The One With Locutus Of Borg And My TNG Season 3 Review…

Man. I wish I had been old enough to watch the end of TNG Season 3 when it originally aired. Talk about a cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers. “Who Shot JR?” has nothing on The Best of Both Worlds, Part I.

The Borg are back. Well, not really back. Up until this point, we’ve only seen the Borg in the Delta Quadrant, light years away.

But now they’re here in the Alpha Quadrant.

The Borg, especially the TNG version of the Borg, are the single most terrifying race in all of Star Trek. They aren’t evil. They aren’t sadistic. They simply wish to assimilate every single life form in order to add to their collective mind.

And when they capture Captain Picard,they speak not as individuals but as a hive mind:

The Borg: Strength is irrelevant. Resistance is futile. We wish to improve ourselves. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service ours.

Picard: Impossible. My culture is based on freedom and self determination.

The Borg: Freedom is irrelevant. Self determination is irrelevant. You must comply.

Picard: We would rather die.

The Borg: Death is irrelevant.

–The Borg and Picard, The Best of Both Worlds, Part I

Who wouldn’t be terrified by that? I mean. This species is simply out to take over. They have no emotions that definite other enemy races. They simply seek improvement of their entire race. It’s terrifying to have an enemy that has such a simple motive.

So, Star Trek has made a good villain, but it’s not simply enough to have a good villain to create a good cliffhanger. Even when a show like Star Trek really makes us think or really makes us question something, we know the result. Picard will come out on the side of right, and all will be well.

But as TNG headed into the summer hiatus, even the producers didn’t know that all would be well. Patrick Stewart’s contract was up, and they were in the process of renegotiating. Thus, when Riker orders Worf to fire on the Borg Cube and Locutus of Borg, there was a very real possibility that Captain Picard was going to die, and the entire show would be shaken up from top to bottom.

The cliffhanger at the end of The Best of Both Worlds, Part I truly works because the writers have created a great villain and because there was so much on the line. A cliffhanger only works if you don’t know how it will end. The writers had to sell it because they weren’t sure they would get the chance to write themselves out of it.

Of course, Picard lives. (Spoilers!) And the rest is history. But damn, if that Borg Cube had been destroyed at Riker’s hand? Well, that’s just asking to be written into a short story…

Anyways, Season 3:

The Good:

• The Enemy
• Yesterday’s Enterprise
• The Offspring
• Hollow Pursuits
• Sarek
• The Best of Both Worlds, Part I

The Bad:

• The Hunted
• Sins of the Father
• Tin Man
• Transfigurations

The Characters:

All of the characters really start getting better as TNG moves on. It’s a credit to the increase in the quality of writing on the series. I’m really starting to feel like a broken record when I say I love everyone except for Wesley Crusher, but it’s true.

Picard has some great moments throughout the season. I love him handling the Prime Directive during Who Watches the Watchers. His emotional breakdown after he mind melds with Sarek in the eponymous episode is wonderful. Perhaps that is more of a testament to Patrick Stewart’s acting than any character moment.

It’s also pretty exciting to have Crusher back. I love that she is the woman who will go toe-to-toe with Picard in so many challenges. When she thinks the health of a patient is being compromised by some Starfleet directive, she isn’t afraid to tell Picard. As she once reminded him, she’s the only person on the ship (as the Chief Medical Officer) who can give him an order. I’ve always considered it a shame that the writers shied away from developing a relationship between those two, but Crusher is certainly the under-the-radar character that stands out most to me.

In that vein, I also love Whoopi Goldberg’s character: Guinan. I’m not going to go look it up, but she probably isn’t in more than 4 episodes over the course of Season 3. However, when she is in an episode, she is definitely worth it. She makes a huge impact by being a character who can deftly prove a point to someone else, and she also gives great speeches. I love that Picard, in any universe, trusts her implicitly. Their deep friendship highlighted in Yesterday’s Enterprise is fantastic.

The Best of Both Worlds, Part I (and Part II, for that matter) gives Riker some great work to do. I love that he consistently turns down his own commands because the Enterprise is where he wants to be. His personality conflicts with Shelby in the finale are wonderful. You can almost see that Shelby is the young whippersnapper commander that he used to be.

Wesley Crusher is still around. He’s still annoying.

Final Thoughts:

It probably isn’t accurate to call those episode lists above “the good” and “the bad.” It would probably be much more accurate to call them “the great” and “the good.” Seriously, no episode up there is terrible, and I probably could have doubled the number of episodes to highlight as the true standouts of the season.

In addition to the powerful cliffhanger I’ve already discussed, Season 3 continues to show what Star Trek can be. When Data builds an android in The Offspring, we’re treated to an emotional episodes that tackles parenthood and the meaning of sentience. In Hollow Pursuits, we meet Reginald Barclay who will play a bigger role in Voyager, and we get to traipse around for some fun on the holodeck. It’s not all fun and games, though. The Romulans feature heavy in this season, and I loved both The Enemy and The Defector.

But that cliffhanger, man. I guess the writers knew how to get us coming back for season 4, even if they weren’t sure they could convince Sir Patrick.

Rating:

The Progress says Season 3 was a 6. Sounds about right. Although these ratings are going to get out of hand if the next few seasons go the way I expect.

#LLAP

The One Where Data Is On Trial…

What is there to say about the best Star Trek episode ever?

When I started this blog, I wasn’t always sure what I was going to write about, but I assuaged those nerves by telling myself, “Well, at least you’ll have a lot to say about The Measure of a Man.” I do have a lot to say about that episode. However, most of what I want to say are really boring and not at all helpful. Things like: “Wow!” and “That was a really good episode!” Those sorts of things simply aren’t helpful when it comes to an episode review. So, I’m going to try to delve in some things that I think make this episode tower above the rest, but I’m sure I won’t do it justice.

The Measure of a Man does a lot of things well. Heck. It does everything well. But for me, there are two things that truly stand out as the best takeaways from the episode. The first is that the episode does what Star Trek does best. It takes a strongly held belief of its audience, and it presents it in such a away that we are forced to question exactly what it is that that belief means. The second aspect of the episode that has always struck me as extremely powerful is its representation of our legal system.

Almost right out of the gate The Measure of a Man forces us to question something most fans have likely taken for granted through the season and a half the show has been on: Does Data have autonomy? That is: Is he sentient?

When Doctor Pulaski comes storming* onto the Enterpruse to kick off season 2, we are immediately poised not to like her. It’s not because viewers were so attached to Doctor Crusher or even that she pisses off Picard initially by being in Ten Forward before sick bay. No. It is unequivocally because she is mean to Data.

In fact, she’s more than mean to Data; she is disrespectful. She calls him “it,” even after being corrected. She belittles Troi’s choice of Data as her labor coach. And she dismisses his correction of the pronounciation of his name:

Dr. Pulaski: What’s the difference?

Data: One is my name. The other is not.

–Doctor Pulaski and Lt. Cmdr. Data, The Child

The rest of the crew sort of bristles at Pulaski’s treatment of Data, and when she challenges Data a little too much in Elementary, Dear Data Geordi takes his defense of Data perhaps a bit too far.

I mention these episodes and this treatment of Data because by the time we reach The Measure of a Man the audience and the rest of the crew have an almost Pavlovian reaction to someone disrespecting Data. It’s pretty much the biggest sin you can commit against a Star Trek character. Data is our Pinnocchio, desperately trying to become human, and we aren’t about to let anyone take that away from him.

