Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews A

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“Encounter at Far Point” Parts 1 and 2 See this and this for a plot summary

From what I remember, most episodes the first three seasons of TNG more or less sucked. This series premiere gets that trend going.. I could probably write several pages worth of things that annoyed me, here’s a summary:

1. Although I can’t put my finger on it, Picard and Riker annoy me.
2. A lot of the dialogue was flawed.
3. They talk about the Ferengi as if they’re even more war-like than the Klingons. This continues through most of TNG until the Ferengi are given a much friendlier role on DS9.
4. I don’t like Q episodes in general.
5. It referred to Farpoint as some far-off place. But the Enterprise gets there very fast.
6. In the marketplace scene, it seemed like about 75% of the extras walking around are dressed as Starfleet members. What’s that about?

In general I just didn’t like it.

There is a bit of politics in the sense that humanity’s dark side (in the past) is discussed, although the specifics barely went beyond vague references to wars.

I give it 1 star out of five, and the only reason I give it that much is that it kicks off what becomes a good series that results in the creation of my two favorite series.

“The Naked Now” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it one star out of five.

“Code of Honor” See this for a plot summary

One bit of politics. In the alien race's society women are not treated equally with men.

I give it one star out of five.