Thoughts on Season Seven

The series gets a dignified final bow. Too bad it comes
at the end of a desperately uneven final season!

All Good Things Must Come to an End...

And in the case of Star Trek: The Next Generation, they probably should have come to an end a season earlier. Despite a handful of bright moments and a genuinely superb series finale, the iconic science fiction show's final year is largely flat and stale, to the point that it's often a chore to plow through it.


THE FLAT EARTH SOCIETY

In my look back at Season Six, I observed that the series had not gotten stale yet, but that it was showing signs of doing so. Well, Season Seven sees the series grow as stale as a crust of a cheap bread left out for a week on a kitchen counter. Most of the episodes are so dramatically flat, I half-expected Christopher Columbus to sail off the edge.

There are echoes here of TOS' third season. The first half of the season is weaker than what preceded it, but not disastrously so. There are a few very strong episodes in the mid-season... and then it collapses into a sustained rut of shows that are downright awful, with only a scattered few rising to the heights of mediocrity.

I will say that the last regular episode makes a stab at recovery, and the series finale is genuinely fine television. But this dignified final bow is preceded by a full third of a season of dross, with the series too often seeming to be wheel-spinning while waiting impatiently to take the crew to the bigscreen.

When you've run out of ideas, that's when you turn
one of your regulars into a ghost-sex maniac.

CHARACTERS

In defense of the production staff and writers, I'll acknowledge how difficult it must have been to do much with characters already so thoroughly explored. But for the most part, the season doesn't even try to do anything new with them. Geordi feels bad when his mom dies, but that reveals nothing about him unless you were under the impression that he was the android regular instead of Data. Worf continues to struggle with his son's resistance to Klingon ways, but that is also nothing new. And Worf's not-quite-relationship with Troi is something that comes out of nowhere and never feels convincing - Just a desperate attempt to try to do something different with the characters.

A few episodes try to get around this by doing downright wacky things: Data gets possessed by an entire race's consciousness; Dr. Crusher is transformed into a ghost sex maniac; Troi becomes a hyper-jealous murderess; and the entire crew embrace their inner animals. I suppose when you can't think of anything to do with your characters, making them behave out of character is one solution... Though given how poorly all of those episodes are regarded, it doesn't seem to be a very good one.

Riker is unhappily reunited with his former captain
in The Pegasus, one of the season's best episodes.

FLECKS OF GOLD IN THE MUCK

Faring better are those episodes that reinforce and build on the characters' established attributes. Attached revisits the Picard/Crusher attraction that had been prominent in Season One, folding their unspoken mutual feelings into the "trusted friends" dynamic that had built up in later seasons. By working with what had already been established about the characters and and allowing the actors some mature and intelligent conversations within the framework of the story, it quietly emerged as an enormously entertaining piece.

Even better was The Pegasus, the mid-season Riker episode. A conversation between Picard and Admiral Pressman calls back to the very first Picard/Riker scene, in which Picard pressed his new first officer about overruling a previous captain's orders. That early scene is given new context, as we learn that the very thing Picard seemed irritated about was, in reality, the reason he had requested Riker be assigned. This adds a new level to their heated exchange in the pilot, making it a stronger scene in retrospect than it was at the time.

Thine Own Self proves to be a solid Data-centric episode (though the less said about the subplot, the better), simply because Data is so perfectly written that even a predictable story ends up being enjoyable. Pre-Emptive Strike brings Ensign Ro back to complete her arc from outcast to Starfleet officer in a way that isn't what most contemporary viewers would have expected, but that fits perfectly with who she has always been.

Basically, when the episodes don't try to push the characters in bizarre directions and just take them as they are, they tend to work. When the writers try to compensate for us already knowing the regulars by presenting bizarre situations for them to deal with, then the results tend to be a lot worse. The obvious exception is the excellent Parallels - but that one gets the characters so right that the strangeness is grounded in a way that isn't true in, say, Genesis or Masks.

Data gets possessed in Masks,
one of the weirdest episodes... well, ever.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I'm not quite done with Star Trek: The Next Generation, because there are still four TNG movies to review. Though I saw all four at the time, none of them is fresh in my memory so I will be able to rediscover them as new.

