Wert's Star Trek: The Next Generation rewatch (now in added HD!)

[Rhom]

David Gerrold wrote an episode for Season 1 - Blood and Fire - that featured an openly gay couple serving on the Enterprise. Despite Gene Roddenberry's backing, Paramount killed the episode at an unusually late period of development, fearing it was 'controversial'. The rest of the episode could be considered an AIDS allegory, which got Paramount skittish.

Interesting, considering that Season 5 features The Outcast in a very thinly veiled gay rights episode. My early teenage mind was decidedly unequipped to handle it and I remember disliking the premise very much; I saw it somewhere on cable a couple years back and thought the episode was better than I recall. :dunno:

[Werthead]

Michael Dorn pitched a new Star Trek series to Paramount last year.

Very interesting. Dorn has been talking about this for a while and most people dismissed it as wishful thinking. However, Jonthan Frakes hinted a few years ago that there'd been very speculative talk of a ST:TNG special for the 25th Anniversary. More interestingly, the ST:TNG blu-rays have apparently been selling very well and Paramount were impressed by the amount of coverage the 25th anniversary got last year. Apparently Paramount had put talk of a new TV series on hold whilst the Abramsverse movies were pressing forwards. With Abrams's departure from the franchise, the status of the third movie seems to be up in the air. There's talk of them putting it on hold until Abrams returns, which seems unlikely (apparently LucasArts want him to helm all three Star Wars movies if the first one is a success), or rushing the next one into production next year with a new director at the helm but Bad Robot's team still producing. Either way, that would seem to leave Paramount free to consider a new TV series within a couple of years.

Whether it would be the 'Captain Worf' series (and maximum respect to Dorne, but a 60-year-old Klingon captain might be a hard sell) or simply a new series remains to be seen. It would also be interesting to see if they are considering a new series in the original timeline or the Abramsverse, though the caveat with the Abramsverse is that they can't use any of the same cast (who all have big movie careers), which seems to render the exercise pointless.

[DaveSumm]

Assuming a new series was set after Voyager (and Enterprise already did the prequel thing so you'd think so), how would you even distinguish the Abramverse from the regular? They could probably get away with never confirming which it was, although that might annoy a lot of fans.

[Rhom]

Michael Dorn pitched a new Star Trek series to Paramount last year.

Very interesting. Dorn has been talking about this for a while and most people dismissed it as wishful thinking. However, Jonthan Frakes hinted a few years ago that there'd been very speculative talk of a ST:TNG special for the 25th Anniversary. More interestingly, the ST:TNG blu-rays have apparently been selling very well and Paramount were impressed by the amount of coverage the 25th anniversary got last year. Apparently Paramount had put talk of a new TV series on hold whilst the Abramsverse movies were pressing forwards. With Abrams's departure from the franchise, the status of the third movie seems to be up in the air. There's talk of them putting it on hold until Abrams returns, which seems unlikely (apparently LucasArts want him to helm all three Star Wars movies if the first one is a success), or rushing the next one into production next year with a new director at the helm but Bad Robot's team still producing. Either way, that would seem to leave Paramount free to consider a new TV series within a couple of years.

Whether it would be the 'Captain Worf' series (and maximum respect to Dorne, but a 60-year-old Klingon captain might be a hard sell) or simply a new series remains to be seen. It would also be interesting to see if they are considering a new series in the original timeline or the Abramsverse, though the caveat with the Abramsverse is that they can't use any of the same cast (who all have big movie careers), which seems to render the exercise pointless.

Perhaps continue the "Abramverse" on down the road with a recast TNG?

[Rhom]

Assuming a new series was set after Voyager (and Enterprise already did the prequel thing so you'd think so), how would you even distinguish the Abramverse from the regular? They could probably get away with never confirming which it was, although that might annoy a lot of fans.

Well... the presence of the planet Vulcan would be a dead giveaway.

[DaveSumm]

But how often is Vulcan mentioned in post-original series Trek? My point being, they would have to go out of their way to confirm one way or the other. It certainly wouldn't be inconsistent to not talk about Vulcan, as whole seasons of TNG, DS9 and Voyager went by doing just that.

[Werthead]

Perhaps continue the "Abramverse" on down the road with a recast TNG?

