To those around when TNG first aired: what did you think of it?
- Thread starter MikHutch
- Start date
I came to TNG via "The Motion Picture", and had spent the 80s catching up what I had missed (having only seen random TOS, b/w screenings of TAS and finding/reading all the old Bantam novels).
I was excited to see a new Trek series unfold from its very early press releases - and, just before "Encounter at Farpoint" arrived in Australia (on an airmailed video cassette, thanks to a US penpal, and a hired NTSC TV set), I started to realised that Roddenberry, Fontana and Gerrold had cannibalised a lot of the groundwork previously prepared for "Phase II" (Decker, Ilia) and "The Questor Tapes" (Data), plus the holographic "recreation room" of TAS, and many of the points in David Gerrold's chapter, "Whither Star Trek?" (in "World of Star Trek", where he had pinpointed how TOS could have been done better). Since I was such a huge fan of TMP, I couldn't have been happier!
A lot of my friends had preferred ST II to TMP, and I was disappointed that the five followup movies two TMP were not really sequels at all. While many Trek fans raged and rebelled against the very thought of a sequel series without Kirk and Spock, this was a Trek series made for me! All those fans who had scoffed at me for actually enjoying TMP (if I had been a "true fan", I'd have been there at the beginning like they were).
I never had a problem with TNG. I also appreciate that it had to weather some craziness, including the loss of Bev Crusher for a year, and the arrival of Guinan. I met Tracy Torme just after he had sadly walked away from his role in the Writers' Room, and there were so many cool things that he wanted to do that didn't happen, including a two-part Spock time-travel episode, and an unfolding romance between Worf and Dr Selar.
When TNG sailed past Episode #80, I was amazed! That we got seven seasons, four movies and, later, three seasons of "Picard" is astounding!
My five seconds of fame: When TNG finally came to Australian TV screens, after its rental video run, members of our fan club were in the promo on TV!
"They've seen it... They love it!" by Ian McLean, on Flickr
TNG ad with Data by Ian McLean, on Flickr
"They've seen it... They love it!" by Ian McLean, on Flickr
I was excited to see a new Trek series unfold from its very early press releases - and, just before "Encounter at Farpoint" arrived in Australia (on an airmailed video cassette, thanks to a US penpal, and a hired NTSC TV set), I started to realised that Roddenberry, Fontana and Gerrold had cannibalised a lot of the groundwork previously prepared for "Phase II" (Decker, Ilia) and "The Questor Tapes" (Data), plus the holographic "recreation room" of TAS, and many of the points in David Gerrold's chapter, "Whither Star Trek?" (in "World of Star Trek", where he had pinpointed how TOS could have been done better). Since I was such a huge fan of TMP, I couldn't have been happier!
A lot of my friends had preferred ST II to TMP, and I was disappointed that the five followup movies two TMP were not really sequels at all. While many Trek fans raged and rebelled against the very thought of a sequel series without Kirk and Spock, this was a Trek series made for me! All those fans who had scoffed at me for actually enjoying TMP (if I had been a "true fan", I'd have been there at the beginning like they were).
I never had a problem with TNG. I also appreciate that it had to weather some craziness, including the loss of Bev Crusher for a year, and the arrival of Guinan. I met Tracy Torme just after he had sadly walked away from his role in the Writers' Room, and there were so many cool things that he wanted to do that didn't happen, including a two-part Spock time-travel episode, and an unfolding romance between Worf and Dr Selar.
When TNG sailed past Episode #80, I was amazed! That we got seven seasons, four movies and, later, three seasons of "Picard" is astounding!
My five seconds of fame: When TNG finally came to Australian TV screens, after its rental video run, members of our fan club were in the promo on TV!
"They've seen it... They love it!" by Ian McLean, on Flickr
TNG ad with Data by Ian McLean, on Flickr
"They've seen it... They love it!" by Ian McLean, on Flickr
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I drove up to a Baltimore convention one Saturday in the summer of 1987 with my VCR in the trunk in order to dupe a recording of this electronic press kit from a fan who worked for a Richmond area TV station. Then I made dupes and sent them to friends...
This was the first we saw of The Next Generation other than five or six slides at a July con where Richard Arnold did a presentation. This was it:
It was pretty exciting.
This was the first we saw of The Next Generation other than five or six slides at a July con where Richard Arnold did a presentation. This was it:
It was pretty exciting.
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When I heard about it, I wasn't expecting much. I had enough experience with "new" versions of old shows to know that they were typically short-lived.
First time watching, I remember being perplexed by Picard, since I was used to the younger and... hairier Kirk. But it was popular enough in my dorm that i eventually became a regular watcher. Contrastingly, I started in on DS9 from the beginning, because I was also a Spenser fan, and remembered Avery Brooks as Hawk.
First time watching, I remember being perplexed by Picard, since I was used to the younger and... hairier Kirk. But it was popular enough in my dorm that i eventually became a regular watcher. Contrastingly, I started in on DS9 from the beginning, because I was also a Spenser fan, and remembered Avery Brooks as Hawk.
