{"id":237,"date":"2016-02-13T03:01:13","date_gmt":"2016-02-13T03:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morsepower.net\/wp\/?p=237"},"modified":"2016-02-15T15:32:48","modified_gmt":"2016-02-15T15:32:48","slug":"a-generation-remembered-part-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/?p=237","title":{"rendered":"TNG Retrospective Part 1: To Blandly Go"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been almost a year since the wife and I embarked on the quest to marathon-watch all of Star Trek: The Next Generation.\u00c2\u00a0 We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re rounding the bend now, so I thought I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d do the proper thing and vent my thoughts on the Internet like so much opinionated exhaust gas.<\/p>\n

This show began in 1987, and ran for seven seasons with 26 episodes each. \u00c2\u00a0We started at the very beginning, and endeavored to watch every episode through to its end. \u00c2\u00a0So without further ado, let us catalog our findings as we boldly went where very many nerds have gone before!<\/p>\n

Season 1<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
Image courtesy of Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Holy shit. \u00c2\u00a0This is bad.<\/p>\n

This is really bad.<\/p>\n

Our overall verdict after finishing this season on a marathon run was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153this show was lucky get renewed.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00c2\u00a0We found ourselves wondering what it was up against at the time, since syndicated TV of the 80s didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really have the production values we enjoy nowadays. \u00c2\u00a0Well, according to Wikipedia<\/a>, here are the top 10 rated shows from 1987.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00c2\u00a0The Cosby Show<\/li>\n
  2. A Different World<\/li>\n
  3. Cheers<\/li>\n
  4. The Golden Girls<\/li>\n
  5. Growing Pains<\/li>\n
  6. Who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Boss?<\/li>\n
  7. Night Court<\/li>\n
  8. 60 Minutes<\/li>\n
  9. Murder, She Wrote<\/li>\n
  10. The Wonder Years<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    OK, that provides some context.<\/p>\n

    Note that TNG isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t on that list. \u00c2\u00a0Because it was syndicated, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t appear in the network television ratings ranks. \u00c2\u00a0But (again according to Wikipedia<\/a>), \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The new show indeed performed well; the pilot’s ratings were higher than those of many network programs, and ratings remained comparable to network shows by the end of the first season despite the handicap of each station airing the show on a different day and time, often outside prime time.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

    So, it was a popular and well-received season, and even won a few Emmy awards. \u00c2\u00a0I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think people of the time were wrong to appreciate it thusly, but it does show you how much the world of science fiction television has changed since the halcyon days of The Next Generation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s premier.<\/p>\n

    This season, TNG won awards for Outstanding Sound Editing for the episode \u00e2\u20ac\u015311001001\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, Outstanding Costume Design for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Big Goodbye,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Outstanding Achievement in Makeup for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Conspiracy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00c2\u00a0I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even aware that some of those were awards, but there you go. \u00c2\u00a0What made them special?<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Image courtesy of Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    \u00e2\u20ac\u015311001001\u00e2\u20ac\u009d featured a race of partially cybernetic being who communicate mostly in auditory binary, which doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a ton of sense, but is fascinating in a life-but-not-as-we-know-it kind of way. \u00c2\u00a0Even though it features another Riker the Horndog arc, his role is tastefully handled. \u00c2\u00a0It might very well by favorite episode from this season. \u00c2\u00a0But for the life of me I have no idea why it won an Emmy for Outstanding Sound Editing.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Image courtesy of Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Big Goodbye\u00e2\u20ac\u009d did have decent costumes; the cast was all done up in film noire style garb because it was a holodeck episode. \u00c2\u00a0I never like holodeck episodes but the fact that it picked up an Emmy maybe explains why they utilize them: there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly an appeal to the idea of breaking up the monotony by picking literally any setting and just running with it. \u00c2\u00a0I tend to write off holodeck episodes because they tend to be non sequiturs or just nonsense, though.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Image courtesy of WikJESUS CHRIST WHAT THE HELL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Conspiracy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the penultimate episode of the season, and honestly I enjoyed it! \u00c2\u00a0Apparently this episode\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s airing caused a bit of a stir because the of surprisingly graphic violence of a single climactic scene that lasts about 10 seconds. \u00c2\u00a0I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t disapprove of violence in media, but I totally get the shock that came with this. \u00c2\u00a0It comes out of nowhere and is about 10 shades darker than any other content in the rest of the season. \u00c2\u00a0Maybe even the series as a whole. \u00c2\u00a0I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure why they did this. \u00c2\u00a0Perhaps to make waves.\u00c2\u00a0 And to win Outstanding Achievement in Makeup.\u00c2\u00a0 Which it did.<\/p>\n

