand new and had some history but whatever, that really doesn't matter much in the big picture.I did like Geordi being an inexperienced ensign and I liked ensign green aka the one who didn't make it into Picard's inner circle, if he had been a recurring character it could have given the show another perspective, lower decks b stories from time to time. The Farpoint mystery isn't that great but it works better here as something Picard is supposed to investigate, for a big test by an omnipotent being it was a bit easy to solve especially after Q basically told them "You are accused of being savage and brutal, go to Farpoint and prove me wrong or else ...", even a trigger happy captain would have thought twice about firing on the apparent aggressor at that point.
Leslie is just as annoying as Wesley, making the character a wunderkind was a mistake, "oh, look at me, I pressed the correct buttons almost instinctively"
If they wanted a teenager they should have just written a teenager.
I actually like that. It makes the Enterprise feel like a real military vessel where they're offloading both personal and supplies. People are rotating out and others are rotating in. Also, I'm not overly fond of the gathering-type pilots. I like the ones where there's some history already and we're coming in the middle of it, like the pilots for the original series.
It also leaves open the ability to build stories upon "unseen moments" between various crewmembers and situations from before the "new crewmembers (including us, the viewers)" came on board.
Naked Now was a bad remake, while a "Trelane's people judge humanity for their brutal past" builds on the original story and takes it in a new direction - a sequel, as opposed to a remake. It would also count as character growth for Q/Trelane, since we last saw him as much more immature.The TNG plotline would have been him helping humanity out, looking out for them and striving for them to improve and survive - that fits both his nature (toying with them) yet looking out for them (as they were his favorite pets/toys/tv entertainment.)
Since we're discussing early versions of "Encounter of Farpoint," Trekdocs (@trekdocs on Twitter) released a Robert Justman memo on the story for the two-hour opener.
In the memo, Justman suggests that the opener should deal directly with the impact of families on starships. He further suggest that through the events and dangers of the pilot, Picard must make a decision on whether to continue this experiment. Read it for yourself:
In the memo, Justman suggests that the opener should deal directly with the impact of families on starships. He further suggest that through the events and dangers of the pilot, Picard must make a decision on whether to continue this experiment. Read it for yourself:
"love/hate, friendship/antagonism, adultery, social and professional competition" .... wow, i would have LOVED a version of TNG that included elements of conflict and drama! 
TNG was definitely setup for drama. Riker mistrusted Data. The two Crushers had some resentment for Picard being involved in Jack's death. Picard hated families and kids. Worf is an Klingon among humans. Troi had history with Riker that he seemed uncomfortable with, but she wanted to start back up again (she literally invites him for sex in the outline draft). Tasha and Troi are two different types of femininity. Tasha is also a fighter, while Picard is a diplomat to a fault. Riker and Picard have vastly different ideas about leadership and the role of a captain. Geordi is... just there. We see some of this conflict in the first season. In the second Gene brings in Pulaski who's at odds with everyone. He was always great at creating these kinds of complementing characters and dynamics, so none of this stuff was accidental. I think Maurice Hurley and company took his "no conflict" dictum too seriously if there really even was one at all. Hurley even complains that Gene's rules were nuts but that he enforced them better than Gene did in "Chaos on the Bridge". That tells me there was some miscommunication about what this show was supposed to be."love/hate, friendship/antagonism, adultery, social and professional competition" .... wow, i would have LOVED a version of TNG that included elements of conflict and drama!
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