Spotlight on Fandoms - Star Trek: The Next Generation
Ugh. So sorry for getting this up late.
Space. The Final Freakin' Frontier.
In 1966 Gene Roddenberry released a television show about a small starship called the Enterprise whose five year mission was to seek out life and new civilizations and... well you know. Boldly go.
Sadly that five year mission only had three years on the television screen and it was cancelled. However thanks to syndication, a loyal fanbase, an animated series, a failed relaunch, several movies and 18 years, Roddenberry came up with a new take on his Star Trek Franchise.
In fact it was a New Generation. Not to be mistaken for the "Pepsi Generation" but the first season of the show was just as tasteless. In fact I generally just like to think of the first season and part of the second season as them working out the kinks until the Borg showed up and then the series really started to work...
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The Cast
Jean-Luc Picard: Captain of the new Enterprise version "D". He's Bald. And French. But with a British accent. Who cares? Not me. He can drink all the freakin' Earl Grey he wants because he's Patrick Stewart and other than being a poor on screen kisser he's a damn good captain. Randomly when he was being cast for the role the Producers had him wear a hair piece when meeting the Studio Executives because they were worried about him getting nixed because of the whole bald thing.
Ironically the Studio Execs said he could have the job as long as he didn't wear that ridiculous toupee.
Possibly the smartest thing that ever came out of a Fox Studio Executive's mouth.
William Riker: The second in Command. Picard's number one. If Picard had all the noble leadership traits of Kirk then Riker got the "sexual prowess". When reviewing the series as I was getting ready to apply Worf I had forgotten with just how many alien species Riker had slept with.
Must be the beard.
Geordi La Forge: When I first watched the show the first thing that came to mind was "Seriously. The Reading Rainbow guy?" But when he was promoted from being a junior officer and became the Chief Engineer I got over the fact that he would read kids stories and had an air filter on his face and really enjoyed his character.
Worf: Twenty years later, Worf being in Starfleet wasn't a big deal but when the first show aired and there was a Klingon in Starfleet? It made you go "WHOA! THIS IS DIFFERENT!"
Beverly Crusher: Chief Medical Officer and definitely not "Bones" McCoy. She heals, she dances and unfortunately had a child. Other than that she's my favorite ship for Picard and strangely I can't think of much more to say about her.
Deanna Troi: The half-human/half-betazoid Ship's Counselor who has partial telepathic abilities and is an extra-sensory empath. She feels. She feel a lot. Apparently this allows her to run around the ship wearing a low cut shirt and tight velour outfits. She also had a thing with Riker way back in the day and then later hooks up with Worf which still makes me go "Huh?"
Data: A gold-skinned android who longs to be more like a human. He's the second in command of the Enterprise and probably one of the more beloved characters of the series. Much like the role of Spock on the original series, he played the role of an outside observer of humanity.
Wesley Crusher: Possibly the most hated character in all of Trek Fandom. He's the son of Dr. Crusher and a child prodigy (of course). So while there are hundreds of officers on the Enterprise he still manages to save the ship at least two times in the first season and gets to be an acting ensign. Some people like him. *glares at people who know who they are!*
Personally the only amusing thing about him is the fact when the character was conceived he was originally a girl and called "Leslie". For some reason I like that better than Wesley.
The Show!
TNG moved the Star Trek universe forward roughly 80 years to a century past the days of Kirk and Spock. It depicted a universe where the Federation was allied with the Kligons though very much still had the spirit of going where "no one has gone before. The show centered around the crew of the Starship Enterprise (NCC-1701-D). The Enterprise was now the flagship of the United Federation of Planets and was designed for both exploration and diplomacy as well as battle.
Throughout the series the crew contacnt and discover may races and species that they interact with which somehow always seems up exploring our own "human" condition. At some point in the show there's usually a moment when the crew comes across a social custom of an alien species where they muse how "back on Earth we use to have this problem but we've advanced beyond that now". Of course Star Trek made such social commentary much more fun through the use of time travel, temporal loops, natural disasters, holodeck malfunctions, transporter malfunctions, more holodeck malfunctions and... did I mention transporter malfunctions?
The show had a rocky start and had a hard time gaining ground until the introduction of the Borg during the second season and in the third season TNG really started to get good. In the third season it began a shift towards higher drama, serious plot lines and focused less on its episodic nature.
Season three also had the best finale ever with The Best of Both Worlds which ended with Picard getting abducted and integrated into the Borg and Riker taking over the Enterprise.
And the show just got better from there. We began to see more Original Series characters like Spock and Sarek show up and we began to see more stories centered on the various character's arcs which lasted throughout the series.
And yes... lots of Holodeck/Transporter Malfunction fun!
In the process of battling/negotiating the Borg, Romulans, Cardassians, Klingons, Ferengi, Q and other fun characters it began to pave the way for three other Trek based series including Deep Space Nine, Voyager and the pre-federation Enterprise.
So where can I see it?
Well it's being shown on Sci-Fi Channel every Monday at 7pm Eastern in the United States. In the UK you can catch it on BBC2 Saturday at 1 am and on Virgin 1 during the weekdays at 10 am and 4pm. In Canada you can catch TNG on the Space Channel Every Tuesday at 1 pm and 8 PM and in Australia on the Sci-Fi Channel every weekday at noon, 6:30 PM and 11:24 pm.
Which just makes me want to be in Australia.
And of course the entire series is on DVD now and available via your local and online retailers. There were also several movies which... Okay maybe one or two of them are good but really I'd stick with the televison show, thank you very much.
