Should they have cancelled TNG?

[Seven of Five]

TNG ended at the right time, as the writers weren't producing their normal level of work by then.

I sometimes wonder if TNG could have continued if no spin-offs were planned, and there was no transition to the movies. Perhaps in that scenario, with a more focused team, we would have had two or three more years?

I suppose the problem there though would be that the cast's salaries would start getting higher, making the show too expensive to continue with?

 

[Timewalker]

I'd have liked it to continue alongside DS9, with more crossovers. And maybe introducing some new cast members.

They could have avoided doing Voyager at all...

I loved Voyager. It's Enterprise they should have avoided doing.

The seventh season really felt like a last season. There were a lot of closures. Data and his mother, Worth and his son, Picard and his (putative) son, Ro's final betrayal, Beverly and her ancestry, Wesley and his "final" journey, Worth and his brother, Riker and his dark secret (Pegasus), Deanna and her secret sister, Picard reveals (involuntarily) his love to Beverly... and I am sure I left out a few.

Who is "Worth"?

 

[Makarov]

I don't think TNG should have gone on any longer. It was the right time to end the show, and go out on a high note. I'm a fan of season 7 actually. But I would have liked a TNG spinoff about Riker captaining a new ship, and I'd still like one.

 

[BillJ]

Actually, I think TNG should have ended after the fifth season, transitioning totally to DS9 instead of having the two shows overlap for two years.

+1

 

[EnriqueH]

My only beef with TNG, that I can think of, is the lack of promotions throughout the show. They kinda addressed it with Riker, but I think they could've done a better job with this.

But in all fairness, I think there were a couple of promotions and/or lateral moves: LaForge got to be chief engineer, Wesley got two promotions (or one if you count the first as a commendation or something), Chief O'Brien was transferred to DS9, was Worf promoted to full lieutenant on the show? I seem to remember that Worf was a lieutenant (J.G.)?

Picard, Beverly, and Troi wouldn't be moving anywhere unless it was to a deskbound, paperpusher job at Starfleet.

 

[bbailey861]

I'm torn between the choices. I would have liked to have seen more TNG, but as Bry_Sinclairsuggests, having a few promotions and postings out would have made it fresher. It would have allowed the writers, or new ones if brought on, something new to work with. It would probably also have allowed the total cost of the salaries to decline somewhat. As it was, the plan was to just jump to the movies anyway.

 

[Lance]

What about "All Good Things...", I remembered that being awesome. Did the regular Season 7 writing team write that?

Basically, the way it went is that Moore & Braga, who had between them been responsible for many of TNG's better received instalments over the previous seasons, basically had two main tasks in Season 7: write "All Good Things...", and write "Generations". Their absence from the more general pool of staff writers was definitely felt IMHO (although they did still contribute occasional episodes, "Pegasus" being one of Moore's for example).

Season 7 has got some good episodes. But the bad ones are... no, that's not fair, they aren't bad, so much as they were so "ordinary". Hence the common complaint that the show was running on empty.

One thing many of us agree on is that the transition to movies was handled poorly. Even those who see merit in "Generations" can usually recognise that it could have been better. But the speed at which the studio forced the TNG characters into movie theaters inevitably harmed it.

 

[RoJoHen]

"All Good Things..." was the perfect finale for TNG. As much as I enjoyed the show and could have seen more stories develop, that episode as the finale made me accept the show's end. I think I would have rather seen the continuation of the characters in other stories, like how Worf was brought over to DS9.

 

[Trekker4747]

Beverly and her ancestry,

Yes, Beverly rubbing one out to her grandmother's diary was definitely a character arc we needed handled.

 

[Karzak]

"All Good Things..." was the perfect finale for TNG. As much as I enjoyed the show and could have seen more stories develop, that episode as the finale made me accept the show's end.

This. AGT was amazing.

 

[Lance]

It was, and it is. AGT still holds up splendidly.

But I'd be lying if I said that the bittersweet nature of the TNG crew's move to cinema, as well as their gradual decline in that medium and the nature of their 'real' final adventure, hasn't soured the milk a little bit.

There is something to be said for the beauty of that open ending, which manages to suggest an eternal life while still bringing the show to a close. It's very tempting to just pretend the movies never happened...

 

[Dukhat]

Not to be picky, but:

The seventh season really felt like a last season. There were a lot of closures. Data and his mother...

Which came out of nowhere in one episode and ended in the same episode, and was never mentioned again.

Worf and his son...

I'm not sure what kind of closure Worf had with Alexander in TNG, as the next time we hear about them, Worf shipped his son to his grandparent's to get rid of him.

Picard and his (putative) son...

Again, which came out of nowhere in one episode and ended in the same episode, and was never mentioned again.

Ro's final betrayal...

Ok, I'll give you this one.

Beverly and her ancestry...

Again, which came out of nowhere in one episode and ended in the same episode, and was never mentioned again.

Wesley and his "final" journey...

Ok, I'll give you this one, although since everyone hated Wesley, having a "closure" episode for him probably wasn't all that important to the fans.

Worf and his brother...

What closure did Worf have with Kurn that he didn't already have before?

Riker and his dark secret (Pegasus)...

Again, which came out of nowhere in one episode and ended in the same episode, and was never mentioned again (TATV doesn't count).

Deanna and her secret sister...

Again, which came out of nowhere in one episode and ended in the same episode, and was never mentioned again.

Picard reveals (involuntarily) his love to Beverly...