I won't write up a wish-list for them, save to hope that the lessons of Season Seven will be applied: That the drama works best when the characters are comfortably in-character, reacting to situations that have been well thought-out; and that it works much less well when the characters don't feel like themselves and are left to react to scenarios that have been poorly thought-out, that are bizarre with minimal explanation, or that are just plain dumb.

Basically: More flecks of gold, please, and a lot less muck.

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Thoughts on Season Four

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.

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.

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!

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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.


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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.

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Thoughts on Season One

There's a fair amount to weigh, in creating an assessment of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I should say, if it's not clear enough from my reviews, that I found Season One of TNG to be quite weak overall. If Season One of Enterprise just barely did what the first season of a television series needed to do, then Season One of TNG fails to do even that much. If the series had been cancelled after this first season, I would have felt the cancellation entirely deserved.


Horrible Beginnings

Though Encounter at Farpoint was solid both as a pilot and a story in its own right, it did suffer from problems that would recur throughout the season. These problems could be summed up by the words "pacing" and "jeopardy." Namely, there wasn't any. The plot of the pilot has Q giving Picard a puzzle to solve to earn humanity's continued right to explore space. When Picard moves too slowly, Q gives him a time limit, in order to increase the stakes and amp up the pace. Then we cut to an extended, jokey sequence on the holodeck before the plot even attempts to advance further. If the writers were deliberately trying to undercut the tension, they couldn't have done a better job of it.

At least Farpoint had a solid story at its core, and had the excuse of being a pilot - meaning it was burdened not only with a story, but with the introduction of a large (too large) cast of characters. But it was followed by a series of some of the worst episodes any of the Trek series have ever seen: The Naked Now, Code of Honor, The Last Outpost, Lonely Among Us, Justice... Some truly horrible television. Out of the first third or more of the season, only Where No One Has Gone Before manages to show any real potential for this series to be good, let alone for it to be a worthy successor to the 1960's original.

I suspect TNG benefitted from the late 1980's television landscape. There had been no new televised Star Trek since the animated series of the early 1970's, and fans had all but memorized the episodes of the original series from the many reruns they had enjoyed. The movies were fun, but they only came out about once every two to three years. There was a real hunger for a new Trek show, in a television landscape that was otherwise devoid of outer space adventure shows. This probably helped to create a very forgiving audience. I can scarce credit that viewers would patiently wait out such a bad beginning otherwise.


Signs of Improvement

I'll be fair and acknowledge that the show improved around the series' midpoint. It was slow to do so, but we started getting watchable episodes like Hide and Q and Haven. They weren't brilliant television by any means, but they were enjoyable and the characters started to emerge from their one-dimensional sketch stages. Then actual good episodes began to come around with some regularity: The Big Goodbye, Datalore, 11001001, Heart of Glory. The dogs were still there too, but at least the show started to put out about as many good episodes as bad ones. With Coming of Age and Conspiracy, there was even an attempt at arc building... though the combination of a strike and the reconception of the Borg as something other than the insect race shown in Conspiracy meant that this "infant arc" effectively was stillborn. Still, it was a legitimate attempt.


The Shadow of the '60's

One of the show's biggest problems, in its first season, is a lack of its own identity. Particularly in the first half of the season, there's a real sense that the writers just don't know what show they're making. Gene Roddenberry clearly wanted a more intellectual show, hence creating in Picard an older and more intellectual captain, with Riker on hand to carry the "action man" duties. Unfortunately, the writers seemed to associate Trek with "action man" Kirk. The result is entirely too many episodes that feel like TOS retreads, with Riker shoved into the Kirk role and Picard left to wander around in the background like a badly-directed extra. This is particularly glaring in episodes such as The Last Outpost and Angel One.

The frustrating thing about the TOS knockoff episodes is that they are consistently the worst of the season. Not only do they feel like TOS knockoffs, they are often worse on every level (even technical ones) than the 1960's shows. When the good episodes start to come, they are ones that tilt in the more intellectual direction Roddenberry probably envisioned. Episodes like Where No One Has Gone Before, The Big Goodbye, and 11001001 are specifically Next Generation episodes. Not only are they not aping Kirk & company, they actually wouldn't work very well with Kirk's crew. Hopefully, the increase in these episodes in the season's second half means that there will be more of those in future seasons.


