"Star Trek: The Next Generation" Season Three (And 'The Best of Both Worlds') Recap/Review
Warning: The following contains spoilers for a show that started airing before I was a year old. If, like me, you've not seen it, go and watch and then come back. I'll wait for you.
Previously on "pk Had Never Seen TNG: The Series," pk was underwhelmed by the first season and liked the second season better, though it still could improve.
And now the next part. /Majel Barrett voice
It took me almost a year to watch the whole season, but that's not about the quality. This is the best season I've seen. By far.
The Good:
* Characters. In the first season, it seemed like nobody had a handle on Worf and Geordi. In the second season, it was Data and Troi that were all over the place. This season, the characterization is much better. (Troi still gets the short end of the characterization stick, though.) Everybody seems to have settled into a role, which is nice.
* The plot lines are evenly mixed between sci fi epics and mundane tales where the moral is important. It keeps the show from going too far either way. Sometimes, I feel like watching a silly space show; sometimes, I feel like watching a morality tale. With TNG, I can do both; sometimes, in the same episode.
* The CGI effects have gotten really, really good.
* GUINAN. She is awesome. There's a scene of her in "Deja Q" that is my favourite in the entire season. She tells Q off for doing whatever they want without regard for other people. It's nice. She's also awesome in "Yesterday's Enterprise." Every scene she's in really steals the show. And I love her scene in "The Best of Both Worlds." It's only one, and it is one of the most powerful in the episode.
* Background character continuity! This is especially true about engineering. Geordi has an extra that he constantly makes do things, and he calls him by the same name each time across several episodes. In "The Best of Both Worlds," Geordi tells Riker that Barclay is trying to figure out what's wrong with something. Which is a nice call back to the fact that he's a diagnostician. I love when shows make background characters show up in different places. It really makes the show's world feel like a real place.
* The costuming has gotten better. It's still really, really '80s at times. But it's much better. An example is "Menage A Troi." Troi's uniform has a bizarre off-centre scoop neck outline. The costume designer decided to take it and turn it upside down for Lwaxana's costume. It's a great visual shorthand that shows the two characters are related. Also, I really liked the Risan costumes. All the female employees are basically topless; there's just a few extra layers of sheer fabric over their breasts. All the male employees have mostly sheer pants. The Risan costumes really seem like something William Ware Theiss would've come up with.
The Bad:
* Most of the costumes are still really bad. And very late '80s, early '90s. I don't think anything has dated as badly as that time period's clothing.
* BARCLAY. I know everybody else likes him, but that whole episode was just one long cringe for me. My problem wasn't even the character. I don't like the way the episode works; it makes me feel like the writers thought we would be laughing at him too. And Barclay seems to have some sort of pervasive development disorder. I've a student with Asperger's. He and Barclay act very, very similar. So I feel like I'm watching people make fun of an individual with autism and am taking part in it.
* The practical effects are horrible! In "Transfigurations," a character has to "ascend to a higher plane of being." When he ascends, he's supposed to become a being of pure light. And they did it by sticking him in a green body morph suit. It is incredibly obvious.
And now I'd like to talk about specific episodes. Not all 27 (I'm doing "The Best of Both Worlds" as one.), but a couple of them.
'Evolution': Nanites escape Wesley's lab and form a collective intelligence, threatening the Enterprise.
Have nanites ever been a good thing? You think by this point people would stop playing with them! I liked this one because for once Wesley has done something wrong. Normally, he's absolutely, completely right and everybody thinks he's wrong. In this case, he actually is wrong. Which was really refreshing. It made him actually seem like a 17 year old kid.
'Booby Trap': The Enterprise gets trapped. So LaForge goes to the holodeck, imagines up a hologram of Dr. Leah Brahms, and falls in love with her. It's about as creepy as when Riker did something similar last season.
GAH! They did this last season, too! Why do people keep dating holograms?!? It's one thing if the hologram is like Data or the Doctor from Voyager; both of them are sentient and can refuse to date someone. Minuet (from last season) was created as a love interest for Riker. On the plus side, Leah was not created as a love interest. However, she's still not sentient. She may seem real because she's based on a real person, but Leah is not sentient so it makes it really creepy to me. Not as creepy as Minuet, but pretty close.