No. I think for paying homage to the original crew and as an Ultimates-style alternate take on things it's fine, but Trek is about boldly going where no-ones etc. Not getting mired down in 25-year cycles of constant reboots and prequels. They need to take things forwards.

Or another way, the Abramsverse is a nice place to visit, but I don't want Trek to stay there for another 25 years before another reboot.

[Rhom]

But how often is Vulcan mentioned in post-original series Trek? My point being, they would have to go out of their way to confirm one way or the other. It certainly wouldn't be inconsistent to not talk about Vulcan, as whole seasons of TNG, DS9 and Voyager went by doing just that.

Well, the "tone" of Abrams' Trek certainly is not that of exploration and wonder. I would think that you take the next 70 years of his universe and you'll have a much more gritty Federation, not unlike the more militaristic one seen in Yesterday's Enterprise. I think it could be done.

Personally, I'd like them to just continue on with the separate continuity and pick up Trek 20-30 years post Voyager.

ETA:

No. I think for paying homage to the original crew and as an Ultimates-style alternate take on things it's fine, but Trek is about boldly going where no-ones etc. Not getting mired down in 25-year cycles of constant reboots and prequels. They need to take things forwards.

Or another way, the Abramsverse is a nice place to visit, but I don't want Trek to stay there for another 25 years before another reboot.

Oh I agree. My comment was more of a "what if" and a "If they insist on Abramverse... they could do this."

[Sad King Billy]

Turns out Brent Spiner and Stewart crash each other's parties:

What turns around comes around:

Spiner also does a mean Picard impression:

[DaveSumm]

Personally, I'd like them to just continue on with the separate continuity and pick up Trek 20-30 years post Voyager.

If by seperate you mean original, then agree completely. I don't think Trek needs over thinking, it's one of those premises like Doctor Who where you just can't run out of ideas. Although I'd probably make it more like ten years since Voyager so all the actors are the right age for potential cameos.

All I was getting at before was that if they were worried a new series would tread on the toes of the films, they could sidestep the issue of declaring one way or the other and just not bother.

[Rhom]

If by seperate you mean original, then agree completely. I don't think Trek needs over thinking, it's one of those premises like Doctor Who where you just can't run out of ideas. Although I'd probably make it more like ten years since Voyager so all the actors are the right age for potential cameos.

All I was getting at before was that if they were worried a new series would tread on the toes of the films, they could sidestep the issue of declaring one way or the other and just not bother.

Yes, separate as in "We've got this alternate universe in the movies and that original universe on TV."

Therein lies the problem though, Hollywood always presumes that the consumers are too dumb to differentiate continuities. (And maybe many of them are... but I don't think the Trek demographic falls under that umbrella.)

[Jaxom 1974]

Yes, separate as in "We've got this alternate universe in the movies and that original universe on TV."

Therein lies the problem though, Hollywood always presumes that the consumers are too dumb to differentiate continuities. (And maybe many of them are... but I don't think the Trek demographic falls under that umbrella.)

I have zero proof, but I've always fallen under the impression that while Trek fans, despite our Berger judgment, come out for these awful Abrahms movies, those who come our for those movies aren't going out looking for the television shows. Those folks won't care if a new show comes out on television.

Trek is at it's best on television ultimately. If they did any kind of show now, it needs to be as separated from the last two movies as it can be. Something set 10 years or so after Voyager would work. I'd love to see a series adapt the Typhon Pact novels. Bet television could improve it...

[Werthead]

421: The Drumhead

It appears that the Enterprise has been sabotaged. A Starfleet admiral arrives to investigate, but her zealousness turns into a witch-hunt.

A bloody good episode, with a superb performance by veteran Hollywood actress Jean Simmons (news of whose casting momentry confused Michael Dorn, who thought the KISS singer was getting a cameo). There are relatively few surprises here - the narrative is straightforward - but Simmons and Stewart clash together superbly and the show does a good job of bringing together everything that's gone wrong over the past year to make it appear that the Enterprise crew are bunch of dubious dunderheads. An episode so good it got remade twice by other shows (though the trope is pretty well-established): as Eyes on Babylon 5 and Litmus on BSG, but The Drumhead may be the best of them.

