[eriq]

Ok, I just watched the last episode of The Next Generation - "All Good Things" and whoa... WHOA!!!! LOVED IT.

[RLacey]

I regret the fact that I've never seen this episode .

[eriq]

Definitely one of the highlights of my TV watching career. An absolutely amazing episode and a really really well done finale to a series with heart. I really dug TNG.

[Maquisard]

TNG was really good and yet, all good things...

[Dasilva]

TNG finale was great, but I still have more love for Voyager.

Please state the nature of the medical emergency.

[MoriartyL]

As it so happens, I've also rewatched "All Good Things..." very recently. There couldn't possibly be a more fitting end to this wonderful series. Like the immediately following "Generations" as well as "First Contact" (my personal favorite), it was written by the team of Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga.

I find the coupling fascinating. Ronald D. Moore, who also wrote such heartfelt episodes as "Tapestry" and "Relics", tends to deal with human drama and interesting characterizations. If you look at the credits of all the major Klingon episodes which fleshed out their culture in TNG, you'll find that he did all of that he did all that pretty much single-handedly. After leaving Star Trek in Voyager's sixth season (tired of its approach to science fiction), he eventually went on to create the new Battlestar Galactica, which is concerned with human drama and the strange Cylon culture.

Brannon Braga deals with a whole different type of science fiction. He specializes in weird, gimmicky and fairly geeky mock-science concepts. Most of these concepts come from some form of either time travel or alien mind-possession. He is a very uniquely quirky writer, to be sure. My favorite TNG episode he wrote was "Cause and Effect", which was pretty much one big puzzle the crew had to solve. Other memorable episodes of his were "The Game", "A Fistful of Datas", and "Parallels". In Voyager, he got more and more influential to the identity of Star Trek, given a chance to run wild with his ideas. Many have noticed how large a percentage of Voyager's episodes deal with variations of time travel, and I think that's partly thanks to Braga, considering he wrote a lot of those episodes, including "Timeless", "Year of Hell", "Endgame", and one of my personal favorites, "Non Sequitur". He also wrote a lot of "alien mind-control" episodes, including one of my favorite Star Trek episodes: "The Killing Game". He became so involved that by Enterprise he was running the show along with Rick Berman, and indeed all too many Enterprise episodes deal with alien mind-control, and even from the pilot the main subplot of the show was an entirely misplaced focus on time travel. Then he went on to the short-lived Threshold, which I'm sorry to say I haven't seen.

My point is, while both guys are pretty unique sci-fi writers, they're unique in completely different ways. Each writes from a completely different end of the sci-fi spectrum. But they complement each other so well. If you look at "All Good Things...", you can clearly see which bits came from which writer. The premise -Picard shifting between times due to an outside influence- is Braga in the extreme, being a slightly silly sci-fi concept combining time travel and alien mind-control! Beyond that, the plot itself is made up of a fascinating intellectual puzzle which is also exactly Braga's style, about which I will say no more because I don't want to give away the solution for anyone who hasn't seen the episode. Meanwhile, Moore focuses on the drama between the characters, highlighting how far they have come in seven years by comparing to their younger selves and extrapolating the most likely course for the future provided the continue along the same path. But even though their contributions are so distinct, they fit together like two pieces in a puzzle- Braga keeps the stories exciting, while Moore keeps them human. Together, they represented the best Star Trek had to offer.

The same applies to Generations: Braga worked out a way to twist time around to get Picard and Kirk together and Moore found the contrast between their identities. Braga twisted Data's mind around for comic relief while Moore killed off Picard's family (which he himself had introduced) to play Picard's life story as a tragic, lonely tale without a happy ending. Braga came up with a way for the Enterprise's old enemies to manipulate Geordi into helping them without his knowledge, while Moore had the villain debate Picard about the ruthlessness of the passing of time. First Contact was even more split: The plot was again a fascinating time travel story, which was then used to comment on society's incorrect perception of its heroes. The Borg queen's technobabble plans for the deflector dish lead to an exciting action scene, while her seductive yet philosophical dialogue sounds exactly like Galactica's Number Six! The crew members comment on how hot the room is getting (part of one of Braga's little puzzles), then we cut to Picard and Data talking about the "realness" of history.

They made quite a pair, and I hope we get to see something else from the two of them someday.

[Jatsie]

It's been a few years since I last saw the finale of TNG, it was nice, but I don't recall really being blown away by it. I suppose it does tie things up quite well, bringing back Q who played an important role in the pilot also.

