The first 2 seasons of TNG are amongst my most favourite in all of STAR TREK. It may be a "grab bag," of sorts, in the early going, but the care and attention the show received is all onscreen. And more than any of that, there's a real sense of enthusiasm that comes across, like everyone involved feels like they're kids in a candy story ... "We get to play with STAR TREK!!" In a very real way, those earliest seasons have a freshness and vitality that the rest of the franchise from DS9 on seemed to be lacking in, unfortunately. They're more like, "let's just keep the party going." TNG, though, was made to order ... and it lived up to its hype. I look forward to reading about the journey of rediscovery into this milestone in entertainment and - indeed - Gene Roddenberry's crowning achievement.
Season 1 was a very mixed bag and even good story premises like "Datalore" suffer BADLY due to season 1's overall production greenness. But one can still see the potential...
"The Naked Now" exemplifies your approach of enthusiasm and getting to play. I adored reading your take on early-TNG, and you're right. It does have a freshness and playful feel, even if it screws up at times.
(Season 2 also brings a more sinister edge to stories, making me wish TNG kept its formula and Dr Pulaski along for the ride a bit longer. It's my overall favorite of the 7 seasons, even if season 3 is more well-rounded and tighter, season 2 takes more risks at times.)
On Blu-ray, Season one TNG is great. I don't know if its the new effects, where placed, or the HD but it adds to the cinema look they wanted for the small screen which defiantly helps where some of the stories are concerned.
Blu-ray's added resolution and color gamut makes every episode, even the poorest written of the bunch, sparkle. Even scenes on the beige bridge pop and look alive now. Even badly executed stories like "Justice" and "Code of Honor" are more engaging due to the wider palette, they're both stunning to watch. Editing on NTSC videotape just made everything look even more dull than "the beige hotel in space" (which is a weird criticism people had back then since the original Enterprise was "the gravestone gray sardine can in space" for lack of better definition of the original 1701's smaller size, gravestone gray is pretty much the hue...
Thank you for the comments, everyone.
“Encounter at Farpoint”
(Season 1, Episode 1)
Story:
Captain Jean-Luc Picard has been recently put in command of Enterprise 1701-D, a Galaxy Class vessel. In this episode, he picks up his crew at various parts of the, well, galaxy while dealing with a mysterious being named Q. Q plans on testing humanity, specifically focusing on Picard, as the crew head to Farpoint Station where the people, the Bendii, are using an unwilling creature to create said station.
Plot holes/Plot Issues:
One plot issue I thought of while typing this review up: Why is Q only using Picard to test all of 'humanity?' 'Humanity' that is not only on Earth but obviously spread out in starbases, colonies, etc.?
Am loving your posts, thanks!
Great point, why only Picard? What would the Q have picked up about him and not the rest of humanity in the galaxy?
The fact that Q will always turn up to ‘bother’ primarily Picard later in the series shows a certain interest, especially since the de Lancie ‘Q’ is the one that usually shows up.
Maybe Picard is a personal experiment? Maybe there was ‘something’ (that we never learn in the series) that drew this particular Q to this particular point in this 24th-century timeline?
Makes sense, given how the Continuum even made judgment on humanity and DeLancie-Q meddles to save Picard's bacon anyway.
Or he was hoping to get a bit of Janeway and couldn't do that without having to step in to prevent Picard from annihilating all of humanity in what amounted to a big accident with using sensors through a spatial anomaly without experimenting how that might hamper causality beforehand... (woops)
Miscellaneous Thoughts:
I was definitely on board with this pilot. I remember there was a lot of apprehension about Star Trek continuing on without Kirk and Spock as if we couldn’t have an expanded view of a universe that had many ships, many colonies, and many different types of stories that could be had from various humanoid and alien characters.
At the time, I wasn't enthralled, apart from the f/x and Patrick Stewart's performance being a bit tighter and assured than the rest of the cast's. Rewatching it a couple decades later, there are so many little nuances that swooshed far over my head. The premiere is still corny in spots, but there's far more to genuinely enjoy. Especially from Q mocking humanity.
Star Trek fans are known for their complaining, but I do realize the original Star Trek cast members (at least some of them) were also apprehensive about this series. For example, a few of the original cast members didn’t like producer Harve Bennett coming up with the idea to have a ‘Starfleet Academy’ film series with younger versions of Kirk and crew, a production that could overshadow the films with the original crew members. However, we would have a version of that idea with the J.J. Abrams-produced Kelvin Timeline universe.