The Tasha Debacle

Wesley's annoying, there's not much serious question about that. But it does seem that the writers came to realize how annoying it was to have Wesley the Wonderful save the ship from the stupid adults, given that this became less and less common as the season progressed. It's notable that the last three episodes of the season don't even feature Wesley, while the last Wesley-centric episode of the season actually manages to make his character work for probably the only time this year.

As much of an easy target as "Shut Up, Wesley" might be, the show's real "miss" in character terms is Tasha Yar. It's fair to say that Denise Crosby is not the world's most versatile actress.  Still, both she and her character showed potential in the series' early episodes. Tasha has a genuinely interesting backstory, and Crosby's early performances demonstrate some enthusiasm. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that, cast in a "serious" role, Crosby's best moments are consistently comedic ones. She's very good in The Naked Now, and in her nonverbal reactions to awkward moments in episodes such as Haven, Justice, and Angel One.

Perhaps it stemmed from a realization of Crosby's dramatic limitations. Perhaps Trek writers just didn't know what to do with a character who had such a dark backstory.  It's not exactly in the Trek ethos to explore a background of extreme poverty, drugs, and battling "rape gangs." But as the season went on, Tasha became more and more sidelined. Thus began what I have dubbed "The Mayweather Effect." As with Anthony Montgomery's performance as Mayweather in Enterprise, Crosby's initially promising performances became increasingly flat, likely in response to increasingly anemic material. As the actor begins to realize that better material really isn't going to be forthcoming, at least not on a regular basis, the actor gives up and starts playing lines by rote. Denise Crosby leaves the show as a regular in Skin of Evil. But she basically checked out several episodes before that, and I find that I can't particularly blame her. It's tough to show up to play a part, and end up playing a prop.


Final Analysis

I find it very difficult to really come up with a firm evaluation of this season. If you were take the 26 episodes of this season and boil it down to the 13 episodes of the average cable television season, you would probably be able to present a fairly strong season of television. As I complained frequently in my early Enterprise reviews, when you have too many slots to fill in a given season, the result will inevitably be filler.

There is potential for a good series here. A show with no potential does not produce episodes of the quality of: Where No One Has Gone Before, The Big Goodbye, 11001001, Datalore, Heart of Glory, and We'll Always Have Paris. The cast ranges from adequate to very good.  Patrick Stewart is a splendid actor, and his character finally seems to be working by the season's end.  Supporting actors Levar Burton, Brent Spiner, and Michael Dorn also do consistently excellent work. Jonathan Frakes is more limited, but he is at least solid and fairly likable.

Unfortunately, this was not a good season of television. Too many bad episodes, too much lack of imagination, too many bland productions whose directorial vision amounted to shooting whatever happened to be (mostly) in focus.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's first season is the worst Star Trek season I've yet reviewed. Based on what I've viewed and reviewed thus far, it was very lucky to get a second year to improve.  However, based on the best episodes of the season, there is at least room to hope for real improvement.


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1-8. Justice

The Enterprise visits Caligula's home planet, where the loosely-clad locals want to kill Wesley for stepping on some flowers. Where's Tom Servo when you need him?


THE PLOT

The Enterprise visits the home planet of the Edo, a race of models-in-training who seemingly exist solely to have sex with anyone, at the drop of a hat. "Any hat," Tasha observes, not unhappily. Picard decides to evaluate this planet's potential for shore leave. Having heard that it's a planet of loosely-clad, sex-crazed men and women, he naturally decides that Wesley should accompany the Away Team.

As the grown ups are escorted to the Playboy Mansion, Wesley is allowed to run off with some teens to play whatever unspecified game they come up with. Wesley, of course, chokes and blushes, so they end up playing ball instead. Meanwhile, Tasha finally decides to ask one of the locals a useful question, about laws and punishment, and discovers that the punishment for any crime committed within a random "punishment zone" is death: instant, automatic, with no chance of appeal, regardless of how severe or trivial the crime may be.

