TNG - "Haven"

Deanna's mother comes on board, informing her that it is time for Deanna to be married to Wyatt, a young man she's been betrothed to. As it turns out, Wyatt is a pretty nice guy, and a brilliant doctor. When the Enterprise comes across a plague ship carrying a woman who Wyatt recognizes as someone he's had romantic psychic visions of for his entire life, he beams over to the plague ship in the hopes that he can save them and be with the woman he now loves. Deanna's mom goes "oh, well" and leaves.

Lwaxana Troi, played by Majel Barrett, AKA Captain Pike's "Number One," AKA Mrs. Gene Roddenberry, is one of the most fun and eccentric characters in the entire history of TNG. She adds a much-needed element of looseness and personality, breaking up the stodgy stiffness of the Enterprise crew.

The actual plot of this episode is pretty decent, if a little silly. At the very least, it's nice that Wyatt isn't the stereotypical "douchebag betrothed to female protagonist" character.

There's actually not a lot to say about this one. It's okay.

TNG - "Hide and Q"

Q returns, offering to give Riker the powers of the Q. After Riker realizes that the powers only make him more arrogant and stupid, Riker rejects them, and Q is forced to leave humanity alone forever.

It's nice to have Q back. He's certainly one of the best Trek villains(?) of all time, and he's portrayed just as well here as he was before. But there's too many other problems with the episode for it to be all that great in the end.

For one thing, the overall production value here is just too low. The mysterious planet Q transports the bridge crew to is the old generic, cheap "random planet" set that's more distracting than anything else. Why didn't they just film out in the desert or something?

Riker gets a little creepy-arrogant when he starts using his Q powers. Why? Do the Q powers literally corrupt, or was it just a case of human psychology taken to a horrible extreme? It's never really explained.

Despite a good effort from the cast and an intriguing plot, this is not a very well-made episode.

TNG - "The Battle"

Picard is given back his old ship, the Stargazer, which he had lost in battle years ago. Unbeknownst to Picard, however, a Ferengi captain is using mind-control technology to influence Picard's mind, making him mentally relive the old battle and pilot the Stargazer against the Enterprise.

Getting more information about Picard's backstory is nice. It's particularly cool to see a new (old?) class of starship. And it's also great to see some reference to battle strategy in TNG, something that's been pretty absent thus far.

Wesley is still treated badly, both by the writers and by the rest of the Enterprise crew. The bridge crew's tendency to completely ignore everything Wesley says simply because he's a child—forgetting the fact that he's both an acting Ensign and an apparent prodigy—is stereotypical TV writing at its worst, as is the fact that Wesley—being the prodigy he is—is able to discern and solve the problem simply by glancing at it. It all just feels forced.

Having the Ferengi crew turn against their captain once they realize what he's doing was a nice touch. It helps to humanize the Ferengi, who were previously little more than evil little gerbils.

It's a decent episode. Not super-well-handled, but decent.

TNG - "Justice"

The Enterprise crew beams down to a planet of mostly-naked supermodels who run and bounce around all day. They also execute people for stepping on the wrong kinds of plants. Weird.

So in this episode, we get what I assume is Gene Roddenberry's ideal version of society. That is to say, a society made of people as bizarrely sex-focused as he is. It's really weird, and kinda uncomfortable.

If there's any real depth to be found here, it's in the way that this story examines the Prime Directive. Picard essentially chooses to ignore it, stating that the Directive wasn't created for situations like this. Considering how absolutely the Prime Directive is applied, both in the past and future of Star Trek, I wonder if this was a misstep with the writing or if this was meant to be a special case. After all, merely taking Wesley away from the planet is likely not something that will "interfere with the development" of the Edo. Hell, the Edo are the ones who first suggest just beaming Wesley away. In any case, I really did appreciate Picard standing up to the Prime Directive, choosing common sense and moral good over blind legalism.

