Saturday, June 18, 2011

Thoughts on Season Three

As readers of my reviews will already know, I did not find the start of Star Trek: The Next Generation to be a promising one. Season One was mostly awful, albeit with a few flashes of inspiration. Season Two saw substantial improvement, with the characters starting to come into focus. But with two long stretches of back-to-back substandard episodes, it was still well short of what I'd consider a good season of television.

Season Three represents a change from the very first. The effects have taken not so much a step forward as a leap. The title sequence has been altered, and looks almost cinematic, particularly by the standards of the time. With this opening, as I said back in my review of Evolution, the series seems to be promising that the warm up exercises are over, and that the real series begins here.

Despite some stumbles and a handful of bad episodes, the promise of that opening is mostly delivered on. This is the first year of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which the series actually qualifies as good television, rather than as a hit-or-miss cult item that occasionally manages something special.


Characters

Season Two's major triumph was in characterization. In the second season, Picard became a thoughtful leader, rather than a grumpy cipher given intermittent life by star Patrick Stewart. Season Two also effectively rebooted the character of Riker, transforming him from a bland Kirk wannabe into a distinctive character with a sharp mind and a pleasantly laid-back sense of humor. Data's characterization - the only one that worked in Season One - was further refined, making him an even more interesting character, while Worf and Geordi were given new facets that helped them emerge as characters in their own right. Finally, while I still didn't warm to either character, both Wesley and Troi were less annoying in Season Two than they had been in Season One, and less in the way.

With all this accomplished, Season Three really only had to maintain the balance and perhaps build a bit on what came before. To their credit, the writers seem to realize this. Picard and Riker, both of whom worked extremely well in Season Two, are largely kept on the same course. Riker's characterization also receives more refinement. We see him act as an executive officer would, as the direct face of authority for the general crew - very noticeable in Hollow Pursuits. The Best of Both Worlds follows up on Riker's refusals to accept his own command, by putting him in a situation where he is forced to step out of Picard's shadow and be the captain. It shows what we've probably already guessed from about mid Season Two to now: Riker is more than ready for command. Which does rather raise the question of where the show goes from here with him, given that we know he doesn't get his own ship until Star Trek: Nemesis - roughly a decade later.

Other character notes. Season Three does a good job of giving every member of the ensemble a turn in the spotlight. Geordi gets a couple of very good episodes, with Booby Trap, The Enemy, and Hollow Pursuits showing how good Levar Burton really is. Worf also gets a prominent role, with his reaction to the injured Romulan in The Enemy giving his character more depth than had previously been the case. His spotlight episode, Sins of the Father, is also a high point of the season, as Worf finds that all he values in Klingon culture has been turned on its head by a government that's just as prone to corruption as any other.

Of the others: Dr. Crusher returns, and her blandness is quite a shock after a year of having a real actress on hand. Still, the character does well opposite Picard, with her scenes in Sarek actually working better than similar scenes would have worked had Diana Muldaur stayed on. Dr. Crusher's spotlight episodes, however, are uniformly bland, which suits the character all too well. The writers seem to have figured out that Wesley doesn't work as a character, and deal with this... mostly by pushing him so far into the background that he's practically an extra. On the other hand, Ronald D. Moore does give Wil Wheaton possibly his best scene ever in the otherwise unremarkable The Bonding, when Wesley is actually allowed to show some realistic resentment against Picard for being in command when his father died.


Old Enemies and Friends

Though Season Three will always be remembered for the return of the Borg in a big way (more on that later), I think the season's real triumph is in its handling of the Romulans. Though the Romulans were brought into The Next Generation by the Season One finale, and received mentions and an episode in Season Two, they were treated in a very simplistic fashion for the most part. Their role in Contagion could as easily have been filled by some generic alien of the week! Given the evolving reinvention of the Klingons on the same series, such shoddy treatment of TOS' most interesting (and underused) alien adversaries seemed a real missed opportunity.

Season Three changes that. The Enemy and The Defector, a pair of episodes that almost work as a 2-parter that happens to have some episodes in between, gives depth to the TNG Romulans. The recurring character of Tomalak (Andreas Katsulas) is particularly interesting, and I hope we see more of him. He smiles and is superficially pleasant even as his eyes and general demeanor all but cry for war, but he is also a very clever operator, an adversary who is evenly matched with Picard. The major guest characters of these two episodes show a multifaceted society: a simple soldier, who clings to Romulan dogma about superiority even as he forges an unlikely friendship with Geordi; and a career officer, who sees his society on the wrong path and sacrifices all he holds dear to try to correct it.

The conflict between the Romulans and the Klingons makes for particularly interesting backstory. Yesterday's Enterprise, desite being an "alternate reality" episode, actually shows how intertwined the Romulan and Klingon cultures are, as it shows how the final moments of a single starship influenced the Federation's alliance with the Klingons. By destroying the older Enterprise while attacking a Klingon colony, the Romulans created the bond between Starfleet and the Klingons. Remove that ship from that battle, and instead of an alliance, we are instead shown a devastating war: Doubtless, with the Romulans waiting in the wings to dispatch the (now weakened) victor.

Instead of a tedious universe at total peace, with the Enterprise-D ferrying itself smugly around the cosmos, we see that even this particularly idealized version of the Trek universe is in many ways maintaining a precarious balance. Klingons to the right of them... Romulans to the left... and the Federation in the middle, with a chasm of war ready to open up beneath them at any moment.


