#tng thoughts

[starlogged]

What i like and find so interesting about The Survivors is that it asks this huge moral question that they never actually answer.

The whole time you get the feeling that something weird is going on but it's only in the end that we understand what happened and how this man killed an entire race for his wife's death.

And what should picard do now? What punishment would even fit the crime?

There is no easy answer to that and instead of having a simple solution because the 45 minutes are up they just leave us hanging, having to think about it ourselves.

[starlogged]

Evolution was so good.

I love how we finally got a wesley centric episode again and it has so much character stuff! For the first time we can very clearly see his insecurities about being a teenage prodigy who everybody expects so much from.

Wesley is literally a seventeen year old who places his entire self worth in the adults around him respecting him and seeing him as equal. He works himself to exhaustion with constantly being on the bridge in dangerous situations, doing school work and being a teenager all at the same time. And then his mom was away from him for an entire year too.

I like how they kinda contrasted him with Stubbs as who he could become if he kept going like that. Stubbs sees himself in wesley and in some ways it's very accurate with how fixated he is on his project because he worked on it his entire life and would now rather die that give it up.

We probably won't get any more character insight in this direction bc tng is still episodic but it was still a great way to start off the season and i love the character development they went for since the first season.

[rosenotrosie]

More about st:tng

S1e6, a crewman was murdered and Data's channelling Sherlock Holmes. It's fine for me, the viewer, to find it funny, but it's rather insensitive of Data to do it, excused some because he's an android who struggles with human feelings. That said, Riker shouldn't be laughing, because he should realize this is an insensitive approach to solving the murder of a crewman. I don't know if he's flippant about death or if this is a case of the writers being obtuse.

[asterismjess]

Awkward Worf is the best Worf

[wildroses-peonies]

thoughts on TNG season 2

1. Worf and Will have the best comradeship (would Worf consider it friendship? hmmmm). Their scenes are few and far between, but I love how they push each other.

2. Speaking of Worf, WHY IS HE SO NEGATED? He has by far, the most interesting story, past and present, but instead it's always Data. I have nothing against Data, but Data didn't deserve quite that much focus.

3. Well, Wesley still annoys me, but at least he's limited to Plot Exposition Fairy rather than Savior Boy of the Starship Enterprise. Also, he seems realistically flawed this season. 

4. The writers are better at writing romance when they aren't focusing on the romance itself. Like Deanna and Will. It's so obvious they are comfortable with one another and understand each other, and have quite the history, but the minute the writers go to Very Special Romance Moment, the cheese factor becomes unbearable. 

5. I LOVE that Wesley's first crush/love/whatever was a shape-shifter! 

6. This show is giving me way too many crack ships. Will and Guinan, The Doctor and Worf, Worf and Mrs. Troi! It needs to stop it!

7. I was disappointed when I read Whoopi didnt get the Security Officer Position she asked for when Crosby left, but I think putting Worf there is an excellent and intriguing idea. Also, I can't wait to find out more of Guinan's backstory.

8. TOS might have killed off hundreds of red shirts, but at least it brought home that space and exploring isn't safe. This show still feels too sanitized, which is why I enjoy having Q and the Borgs there. Q brings chaos and the Borgs bring danger and darkness. Also, sometimes this crew can get really full of themselves, so it's nice when they get knocked down to size.

9. I am NOT attached to these characters yet. At least not in the way I was to TOS. I'm slowly starting to appreciate them, and their little quirks and follies, but I don't love them wholeheartedly yet. 

10. Mostly meh towards this season. It wasn't bad, but there were only a few episodes that made me go OMG WANT MORE NOW! I do think it was far better than season 1, but it has tons of potential to grow.

[wildroses-peonies]

So I'm not growing to love TNG yet, but I realize in a weird rather backwards way, I can appreciate and even enjoy the show, if I analyze it through the lense of Gene Roddenberry, and what parts of his personality he was trying to infuse the whole show with. (I simply can NOT unthink my bad personal associations-my 'deadbeat' daddy fan-- away from this show, so I've had to expand beyond just thinking of it as watching Trek.)

The most obvious is the Trio of Wesley, Will, and Jean-Luc, who were supposed to symbolize Gene's journey from young adventurer to outgoing and slightly hot-headed lover to wise and almost-anti romantic philosopher. Now, Gene was an alcoholic, diabetic, and very VERY self-centered and extremely controlling man (over his work, not his family--he was too much of a workaholic to be interested in family) in real life. Yet, aside from the workaholic and lover aspects, and having keen open-minds, I don't connect these characters to Gene (or at least what I've read about him). If they do represent him, they represent the very best, and least problematic, parts of his personality and life. 

It's in the supporting guest characters that I see Gene's "real" personality come out (real in quotes cuz I didnt know him, just going by what's out there): the competitive, bombastic, egotistical father who neglects his son, the Greatest Thinker of Them All who romances Women (but doesn't see them as people) and lets his ego get in the way of a dignified death. 

Also, even the shift in values. TOS is about as intersectional as a show could get back in the late 1960s, considering the network interference, and constant cast bickering. TNG seems more narrow in focus: yes it's has diversity in both cast and crew, but the main focus is on male characters. In Trek Nation, we're told very nicely that by the time TNG got on air, Gene had an ego, and this focus on predominantly white male characters (DESPITE having multiple and unlimited opportunities to expand out) to me is a sign that Roddenberry took himself for granted. It was okay to leave out other stories that still needed to be told, because he had achieved...something...

Surprisingly, I don't hate on Roddenberry. Actually analyzing the show and trying to figure out his thought process (even though it once has triggered me, and more often then not has had me screaming at the TV in frustration) has helped me come more to terms with my own neglectful father (and not always so wonderful stepdad). (Also, I don't think I'm giving Roddenberry a pass. Merely trying to understand him. But I am glad the other BTS people were able to establish more control and input.)