There's also a subplot about the Edo and their "god"—who they actually refer to as "God." If it's actually meant as any kind of societal commentary, it didn't work. I'm not sure why, but something about the way it was handled makes me feel a bit insulted, like someone angrily trying to force an opinion on you when you don't even know what that opinion is or what they're trying to say.

All in all, this is just a weird episode. It's got a few bright spots, but mostly just bizarre ones.

TNG - "Lonely Among Us"

This is certainly a weird one. Captain Picard gets possessed by/merged with a non-corporeal life form, beamed into space as pure energy, then floats his way back and crawls into the Enterprise computer, only to be re-materialized and remember nothing. Well that's certainly ridiculous.

What's more bothersome about this episode is that it starts out focusing on a conflict between two alien races, but that conflict is never shown to be resolved. The conflict even turns lethal at the end, but, in light of the apparently-greater threat posed by the non-corporeal being, is treated like a joke.

Here's the thing: stories in TNG follow the "A Plot / B Plot" system. You have the more important A plot which the main story focuses on, and the B plot which is usually rather insignificant. The B plot is often character-focused and/or humorous (such as Data learning some new human trait in a slightly comical fashion). The problem with the way "Lonely Among Us" handles the A and B plots is that it switches them without telling us. We're led to believe at the beginning that the conflict between the Antica and the Selay is the A plot, and the unusual electrical phenomena are the B plot. Because the electrical phenomena are the real physical threat to the crew, however, one would logically assume that it can only be so important if it is in fact somehow related to the main story of the episode, which we have been led to believe is the alien plot. It's not as if you need to be trained in the intricate art of story analysis to realize this; it's something you pick up subconsciously. We're told initially that the Selay/Antica plot is very important, but later that plot is dumped, and we're left with a feeling of unresolved tension. As with much of early TNG, even the most casual of TV viewers could tell that the writers and directors had no bloody idea what they were doing.

As for the actual sci-fi plot, it's just stupid. We've seen the "strange phenomena is actually a life form that just wants to get home" story over and over again in Star Trek. The way it's handled here is just stupid. The idea that Picard can retain sentience in energy form, possess locomotive ability, and be able to travel through the Enterprise computer at will is simply ludicrous. Despite the fact that both Trek fans and haters poke fun at the "technobabble" the show uses to solve complex problems, it does in fact have a kind of internal logic that works. However, this episode ignores that logic.

We do get Data as Sherlock Holmes, which is cool. But that can't save this one.

TNG - "Where No One Has Gone Before"

Here's where TNG starts picking up steam. We've got a decent sci-fi plot, nice world- and character-building, nobody's acting stupidly out-of-character, and everything just works.

Here we've got Kosinski, apparently Starfleet's most arrogant and most useless scientist of all time, who is convinced that his mathematical tuning equations—which don't actually do anything—are somehow enabling ridiculous levels of warp speed. In reality, it's his weird-looking assistant, who we later discover is called only "the Traveler," that is enabling this warp velocity, using the power of his mind to increase the ship's speed.

There's some wonky science here, as we discover that apparently the concepts of space, time, and thought are all more closely linked than modern scientists realize. This is simultaneously a questionable and fascinating idea. In one sense, it's ridiculous, since thought is essentially just electric impulses in the brain and nothing more. However, if, as this story suggests, there is more to thought, then perhaps there's some kind of greater level of reality (what's commonly thought of as the spiritual realm?) that has not yet been charted by science.

What's more interesting about all this is that the Traveler claims that Wesley is to science what Mozart is to music, a prodigy with unimaginable intuitive ability. The fact that he only tells Picard this creates a very interesting dynamic. Now Picard is tasked with encouraging Wesley's growth, for reasons only he and the Traveler knows.

One of the greatest things about this episode is that, unlike previous episodes, this really feels like what Star Trek should be. It's an epic science fiction story involving humanity having to face the greater unknowns of the universe. It's not a perfect episode, and it's not exactly jaw-dropping, but it's the first real good episode we've gotten so far.

