Star Trek (The Next Generation): Your favorite episodes?

[Bazza]

Skin of Evil comes to mind. 

[archer]

Yeah, Skin of Evil was one of the worst. Even if you didn't like Tasha Yar as a character (which I didn't particularly), she deserved a much better send off than that. 

 

I never bothered to look into the background of why she was written out of the show. But that episode makes me think that she ticked off the writers and/or producers and that they wanted to kick her off the show in the most humiliating way possible (that they could manage to do without causing fandom to riot).

 

 

[Ternaugh]

1 hour ago, archer said:

Yeah, Skin of Evil was one of the worst. Even if you didn't like Tasha Yar as a character (which I didn't particularly), she deserved a much better send off than that. 

 

I never bothered to look into the background of why she was written out of the show. But that episode makes me think that she ticked off the writers and/or producers and that they wanted to kick her off the show in the most humiliating way possible (that they could manage to do without causing fandom to riot).

 

 

 

The actress decided that they weren't giving enough lines to her, and wanted to leave the show to pursue better acting gigs. You know, like Pet Sematary.

[wcw43921]

1 hour ago, archer said:

Yeah, Skin of Evil was one of the worst. Even if you didn't like Tasha Yar as a character (which I didn't particularly), she deserved a much better send off than that. 

 

I never bothered to look into the background of why she was written out of the show. But that episode makes me think that she ticked off the writers and/or producers and that they wanted to kick her off the show in the most humiliating way possible (that they could manage to do without causing fandom to riot).

 

 

 

Which is why they came up with "Yesterday's Enterprise" several seasons later.

 

Honestly, most of Season One wasn't all that great, with the possible exception of "The Battle," which gave us the Picard Maneuver--and no, not the one where he straightens his tunic.  The writing was more than a little stiff, as was the acting, with the exception of Patrick Stewart, who had a exceptionally firm grasp on the character of Picard from the beginning of the series.  I don't know who else the producers had under consideration for the role, but they certainly made the best choice when they chose Stewart.

[archer]

38 minutes ago, Ternaugh said:

 

The actress decided that they weren't giving enough lines to her, and wanted to leave the show to pursue better acting gigs. You know, like Pet Sematary.

 

When I watch that Skin of Evil episode, I inevitably think about the episode of Friends when Joey was written out of the Days of Our Lives soap opera because he falsely claimed in an interview that he ad-libbed most of his lines, which ticked off the writers of the soap opera.

 

The writers killed off his character by having him fall down an elevator shaft.

[Certified]

53 minutes ago, Ternaugh said:

 

The actress decided that they weren't giving enough lines to her, and wanted to leave the show to pursue better acting gigs. You know, like Pet Sematary.

 

As Crosby told TrekMovie in a 2012 interview, she asked to leave TNG because she was "miserable" and she "couldn't wait to get off that show". TNG season 1 experienced a number of growing pains behind the scenes, including a large amount of turnover in its writing staff due to the intense pressure of living up to the success of the original Star Trek. But for Crosby, playing Tasha Yar quickly grew monotonous. The actress explained:

 

Quote

I didn’t want to spend the next six years going “Aye, aye, captain,” and standing there, in the same uniform, in the same position on the bridge. It just scared the hell out of me that this was what I was going to be doing for the next X-amount of years.

 

https://screenrant.com/star-trek-tng-tasha-year-death-return-explained/

[Bazza]

From Memory Alpha on Skin of Evil:

 

Quote

Denise Crosby has expressed that, if more TNG scripts had provided parts for her that were as strong as this episode, she would never have asked to leave the series. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission, p. 61) She has also said that, had there been more scenes like the one at the beginning of the episode between her and Worf, she may have considered staying on the show. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion) However, Crosby added, "Perhaps Tasha should've really gone out in a blaze of glory. There's never any real battles ever fought. The show is never supposed to be about violence and it shouldn't be. But I think if you have one cause for there to be a show about a real violent battle, that was it. Let's see this supposed expert security officer do her stuff." (Trek: The Next Generation Crew Book)

 

