Star Trek: The Next Generation, Seasons One-Four
c. 1987-1991

I’m mostly writing this post for Emily, but also because not having seen Star Trek is worth like 1,000 demerits in the circles I seem to be running around in these days. I’ve been slowly making my way through the canon ever since I saw J.J. Abrams’ fabulous re-imagining last May and realized I needed to educate myself in this huge cultural milestone that’s been happening since 1966. As of this moment, I’ve got seasons one and two of The Original Series under my belt, and one through four of The Next Generation (from here on out, referred to as TOS and TNG, respectively). That’s just over half of each. I feel like this is good for my nerd cred.

I was only two years old when the TNG pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint,” aired, and as neither of my parents gave two shits about science fiction or fantasy, I didn’t realize that I was a fan until I was sixteen years old, when I accidentally happened upon Star Wars on TV. I’d heard of Star Wars, of course. I’d known that Darth Vader was Luke’s father since I was in kindergarten, even if I didn’t really know what that meant, but I’d never considered that it might be something I would actually like. I spent the next two years obsessively re-watching the original trilogy on VHS and buying Star Wars books (officially licensed fanfic, basically) at Barnes & Noble every weekend. Part of the fun, I think, is that I was stepping into this pre-existing world that people had been playing around in for years. It felt legendary. But the other part is that for the first time, I was discovering that I fucking love science fiction. Cheesy, operatic, bad, awesome, epic, or tiny. I love it all.

But even as I was busy doing all this discovering, meeting Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, and Farscape along the way, I’d never seen more than five minutes of any kind of Star Trek at a time. In fact, you might say that I was studiously avoiding it, mostly due to a seriously crazy Star Wars fan mentality. “Star Trek!” I would scoff, “STAR TREK! Ha!” And also, “As if!” But, hey, J.J. Abrams, and hey, I’m fucked.

But I’m here to talk about TNG, so let’s get back to that. I was warned heading in that the first season and a half is kind of shitty, so I wasn’t surprised when that turned out to be the case. Roddenberry seemed to be trying to recreate the magic of TOS instead of making something new. None of the characters were particularly complex or even likable (excepting Data, of course), and in some cases, downright annoying. Plots were mostly emotionless AND kind of stupid (and since plot is the focus of most TNG episodes up until season four, this is a huge problem). Nothing really clicked. But slowly, this series has crept up on me. The first concrete episode I can point to is “Measure of a Man,” and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that that episode deals largely in character stuff, not just philosophy. TNG episodes (and TOS episodes) tend to feel more like case studies in ideas than they do episodes of television. Every week we meet people we will most likely never see again and deal with problems that won’t matter in the future. There’s nothing to tie you in place as a viewer, unless you super really love the “thing of the week,” whatever it happens to be. But in “Measure of a Man,” in which Data’s worth as a sentient being is literally put on trial, and by Riker and Picard no less, we see real character growth and as a result, experience emotional investment. That was really the first episode where I was like, “Okay, yeah, Picard is a bad ass,” and where I found myself actively caring if these characters lived or died.

It’s hard to go into too much detail about four seasons of a television program in this small space, so I think some lists would be helpful in categorizing the things I find engaging about the show, and the things which don’t work for me, for whatever reason. Let’s start with that second thing, which I like to refer to as ‘stupid.’ Some things that I would put into this category: Worf’s hair, the Prime Directive (seriously, don’t get me started on this), Geordi in general, attempts to justify beaming technology (which is frankly terrifying), most Klingons, when Worf’s girlfriend dies, Worf episodes without Worf’s girlfriend, Deanna’s entire wardrobe, 24th century medical technology (ooh! let me wave this thingy over you for a sec, okay, got it! and wooosh! you’re all better now), Wesley’s wide-eyed innocence and general Mary Sue Roddenberry stand-in qualities in season one (quite frankly, I enjoy him in the other seasons, so suck it, Trekkers), and of course, the Ferengi. Stuff that I find engaging: the Borg, Riker’s beard and general Riker-ness, Picard’s shiny head, Picard’s voice, Picard in general post season one, Data, Q, Worf’s girlfriend, time travel, killing Tasha Yar, bringing back Tasha Yar and making her awesome, watching the show learn how to not suck, Locutus of Borg, Lwaxana Troi, Data getting a daughter, that episode where Picard wears tiny swim trunks, and all the shiny Enterprise bedsheets, which are hilarious.

As of “Redemption, Part I,” I still find the show’s general structure harder to get engaged with than, say, a more emotional show like Farscape, or even Stargate, but I’ve increasingly found myself enjoying it on its own terms, and even occasionally, loving it. I still don’t really like Worf or Geordi episodes, mostly because the Klingons bore me, and I think the writers don’t really know how to give Geordi anything useful to do, but I can potentially foresee myself thinking they don’t suck so much in the future. What I can say about TNG is that not many single episodes were so egregiously bad that I remember them. Mostly, I just have this sort of blur in my memory from “bad” episodes. An exception to this is the season two ender, “Shades of Grey,” which is a clip-show, and not even a partially good one. It is god-awful from start to finish (although to be fair to the show, I believe a Writer’s Strike effected the production of that particular season, and that episode was not originally meant to end it). And then there were the episodes where I was like YEAH! This is AWESOME! Some of those include “The Measure of a Man” (as detailed above), “Q Who” (which introduces the Borg Collective), “Deja Q” (my favorite episode, I think, because it is HILARIOUS), “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (Tasha Yar returning from the dead, trippy well done time travel), “Hollow Pursuits” (because of Broccoli), “First Contact” (which is the only Star Trek episode to be told from the POV of the “aliens”), “The Best of Both Worlds, I & II” (obviously . . . I would have to be an idiot not to love these episodes), and “Half a Life” (because David Ogden Stiers as Lwaxana’s love interest is just magnetic, he’s such a good actor).

Ultimately, I don’t think, even after I eventually finish both TOS and TNG (and eventually TAS, DS9, VOY, and ENT) that I will consider myself a “fan” of Star Trek on television (although I am certainly a fan of J.J. Abrams’s version, probably because Star Trek XI is highly emotional). I won’t consider my time wasted, however. Star Trek, the franchise, has had quite possibly the biggest influence on science fiction television, and even movies, maybe ever, and since I have now officially made it my goal to watch every single sci-fi and fantasy TV show ever created, I would certainly be remiss if I skipped the granddaddy of them all. (And yes, I’m serious about this goal. I have a giant list and a spread sheet, and I am very excited.) And hey, I never would have gotten to see Picard in those tiny swim trunks, so: win win.