Which was handled extremely poorly in a very forgettable episode and was never mentioned again.

None of these things really justified having a seventh season (or even a sixth, for that matter). Now, if the season was all about the crew starting to go their separate ways, that would have made more sense. But the crew couldn't go their separate ways, because the producers had movie plans in store for them. And look how that turned out.

 

[BillJ]

What closure did Worf have with Kurn that he didn't already have before?

Probably referring to Nikolai Rozhenko from "Homeward".

 

[USS KG5]

My only beef with TNG, that I can think of, is the lack of promotions throughout the show. They kinda addressed it with Riker, but I think they could've done a better job with this.

But in all fairness, I think there were a couple of promotions and/or lateral moves: LaForge got to be chief engineer, Wesley got two promotions (or one if you count the first as a commendation or something), Chief O'Brien was transferred to DS9, was Worf promoted to full lieutenant on the show? I seem to remember that Worf was a lieutenant (J.G.)?

Picard, Beverly, and Troi wouldn't be moving anywhere unless it was to a deskbound, paperpusher job at Starfleet.

As far as I remember, through the show..

The top three don't move.
Beverly stays at Cmdr
Troi goes from Lt. Cmdr (S1-6) to Cmdr (S7)
Geordi goes from Lt. JG (S1) to Lt. (S2) to Lt. Cmdr (S3 onwards)
Worf goes from Lt. JG (S1) to Lt (S2 onwards)
Wesley gets to be an acting ensign, then an ensign, then a Cadet - woohoo demotion! I guess it was just a field commission...

 

[Dukhat]

What closure did Worf have with Kurn that he didn't already have before?

Probably referring to Nikolai Rozhenko from "Homeward".

Oh, that brother. Ok, but again, Nikolai came out of nowhere (even though we knew of his existence), and their reunion didn't seem to have anything to do with "closure" of any kind.

 

[Karzak]

My only beef with TNG, that I can think of, is the lack of promotions throughout the show. They kinda addressed it with Riker, but I think they could've done a better job with this.

As far as I remember, through the show..

The top three don't move.
Beverly stays at Cmdr
Troi goes from Lt. Cmdr (S1-6) to Cmdr (S7)
Geordi goes from Lt. JG (S1) to Lt. (S2) to Lt. Cmdr (S3 onwards)
Worf goes from Lt. JG (S1) to Lt (S2 onwards)
Wesley gets to be an acting ensign, then an ensign, then a Cadet - woohoo demotion! I guess it was just a field commission...

Man, among the crew Geordi really shot up the ranks pretty quickly during the early years. Poor Worf must have been like, "Who else gotta die before I get another pip?"

Also worth mentioning:

Riker was also promoted to Captain rank briefly in "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", even if he stepped down when Picard was recovered afterward.

Data was upped to First Officer in "Chain of Command" as well, which while not a promotion by rank (he's still very clearly a lieutenant commander) it's a promotion by position.

In terms of the recurring characters, Ro, Ogawa, Sam Lavelle, and even mean old Admiral Nechayev all got promotions throughout the run of the show as well.

Frankly, I don't know how someone can say there was a "lack of promotions" on TNG considering all this, and the later, lamentable lack of same on Voyager. (Sorry, Harry! )

 

[Tom]

Cancelled is really not the right word. The producers decided it was about time to end it . Cancelled is really when a the network pulls a show, usually for bad ratings, although there have been other reasons. Similar thing with BSG, the network actually wanted more but the producers felt its story was done. Of course Paramount was pressuring for a TNG movie , so that pushed the issue a bit too.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

My only beef with TNG, that I can think of, is the lack of promotions throughout the show. They kinda addressed it with Riker, but I think they could've done a better job with this.

But in all fairness, I think there were a couple of promotions and/or lateral moves: LaForge got to be chief engineer, Wesley got two promotions (or one if you count the first as a commendation or something), Chief O'Brien was transferred to DS9, was Worf promoted to full lieutenant on the show? I seem to remember that Worf was a lieutenant (J.G.)?

Picard, Beverly, and Troi wouldn't be moving anywhere unless it was to a deskbound, paperpusher job at Starfleet.

As far as I remember, through the show..

The top three don't move.
Beverly stays at Cmdr
Troi goes from Lt. Cmdr (S1-6) to Cmdr (S7)
Geordi goes from Lt. JG (S1) to Lt. (S2) to Lt. Cmdr (S3 onwards)
Worf goes from Lt. JG (S1) to Lt (S2 onwards)
Wesley gets to be an acting ensign, then an ensign, then a Cadet - woohoo demotion! I guess it was just a field commission...

To be accurate, Wesley ended up nothing, he resigned.

 

[Ghrakh]

None of these things really justified having a seventh season (or even a sixth, for that matter).

Lore basically came out of nowhere in S1, was gone by the end of the episode and was never mentioned again until he reappeared 3 seasons later. Troi got pregnant in S2 by some alien lifeform that came out of nowhere and was gone by the end of the episode. I don't believe it was ever mentioned again. Same goes for plenty of other episodes in TNG's run. And, Riker's Pegasus issue could have been followed up in a S8 instead of TATV, could it not? As could the other examples mentioned.

So I'm not sure what "coming out of nowhere end ending the same episode" has to do with whether subsequent seasons would be justified or not. Anyway it ended with 7 seasons so this is all moot.

 

[Anwar]

I think Season 6 would've been a good ending point, just use AGT instead of "Descent".