[eriq]

Wow. Moriarty, you really touched on quite a few interesting topics. I feel the same way about many of those same episodes. There's something very special about certain chapters from Star Trek TNG... something that really gets your heart and mind racing as you watch. I rarely experience that with any other shows - that feeling of elation and wonder. It's a unique feeling. One that makes me, personally, want to explore and discover the further reaches of my own mind... my creativity. Does that makes sense? LOL. I know that probably sounds silly for anyone who hasn't seen these special episodes but man did I connect with a handful of shows from "The Next Generation."

Off the top of my head.. I loved Beverly's own search out of her mind in the episode where everyone on the ship is disappearing. "Am I mad? Stay calm... there ARE 1000 crew members on board. I'm NOT crazy.", LOVED the episode with the probe and Captain Picard and the flute (OMG I must have cried for a good hour. LOL.), and cherish the episode about Data's "daughter" (the moment he switched her off was just... ugh! so moving.)

Thanks for your in-depth post there. You really nailed it.

I am on to the next series! which is....

Deep Space Nine?? Voyager?? help! what's next?

[Jatsie]

Originally Posted by eriq

Deep Space Nine?? Voyager?? help! what's next?

Personally, when I first watched Voyager, I felt more attached to the characters in it, than I ever did to any of those in DS9.

If you're looking for a TNG style experience again I'd recommend Voyager, but if you fancy something a little different, go for DS9.

[Erwin_Br]

I'm currently watching Season 3 of DS9. I never liked the series when I followed them on TV (I also missed quite a few eps, which didn't help in understanding what's going on), but re-watching the seasons haven't changed my opinion thus far. Over-acting, no subtlety when dealing with emotions and serious, ''deep'', issues... I could go on and on. Sisko, perhaps the most important character in the series, sounds like he's reading his lines from an auto-cue.

I'm a bit more optimistic since Season 3, though, and I hope I'll appreciate the series better when I start with 4.

--Erwin

[MoriartyL]

Originally Posted by eriq

Deep Space Nine?? Voyager?? help! what's next?

There are many Trekkies who'd tell you that Deep Space Nine is the pinnacle of Star Trek. Under the assumption that they couldn't all be wrong, I watched all seven seasons waiting for it to get good. My conclusion was that they all were wrong, because it never got any good. In fact, watching those episodes in order just showed me that any good ideas they had were completely lost by the end. The actors are almost all terrible. As for the stories? Picture 45 dragged-out minutes of nothing actually happening, while the characters sit around talking about how traumatic their pasts were and how they've never been able to get past them. Now you know 80% of the stories here. See, the show tried very hard to be character-driven. That's perfectly fine in itself, but the characters slowly but surely de-evolve over the course of the series, getting less and less depth in their characterizations until by the end they're all pointless empty shells. (If you want good character-driven sci-fi, watch Battlestar Galactica if you haven't been already.) It also tried a bunch of fairly ambitious story arcs, but very clearly under the approach of "making it up as we go along". As a result, the central story introduced in the pilot is never actually resolved, or even developed- it just sort of fizzles out. And new, sillier plot threads are introduced to replace it, which are never really developed either. (If you want good long-form sci-fi, watch Babylon 5 from start to finish if you haven't already. Or even if you have- it's a great show.)

But I do not recommend that you skip DS9 entirely, because there are a few gems here and there. You should watch Emissary (the pilot), just to get a sense of what the show was originally meant to be about. After that, here's a list of the 36 DS9 episodes (out of 176) which are at all worth watching:

