Has TNG Aged Well?

[Tesophius]

I'm not even talking about the aesthetics, but how dated technology is. This is a 1980's computer in the 24th century:

http://www.trekprops.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/DSC_8336.jpg

 

[GabyBee]

Well, I suppose in fairness, they were also somewhat ahead of their time, by essentially predicting that tablet computers (PADDs) would become a thing.

 

[Tesophius]

Tablets have been conceptualized years before Voyager came out and were already in the prototype work by Microsoft, while Voyager takes place in the 24th century.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

TNG also had those same kind of laptops, though they were really supposed to be desktop machines and not moved. But I never got how the heck you were supposed to navigate those with no visible keyboard and no visible buttons of any familiarity..

 

[Prax]

Tablets have been conceptualized years before Voyager came out and were already in the prototype work by Microsoft, while Voyager takes place in the 24th century.

Are Voyagers props different from DS9? There's an episode of DS9 where Bashir is going to some Medical Conference, and he wants to bring all these books. He throws like 10 Padds in his suitcase. Yes, that's one tablet per book. And that was in season 6 or 7!

Voyager has the astrometrics laboratory, which still looks high tech. The only thing that might look a little dated is Neelix, who dresses like a pimp from New Orleans,but it grows on u.

There's an episode where they go back to 1998 Earth and Paris is dressed like Magnum P.I., Chakotay like Miami Vice, Tuvok like Tupac, and Janeway like Murphy Brown, but they mention in the episode that they didnt get their period costumes quite right.

Enterprise designed all new props and they still look futuristic i think.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Are Voyagers props different from DS9? There's an episode of DS9 where Bashir is going to some Medical Conference, and he wants to bring all these books. He throws like 10 Padds in his suitcase. Yes, that's one tablet per book. And that was in season 6 or 7!

Which in itself I find quite odd because they supposedly have the technology to cram terabytes of data into very small devices most other times yet you need 10 padds to hold books. Even those pesky nanites Wesley made in Evolution had gigabytes of onboard storage.

 

[Voth commando1]

I don't think they really grasped the scale and scope of the computer revolution when TNG came out.

 

[Prax]

Which in itself I find quite odd because they supposedly have the technology to cram terabytes of data into very small devices most other times yet you need 10 padds to hold books. Even those pesky nanites Wesley made in Evolution had gigabytes of onboard storage.

Maybe they thought an e-book would be 5 Gigaquads. I mean there's so many words in a book!

Instead they're like 47 kB.

 

[Tesophius]

That's the problem with post-TOS Star Trek, to show distant future they take modern level of development and extrapolate it out a few years, so in 1987 they're showing 1992 level of technology. How does that make any sense? Why not reference any number of futurist projections for at least 2050 if they want to remain conservative.

 

[GabyBee]

What if the colloquial term for "book" in the 24th Century was inter-changeable with "holo-novel", and each PADD contained the data required to run each "book" on a holodeck?

 

[jaime]

What if the colloquial term for "book" in the 24th Century was inter-changeable with "holo-novel", and each PADD contained the data required to run each "book" on a holodeck?

That's very true... we see people 'write' holo-novels, and it's known that literature feeds into the holodeck. It's like the synergy between kindle and audible.

 

[Prax]

What if the colloquial term for "book" in the 24th Century was inter-changeable with "holo-novel", and each PADD contained the data required to run each "book" on a holodeck?

That's a clever solution.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

What if the colloquial term for "book" in the 24th Century was inter-changeable with "holo-novel", and each PADD contained the data required to run each "book" on a holodeck?

OK I can buy into that too...... So writing a book in the 24th Century might involve the author, and someone to help code the holodeck stuff. OK I can buy that. That would also account for a large pool of data which would need more storage.

I still would love to know how you navigate those desktop terminals with no keyboard or pointing device, yet we've seen people tapping on the base below the screen as if there was something.

 

[jaime]

OK I can buy into that too...... So writing a book in the 24th Century might involve the author, and someone to help code the holodeck stuff. OK I can buy that. That would also account for a large pool of data which would need more storage.