The original Academy would have sunk the series. Going into the future post-Kirk and having a new crew was the safest risk to take and it ultimately paid off big-time.
JJ-timeline pays homage to the academy/younger version idea, but those movies - which have the right action feel - still lack
some of the depth that TOS had (on tv or movies), despite having some moments that were very good...
That and redoing alternate timelines isn't going to do the franchise much good forever. They have to move forward while still having some ideals true to what makes Trek unique.
This pilot had many Roddenberry-esque elements. Specifically, there were the costumes created by William Ware Theiss who worked on the original series. In this case, there were ‘skants’ or skirt uniforms (and sexy boots) that were not only for women, but skants (and male-centric boots) for men. Alas, this interesting idea only lasted for one season; our society which focuses on a warped sense of masculinity couldn’t handle men in attire that was primarily deemed ‘feminine.’
It was different and it felt like a mishmash of two different styles and the result clashed, especially considering the history of the kilt. Ultimately, making everyone wear pants was simpler, even if poor Troi had to wear nothing but bedroom sheet sets until season 6. The blu-ray brings out the sheen of the teals, greens, red hair beret, etc, of her outfits in ways the broadcast VT masters couldn't begin to do, though... but having digressed, I wonder if doing more to explain the "skant" onscreen may have allayed fears from viewers.
There was also an interesting scene (on Farpoint Station, if I remember correctly) with two extras walking together, a bit that was possibly unintentional: There were two ‘redshirts,’ one was a woman in a jumpsuit and the other was a man, wearing the skant.
Counselor Deanna Troi is in the skant, a blue one, for this episode. I can understand why her attire was changed since she was a counselor. For this particular episode, her role was primarily to look pretty. (And she does, which had me crushing on her for a few episodes). I was glad they had her back in the skant in the final episode of The Next Generation “All Good Things.”
Ditto.
Tasha Yar was an interesting addition as well.
The few times she was given dialogue of substance she was great. I'm also one of the few who liked "Symbiosis" as an episode.
Her hairstyle denotes a ‘next generation’ of Star Trek (aka ‘this is not your father’s Star Trek’)as well as the fact that she is head of security and one who is formidable in hand-to-hand combat. Like Troi, Yar is in a skant, a yellow one, at the end of the episode. Unfortunately, for me at least, she is behind her console during this particular scene and the camera is panning to Patrick Stewart’s Picard, who is giving his line of closing dialogue. (I should also say: I was also crushing on Tasha Yar at the time).
Crosby is hawt, that's for sure!
I wish Ms. Crosby hadn't left the show, though it's hard to blame her given how sappy season 1 could be at times. Ditto for season 5 after Sela was dropped without reason, she's a good character actress, IMHO.
Some other interesting additions include a Klingon as well an android on the bridge. Since the Klingons were known villains (or at least there was a ‘cold war’ relationship with the Federation) in the Star Trek universe, it was curious to have a Klingon officer on the bridge, as we saw with Lt. Worf. With Lt. Commander Data, it was going to be -- I’ve used ‘interesting’ a few times so I’ll say ‘fascinating,’ to coin a term from Spock -- to see how he interacted with this crew.
At first I wasn't keen, but as episodes went on he grew on me. "Heart of Glory" was the first great Worf episode, and while later TNG seasons had some hit or miss episodes, to the point of the Klingons being done to death and more, when he came back in DS9, I was susprised at where they took Worf and the Klingons because it felt like a renewal of the sort I wasn't beginning to expect - because they were adding the the Klingons again and in so many ways, it was new life and I was glued to the set again.
One line of dialogue I got nitpicky with, from Counselor Troi to Grappler Zorn: “I’m only half Betazoid[...]my father was a Starfleet Officer.” Well, couldn’t her father also be a Starfleet Officer and Betazoid? It’s not like one becomes another racial group once he or she joins Starfleet.
Yeah, the line's a bit of a nonsensical misnomer. Drove me bonkers too. Isn't Betazoid in the Federation, protected by Starfleet? Doesn't Starfleet have officers from all sorts of races and species?