422: Half a Life

Lwaxana Troi is visiting the Enterprise as it tries to assist the people of Kaelon II in reviving their dying star. Lwaxana falls in love with the Kaelonian scientist leading the effort, Dr. Timicin, but discovers that in keeping with the culture of Kaelon II he is scheduled to commit ritual suicide.

An episode that would have been an unmitigated disaster in Season 1 is handled quite well here. Majel Barrett's 'broad' Lwaxana Troi is insufferable, but when the script demands a more dramatic performance she delivers in spades, as here. David Ogden Stiers delivers a sympathetic performance as Timicin as well. The episode balances morality, the Prime Directive and the dangers of proclaiming cultural superiority over another race. An episode that could have descended into beige tedium ends up working pretty well. Also worth noting for the first Star Trek appearance by Michelle Forbes as Timicin's daughter. She did such an excellent job in a small role that the producers created a recurring role for her the next year.

423: The Host

A Trill ambassador comes aboard soon starts a romance with Dr. Crusher. When the Trill host dies, the symbiont is transferred to another host - Commander Riker. But the ambassador wants to continue the relationship to Dr. Crusher's discomfort.

An interesting episode which never quite finds the drama in the issues it raises. Dr. Crusher's emotions are portrayed well, but her eventual attitude of, "Sorry, this body-hopping is not conducive to a relationship," is pretty much where the viewer was in the first ten minutes. Still, watchable.

424: The Mind's Eye

La Forge is captured by the Romulans and turned into a programmed assassin, designed to destroy the alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.

Another excellent episode in the Klingon/Romulan arc - the show is getting some great mileage from this subplot - with a strong influence from The Manchurian Candidate. Levar Burton is a solid actor, but here fires on all cylinders and gives one of his best performances on the show. The HD remastering of the episode does cause one problem: it is now blatantly obvious that the standing-in-shadows Commander Sela is definitely not played by Denise Crosby.

425: In Theory

Data decides to indulge a female crewmember's interest in him and embarks on a romance.

A potentially interesting episode falls apart - a bit like Half a Life - because there is no real twist. Data starts a love affair, but it can't really go anywhere because he lacks emotions and she's on the rebound and it ends. The jeopardy subplot - the Enterprise having to navigate its way through quantum distortions - is fairly low-key and ruined by credibility problems: no reason is given for Picard to personally pilot a shuttlecraft into a dangerous situation. Overall, fairly tepid.

426: Redemption

Shit gets real on the Klingon homeworld when the Duras family fields a new candidate to stand against Gowron as head of the High Council. When the challenge is rejected, open civil war erupts. Worf is drawn into the conflict and orders his brother Kurn to side with Gowron. Eventually, Worf has to resign from Starfleet. Meanwhile, the Romulans are revealed as helping the Duras family, led by a commander who bears a striking resemblance to Tasha Yar.

Excellent stuff. The Klingon politics are fairly basic, but enough personal stakes are invested for Worf to make it feel like a fairly momentous episode (unfortunately, the status quo is restored too easily in the next episode). There's some great action and the guest cast - particularly Tony Todd as Kurn and Robert O'Reilly as 'Crazy Eyes' Gowron - are excellent. Lursa and B'Etor are also great - if rather camp - new villains. All in all, a winner, despite the Tasha Yar/Sela stuff being meh.

501: Redemption, Part II

The Klingon Civil War continues. Picard intervenes by sending a Federation taskforce to the Klingon/Romulan border where Data, assigned to command the USS Sutherland, faces android-racism. Picard meets with Sela and they spend ages talking about continuity oddities between Yesterday's Enterprise and this episode. Later on Data saves everyone and Worf punches some people in the face. Gowron wins the civil war and Worf realises his people are a bunch of arseholes.

After a great build-up, the resolution is mostly subpar. Sela's introduction feels like a way of getting Denise Crosby back on the show in the most contrived manner possible and undoing the whole point of Yesterday's Enterprise, which was to give Tasha a more badass exit. Now we find she was shot by some Romulans, hardly an improvement on being killed by a black oil slick in the original episode. The civil war stuff is a bit disappointing (though the idea of the warring factions getting together in neutral bars for sing-alongs and friendly brawls between trying to kill one another for real is delightfully Klingon) but Data dealing with insubordination on the Sutherland is where the episode comes alive. "I understand your concerns. Request denied, dickhead." [/maynotbeverbatim]

502: Darmok

Shaka, when the walls fell. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. Temba, his arms wide. Sokath, his eyes uncovered. Darmok and Jalad, on the ocean. And so forth.

