Saturday, February 5, 2011

Thoughts on Season Two

The second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation continues the series' uneven quality. Very good episodes sit side-by-side with jaw-droppingly bad ones. There is still some of the sense of the first season, of a show that just hasn't quite found its own identity. Nevertheless, in almost all important respects, this is a considerable improvement over Season One.


Improved Characterization

In Season One, only Data worked as a character from the beginning. By mid-season, Picard was starting to emerge as a character as well, though there was much of a sense that Patrick Stewart's considerable acting talent was carrying a poorly-written role. Meanwhile, the rest of the ensemble was either poorly-defined (Geordi, Tasha, Worf) or defined in a way that just didn't work (Riker, Troi, Wesley).

Season Two's single most important achievement is that now the cast works. Picard is more consistently well-scripted than in Season One, and Stewart's performance is more relaxed as a result. Data continues to work well as a character. Geordi has been moved over to Engineering, which helps him to be something other than an interchangeable Bridge fixture. At the same time, Geordi's reassignment fixes the Season One problem of the ship's many revolving Chief Engineers.

Worf's characterization is substantially stronger. Michael Dorn was good in Season One, doing as much as he could with what he was given - which usually amounted to a stray one-liner or a growl. In Season Two he gets quite a lot to do. Some thinking was apparently done between seasons as to what it might be like for a Klingon to serve on a human vessel. As a result, we get a lot more background on Worf. He interacts more with his fellow crew members, and we see how strongly he clings to aspects of Klingon culture, perhaps in an effort to avoid losing that identity. In the midst of all of this honor and warrior zeal, Worf's most delightfully surprising quality is his humor. He is one of the funniest characters on the show - a deadpan humor that Michael Dorn's low voice is very well-suited to delivering.

As good as the improvement to Worf's characterization may be, the season's single most improved character is not him.  It's Riker. Remember "Action Man" Riker, the (Very) Poor Man's Kirk? Thankfully, that characterization has been largely abandoned. Season Two Riker is much more laid-back. He's philosophical in a wryly humorous way that perfectly complements the intellectual Picard. The humorous qualities are particularly well-suited to Jonathan Frakes' acting strengths. In Season One, I found Frakes to be barely adequate. In Season Two, he is one of the standouts.

Troi and Wesley still don't work, though both are a lot less annoying than they were last season. At least Wesley is no longer saving the ship on a weekly basis while smugly declaiming about the foolish "adults" in his midst, and the season's sole Wesley-centric episode is actually not half-bad.

The Troi episodes (The Child, Loud as a Whisper, Manhunt) are far worse, with the writers still not knowing what to do with her. But Marina Sirtis' performance has noticeably improved, and she does fairly well when she's just a member of the ensemble. Too bad that when she's the focus of an episode, it's still guaranteed pain.


New Characters

Diana Muldaur's Dr. Pulaski would only last for a single season, and she wasn't much liked at the time. I think time has perhaps been kinder to her than contemporary viewers were. It seems quite obvious, in retrospect, that Muldaur was a substantially better actress than Gates McFadden, and invested a lot more character into her role than McFadden did.

But while the actress did a good job with what she was given, large swaths of her characterization were misjudged. In trying to make her into a McCoy-like character, the writers start off by having her bully the show's most popular character in her first two episodes. It's as if, upon hiring an actress approximately 4 times better than the one they were replacing, the show's producers made a bet that they could still make the audience hate her as fast as humanly possible.

The other major new addition this season is Whoopi Goldberg's Guinan. Apparently, this was the result of Goldberg really wanting to play in the new Star Trek show, so my initial assumption of "stunt casting" was just off the mark. But not by much, because it honestly plays like stunt casting. With the notable exception of her effective use in Q Who, Guinan is Whoopi Goldberg playing the patented Whoopi Goldberg role. Q Who, however, along with my own hazy memories, provides me hope that this character will become something more in later seasons.

Given that Colm Meaney was in the background as far back as Encounter at Farpoint, O'Brien is not strictly speaking a new character. But this season gives him first a name, then - very gradually - a personality. By the end of the season, he's emerged as a solid second-stringer. He gets more to do this season, billed as a recurring guest star, than Denise Crosby got to do in most of Season One, and he will likely continue to work his way into the fabric of the show in the future. Incidentally, switching between these episodes and Deep Space 9 really highlights how young Colm Meaney looks in these Season Two episodes!


Uneven Quality

For the most part, the season is a marked improvement. A number of episodes deliver on the series' promise, while at the same time deepening the characterization. A Matter of Honor, The Measure of a Man, and Q Who particularly stand out. The average episode quality is, to my mind, unquestionably higher than in Season One.

However, there are large stretches of bad television here. The two most noticeable substandard runs are near the beginning of the season, from The Outrageous Okana - Unnatural Selection; and the final six episodes of the season. Some of this was doubtless due to a writer's strike leaving the production team scrambling for scripts, any scripts. But going from Q Who to Samaritan Snare is guaranteed to cause viewer whiplash. It's actually a shame the season wasn't cut a bit shorter, as Q Who would have been an ideal season finale - while none of the episodes that follow are particularly worth bothering with.


Wishlist for Season Three

Season Two is a big step in the right direction. I'd mostly just like to see the improvements continue next season. The writers have developed (most of) these blank uniforms into characters. Now let's put some of the stronger personalities into conflict with each other. The series' best episode to date put Riker and Picard on opposite sides. Let's do more of that, only without Riker being under duress. I'd also like to see some situations in which there is no one "right" thing to do, no magical fixes available. I think that might create some more genuine tension - and building tension remains an area in which this show visibly struggles.

I also hope for less unevenness. Season Two at least has the excuse of a writer's strike. But writer's strike or no, a good third or more of this season was basically pretty bad. That this was an improvement over last season is more a reflection on how bad that first season was. Bad episodes will happen from time to time, of course. But six episode stretches in which mediocrity is a highlight? That's inexcusable.


Overall

The improvement in characterization is key to making this not only a better season than the first, but a major step in this show's longevity. There is still a lot of bad here - too much bad for me to even rate this series even with Enterprise at this point, let alone Deep Space 9. But the good is getting better, and the series has a much stronger sense of its own identity than at the end of Season One. I feel a lot more optimistic going forward.

The show still has a long way to go, though. The good's now outweighing the bad - but not by enough. The series' hit rate needs to rise substantially, for this show to be in any way deserving of its reputation. As of the end of Season Two, it's better. But I suspect the series was still surviving more because of people's fondness for Star Trek in general than on its own merits.


Previous: Season One Overview
Next: Season Three Overview

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