Star Trek: The Next Generation

[Mr Delicieux]

Any fans of the show on here may be interested to watch this video by Red Letter Media, a YouTube channel I'm quite fond of.
These guys are big fans of Star Trek, but aren't afraid to take the piss out of the jankier episodes while providing some interesting trivia.
I was never a big fan of star trek, but do enjoy listening to people talk passionately about a subject, I enjoy that combination of excitement and knowledge, and it's had the effect of making me want to start watching, which is a compliment in itself, I think.

[wingco]

Thanks for this! I have a great fondness for TNG, without making great claims for it.

[elguapo4]

It's years since I watched the Next Generation, but I'd be interested in that, I'll give it a look tomorrow.

[Southport Zeb]

When I was at university I lived with a big Star Trek fan. At this time TNG was coming out on DVD, with the box set for each series released at monthly intervals. He would each series the day it came out, watch an episode a day then endure the few days he could start gain with the next series.

[Patrick Thistle]

There is an episode guide on Den of Geek that includes a note of "Time Until First Meeting" in every episode. They also make a note of every "tell don't show" moment (ie "Captain, we've had a report that there's been a huge space battle on the edge of Romulan Space. Hundreds of Federation ships have been destroyed. There are no survivors." Cue a meeting to discuss the implications of the huge unfilmed space battle.)

[Various Artist]

Ahh, the classic TV sci-fi budget-stretching exercise. There's a great (for its sheer laughable chutzpah) scene somewhere in classic Doctor Who, I'm certain, where someone – I think it might actually have been Tom Baker's Doctor – bursts into a room and exclaims "Cybermen! There must be hundreds of them out there!". The number that ever actually show up together on screen is somewhere in the order of 3.


I grew up watching TNG on BBC2 at, if I recall rightly, 6pm and always loved it. I caught a chunk of a first-series episode (Riker didn't have the beard) called 'Conspiracy' just a day or two ago and it's startling now though to watch that era and be forcibly reminded that it's a.) nearly 35 years ago and b.) only 20 years after the original Star Trek aired. What always seemed light-years ahead of TOS in terms of look, design and plotting suddenly appears to cleave surprisingly close to its predecessor after all when viewed at this distance.

To be fair, I believe many of the first season's episodes were actual holdovers from stuff written but never used for the original crew, with the new cast more or less slotted in to an existing plot. It was only with the second season that the show famously 'Grew the Beard' in tandem with its first officer literally doing so, and started to really develop its own niche and stand independently.

[Mr Delicieux]

They cover that regarding the first season, apparently Roddenberry had become a bit tyrannical in his later years. I won't say any more!

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Wasn't at least one episode per series one where they all go to Victorian England/the Wild West/1930s Chicago on the holodeck, so they could borrow the sets and costumes from studio storage?

[gavc23]

My favourite bit of TNG is when they responded to criticism of dressing Marina Sirtis in a miniskirt by showing a male extra also wearing a miniskirt in the background.

I still never understand what the point of the Whoopi Goldberg character was though, it always seemed like they were building up to a huge plot with her but nothing ever really happened apart from her looking enigmatic when some new threat arrived.

[ad hoc]

I used to watch this for a while. I enjoyed it for the most part except (a) holodeck episodes, and (b) any episode involving Wesley Crusher

[jeanmid]

If you want to look at Season 1 TNG being ripped apart then take a look at SF Debris's reviews.

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek.php

1. He hasn't reviewed all of Season 1.

2. Some reviews may not be available.

[Mr Delicieux]

My favourite bit of TNG is when they responded to criticism of dressing Marina Sirtis in a miniskirt by showing a male extra also wearing a miniskirt in the background.

I still never understand what the point of the Whoopi Goldberg character was though, it always seemed like they were building up to a huge plot with her but nothing ever really happened apart from her looking enigmatic when some new threat arrived.

Those outfits were the brainchild of Roddenberry, and were ditched once he no longer held such an iron grip on star trek as a property.
A visionary in many ways, held back by one or two attitudes from the era he came from.