One of the most memorable and memetastic episodes of Star Trek, anchored by an excellent performance by Paul Winfield as the alien captain and, of course, Patrick Stewart's traditional awesomeness. It's a clever episode, one that Michael Piller spent two years honing into shape before it could be shot. There is a bit of a logic hole in the episode - how did the aliens manage to create a language based on metaphor without an already-existing, more straightforward language to base it on? - but it's so good it doesn't really matter.

503: Ensign Ro

The Bajorans - a people displaced from their homeworld by the Cardassians - carry out a terrorist attack on a Federation outpost to try to bring attention to their cause. The Enterprise is assigned to defuse tensions and is given a liaison officer, Ensign Ro Laren, to help in the discussions. However, Ensign Ro has a mixed reputation in Starfleet and her arrival on the Enterprise causes friction.

At this point in TNG's history, early development work on Deep Space Nine was underway, and this episode lays some groundwork for that (although it's unclear if the DS9 idea was based on this episode or if the episode was deliberately designed to seed in some new ideas). Initially, the occupiers of Bajor were to be the Romulans, but this was vetoed by the producers who felt that the show was in danger of over-using them. The Cardassians were brought back from Season 4 instead, which proved to be a more interesting decision (DS9 would have been a very different show with the Romulans as the main antagonists). Beyond this, it's a damned good episode which works by breaking one of Michael Pillar's key rules on the show, that each episode has to be about the regular cast and not about the guest star of the week. Ensign Ro is a great character played with maximum authenticity by Michelle Forbes. The scene where Ro and Guinan talk in Ten-Forward is one of the few moments in the show where it feels like two people are having a perfectly normal, credible conversation, and both actresses are on top form. A great episode, slightly marred by the oddball insistence that Ro can't wear her Bajoran earring when Worf is allowed to walk around with a massive Klingon sash on the whole time.

504: Silicon Avatar

The Crystalline Entity shows up and kills a whole bunch of people. A scientist with specialist knowledge of the creature - because her son was killed by it - shows up and goes all Ahab in trying to kill it.

A riff on Moby Dick using the Crystalline Entity from Datalore in Season 1 as the whale? Okay. Weird, but it almost works. The subplot with the woman getting Data to re-enact her dead son's memories is appropriately odd and creepy and Ellen Geer plays the role of Kila Marr very well, despite some iffy writing decisions. Picard's decision to get all touchy-feely with the Crystalline Entity given it has, by now killed hundreds of thousands of people is slightly eyebrow-raising and it's hard to join Picard's moral outrage when Marr shatters the thing instead. Overall, an okay episode.

505: Disaster

The Enterprise is hit by a quantum filament, throwing the entire ship into total chaos. The crew, separated in different parts of the ship, have their own crises to deal with before the ship can be saved.

Occasionally it's good to see ST:TNG dropping its morality play and drama-of-the-moment status and become a gratuitous action story. In this case, the episode is a mini disaster movie and works surprisingly well, with moments of high drama balanced against comedy (Worf delivering Keiko's baby is hilarious, Picard having to turn a bunch of kids into a Starfleet repair crew is nowhere near as terrible as it sounds) and some good character development. Troi assuming command of the bridge inspires to her taking a more serious Starfleet officer role in Season 6. I also like to think that Ensign Ro's highly hazardous jury-rigging of systems to make the Enterprise bridge stations work - to O'Brien's horror - is an influence on O'Brien's engineering style on DS9. There's also some brilliantly deconstructions of the show's technobabble ("If the field drops below 15% we'll have a containment breach," "Which means?" "Which means the ship will explode!"). Oh, and the Adventures of Riker and Data's Severed Head. Not an episode to rank in the show's top ten or anything, but relentlessly entertaining.

[Jaxom 1974]

421: The Drumhead

It appears that the Enterprise has been sabotaged. A Starfleet admiral arrives to investigate, but her zealousness turns into a witch-hunt.

