In our original viewing, we thought that Q might BE Trelane all growed up. It would explain his fascination with the Enterprise.
We liked the new touches. Worf, as someone noted, showed that Things Have Changed. The promise of Errand of Mercy had been fulfilled.
But, I hated McCoy’s cameo. To me, that seemed more of a pathetic ‘passing the torch’. And unnecessary. We were here watching it - we didn’t need handholding. We were ready for the Future.
And then we got The Naked Now. Reruns! At least it got better quickly.
I knew one little girl who hated Geordi because (she said) Levar Burton wouldn’t be able to do Reading Rainbow anymore (I don’t know if she was right or not).
Sulu wasn’t, although he appeared in the Voyager episode “Flashback” and Grace Lee Whitney appeared as Janice Rand. Majel Barrett was in TOS as Nurse Christine Chapel, then took a different part on TNG as Deanna’s mother, Lwaxana Troi.
My favorite memory was the first time I watched it with my older brother, who was a fan of TOS but a bit un-enamored with Trek at that point, and he asked, ***“Why’s that black guy got a Fram air filter on his head?!” ***
I was eleven years old in 1987 and as I lacked sophistication of any kind I had a pretty uncritical eye. I watched the reruns of TOS whenever possible, read the novels, and I was just excited to see that a new Star Trek series was on the air.
As an adult I’ve come to really dislike the first few seasons of the series for being smug. TOS managed to show us a future where humanity was better but they weren’t so goddamned smug about it. In many ways I think TNG has aged worse than TOS.
You know, don’t you, that he was based on a real person? Some Trek fan named George LaForge, who was confined to a wheelchair but was nevertheless made an honorary officer in Starfleet (an admiral, I think).
Which, just like in Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, shows you can never be too physically challenged to be denied active military service in the Trek Universe!*
*And, judging from Reg Barclay, too psychologically challenged either.
McCoy’s cameo was the only tasteful passing of the torch we saw in Trek history. I include the lame Generations movie, the episode with Scotty, and the last episode of Enterprise.
And of course the entire TOS cast, and assorted guest stars appeared in DS9’s “Trials and Tribbleations”. (Which, by the way, some fanboy has combined with “Trouble with Tribbles” to make a definitive “episode”. It’s on you-tube, or at least it was, but I’m too lazy to look up the link.)
I wasn’t around when it first aired, and didn’t see it until after I’d already seen some later episodes. I think it was still my introduction to Q, though, who I liked. (I hadn’t yet seen Trelane, either. I love the idea that he is a young Q-being.) So the thoughts I remember are as follows:
Wow, Picard sure used to be a dick. He hated kids and made Riker fly in manually. Man, Riker looks like a kid without a beard… Oh, so that’s why there was occasionally this blonde headed lady on the bridge. I wonder what happened to her. It was obvious she wasn’t going to die when she was frozen–they wouldn’t do that. Ooh, I love Data’s introduction so much! That space-fence is a pretty neat effect. Wait, is Troi actually being useful? Why is that man being tortured? Oh, I see. What a clever ending. Maybe I should actually try to keep up with the show and see it in order.