Quote

In describing TNG Season 1 and Gene Roddenberry's attempts to "push the limits a little," Jonathan Frakes stated, "I think we took greater chances then than we do now. The shows may be better, the level of it, but 'Skin of Evil' was absurd. We had Patrick sitting and talking into a black oil slick – but what was wrong with that? [....] That was absurd." Frakes referred to the physicality of his own part in the episode as another bizarre aspect of the installment. (Trek: The Next Generation Crew Book) He expressed sadness, too, regarding Crosby's departure in "Skin of Evil", musing, "That's an episode where we were all crying as our characters and ourselves." (The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years, p. 112) Frakes also commented, "It's ironic, that they finally came up with a script that gave Tasha great things to do, and it was the one where she died." ("Jonathan Frakes – Commander William Riker", The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine issue 5, p. 9)

I remember reading that Denise wanted to leave the show as there was little character development for Tasha. This was also true for most secondary characters in the main cast and if she stuck around for next season she would have got that character development.  Ps: when we think of Riker, we think of him with his beard, and that occurred between seasons one and two. 

 

[Pariah]

I remember reading that Denise Crosby with specifically unhappy with the fact that her character had fewer lines than Wesley Crusher.

[Bazza]

I still like Natasha Yar, even though we hardly got to know her, and am glad Denise returned to the show. 

[Lord Liaden]

Keep in mind that that first season was hit by the writers' strike that curtailed most American television production. Although Denise Crosby had expressed the desire to leave the show, the writers did have plans to develop Tasha Yar further before her last appearance. They never got the chance.

[Ragitsu]

For me, clip episodes go right to the bottom of the list. The one exception concerning clip episodes are those with entirely new/never-before-seen flashbacks...but those are rare indeed.

 

Despite "Code of Honor" being fairly racist, the cast is clearly trying to make the best of their script.

[Old Man]

3 hours ago, Pariah said:

I remember reading that Denise Crosby with specifically unhappy with the fact that her character had fewer lines than Wesley Crusher.

To be fair the show had way too many characters to start with. And that continued to be a problem even after the series ended, in the films. Tasha, Dr. Crusher, Troi, and even Riker in season one were more like recurring characters rather than full members of the cast. 

[Hugh Neilson]

5 hours ago, Old Man said:

To be fair the show had way too many characters to start with. And that continued to be a problem even after the series ended, in the films. Tasha, Dr. Crusher, Troi, and even Riker in season one were more like recurring characters rather than full members of the cast. 

 

True.  While memories of TOS by that time included Sulu, Chekhov, Scotty, Uhura, Nurse Chapel and even Ensign Rand, there was never any question the show had three stars, throughout the three seasons it ran.  TOS was also '60s TV - whatever happened during the episode, by the end, we were back to the status quo, ready for the next episode.  Major character development was not expected.  Even Spock's development was more universe-building, getting into the Vulcan society and mindset, perhaps with some insights into Spock's mindset, but minimal, if any, character growth.

 

TOS rolled out with Picard, Riker, La Forge, Yar, Worf, Dr. Crusher. Troi, Data and Wesley.  While some characters came and went (Dr. Pulaski in Season 2; Miles and Keiko O'Brien, Ro, and other recurring cast), there was a much larger focus on an ensemble cast.  There was also a lot more realism in fields of expertise.  We would never have seen a ship's botanist usurp Spock's command of all sciences, a medical specialist push McCoy out of the limelight, or a transporter chief who was more expert on transporter tech than Scotty.  We didn't even have anyone in charge of security, a ship's counsellor or kids on board (seems like "community in space" was abandoned pretty early on).

 

That was  noted when the movies came out - you couldn't have character development moments in every movie for everyone's favorite character.  No big deal in a weekly series - that character might take the background for an episode or three, but not the whole season - but a much bigger deal when they only appear at all every two or three years.  We didn't expect the TOS movies to feature character development - we were happy to just see Chekhov appear in the second movie.

[massey]

12 hours ago, Ragitsu said:

For me, clip episodes go right to the bottom of the list. The one exception concerning clip episodes are those with entirely new/never-before-seen flashbacks...but those are rare indeed.