A bloody good episode, with a superb performance by veteran Hollywood actress Jean Simmons (news of whose casting momentry confused Michael Dorn, who thought the KISS singer was getting a cameo). There are relatively few surprises here - the narrative is straightforward - but Simmons and Stewart clash together superbly and the show does a good job of bringing together everything that's gone wrong over the past year to make it appear that the Enterprise crew are bunch of dubious dunderheads. An episode so good it got remade twice by other shows (though the trope is pretty well-established): as Eyes on Babylon 5 and Litmus on BSG, but The Drumhead may be the best of them.

423: The Host

A Trill ambassador comes aboard soon starts a romance with Dr. Crusher. When the Trill host dies, the symbiont is transferred to another host - Commander Riker. But the ambassador wants to continue the relationship to Dr. Crusher's discomfort.

An interesting episode which never quite finds the drama in the issues it raises. Dr. Crusher's emotions are portrayed well, but her eventual attitude of, "Sorry, this body-hopping is not conducive to a relationship," is pretty much where the viewer was in the first ten minutes. Still, watchable.

505: Disaster

The Enterprise is hit by a quantum filament, throwing the entire ship into total chaos. The crew, separated in different parts of the ship, have their own crises to deal with before the ship can be saved.

Occasionally it's good to see ST:TNG dropping its morality play and drama-of-the-moment status and become a gratuitous action story. In this case, the episode is a mini disaster movie and works surprisingly well, with moments of high drama balanced against comedy (Worf delivering Keiko's baby is hilarious, Picard having to turn a bunch of kids into a Starfleet repair crew is nowhere near as terrible as it sounds) and some good character development. Troi assuming command of the bridge inspires to her taking a more serious Starfleet officer role in Season 6. I also like to think that Ensign Ro's highly hazardous jury-rigging of systems to make the Enterprise bridge stations work - to O'Brien's horror - is an influence on O'Brien's engineering style on DS9. There's also some brilliantly deconstructions of the show's technobabble ("If the field drops below 15% we'll have a containment breach," "Which means?" "Which means the ship will explode!"). Oh, and the Adventures of Riker and Data's Severed Head. Not an episode to rank in the show's top ten or anything, but relentlessly entertaining.

Yay! Wert's back with more! :)

"The Drumhead" has to be a top ten/fifteen episode of the show's run. There's a lot of good stuff in there.

"The Host" is interesting for the introduction of the Trill and their subsequent complete alteration with the advent of Dax on DS9. Was there not something about the Trill where it was suggested that they were somehow connected to the parasitic aliens from Season 1's Conspiracy? I know there was a comic out there that played off this idea...

With "Disaster", the best later reference to it was in DS9 when they announced Keiko was having another baby and Worf's reaction of, "Now?"...

[The hairy bear]

This last streak of episodes is perhaps TNG at its best. There were better episodes now and then, but this sequence is amazing. (even though Tasha's story should have ended at Yesterday's Enterprise. Anything that came afterwards could only worsen it, and Redemption worsened it a lot)

502: Darmok

Shaka, when the walls fell. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. Temba, his arms wide. Sokath, his eyes uncovered. Darmok and Jalad, on the ocean.

The fact that we can all remmber exactly what each of those sentences mean twenty years after is testimony to how great this episode was. A whole episodey based on two men alone in a planet, trying to decipher each other's language. I don't think I've never seen anything else as daring that worked as well.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Poor Tasha. First she gets killed by black oil. Then timeline shennanigans gives her a chance to go out in a blaze of glory. Except that she survives, becomes a Romulan's concubine, gets betrayed by her daughter, and shot. Some people just don't catch a break.

I must be in the minority re Darmok. Watched it wen it first aired on Sky One, and have avoided rewatching it ever since.

[Rhom]

Darmok is probably still my favorite TNG episode.

I must be in the minority re Darmok. Watched it wen it first aired on Sky One, and have avoided rewatching it ever since.

Shaka, when the walls fell. :(

[beniowa]

Regarding Darmok, I remember an interview with Patrick Stewart about the episode and he said (I'm paraphrasing here) that there have been a lot of academics who have told him that Star Trek has done more for the Epic of Gilgamesh than all the previous eras of recorded history. Heh.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Darmok is probably still my favorite TNG episode.

Shaka, when the walls fell. :(

Watching something else, when the channel's changed.

[Jaxom 1974]

Watching something else, when the channel's changed.

Bazinga!

It's like you've been waiting twenty years to use that line...