TNG Revisited

[Sephiroth9611]

It's been just under twenty years since TNG (Star Trek: The Next Generation) concluded. Of course, it's not been off the air since. Did you watch? Do you catch old episodes when you see them on? Does it hold up? Let's talk about this.

The other day, I caught "The Measure of a Man" on TV. This is the one where Data is ordered to report for experimental refit by Commander Maddox, a cybernetics expert who basically wants to tear Data apart in a bid to learn what makes him tick so that more Datas can be built. Data refuses and the episode shifts into the court room where Picard's old flame who also prosecuted him at his court-martial after he lost Stargazer will decide Data's fate.

The underlying question is if Data is a slave of Starfleet or a person. Of course, this was pretty cool social commentary back in the day and if you don't think about it too much, it still is. But the more I see the episode, the less I like it due to its glaring hole, namely the fact that Data is a Starfleet officer, so Starfleet has apparently already made its own determination about Data's status. After all, I doubt Starfleet was in the habit of giving unthinking robots commissions and the ability to command other Starfleet officers it outranked.

[SOLDIERofficer81]

Star Trek: The Next Generation holds up, barely. Even the very best episodes, after repeat viewing, begin to break down in my mind. Maybe there are plot holes. Maybe the writing isn't the best. Maybe TNG's episodic nature really shows through. That is really the worst about TNG. If only the producers had made a different choice about the nature of the show, TNG could have been a 100 times better than it was.

[Sephiroth9611]

There needs to be a sci-fi show on pay cable along the lines of Game of Thrones that truly pushes the boundaries of what can be done.

[Ambigore]

I did watch TNG back in the day. But there are some aspects of Star Trek that seem silly. Why are most of the personnel standing rather than sitting down, so whenever the Enterprise gets hit, they fall over and can't access their consoles? Why are senior crew routinely sent on dangerous missions when expendable grunts will suffice? Why don't Star Fleet, and indeed the entire Star Trek universe, use Holodeck technology to simply create alternative universes?

[Uncle Elmonesian]

I LOVED TNG, to the point where I could name each of the 178 episodes by watching that little pre credits teaser.
There were some awesome episodes like Best of Both Worlds, and The Inner Light.
I also had a crush on Troi and Dr Crusher...which may have helped.
Data was also ace....though they ruined him in the last TNG film in my opinion.

[SOLDIERofficer81]

Data was also ace....though they ruined him in the last TNG film in my opinion.

Data is a good example of what was fundamentally wrong with TNG. An android trying to be (and eventually becoming) more human: great idea and I loved Data and Brent Spiner. But because the show basically reset after every episode, Data's progress was nil. Data did evolve over time. But I never had the sense it was intended as him making strides towards humanity. It was more like the character being Flanderized. And don't get my started on the emotion chip, a cheap shortcut they didn't follow through on until AFTER the show was over.