That's Wesley's cue to get overenthusiastic while trying to catch the ball. He smashes through a very light blockade set up to protect some new plants. Sure enough, he's within the "punishment zone" (now, what were the odds?), and is sentenced to death. And that pesky Prime Directive - along with an orbiting "God" - means that Enterprise can't just beam him out and fly merrily on its way.


CHARACTERS

Picard: Apparently, so overenthusiastic about the idea of sending Wesley down to the Planet of the Pleasure People that he can't even be bothered to have Data or the ship's computers run a quick scan of the planet's laws (information we're explicitly told that Riker and Tasha have returned with) to see if there's anything that, y'know, might be important!?! I'll spare Archer comparisons, because even the reckless Archer wouldn't be this negligent.

Picard's absolute faith in the Prime Directive is shaken by the fact that Wesley is the one threatened... I suspect, more accurately, by it being pretty, red-headed Dr. Crusher's son that is threatened, as I've seen little evidence thus far that Picard actually cares a fig about Wesley. Anyway, he shows his respect for the Prime Directive not only by openly beaming down to a pre-Warp civilization, but by kidnapping one of its citizens, and then promising Dr. Crusher that "no matter the cost," he will not allow the Edo to kill Wesley. All very kind, and likely to get him laid I suppose, but... Wouldn't there be some kind of review of his actions back home? Or would there be universal agreement among the command staff to doctor this particular report?

Riker: Spends the first act behaving like a frat boy, leering at the local girls. Upon hearing about the random "punishment zone," he immediately thinks of Wesley - probably realizing that in any Wesley-centric episode, the annoying one will certainly get into trouble almost instantly. He says something inane about rulebooks that apparently convinces "God" to bend the rules. Me, I suspect "God" was too busy laughing at the parade of inanity to maintain His control over the transporter, and that Picard & co. got lucky in being able to beam up.

Worf: Still no character development, but does get the one genuine laugh of the episode. While Rivan is closely embracing him, with clear, strong interest, he glances over at Riker and concedes, "Nice planet."

Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Brenda Bakke is Rivan, the gorgeous Edo female representative. She has no discernible character, but she's scantily clad, she's gorgeous, and she's openly willing to have sex with apparently anyone.  Upon seeing Picard's technological superiority, she kneels in front of him and pronounces him a god. What's not to like? The only reason Kirk wouldn't have settled this conflict in twenty minutes is that it would have taken at least 2/3 of the episode to get him away from all the, ah, distractions.


IT'S TIME FOR... BRATS IN SPAAACE!

Wesley is sent down to the planet to evaluate it as a place for children. With all the naked people openly having sex with anyone and everyone, how could anyone think this isn't the perfect place for children to go play? Presented with a gorgeous, and apparently interested, Edo girl his own age, he stammers, blushes, and chokes so badly that they're probably still performing the Heimlich on him to this very day. Then, while playing ball with Edo girl and two Edo boys, he manages to smash some flowers. His immediate response? Not to apologize, or to offer to help fix any damage, but to say, "I'm all right." Reacts, blank-faced, to the threat of execution. To his credit, he's mostly off-screen after that, but still manages to be vaguely annoying when he comes back at the end of episode.


NOW LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT...

A section I usually reserve for my Enterprise reviews, but this particular episode cries out for it. Doesn't the Prime Directive, as established on other series, apply to any direct contact or interference with pre-warp cultures? Doesn't that mean that they're already violating the Prime Directive by openly beaming down to the surface to copulate with the locals (let alone beaming one of the locals back up to the ship to ID "God" for them)? Admittedly, the rules of the Prime Directive were never all that consistent, even back in TOS, but surely there was a reason Kirk and Spock always dressed up as locals when they beamed down to a pre-Warp planet?

Beyond that, it is made clear that the mode of execution is poison. They retrieve one of the needles, and Code of Honor already made it clear that they could simply allow the execution and then beam Wesley's body up and revive him with the antidote. But then I guess we'd be spared the compelling climax where Dr. Crusher whines that "the law's not fair" and Picard announces that, morally speaking, any law must have exceptions (exceptions to the Prime Directive apparently applying anytime Picard needs to look heroic for the pretty doctor with whom he shares a past. Said exceptions are much less likely to be of aid to Random Redshirt #3).