 

Despite "Code of Honor" being fairly racist, the cast is clearly trying to make the best of their script.

 

The thing about Code of Honor, it wasn't intentionally racist.  It's just more of an unfortunate implications thing.  It's still not a very good episode.  It feels like a leftover TOS script, but without the 1960s charm.

 

When they wrote the episode, Tasha Yar hadn't been cast yet.  Marina Sirtis had actually read for Yar, as I recall.  And the script didn't specify that it was a Zulu tribe, they were just supposed to be another group of aliens who had a culture reminiscent of some Earth warrior people.  I read somewhere that the writer was thinking of samurai lizard people, but they didn't have the budget for that.

 

If you had samurai lizard people kidnapping the brunette security chief, nobody would have a problem with it.  But somebody decides to cast black actors and a blonde lady...

[Lord Liaden]

IMO the first half of the first season played like the most regrettable episodes of TOS Season 3, full of lame cliches, almost self-parody. But during the mid-season hiatus someone seemed to firmly take the reins. I saw a change in overall tone starting with episode 12, DataLore; more serious, mature, and character-driven. The series generally advanced from there.

[Ragitsu]

 

"The Offspring" was a great stretch of character development for Data, but it also shows Picard at his most frustrated...in an oddly amusing way. What I enjoyed about this episode was how it forces the viewer to analyze the "why" of their desire to have children beyond the obvious instinctual motivation.

[Pariah]

While it was nice to have an ensemble cast for the TNG movies, it's hardly surprising that they focused largely on Picard and Data. Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner were the best actors on the show.

[Old Man]

Picard, Data, and Worf.  They even kept Worf for DS9.  But yeah.

[Bazza]

And Wesley. 

[dmjalund]

36 minutes ago, Bazza said:

And Wesley. 

but Wesley did not show up in any of the movies (except for a counter-cannon cameo in one movie)

[Spence]

7

11 hours ago, Bazza said:

And Wesley. 

They had a good actor IMO. But the character as written was probably the worst implemented concept since TV went to color. 

 

Also my opinion....

[Ragitsu]

There hasn't been a single mention of Guinan. No matter your feelings on Goldberg, she played a damn fine bartender.

[Ragitsu]

 

"The Price"

 

I liked seeing Matt "Marlboro Man" McCoy on Star Trek. That aside, this episode demonstrated to me that it is easy for insecurity to masquerade as confidence...and even easier for maturity to unmask it. Other than that...some repercussions from this otherwise unassuming episode eventually play a part on Star Trek: Voyager.

[Tjack]

On 8/22/2020 at 12:11 AM, Ragitsu said:

 

The best interpretation is that, within The Federation, essentials - shelter, nutrition, communication, healthcare, education, transportation, et cetera - are all free. If you desire a luxury or a specific occupation, you have to seek it or work for it. When it comes to interacting with non-Federation species, the Federation allots its citizens (or Starfleet members) a stipend of intergalactic credits that can be used for trade. With this system in place, the overwhelming majority of economic conflict is external.

 

Needless to say, I DEFINITELY prefer what they're doing over our bog standard capitalism.

    I’ve had this debate with others;   The Federation’s economy is based on two things.  First is the assumption of a source of infinite free energy and the second is an infinite source of free goods (via replicator technology)

   The rest of the Alpha quadrant is on the Latinum standard.  This dichotomy is one of the things that leads Federation citizens into the “saints in paradise” mindset.   
   The idea that humans are “more evolved” is bull. The common racial intolerance against other species and life forms shown by Starfleet officers, supposedly the best and brightest humanity has to offer is shown in every series. 

    I enjoy Star Trek very much but the idealistic viewpoint Gene Roddenberry pushed for Next Gen doesn’t hold up.

[Ragitsu]

5 minutes ago, Tjack said:

   The idea that humans are “more evolved” is bull. The common racial intolerance against other species and life forms shown by Starfleet officers, supposedly the best and brightest humanity has to offer is shown in every series.

 

Without some friction, you don't have a show. We don't see the ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent of the time interspecies relations are functioning smoothly.