Star Trek Next Generation | the m0vie blog

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Lonely Among Us (Review)

Posted on December 6, 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.

Lonely Among Us actually embodies quite a few of the problems with these early episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. While it’s hardly the worst episode of a season, it is certainly not among the stronger episodes. It’s a story that doesn’t really have a centrally defined conflict, and plays into the worst of the smug “humans are special” subtext that pervades episodes like The Last Outpost. At one point, possessed!Picard observes, “The search for knowledge is always our primary mission.” Based on episodes like this and The Last Outpost, it seems more likely the ship’s primary mission is lording it over alien cultures they deem inferior.

However, more than that, Lonely Among Us simply lacks a compelling narrative drive to make it entirely worthwhile. The ideas here aren’t half-bad, but the execution is downright dull.

Has Picard’s judgement been clouded?

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Cold War, Economic system, Federation, Geordi La Forge, jean-luc picard, Last Outpost, Lieutenant, Next Generation, Picar, picard, Riker, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, Star Trek's Next Generation, star trek: the next generation, Starfleet ranks and insignia, William Riker, Worf | 6 Comments »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Where No One Has Gone Before (Review)

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Darren

I remember that I never really like Where No One Has Gone Before when I was younger. Even now, I have a bit of a tough time counting it among the best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, despite that, I’ve actually warmed to it quite a bit on this rewatch. It’s not brilliantly constructed as an hour of television, and I wouldn’t even count it as the best produced in this first season of the second Star Trek series. However, it does something that a lot of other episodes in this run try to do, and fail to accomplish.

It manages to evoke the spirit of Star Trek.

Into the wild purple yonder…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: best of both worlds, Denise Crosby, gene roddenberry, history, Naked Now, Shopping, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, Star Trek's Next Generation, star trek: enterprise, star trek: the original series, Traveller, Wesley, Wesley Crusher, Where No One Has Gone Before, William Riker | 6 Comments »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Last Outpost (Review)

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Darren

You know, a lot of people would argue that Star Trek is about understanding. That it’s about embracing and respecting cultures, even when they hold values different than your own. Sometimes that is to a fault, like in the last episode (Code of Honour) where Picard allowed his Chief of Security to engage in a fight to the death to avoid violating local custom. (Which he then violated by reviving the loser.) However, it appears that such open-mindedness only applies when you look and act appropriately human enough.

If you are a Ferengi, then your culture shouldn’t be respected and acknowledged. It should be mocked and ridiculed.

He’s all ears…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Data, Ferengi, Klingon, Last Outpost, Next Generation, picard, Rick Berman, Romulan, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, Star Trek Online, Star Trek's Next Generation, star trek: deep space nine, star trek: the next generation, Starfleet, Starfleet ranks and insignia, Trekkie, United States, William Riker, Worf | 10 Comments »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Code of Honour (Review)

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Darren

Remember how yesterday I said was hesitant to throw around adjectives like “worst” or “mind-numbingly” or any other similar sounding pejorative term? I was doing that so that when I did string them together to form a sentence or a description, it would carry a bit more weight. After all, Star Trek: The Next Generation didn’t have the strongest first season, as I keep noting apologetically in these opening paragraphs. However, Code of Honour is pretty dire by any measure, and it remains one of the low watermarks of the troubled first season.

Yes, I did type “one of”, but that doesn’t make Code of Honour any easier to manage.

Not quite steps to greatness…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Amok Time, arts, Brent Spiner, Code of Honor (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Data, Earth, Earth Sciences, education, Environment, Honour, Klingon, Lutan, Michael Salla, Organizations, patrick stewart, Ro Laren, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, star trek: the original series, Tasha Yar, Television | 6 Comments »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Naked Now (Review)

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Darren

I stand by my original observation that it was a smart idea to set Star Trek: The Next Generation a century after Star Trek. After all, Gene Roddenberry’s original Star Trek was over two decades old by the time that Encounter at Farpoint aired. Twenty years is a long time in entertainment – it can feel like a century. The world had changed since Star Trek appeared, and setting the story in a brand new world with strong (yet not strangling) ties to the beloved original series allowed the best of both worlds.

However, the problem with the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation is that it doesn’t quite realise this yet. It’s busy trying to do “Star Trek”, even though times have changed. The Naked Now, the second episode of the series, is the perfect embodiment of this problem. Star Trek: The Next Generation should have been establishing its own identity, rather than trying to simply emulate its predecessor.

Flying off into the sunset…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Beverly Crusher, Brent Spiner, burton, Data, Deanna Troi, gene roddenberry, Geordi, Geordi La Forge, levar burton, Naked Time, picard, Reading Rainbow, space, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, star trek: the next generation, star trek: the original series, Starfleet ranks and insignia, Tasha Yar, Technology, Wesley | 3 Comments »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Encounter at Farpoint (Review)

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Darren

It is very hard to believe that it has been a quarter of a century since Star Trek: The Next Generation first appeared on our screens. It is actually quite nice that Paramount and CBS are using the opportunity to give the series a bit of a visual overhaul, going back to the original films and special effects and updating them for high definition. This is not the same approach adopted by George Lucas with his remastering of the original Star Wars trilogy.

Instead, the aim of these high definition re-releases is to bring what was already there up to modern standards, rather than to retroactively re-do the special effects. The project is being overseen by the wonderful Mike and Denise Okuda, and Mike has argued that this restoration is a very bold endeavour, suggesting, “it’s the largest – as far as we know – the largest project of its kind that has ever been attempted.”

And I am proud to support it. In a large way, my interest in this high definition release is in large part grounded in recognition of the scale of the work involved. Because, let’s face it, the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation is a solid contender for the worst year of Star Trek ever produced for television.