More logic conundrums: The population of the entire planet keeps itself in check because the punishment for any crime is death... but only if that crime is committed within the single, randomly-assigned punishment zone? Which means that, if there really is just one punishment zone at any given time, that you could be wantonly lawless without fear of reprisal, as long as you're not in the punishment zone (which, I reiterate, is one spot on THE ENTIRE PLANET!). This isn't a recipe for law and order; it's a recipe for anarchy. I'm not Data, so I'm not going to compute the statistical odds of being in the punishment zone at any given time while at the same time committing a crime... However, I think it's fair to say that it's roughly equivalent to me buying a random lottery ticket and hitting the big jackpot.

Also, apparently being over 40, overweight, or physically imperfect are all against the Edo law, given the appearance of everyone we see in this episode.


THOUGHTS

Not much to add to the above. This is a very silly episode, good only to make fun of. It is a bit of an unintentional laugh riot, mind you - all the moreso because of how seriously all the regulars take it.

It also retains the poor pacing of most of the Season One TNG episodes. The writers/producers/Roddenberry (who probably had a hand in this) spend so long enjoying The Porn Planet, it takes a full 20 minutes for the plot to even start! Once it does, and Wesley is under threat, the script has no idea what do next... So we get another 20 minutes of hand-wringing and babbling about the floating plot device the locals call "God" (which could be excised from this episode with no real effect on the overall storyline).  Finally, Picard and Riker simply declare that Wesley is an exception to the rules and they're beaming him out of there. So go stuff it, Edo!

I did love how pissed the Edo policeman looked at not being able to kill Wesley. "C'mon, Baldy! No one ever breaks any laws here! I never get to kill anybody! Please, let me kill him? Not fair!" I also loved Dr. Crusher's reaction to hearing Wesley was facing execution. Faced with the execution of her only son, she does not go into shock or storm with righteous fury.  When "God" thunders, "Return my child," Dr. Crusher does not shout back the same.  Faced with Wesley's execution, she reacts with very mild upset. I've seen people more bothered about bad restaurant service than she is over her son's imminent death!

Ah, well. Bad episode all around, this. Not quite the worst, simply because it's so bad, it almost works as an unintentional self-parody. Still... pretty darn bad. I'm starting to wonder: Did I dream Where No One Has Gone Before?


Rating: 2/10.

Previous Episode: Lonely Among Us
Next Episode: The Battle


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1-7. Lonely Among Us

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is transporting quarrelsome delegates from two warring species, the dog-like Anticans and the reptilian Selay, both of whom have applied for entry into the Federation. Their destination is a peace conference on the planet Parliament. En route, however, the ship encounters a mysterious cloud-like energy formation. Picard orders a brief detour to investigate... and a mysterious energy surge promptly puts Worf in Sickbay.

The surge was caused by an energy creature, which passes from Worf to Dr. Crusher to the Enterprise computers, where it begins sabotaging the ship. The crew slowly work out the nature of the threat... but by the time they realize that the ship has been invaded by an energy being capable of taking over crew members, Picard himself has succumbed!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Patrick Stewart does particularly well with the last third or so of the episode, playing the possessed Picard. He slows down his line deliveries, and delivers every line with a calm serenity that is at odds with the (somewhat exaggeratedly) grumpy demeanor that "normal Picard" exhibits. Without actually doing anything specifically threatening, his scenes carry a wonderful eerie quality that lifts the episode itself considerably.

Riker: For purposes of this episode only, Riker becomes a bit of a wimp. The previous five episodes have firmly established that Riker will challenge the captain and even stand up to his authority when he deems it necessary. Not only suspecting, but knowing that the captain has been possessed by an alien intelligence... Riker suddenly can't do anything about it. Riiight...

