Star Trek: The Next Generation

Having finished viewing all of the original Star Trek episodes, I moved on to the next series--Star Trek: The Next Generation. My tentative plan is to view the various series in the order they appeared. My work schedule had been a serious problem, lots of night classes, so I never got much of a chance to watch many of the shows. In fact, I discovered that I hadn't even seen all of the original Star Trek episodes when I went through them this time.

The DVD contained the first three shows: "Encounter at Farpoint," "The Naked Now," and "Code of Honor." My first impression was the incredible advances made in special effects in the twenty years since ST:TOS had ended. The bridge of the Enterprise was luxurious in comparison. However, they still had not installed seat belts, and the crew still went flailing about.

It was obvious that there was a clear attempt to bring in the fans of the original program when, in "Encounter at Farpoint," one saw a walkon by a aged and creaky, but still grumbling and querulous Dr. McCoy, who hadn't mellowed at all in the past twenty years. For those who haven't seen this episode, it is the story of Captain Picard's first coming aboard the Enterprise and his initial meetings with the crew, including First Officer Riker who insists his main task is keeping Picard on the bridge and not beaming down into dangerous situations. I wonder if that's a reference to Capt. Kirk's penchant for leaving his ship and getting into trouble in many of the episodes in ST:TOS. Q appears in this episode, and it is obvious that he was going to be a continuing problem for the crew of the Enterprise, a plot element that hadn't appeared in the first series. Wesley Crusher, son of the ship's medical officer, appears in this episode, and I was immediately reminded of Robert Heinlein's theory of child raising. It went something like this--after the child is born, put it in a barrel and feed it through the bunghole. When it reaches puberty, close the bunghole.

The second episode, "The Naked Now," also has a strong tie to the original series for it brought back a threat that had appeared in the ST:TOS episode, "The Naked Time." A fast-acting contaminant of some sort infects the crew and turns them into irresponsible drunks. Data does a computer search and discovers the incident involving the first Enterprise. The funniest line, in the first three episodes anyway, occurs when Data, who was also affected by the contaminant, paraphrases a soliloquy from Shakespeare's A Merchant of Venice, and echoes Shylock when he explains that he is human also for if he is "pricked, do I not....leak?"

The third episode had a familiar air about it as the Enterprise, on a mercy-mission, encounters an alien culture on a planet that has the only known source of a medicine needed to quell a deadly plague on another planet. Picard and the crew must deal with cultural issues before they can get the needed medicine.


Overall Comments:

Major advances in special effects are noticeable. Picard may be a more sedentary Capt. than his predecessor, Capt Kirk, and the powers-that-be are making a serious effort to draw in younger viewers with Wesley Crusher.

So far, aside from the new element of Q, a continuing villain (I guess he's a villain), the plots seem quite familiar. I really didn't see anything that couldn't have appeared in the original series.

Star Trek

One of the many marvelous opportunities granted by retirement is that of reducing my OOTD list. OOTD stands for "One of these days." Those were things I wanted to do or read or view or visit, but never seemed to have the time. Well, now I've got some time.

One of my OOTDs was to see in its entirety the movie _Forbidden Planet_. I finally managed to do that some time ago. Another OOTD that I just eliminated was viewing the initial pilot for _Star Trek_, the one that never made it to the screen during the series' initial run 1966.

Forty years ago! Has it really been that long ago?

As all Trek fans know, the pilot was "The Cage" and the captain of the Enterprise was Christopher Pike, played by Jeffery Young. The pilot was rejected by the network, and Roddenberry had to submit another one, which finally was accepted.

I've seen parts of it over the years, mostly as part of a two-part episode, "The Menagerie," broadcast later, as an attempt to get some use out of it. At other times, I tuned in too late to see the whole episode when it was being rerun.

So, last night I loaded up my DVD player with a disc that contained three episodes: "Turnabout Intruder," "The Cage," and "The Cage" in color. It was interesting to view "The Cage," the pilot episode, back-to-back with "Turnabout Intruder," which was the last _Star Trek_ episode that was broadcast.

The first version of "The Cage" was a mix of color and black-and-white. The remastered version was completely in color. I watched both and the only major difference I could see was in the voice of the chief alien. His voice was deeper in the b&w version.

The crew of the pilot had vanished except for two characters: Mr. Spock, who actually smiled in the pilot, something he wouldn't do again, I think, for at least a year or more, and Majel Barrett, who played No. 1, second in command of the Enterprise, and later appeared as Nurse Chapel. It was rather daring in 1968 to have a female character a heartbeat away from the top spot. And, in fact, she took command of the Enterprise when Capt. Pike was captured and, moreover, was depicted as performing competently.

The bridge of the Enterprise was generally the same, although some changes had been made. It appeared much smaller and consequently much more crowded in the pilot. One element that disappeared in the series was the sight of crew members carrying clipboards and getting paper printouts from what I presume is the ship's computer. After the pilot, the clipboards disappeared, and the ship's computer gained a voice.

As with most of the episodes, "The Cage" made a point that is even more relevant today than it was some 40 years ago. The issue was whether Capt Pike would accept his imprisonment, regardless of how pleasant it was, and regardless of whatever illusions the aliens could provide (they could read his mind so they knew what his deepest desires were) or would choose die if he couldn't be free. And, it was No. 1 who set her weapon to explode and kill the humans rather than be enslaved.

Today, we seem to have traded in that desire for freedom for a false sense of security.

Now, on to episode 2.