So, when we meet Commander Bruce Maddox at the outset of the episode, we pretty much hate him right away. After all, we learn that Maddox protested Data’s admission to Starfleet Academy because he believed Data wasn’t sentient. Furthermore, Maddox pretty clearly just views Data as a “thing.”

Without rehashing the intricacies of the plot, Maddox is a cyberneticist hoping to create a positronic brain similar to Datas. To do so, he’ll need to dismantle Data in order to see his neural pathways. The risk is too great; Data does not believe that Maddox has the requisite skill to perform this procedure without irreparably harming our favorite android.

A bunch of Starfleet procedural things happen, and although Data has Picard on his side, Data must either resign his commission with Starfleet or undergo the testing. Reluctantly, Data resigns his commission. His love of serving in Starfleet is not greater than his desire for self-preservation.

But Maddox now contends that Data is not sentient. Therefore, Starfleet can order him to submit to this medical testing because he does not have the right to decline medical treatment. And so, Captain Phillipa Louvois, the JAG officer for the sector, orders a trial. Picard will defend Data, asserting that the android is sentient and cannot be forced to do anything, and Riker, above his loud protestations, will be forced to prosecute Data.

Louvois cautions Riker that if she even gets an inkling that he is not doing everything he can to prove that Data is not sentient, she will summarily rule against him. Of course, this would never happen in our legal system, but it harkens back to the idea that each side must be adequately represented in order for our legal system to work.

Up until this point, Data’s status as an equal to the rest of the NCC-1701 D crew has been taken for granted. The crew considers Data as one of them, and the audience has been trained to feel the same way.  But, as Star Trek tends to do, though, this episode asks the hard questions. It challenges our preconceived notions, and Picard’s task isn’t as easy as we might first expect it to be. In fact, Riker’s case-in-chief is pretty persuasive.

Riker proves Data is a machine. Photo credit: Memory-Alpha

Though Riker protests that he considers Data a friend, he must do everything he can to prove that Data is nothing more than property. He is somewhat reluctant to begin with, but Riker ultimately takes this task to heart. He does research, and after a particularly rousing examination of Data, he reaches over and turns off the android, declaring:

“Pinocchio is broken; its strings have been cut.”

–Commander William Riker, The Measure of a Man

It’s a powerful scene. Data slumps in his chair, and he is nothing. He has been turned off just as we would turn off his computer. And Riker’s skills as a litigator are impressive. He’s persuasive enough that his side nearly wins; Data is nearly declared a machine because of Riker’s skill. In fact, it’s such a powerful moment that after Riker rests, Picard finds himself questioning whether he can even win this trial.

He heads to Ten Forward for a conversation with the ever-insightful Guinan, and Picard confides that Riker “almost convinced [him].” But this is Guinan he is talking to. So, of course, she sees the situation for more than what it is, and Picard’s exchange with her is powerful:

Guinan: Maddox could get lucky and create a whole army of Datas, all very valuable.

Picard: Oh, yes. No doubt.

Guinan: He’s proved his value to you.

Picard: In ways that I cannot even begin to calculate.

Guinan: And now he’s about to be ruled the property of Starfleet. That should increase his value.

Picard: In what way?

Guinan: Well, consider that in the history of many worlds there have always been disposable creatures. They do the dirty work. They do the work that no one else wants to do because it’s too difficult or too hazardous. And an army of Datas, all disposable, you don’t have to think about their welfare, you don’t think about how they feel. Whole generations of disposable people.

Picard: You’re talking about slavery.

Guinan: I think that’s a little harsh.

Picard: I don’t think that’s a little harsh. I think that’s the truth. But that’s a truth we have obscured behind a comfortable, easy euphemism. Property. But that’s not the issue at all, is it?

–Guinan and Captain Picard, The Measure of a Man

And so now the question has been reframed a bit. Data is a machine. He admits that he is a machine. For all of his desire to be human and our clear love for him and his rights, we cannot escape that he is a machine. But if the goal is to create an entire race of this “machine” then what are we talking about?

I won’t retype all of Picard’s cross examination of Maddox here. I think it would lose much of its impact on the page instead of being viewed with Patrick Stewart’s fine acting abilities, but I strongly recommend watching it. When Picard challenges Maddox to “prove to the Court that [Picard] is sentient,” we know Picard has won. How is Maddox going to meet that challenge?

Picard ultimately gives a rousing closing statement wherein he acknowledges that he knows that Data is a machine, and he does not know whether Data has the requisite “consciousness” to be considered sentient. But Picard also reminds the Court that this decision will be far reaching. And he finishes with a call back to the Enterprise’s mission:

Starfleet was founded to seek out new life. Well, there it sits. Waiting.

–Captain Picard, The Measure of a Man

Data wins. Of course. I suppose, even in the most dramatic moments of the show, we always knew that he would, But it’s still a conflict that is presented in a powerful way. It doesn’t matter that we know that Data will win. It forces us to question our preconceived notions in a way that only Star Trek can.

In addition to forcing the audience to question the meaning of life and the treatment of Data, this episode also does a wonderful job of presenting one of the most important aspects of our judicial system. The American judicial system is built on an adversarial platform. And particularly on the criminal side of things, it is absolutely necessary to have strong representation on both sides.

John Adams famously defended the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre. He didn’t offer a defense to these soldiers because he necessarily thought they were innocent. He didn’t offer the defense because he was a fan of the Monarchy. He offered a defense to these men because of the most basic truth of our judicial system: every person deserves a right to a fair trial. With that right is a right to counsel.

Later, after Data has won, he finds Riker in the Observation Lounge, obviously feeling guilty for everything he put Data through. Riker took on the task quite unwillingingly, but it’s clear he regrets having to do that to the android he’s come to consider a friend. Their exchange is powerful:

Data: Sir, there is a celebration on the Holodeck.

Riker: I have no right to be there.

Data: Because you failed in your task?

Riker: No. God, no. I came that close to winning, Data.

Data: Yes, sir.

Riker: It almost cost you your life!

Data: Is it not true that had you refused to prosecute, Captain Louvois would have ruled summarily against me?

Riker: Yes.

Data: That action injured you and saved me. I will not forget it.

–Lt. Cmdr. Data and Cmdr. William Riker, The Measure of a Man

I cannot fully put into words how much I love that they made Riker prosecute Data. It would have been quite easy to chose a random guest star to act as the prosecutor, fighting against Picard, but forcing Riker to do the tasks puts a different spin on the issue. Without Riker mounting a convincing case, Data could never have won his own case. And that’s what’s important.

But it’s also important because we get that final scene. We see that Data does not bear any ill will against his commander. He knows that what Riker did was painful for Riker, but he appreciates that sacrifice because it gave him his freedom.

There are a lot of things that The Measure of a Man does well. I don’t take the praise “best Star Trek episode” lightly. I’m sure I could find some detractors to the episode, including the strangely handled relationship between Picard and Louvois. But when people ask my why I love Star Trek, this is the sort of episode that encapsulates that. It makes me think. It challenges my perceptions. And it entertains.

#LLAP

*I fully recognize that I am very overdramatic where Kate Pulaski is concerned. I can’t help it. I find her jarring in comparison to Doctor Crusher, but she probably doesn’t actually “storm” onto the Enterprise.

