There doesn't *need* to be internal conflict as long as the antagonists are strong. Get the external antagonists strong and effective and you are good to go. In real life you can find teams or an ensemble or a community that do get on with each other. Indeed, the TNG acting ensemle got on with each other off-screen. I liked that TNG crew got on and I liked when they branched out with DS9 with alot of internal conflict withiin a multi-species frontier outpost. I was then somewhat disappointed internal conflict wasn't ramped up more on Voyager with the Maquis/Starfleet divide.
I've seen worse conflict in real life than I saw on Voyager. Specifically when half the office roots for one football team and the other half roots for another. Unless I missed the episode where Harry Kim calls Chakotay a "cheese head piece of ****" You exaggerate more than a little.
Thing is, TNG ditched the "Roddenberry Box" when it suited them. Riker and his dad need to fight it out to settle their differences, Barclay's getting everyone pissed off at him and goes to the holodeck to act out fantasies in which he beats up his superiors, or is superior to them in fencing. Or introducing Ro Laren, a troubled officer with a bad attitude. Data and his XO on the Sutherland getting into constant arguments, Riker and Shelby arguing over procedure and career ambitions. Hell, one of the most popular TNG episodes is the one that is completely anti-Roddenberry and his ideals, the complete antithesis of Gene's Vision. Yesterday's Enterprise, in which the Enterprise is a legitimate warship, Starfleet is intentionally a military, and the crew aren't all friends and who always agree. Really, the Roddenberry Box did nothing but limit storytelling, and forced the show to constantly revisit the same tired tropes, or worse contributed to the later problem of technobabble becoming the plot. True creativity comes only when unfettered. And I think on some level Piller agreed. Why else did he take a writer who walked out on him during TNG because he couldn't operate under the Box and brought him back to run DS9 free of the Box?
I respect your post, becaue I think you make some compelling points... But this is a ridiculous statement. TNG was a great many things, but a show "with balls" it generally was NOT.
Shit, I can't believe I forgot this in my other post above, but where was this so called "Roddenberry Box" in Chain of Command? Jellico basically brought conflict and drama onto the show, and this episode introduced Admiral Nechayev who Picard got into conflict with on a few occasions.
Tiny conflict. And it was between the established crew and an outsider, thereby fulfilling the rules. It was also after Rodenberry passed and Piller was prepping other things.
For its time period it was. First run syndication? Some of the storylines and the subject matter? Yes other shows had courage, but simply because it had company (NYPD Blue, etc etc) doesn’t mean it didn’t break new ground.
Every single one of those has the conflict come from outside the crew, and Yesterday’s Enterprise is basically a mirror universe show...it’s whole reasoning is to show how the crew would be different. Even in that universe, I don’t remember internal conflict of any great level. Ds9 wasn’t free of the box, Ds9 examined the box and showed how it’s made.
There was disagreement even when Roddenbury was still involved - pen pals for example. TNG had some terrible episodes like chain of command, but on the whole gave the kind of hope for the future that is so sorely needed.
You may not have liked "Chain of Command," and that's your perogative, but you've got no ground to stand on calling it a terrible episode.
I think it's interesting, for all of TNG's anti-conflict, "bright optimism for the future" stuff that everyone applaudes, that the darker, more conflict-laden episodes are often amongst the most popular. Best of Both Worlds Chain of Command Conspiracy Yesterday's Enterprise Q Who Redemption
Huh? "Chain of Command," both parts, is one of TNG'S high points. IMHO. (Although let's be honest. If DISCOVERY had the captain literally tortured for a whole ep, people would be complaining that this was too "dark" for STAR TREK and an insult to Roddenberry's vision.)
Eddington came off as a delusional psycho and Worf often felt less interesting than he had on TNG but agreed the others were quite good.
Are you sure you're on the right message board? I think a board meeting can be more entertaining than people having a disagreement.
I think that "company" was working on a totally different level than TNG. And shows like Hill Street Blues and St Elsewhere were playing at that level and breaking new ground before a second of TNG had aired.
*yawn* The usual strategy of painting the exception as the rule to discredit a whole topic. That is almost borderline "whataboutism". There is a reason why it always stood out when TNG went against the Roddenberry-Box: Because it was an exception, and it always was an exception for a reason. That's also why many critics dont see DIS as Star Trek (see the IMDB comments), because that show took what was the exception before in trek and made it the rule.