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 |
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 |
Frank Corsentino as DaiMon Bok |
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:
- 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.
Playing on the Holodeck in 1940's San Francisco |
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 |
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"
No comments:
Post a Comment