I really don’t get what all the fuss about “Code” is.
Immediately prior to it, there was an episode with shiny, happy Aryans in frilly white frocks who lived in a perfect society (where the tiniest infraction was automatically punished by death). Nobody I can recall ever raised an eyebrow at that.
Populate a planet with virile black men and voluptuous black women dressed in faux African and Middle Eastern garb, and every SJW crawls out of the woodwork and cries “RACIST!!!”
Why? Because the Grand Poobah had the hots for a tall white woman?* :dubious:
Candidate for the dumbest line ever: *"Troi! You’re my friend, and you **tricked *me!"
I was very young when TNG premiered, so this show was the Science Fiction that was being watched in the house as I developed sentience - my dad has been and shall always be a Trekkie.
The first episode of TNG I clearly remember watching live was Part 1 of “The Best of Both Worlds.” Specifically, I remember the end of the episode. Riker gives the command to fire, and this conversation ensues.
Me: What does ‘to be continued’ mean?
Dad: It’s a two-part episode. We’ll find out what happens next time.
Me: Oh. Okay. When will that be?
Dad: After the summer is over.
Me: …
I learned about the fundamental unfairness of the universe pretty early on.
He was like Loki in Norse mythology. I always thought they should have treated him with more respect.
Sorry, but this was one of the dumbest ideas ever, for reasons that have been thoroughly expounded in other threads. Almost as dumb as having nonessential personnel (children and adult civilians) on board.
If the ***Phase II *** series had gotten on the air back in the '70s, they would have had a full-blooded Vulcan, Xan (“A young Michael York with ears”), as Science Officer. Trying to understand emotions and be more like humans would have been his shtick too.
It was much better when Klingons were treacherous pond scum and Romulans were the Federation’s noble-but-poorly-understood adversaries, instead of the other way around.
Well, no. I won’t tell you you are wrong. Because that’s exactly it. They used racist black stereotypes of them being primitive tribesmen who go after the white women. The mostly white Federation had to be civilized against the black tribespeople. Not even TOS tried that bullshit.*
Having an entire race be white may arguably be racist, but it’s also just the norm for TV at the time. Many shows were also all white, even into the 90s. (Seinfeld, Home Improvement, and Friends come to mind.) And, what’s more, there was no negative stereotype about white people in the episode.
And with the main characters all mostly white, it’s pretty much impossible to see the idiocy of the Edo or their justice system as being negative about white people.
I have a bigger problem with their blatant violation of the Prime Directive. They just found these guys on a planet and beamed down. And then they have the audacity to invoke the Prime Directive for the actual conflict of the episode?
Also, the ending sucked, and the attack on religion isn’t unnoticed. Though, oddly, they have a utopian dictatorship, which only had a problem due to outsiders coming in. Very off message for Star Trek.
I will quibble about one thing: “Code of Honor” was the third episode aired. The only episodes aired before it were the “pilot” episode, “Encounter at Farpoint” and the First Actual Episode, “The Naked Tim…” er, that is, “The Naked Now”. “Justice” aired a month after “Code”.
Yes, the acting gets better (amazingly, even Troi reaches a point you can stand her “acting”). It helps that the scripts get better, not just in the sense of plots, but in the sense of the writing. Later seasons have some of the most memorable TV show lines ever (“Sir, I protest! I am not a merry man!” )
As for skipping the first season, I wouldn’t do that. Not only are there several episodes that have events which inform later events in the series, you do get a sense of the interaction of the characters in that season, and watching the season helps invest you into the show, and its characters. The fifth season episode, “The Inner Light” is poignant only if you have already invested enough of your emotional self into the character of Jean-Luc Picard.
Besides, Riker’s beard is only really satisfying if you’ve spent time watching him without one.
I had much the same experience, though I didn’t get to watch most of TOS on first run (I was about three years behind you, with a firm 8pm bedtime :mad: ). I do think that some of my reaction to TNG’s episodes by comparison came from watching them in my late 20s, rather than my pre-teens. Similarly, my feelings about later incarnations of ST were affected by my much more cynical viewpoint about TV shows as I reached my 40s (Enterprise, I’m looking at you!).
It’s too bad you didn’t stick with it. Fourth and especially Fifth Season scripts were much, MUCH better. “The Inner Light” is easily the equivalent of “City On the Edge of Forever” for quality of script, and “I, Borg”, combined with “Descent” and “Descent, Pt. II” should be watched by anyone who wishes to explore the interaction of moral imperatives with survival instinct. And I would be much the poorer person if I had never met Ensign Ro, and watched her struggles with loyalty and duty.
I was a fan and remember the first aired episode. I thought the special effects and music were fantastic, but the trial for humanity was a little uneven.
The show was rocky for the first season, but found its groove at the very end of season one and stayed strong for several more seasons.
Okay, I stand corrected. The point is, the two episodes were aired in close proximity to each other. And some people were outraged they had a planet populated exclusively by blacks, but no one I recall ever took offense at a planet populated exclusively by blonde, blue-eyed, pearly whiter-than-whites. You know, the kind of world the Nazis wanted to have.
Both stories were dumb, but I don’t see how one was more offensive than the other.
Wouldn’t you? I mean, it wasn’t as though they presented him with a wide variety of options. (Personally, I would have gone with Troi or Beverly.) :dubious:
The Big Goodbye is not bad.
11001001 is a great episode.
Too Short A Season is good
Home Soil isn’t bad
Coming of Age sets up Westly’s character (for better or worse )
Heart of Glory is a good Worf/Klingon episode, (but not as good as A Matter of Honor)
The Arsenal of Freedom is really good
Skin of Evil is necessary to understanding Tasha, and Yesterday’s Enterprise (and Selar…ugh)
We’ll Always Have Paris is an awesome episode
Conspiracy is good, and connects to Coming of Age
The neutral Zone sets the groundwork for the Borg, and reintroduces the Romulans
I’m three years older than Stewart was at the time TNG premiered. :eek:
The beginning was rocky as hell, of course, but even in that first season there are some little moments where you can see the promise of what was to come. One thing that people often forget was the early perception that TNG could do nothing but ape things the original had already done. It didn’t help that after the first episode introduced Q (who was and always will be an obvious rip-off of the “The Squire of Gothos”), the second episode gave us a complete remake of “The Naked Time.” For awhile there, it was impossible not to compare the shows, and find TNG lacking.
I was in college at the time, and was part of a group of Trek fans who regularly gathered to watch TOS whenever it was on. We were really ambivalent about this new upstart show. The special effects were obviously better, and the supporting cast a bit more fleshed out, but my friends and I looked at everything else pretty skeptically. But then, slowly but surely, it wormed its way into our hearts and began to overshadow the original.
I can still remember the jolt I felt the first time I heard someone say “Star Trek,” with no further qualification, and realized that they were talking about TNG. The original series was no longer the default meaning of the words “Star Trek.” I was surprised at how sad that made me feel.
William Shatner, of all people, produced and hosted a documentary about the first three years of TNG, called Chaos on the Bridge, which I would highly recommend. It’s available on Netflix (or at least it was–I haven’t checked recently to see if it’s still there). There were a lot of power struggles going on behind the scenes, particularly as Roddenberry’s health degraded and various writers jockeyed to fill the void. I found it very illuminating.
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