Has TNG Aged Well?
- Thread starter KirbyHawk
- Start date
What ages best are timeless stories. Especially stories that illuminate the human condition.
Watching it on Bluray has made me realize how very good it still is. I've always loved TNG but seeing it in HD glory has been a real treat. I've watched the extended version of The Measure of a Man and still love the episode so much.
Definitely a good episode. With the unintended consequence bringing us the holographic rights storyline in Voyager.
I find for the most part the show is really boring and bland; "gentrified". I can imagine the crew preaching about diversity and alien rights during the day and closing the shades on their windows at night while they sip their synthehol brandy listening to light jazz and classical music while reading pre-20th Century literature. I enjoyed the show like everyone else when it first aired but I've found it hard to revisit.
yes. TNG has indeed aged very well over the years. Its a show i personally never get tired of watching. I began watching it when I was about 9 and stayed with it until the end in 1994. I agree the first season is a little bit rocky to begin with and
hey! don 't forget fellow Paramount show, Cheers. That's held up pretty well too!
Strangely though (being facetious) there was so much talk both from the cast, crew and media at the time about how much more naturalistic the dialogue was than in TOS, which is certainly true. However, by any standard it's not modern 20th century English, in the sense you don't hear people talking that way on the street generally. This is actually totally appropriate and keeps the show from dating. As some have pointed out, it's a Shakespearean style of delivery and requires a certain kind of acting that many can't do. Stage actors tend to do better at it because they can adjust their thinking from older plays to a sort of 24th century stage play.
I give credit to Trek (and STNG in particular) for showing better extrapolation of culture change (whichever way you think it will go, Trek takes it's own stance..a less common one) and development from a future society. For example, NuBSG often takes me right out of the future by placing so much of itself firmly in not only the 21st century, but the 20th. It's odd to see a society with advanced machines that have retro-technology and everyone acts like they do in 2004. The nerd boys love it but it's not realistic.
RAMA
Everything about the following post is utter nonsense.
I give credit to Trek (and STNG in particular) for showing better extrapolation of culture change (whichever way you think it will go, Trek takes it's own stance..a less common one) and development from a future society. For example, NuBSG often takes me right out of the future by placing so much of itself firmly in not only the 21st century, but the 20th. It's odd to see a society with advanced machines that have retro-technology and everyone acts like they do in 2004. The nerd boys love it but it's not realistic.
RAMA
Everything about the following post is utter nonsense.
I enjoyed TNG when it aired (I was in 7th grade when "Encounter at Farpoint" aired) and never once missed a first-broadcast episode. That said, aside from nostalgia value, I find it hard to re-engage with the show now. I own all 7 seasons on BR, and I try to watch them...but I find there's whole seasons where, when I look at the episode titles, only 1 or 2 episodes interest me for re-watch.
I can remember clearly, even as a young Jr. High Schooler, rolling my eyes at some of TNG's approach when it first aired.
Good acting, great effects, etc...but it's just a bland, passionless, static show in so many instances. Don't get me wrong, it's still vastly superior to 95% of everything else ever broadcast and I still have a place in my heart for it, but I'm less-and-less a TV guy now that I'm older.
I think it's aged fairly well. The remastered versions look fantastic and vibrant. None of them have a heavy 80s or 90s vibe.
I can remember clearly, even as a young Jr. High Schooler, rolling my eyes at some of TNG's approach when it first aired.
Good acting, great effects, etc...but it's just a bland, passionless, static show in so many instances. Don't get me wrong, it's still vastly superior to 95% of everything else ever broadcast and I still have a place in my heart for it, but I'm less-and-less a TV guy now that I'm older.
I think it's aged fairly well. The remastered versions look fantastic and vibrant. None of them have a heavy 80s or 90s vibe.
Most of TNG has not aged well, and I'm not talking about the living room lighting of Enterprise interiors, the heavy leaning on technobabble as a substitute for developing a compelling story, or the Strafleet leisure suits (80s style). No, the conscious drive of the series to be so Hell-bent on yelling, "we are are NOT TOS!!" that over the course of TNG's run--with few exceptions-- the PTB created a ST world that was more 80s HR / therapy session than the feeling of "risk is our business" in the vast, unknown galaxy. More new age, avoidance of anything than true heart, raw danger and challenge to the soul.
Is it any wonder that the 20th anniversary of TNG was not an event with mass media coverage compared to that of TOS at 20, back in '86? TNG's anniversary was a blink and you missed it affair, which speaks to how much the series has lost its cultural grip in the years since it ended production. That's just part of the reason it has not aged well.
Is it any wonder that the 20th anniversary of TNG was not an event with mass media coverage compared to that of TOS at 20, back in '86? TNG's anniversary was a blink and you missed it affair, which speaks to how much the series has lost its cultural grip in the years since it ended production. That's just part of the reason it has not aged well.
Last edited:
Pretty much this - TNG had some real gems, and arguably more of them than most of the Trek series. There are some stinkers and some unobjectionable filler episodes, and at 26 episodes a season, I'd be surprised if there weren't. But rewatching 'Darmok', 'Q Who', and 'I, Borg' this week, the show can still have an impact and tell a really good story. I still enjoy it.
All I can say is I watched Family last night and Patrick Stewart and Jeremy Kemp reduced me to an emotional mess once again. What's more it bothered me that I knew Roberts and Renes fate in just a few years time. And none of it's real!
Yes, aesthetics change and in an attempt to look timeless Sci-Fi shows often inadvertently date themselves but the core themes and quality of acting in examples like Family mean that, for me at least, TNG has aged very well.
Like a fine wine, in fact. A '47 not a '46.
Yes, aesthetics change and in an attempt to look timeless Sci-Fi shows often inadvertently date themselves but the core themes and quality of acting in examples like Family mean that, for me at least, TNG has aged very well.
Like a fine wine, in fact. A '47 not a '46.
Parts of it feel a little dated but the mere fact of knowing that All Good Things picks up the trial from Farpoint again, elevates it in my opinion.
There are a couple of groan worthy parts in there (Marina Sirtis was rough in that first outing), but overall I feel the story holds together fairly well.
I don't love TNG the way I love TOS, but it is still enjoyable; some of it still seems stuck in the 1980s (the hair, for instance.)
I would actually say the opposite. The first few years of TNG are about as 80's as it gets, whereas the later seasons are a bit more culturally neutral.
The 60's are a well liked cultural era and specifically the old 50's/60's sci-fi aesthetic is classic rather than dated. For that reason I think TOS has and will age better than TNG.
In terms of aesthetics, TOS looks retro whereas TNG just looks old. All that beige and 80s frizzy hair. Yuck.
Similar threads
