Next Generation runthrough

Elemonator

Goodshape wrote: »

Could be argued that it lost some of the science, exploration, intrigue, and mystery, in favour of a more charter driven soap opera style saga of personal life aboard a space station.

Not that I dislike DS9 – they are good and interesting characters in an interesting setting – but i don't think it's a failing on TNG's part that it wasn't that type of show. The characters were good enough.

You have a point. But I think it filled a void we all wanted and that was the Dominion War. It still preserved some of the exploration etc with the Gamma Quadrant, wormhole and The Prophets etc. It was more human I think.

I don't think it was ever intended as you imagine, it was more to fill the tenets of the unexplored areas of plot in Star Trek. I cannot give a detailed account I'm afraid, I'm only a casual fan.

DS9 would be my personal favourite.

Jan_de_Bakker

Q Who was a nice introduction to the Borg, really liked the end when Guinan said now that they are aware of the Federations existence they will be coming ... adds an arc to the story ...

Jan_de_Bakker

Watched The Measure of a man last night .... great episode, it's funny Data said he has 800 quadrillion bits of memory - roughly 100 PB .

You would think thats a little small for 24th century technology

Evade

Jan_de_Bakker wrote: »

Watched The Measure of a man last night .... great episode, it's funny Data said he has 800 quadrillion bits of memory - roughly 100 PB .

You would think thats a little small for 24th century technology

The size of Data's head has to be the limiting factor if he looked like a Ferengi you could probably double that. Even so that's still over 46 years of 4k video at 60 FPS.

_Kaiser_

Sure throw a few extra RAM sticks in.. be grand!

Jan_de_Bakker

Saw this in another thread, hilarious ..

I love Pogo's work! Been a fan of his for years.. Well worth watching his songs around Pixar movies. Disney/Pixar have even officially recognized his music, adding them to their official channels.

Here are some other excellent ones by him -

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Up

Toy Story

Wizard of Oz

And then when he remixed real life -

Gardyn

Joburg Jam

OK, this has zero to do with Star Trek, but dude is awesome.

donspeekinglesh

Midway through season five more and have found some episodes that don't seem familiar - Hero Worship onward.

Also amazed at the difference in first air date between the US and UK - over three years according to Memory Alpha.

Jan_de_Bakker

donspeekinglesh wrote: »

Midway through season five more and have found some episodes that don't seem familiar - Hero Worship onward.

Also amazed at the difference in first air date between the US and UK - over three years according to Memory Alpha.

Yeah, I remember we didn't get TNG season 1 till around 1990/91 in Ireland ...1987 USA !!

Before Internet sucked!

Goodshape

Jan_de_Bakker wrote: »

Yeah, I remember we didn't get TNG season 1 till around 1990/91 in Ireland ...1987 USA !!

Before Internet sucked!

On the other hand, you were able to deal with a three year delay and still see the thing relatively spoiler free!

If the show aired yesterday in the USA, in this modern age, you'd be hard pressed not to know all about it by lunchtime today.

TBH, I probably already know more about Star Trek: Discovery than I did about TNG when I first saw the pilot in 1990.

pixelburp

So one of the more meaningless wonders I had while taking in the 100+ episodes included ... just how cushy the job of bartender must be in Ten Forward?

I mean, there's no money to worry about, kegs to tap, bottles to refill, stock to manage, glasses to wash, drunkenness to deal with etc. etc. All the staff seem to do is take the order, go over to the replicator, repeat the words and return with the drink. Guinan barely features that much as series pass, so presumably even her pep talks failed to keep her entertained throughout the day.

donspeekinglesh

I think the job was only created so Whoopie Goldberg could have a part and it had to be a fluffy part so she be fitted in whenever she had time.

Jan_de_Bakker

And they didn't even serve proper alcohol ... just that syntahol crap ... whats the point ?

Evade

Jan_de_Bakker wrote: »

And they didn't even serve proper alcohol ... just that syntahol crap ... whats the point ?

Get merrily drunk but never hammered, sober up in an instant if necessary, and no hangover. That seems like a good idea to me.

Jan_de_Bakker

Evade wrote: »

Get merrily drunk but never hammered, sober up in an instant if necessary, and no hangover. That seems like a good idea to me.

No, the point was syntahol had no effects, it was like becks beer ...at least thats the way I remember it ..

Evade

Jan_de_Bakker wrote: »

No, the point was syntahol had no effects, it was like becks beer ...at least thats the way I remember it ..

The point of synthehol is that it has no adverse affects on most people so you can get merrily drunk and not much else. Or it might just take much more synthehol to trigger the unwanted affects in most people because Seven got pretty drunk from one glass of synthehol champagne

Jan_de_Bakker

Back to Pogo ... I assumed he was using samples for Patrick Stewarts voice ... but was reading it's his own voice, he is a really good impersonator ?

