The One Thing You Could Change, TNG Edition...

[Qonundrum]

Something else, regarding the same episode... for continuity purposes, it would have been better if it had been impossible for Beverly to restore the Aldeans' fertility.

I love this story for a number of reasons, mostly superficial ones, but it was a little too schmaltzy at times. The chances of Bev (or Bones) to come up with an antidote to let them all make babies again seems fairly minuscule. Wasn't the radiation emitted by the cloaking shield device said to be temporary and they'd have little children running around again in no time anyhow?

The main reason is simple: it would have made the Aldeans into instant enemies, instead of potential allies. And it would explain why the Federation is never able to gain access to their vast tech base, which includes impenetrable planetary shielding, high powered but nonlethal repulsor beams, and the capacity to evaluate a person's mental gifts with a long range scan.

It would look hypocritical for Picard and gang to start analyzing all that technology, even if that led to one of the two factions understanding how it works rather than boasting they know how to use it and looking like a bunch of twits in the process.

The episode also decided that the technology was the cause of the problems and nobody could use it. The Aldeans would need a lot more time than Picard's gaggle to figure out these systems and how to improve them to be safer anyhow. The episode effectively used a "throw out the baby with the bathwater" trope.

The inertial dampers were working in overdrive to prevent everyone on the "D" to end up becoming people purée, too...

Also, it has more gravitas that way. Picard has taken away Aldea's only hope at a future, and sentenced them and their culture to oblivion. Instead of their gratitude, he has their hate. Radue tells the Enterprise to get out, and declares that the knowledge they offered to share will now die with them. As the Enterprise flies away from Aldea, the Aldeans restore power to their systems and the planet shimmers back into invisibility... and back into legend. And Picard ends the episode without having to pick anyone up or get a tribble stuck to his uniform.

That's a little too grim, surely?

 

[borgboy]

Keep Tom Riker. Let Troi's season 7 relationship be with him instead of Worf.

 

[Arpy]

Keep Tom Riker. Let Troi's season 7 relationship be with him instead of Worf.

That might have been a hell of an arc if the series were serialized like DS9.

...In the season finale, during her’s and Tom’s wedding, Will storms into Ten Forward and throws Holy Water on him and he starts to hiss and melt, and it turns out he’s a Satarran!

 

[borgboy]

That might have been a hell of an arc if the series were serialized like DS9.

...In the season finale, during her’s and Tom’s wedding, Will storms into Ten Forward and throws Holy Water on him and he starts to hiss and melt, and it turns out he’s a Satarran!

I was so fed up with Will keeping Troi close, but not too close, I really wanted Troi to get with Tom when he came around. Tom around long term with Will also there could've been interesting to see them continue their uncomfortable dynamic with each other as well.
And it would've saved us from the unlikely pairing of Worf and Troi.

 

[Orphalesion]

With Will and Troi I just found it so unrealistic that a relationship that was lukewarm for so many years would suddenly become passionate again.
So yeah I'm all for keeping Tom Riker. Have him come in in the beginning of Season 3 and then have a season-long B-Plot ark where Will prepares for command of his own ship (and he leaves at the start of season 4) have Tom Riker assimilate into the Enteprise Crew and Troi, inspired by Will's career advancement becomes a commander and switches to the standard uniform.
Then in season 4 Tom and Troi can start their relationship. They marry in season 5 or 6.

And Captain Will Riker can be a recurring character :-P

 

[K‘Mpec]

I would change the German synchro voice of Counsellor Troy. I started watching the original version 10 years ago, before I did not like her, as her German voice is over-acted. In the Original she is amazing. This took away the fun for me in many episodes.
I only watch in English nowadays

 

[suarezguy]

I don't get the idea that Tom Riker would be a particularly better character than Will Riker actually was in season 7 and the movies, that feels very, very grass is always greener. I don't see the writers feeling more interested in or being more interesting with Tom Riker, including if he became the new ops officer, and I think Will Riker is more interesting in that he became not career (captaincy)-driven.

 

[gakelly]

I love this story for a number of reasons,

Talking about When the Bough Breaks. Kidnapping 7 children is going to issue in a new generation to repopulate a huge planet? This is such a ridiculous plot.
Why not get orphans from other planets (they talk about orphans in Bloodlines and a few other episodes). Why wouldn't Picard suggest they just transport some of those orphans to Aldea.

 

[RichT]

The biggest thing I'd change about TNG is... the set design for the Enterprise-D.

Given how huge the Enterprise-D is supposed to be – I calculated once that it should have a total deck space of around half of the total land area of Monaco – there's very little visual evidence on screen of this gigantic ship going on just what we see of the interior. If anything, it seems no larger than the original Enterprise did in TOS. It seems to be an endless maze of small beige rooms linked by narrow beige corridors. Worse, this is pretty much exactly how published blueprints show the rest of the interior we never got to see on screen, with the exception of the main shuttlebay. It's so bland. So unimaginative. The ship is simply enormous, vastly bigger than it needs to be for a crew of its size. Why not have an entire deck given over to an arboretum space, with rolling hills and trees and lakes? Why not have the holodeck be, well, a holo-deck too, big enough for the entire crew to use simultaneously? Why not have enormous arterial corridors big enough to (theoretically!) fly a shuttle down? Hell, if the ship has civilians, why not a Deep Space 9-style promenade with shops, bars, and other public attractions? I know the Whitefire blueprints push this angle a bit with the giant "ship's mall" idea, but honestly, I just feel that the D is missing so much in terms of how amazing it could have been. Even Voyager, a much smaller ship, has grander, larger, and more elaborate sets – even its bridge and ready room sets are significantly bigger than on the D. And yes, I know this is almost entirely due to budgetary and effects restrictions of the era, but still. A man can dream.

