Star Trek Next Generation Season 1

[aggienaut]

I have finished watching Season 1 of Star Trek Next Generation on Netflix. Recall, I had watched the later seasons back when they originally aired, but the earlier seasons have always been prehistory to me. I also just watched the first episode of season 2. Here are some of my thoughts and observations.

Picard: In general, whereas in the Original Series (which recall I also just watched all of) Kirk was undoubtedly the "star" and main focus of just about every single episode, in TNG it's interesting to note Picard is rarely actually the "star" of any episode. He's of course always there with a commanding presence both from his literal role and formidable acting ability, but he doesn't generally go on away missions and he's often kind of babysitting the ship as other people get involved in the nitty gritty of their misadventures. I had always assumed he was just your average "American" type with a vestigial French name but a few times in Season 1 they reference him actually being French. Was the franchise trying to appeal to a French demographic? In the first episode or two he came off as really kind of gruff and initmidating, which I dno't remember from the latter seasons but I liked it. The gruffness kind of wore off during season 1 but as of the first episode of season 2 he was back at it with the gruffness. It was especially satisfying that he was being particularly gruff to Wesley Crusher because...

Wesley Crusher: I had forgotten how absolutely annoying this character is! I recently read somewhere that he's actually been voted the second most annoying sci fi character ever after Jar Jar Binks so I guess I'm not alone. By the latter seasons I think he only made occasional appearances but he's in nearly every episode of Season 1 and he is sooo annnoying. I can easily see them thinking "oh we should make a character that appeals to the teenage boy demographic!" but really you don't need to put a(n annoying) teenage boy on a starship to do that, its going to appeal just fine without spacedweeb. I read (I also enjoyed reading up about each episode after watching it) that Wesley Crusher actor Will Wheaton himself even found the character annoying and blamed the writing ... but I'm not letting him off on that I think the character probably could have been acted in a way that to some degree saved it (I still think that for example the Spock character was a recipe for a really dislikable character but was turned completely around by Leonard Nimoy).

Data: I had totally forgotten how funny Data is/was. He does a great job "naively" uttering deadpan one-liners his character doesn't realize are funny and just generally he's great and my memory totally wasn't giving him credit.

Tasha Yar: So she suddenly dies (spoiler alert) about two episodes from the end of the season. All I could get as a reason for this after brief googling was that she "didn't feel they were giving her character enough to do," but I feel like there's gotta be more to this story because she was a central character in most episodes, and why wouldn't she at the very least wait till the end of the season? It all seems very fishy to me.

Chief Engineer of the Week: for some reason they decided not to cast a Chief Engineer for season 1 and about four different people show up as "chief engineer" at different points. This seems weird, what the heck were they thinking not casting the chief engineer as a major permanent role??

Onward to Season 2: Holy heck season 2 has a different doctor I didn't even know ever existed! Also look transporter chief O'Brien has appeared as well as Whoopi Goldberg as bartender, a shuttle (never appears in season 1), and Riker's beard! They cruely tease Wesley Crusher's departure from the ship throughout episode S02E01 only to have him choose to stay at the end ughh.

Comments

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

I really liked Whoopi Goldberg's character in the series. Her talks, particularly with Picard, were always good.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I only remember her character in vague general terms so I'm looking forward to getting a better look at it

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

My hub and I are ST Next Gen fans mostly. I like TOS next after Next Gen. Spock is my fave character overall.

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Wesley never bothered me, in fact I'm the only person I know who liked and enjoyed the character.

Maybe the Data/Tasha Yar thing was a bit too weird for her. They did bring her back from time to time I recall. My uncle really, really liked her. :-)

I wasn't a big fan of Goldberg's all-knowing bartender. Characters who know everything bore me. My favorite character besides Data was Q. LOL! Oh, and I loved Troy's mother.

[ryl.livejournal.com]

I had a crush on Wesley as a child. I was seven when TNG came out and he was a cute older boy. Still think Wil Wheaton is easy on the eyes.

Lwaxana! I loved her, especially the episode where she befriended Alexander. I laughed so hard when they got Worf into the mud bath.

[bearshorty.livejournal.com]

I was a teenager when I watched the show so I really liked Wesley because he was smart and weird, like me.

O'Brian was in the pilot episode of TNG, in unnamed role.

[siobhan63.livejournal.com]

There really isn't anything more to the Denise Crosby story. She was just really unhappy on the show and wanted out. She's done many interviews to that effect.

It makes way more sense that the Captain doesn't go on away missions. In fact, it never made much sense that most away missions consist of the entire senior crew. Maybe one of them, but all of them? I don't think so.

Season 1 of TNG to me was always a combo of the actors trying to figure out who their characters where and how to play them, and the producers and writers trying to figure out what they wanted to do with TNG -- which is why some of the episodes played like homages to TOS, and others showed sparks of originality. Season 2 was just the shits due to the writers' strike in Hollywood. Dr. Pulanski is there because Gates McFadden was fired because of the head writers didn't like her. That dude left after season 2 so Rick Berman brought her back.

On the whole, I've always found that while TNG has some totally brilliant episodes, it's not consistent and a lot of it is really average. It's probably my least favourite of the series, just ahead of TOS (which is truly horrible -- tried to do a proper rewatch but couldn't get much past season 1). Deep Space Nine remains my pick for the best, altho the new Discovery is a very close second.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Whoopie's character was one of my favs...and proof that comedians make MARVELOUS dramatic actors.

The lady who played Tasha Yar was in Playboy. It was often rumored that she was canned because of it, but it was just a rumor. I really don't think she was well liked to boot...

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ahh, both of those make more sense than the official explanations I've been able to find, because it really just doesn't make any sense to me that you abruptly leave a hit series 90% of the way through the season simply because you don't think they're developing your character enough.

In unrelated news, observation from having now watched three episodes of Season 2: it struck me that Dr Pulanski is EERILY similar to Dr McCoy. Like she has his mannerisms it kind of freaks me out. Like there's this half smile while talking that they both do. And the wry attitutde, and what first tipped me off was she rips on Data the way McCoy always did with Spock. I don't know how they found an actress who can be so McCoy. Are they related??? It's a crack up! I'm amazed!

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

It was one of the 'unsaid' explanations that WAS said, but quietly.

You know, I always got the Bones vibe from her, but thought it was just me. Makes me wonder if the Bones-vibe and behavior was deliberate. I have no idea if she is related, but now that is going to make me nuts, lol!! I never stopped to think about her relationship with Data in that fashion, but if she was Bones 2.0, it makes a lot of sense. It also means she rather likes him more than anyone else on the ship, lol!

[cactus_rs]

That season 2 chief medical officer is bullshit, we hated her!

I have Opinions about Star Trek i guess, lolol

[cactus_rs]

That season 2 chief medical officer is bullshit, we hated her!

I have Opinions about Star Trek i guess, lolol

[sewcute.livejournal.com]

I recently rewatched the entire series. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid. Definitely enjoyed it.