Questions? Comments? Favorite TNG moments?
Space. The Final Freakin' Frontier.
In 1966 Gene Roddenberry released a television show about a small starship called the Enterprise whose five year mission was to seek out life and new civilizations and... well you know. Boldly go.
Sadly that five year mission only had three years on the television screen and it was cancelled. However thanks to syndication, a loyal fanbase, an animated series, a failed relaunch, several movies and 18 years, Roddenberry came up with a new take on his Star Trek Franchise.
In fact it was a New Generation. Not to be mistaken for the "Pepsi Generation" but the first season of the show was just as tasteless. In fact I generally just like to think of the first season and part of the second season as them working out the kinks until the Borg showed up and then the series really started to work...
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The Cast
Jean-Luc Picard: Captain of the new Enterprise version "D". He's Bald. And French. But with a British accent. Who cares? Not me. He can drink all the freakin' Earl Grey he wants because he's Patrick Stewart and other than being a poor on screen kisser he's a damn good captain. Randomly when he was being cast for the role the Producers had him wear a hair piece when meeting the Studio Executives because they were worried about him getting nixed because of the whole bald thing.
Ironically the Studio Execs said he could have the job as long as he didn't wear that ridiculous toupee.
Possibly the smartest thing that ever came out of a Fox Studio Executive's mouth.
William Riker: The second in Command. Picard's number one. If Picard had all the noble leadership traits of Kirk then Riker got the "sexual prowess". When reviewing the series as I was getting ready to apply Worf I had forgotten with just how many alien species Riker had slept with.
Must be the beard.
Geordi La Forge: When I first watched the show the first thing that came to mind was "Seriously. The Reading Rainbow guy?" But when he was promoted from being a junior officer and became the Chief Engineer I got over the fact that he would read kids stories and had an air filter on his face and really enjoyed his character.
Worf: Twenty years later, Worf being in Starfleet wasn't a big deal but when the first show aired and there was a Klingon in Starfleet? It made you go "WHOA! THIS IS DIFFERENT!"
Beverly Crusher: Chief Medical Officer and definitely not "Bones" McCoy. She heals, she dances and unfortunately had a child. Other than that she's my favorite ship for Picard and strangely I can't think of much more to say about her.
Deanna Troi: The half-human/half-betazoid Ship's Counselor who has partial telepathic abilities and is an extra-sensory empath. She feels. She feel a lot. Apparently this allows her to run around the ship wearing a low cut shirt and tight velour outfits. She also had a thing with Riker way back in the day and then later hooks up with Worf which still makes me go "Huh?"
Data: A gold-skinned android who longs to be more like a human. He's the second in command of the Enterprise and probably one of the more beloved characters of the series. Much like the role of Spock on the original series, he played the role of an outside observer of humanity.
Wesley Crusher: Possibly the most hated character in all of Trek Fandom. He's the son of Dr. Crusher and a child prodigy (of course). So while there are hundreds of officers on the Enterprise he still manages to save the ship at least two times in the first season and gets to be an acting ensign. Some people like him. *glares at people who know who they are!*
Personally the only amusing thing about him is the fact when the character was conceived he was originally a girl and called "Leslie". For some reason I like that better than Wesley.
The Show!
TNG moved the Star Trek universe forward roughly 80 years to a century past the days of Kirk and Spock. It depicted a universe where the Federation was allied with the Kligons though very much still had the spirit of going where "no one has gone before. The show centered around the crew of the Starship Enterprise (NCC-1701-D). The Enterprise was now the flagship of the United Federation of Planets and was designed for both exploration and diplomacy as well as battle.
Throughout the series the crew contacnt and discover may races and species that they interact with which somehow always seems up exploring our own "human" condition. At some point in the show there's usually a moment when the crew comes across a social custom of an alien species where they muse how "back on Earth we use to have this problem but we've advanced beyond that now". Of course Star Trek made such social commentary much more fun through the use of time travel, temporal loops, natural disasters, holodeck malfunctions, transporter malfunctions, more holodeck malfunctions and... did I mention transporter malfunctions?
The show had a rocky start and had a hard time gaining ground until the introduction of the Borg during the second season and in the third season TNG really started to get good. In the third season it began a shift towards higher drama, serious plot lines and focused less on its episodic nature.
Season three also had the best finale ever with The Best of Both Worlds which ended with Picard getting abducted and integrated into the Borg and Riker taking over the Enterprise.
And the show just got better from there. We began to see more Original Series characters like Spock and Sarek show up and we began to see more stories centered on the various character's arcs which lasted throughout the series.
And yes... lots of Holodeck/Transporter Malfunction fun!
In the process of battling/negotiating the Borg, Romulans, Cardassians, Klingons, Ferengi, Q and other fun characters it began to pave the way for three other Trek based series including Deep Space Nine, Voyager and the pre-federation Enterprise.
So where can I see it?
Well it's being shown on Sci-Fi Channel every Monday at 7pm Eastern in the United States. In the UK you can catch it on BBC2 Saturday at 1 am and on Virgin 1 during the weekdays at 10 am and 4pm. In Canada you can catch TNG on the Space Channel Every Tuesday at 1 pm and 8 PM and in Australia on the Sci-Fi Channel every weekday at noon, 6:30 PM and 11:24 pm.
Which just makes me want to be in Australia.
And of course the entire series is on DVD now and available via your local and online retailers. There were also several movies which... Okay maybe one or two of them are good but really I'd stick with the televison show, thank you very much.
Questions? Comments? Favorite TNG moments?