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