The One Where Riker Grew a Beard and I finished TNG Season 2

I finished Season 2 of TNG last Saturday the 16th, but because of my blog posts about Dallas (Part 1, Part 2), it took a little bit longer to get this post up than normal. But, hey, I’m more than happy to have too many blog posts. It’s way better than not enough.

Season 2 of TNG is a marked improvement from Season 1. In fact, I’m not sure there is a season to season improvement in all of Star Trek that would match TNG Season 1 to Season 2. I suppose that is directly attributable to the “Growing the Beard” trope.

Among Star Trek fans, I’d guess that statement wouldn’t require any further explanation. It’s pretty well known that Jonathan Frakes, who had a clean shaven baby face in season 1, came back from the summer hiatus sporting a beard. Apparently, although Frakes says he fully planned to shave the beard before productions began, the producers liked how he looked with the beard much better than without it and had him keep it. Good thing, too, because Riker growing a beard really improves the quality of the show.

Okay, so it’s not as if Jonathan Frakes sporting a beard actually made the show better, but the beard sort of acts as a symbol for the difference between Season 1 and TNG from Season 2 onward. Without a beard, Riker is a bit of a cad who will sleep with any female who will have him, and he comes off as a bit juvenile. The show is the same way. Season 1 has some serious missteps and cannot bring itself to grow from the 1960s sci fi that TOS is known for. But when Riker grows a beard, suddenly he’s a Commander who can playfully interact with his crew while still being worthy of his own ship. The show itself grows, too. It takes deep moral issues and considers them seriously, and the writing improves vastly.

 
The beard is quite an improvement…

Lest you think I’m crazy and making this whole thing up, I googled “Beard theory,” and it turns out that there is an entire page at TV Tropes dedicated to Growing the Beard. Of course, the Trope name comes from my beloved show, and another literal example of the phenomenon is also cited there: Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko) growing his beard before season 4 of DS9.

The Good

• Elementary, Dear Data
• A Matter of Honor
• The Measure of a Man
• Q Who?
• The Emissary

The Bad

• The Child
• The Dauphin
• Time Squared
• Shades of Grey

The Characters

Season 2 has the distinction of being the only season of TNG without Gates McFadden as Doctor Beverly Crusher. She is replaced by Diana Muldaur playing Doctor Kate Pulaski. Pretty much the only think Dr. Pulaski has going for her as a character is that she’s not Wesley. With Pulaski, it’s clear the writers were trying very hard to create a character more akin to Bones and the complete antithesis to Crusher. It simply doesn’t work. Pulaski is afraid of transporters (a quality that made much more sense with Bones), and she spends a big portion of her time making fun of and minimizing Data. However, unlike Bones with Spock, there is no level of respect and joviality with Pulaski. The initial interaction with Data and Pulaski, where they discuss the two different pronounciations of the word Data is pretty indicative of Pulaski’s entire relationship with Data. Of all the characters in the entire Star Trek canon, I’d venture to say Data is the character that Star Trek fans feel the most possessive of and protective over. Making fun of and belittling Data is sure to fall short. I’m glad the producer who got in a fight with Gates was fired before the end of Season 2 and Patrick Stewart was able to convince her to return. TNG would have been awful without her.

It’s not all bad as far as characters are concerned. I’m sure I’ve mentioned enough that Captain Picard is my favorite character in all of Star Trek, and season 2 is where we finally start to see the Captain Picard that I adore. He’s a by-the-books Captain, but it is clear that he loves his ship and his crew. The stand he takes for Data in The Measure of a Man is probably one of the single greatest moments in all of Star Trek.

Season 2 also takes some time to try to develop some deeper back story for some of its characters. Riker really gets a chance to shine in episodes like A Matter of Honor, The Icarus Factor, and The Measure of a Man. In these episodes we see why Riker was so coveted to be the First Officer of the flagship of the federation. Riker is a ladies man, and he’s friends with many of the people on the crew. But he also takes his duties seriously. He is smart, capable, and dedicated. He’s also deeply in love with Deanna Troi, and there are plenty of Imzadi moments in season 2.

Worf, who has now been promoted to security officer after Yar’s death, also gets some time to shine and develop a more rounded character. It had been quite a while since I watched the episodes The Emissary, and I was surprised at how much I enjoy it. Worf and K’Ehleyr, the half-Klingon woman played by Suzie Plakson, have wonderful chemistry, and I love seeing Worf’s struggle with his traditional Klingon nature after they give in to their moment of passion on the holodeck. This episode really works well as a stand alone development of Worf’s character. I just wish it didn’t mean Alexander were going to show up in a few seasons…

Wesley Crusher is as annoying as ever. Nothing new here.

Final Thoughts:

Season 2 of TNG rarely had any “bad” moments, and those four episodes listed above as bad weren’t terrible at all. Even Shades of Grey, an episode widely cited as an example of terrible television, isn’t that bad. Its only real detractor is the fact that it is a clip show, but the scenes surrounding the clip show are actually quite fantastic. Marina Sirtis does some of her best work in the episode.

Otherwise, season 2 is great, and I’m really glad the show decided to grow the beard. We get our first true Klingon episodes in A Matter of Honor and The Emissary, and they both highlight Klingon culture spectacularly. I wish all Klingon episodes would be like those two. Unfortunately, the Klingon culture will be rehashed and taken to such an extreme that I won’t be able to stand most Klingon episodes going forward. But the show certainly started off pretty well with them.

I have a blog post forthcoming about The Measure of a Man which is, without question, the greatest Star Trek episode ever.

So, yeah, I think my final thoughts can be summed up as: Finally. Finally. Finally. I am finally to the Star Trek that I love so much.

Rating:

According to The Progress, Season 2 was a 5.73. This actually seems a little low, but the show only gets better from here.

#LLAP

The One With The 50 Year Mission: Dallas, Part 2… (Saturday and Sunday)

Well, if you’re reading this post, then I probably didn’t scare you off with my crazy ramblings about my experiences about Thursday and Friday of the Star Trek convention in Dallas. So, thanks for coming back.

They don’t release the schedule for the convention until nearly the day before. So, I can’t say that Saturday was the day I was most looking forward to heading into the convention, but once I got a chance to view the schedule, Saturday became the one I was most looking forward to. It contained panels of all the actors I so desperately wanted to meet, and the day was going to finish with a karaoke party.

The Rat Pack performance on Friday night got over a little late, and I was afraid I was going to be dragging in the morning. But it turns out that putting Terry Farrell as the first panel in the morning will get me out of bed no problem.

It seems that at every convention with Star Trek actors, some sort of “prank” occurs during a panel. Maybe an actor will sit in the audience of a panel and heckle or may come out and join a panel halfway through just for the heck of it. There weren’t many of these pranks this weekend, but the best one was when, instead of Terry Farrell walking out onto stage when she was announced for her panel, Michael Dorn came out to thunderous applause.

The grin on Dorn’s face still makes me smile. These guys really know how to have a good time.

 

Dorn and Terry giving us a little Worf/Jadzia fan service.

Dorn played Worf on TNG and DS9, and his character had amazing chemistry with Jadzia. They are certainly one of the most iconic couples in all of Star Trek. So, it’s a lot of fun to see them play up that relationship. It’s also nice that they still seem to get along so well. Plus, Terry affectionately refers to Dorn as “tall, dark, and chocolate.” How can you not love that?