TNG - "The Last Outpost"

Here we first meet the Ferengi. It's been said many times that the Ferengi were meant to be the new great threat of the TNG era, but they're really just odd here. They're kind of a threat, but they're also somewhat comedic, like stupid 80s cartoon villains.

If there's one redeeming quality to the Ferengi's stupidity, it's that the show is very aware of it. The fight scene with the Ferengi is so hilariously awkward that it's enjoyable. Even the actors (and the characters) seem to be having fun with it. Still, though, it's not that great.

Every character seems, well, out of character. When the Enterprise is fired upon and then disabled, the crew's reaction is way too calm. They simply sit there and calmly talk about the situation. Heck, talking is all they do for a good 80% of the episode. We're told a lot about what's going on, but shown very little.

The acting is just odd, and some of the characters don't even seem to be acting normal in the slightest. Geordi gives the weirdest and most unnerving "WOO-EEE!" I've ever heard. Oh well. At least Riker is a badass.

The climax of the story, in which the big sci-fi plot is finally revealed, comes off like a preachy message about societal evils. Heck, it is a preachy message about societal evils. The Ferengi are said to quite literally represent the greatest evils of capitalism, while the Federation has "moved beyond" such greed and closed-mindedness. But the problem here is that, as with many episodes this season, the message comes at the expense of story logic, realism, character depth, and every other good quality you'd want from the show.

TNG - "Code of Honor"

I swear, it's like the TNG writers were TRYING to get this show cancelled. Everything here, from the seeming racism to the very forced feminism message to the horribly-fake-looking fight scenes is just terrible. Seriously, had anyone on the crew ever seen anyone fight before? It was the 80s! The peak of ultra-violent action films! Surely they could have done better than this?

Everyone on the planet-of-the-week—which is established as being highly corrupt and sexist—is played by an African. While it might not be literally racist, it's definitely disturbing.

This episode is just one of many examples of the writers trying to push Tasha as a strong feminist character, but it flops. Everything about Tasha—her unusually short haircut; her no-nonsense attitude; her ability to physically beat down any opponent at every opportunity—makes her seem like the creative minds behind TNG are trying too hard. It's not that Tasha herself is a problem; it's the kind of things she's given to do in stories thus far. Denise Crosby actually does a great job, for the most part, with what she's given in the show. But when all you've got to do is get into horribly-choreographed fight scenes or get drunk and bang an android, that's not much. Tasha, at this point, only exists at two extremes: hyper-feminist-brawler Tasha and creepy let's-bang-Data Tasha.

This episode was likely intended to be a "let's combat sexism" episode. What it turned out to be was a racist story that shoved awkward feminism down the audience's throat.

TNG - "The Naked Now"

This is just embarrassing.
It's a rehash of "The Naked Time" from TOS, and it's a terribly stupid episode. This is the first episode after the Enterprise-D crew's introduction, and it couldn't be a worse time to show the characters acting like drunken idiots.

We actually do learn a lot about the characters here. We learn that Geordi truly wants normal human vision, we see Tasha acting feminine (in an extremely creepy way), and we see a very clear attraction between Picard and Beverly. The problem is that it all comes across in a very off-putting way.

Tasha's character moments, in particular, are very odd. A quirk of this episode (and much of early TNG) is the awkward way in which it approaches sexuality. It's as if the show is being written and acted by an entire crew of twelve-year-olds who know nothing about romance or sex beyond... well, watching Star Trek. It's just uncomfortable, and not in the least bit genuine. At the same time, this episode gets closer to truly dealing with sex than any prior Trek story. Tasha straight-up bangs Data (Data? Really? Why not go for Riker, or hell, even Worf?), and we very nearly get a penis joke. But still, it all comes off stiff and weird.

Wesley's subplot actually comes to a somewhat clever conclusion, which is nice. It's one of the few bright spots in this episode.

