TV Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Some of my regular readers may wonder why I haven't updated my blog for so long. You're wondering whether I've stopped watching films. The answer is actually Yes. Over the past few weeks I've been watching tv series on DVD instead of films. As you know, I don't regularly review tv series, only when I have something special to say. I've been watching various tv series, such as "Angel", "Supernatural", "Doctor Who" and "The Tribe"... but more than anything else "Star Trek: The Next Generation", which I'll refer to as TNG in this post.

Although I was old enough to have seen TNG when it was first broadcast, I missed it entirely. I jumped straight from the original series of "Star Trek" (TOS) to "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (DS9). For the last 15 years I've watched random episodes of TNG on reruns, but now is the first time I've sat down to watch the episodes in order. It seems like a completely new series to me, so I'll review it as something new.

If I understand the Star Trek chronology, TNG takes place 100 years after TOS. It's also an advance in the stories and the characterisation. The Enterprise in the orginal series is very frugal. The canteen is without decorations, and there are no facilities for recreation. It seems more like a prison than a place of work. In TNG it's better than a workplace, it looks like a home. In the original series the stories all rotated around the three main characters, Kirk, Spock and McCoy. In many episodes, especially in the third season, McCoy was part of the landing team even when there was no logical need for a doctor. It was also questionable whether the captain of a starship would leave his post to go on risky scouting missions. Even if he did go, would he take his second-in-command (Spock) with him?

TNG has more characters who share the stories. While Captain Jean-Luc Picard is the central character, he doesn't dominate the stories like Kirk did in TOS. The Klingons have suddenly become allies and there is even a Klingon on board the Enterprise. The new Klingons look very different, but the reason for their change is kept a mystery until a later series. One thing I find strange is the presence of Wesley on the bridge. He's given a place because he's a child prodigy, but I suspect the decision was made by the programme planners. Overall TNG is more mature than TOS, so some executive in a big office decided that there had to be a young boy to make the series attractive to children.

That's all I have to say for now, after having watched only the first season. I may have more to write after seeing more.

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"If you do it again I'll slap your face!"