What are some TNG story arcs?

[Armus]

I heard in an interview Maurice Hurley wanted to insert more arcs in TNG, moving the characters on a trajectory for season 2, but because of the writers strike, they couldn't start a foundation early in the season.

Picard and Q, and Q's attitude toward humanity had the potential to be an even more powerful arc than it was. Ending TNG with Q and a trial was a nice bookend for the series.

Picard and Wesley's relationship, something very dear to Rodenberry, was one of TNG's most important arcs in the show's early years.

 

[Mojochi]

I think a lot have been mentioned already, & so has the fact that TNG was the 1st show to actually introduce story arcing to Star Trek. There is even subtle story arcs that people might miss on the first viewing. My favorite to bring up on occasions like this is the ongoing Romulan cold war arc, specifically the Tomalok chapters, which begins with The Enemy, where Picard embarrasses the Romulans & then a year later, they hatch a plan to dupe one of their own into defecting, so to lure them into the neutral zone, & get their revenge. Then of course, Sela picks up the initiative after that, capturing & using a brainwashed Geordii to destroy the Klingon/Federation alliance, then tinkering in the Klingon civil war to the same end, & even another ruse with Romulan/Vulcan reunification

Friends, that's some long game they got going on. They just never did any whole season spanning stories, that get parsed out a piece at a time, & I honestly never minded that they didn't

 

[Lance]

Friends, that's some long game they got going on. They just never did any whole season spanning stories, that get parsed out a piece at a time, & I honestly never minded that they didn't

If anything I find that more realistic. In real life, events don't happen day after day but are often spaced over weeks, months or years. The problem with sequential season long story-arcs is that they tend to ramp up the drama in a contained space of screen time, which ultimately makes it all feel... very silly. Something like the way TNG would leave threads tangling after an instalment and then come back and revisit it and build on it later, sometimes a year later, was a much more organic way of 'world building' through inter-episode continuity. And it was one of the most lauded things about TNG at the time IIRC, that it had a much richer universe than TOS, because TNG always acknowledged that not everything gets wrapped up in 47 minutes minus commercials. Where this idea came from that TNG was a show that relentlessly pushed the reset button I don't know. (I can see that criticism in some Trek shows, but TNG isn't one of them.)

 

[JesterFace]

I do like the idea that each TNG episode is Q looking at the crew as part of the trial.

Like Q said in 'All Good Things...'
"Seven years ago I said we'd be watching you, and we have been"
Direct link to 'Encounter at Farpoint'

Basically for the past seven years Q had been there along for the ride. Sometimes just watching what's going on, sometimes reminding the crew that they're still there with a visit.
Who knows, maybe Q created some situations just to see how humans would react.

That's how I see TNG, Q is there to "watch" every "episode", just like us.

Something like the way TNG would leave threads tangling after an instalment and then come back and revisit it and build on it later, sometimes a year later, was a much more organic way of 'world building' through inter-episode continuity.

That's a better way to create arcs, visit them here and there, not every single episode has to be about the same thing.

Where this idea came from that TNG was a show that relentlessly pushed the reset button I don't know.

First example that came to mind when talking about episodes that do not press a reset button, 'Q Who'.
Episode ends with Picard saying about the Borg: "They'll be coming."

Then the Borg don't appear in next weeks episode, no one knows when and if it might happen.

 

[Lance]

First example that came to mind when talking about episodes that do not press a reset button, 'Q Who'.
Episode ends with Picard saying about the Borg: "They'll be coming."

Then the Borg don't appear in next weeks episode, no one knows when and if it might happen.

Good example. And then, a couple episodes later in "Peak Performance", Picard mentions in his log entry that they're undergoing the war games training in preparation for the Borg. Which is a nice subtle touch, and again an example of how TNG would create inter-episode continuity. Sure, they aren't always "story arcs" as we understand them today, but the show hardly ever took the view that everything was or needed to be self contained, and across multiple seasons the cumulative effect were some rewarding arc plots.

 

[Roundabout]

Two of my favorite Data-centric episodes are "In Theory" and "Hero Worship". They were part of Data's journey, arc, to became more human. Data's attempt at romance was actually kind of funny.

And Data's fetish for playing Sherlock Holmes also led to the Moriarty arc. Although the Moriarty episodes were separated by a number of seasons, it was an arc nevertheless. Btw, I read that one of the writers wanted to bring Moriarty back for season 7.

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I would say that the Ro character also had an arc. She started out as a disgraced ensign looking for possible redemption on the Enterprise. Ro showed herself to be worthy in Picard's eye by what she did during her covert mission in "Ensign Ro".

She became a recurring character. Even though she became part of the Enterprise crew, I felt there was still an outsider vibe about her.

In her final episode "Preemptive Strike", her morals were once again tested during her covert operation with the Maquis. Ro's character story arc had come full circle. But this time she made a different decision than she did in "Ensign Ro". I thought Ro ultimately stayed true to character because I always thought she was really a rebel at heart.