Overall, though, this definitely goes down in the books as one of the worst episodes of Star Trek, period.

TNG - "Encounter at Farpoint"

This feels very much like an "advanced" version of The Original Series, both in good ways and in bad. It's got all the awkwardly stiff acting and bizarre plotting that viewers came to know in the 60s, and little of it has changed.

Some of these brand-new characters are excellent right off the bat. Captain Picard is a bit insensitive, but, overall, brilliant. Data is perfect. Q is captivating. Other characters just feel wrong. Deanna Troi is nothing but a blue swirl of emotion and Tasha Yar is randomly (and awkwardly) intense for no reason. Most of the rest of the cast just have nothing else to do. Riker is a great viewpoint character for the audience, and it's said of him that he's an amazing Starfleet officer, but he has almost nothing to do. Wesley, at this point, seems to exist for no reason. Beverly is just there to deliver medical exposition. Both Geordi and Worf apparently exist only to be the requisite "generic young bridge officers," in the same manner as Chekov.

Despite having a full two-part episode, it seems that there just isn't enough screentime for the entire cast. It makes one wonder if nine members of the crew was just too much for the show to handle. Some members, notably Tasha and Worf, seem to be stepping on each others' toes a bit.

The actual plot of the episode—the mystery of Farpoint station—is decent, if a bit boring for a series pilot. However, it's wrapped in the Q plot, which raises the stakes to a mildly interesting level.

For all this episode's story flaws, there is one major positive. Unlike The Original Series, we actually get an "origin story" for this crew. Creating a "starting point" for these characters is essential to seeing their growth over the show's seven years. Without this episode, the rest of the series would have meant much, much less.

The moral here, it seems, is the fight for pacifism. While being a little obnoxious in its preachiness, it perfectly encapsulates the basic humanitarian message of The Next Generation.

This isn't one of the best TNG episodes—it's actually one of the worst—but it's got the spark of something special.

Star Trek

This is not the Star Trek you know. At all.

Star Trek is an insanely fast and fun re-imagining of the Star Trek franchise, and it generally works. Those who pine for a deep, thought-provoking film in the vein of The Wrath of Khan or First Contact may be disappointed, as this film makes momentum its primary concern. If the Star Trek: The Motion Picture was focused on slow plot development with minimal action, then Star Trek is its polar opposite. While there is plenty of character definition and development, this film does it in a very quickly-cut style, giving us hundreds of great character "snippets" rather than a few dozen longer sequences. Sadly, the film is perhaps too focused on the momentum, often interweaving too many subplots into the narrative in order to keep the pace going strong. It's a trade-off, and while I'm not sure it was for the best, it certainly keeps the film interesting, which is, at the very least, fun.

"Fun" may be the key word in this new film, which seemingly ditches the science fiction "thinker" feel of the old Star Trek for a much more exciting narrative. Humor similar to that seen in Star Trek IV abounds in this film, which may annoy some and thrill others.

The new Trek crew is much more evenly-balanced than the old. While the Original Series shoved characters like Uhura, Chekov, Sulu, and Scotty to the background, this film gives each crewmember their own spotlight, usually seamlessly.

[Spoilers below]

Chris Pine's portrayal of James T. Kirk is remarkable in that the viewer is not constantly reminded of William Shatner, as there aren't too many comparisons to be drawn. While Shatner's Kirk was a slightly foolish risk-taker, Pine's Kirk is a younger, brasher, and much more thrill-seeking character. He doesn't show the maturity of Shatner's Kirk in this film, but the ending certainly seems to suggest that we will see that in the sequels.

Zachary Quinto's Spock is one of the most significantly different portrayals, as he does not have the complete emotional control that Leonard Nimoy's version of the character possessed. This Spock is shown to be a somewhat conflicted character, constantly confused by his half-Human-half-Vulcan heritage. It's enjoyable to watch, though I do wonder how future storylines will deal with the fact that Spock is now a much more emotional character. Will he still retain his reliance on logic? It seems essential to the character, so I hope so. In any case, Quinto plays the character extremely well, to the point where one actually forgets Nimoy's famously powerful voice, even despite Nimoy's appearance as Spock in the film.