Terry’s panel was wonderful (not that I’m biased or anything), and I loved hearing her grasp on Jadzia. I have to imagine that one of the most difficult species to play would be a Joined Trill. At the start of the show, Jadzia was a 28 year old science officer, but she was also host to a symbiont that was on its 8th host. Terry explained that she had no idea what to do with Jadzia but neither did the writers. So, in Terry’s words, “we kind of found [the character] together.”

Terry also lamented the way the writers depicted her relationship with Major Kira Nerys. It was an interesting point that Kira and Jadzia’s relationship often tended toward nothing more than gossipy females, and Terry recognized it could be so much more.

“She’s a terrorist, and I’m an old man.”

–Terry Farrell on the Kira/Jadzia friendship

Of course these panels were full of questions from audience members, and Terry was very kind during these. It was terribly sweet when someone with an obvious disability came down to ask a question, and Terry went to them to help and give one-on-one attention. She has a kind and generous heart.

On her funniest scene: besides hitting Worf’s Mom, Terry liked the time when she bit Michael Dorn’s lip. On the best part of being on set: Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko) when “he’s all singing and shit.”

Terry’s panel was truly one of my favorites. I loved that she had given such thought and consideration to her character. Again, like listening to the actors who spoke on Fruday, she really made me want to go watch her episodes and see Jadzia in a new light.

I must confess that I skipped a few panels after Terry’s. Not that James Darren (Vic Fontaine) and Chase Masterson (Leeta) would have been interesting, but one of my goals from the weekend was to get the autographs from all the TNG crew on the limited edition artwork from Trektacular. So, since they would all be on stage in the afternoon, I figured slipping to the vendors room was a safe bet.

In a weekend full of highlights and adrenaline rushes, one of the best times was just standing in line for the chance to get a few precious seconds with the TNG actors. I grew up watching these guys on TV and just getting to say hello to them is amazingly surreal.

Most of my interactions with them were pretty short, but I loved my conversation with Marina Sirtis (Troi). It was just a few quick moments, but she was very kind. During autograph signing sessions, the conversations can feel very rote and you just get pushed through without much more than two or three words. But Marina was great. She offered to personalize my picture, which no one else did, and she even chastised the others for failing to do so. It was a nice moment, and I genuinely appreciate Marina reaching out a bit.

Getting to speak with Jonathan Frakes was similarly surreal. I was wearing my Parisses Squares (a physical and dangerous sport in the Star Trek universe), and he loved it. He wanted to read the whole thing, and he assured me that, while he has “seen a lot of Star Trek shirts,” he had never seen the one I was wearing. It’s a pretty cool experience to have a celebrity you idolize love the shirt you’re wearing. It also further solidified how well some of these actors know Star Trek. For him to know what Parisses Squares is and to recognize it on a shirt requires more than a passing knowledge of his own scenes on the show.

My interaction with Frakes led me to purchase a photo op with him. While I’ll always have the memories (and blog posts) of these moments, I really enjoy getting photo ops to really solidify the time. And what better opportunity to get a photo with Jonathan Frakes than after he gushed about my shirt? When I went to the photo op some several hours after our interaction, he recognized me and my shirt immediately. He even made the comment that he had seen my tweet about liking my shirt. That’s just one of those surreal moments of connecting with someone I grew up watching on TV.

 
I had to laugh when I finally got my copy of this photo. My smile is so big. It’s very representative of how much taking this picture meant to me and how much fun I was having.

After getting my autographs, I attended the Star Trek costume contest. I didn’t enter, but I definitely wanted to be there. Man. Trekkies can do some really creative costumes. There literally wasn’t a person who looked amazing, but the ones that really stood out to me were: a woman dressed as Kai Winn from DS9 acting perfectly in character; Amanda (Spock’s mom) with a remote control Horta; two Pakleds; some Klingons; a girl dressed as Kirk from The Trouble With Tribbles complete with a hoop skirt completely covered with Tribbles; and an absolutely perfect Captain Pike inside a moving wheel chair. The Tribble-Kirk and Captain Pike were my favorites.

 
He looks exactly like Captain Pike did in The Menagerie.

The costume contest was a lot of fun, and as it was running long, Max Grodenchik (Rom) and Aron Eisenberg (Nog) in full Ferengi dressed ended up crashing the contest because their panel was after the contest. Speaking of Rom and Nog in full costume, that’s one of the cool things I had previously read about Creation Entertainment doing at their conventions. Quite often, they’ll have guest stars who played significant Klingons or Ferengi and have them come out onto stage in full makeup. Max and Aron certainly took their task to heart and came out on stage (after the costume contest) doing a cornily-written skit about the two Ferengi having landed in Dallas, Texas in the 21st century. It was a true sign of how much fun Star Trek actors can be.

 
Rom and Nog in full costume.

One of the coolest things about the Ferengi panel for me was that Max and Aron told the audience that we could ask questions of them, but they said the questions could be addressed to either Max and Aron or Rom and Nog. It definitely takes a pretty deep understanding of the characters and the show to be able to answer questions generally in character.

In addition to being a very funny and amusing panel, Max and Aron also took some time to be very serious, and Aron gave some of the most emotional moments of the entire convention. He legitimately teared up discussing his favorite moment in all of DS9. He referenced one of the episodes in early DS9 where Captain Sisko is mad that his son is spending time with the “bad influence” Nog, but when Sisko finally catches Jake and Nog together, he sees that Nog is learning to read from Jake. This moment isn’t one I think of when considering the greatest moments of DS9, but after listening to Aron describe the moment from his perspective, it was easy to see why it would be so moving. His discussion of prejudice and not judging people by their appearance was truly impactful. I definitely teared up just listening to him talk about it.

Aron, who received a kidney transplant at the end of 2015, also gave the perfect reminder of why Trekkies are so amazing. His girlfriend had started some sort of a gofundme page to raise money to help with their living expenses during the kidney transplant, and many Trekkies donated. Aron gave truly heartfelt thanks to the crowd. He was truly so emotional he could barely get the words out, and he pretty much acknowledged that he owes his life to Star Trek. As I’ve mentioned quite a bit lately, I think Trekkies are some of the greatest people on the planet, and it’s wonderful to see how the meaningful ideals the show has espoused have really paid off in real life.

Later in the day, the first three TNG panels occurred. Michael Dorn and Marina Sirtis; Gates McFadden; and Jonathan Frakes all had panels. I’ve seen Marina and Dorn (or as she calls him, “Dornie”) do a panel together before, but I still enjoyed watching them, too. Now that I had an idea of how abrasive and opinionated Marina can be when she’s on stage, I was able to truly enjoy their panel without being shocked by her nature. They didn’t have a whole lot new to say, but they did spend a few minutes talking about one of my favorite TNG episodes: Parallels. It was great to get to see what they had to say about that, and I’ll have a few little moments to watch for when I get there in a few seasons.

 
Marina and Dornie. These two play off of each other very well. It’s easy to tell that they’re friends outside of their work.

Gates came out dancing for her panel, which was kind of fun to see. She was similarly very interesting, and I really loved that one of the audience members asked her about her experiences choreographing the movie Labyrinth. Gates also spent a significant amount of time discussing the personality conflicts that she encountered during season 1 of TNG, and she also discussed what it meant for her to come back. This was particularly interesting for me. I’m currently slogging through Dr. Pulaski during season 2 of TNG, and it was certainly timely to get some more information on what led Crusher to leave the show temporarily. Gates also lamented that  the Dr. Crusher of season 1 was nowhere to be found when she came back for season 3. She noted that the relationship with Picard had essentially been written out of the show, and so many other strong aspects of her character had been watered down. I’ll be interested to see if her claim that the writers didn’t really find Beverly Crusher again until nearing the seventh season. Gates has long been one of my favorite actresses on TNG, and my experiences meeting her for the first time at Trektacular are probably a lot of why I find cons so fulfilling.

