Star Trek | the m0vie blog

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Heart of Glory (Review)

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Darren

To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and also next year’s release of Star Trek: Into Darkness, I’m taking a look at the recent blu ray release of the first season, episode-by-episode. Check back daily for the latest review.

I think Heart of Glory is, ironically, one of the first times that Star Trek: The Next Generation is consciously trying to force its way out of the shadows of its illustrious predecessor. Episodes like The Naked Now and Justice felt like hold-overs from the classic sixties Star Trek, with little acknowledgement that the world (both inside and outside the show) had dramatically changed in the two decades since Star Trek appeared. I used the adjective “ironically”, because Heart of Glory actually sees the return of one of the most classic Star Trek aliens, and one of the most recognisable pop culture extraterrestrials.

The series bible famously stated the show had no real interest in going back to the Klingons, but Heart of Glory suggests that following up with the funky foreheaded aliens might have been the smartest thing that the first season did.

I am Klingon, hear me roar!

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Data, Datalore, Federation, Ferengi, gene roddenberry, Geordi La Forge, Heart of Glory, jean-luc picard, Klingon, picard, Romulan, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, star trek: enterprise, star trek: the original series, William Riker, Worf | 3 Comments »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Coming of Age (Review)

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Darren

Coming of Age is interesting, if only because it is one of those rare instances where an episode’s B-story is far more compelling and interesting than the primary drama unfolding. Coming of Age is apparently about Wesley’s entrance examination to Starfleet Academy, which seems to have quite high standards for an organisation that let Riker and Yar into its ranks, but that teenage academic story feels a little trite and cliché.

Far more interesting, however, is the strange investigation conducted into the crew of the Enterprise at the behest of Admiral Gregory Quinn, who makes a dramatic impression by suggesting to Picard, “I have reason to believe there may be something very wrong on this ship.”

Evidently he has been watching the first season as well.

Picard off-guard…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: arts, Battle, Deanna Troi, Denise Crosby, Ferengi, Gates McFadden, Geordi La Forge, jean-luc picard, Next Generation, Oliana, picard, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, Starfleet, Starfleet Academy, Starfleet ranks and insignia, Television, Tracy Tormé, Wesley, Wesley Crusher, Wil Wheaton, William Riker, Worf | Leave a comment »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Home Soil (Review)

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Darren

I’ve been complaining pretty consistently throughout this rocky first year of Star Trek: The Next Generation that the show is trying too hard to be a carbon copy of the classic Star Trek, rather than trying to define its own distinct identity. By that logic, I concede that I should detest Home Soil. Much like the less-than-classic The Naked Now, it is pretty much an attempt to update an episode from the original show.

In this case, the story of a bunch of terraformers provoking an unconventional native lifeform recalls The Devil in the Dark, one of the best-loved episodes of Star Trek‘s pretty stellar first year. While Home Soil doesn’t quite measure up to its rather wonderful progenitor, it does manage to put its own slant on the story, to the point where Home Soil doesn’t feel like a recycled Star Trek script; rather, it feels like a story told from the perspective of The Next Generation.

Spark of life…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Brent Spiner, Data, Devil in the Dark, family, Federation, james t. kirk, jean-luc picard, Kim, Next Generation, picard, Recreation, Savage Curtain, Siri, Squire of Gothos, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, star trek: the original series, Starfleet, Trekkie, Where No Man Has Gone Before, William Riker | Leave a comment »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – When the Bough Breaks (Review)

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Darren

When the Bough Breaks and Home Soil are an interesting two episodes of the first season of The Next Generation, if only because they seem to contrast each other so well. I’ve complained before about how the first season of The Next Generation had a great deal of trouble finding its own identity, and When The Bough Breaks feels like a conscious attempt to do a story in the style of the original Star Trek, even if most of the elements are fairly original.

In contrast, Home Soil starts with a premise that owes a considerable debt to a very specific episode of Star Trek, Devil in the Dark, but finds a way to approach it that emphasises the differences between the two shows. You can probably guess which one of the two episodes I preferred, and while When the Bough Breaks is never as bad as it could be (a story focusing on Wesley and other child actors?) it’s not necessarily good, either.

The lost world…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Alternative, Angel One, Archaeology, Atlantis, Brent Spiner, Civilization, Earth, Ferengi, jean-luc picard, kirk, Next Generation, patrick stewart, Social Sciences, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, star trek: the original series, Tasha, When The Bough Breaks, Yankee Traders | 2 Comments »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Too Short a Season (Review)

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Darren

Too Short a Season falls back on one of those classic Star Trek stand-bys, the story of a dangerously obsessed senior officer who proceeds to put the lives of the crew at risk in order to feed his own ego. I’ve always found it hilarious that Starfleet seems to have truly terrible psychological screening, or maybe they just kick the more unreliable officers upstairs. After all, while Admiral Jameson is clearly a sandwich short of a picnic, at least he’s out of the line of fire. Too Short a Season winds up seeming like quite a trite episode, despite the fact that some of the elements are arguably intriguing on their own. It feels a little too safe, a little too comfortable, and far too predictable for its own good.