Dr. Crusher: Even more hilariously implausible than Riker's inaction is Crusher's. Picard confirms to Crusher's face that he is possessed. What does the good doctor do? Does she instantly relieve him of command? Does she leave the room, call for help, then come back to relieve him of command? No, she simply says that "the more frightens me," and then does nothing. She also fails to report to anyone suddenly finding herself on the bridge, with a gap in her memory, until well after it becomes clear that there is a problem. She receives no reprimand of any kind for waiting to speak up; no one even mentions that doing so might have saved a fair bit of trouble. Ah, well. At least she's pretty.

Data: Gets some of the more entertaining material in the episode, when an offhand remark by Picard about wondering what Sherlock Holmes would make of this puzzle results in Data smoking a pipe and speaking in Holmesian dialogue. Most amusing is when, in mid-pompous Holmes, he suddenly gives RIker a sidelong glance and adds, "Sir."


IT'S TIME FOR... BRATS IN SPAAACE!

Wesley's specialness allows him to diagnose the nature of the problem with the engines when the engineer is unable to do so. When the engineer sends Wesley away to class, he whines about how much better he understands these problems than the actual crew members do. Couldn't the energy creature have beamed out in Wesley instead of what it ends up doing? Then the ship could leave Wesley the Wonderful there to swim around as an energy beam forever, and never blight the television screen again.


LET'S PLAY... ZAP THE REDSHIRT!
The first redshirt death in Next Generation. All right, technically he's a goldshirt, but that doesn't quite have the same ring to it. After Wesley has, with extreme brilliance and perceptiveness, pointed out to the plodding Engineer Singh the nature of the problem with the engines, Singh sends Wesley away. He then begins examining the problem, only to get zapped by the energy being. Instead of taking over his body, it kills him... for reasons never explained, save that it was apparently accidental. I guess as dangerous as it is to be a random crew member with a brief speaking part in Trek, it's doubly dangerous to be non-white with a brief speaking part.


THOUGHTS

After the very high quality of Where No One Has Gone Before, I felt reassured that there at least would be a few good episodes in Season One of TNG. Sadly, this is not one of them.

Which is not to say it's howlingly inept, in the manner of Code of Honor or The Last Outpost. This is a competently-executed episode. The early part establishes a mystery, which deepens over the course of the episode, before being resolved at the end. The visual effects for the energy cloud are dated, but still suitably eye-catching, even if they don't equal the gorgeous effects representing the end of the universe in Where No One Has Gone Before. It's all perfectly competent.

Unfortunately, it's also quite boring.

Things pick up a bit once Picard gets possessed. However, the first 30 minutes or so of this episode move very, very slowly. The subplot with the alien delegates goes nowhere, and when they start lurking in the (unusually dark) corridors to ambush each other, I wondered why anyone on the ship would really mind the prospect of them killing each other off. Both races come across as uncouth, arrogant, and violent.

The main plot sees a return to the pacing problems that have plagued this series from the get-go, with no real sense of building tension. Characters are dumbed down specifically so that the problem can't be spotted early on. Troi is always useless, sure... But she doesn't sense that the doctor, standing two feet away from her and behaving very strangely, has been suddenly taken over by an alien being? Either her empathic abilities have a point, or they don't. If they don't, then just drop them already.

Tension only starts to build once Picard is taken over - a point that should have been reached much sooner, and held longer. Even then, any suspense is promptly diffused when technobabbling the techno-gizmo and feeding it through the transporter miraculously resolves all problems.

Oh, and there's a comedy "tag" involving a delegate being killed and prepared as a meal. As Beavis and Butthead would say: Heh heh heh.


Rating: 4/10.

Previous Episode: Where No One Has Gone Before
Next Episode: Justice


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1-6. Where No One Has Gone Before

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is ordered to take on board Kosinski (guest star Stanley Kamel), an engineer, to perform an upgrade on the ship's warp drive. Riker and the ship's chief engineer are dubious about Kosinski's upgrades, which on paper appear meaningless. However, the man has successfully improved the efficiency of two other starships, and is arrogantly confident he can do the same for Enterprise.