 
I wish I’d gotten a better picture, but here’s the “Dancing Doctor.”

I’ve already written pretty extensively about Frakes in this post, so I won’t belabor much of his panel. He was, predictably, wonderful. The one thing that stood out to me about Frakes was that, every time an audience member came up to ask a question, he would walk to the end of the stage and sit on the edge. This brought him nearly face to face with the audience member, and I thought that was a nice personal touch that really made him feel more human.

 
Me with Connor and Dominic before karaoke. These two guys had pretty obviously started partying ahead of karaoke, and they were having a wonderful time with this photo op.

The night ended with a karaoke party hosted by Dominic Keating and Connir Trineer. Those who were at the convention might not believe this, but I’m not one for karaoke. I mean, I love singing songs, but karaoke isn’t my thing. I’m a bit of an introvert. One of my goals at this convention was to be a little more outgoing and reach out to people. Apparently, it’s really easy to make friends at a Star Trek convention. The rush of adrenaline and shared interests makes forming fast friendships easy. I was also blessed with wonderful people who I had assigned seats next to, and we all really enjoyed ourselves. As part of this goal to be more outgoing, I’d kind of psyched myself up to do the karaoke.

So, aided by some liquid courage, I got up on stage with a group called “Texas Trekkies” and sang Dead or Alive. Sherri, one of the girls who had seats in front of me for the entire convention,  and I then got up on stage and sang Sweet Caroline with Connor Trineer. Let me tell you, there is nothing so surreal as singing karaoke with a celebrity in front of a huge group of people. That’ll be a moment that always sticks with me, and I’m glad I was there for it.

 
Everyone had a good time at karaoke.

Sunday was the final day of the convention, and I couldn’t help but enter it with an air of disappointment. By the time Sunday came around, I’d already had the greatest vacation I could imagine. Thus, Sunday could only mean one thing: the end. Despite my disappointment at my vacation finally coming to an end, Sunday was still another wonderful day at the Con.

Sunday kicked off with the final TNG panel: Levar Burton who plays Geordi. Frankly, this panel was probably the disappointment of all of the panels. I really enjoy the character of Geordi, and I do like Levar. But it felt like he came out with a chip on his shoulder and an axe to grind, and he wasn’t terribly interested in talking about Star Trek. It’s nice to hear him talk about Reading Rainbow and Roots, but I came to hear about Star Trek. He certainly had some really deep thoughts regarding racism and slavery that gave me a little more perspective. But it was perhaps a little heavy and preachy for a panel. Levar did, however, make one of my favorite quips of the weekend. Apparently, Brent Spiner (Data) served as Levar’s best man at his wedding. Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, and Michael Dorn served as groomsmen. According to Levar:

“My wedding photo kicks the hell out of your wedding photo.”

–Levar Burton

Yes it does, Levar. Yes it does.

For the next panel, JG Hertzler and Robert O’Reilly came out onto stage dressed as their characters Martok and Gowron. Except, they really didn’t “come out on stage” instead, while the band played Born to Be Wild, they ran through the audience like rock stars, acting like crazy Klingons, and singing along. They are two great character actors, and it wouldn’t be difficult to believe actual Klingons were going through their motions.

 

The Klingon panel was extremely high energy. They spent a lot of time doing a variety of bits including dueling Shakespeare and their “cock fighting” joke. These two have a very physical brand of entertainment, and they ran across the stage and were extremely loud and boisterous. It was kind of a nice break from some of the more serious moments of a lot of the panels. I spent 90% of it laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants.

Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating had the next panel. After my experiences with these guys on the day before, I was more excited than ever to see their panel. They didn’t disappoint. While neither seems to have a huge connection to Star Trek (which, I suppose, isn’t surprising given the show they were on), they were engaging and funny. Dominic had a running gag throughout the majority of the panel where his answer to any question was that he would have “killed Trip [Connor’s character] sooner.” As if it hadn’t been obvious from the day before, these two are clearly very good friends, and they have an extremely good rapport. Enterprise has always been my least favorite of the Star Trek series, but I can honestly say that, after meeting Connor and Dominic, I’m really looking forward to getting there on the Prolific Trek.

I don’t really know what to say about the next panel. It was a huge score to get Walter Koenig (Chekov) to come to this convention, and I was genuinely excited to see him. If all goes according to plan, I will have met all of the living TOS actors by the end of the year. As we’ve lost so many recently, that’s an accomplishment I’ll be happy to finish. But, honestly, watching Koenig’s panel was the hardest part of the entire weekend.

 

Koenig is now 79 years old, and he’s really struggling to get around. It’s extremely jarring to watch someone I associate as a kid with a haircut straight out of The Monkees to have aged that much. By the end of the panel, Walter had perked up a little bit, and he was able to do a very minimal dance for the audience. I’m so glad Walter came to this convention, but it’s kind of tough to watch someone like that get older.

The entire convention finished with Shatner’s panel. I’ve written before about my experiences seeing Shatner’s one-man-show, and so, I wasn’t just terribly eager to get to see him again. However, Shatner is, if nothing else, quite an entertainer. At 85, he’s sharp as a tack and appears to be in relatively good shape physically. He’s an extremely engaging and fun guy to watch.

 
The Man. The Myth. The Shat.

Shatner also got very serious with the audience for part of his panel. I don’t specifically remember what the question was that had him talking about it, but he really started to discuss the importance of only doing things he wants to do. Basically, his advice was to not waste your life not being completely present and doing things that fulfill you. I got chills when he said, of sitting on stage at a convention, “I am exactly where I want to be right now.”

Shatner has a bit of a checkered past with Star Trek. I know for some time he resented being on the show, but he’s really started to embrace fans and his experiences as Captain Kirk. He’s never going to be my favorite captain, but there’s no Star Trek without Captain Kirk. And seeing him finally be at peace with that role was extremely moving.

I also think the death of Nimoy has impacted Shatner in ways we’ll never understand. He took some time to defend Leonard’s publishing the infamous I Am Not Spock book. According to Shatner, Nimoy never hated the role of Spock. Instead, he struggled with the fact that people only saw him as Spock when Leonard was an amazing artist, photographer, director, and person. And, you know what? I get that. If your life has been drilled down to the point where the entire universe only sees you as one microscopic aspect of your life, that has to be hard.

Finishing the day with Shatner was the way to go. The convention ended with the beginning of Star Trek, and it’s amazing to think this thing has been going on for 50 years. And we are still here today going to conventions and worshipping William Shatner and all of the characters that followed.

After Shatner had finished his panel, we had the opportunity to get autographs from Shatner and the Klingons as part of our ticket package. We then went upstairs to grab food from the hotel bar. As we were sitting there, JG Hertzler and Bob O’Reilly sat down at the table next to us. And then, as I tried desperately not to stare, I overheard part of their conversation. They were talking about Star Trek. Not just about the convention. They were having an honest to goodness conversation about TNG and DS9.

Stars: They’re just like us.

