- Practically unlimited tangents to explore; e.g., how did the Chalnoth obtain warp technology? What happened during the Galen Border Conflict? What happened to the Ornarans?
- It is common for main characters to exit soap operas. They die, move out of Knots Landing, etc.; therefore, chronologically implausible issues - Data aging, for example - can be resolved by the character exiting in some fashion. This also allows for new characters/actors to be introduced, further expanding the opportunities for more storylines.
- Furthermore, if TNG were the sole Trek series produced, more resources could be utilized to enhance various aspects of the show that, in my opinion, were lacking. For example, set designs of alien worlds.
It would have been great if they adopted an ongoing soap opera style format for TNG.
- Thread starter Needle and Spoonhead
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TNG was perfect. No, not really. But lot of the criticism about writing and certain developments of certain elements like the Klingons and Borg would have been worse if they did this approach, explaining those two suggestions you made and more. Better to let it be, not too much backstory and follow ups....
Not enough is said about how episodic tv can be useful & also good. It is a format that favors stories over characters. Stories are good. We like stories, sometimes even more than drama about characters. I'd almost prefer, over what you propose, a Star Trek show that didn't have any ongoing characters at all, with literally no character growth beyond what can be seen in a single episode, like Outer Limits or Twilight Zone. A Star Trek where their universe is the only character that we explore, an hour at a time
That said, I think TNG managed to walk the line between both well enough
That said, I think TNG managed to walk the line between both well enough
Nemesis movie was soap operaish with Picard's evil twin. No wait, it was clone, nevermind. And no evil beard.
"Episodic with some continuity." is my preferred method of televised storytelling; in this regard, MacGyver and the first half of Stargate SG-1 are my gold standard. One reason (among many) I'm not so keen on Deep Dish Nine is due to its later seasons...there are SO MANY two- and three-parters!
For the time period, I only have one comparison:
Hill Street Blues.
Hill Street Blues.
Weren't seasons 5 through 7 closer in spirit to soap opera-style? Definitely more melodrama for its own sake and less sci-fi.
TNG could have done follow-ups with any plot points, like the Ornarans, or Brekkians or others, without becoming soapy. Finding a reason to make it compelling to the audience might be. after all, the Pakleds made a return in season 1 of Lower Decks - something nobody expected or otherwise might have wanted - except the effort put into making them more compelling was pretty nifty and, indeed, wowed viewers. The Brekkians would surely have a massive tiffy against Picard's band of pesky meddlers so how to lure them back convincingly would still be as important than the genre format (high concept sci-fi, soap opera-level drama, war stories, and/or anything in between).
Of course, too many revisits, sequels, or coincidental match-ups like how the doomsday machine planet killer from TOS was apparently designed to destroy borg cubes, et al, also risk the problem of "small universe syndrome" and the universe is rather a big place. Most shows end up using this trope when they start to hold off on releasing big new ideas (or if they're out of it so they look back and build upon what was told). Doesn't mean it's not done well, it's only a risk that all of a sudden some various random incidents have a big common connection... or, worse, characters: Red Dwarf turned some of its hapless characters into big epichero-types popsicle sticks by fleshing out their backstories and the fanservice got old. Sliders had hapless kid inventor genius Quinn Mallory now being a superstud from another dimension who can beat off the Big Threat of the Kromaggs in all universes, with his little brother Charlie of course. Doctor Who used to be a wanderer and randomly helping people but was turned into Spacejeebus, complete with loud soppy muzak so we all can cry enough to fill up enough pitchers to fill with lemonade flavor drink mix to satiate three world series' worth of ball games, etc, etc, etc...
Or, worse, whip out that old standby of "it was just a dream". Most notably for the sitcom "Roseanne" where the series finale retcons away six seasons' worth of draaaaaama by finding an episode involving a writing room and all this time it turns out the lead character was writing a book about what-ifs. Or that season from "Dallas". It's one heck of a fake-out, but clearly was used in soaps and other shows that adopted soapy styles mixed in. Even as someone cynical like myself would not want to see seasons 5-7 wiped out, with Picard waking up after being saved by the crew having dreamt it all up. Or, worse, he wakes up as a drone and seasons 4-everything was a dream in the magical land of Unimatrix Zero where the address is anything but 255.255.255.255., of course... if it's all in his mind then it's 127.0.0.1...