The Best of Both Worlds

One standout aspect of Season Three is in its writing. There are several episodes that don't work, particularly early in the season. But there are very few episodes that don't at least seem to be trying something interesting, even when they fail. Evolution has a weak third act, with everything far too tidily resolved... but it also has a genuinely intriguing science fiction premise involving the boundary between artificial and organic life. Who Watches the Watchers is a Prime Directive episode, with much of the tedium that description implies... but it also has some of the best characterization given to Troi in the series, some superbly written and performed scenes between Patrick Stewart and guest star Kathryn Leigh Scott, and an interesting argument about how even a minor intervention at the wrong place and time can create ripples.

About the worst Season Three manages to do are The Vengeance Factor and Menage a Troi. Both pretty bad episodes, but still far more watchable than some of the stinkers from the first two seasons. I could fill the rest of this paragraph just listing Season One and Two titles worse than those. The overall quality has risen, to a point at which an episode like Manhunt or Shades of Grey is now borderline unthinkable, let alone a run of shows of that quality. Prior to Season Three, I had awarded TNG a single "10," for The Measure of a Man. This season, I awarded four such scores: The Defector, Yesterday's Enterprise, Sarek, and The Best of Both Worlds. Other episodes (The Enemy and Sins of the Father, in particular) weren't far behind.

Even returns of old characters were not simply treated as nostalgia fests. The Romulans return, but are given depth. We actually travel to the Klingon homeworld, and discover the corruption at its core. Tasha Yar returns - and is given dignity and a proper exit, both things that were denied her when she was actually a regular. Sarek makes an appearance - but a diminished Sarek, dealing with an illness that renders him a shadow of his former self. Q returns - but he's stripped of his powers, rendered completely vulnerable, stripped as naked in character as he is physically when dropped onto the bridge. And in the process, he's reinvented. Q can no longer again be a simple villain. We now genuinely sympathize with him, we care about him in a way that wasn't true before. He's moved on from where he was, at least in our understanding of him, and he will have to be written with a new complexity in the future.

The familiar is blended with the new. Which brings us to the season finale. The Best of Both Worlds.

The return of the Borg proved to be the series' turning point. It had grown in popularity across its first three seasons, but it really wasn't fully accepted as mainstream television. Where it was reported on at all, it tended to be regarded as an inferior cousin to TOS, with multiple TOS personalities happily dismissing it. The improving quality of Season Three rightfully boosted its reputation, which may also have gained by comparison against the failed Star Trek V. But while mainstream America was certainly aware of Star Trek: The Next Generation, maybe even occasionally tuned in here and there, the show wasn't really "water cooler" television. Nobody outside sci-fi fandom was really inclined to gather around the water cooler and talk about last night's episode.

The Best of Both Worlds changed that. Since this write-up is just about Season Three, I'll just deal with Part One here. The season finale offered a driving pace, sterling production values, and a strong mix of character conflict (between Riker and Shelby) and external conflict (the Borg). It was, quite simply, terrific, and would have stood as terrific even had it been fully self-contained.

Then came the cliffhanger. The strong, noble Picard, last seen by viewers declaring his and humanity's defiance to the Borg, is transformed into a Borg. There isn't a trace of anything human in him as he throws up a shield to stop Worf from reaching him. He's already fully an automaton. "He is a Borg!" Worf cries out, the anguish evident in his voice. Then the real gut punch. Picard appearing on the Enterprise viewscreen, declaring that he is "Locutus of Borg," followed by Riker's order for Worf to fire a weapon that we have been led to believe will destroy Picard and Borg together. "Mr. Worf, fire!"

The show became mainstream television almost instantly. Almost anyone of my generation, even those who disdain both science fiction and Star Trek, will instantly catch a reference to "Locutus of Borg," and probably be able to summon up the mental image. Post-TOS Star Trek, whatever you may think of it compared with the 1960's series, offers very little that is truly iconic. The Borg, The Best of Both Worlds, and particularly "I am Locutus of Borg" - These things are iconic.

And Star Trek: The Next Generation would never be seen as the poorer cousin to "real Star Trek" again.


Season Four Wishlist

A brief one this time, not least because I've already gone on far too long. Season Three largely got it right. I'd like to see the series continue turning out ambitious stories, as even when these stories fail they tend to be a lot more interesting than some of the sludge from before. I would like to see some of the events from this season followed up. Not just the Borg and Picard's temporary transformation (which I know does get a follow up), but also some of the development of the Klingons and the Romulans. We've seen in three episodes this season that there's only a thin line keeping the Federation from open war with the Romulans. That's something to build on.

We've seen Worf's illusions about the Klingon Empire shattered by Sins of the Father. Now let's see that change Worf. The rest of the season sent him basically back to "business as usual." Let's see the events of that episode have a real impact on him. Finally, we've put Riker in command, and he's done well with that command. He shouldn't simply go back to being Picard's "Number One." Even if the format of the show requires Riker to stay where he is, there should be some new confidence, new notice in him from Starfleet, and perhaps either some new responsibilities or some chafing at being pushed back down to where he had been.

By and large, if they maintain the quality of the best of this season, I'll be a very happy viewer indeed.


Previous: Season Two Overview
Next: Season Four Overview


Season Three Review Index


To receive new review updates, follow me:

On Twitter:

On Threads:

No comments:

Post a Comment