'The Enemy': Enemy Mine but with Romulans!
I LOVE Enemy Mine. I really, really like stuff where two enemies work together to overcome adversity. (And then they date. So in my head canon Geordi and the Romulan totally "shared warmth" at some point.) Romulans are one of my favourite species. I like how they and the Vulcans are two sides of the same coin; it's like having an in-universe Elseworlds tale. And I like the idea of twin planets where one is considered awesome and the other less so. This episode really pushed all of my buttons.
'The High Ground': On the surface, Dr. Crusher is kidnapped by terrorists fighting for their freedom. Actually, TNG tries to tackle the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
This is that balance I was talking about earlier. You can watch this episode as a story about people who are slowly killing themselves using super-transporters. It totally works on that level, and it's enjoyable. On the other hand, it's also a really good allegory about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. And I really like that the writers didn't pick a side. They treated both sides as being in the wrong.
'Déjà Q': The Q get upset with our Q and kick him out. He plays human for a while. Guinan is awesome. Henry Spencer gives Q his powers back.
I love Q. He's so much fun, and John DeLancie is obviously loving the hell out of it. Guinan is always fantastic; her scene with Q easily steals the show. It's one of my favourite episodes of this season.
'Yesterday's Enterprise': TASHA'S BACK! The Enterprise-C falls through time. As a result, an alternate timeline is created where the Federation is losing a war with the Klingons. Meanwhile, TASHA IS BACK.
Tasha was my favourite character during the first season. She wasn't without her problems. But she was still my favourite. I love that we got to see more of her. I liked her romance with the C's officer as well. When she agreed to go back in time, I loved that it wasn't about him; it was because she knew she shouldn't be alive and that she could have a death that meant something. And I really like that Guinan asked about her once the timeline was corrected. (Do we ever learn what species Guinan is? Other than awesome, obviously.)
'Tin Man': A former patient of Troi's helps the Federation make first contact with an unknown vessel near an unstable star before the Romulans can.
I love really alien aliens. The humanoid ones are fine (and easier to relate to), but I really enjoy when they discuss the possibilities. Of course there are symbiotic species that have living space ships. Why wouldn't those exist? I also like the look into the Betazoids. It can't be easy to be telepathic in a universe where nobody has even the least idea about shielding their emotions and thoughts. I wish they had spent a bit more time with Tam and Data's friendship. Overall, it's good, though.
'Hollow Pursuits': Everybody on the ship is a raging asshole to Barclay, who probably has a pervasive development disorder. Picard finally makes Geordi be nice to him. Barclay turns out to be really flipping creepy!
I discussed previously part of why I didn't like this episode. The other part is the creepy holodeck thing. WHY CAN THEY PERFECTLY RE-CREATE PEOPLE?!? This is the second time these season someone has perfectly re-created someone on the holodeck to disasterous effect. Stop it. Stop making that an option. There is no reason for it to exist. Other than to be CREEPY.
'The Best of Both Worlds': The Borg are here and are coming for Earth. The Enterprise and the Borg expert Lt. Comm. Shelby are chosen to stop them. They don't do so good.
I liked this. However, I think it suffers a bit from hype overload. Everybody says this is the best episode ever. As someone who had never seen this episode before, I expected all sorts of things that nothing could ever live up to. And it doesn't. That's not the episode's fault, though. It's really strong. I can't imagine how awesome it was to watch it originally and see Picard appear as a Borg. (I do think it would've been way better for us to see him the first time when he was threatening the Enterprise and Earth, but this works too.) The talks about Riker trying to decide what he wants to do with his career are good too. (Guinan's scene is awesome. She rules so hard.) And I like the stuff with Shelby. It still seems weird that she gets chosen as first officer over Worf and Data (especially Data. He's actually commanded the ship as captain a couple of times), but it makes sense considering the overall theme of this episode. I love that this is an "EARTH IS IN DANGER!" episode that's not really about the sci fi. It's about Riker and his fear. Is he ready to be a captain? Can he move beyond Picard whilst still keeping what he's learned from him? It's very much a story about a father-son. Only this time the father has been mind controlled and is trying to enslave the universe. So you know, Saturday at my house. I really like it. I just think it was overhyped.
