Several decades after Kirk's Enterprise, a new Enterprise sets out on a similar mission of exploration. Its first stop is Farpoint Station, a remarkably advanced starbase built by a race negotiating with the Federation. However, the ship is intercepted en route by a being known as Q (John de Lancie). Q demands that the Enterprise - along with, presumably, all humans - return immediately to Earth, and uses its immense powers to hold a mock trial of humanity. When the captain, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), challenges Q to test humanity as it is now, the being agrees... and assures them that Farpoint will provide a very adequate puzzle for them.
Arriving at Farpoint, everything seems normal. However, the new first officer, William Riker, has noticed that items seem to appear out of nowhere on the station, to meet needs and wants as soon as they are expressed. This, coupled with Q's challenge, leads Picard to conclude that something is going on at Farpoint. But when his investigations are proceeding too slowly for Q's tastes, the superbeing reappears and gives them a new time limit: 24 hours to solve the puzzle, or face summary judgment!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: "I'll do anything you say!" A handful of crew members are in jeopardy, and Picard all but immediately surrenders to Q. Gah! One of Kirk's most famous quotes from the original series is, "Risk is our business." Based on this less than spectacular display, Picard's motto may as well be, "My people are in trouble... Time to go home!" Never mind Kirk comparisons - that particular scene compares unfavorably with Archer!
That scene aside (and I think it's fair enough to mark that down to a spot of bad writing), Picard makes a favorable overall first impression. Patrick Stewart has a great deal of natural authority, and usually manages to hold the scenes together even when the script stumbles. Picard is portrayed as being less physical and more intellectual than Kirk. Though, to be honest, this puzzle wasn't exactly beyond Kirk's reasoning skills. Or even Archer's.
Riker: With Picard effectively being the intellectual analyst, it falls to first officer William Riker to be the muscle. An early scene has him standing up to Picard, defending his decision to refuse to allow a prior captain to lead an Away Team. Clearly, the Kirk "action man" role is being designed for him in this series. Johnathan Frakes gives an adequate performance in this pilot, although the prior relationship with Troi (Marina Siritis) seems forced.
Troi: Marina Sirtis is attractive, though I'm not sure her form is best-suited to the mini-skirted outfit she wears here. Apparently, at some point, actress and/or execs agreed, because I seem to recall this outfit being changed quickly. Her acting in this episode is deeply mediocre, though given most of her lines amount to, "I sense pain... I sense fear... I sense a superior mind!" - at least, when she's not acting like a teenage girl with a crush around Riker - it's hard to fault the actress too much. To say the character writing is weak for her would be to understate.
Data: Thankfully, Brent Spiner makes an immediate positive impression as Data. Spiner seems to instinctively know how to play up his character being an android without overplaying it. Little things like the way he sits up, then stands up, after a planetary assault has knocked both him and Riker to the ground, just emphasize him as not-quite-human. His character is an obvious counterpoint/inversion to Spock. In TOS, Spock is an essentially emotional being who works every conscious moment to suppress his emotions, and who doubtless wishes he had no emotions to suppress. In TNG, Data is the opposite - a being with no emotions, who nevertheless tries to emulate those feelings and wishes he had genuine feelings of his own. It's my recollection that this became regrettable fuel for sitcom-level subplots. However, the character is one of the strongest elements of this pilot.
The Enterprise Crew: Passable first impressions of the rest. Gates McFadden is quite attractive as Dr. Crusher. The character has a past with Picard that is dealt with in a far lower-key (and thus more effective) fashion than Troi's past with Riker is, and she has some good scenes opposite both Picard and Riker. Worf is... Well, Klingon, and not much more than that. But I already know he becomes a memorable character, so I'll let his lack of characterization here slide. Colm Meaney appears and gets a few lines of dialogue, though he has no character as yet. Denise Crosby slightly overacts her bits as the security chief, particularly in the courtroom scene, but seems to have potential to grow into her part. Wil Wheaton's Wesley is annoying, and - if memories hold true - will become more annoying as time goes by. Hold firm to your rule, Jean-Luc: "No children on the bridge!"
Villain of the Week: The first of several appearances by John de Lancie as Q. Q would eventually become a sort of Puck-in-space, a cosmic trickster character. Here, he's actually meant to be sinister. It... doesn't quite work, largely because that characterization does not play to the actor's strengths. Still, the deadline he gives Picard does raise a little tension, and it's already clear that de Lancie and Patrick Stewart play very well opposite each other.
THOUGHTS
Nothing dates like effects. This pilot is proof of that. In 1987, many of the effects seemed rather impressive, particularly the effects as Q ensnares the Enterprise at the beginning. Now those effects look desperately dated, possibly even more dated than many TOS effects. Certainly, the mattes once the show shifts setting to the planet are less detailed and artistic than the mattes frequently seen in the old series. And the overdramatic music during the "saucer separation" - Well, that honestly struck me as dramatic overkill back in 1987, let alone today.
Pace is also a problem. When Q is chiding Picard for going too slowly, he could be speaking for the audience. The pace is very awkward, with the need to introduce sets and characters often getting in the way of telling the story. A good example of this is when Q appears to give Picard the 24-hour deadline. After the commercial fade-out, we are told that much of this deadline has passed. So what happens next? Riker strolls around the ship and visits the holodeck to collect Data, and the two have a conversation about holodeck technology and Data's Pinnochio complex. Then we get some weak humor with Wesley joining them in order to be drippy in the hallway. Right after a scene meant to create a sense of urgency, we get a very long scene that drains that urgency away again.
On the other hand, the story itself is quite decent. It's thin enough to allow the characters to be introduced, and to give each of them at least one or two beats, but substantial enough to engage viewer interest and create a need for some basic character interaction. As a story, it's much worse than TOS' The Cage; as a pilot, however, it's probably better.
Still, when Picard promises at the end that most of their missions will be "much more interesting," I'm sure a lot of viewers were replying, "I hope so!"
Rating: 6/10.
Next Episode: The Naked Now
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