Midsummer Marathon: Star Trek Next Generation, Season One

STAR TREK: NEXT GENERATION ~ Season One cast

[L-R] Will Wheaton, Denise Crosby, LeVar Burton, Jonathan Frakes,
Patrick Stewart, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis and
Brent Spiner

Returned to Star Trek Next Generation after years away.  I was a child of the original series...no, literally: a child!  In September of 1966, the series debuted and I entered kindergarten!  My first exposure was as a middle schooler when I watched it in syndication on WKBD Detroit.  It was in the beginning of the creation of Star Trek Fandom as an enduring force.  In high school, I ran with a small clique of Trekkies as one of my multiple identities.  This included the publication of my own fanzine with the support of two friends.  It was called Sehlat's Roar (influenced by the expansion of he Star Trek franchise through its cartoon series).  When I was 15, my friends and I took the train to attend a Star Trek Convention in Kalamazoo!

John de Lancie as "Q" from series premier

By the time the Star Trek universe returned to syndication, twenty years had passed from the original and several feature movies had been created to various degrees of success and accolades.  I remember how much this relaunch was anticipated.  Gene Roddenberry (the creator) was behind it and added to the gravitas of the event.

Denise Crosby as Lt. Tasha Yar

So what did we get...ah, hindsight.  We got was we needed.  What we got was a fix that satisfied a decade old longing and I, for one, lapped it up!  It wasn't until the season two of the series hit the airwaves that this introspection was possible.  The transformation between seasons 1 & 2 is one of the most stark transitions in serial TV storytelling.  The key?  The Creator.

Frank Corsentino as DaiMon Bok

Season One is livid with the loving oversight of Gene Roddenberry.  It reflects the original series in so many subtle and obvious ways.  The swagger of the characters.  The assumptions of the storylines.  The reliance on goofy close-ups of key characters to punctuate cheesy moments.  The insipid, obtuse moralizating on human superiority.  In retrospect, the reboot was a rebirth of one man's vision.  It was a maiden voyage that gave everybody involved a tremendous gift--a year to earn a "PhD" in Star Trek.  More than just the actor's coalescing as a crew (even shaking out a little with the departures of Denise Crosby and Gates McFadden)--it was an invaluable opportunity to build a unified cadre of behind the scene support: Directors, Designers, Special Effects Artists, Costume and Make-up Designers.  They all saw and understood what Roddenberry's vision was, but they also realized that it was no longer the end of the 1960's.  And then the thing that saved the show, allowed it to transition from what it was to what it could be, came from a curious place.  Gene Roddenberry became too ill to continue to be an active participant.  It was his departure that gave his child its agency...its true rebirth.

Brent Spiner as both Lt Cmdr Data and his evil brother, Lore

Even knowing all that the first season was tied to, it's painful to watch at times.  Some of the stories...some of the lines!  OMG, Gag worthy to the max.  And yet, there is much to also praise.

• Some of the episodes are not half bad.  My top 5: "The Battle," "The Big Goodbye," "11001001," "Heart of Glory," and "The Neutral Zone."
• The new Enterprise design--both interior and exterior, and the many alien spaceships, too.  Beneficiaries of the motion pictures no doubt.
• The introduction of several new themes:



Playing on the Holodeck in 1940's San Francisco

• The Q - Created as an afterthought when Roddenberry lost a battle with the studio over the length of the new series' premiere.  Written in more of the classic series style of a one hour moralizing story, the studio execs saw the potential of the series reboot to grab audience share and decided on a two-hour feature length first episode.  Roddenberry said, "No."  The studio convinced him otherwise.  Roddenberry then concocted the character of "Q" and wove into the original script the second story line.  Really it's a rewrite without a seem and kudos to Roddenberry.
• The Ferengi - A new species with a favorite Roddenberry stamp, their name.  Like Vulcans and Romulans before them, Ferengi is a variation on the Arabic "faranj" from the Persian "Farangi".  Faranj refers to foreigners, European traders; the Persian root was used to reference the Franks (European traders from the Middle Ages).  
• The Holodeck - No need to find anomalous throwback planets to satiate the crew's obsession with the Terran cultures of the later centuries of the second millennium.  But don't worry, they're still out there, and there's always time travel, too.
• Lwaxana Troi, Daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed.  A larger than life return of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry to the series.
• Lore - Data's evil brother and only worthy foil. 
• The Child-centered episode - to punctuate the presence of children on the new Enterprise.  It became a seasonal habit.

The degree to which any of these were seen as integral new aspects of the Star Trek Universe is not something I know anything about; however, they've all become just that and more with time and inclusion in future iterations of the franchise. 

John Putch as Cadet aspirant Mordock

One more set of personal accolades: The top 5 guest actors.  (Characters appearing more than twice within the scope of the franchise over multiple seasons are not up for consideration)

Eric Menyuk (The Traveller) from "Where No One Has Gone Before"
Frank Corsentino (DaiMon Bok) from "The Battle"
John Putch (Mordock) from "Coming of Age"
Nan Martin (Victoria Miller) from "Haven"
Vaughn Armstrong (Commander Korris) from "Heart of Glory"