Now onward to Season Four! I've already watched the first episode.
Previously on "pk Had Never Seen TNG: The Series," pk was underwhelmed by the first season and liked the second season better, though it still could improve.
And now the next part. /Majel Barrett voice
It took me almost a year to watch the whole season, but that's not about the quality. This is the best season I've seen. By far.
The Good:
* Characters. In the first season, it seemed like nobody had a handle on Worf and Geordi. In the second season, it was Data and Troi that were all over the place. This season, the characterization is much better. (Troi still gets the short end of the characterization stick, though.) Everybody seems to have settled into a role, which is nice.
* The plot lines are evenly mixed between sci fi epics and mundane tales where the moral is important. It keeps the show from going too far either way. Sometimes, I feel like watching a silly space show; sometimes, I feel like watching a morality tale. With TNG, I can do both; sometimes, in the same episode.
* The CGI effects have gotten really, really good.
* GUINAN. She is awesome. There's a scene of her in "Deja Q" that is my favourite in the entire season. She tells Q off for doing whatever they want without regard for other people. It's nice. She's also awesome in "Yesterday's Enterprise." Every scene she's in really steals the show. And I love her scene in "The Best of Both Worlds." It's only one, and it is one of the most powerful in the episode.
* Background character continuity! This is especially true about engineering. Geordi has an extra that he constantly makes do things, and he calls him by the same name each time across several episodes. In "The Best of Both Worlds," Geordi tells Riker that Barclay is trying to figure out what's wrong with something. Which is a nice call back to the fact that he's a diagnostician. I love when shows make background characters show up in different places. It really makes the show's world feel like a real place.
* The costuming has gotten better. It's still really, really '80s at times. But it's much better. An example is "Menage A Troi." Troi's uniform has a bizarre off-centre scoop neck outline. The costume designer decided to take it and turn it upside down for Lwaxana's costume. It's a great visual shorthand that shows the two characters are related. Also, I really liked the Risan costumes. All the female employees are basically topless; there's just a few extra layers of sheer fabric over their breasts. All the male employees have mostly sheer pants. The Risan costumes really seem like something William Ware Theiss would've come up with.
The Bad:
* Most of the costumes are still really bad. And very late '80s, early '90s. I don't think anything has dated as badly as that time period's clothing.
* BARCLAY. I know everybody else likes him, but that whole episode was just one long cringe for me. My problem wasn't even the character. I don't like the way the episode works; it makes me feel like the writers thought we would be laughing at him too. And Barclay seems to have some sort of pervasive development disorder. I've a student with Asperger's. He and Barclay act very, very similar. So I feel like I'm watching people make fun of an individual with autism and am taking part in it.
* The practical effects are horrible! In "Transfigurations," a character has to "ascend to a higher plane of being." When he ascends, he's supposed to become a being of pure light. And they did it by sticking him in a green body morph suit. It is incredibly obvious.
And now I'd like to talk about specific episodes. Not all 27 (I'm doing "The Best of Both Worlds" as one.), but a couple of them.
'Evolution': Nanites escape Wesley's lab and form a collective intelligence, threatening the Enterprise.
Have nanites ever been a good thing? You think by this point people would stop playing with them! I liked this one because for once Wesley has done something wrong. Normally, he's absolutely, completely right and everybody thinks he's wrong. In this case, he actually is wrong. Which was really refreshing. It made him actually seem like a 17 year old kid.
'Booby Trap': The Enterprise gets trapped. So LaForge goes to the holodeck, imagines up a hologram of Dr. Leah Brahms, and falls in love with her. It's about as creepy as when Riker did something similar last season.
GAH! They did this last season, too! Why do people keep dating holograms?!? It's one thing if the hologram is like Data or the Doctor from Voyager; both of them are sentient and can refuse to date someone. Minuet (from last season) was created as a love interest for Riker. On the plus side, Leah was not created as a love interest. However, she's still not sentient. She may seem real because she's based on a real person, but Leah is not sentient so it makes it really creepy to me. Not as creepy as Minuet, but pretty close.
'The Enemy': Enemy Mine but with Romulans!