And if I had to change just one aspect of the Enterprise's interior... main engineering. Dear god, is that it? The beating heart of Starfleet's largest and most powerful ship ever? It's just a corridor junction with a warp core in it, and the warp core is so visually boring. What happened to the enormous glowing conduits of The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan? We got a taste of that back with the Defiant and Voyager. Also – why does a ship the size of the Enterprise-D have only one core? It's got plenty of room for more. I want an engine room with a cavernous interior, like the TOS engine room, where all those vertical conduits are what we now think of as an individual pulsing warp core.

 

[Paul755]

I’ve often wondered what they would have come up with for a title song if they hadn’t just borrowed the title track from TMP.

I don't get the idea that Tom Riker would be a particularly better character than Will Riker actually was in season 7 and the movies, that feels very, very grass is always greener. I don't see the writers feeling more interested in or being more interesting with Tom Riker, including if he became the new ops officer, and I think Will Riker is more interesting in that he became not career (captaincy)-driven.

I dunno that Tom Riker would have been a better character than Will. But having him opens up a lot more interesting story opportunities. A way to take several characters in new directions.

 

[RichT]

I’ve often wondered what they would have come up with for a title song if they hadn’t just borrowed the title track from TMP.

Dennis McCarthy wrote an original theme for TNG during the production of "Encounter at Farpoint". The reason Roddenberry decided to go with the main theme for Star Trek: The Motion Picture instead is... well. You be the judge. To me it sounds like a parody of a Star Trek-style theme, and bombastic as the TMP/TNG theme is, I'm very glad they didn't go with this.

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[Farscape One]

I forgot this even existed! I haven't heard this in over 25 years!

I had no comparison then, but now... it sounds like it could be used on an episode of THE ORVILLE.

 

[RichT]

I forgot this even existed! I haven't heard this in over 25 years!

I had no comparison then, but now... it sounds like it could be used on an episode of THE ORVILLE.

LOL exactly! It sounds to me like the theme of "a show within a show" – if Star Trek had an equivalent of "Wormhole X-treme" like in Stargate SG-1.

 

[Orphalesion]

Kinda reminds me of the Star Wars theme... only not as good.

 

[Paul755]

Dennis McCarthy wrote an original theme for TNG during the production of "Encounter at Farpoint". The reason Roddenberry decided to go with the main theme for Star Trek: The Motion Picture instead is... well. You be the judge. To me it sounds like a parody of a Star Trek-style theme, and bombastic as the TMP/TNG theme is, I'm very glad they didn't go with this.

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oooh, I dunno. I like it.

 

[suarezguy]

To me it sounds like a parody of a Star Trek-style theme, and bombastic as the TMP/TNG theme is, I'm very glad they didn't go with this.

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That very much sounds like parody, like what Galaxy Quest eventually did, or like he was trying to do Superman-for-only-young-kids.

 

[JRoss]

I would make it explicit that Wesley was secretly Picard's son.

 

[Maurice]

The biggest thing I'd change about TNG is... the set design for the Enterprise-D.

Given how huge the Enterprise-D is supposed to be – I calculated once that it should have a total deck space of around half of the total land area of Monaco – there's very little visual evidence on screen of this gigantic ship going on just what we see of the interior. If anything, it seems no larger than the original Enterprise did in TOS. It seems to be an endless maze of small beige rooms linked by narrow beige corridors. Worse, this is pretty much exactly how published blueprints show the rest of the interior we never got to see on screen, with the exception of the main shuttlebay. It's so bland. So unimaginative. The ship is simply enormous, vastly bigger than it needs to be for a crew of its size. Why not have an entire deck given over to an arboretum space, with rolling hills and trees and lakes? Why not have the holodeck be, well, a holo-deck too, big enough for the entire crew to use simultaneously? Why not have enormous arterial corridors big enough to (theoretically!) fly a shuttle down? Hell, if the ship has civilians, why not a Deep Space 9-style promenade with shops, bars, and other public attractions? I know the Whitefire blueprints push this angle a bit with the giant "ship's mall" idea, but honestly, I just feel that the D is missing so much in terms of how amazing it could have been. Even Voyager, a much smaller ship, has grander, larger, and more elaborate sets – even its bridge and ready room sets are significantly bigger than on the D. And yes, I know this is almost entirely due to budgetary and effects restrictions of the era, but still. A man can dream.

And if I had to change just one aspect of the Enterprise's interior... main engineering. Dear god, is that it? The beating heart of Starfleet's largest and most powerful ship ever? It's just a corridor junction with a warp core in it, and the warp core is so visually boring. What happened to the enormous glowing conduits of The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan? We got a taste of that back with the Defiant and Voyager. Also – why does a ship the size of the Enterprise-D have only one core? It's got plenty of room for more. I want an engine room with a cavernous interior, like the TOS engine room, where all those vertical conduits are what we now think of as an individual pulsing warp core.

I know Andy Probert wanted the -D to have a "mall", a large public space. You can see it called out in Ed Whitefire's blueprints.

I agree that the need to repurpose the movie Enterprise sets hampered the idea of portraying a much larger ship. I never understood why they made the Star Trek II TV corridors (worked for the movies) on such a tight curve. I also detested the TNG engineering set, which has no sense of scale at all.

 

[Farscape One]

It is referred to as 'main engineering', which implies it's the headquarters part of the department. Engineering is quite likely several decks, with each section dealing with specific functions, while Main Engineering is the piece that ties them all together.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

^ That's the thing, the E-D has space to spare so they can spread things out over multiple decks and sections, whilst other ships like the Defiant and Voyager were smaller so needed to fit more into a smaller frame, which is why their engine rooms seem to have a lot more going on in them.