One significant point must be addressed: whereas Nimoy's Spock was nearly oblivious to Uhura's advances in the Original Series, in this film they actually become romantically involved.

...
Every time I hear myself or anyone else bring up that plot point, I have to stop and take a moment to gather my scrambled thoughts up off the ground. While the film certainly explains why Spock and Uhura's coupling should occur, it is still very off-putting. However, the humorously shocked reactions of the other characters to this relationship both acknowledge and alleviate viewers' concerns.

Leonard "Bones" McCoy may be my favorite re-imagining of any of the characters. Karl Urban, known for his Rohirrim-mustering in The Lord of the Rings, plays the slightly manic and constantly paranoid McCoy in such a sensical-yet-constantly-humorous way that the viewer cannot help but be entranced at his every appearance. He can switch from being hilarious to completely serious and dramatic at a split-second's notice, and with absolutely no sign of inconsistency. This McCoy is simultaneously accurate to the original character and completely different, all while being wholly entertaining.

Uhura is a somewhat different character, having much more strength (or stubbornness, depending on one's viewpoint) than the original. She's somewhat likable, and plays her role very well. Her attraction to Spock and repulsion to Kirk makes total sense with her new career-minded character.

Scotty is perhaps the most different of all the characters. He bears very little resemblance to the original character, being an extremely funny science geek-type. While I am slightly saddened at the loss of one of Trek's most memorable crew members, I think I actually enjoy this new Scotty a bit more.

Sulu is fun and cool. Though he doesn't have much to do plot-wise, he's just as much fun to have on-screen as anyone else, and he has a sword. (Swords are awesome, by the way)

Chekov's character is actually a cool re-imagining of the character, with him being a seventeen-year-old technological super-genius. His voice, on the other hand, is TERRIBLE. It's a perfect impersonation of Walter Koenig's original Russian accent, but it sounds very very odd coming from Anton Yelchin's mouth. Hopefully his character will have learned to speak with less of an accent by the time of the next film, and we can endure less headache-inducing dialogue.

The villain of the film, Nero, is a little bit underdeveloped. Star Trek: Countdown, a comic book prequel to the film, developed Nero's character in an amazing way. However, his portrayal in this film is hampered by the fact that certain highly important scenes for Nero were cut out of the theatrical release, leaving us to wonder exactly how and why this seemingly silly character is in command of the massive Romulan mining ship-turned-warship, the Narada. I would have loved to have seen more of the tragic and powerful backstory of Nero in the film, as it really developed him into a character that was sympathetic, truly vengeful, and enthralling.

Some of the plot choices in Star Trek are confusing. Why exactly did the writers feel the need for a Willy Wonka-style "Scotty's stuck in a water pipe" scene? It added NOTHING. Also, the reveal of the backstory for the film's plot was badly done, leaving many--including myself--scrating their heads as to why the choice was made to reveal the central driving force of the external conflict in such a schitzophrenic and vague manner.
Another seeming plot hole is the fact that Kirk and most of the main characters are mere cadets, yet are instantly promoted to being the senior staff of the flagship of the Federation by the end of the film. From what I've heard, there was a bit of dialogue that was cut from the film which explained that, due to the time-altering events of the film's prologue, the timeline is attempting to "mend itself" by pushing the same people into their same roles, despite the altered state of the universe. That would have gone a long way to explain things, and I'm not exactly pleased that that incredibly important line was cut.

There are several events in this film that are so mind-shatteringly epic that they forever alter the Star Trek universe. This new series of films is not the same Trek we've known for 40 years; this is something entirely different. Some may not initially welcome the change; it took me about twelve hours to accept it. Now that I've had a good morning's sleep, I've realized that I love this new movie. It's character-based, fast, and fun.