Jan_de_Bakker

Jan_de_Bakker wrote: »

Back to Pogo ... I assumed he was using samples for Patrick Stewarts voice ... but was reading it's his own voice, he is a really good impersonator ?

I don't think that's the case. As far as I remember, Pogo's rule is that everything sampled must come from the source, so I'm about 99% certain that is Patrick Stewart.

Jan_de_Bakker

Watched Elementary dear Data last night, nice introduction to the virtual nemesis of Moriarty - I really liked those holodeck period drama episodes ..

MrJones1973

Riker was the only one you'd go for a beer with. A real beer.

Goodshape

Mrwhite1970 wrote: »

Riker was the only one you'd go for a beer with. A real beer.

I'd go for a beer with Geordi. I'd say he'd be better craic actually.

Riker would be too busy leaning on things and stepping over chairs to impress the ladies. Geordi you'd have good craic with, talking about holodeck programmes and poking fun at Data.

Evade

Goodshape wrote: »

I'd go for a beer with Geordi. I'd say he'd be better craic actually.

But you'd have to hear about his disastrous love life after he'd had a few drinks.

Jan_de_Bakker

Who watches the watchers

Great episode, I think it's one of the 1st involving the Prime Directive.

Picard is such a diplomat.

Jan_de_Bakker

Goodshape wrote: »

I'd go for a beer with Geordi. I'd say he'd be better craic actually.

Riker would be too busy leaning on things and stepping over chairs to impress the ladies. Geordi you'd have good craic with, talking about holodeck programmes and poking fun at Data.

A pint with Worf,Geordi and Data would be hilarious actually ... Wesley can f*ck right off tho ...

pixelburp

Phew... finished! All 170+ episodes watched, minus a clutch of them from seasons 1 & 2 when my sanity and tolerance wavered.

Finishing thoughts? I can really see why this show has stuck in the memory, and those episodes that have generally received heady praise (The Inner Light, Best of Both Worlds, Chain of Command, Yesterdays Enterprise, Tapestry to name a few) lived up to the hype. When the show got it right it really soared with intelligent, humane scripts - however when it hit bottom it was borderline unwatchable.

- It goes without saying that Patrick Stewart was the highest point, performance wise. It's not without reason that he continues to be lauded as an actor, but when given the right material in TNG he really knocked it out of the park.

- That said, the rest of the cast could be pretty abysmal if I'm honest & they were frequently out of their depth in comparison with Stewart. In fairness, LeVar Burton got stuck with excruciating 'Geordi searches for love' plots, and the less said about the female cast the better. While none of them had any acting chops, the stories they were given were borderline insulting anyway, often defaulting to equally lame romance plots. 'Sub Rosa' was just ... wow. The latter seasons still threw up a clunker or two.

- Worf surprised at just how compelling his stories tended to be & I can easily see why he transitioned over to DS9. At the beginning of my run-through, I genuinely thought I'd hate all the Klingon-honour stuff, but his arcs showed the way on telling some tales of personal conflict and character against the backdrop of a utopia like The Federation.

- Data too was a strong'ish character, but not as consistently as Worf; the writers seemed to struggle a bit more in getting the tone right with his search for humanity, the obvious comedic misinterpretations being phenomenally cheesy when they misfired. The tap dancing ... yeeeesh.

- One thing that stuck in my head from season 7, hinting at a future (I don't think?) never explored was in 'Force of Nature'; suggesting the possibility of a galaxy without warp drive - something that could have really opened up plots. Just a shame CBS seem intent on going backwards.

degrassinoel

re: force of nature, that recurred in a few more episodes with warp restrictions in place - going over a certain warp factor was only allowed in emergencies

Jan_de_Bakker

Good summary Pixelburp - yeah God that sub rosa episode was probably one of the worst TNG eps ever.

As you say when it was bad it really did hit rock bottom - but thankfully there weren't too many episodes like that ..

Inviere

When you break it down, if it weren't for the quality of Patrick Stewart's performances, TNG would be a very different (and worse show). Brent Spiner and Michael Dorn are up there too, but everyone else was either just ok or downright bad. It's why, for me, DS9 pips TNG to the top spot. The sheer quality of the DS9 cast, and importantly, the recurring cast, puts DS9 ahead.

TNG is a great show, and great Star Trek, but it's saved by the three mentioned above. Not necessarily the actors fault, some of the writing was just bad, but you can't compare Troi and Crusher to Kira and Dax for example

MrJones1973

I think Troi was badly constructed and badly enacted. The counselor idea was so 1980s . Her telepathy was weak and obvious. The actress herself admits all this and said she felt her stories didnt improve until they got rid of the cleavage. There was too much unrequited love going around as well. Riker/ Troi..the Captain and the doctor.

I agree on stewart, He made the show

Evade

Mrwhite1970 wrote: »

The actress herself admits all this and said she felt her stories didnt improve until they got rid of the cleavage

I might be alone here but I thought she was much more attractive in the Starfleet uniform (not just the Encounter at Farpoint one) than the casual clothes.