Sometimes early TNG feels like Roddenberry's last full time project: TMP...Just with more color.I came to TNG via "The Motion Picture", and had spent the 80s catching up what I had missed (having only seen random TOS, b/w screenings of TAS and finding/reading all the old Bantam novels).
I was excited to see a new Trek series unfold from its very early press releases - and, just before "Encounter at Farpoint" arrived in Australia (on an airmailed video cassette, thanks to a US penpal, and a hired NTSC TV set), I started to realised that Roddenberry, Fontana and Gerrold had cannibalised a lot of the groundwork previously prepared for "Phase II" (Decker, Ilia) and "The Questor Tapes" (Data), plus the holographic "recreation room" of TAS, and many of the points in David Gerrold's chapter, "Whither Star Trek?" (in "World of Star Trek", where he had pinpointed how TOS could have been done better). Since I was such a huge fan of TMP, I couldn't have been happier!
A lot of my friends had preferred ST II to TMP, and I was disappointed that the five followup movies two TMP were not really sequels at all. While many Trek fans raged and rebelled against the very thought of a sequel series without Kirk and Spock, this was a Trek series made for me! All those fans who had scoffed at me for actually enjoying TMP (if I had been a "true fan", I'd have been there at the beginning like they were).
I never had a problem with TNG. I also appreciate that it had to weather some craziness, including the loss of Bev Crusher for a year, and the arrival of Guinan. I met Tracy Torme just after he had sadly walked away from his role in the Writers' Room, and there were so many cool things that he wanted to do that didn't happen, including a two-part Spock time-travel episode, and an unfolding romance between Worf and Dr Selar.
When TNG sailed past Episode #80, I was amazed! That we got seven seasons, four movies and, later, three seasons of "Picard" is astounding!
My five seconds of fame: When TNG finally came to Australian TV screens, after its rental video run, members of our fan club were in the promo on TV!
"They've seen it... They love it!" by Ian McLean, on Flickr
TNG ad with Data by Ian McLean, on Flickr
"They've seen it... They love it!" by Ian McLean, on Flickr
Wha....? There is a second Star Trek show? I'll have to check it out!
*5 minutes later*
I'll have to watch this first. Guess I'll be back in ... 178*44 minutes , erm ...5 days, 10 hours, 32 minutes I suppose.
Joking aside, I only became gradually aware of TNG. I think I picked the show up around the 4th or 5th year of its run, which would have been around 1992, I suppose. Perhaps slightly earlier, but the first episode I distinctly recall watching was Conundrum (may not have been my actual first ep), and as I didn't know who the regulars were supposed to be in the first place, it was entertaining in a way different from the way I would enjoy it today. Anyway, that would put it at no earlier than 1992.
After that I watched the reruns, was offput a bit by S1 having seen the later seasons first and having no TOS reference (yet).
Loved the Picard speeches, his pontification on Principles. Even though today I think the style has become dated, it's something I miss in our real world (I don't mean the pontification, but people sticking to principles).
As I saw this series at a somewhat impressionable age, I think I've been partly formed by it.
*5 minutes later*
I'll have to watch this first. Guess I'll be back in ... 178*44 minutes , erm ...5 days, 10 hours, 32 minutes I suppose.
Joking aside, I only became gradually aware of TNG. I think I picked the show up around the 4th or 5th year of its run, which would have been around 1992, I suppose. Perhaps slightly earlier, but the first episode I distinctly recall watching was Conundrum (may not have been my actual first ep), and as I didn't know who the regulars were supposed to be in the first place, it was entertaining in a way different from the way I would enjoy it today. Anyway, that would put it at no earlier than 1992.
After that I watched the reruns, was offput a bit by S1 having seen the later seasons first and having no TOS reference (yet).
Loved the Picard speeches, his pontification on Principles. Even though today I think the style has become dated, it's something I miss in our real world (I don't mean the pontification, but people sticking to principles).
As I saw this series at a somewhat impressionable age, I think I've been partly formed by it.
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I really liked that aspect of his character as well. When he came to a position he felt passionate about, he stuck by it...even if his own crew was against it. I didn't always agree with his stances, but at least the writers kept him mostly consistent.
At the beginning, I liked it, but that was at least partially because I really really wanted to like it. A few weeks later, the day after “Where None Have Gone Before” aired, somebody at my college asked “Hey, did you see Next Generation last night? They finally had a good episode!” and they weren’t especially wrong…
hello everybody. I am new here.
first season of Next Generation and the second as well had a lot of mediocre episodes. But I was hungry for more at that time, as all we had was TOS, and Four movies. and ST V the final frontier didn't help either.
There were clearly a lot of things that weren't established yet, like Klingon alliance, Data can't use contractions, and when they did the Naked Time episode almost right away that was kind of lame. but things picked up around the start of season 3. Then I was completely hooked.
first season of Next Generation and the second as well had a lot of mediocre episodes. But I was hungry for more at that time, as all we had was TOS, and Four movies. and ST V the final frontier didn't help either.
There were clearly a lot of things that weren't established yet, like Klingon alliance, Data can't use contractions, and when they did the Naked Time episode almost right away that was kind of lame. but things picked up around the start of season 3. Then I was completely hooked.
