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| The Enterprise at the edge of Federation space in The Nth Degree, a good episode in the midst of a good season. |
After two seasons that varied between pathetic and wildly uneven, TNG finally hit its stride in Season Three. The hit rate improved, with even the failed episodes mostly legitimately trying to be about something. The acting was better across the board. And the season cliffhanger, as Picard was converted into "Locutus of Borg," still stands as an iconic television moment.
Season Four's biggest challenge was to maintain that level of improvement. I'm happy to say it succeeds, and in some ways even improves on Season Three's successes.
THEMATIC CONSISTENCY
One thing that really stands out about Season Four of TNG is its thematic consistency. Even Season Three wasn't, as a unit, really about anything. It was simply 26 episodes that were of generally higher quality than what came before. In Season Four, whether deliberately or by happy accident, the writing staff have assembled a season with a unifying theme. This is best expressed by the title of the season's second episode:
Family.
Picard finds himself again after the Borg incident by returning home to his brother and his nephew. One episode later, Data is confronted with both his father and his brother. The crew meet Tasha Yar's sister, and they try with near-desperation to see something of their fallen comrade in a girl whose loyalties lie elsewhere. Riker is presented with a future in which he is a father, and he takes to it surprisingly well.
Though the tight focus on family broadens by the midseason, the sense of the Enterprise crew as a family unto themselves remains. Even the characters who don't and will never quite work are inhabited by actors who are now fully comfortable playing those parts. Interactions no longer feel forced. These are people who know each other and support each other without even having to think about it.
The family theme comes up in a very big way with Worf. Family reunites him with his human parents and shows us a glimpse of the pain he feels at his discommendation. Reunion presents him with a son and develops his discommendation further, as he agonizes over allowing his son to share a name that is tarnished. Finally, Redemption reunites him with his brother and allows him to reclaim his name - but at the cost of seeing just how poor a fit he is with Klingon society. He cannot be truly part of the Klingon family, so the start of Season Five sees him returning to the one place he does belong: the Enterprise.
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| Worf leaves the Enterprise to support his Klingon family. |
ONGOING QUALITY
Season Four begins with a high-quality run. Of the first eight episodes, only two are weak and even those are legitimate efforts. The quality grows more variable thereafter, but good and very good episodes continue to come with regularity. It's a lot easier to wade through a couple of bad episodes when you know there's liable to be something like The Wounded or First Contact around the next corner.
By this point, the production staff knew how to make the show well. Production values are high, occasionally even cinematic, with only a few stray moments of cheapness. The days when this series looked even more dated than the 1960s original are far in the past by this point.
This is matched by attempts to stretch the series' narrative format. Family gives us an entirely character-centered episode, with no external threat at all. First Contact provides an episode that is largely from the point of view of the alien society Picard is contacting. The Romulan and Klingon episodes show a further push toward arc storytelling, with all the Romulan and Klingon stories of the past two years intertwined and built on. Reunion is a rich episode because it builds so effectively on Sins of the Father and The Emissary. Redemption actively assumes familiarity with Reunion and Sins of the Father, making few concessions to new viewers even as it folds in the events of Yesterday's Enterprise and The Mind's Eye.
It's not at the level that would later be employed by Deep Space 9, but the series is showing enough confidence to assume viewers can follow running arcs... and indeed, that they are interested in doing so.
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| Data comes face-to-face with his creator. It doesn't go well. |
SEASON FIVE WISHLIST
For Season Four, I mainly just wanted to see the improved quality of Season Three maintained. Now that they've done that, I would like to see the show go a bit farther.
The series continues to be uneven, with great episodes sitting side-by-side with mediocre and even terrible ones. With 26 episodes per season, that's never going to be entirely resolved, but I do think there's room for improvement. The series has shown its facility for building and intertwining strong running arcs. Though I don't expect TNG to develop this as far as Deep Space 9 does, I do think that more focus on these arcs would diminish the number of bland filler episodes.
IN CONCLUSION
Another strong season in a series that, at its start, appeared to be a poor imitation of its classic predecessor. It's hard to say whether I would rate Season Three or Season Four as the stronger. This season had more thematic cohesion, and I think it had a slightly better hit rate... but Season Three's highs felt a bit higher; and, of course, it had a stronger finale.
In any case, this was a second very good TNG season in a row. Going into the series' fifth year, it's clear that these characters still have plenty of life in them - something that seemed inconceivable way back in Season One!
Previous: Season Three Overview
Next: Season Five Overview
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