• In the Hands of the Prophets, Homecoming, The Circle, The Siege - This is a four-part episode starting from the last episode of the first season.
• The Wire, toward the end of the second season.
• The Search parts I and II - the beginning of the third season. The cliffhanger preceding it is a part of the same story, but it's not any good.
• Life Support
• Prophet Motive, which revolves around a recurring character from earlier in the series. Unfortunately, those earlier episodes were terrible. This one, though, is funny.
• Improbable Cause, The Die is Cast - despite the names, this is actually a two-part episode.
• The Adversary - the finale of season 3, which sets up lots of stuff that never gets paid off, but is still pretty entertaining in itself.
• The Visitor - The fourth season started with "The Way of the Warrior", which you might want to watch just to see the story of Worf, but (again) wasn't very good. This one, though, is a classic.
• Homefront, Paradise Lost - another two-parter. And then you should skip all the way to:
• Apocalypse Rising, the first episode of season 5. It's dealing with the fallout of earlier episodes, but those episodes were inane. This one's reasonably exciting, though.
• ...Nor the Battle to the Strong,
• The Assignment, and
• Trials and Tribble-ations are a real rarity- three good episodes in a row! Each one is a stand-alone, but the first is pretty emotional, the second is suspenseful and the third is cute.
• Rapture
• For the Uniform
• Blaze of Glory
• In the Cards - an effective stand-alone episode which is closer to the style of Voyager than most, and as such is more watchable.
• Call to Arms, A Time to Stand, Rocks and Shoals, Behind the Lines (skip Sons and Daughters!), Favor the Bold, Sacrifice of Angels - An exciting, momentous seven-parter of which six parts are good. "Call to Arms" is the finale of the fifth season.
  Immediately afterward is "You Are Cordially Invited..." which you should avoid like the plague even though it's about the marriage of two main characters. It's one of the worst episodes of the entire series, which is saying something. The ERPM is so high (eye-rollings-per-minute) that your eyeballs might flop out of your head and mix with the vomit. This is not pleasant.
• Waltz does more long-term harm than good, but in the short-term is interesting.
• Far Beyond the Stars - a very cute little episode until the end where it's all made simultaneously confusing and completely irrelevant. Still worth watching though.
• Inquisition
• In the Pale Moonlight, which in my opinion is the best episode of the series.
• The Reckoning. And then we skip past the mindless cliffhanger into the seventh season for:
• Treachery, Faith And The Great River. Even though a main character is killed off, and a new one introduced, in the episodes between, they're just (as should not surprise you by now) terrible episodes. And the only watchable episode left is:
• The Dogs of War. It's part of a huge ten-part episode ending the series, but is the only one of those ten which is not completely ridiculous. Do not watch the finale itself- it is a joke. Not one with a good punchline, either.

Then move on to Voyager, which is my personal favorite Star Trek show. Watch that in its entirety.

[MoriartyL]

Just to clarify: This list in no way shows you the whole "bigger picture". There are huge gaps in between the episodes I list, ones which are quite noticeable in the watching. But those gaps are completely devoid of decent episodes. This is not an exaggeration- I have put into that list every episode which was even decent, not just the few great ones. The bigger picture is a mishmash of poor ideas which don't get developed, and it's overrated.

[eriq]

hmm... I think based on people's opinions I'll watch Voyager next. Is that the one with the female captain? Or is that Enterprise? And how does everyone feel about Enterprise?

I feel bad for skipping DS9... but I'll come back to it after the others.

[eriq]

I want to add that I love the StarTrek.com site. Very informative.

edit : How is the animated series? LOL

[Jatsie]

Yes, Voyager is the one with the female captain.

I'd go straight for Captain Janeway.

J/K

Or am I....?


I pretty much hated Enterprise. I stuck it out and watched all four seasons, but I'm surprised it wasn't cancelled sooner.

[Flyboy]

When I first discovered that you could download entire episodes of TV shows online (which I have since stopped doing - I'm talking 6 or 7 years ago here), one of my favorite things was to watch the first and last episode of TNG back to back. It was fun looking for the parallels between Encounter at Far Point and All Good Things and even more interesting to see how the characters had changed over their seven year journey. Although the latter was a considerably better episode (one of my favorites, in fact), they certainly bookended the series nicely together.

I sometimes forget just how good that show was but I keep getting reminded whenever I catch a rerun on TV. This was easily my favorite of the Star Treks (not to mention that First Contact was my favorite film for the last two years of high school).

[eriq]

I am a late ST fan. I can see the reason people become "Trekkies" which, by the way, is also a fun and hilarious film. LOL. That part with the drag queen/tranny singing attempting to sign the Klingon song made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt. I rewound it about 15 times.

[fov]

I love that episode. I watched it when it first aired. It taught me what the word "anomaly" meant.

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by Jat316sob

I'd go straight for Captain Janeway.

I happen to think Jean-Luc Picard is really sexy.


I'm a late Star Trek fan myself. I used to watch Star Trek Voyager when it was on Swedish TV (I actually liked ,no loved the Borg episodes. I even had Seven of 9 as my avatar for a while), but I haven't seen the last episodes so I still don't know how it ended. How many seasons were there? I'm thinking about getting the last season on DVD.
Now I watch Star Trek TNG every day. If I miss it I catch the re-run the next day. I really don't want to compare the two series. I just enjoy!

[Jatsie]

There were seven seasons.

I can't believe it's been five years since Voyager ended, it doesn't seem possible. I can remember watching the finale as if it were yesterday. I was in America, I'd just got in from the airport and I flicked on the TV and there it was. In the UK the episodes were airing quite a few weeks behind those in the States, so we were nowhere near the finale, but I watched it anyway. I liked it so much I watched it again when they repeated it that weekend. hehe.