It was weird when the first Klingon episode still made the Klingons look like antagonists
I wonder how fans reacted to Klingons not being the bad guy anymore
It was... odd. But since it had been "prophesied" in earlier Trek, I just shrugged and got on with it. I'm sure there were others who didn't. 
It was... odd. But since it had been "prophesied" in earlier Trek, I just shrugged and got on with it. I'm sure there were others who didn't.
True from when they first appeared .
Did you have any reaction to the Klingon redesign in TMP?
I was only 10, so I don't remember.
My reaction was, "Very cool!"
I started watching TNG when it first aired in the UK, September 1990, when I was way too young to have seen TOS. I'm pretty sure I'd seen Star Trek 3 and maybe 4, but they were just films to me, I barely even knew what Star Trek was.
So TNG didn't have to try too hard to win me over, as I had no attachment to the old show and nothing better to watch. I can still remember the exact moment I became a fan however.
It was when I opened the TV guide and saw this picture of the ship. I was fascinated by it. I sat colouring in the warp nacelles with a glitter pen, thinking about how I'd have to endure a whole week before I got to see it in action.
Then it turned out that season 1 of TNG wasn't just the best TV series I'd ever seen, it was a whole alternate universe that was being revealed one episode at a time, and I wanted to explore all of it. I got my parents to buy me books, model kits, comics... though actually I stopped getting the comics when I realised the art wasn't 100% faithful to the series. I mean, what was the point if they weren't going to get it right? Also, I must have had some capacity for critical thought even as a tiny baby, as I remember my disappointment when my aunt got me my first and only TNG VHS tape and the two episodes were Lonely Among Us and Justice.
A few years later, the BBC took a break from TNG and started airing TOS instead, and I was ready to be disappointed by its ridiculously dated 25-year-old sets and effects, and its cheesy acting, and everything else that had made it a joke in pop culture. But then I loved the show almost as much as I did TNG! It was far more watchable than the bits of other '60s shows I'd seen. I could even forgive it for getting the Klingons wrong, because... well, they only showed up in like 5 episodes. If it had been the Vulcans that had gotten the bumpy forehead upgrade in the Motion Picture, then there would have been problems!
So TNG didn't have to try too hard to win me over, as I had no attachment to the old show and nothing better to watch. I can still remember the exact moment I became a fan however.
It was when I opened the TV guide and saw this picture of the ship. I was fascinated by it. I sat colouring in the warp nacelles with a glitter pen, thinking about how I'd have to endure a whole week before I got to see it in action.
Then it turned out that season 1 of TNG wasn't just the best TV series I'd ever seen, it was a whole alternate universe that was being revealed one episode at a time, and I wanted to explore all of it. I got my parents to buy me books, model kits, comics... though actually I stopped getting the comics when I realised the art wasn't 100% faithful to the series. I mean, what was the point if they weren't going to get it right? Also, I must have had some capacity for critical thought even as a tiny baby, as I remember my disappointment when my aunt got me my first and only TNG VHS tape and the two episodes were Lonely Among Us and Justice.
A few years later, the BBC took a break from TNG and started airing TOS instead, and I was ready to be disappointed by its ridiculously dated 25-year-old sets and effects, and its cheesy acting, and everything else that had made it a joke in pop culture. But then I loved the show almost as much as I did TNG! It was far more watchable than the bits of other '60s shows I'd seen. I could even forgive it for getting the Klingons wrong, because... well, they only showed up in like 5 episodes. If it had been the Vulcans that had gotten the bumpy forehead upgrade in the Motion Picture, then there would have been problems!
What a well written history. As an old guy (I was 20 when Trek launched in 1966), my memories are fuzzier than yours and I rejected TNG at the start because the title seemed so sadly derivative. A friend convinced me of the error of my ways during season 2 and I never looked back.
From ROOTS' sequel, at that.
My experience was similar, though I was very young when my cousin and I watched TOS, so I don't have any consistent memories of it. I do recall seeing both The Search For Spock and The Voyage Home on VHS, but that was pretty much it before the TNG pilot aired.
Regarding the later shows, I was 12 when DS9 started, and I initially avoided it because I didn't see the point, with a show full of characters who didn't seem to go anywhere. I saw a few scattered episodes, primarily because I had a mostly-innocent crush on actress Terry Farrell...but otherwise I skipped the bulk of it. As for Voyager, I think I started watching pretty early on, and I liked most of the stories and cast. Neelix and the Doctor were probably my early favorites, and then my 17-year-old pulse went into overdrive after Seven of Nine was introduced. I didn't like Enterprise overall, feeling it was too advanced to be taken seriously as a pre-Kirk series. I did see the 3-part story though, where Brent Spiner guest starred as Data's "ancestor" Arik Soong.
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My reaction was "Cool".
Others were less charitable
Sounds oddly familiar.
As things change, the fandom seems to stay the same haha
TOS movies is what got me into trek, then TNG (show; the movies aside from First Contact are hit or miss). Ent was the show I watched all the way through but after all I've seen of Trek, I have to say: I like DS9 the most
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