I LOVE Enemy Mine. I really, really like stuff where two enemies work together to overcome adversity. (And then they date. So in my head canon Geordi and the Romulan totally "shared warmth" at some point.) Romulans are one of my favourite species. I like how they and the Vulcans are two sides of the same coin; it's like having an in-universe Elseworlds tale. And I like the idea of twin planets where one is considered awesome and the other less so. This episode really pushed all of my buttons.
'The High Ground': On the surface, Dr. Crusher is kidnapped by terrorists fighting for their freedom. Actually, TNG tries to tackle the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
This is that balance I was talking about earlier. You can watch this episode as a story about people who are slowly killing themselves using super-transporters. It totally works on that level, and it's enjoyable. On the other hand, it's also a really good allegory about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. And I really like that the writers didn't pick a side. They treated both sides as being in the wrong.
'Déjà Q': The Q get upset with our Q and kick him out. He plays human for a while. Guinan is awesome. Henry Spencer gives Q his powers back.
I love Q. He's so much fun, and John DeLancie is obviously loving the hell out of it. Guinan is always fantastic; her scene with Q easily steals the show. It's one of my favourite episodes of this season.
'Yesterday's Enterprise': TASHA'S BACK! The Enterprise-C falls through time. As a result, an alternate timeline is created where the Federation is losing a war with the Klingons. Meanwhile, TASHA IS BACK.
Tasha was my favourite character during the first season. She wasn't without her problems. But she was still my favourite. I love that we got to see more of her. I liked her romance with the C's officer as well. When she agreed to go back in time, I loved that it wasn't about him; it was because she knew she shouldn't be alive and that she could have a death that meant something. And I really like that Guinan asked about her once the timeline was corrected. (Do we ever learn what species Guinan is? Other than awesome, obviously.)
'Tin Man': A former patient of Troi's helps the Federation make first contact with an unknown vessel near an unstable star before the Romulans can.
I love really alien aliens. The humanoid ones are fine (and easier to relate to), but I really enjoy when they discuss the possibilities. Of course there are symbiotic species that have living space ships. Why wouldn't those exist? I also like the look into the Betazoids. It can't be easy to be telepathic in a universe where nobody has even the least idea about shielding their emotions and thoughts. I wish they had spent a bit more time with Tam and Data's friendship. Overall, it's good, though.
'Hollow Pursuits': Everybody on the ship is a raging asshole to Barclay, who probably has a pervasive development disorder. Picard finally makes Geordi be nice to him. Barclay turns out to be really flipping creepy!
I discussed previously part of why I didn't like this episode. The other part is the creepy holodeck thing. WHY CAN THEY PERFECTLY RE-CREATE PEOPLE?!? This is the second time these season someone has perfectly re-created someone on the holodeck to disasterous effect. Stop it. Stop making that an option. There is no reason for it to exist. Other than to be CREEPY.
'The Best of Both Worlds': The Borg are here and are coming for Earth. The Enterprise and the Borg expert Lt. Comm. Shelby are chosen to stop them. They don't do so good.
I liked this. However, I think it suffers a bit from hype overload. Everybody says this is the best episode ever. As someone who had never seen this episode before, I expected all sorts of things that nothing could ever live up to. And it doesn't. That's not the episode's fault, though. It's really strong. I can't imagine how awesome it was to watch it originally and see Picard appear as a Borg. (I do think it would've been way better for us to see him the first time when he was threatening the Enterprise and Earth, but this works too.) The talks about Riker trying to decide what he wants to do with his career are good too. (Guinan's scene is awesome. She rules so hard.) And I like the stuff with Shelby. It still seems weird that she gets chosen as first officer over Worf and Data (especially Data. He's actually commanded the ship as captain a couple of times), but it makes sense considering the overall theme of this episode. I love that this is an "EARTH IS IN DANGER!" episode that's not really about the sci fi. It's about Riker and his fear. Is he ready to be a captain? Can he move beyond Picard whilst still keeping what he's learned from him? It's very much a story about a father-son. Only this time the father has been mind controlled and is trying to enslave the universe. So you know, Saturday at my house. I really like it. I just think it was overhyped.
Now onward to Season Four! I've already watched the first episode.