Make it so

Yesterday being the 25^th anniversary of the debut of Star Trek: The Next Generation, there’s been a spate of “name your favorite TNG episodes” invitations around the Internet. You can search Twitter on #tng, or start here to find some of them, if you like.

I have to say that I much preferred TNG to the original ST. For one thing, in the roughly 20 years between the two series, production values improved considerably. Also, I suspect that, on account of the raging success of the Star Trek: The Many Motion Pictures franchise, exec producer Gene Roddenberry probably had much bigger budgets to put together the episodes. And these gave him scope to explore a lot of issues.

Plus—it became a hip place for “larger” stars to show up. I mean—when Whoopi Goldberg begs to be the ship’s tavern keeper in a recurring role, you’ve arrived.

Anyway—while I have to say that I recall very few clunkers in the whole seven year run, here are several that stand out in my mind:

“First Contact”: Commander Riker is in deep undercover (so as to obey the Prime Directive) on a planet that doesn’t yet have official relations with the Federation, and is in fact highly suspicious of anything alien. (Look, if I have to explain Riker, the Federation or the Prime Directive to you, we may as well stop now. Just go back into your cave, pick up your macramé and pour yourself another Fresca.) There’s a lot of hoo-ha about the whole thing, but what captured my attention was a very nerdy-looking Malcorian, played by Bebe Neuwirth, who agrees to help Riker escape the 24^th century equivalent of the Minute Men—on a particular condition—because, “I’ve always wanted to make love to an alien.” The look on Riker’s face as he evaluates his options imprinted in my cortex.

“Darmok”: Captain Picard (who frankly wipes the floor with Captain Kirk in every competition except carpet-chewing OTT melodramatic testosterone-spewing bluster) finds himself alone on an empty planet with the armed leader of a people whose method of communication is completely incomprehensible to anyone from the Federation. There is a combat challenge, and the efforts of the Enterprise crew to extricate Picard result in the serious injury to the Tamarian commander. As night falls, the two warriors exchange heroic tales. And what I recall is Picard relating the story of Gilgamesh, which resonates deeply with the Tamarian. Gilgamesh, if you please!

“Disaster”: There’s this gigantic quantum filament, see, and it renders the Enterprise dead in the, er, quadrant, with crew clustered in isolated areas of the ship. Picard is stuck in the turbo-lift with three, gasp, kids (who’ve won a captain-led tour of the ship in a science competition), Counselor Troi is the highest-ranking officer on the bridge trying to figure out what’s going on with the power, Geordi and Dr. Crusher are in a cargo bay with some toxic chemicals, and Keiko O’Brien goes into labor in the 10-Forward bar, with Lt. Worf assisting the birth. Everyone is, in effect, a fish out of water. And everyone approaches the challenges of what actions to take that will be best for all, without being able to consult with everyone else. Besides—a Klingon midwife? Talk about must-see TV!

“Rascals”: A captain, a botanist, a discipline problem and a bartender walk into a…well, returning from some planet on the shuttle they get zapped with something that reverts their bodies to childhood/adolescence, but with their minds intact in adulthood. Plus—Picard gets his hair back. The Bajoran Ensign Ro is affronted by being a sullen little child, since she’s worked so hard at becoming a sullen big child; but Guinan (Whoopi) just thinks it’s a lark. Things are complicated when renegade Ferengis (okay, I’m repeating myself there) hijack the Enterprise, and the fantastic four enlist the rest of the Romper Room set to take back the ship. It’s the scene where Young Picard hugs “dad” Riker in front of a Ferengi that got me.

“Relics”: Scotty from original ST and Geordi prove that engineers rule, no matter what the century or the environment.

“Schisms”: A complete nightmare world of alien abductions, creepy experiments, where everything was cold, hard, sharp and menacing. Seriously creepy episode.

The thing that I really liked about TNG was that no matter what, the crew did their best to support and encourage one another. There was a character arc with a very awkward, pathologically shy crewmember named Barclay. While at first referred to as Broccoli, during a single episode, his crewmates made the effort to understand and accept him. Over the course of several, he became recognized as a valuable contributor, stuttering and clumsiness and all.

Ah, time to find a TNG marathon and sit back with the remote on stun.