But I digress.
Data could have been turned off at any time with any script*. He amazingly wasn't when Tasha was groping him in "The Naked Now" as the location of his off switch is not an uncommon place where lovers touch each other. before groping at the good parts...
...But he also sorta was in "Nemesis", with such a rubbish draw-by-numbers mimeograph copy of Star Trek II and III's handling of Spock's death that nobody probably gave a darn, dang, hoot, damn and/or one of them unbleeped bleepy words found on all the cable/streaming channels.
* The number of times Picard threatens dismantling him in a show that otherwise treats him as a sentient organic lifeform yet Picard never threatens anyone else** with what's tantamount to dissection and/or murder... oops...
** apart from arguably the quaint role reversal in the film "First Contact", since - what with TV Picard's crew saving his hind and removing the implants in the TV show and all, and with comparative ease - Movie Picard now guffs and gloats six years later how it's oh-so-much better that his crew are killed instead of being rescued and de-borgified as he whips out the tommygun to mow down several (former crew, woops) instead of finding any number of ways of subduing them to later save them since it's not like the crew were in what seemed to be in an unstoppable posi-- oh, wait... But let's see, they're in a holodeck, magical safeties are off per plot regulation 42007, order Mr. Computer to fart out some knock-out gas, the Borg all take a nice big whiff, they all keel over quickly because they've not had to adapt to anything even remotely like it before, and voila - out cold like cats after catnip to be held in force fields they can't adapt to. Of course, then there'd be no later scene involving epic temporal malarkey about "watch your future's end" with more Jean McClane one-liners that are a bit out of place, never mind how they got back home without the deflector dish to reproduce the Borg magical tunnel (aka 50000th way to initiate time travel on cue)... but I digress again.
TNG could have done follow-ups with any plot points, like the Ornarans, or Brekkians or others, without becoming soapy. Finding a reason to make it compelling to the audience might be. after all, the Pakleds made a return in season 1 of Lower Decks - something nobody expected or otherwise might have wanted - except the effort put into making them more compelling was pretty nifty and, indeed, wowed viewers. The Brekkians would surely have a massive tiffy against Picard's band of pesky meddlers so how to lure them back convincingly would still be as important than the genre format (high concept sci-fi, soap opera-level drama, war stories, and/or anything in between).
Of course, too many revisits, sequels, or coincidental match-ups like how the doomsday machine planet killer from TOS was apparently designed to destroy borg cubes, et al, also risk the problem of "small universe syndrome" and the universe is rather a big place. Most shows end up using this trope when they start to hold off on releasing big new ideas (or if they're out of it so they look back and build upon what was told). Doesn't mean it's not done well, it's only a risk that all of a sudden some various random incidents have a big common connection... or, worse, characters: Red Dwarf turned some of its hapless characters into big epic
Or, worse, whip out that old standby of "it was just a dream". Most notably for the sitcom "Roseanne" where the series finale retcons away six seasons' worth of draaaaaama by finding an episode involving a writing room and all this time it turns out the lead character was writing a book about what-ifs. Or that season from "Dallas". It's one heck of a fake-out, but clearly was used in soaps and other shows that adopted soapy styles mixed in. Even as someone cynical like myself would not want to see seasons 5-7 wiped out, with Picard waking up after being saved by the crew having dreamt it all up. Or, worse, he wakes up as a drone and seasons 4-everything was a dream in the magical land of Unimatrix Zero where the address is anything but 255.255.255.255., of course... if it's all in his mind then it's 127.0.0.1...
But I digress.
Data could have been turned off at any time with any script*. He amazingly wasn't when Tasha was groping him in "The Naked Now" as the location of his off switch is not an uncommon place where lovers touch each other. before groping at the good parts...
...But he also sorta was in "Nemesis", with such a rubbish draw-by-numbers mimeograph copy of Star Trek II and III's handling of Spock's death that nobody probably gave a darn, dang, hoot, damn and/or one of them unbleeped bleepy words found on all the cable/streaming channels.
* The number of times Picard threatens dismantling him in a show that otherwise treats him as a sentient organic lifeform yet Picard never threatens anyone else** with what's tantamount to dissection and/or murder... oops...