When the experiment goes into effect, however, there are unintended consequences. The Enterprise shoots to speeds that are off the scale, ending up in a galaxy that, on maximum warp, should take 300 years to reach! Kosinski's attempt to return them home has even worse effects, as the Enterprise finds itself on the outer rim of the universe, in a place where thought and reality merge.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Actually manages to be of some use in his own show, for what just might be the first time since Encounter at Farpoint. Though he is dubious about Riker's suspicions of Kosinski, he is willing to back Riker up if the first officer decides not to let the engineer go ahead. He also does not allow Kosinski to treat Riker without due respect; when Kosinski says, "Come along, Riker," Picard barks at him, "Commander Riker!" Upon realizing the danger of the thought/reality merging at the edge of the universe, he lets his crew know what is occurring, and does his best to get them to keep their thoughts in control. The best showing yet for the captain, and probably not coincidentally the first time Picard actually works as a character in his own right, rather than simply being carried by Patrick Stewart's talent and screen presence.

Riker: Once again, the first one to suspect Kosinski is a fraud. The first one to listen to Wesley (albeit a bit late) and notice that Kosinski's assistant, "The Traveler," is more than he seems. At least he doesn't seem like the lead this time, but I'm really getting ready for Riker to be wrong about something in one of these episodes.

Data: Ironically for an emotionless android, Data seems particularly intrigued by the possibilities of exploration and scientific discovery on their first "hop." He then becomes all but invisible after "hop #2."

Pompous Space Bureaucrat of the Week: The late Stanley Kamel is terrific as Kosinski, the engineer whose faith in his own genius leads him to be downright obnoxious to everyone he encounters. The character isn't a million miles removed from the obnoxious space bureaucrats who plagued Kirk on a regular basis in TOS. Still, Kamel does a good job of conveying a certain insecurity and doubt in his eyes, even before the character drops the bluster, indicating that Kosinski's arrogance is there in part to cover up his own doubts about his so-called "genius."


IT'S TIME FOR... BRATS IN SPAAACE!

It would have to be a Wesley-heavy episode, wouldn't it?

Here, we discover that Wesley is not only a child prodigy, but that he is essentially the next stage of humanity's evolution - as Mozart was with music, the Traveler tells us (while supposedly talking to Picard), Wesley is with science and engineering. So Picard goes and makes him an Acting Ensign so that Wesley can come onto the bridge anytime he wants to. Oh, joy. A combination teen genius and Mary Sue... just what every show needs to really succeed.


THOUGHTS

Despite my dislike of the "revelations" about Wesley, Where No One Has Gone Before manages to deliver something I had all but given up on seeing, or at least on seeing before Diana Muldaur's brief tenure on the show: a genuinely good TNG episode.

In contrast to the slow-paced Code of Honor and Last Outpost, this episode moves along quite quickly. The scenario is established in the first few minutes: an upgrade that Riker doesn't trust, and an alien assistant that Troi cannot read (big surprise, Troi is unable to read anything that might actually be useful). Wesley and the alien bond - essential for the plot - and then the experiment goes into effect. By the first commercial break, the ship has traveled to another galaxy in a whir of special effects that I recall being dazzled by in 1987... and that still convey an effective sense of otherworldliness, even if they have dated. We sit around in this situation just long enough for the audience to absorb what has happened... and then the second "hop" occurs, raising the threat and weirdness thresholds substantially.

It's a good, tight script, co-written by frequent Trek novelist Diane Duane, one that understands the need to keep raising the stakes to keep the audience involved. Decent bits are provided for several of the regulars, too: Data's appreciation of the opportunity for exploration; Worf's vision of his pet Targ; the brief glimpse of Tasha, on her hellish homeworld, complete with scars just under her collarbone; even Picard's vision of his grandmother. Nothing's dwelled on long enough to slow down the pace, but many opportunities for future character development are provided.

This is the episode to really hint that this show might actually manage to deliver something worthwhile. Encounter at Farpoint was a promising pilot, but with distinct flaws in its pacing. Each episode since has managed to be worse than the one before. This episode turns that around in a big way, and makes me hopeful for future installments.

Which, of course, means that the next one will almost certainly be a return to mediocrity and/or awfulness.


Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: The Last Outpost
Next Episode: Lonely Among Us


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