    But exploding torsos aside, this episode had tension, an acceptable amount of treknobabble, and characters overcoming the odds through teamwork and guile. \u00c2\u00a0It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s far from the worst way to end the season. \u00c2\u00a0That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not exactly a ringing endorsement, but you take what you can get here.<\/p>\n

    So, those are the high points. \u00c2\u00a0Unfortunately not every entry into this season was so shiny. \u00c2\u00a0We see the emergence of a pattern in these early episodes: an attempt at an interesting idea lost in poor execution.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Code of Honor,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for example, almost<\/i> touches on themes of cultural relativism but quickly gets bogged down by a script that is covertly sexist and overtly racist.<\/p>\n

    We are introduced to the Ferengi as a primary adversary, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s painful to watch. \u00c2\u00a0A greedy materialistic and profit-driven race is an obvious attempt at making an uncanny caricature modern human society. \u00c2\u00a0But in this 24th Century post-scarcity society, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make sense. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0What makes even less sense is the fact that every interaction with them involves the Ferengi perpetrating multiple acts of war <\/i>against the Federation and Starfleet. \u00c2\u00a0And we can only assume they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve behaved as badly in their encounters with every other race in the quadrant. \u00c2\u00a0There isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a clear reason why they haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been phasered back into the stone age at this point. \u00c2\u00a0Their replacement by the far-more-interesting Borg, introduced much later in the series, was entirely welcome.<\/p>\n

    What really nags me is how Denise Crosby\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character, Tasha Yar, is killed in action (apparently because the actress she wanted out). \u00c2\u00a0Mind you, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not upset that her character died. \u00c2\u00a0I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m upset with how it was handled. \u00c2\u00a0At the end of the episode the cast finds a recording from Tasha. \u00c2\u00a0One with a message to each and every named cast member, which apparently she recorded just in case this exact thing were to happen. \u00c2\u00a0Thus providing closure and solace in the face of such a loss. \u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hey guys, it sucks that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m dead now, but everything\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be okay because you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all great folks.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    Image courtesy of memory-alpha.wikia.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

     <\/p>\n

    No. \u00c2\u00a0No no no. \u00c2\u00a0You were so close and then you ruined it. \u00c2\u00a0They shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get off that easy. \u00c2\u00a0That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not how life works. \u00c2\u00a0If you want to give this moment weight, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get closure. \u00c2\u00a0They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get to wrap it all up in a feel-good blanket at the end. \u00c2\u00a0One of their fellow crew members died for no fucking reason. \u00c2\u00a0She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gone, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re never going to see her again. \u00c2\u00a0It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s senseless, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tragic, and it just as easily could have happened to any one of them<\/i> on any number of these dangerous missions. \u00c2\u00a0We could have gotten to watch each character come to terms with this over the remainder of the season, grappling with the loss in their own way, or maybe watch them never<\/i> get over it. \u00c2\u00a0But, no, this is what we got instead. \u00c2\u00a0It might seem like a minor issue to harp on, but I see the problem as a symptom of trying way too hard to fit into a procedural formula despite having to deal with the permanence of cast attrition.<\/p>\n

    Rant over.<\/p>\n

    Okay, so this season, things were a little rough.\u00c2\u00a0 Upon review, it feels like done I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve far more complaining than praising. \u00c2\u00a0But as I said earlier, this series debuted with an overall positive reception and good ratings. \u00c2\u00a0So is this all unfair? \u00c2\u00a0Is it legitimate to criticism television, science fiction especially, outside of the context of its time? \u00c2\u00a0Are people ten years from now going to look \u00c2\u00a0back on Babylon 5 and say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe people thought this was good TV?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00c2\u00a0I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure. \u00c2\u00a0I want to believe that great art has staying power. \u00c2\u00a0And I know for certain that if this show were to air today, it would need to put forth an astounding turnaround in its second season.<\/p>\n

    And as Stephanie and I have learned…it did not.<\/p>\n

    TO BE CONTINUED.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been almost a year since the wife and I embarked on the quest to marathon-watch all of Star Trek: The Next Generation.\u00c2\u00a0 We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re rounding the bend now, so I thought I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d do the proper thing and vent my thoughts on the Internet like so much opinionated exhaust gas. This show began in 1987, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}