** apart from arguably the quaint role reversal in the film "First Contact", since - what with TV Picard's crew saving his hind and removing the implants in the TV show and all, and with comparative ease - Movie Picard now guffs and gloats six years later how it's oh-so-much better that his crew are killed instead of being rescued and de-borgified as he whips out the tommygun to mow down several (former crew, woops) instead of finding any number of ways of subduing them to later save them since it's not like the crew were in what seemed to be in an unstoppable posi-- oh, wait... But let's see, they're in a holodeck, magical safeties are off per plot regulation 42007, order Mr. Computer to fart out some knock-out gas, the Borg all take a nice big whiff, they all keel over quickly because they've not had to adapt to anything even remotely like it before, and voila - out cold like cats after catnip to be held in force fields they can't adapt to. Of course, then there'd be no later scene involving epic temporal malarkey about "watch your future's end" with more Jean McClane one-liners that are a bit out of place, never mind how they got back home without the deflector dish to reproduce the Borg magical tunnel (aka 50000th way to initiate time travel on cue)... but I digress again.
What type of continuity did MacG have?
And here we have the correct answer. =)
Once? One time in Clues? & that wasn't a threat that he'd have Data dismantled. It was a warning that he & Data both know too well that something like that occurrence would be likely to get Starfleet starting up their oppressive android tactics yet again. Not a threat. A reminder that Data walks a fine line with liberty in that organization, & his behavior in that episode could potentially undo a lot of what they both had achieved for him. It really amazes me how often people misread that exchange
1. There are many ideas that were introduced which could have been followed up and some which were. Yes, more could have been and I think some like the Iconians were in the novels. There comes a point at which it's quite hard to follow if you don't watch every episode though. I found it close to impossible to follow what was happening in DS9 until streaming was possible because I wasn't able to watch many episodes and they weren't in the right order. This is clearly no longer an issue but I think it would have been at the time TNG was made.
2. Tasha and Wesley did leave. Were you thinking for example after Riker's story is mostly concluded after BoBW, his character could be replaced?
3. I would be very sad if TNG were the sole Trek series produced. Whilst I understand what you mean about the set designs of alien worlds, with TOS there's something very special to me about it which comes from it being like a time capsule from the 1960s even though for example a lot of the special effects aren't great. And I think in 20 years time I will probably feel the same way about TNG.
I'm not sure how much soap opera material you could get out of Starfleet's flagship, with such an elite and ultra-professional cast of characters. It worked in DS9 because that show was about a ragtag crew of misfits in a political hotbed. "Voyager" could have used the soap opera format, but not TNG.
I'm pretty protective of TNG so I don't really agree with any of the OP's ideas. But maybe in a parallel universe it would be interesting if original Star Trek had a format where characters were replaced when actors left and the show continued on and it was all set on the Enterprise NCC-1701 (pretty much the Doctor Who format, I guess). And if you subbed in our universes characters as proxy characters, perhaps in Season 21 Captain Jean-Luc Picard takes over command and so on and so forth.
Or ColeMercury came up with the fifteen season TNG (1987-2002) which adopts a similar policy of revolving door cast/characters and subs in ideas from Voyager to fill out the later seasons. But that only worked there because it's TNG was not as successful as ours. Once the cast decided to end the show it was a lot smarter to just do another spin-off anyway.
Or ColeMercury came up with the fifteen season TNG (1987-2002) which adopts a similar policy of revolving door cast/characters and subs in ideas from Voyager to fill out the later seasons. But that only worked there because it's TNG was not as successful as ours. Once the cast decided to end the show it was a lot smarter to just do another spin-off anyway.
Might it even be possible to fall into a turbolift shaft?
There must be forcefields to prevent that soap opera tragedy.
Evil twins? A tricorder would pick up a fake beard instantly.
Trouble with a romance? There's always the holodeck to create perfect and obedient partner, no trouble there.
Alternate personalities? That's where Vulcan mindmeld steps in.
Blackmailing? In a society with no money?
Multiple marriages? On some planets that could be acceptable.
Affairs? Again, holodeck can help you with those. Is it cheating if you do the nasty business with a holo character?
Who's going to cook toning? The replicator.
Someone comes back after being thought dead? That person has just been in transporter memory for few years and then rematerialized.
Plastic surgery? Klingon forehead bumps appeared suddenly?
Father is his daughters grandmothers stepson? Bloodlines should be easy to find out with tech of the future.
Daughter is his fathers mother? That's time traveling for you.