I still would love to know how you navigate those desktop terminals with no keyboard or pointing device, yet we've seen people tapping on the base below the screen as if there was something.

Touch pads. Built in buttons. Like the kindle Voyager.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Touch pads. Built in buttons. Like the kindle Voyager.

Ah, OK I get that now. I had wondered because when we see Picard use the one on his desk he does that.

 

[Lance]

^ As an aside, Patrick Stewart admits his 'desktop computer terminal acting' changed after he bought his first laptop. Prior to that you'd often see him just tapping on the lower part of the device seemingly at random, but after he got his laptop, he'd gotten so used to using the synaptics device to move the mouse pointer around the screen, that you can often see him starting to do that on his ready room desktop terminal prop too.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

^ As an aside, Patrick Stewart admits his 'desktop computer terminal acting' changed after he bought his first laptop. Prior to that you'd often see him just tapping on the lower part of the device seemingly at random, but after he got his laptop, he'd gotten so used to using the synaptics device to move the mouse pointer around the screen, that you can often see him starting to do that on his ready room desktop terminal prop too.

Ah....... Yeah I hate touchpads though. But, but I am gradually getting to use one on the small Asus I bought for my birthday. It was just a crappy 11.5 screen notebook I bought just so I can write stuff and not be online, so its performance wasn't an issue and it runs openoffice well, and that's really all I wanted it for. Anyway I'm starting to use the touchpad more and softening in my dislike of them.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

For those of you complaining about the supposed limited capabilities of the PADD, do you have desks either crammed with or piled high with paper? How much of that could be eliminated by digitizing them, by simply working with documents on a computer or receiving bills, etc., online? How many of you have bookcases filled with books for which ebooks exist as well? Why have you not replaced them?

The fact that there were so many PADDs lying around may be more of a reflection of how people worked with them rather than how powerful they were. I might have a report on one, a book on another, and a reference guide on a third, and if those PADDs are cheap enough, it might be easier to alternate between them rather than flip through different screens on the same PADD. Indeed, it's still a small device, and being able to read documents side by side might prove to be difficult, regardless of how powerful the machine is.

 

[Harvey]

My only beef with TNG is the directing - it hasnt aged well. Sometimes the slow, static movements of the camera and the actors are opposite to what is happening. The way the show was shot was VERY conservative, almost on a 1940s movie level. It often brings me out of the show while watching it because it doesnt add up sometimes (example: a Borg drone accesses the computer panel in engineering and Picard & Co. just stand there, looking at it doing its stuff, the camera in static position, cutting back and forth).

This was by design (see the quote below), and it's one of the reasons why Star Trek: The Next Generation is so lifeless visually when compared to Star Trek.

With Star Trek there was a specific style of shooting. Rick's approach to directing Star Trek was much more classical. You never cut on a moving shot. You had to have the right amount of close ups, medium shots and reverses. You had to tell the story, and directing Star Trek really taught me a lot about the basics of film making.

(Star Trek Magazine, No. 35, July/Aug 2011)

Then again, the writing style was pretty conservative, too. You couldn't really stage overlapping action and dialogue in depth like they did on Hill Street Blues, because Star Trek: The Next Generation didn't have that kind of cadence. It was more about characters waiting for their turn to say their lines. Background extras (and even actors with speaking parts) often just stand (or sit) in place, looking off into space, rather than actually doing anything. And that's on the bridge, the show's signature (and most frequently used) set.

I get that Roddenberry wanted to depict a future that was much more automated and computerized than even the original Star Trek, but I feel like this dragged down the show almost as much as his much-derided idea that interpersonal conflict would no longer exist in the 24th century.

 

[Prax]

but I feel like this dragged down the show almost as much as his much-derided idea that interpersonal conflict would no longer exist in the 24th century.

I think idea was that interpersonal conflict wouldn't exist between the crew. The Enterprise is supposed to be this huge, brand new Flagship of Federation. It's going on a new deep space mission. And only the very best of the best can get a posting on it.

There's plenty of interpersonal conflict with other characters. A good example is season 2, episode 14 The Icarus Factor, where Riker's Father comes on board.