A shady character…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Brent Spiner, Clayton Rohner, Earth, Game, iran, Iran-Contra, Iran–Contra affair, james t. kirk, Middle East, Next Generation, picard, Q Who, Special effect, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, star trek: the original series, Starfleet, Technology, Tracy Tormé, Where No One Has Gone Before | 3 Comments »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – 11001001 (Review)

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Darren

Maybe it’s just because I’m delirious coming out of Angel One, an episode that managed to make Datalore look almost reasonable by comparison, but I quite like 11001001. Part of that comes down to the fact that it’s one of the few episodes in this troubled first season that manages to take the restrictions imposed on the show by Roddenberry and make them work. It helps that the aliens of the week – the Bynars – are among the more interesting creatures to appear on the show so far. And it finally makes for a nice Riker episode, finding a way to team up Riker and Picard, a duo that haven’t spent enough time together at this point in the series.

Base, the final frontier…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Angel One, Beverly Crusher, borg, Bynars, Data, Deanna Troi, French, Geordi, Geordi La Forge, jean-luc picard, Jonathan Frakes, levar burton, List of Star Trek races, picard, Riker, Star Trek Next Generation, star trek: the next generation, Starfleet, StarTrek, Where No One Has Gone Before, William Riker | Leave a comment »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Angel One (Review)

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Darren

Any time I worry that I might have been too kind on Datalore, watching Angel One tends to set me straight relatively quickly. Watching Angel One feels like somebody in the writers’ room said, “I really liked the racism in Code of Honour! Can we do that again, but with sexism?” It’s very difficult to imagine to imagine how the script got into production without somebody raising red flags about it. While a lot of the racism of Code of Honour arose from the decision to cast the Ligonian characters as black, sexism in hardwired into the DNA of Angel One, making it one of the most unfortunate scripts in a long line of unfortunate scripts.

I believe in Angel One… something crappy in every season of TNG…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Angel One, Beata, Data, Datalore, Deanna Troi, Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, Klingon, Marina Sirtis, patrick stewart, picard, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, star trek: the next generation, Starfleet, Troi, Worf | 19 Comments »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Datalore (Review)

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Darren

If you absolutely, positively, positronically have to do an evil twin story, then I guess that Data is the best character to use. Datalore is hardly the finest or strongest episode of the first season. It’s riddled with plot holes, it feels overly contrived, it punishes the viewer for actually paying attention to the set-ups and plot devices, and it is awkwardly paced and sluggishly delivered. That said, it does offer some real stakes and an opportunity for Brent Spiner to ham it up a notch. So, while we’re not in “classic” (or even “good”) territory here, it’s certainly more watchable than a lot of the episodes around it.

That is not saying much.

The threat is crystal clear…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Brent Spiner, Chief engineer, Data, Datalore, Denise Crosby, Geordi, Geordi La Forge, james t. kirk, jean-luc picard, Lore, Mimoco, picard, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, Starfleet, StarTrek, Tasha Yar, Trekkie, Wesley, Wesley Crusher, William Riker | 8 Comments »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Big Goodbye (Review)

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Darren

I actually enjoyed The Big Goodbye on a lot of levels. It’s not a great Star Trek episode, but I don’t think that the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation produced a great episode. Even those episodes I do not actively hate are still significantly flawed. The Big Goodbye has more than its fair share of problems, but it does several things right. It never pretends to be more than it is, and it allows Patrick Stewart to do a lot of the heavy-lifting. Stewart is effectively charged with selling the episode to the audience, and he does a tremendous job. The result is something quite similar to the eponymous holonovel – something diverting and entertaining, but hardly profound or essential. Given the quality of the surrounding episodes, “diverting and entertaining” seems like just what the doctor ordered.

Over the Hill?

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Big Goodbye, Brent Spiner, Data, Dixon Hill, Holodeck, jean-luc picard, List of Star Trek characters (G–M), Our Man Bashir, patrick stewart, picard, Recreation, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, star trek: the next generation, Starfleet ranks and insignia, United States, Wil Wheaton | 9 Comments »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Haven (Review)

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Darren

Haven is… not as terrible as I thought it would be. There have been select episodes I’ve been dreading on my re-watch of this awkward first season. I was right to fear Code of Honour. I had perhaps been a tiny bit too harsh on The Naked Now. I am quaking at the prospect of watching Angel One and Too Short a Season again. However, Haven wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared that it would be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s filled with plot holes and it is as dull as anything, but it’s not actively that bad. If it sounds like I’m damning with faint praise, then I probably am.