Anyways, I had intended to include a wrap-up and reflection on my weekend at the end of this blogpost, but I’ve far exceeded the number of words I like a blog post to be. So, I’ll be back in a few days with a much shorter post about my feelings on the weekend. I’ve also finished Season 2 of TNG. So I’m due to write a blog post about that, too. Guess it’s better to have too many posts than too few, right?

#LLAP

The One With The 50 Year Mission: Dallas, Part 1… (Thursday and Friday)

I may have just experienced the best weekend of my life. I don’t take that phrase lightly, and if this wasn’t the best weekend, it is certainly the most memorable.

I’ve been to a handful of Comicons, and I’ve blogged about my experiences of two of them. I’ve met Star Trek actors and blogged about those experiences, too. Until this weekend, I had never been to a Star Trek Convention. All other events I have been to pale in comparison to Creation Entertainment’s Star Trek Convention in Dallas (also called “The 50 Year Mission: Dallas”) from this weekend.

This blog is about my goal of watching all of Star Trek over the course of a year, but it’s also about my experiences in Star Trek fandom and addressing what Star Trek means to me. So I’m going to take some time to post a few blogs about my weekend. This is also a perfect way for me to document and preserve my experience so that I remember it later.

(The words “wonderful,” “surreal,” “amazing,” and “genuine” will likely be overused to the point that they lose all meaning by the time I’m done with this series of blog posts. I’d apologize for my limited vocabulary, but these words so perfectly sum up the weekend. My experience was wonderful, surreal, and amazing. And the people who spoke and I had the opportunity to meet were so genuine. There may be better words in the English language for my experience, but I’m at a loss for coming up with any. So, bear with me)

Arriving in Dallas around 5:30 or so to check into our hotel before the “pre-registration” for the Gold Weekend pass holders on Thursday night, my friends and I had a little uncertainty about the weekend. We’d gone to Trektacular together two years ago, and we all pretty much agreed that was the perfect weekend. We met the Star Trek actors we’d idolized, we learned a lot about Star Trek, and we were introduced to the geek culture of cons in a way that you don’t get until you’ve experienced it. When we’d gone to Comicon last year, we’d left disappointed. Without the unique joy that had been Trektacular, Comicon was kind of a letdown.

So, here we were in a city seven hours away, prepared to spend our entire weekend in a single hotel at a convention. What if it wasn’t as good as Trektacular? What were we supposed to do for entertainment? We all just promised ourselves that we would keep our expectations low and just enjoy the experience.

Then we got to the vendors room. The Vendors room at Planet Comicon is in a huge room at a convention center that probably holds upwards of one hundred booths. It’s crazy. There are so many things to buy. Without some self control, it wouldn’t be hard to spend an amount equivalent to a small car on memorabilia and other nerdy things. At this convention? It was a relatively small room with booths surrounding the outside. If I’m remembering correctly, there were 10 vendors. The actors who signed in the vendors room had tables in the middle. There were probably about 10 of them. That was it.

To say my heart sank at seeing the vendors room would be an understatement. I’d been looking forward to this Convention as an opportunity to collect some new Star Trek stuff. I wanted some T-shirts, maybe some bobble heads to add to my collection at my office, and I so desperately wanted canvas artwork of the Enterprise E to hang on my wall at work. From my first glance at the vendors room, I was so disappointed. One of the most fun parts of a Con is spending hours getting lost in the vendors room and trying to scope out all of your purchases and joking about the things you’d buy if you had thousands of dollars in disposable income. That certainly wasn’t going to happen at this convention.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed having the vendors room almost to ourselves the first night. I was able to score a pretty cool TNG command briefcase and two sets of bobble heads (see: below) and perhaps a few other goodies, but it was generally kind of a disappointment. I left the vendors room afraid of what the weekend would bring.

 
Data and Geordi as Sherlock and Watson.

All 5 Captains: Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, and Archer.

The night picked up a little bit when we decided to go to the hotel bar to wind down for a while and grab a little bit to eat before heading to bed. As I was sitting in the lobby, I look up and see a mildly familiar man walking out of the bar. It took me a few seconds, but I soon recognized him as Casey Biggs. Casey played Damar on DS9. He’s certainly not a character I ever paid too much attention to, but he had a pretty big recurring role throughout most of that series. It’s surreal to be sitting around minding your own business and have a Star Trek actor walk past you.

So, of course I took a picture.

 

Yeah, that’s Casey Biggs walking 10 feet from me. This was a harbinger of things to come, and I should have known the weekend was going to be amazing at this point. But I don’t think it had quite sunk in.

I got made fun of for being a paparazzi and taking this picture. My only response was that my friends should be glad that Terry Farrell hadn’t walked through the lobby. My reaction in that case would have been much more embarrassing than trying to subtly snap a picture. (I’m also told that my photo snapping skills aren’t really subtle, but I don’t really care :-)…)

Anyways, we headed on into the bar and there were Star Trek actors there, too. Vaughn Armstrong who played Admiral Forrest on Enterprise (and a dozen other characters), Max Grodenchik who played Rom on DS9, and Jeffrey Combs who played Shran from Enterprise and Brunt and Weyoun from DS9 were sitting at one of the high top tables right next to the only empty table in the place. So, for about 5 minutes, I sat at a table next to some pretty iconic characters from Star Trek. In the immortal words of Hugh Grant from Notting Hill, it was “Surreal but nice.”

They all left for a while, presumably to go rehearse for their performance the next evening, but maybe an hour later we spotted Vaughn and Jeffrey Combs sitting at the bar and having an animated conversation. I pretty much just sat and stared at them. These guys are real celebrities to me, and to be sitting in a bar with my friends while Star Trek actors are just feet away is totally surreal.

Looking back now, I find it actually quite amusing to look back on my reactions and fears on the first night. I’ve never had as much fun as I did at this convention, and I am convinced that Trekkies are the best fans out there. Every penny I spent to attend this convention was worth it, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. But maybe it was good that I was afraid of what I was going to experience on my first night, it allowed every single expectation I had to be exceeded in an unprecedented fashion.

The vendors room opened up early on Friday morning, the first “official” day of the Con, and I wanted to get there to grab a few T-shirts I had my eye on and to see if the vendors room had improved any.

After donning my costume… Janeway, complete with a cup of coffee for part of the morning, I headed down to the vendors room. The room was a little more full on Friday morning, the vendors had unpacked more of their things and there were certainly more people there. But Trekkies really are great people. I lost count of the number of smiles and laughs that I got from folks as I walked through the vendors room. The atmosphere was just so wonderful. The only real stars in the room were Nicole DeBoer (Ezri Dax from DS9), Connor Trineer (Trip from Enterprise), and Dominic Keating (Malcom Reed from Enterprise), but the atmosphere was still wonderful. And somehow I made the impulse purchase of getting a duo photo op with Connor and Dominic. This was a strange choice for me because I’m not much of an Enterprise fan. But after my interactions with those two this weekend, it’s certainly changed my perspective.

 

From top to bottom: A vendors table with great artwork; A table with the best swag and where I got my briefcase and bobble heads; Dominic Keating and James Darren just hanging out in the vendors room; more vendors room; Connor Trineer at his table; and a final look at the vendors room.

 

Picking up some nerdy T-shirts always improves my mood. Marian, from my writer’s group, described The Trouble With Tribbles as the most T-shirt worthy Star Trek episode. So I had to pick up such a shirt when I had the opportunity.

After my trip to the vendors room, I headed out to the main convention area (outside the theatre) where there was a concession stand for the convention-goers. They were selling Vulcan Ale! Of course I tried one.