The worst part of this episode is Wesley Crusher. I know I’m coming off as a typical Wesley hater, but I personally found him obnoxious. The scene where he is in awe of the bridge of Enterprise is cheesy.
In DS9, they figured out how to write for child actors and Jake Sisko is handled far better.
Wil Wheaton was not a bad actor. It bugs me no end that he gets hate mail when Wesley is not his fault but the writers'. Not until "The Dauphin" did Wesley get a decent episode, if not "Coming of Age". And those are the exceptions, not the rule. Season 3 does Wes some more justice, but the writers more than not opted to make him smart by making all the adults dumb - the very thing a writer shouldn't do. "Datalore" is a great example of that.
There are other character things I didn’t agree with: Picard is an ass when dealing with children. Riker is a bit too ‘by the book.’
The Picard/kids thing was decent and made way for some lovely awkward moments in "Descent", "Pen Pals", and so on.
Riker was more or less a Kirk-clone who also despised Data for no reason and made crude jokes about him and Geordi ("A blind mean teaching an android how to paint?" as he grins insanely, trying a poor imitation of Tom Baker's award-winning grin).
It’s the 24th Century and they can’t cure blindness, in regards to Geordi LaForge. A year before in “Star Trek 4,” Dr. McCoy gave an elderly woman a pill to grow a new kidney, yet blindness is still a thing? (I know Picard’s baldness has been brought up as well).
Nobody's perfect, not even in the sciences?
Given Roddenberry had a thing against baldness, I'm somewhat surprised he didn't try to force the issue (baldness in characters, much less forcing Patrick Stewart to wear a wig made from a Chia Pet or anything else...)
Some other things include Worf being a bit too overzealous; action before thinking. Although, a credit to the writers for having Worf admit he’s still learning. (Yar also comes off as overzealous at times but I think I’m biased and forgiving since I’m a Yar fan).
Worf's overzealousness worked great in DS9, either against Odo or Dax...
Yar's overzealous but I took it as a result of her abused upbringing and her descriptions of the disordered nastiness she survived.
There are a few nitpicks I have in regards to the production: The effects are dodgy, but I understand there are remastered versions.
I thought they were awesome in 1987, but since then they are comparatively dodgy. Most if not all look better than the original master tapes' versions.
And there is some cheesiness going on when The Next Generation theme plays while the Enterprise does a saucer separation.
LOL!!
I have some further observations, not exactly nitpicks: I’ve liked how Colm Meaney (as an unnamed redshirt) has such a bit part, but will come to be a primary character in the series as Miles O’Brien; I’m sure his character here has a backstory and is most definitely Miles O’Brien, just not settled in his Engineering role.
I've not been through all of DS9 yet but I hope he gets one retroactively...
I also liked how we would see actress Lorine Mendel show up frequently in her yellow skirt (or ‘skant’) and boots as a walkon in practically each episode of the 1st season, reminiscent of Lt. Leslie frequently turning up as a minor but memorable character. Most ‘fascinating’ is the fact that DC Fontana wrote this episode.
Didn't Gene co-write or partially rewrite it? (that decision by Paramount to make it from a 1-hour to 2-hour event?)
Other observations are seeing actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa in a bit role in one of Q’s illusions, and the fact we see the Farpoint Station aliens (yes, they are called Farpoint Station aliens) in Star Trek Online at one point. Also, the fact that we see the holodeck (officially?) since a similar version turned up in The Animated Series, in the 23rd century.
TAS did have some influence on TNG, as had TMP (Riker/Troi = Decker/Ilia). A couple Phase II scripts became TNG (The Child, Devil's Due) as well...
Finally, with the apprehension that Star Trek can’t exist without Kirk and Spock, one of the best scenes happen with an original cast member. A 137-year old Admiral McCoy, portrayed by the late DeForest Kelley, shows up for a brief tour with Lt. Commander Data.
Score:
4 out of 5, I was a fan of TNG at this point and was looking forward to future episodes.
Next Up:
“The Naked Now”
McCoy's line of "How do you remember that so precisely?" when Data didn't go into the number of months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, microseconds, nanoseconds, and so on prior to his apparent shock? That's the only nitpick, McCoy's otherwise wonderful to see and works off of Brent Spiner well (and vice-versa, a shame we only get a cameo.)
4 out of 5, definitely. Looking forward to your upcoming reviews!
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