 

They were selling “Vulcan Ale,” a red IPA that honestly wasn’t very good. But it was Star Trek beer! I had to try one!

As I was sitting down eating my lunch before the Convention officially started, I got a taste of just how awesome Trekkies can be. I sat down in the general vicinity of people I don’t know and started talking to them. After a while, someone approached me about sitting there. She and I struck up an easy conversation. She was from Canada and is a bit of a Convention pro, but we had so much in common. She’s also a crazy cat lady, and she absolutely loves Doctor Crusher. It was amazing how easy it was to strike up a conversation with a total stranger and have it result in a quick friendship. Trekkies are great like that.

The first panel of the day was Ethan Phillips (Neelix from Voyager). I love Voyager, but Neelix is probably my second-least favorite character from the series. I was excited there was a Voyager actor at the Con, but prior to attending the panel, I had really been wishing they had found someone else. Ethan was a pretty great panel, though. I don’t know that he said anythin particularly meaningful or insightful, but he is hilarious and performs wonderful stand up comedy. He had the entire crowd in stitches, and his surprisingly dirty joke about a penguin getting his car fixed was great. (No way I’m putting it here, but I’ll tell you if you ask)

 
Ethan Phillips

The next panel was the highlight of my weekend and the one I was looking forward to the least. Casey Biggs and Vaughn Armstrong both play side characters in their respective series. Prior to this weekend, I didn’t have strong feelings about their characters either way. I was pretty much of the opinion that the characters of Damar and Admiral Forest add to the world of Star Trek by placing interesting characters at all levels and by progressing the story, but that was pretty much it. I mean, this is a franchise that spans hundreds of episodes over many series, there are only so many characters you can get invested in. So, it’s always cool to see a Star Trek actor speak about their experiences on the show, but I was kind of blah heading into this panel.

Boy was I wrong. Casey and Vaughn are two of the most entertaining people on the planet. They are funny and genuine. After listening to their panel, I had to force myself to stay in my seat. All I wanted to do was run up to my hotel room and turn on every single episode that Damar is in. Casey gave such wonderful insight into his audition process and the process that he underwent in developing his character and the Cardassian race that I am unbelievably anxious to finally get to DS9 in The Prolific Trek. I have so much to watch for.

 
  
Casey Biggs; Vaughn Armstrong; the Enterprise Blues Band.

Casey and Vaughn finished their panel by playing some music from the Enterprise Blues Band. The EBB is essentially a blues band consisting of the two of them, and they sing songs that are pretty much just parodies of Star Trek. I still have the song Bat’leth Baby stuck in my head. These guys are wonderful performers and great musicians. Getting to listen to them sing and play their instruments was an absolute treat.

The next panel was a lovely tribute to Leonard Nimoy. Two men who knew Leonard discussed his life and provided a slideshow for us to watch and to give us more insight into this wonderful man. It was a great thing to get to see. Spock was clearly one of the most influential characters in all of Star Trek, and Leonard, the man behind that character, was so important and wonderful. It really saddens me that I’ll never get to meet him or watch him speak in person.

The next panel of the day was Terry Farrell and Nicole DeBoer. Terry and Nicole played two versions of the same character on DS9. Terry originated the role with Jadzia Dax, and Nicole finished season 7 as Ezri Dax. This is not the time or the place to get into Trill physiology or the stories behind that, but think like a Time Lord but not.

Jadzia Dax is one of my all time favorite characters. It’s been a while since I’ve watched DS9, so I’m not sure I can put into words exactly what it was about her character that captured me, but Jadzia is my favorite non-TNG character (i.e. I obviously love Captain Picard more). Ezri, who replaced Jadzia after Terry was let go for the final season, is unequivocally my least favorite character from DS9. Obviously, a lot of my opinions about Ezri are clouded by the fact that she’s a poor man’s Jadzia, but nonetheless, I don’t like her character at all.

I was still looking forward to this panel. Terry Farrel is one of the actors I was most looking forward to meeting and seeing for obvious reasons. She crafted a character I feel so fondly about that I wanted desperately to see the actress behind her character. I’ve been told I giggled like a fan girl and sat on the edge of my seat during the entire panel. I’d deny this, but it’s probably 100% true. Terry just fascinates me.

Their panel was great. Unfortunately, I didn’t take good enough notes to remember many specifics. Although, it was clear that Nicole has a great sense of humor, and she and Terry have a great respect for each other. It was fun to get to see the two of them play off of each other. I also appreciated their discussion of the aspects of Dax that they each enjoyed playing the most. Terry talked about loving the Klingon aspect of the Dax symbiont and how she loved all of the physical things she got to do, but Nicole mentioned that she always found it a little strange because she’s such a small woman to be pulling off these bad ass stunts. I’m going to have to watch for the difference between the two characters during my DS9 rewatch.

 

A few pics from Terry and Nicole’s panel. Terry is the tall one with the striped sweater, and Nicole is the one in the tanktop.

The only quote I have in my note from this panel is “Now I’m a freakin’ star.” I have no idea what this quote means, but it was obviously very funny. Shame on me for not taking better notes… I’m going to blame it on my distraction by actually getting to see Terry Farrell for the first time in my life.

The final panel of the day was Jeffrey Combs. Jeffrey, or Jeff as I like to call him now, is the answer to many Star Trek trivia questions: he’s one of only 4 actors to have played seven or more characters on Star Trek. So, obviously, he’s played a variety of characters and alien races over a variety of series. Jeff is a funny guy and an extremely talented actor. He has the skill of becoming a chameleon and slipping into a variety of roles such that it’s easy to forget he’s played someone else. His portrayal of Wyoun, a Vorta on DS9, is simultaneously hilarious and terrifying. Brunt, a Ferengi on DS9, is funny and a perfect foil to Quark. Shran, an Andorian on Enterprise, is simply delightful and makes me want to use the phrase “pink-skin” more often every time I watch him.

Jeff is never the star, but the man can steal a scene like no one else. I think it’s impossible not to be amused by the amazing characters he portrays. It was particularly enlightening to listen to him explain his experiences with playing each of the characters and how he chose to portray them. Jeff played the first Vorta to ever appear on Star Trek. So, he was essentially tasked with creating this race (interestingly enough, he didn’t know he would get to come back as Weyoun 2 after Weyoun 1’s death at the end of his inaugural appearance). Jeff described his portrayal of Weyoun as a supervisor from corporate who has come to inspect your office. He’s sickly sweet and tells you how wonderful of a job you’re doing, and then bam, two days later you’re fired. It was an amusing comparison, and thinking back on the Vorta, and Weyoun in particular, I can definitely see how that was his inspiration for the character.

One of the great things about these panels is how you can get so much more insight into characters and storylines simply by listening to the actors speak. Hearing Terry and Nicole discuss the differences in the character they share was enlightening. And Casey Biggs had an amazing grasp on exactly what Damar was. Jeff also had very clear ideas for the characters he played and their various differences. I know as I continue through my rewatch that these insights will change the way I watch the show.

The rest of my evening included getting a photo op with Terry Farrel, probably the thing I had been looking forward to the most at this convention; getting autographs from a handful of the guest stars which were included with my ticket packages; and the highlight of the evening, the “Rat Pack” performance.

 
Me with Terry Farrell. She’s so tall and so wonderful!

When I saw the Rat Pack performance on the Convention schedule, I wasn’t sure what to expect. A bunch of Star Trek actors in tuxedos unleashing their inner Dean Martins and Frank Sinatras? It seems like an idea that could go horribly wrong, but it most definitely did not. Max Grodenchik writes a wonderful and entertaining show with great music, riffing off of all sorts of Star Trek concepts, and Vaughn Armstrong, Casey Biggs, Jeffrey Combs, and Ethan Phillips were hilarious. The entire performance was completely worth watching, and it was the perfect way to wind down the first official day of the convention.

 
Jeff Combs on guitar with his backup singers at the Rat Pack performance.

So, I wasn’t really intending this blog to be a blow-by-blow of Thursday and Friday of the convention. I intended just to give my reflections and provide a few highlights, but everything this weekend was a highlight for me. I’m sure as I continue these posts to document the rest of the convention, I’ll get even more reflective. But I cannot say enough how much fun I had at this convention. Star Trek is a show so close to my heart, and I fully embrace the Rodenberry-ideal that our future will be so much better. I tend to think that the sort of people who are drawn to Star Trek and become Trekkies are almost universally good people. They embrace IDIC and want the world to be a better place. This weekend proved so much of that.

I’ll be back in a bit to document my Saturday and Sunday at the Convention. Highlights of those days included Jonathan Frakes liking my shirt, me doing karaoke with Connor Trineer in front of the entire convention, and finally getting to see Walter Koenig in person.

In the meantime, I am desperately trying to get back on track with The Prolific Trek. I watched Measure of a Man tonight, and you can bet I’ll eventually be doing a blog post on that masterpiece.

#LLAP

The One In Which I’ve Finished TNG Season 1 and it’s First Contact Day

Well, on a nondescript Monday night in April, I finished season 1 of TNG behind schedule. Though TNG has felt like my ultimate goal along this journey, Star Trek has taken a backseat the last several weeks. I’m still watching to be sure, and I’m not so far behind that I’m going to scrap this entire idea. But life has been very busy and very stressful lately. Coming home and watching two episodes of any show, even Star Trek, has simply not been a reality most nights.

So, I have found myself asking myself the same question I get whenever I tell anyone about this blog: “Why?”

Why am I doing this? Why am I forcing myself to watch, in order, every single Star Trek episode that has ever been released? Why, when I am a busy young professional who barely has time to eat some days, would I commit myself to such a gargantuan feat? Why would I voluntarily add one more stress to my life?

The answer is simple and has become even more abundantly clear as I’ve slogged through season 1 of TNG. I’m doing this because it’s Star Trek.

I’ve waxed philosophical about this before, but there’s something about the optimism of this show that I just love. Particularly when I’m watching the TNG crew, I feel a little bit at home. I mean, is there a Trekkie out there that doesn’t secretly believe that Star Trek is just a documentary from earth’s future?

Heck, it’s kind of fitting I didn’t get around to finishing this post for a day after finishing this TNG Season 1 post until today: April 5.

You see, today is First Contact Day. In just 47 short years, Zefram Cochrane will pilot the first warp drive ship, the Phoenix, into space, and the Vulcans, seeing that humanity has reached warp-drive potential, will make First Contact with earth. After that, it’s just a hop skip and a jump until the Enterprise is going where no one has gone before and Voyager is getting stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Seriously, I’m not sure how anyone can hold their excitement in on First Contact day?

What’s that?

It’s just a TV show? Of course it is, but I’m happy to be a little delusional if it means that Star Trek might be real one day.

Just remember:

Don’t try to be a great man. Just be a man and let history make its own judgment.

–Zefram Cochrane, Star Trek: First Contact

Anyways, what have I thought about Season 1 of TNG? As far as episodes go, it’s a bit of high and low and a lot of in between.

The Good:

• Encounter at Farpoint
• Hide and Q
• Haven
• The Big Goodbye
• DataLore

The Bad:

• Code of Honor
• Justice
• Angel One

The Characters:

Writing about my opinions of TNG characters based solely on my Season 1 impressions is difficult. I’ve spent so much time watching these characters far beyond their Season 1 structures that it is hard to separate what they are in Season 1 with what they will become over the next six seasons and four movies. And, truthfully, I don’t know that there would be much to like of my favorite characters if I could only judge them by Season 1.

Season 1 Picard, my favorite character in all of Star Trek, is cold and distant. Picard always keeps a professional barrier between himself and most of the crew, but Season 1 Picard does this to an extent where you barely see his humanity. There are, however, a few moments throughout the season where the real Picard seems to sneak through. His relationship with Dr. Crusher, which is nearly totally ignored through the remaining six seasons, shines through strongly in many episodes, and I’m forced to lament that this is one of the few characterizations that Season 1 really nails and the future seasons totally fail at.

Will Riker and Deanna Troi are shells of the characters they will ultimately grow into. Riker is pretty much just a caricature of Kirk, and Troi is, well, she’s hot and that’s pretty much all the writers ever seemed to realize with her. Tori’s characterization issues hint at deeper issues in the Star Trek writer’s room, so I won’t delve too deeply into them here.

Data is, obviously, one of the stand out characters of Season 1. This makes sense because Data is ultimately one of the standout characters of TNG. He’s stepped into the role of the emotionless science officer struggling with humanity. Unlike our favorite half-Vulcan, though, Data’s struggles are because he desires to be like humanity. In every series, there is a character who struggles with emotions and humanity and who grows throughout the years into one of the deepest characters on the show. For TOS, that character was Spock, and we’ll get to Odo, The Doctor, Seven, and T’Pol as the show goes on. But it’s always been Data who has stood out to me the most. Though there are many similarities in their story arcs, none of these characters really seem like carbon copies of the others. If there is one thing Star Trek writers have consistently been good at, it’s developing and understanding the humanity of a character. Data does have one quality that he alone has: he wants to be human. Each of these other characters seem to have some reluctance or derision towards the humanity that threatens to escape, but Data? Data is genuine and eager. His desire to be human is almost childlike.

And, hey, we finally have our first character that I actively dislike. Oh, lord, I’m not sure there are enough words in the English language to adequately describe my hatred for Wesley Crusher. He’s a wunderkind, and he’s the worst kind of Mary Sue esque character. He’ll go away eventually but not soon enough. Frankly, I can’t blame Dr. Crusher for bolting at the end of season 1: I wouldn’t want to have to live with that sweater-wearing weirdo, either.

The Overview:

According to The Progress, Season 1 of TNG is a 5.04. When compared with the rest of TNG, which showcases some of the most phenomenal episodes to ever have been on television, I suppose this rating doesn’t surprise me. But it did surprise me that it came in behind the average for every single season of TOS. Perhaps I’m just a harsher critic of a show I know can consistently do better. I think this is probably true because when I found myself wanting to rate certain episodes a 7 or an 8, I would stop myself and say “well if this is a 7 then what the heck is Measure of a Man?” Frankly, on a sliding scale, if any season 1 episode is a 7, then Measure of a Man quality episodes might as well be a 50. That doesn’t really work on a scale of 10. So I had to keep the ratings a little lower in order to avoid giving solely 9s and 10s to most episodes to come.

Ultimately, though, I’m just so glad to finally be at TNG. I love this show, this ship, and this crew, and I’m so glad I’m blogging my way through this journey. I should sign off now, though, Dr. Pulaski is just begging to do something that will annoy the crap out of me.

#LLAP