What’s it about: The crew of the Enterprise assembles as they face their first encounter with the Q and solve the mystery of Farpoint station. To Baldly Go: How on Earth did they manage to encourage Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart to take part in this project. He has said in recent interviews that he was apprehensive about the whole thing I think it comes across in his performance in these early episodes. I don’t like his tightly fitted uniform much; he looked far more comfortable come season three (but we’ve still got a long way to go before we get there…). He clearly wants to make his mark as a man of action because in the first fifteen minutes he has pushed the warp engines to maximum and separated the ship! To prove he is a more thoughtful man than Kirk he surrenders to the Q whereas James T would have blasted them to hell and darn the consequences! He exhibits some pretty unusual behaviour – he doesn’t even look at Riker when he comes on board or welcome him. In later seasons when he has softened he would never behave this rudely. Picard is just a big softie really letting that horrid like swot explore the bridge. Q calls Picard a dullard and you can’t help but agree with him at this point.
Number One: A beardless Riker looks so young but much better looking. You feel really sorry for the guy as he is trying to impress his new Captain but gets a right dressing down. The ensign who gives Riker directions checks out his ass! Q tells Riker that he shows promise which will be followed up in the dismal episode Hide & Q.
Fully Functional: His pedantry and lack of understand of human nature pegs him as TNG’s Spock and almost to drive the point home McCoy tells him he sounds like a Vulcan! His character is really well pitched and cast and would go on to be one of the most popular of the main cast.
Alien Empath: What the hell does Troi look like with her massive frizzy hair and miniskirt? Why does she start crying when Picard orders them to surrender? Oo-er there seems to be some history between Riker and Troi and by the looks on their faces they used to know each other very well. We get our very first example of what would soon become a hideous Troi cliché where she looks like she’s straining to do a really big fart whilst feeling terrible pain or anger from a creature nearby. He feelings for Riker maker her behave in a very unprofessional fashion! Why does she always state the bleeding obvious: ‘a feeling of great joy!’ she tells us of the jellyfish lovers’ reunion. No shit Sherlock!
Boy Genius: What an irritating little suck up! Trailing around after ‘mother’, wearing that hideous woolly pullover and sucking up to Commander Riker…he almost makes Adric seem palatable. Why does Data have to ruin everything and rescue Wesley when he falls in the water? I was just starting to enjoy myself! When the turbo lift opens and Wesley is standing in the doorway wouldn’t it have been wonderful if Dr Crusher had shoved him out and shot off in the lift?
Blind Engineer: Geordi’s visor is a lovely visual touch that I’m pleased to say made it through the entire series.
Mr Wolf: He’s such a stupid grunt he almost blows a hole in the viewer!
Dancing Doctor: Deep breath…I know it sounds as though I am ripping this show to pieces but
I promise you praise will come! Personally I think Gates McFadden is the weak link the cast and on the whole over the seven years I find her remarkably wooden in the part. It’s nice that there is some history between Picard and Crusher which adds a little depth to both characters but the series never had the guts to explore the relationship. You’ve got to love Picard’s tact; he heads off to sickbay to welcome her on board and then follows that up with ‘ill request a transfer for you!’ Security Chief: Tasha Yar, to my mind is one of the worst characters in any Star Trek series. She is so ridiculously melodramatic I cannot take her seriously. ‘I spoke before I thought sir’ she says holding back tears as Picard admonishes her. Thank Christ Q turns the woman into an icicle pop after she starts ranting on about how fabulous Starfleet is because she seriously needed someone to cool her down. Bizarrely after wearing a trouser suit throughout the story in the last scene Yar is suddenly wearing a Troi mini skirt and kinky boots!
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘You treat her like a lady and she’ll always bring you home.’
‘Prejudice is very human.’
‘Let’s see what’s out there…’
Dreadful Dialogue: ‘He’s frozen!’ – yeah nice one Troi, we couldn’t have figure that out for ourselves!
The Good: The opening shot of the Enterprise travelling through space sees some serious money being spent on the model work. John De Lancie is wonderful fun in his role as Q and you can understand why he was pencilled in quickly for a return visit. I cried with delight when I saw Colm Meaney! The Data/McCoy scene is beautiful. Lets forget the plethora of episodes that would follow in various Trek incarnations and remember how wonderful the holodeck felt at the time – it is a clever idea and a great way to add some visual splendour to the series. Whilst it is an irritatingly twee ending the floating jellyfish creatures are well realised.
The Bad: I’m not going to beat around the bush – the first two season of TNG are not great under any circumstances and I won’t be holding back from pointing out its manifest of flaws. But what I should say was that when I was ten and this show first aired on the BBC you couldn’t tear me away from it. Whilst at heart Doctor Who would always come first I was blown away by the incredible special effects and phaser fights and it is only through older, more jaded eyes that I have come to see how diabolical some of these episodes are especially when compared with the later TNG series and the majority of DS9. The theme tune is…loud but I’m not sure on a musical level its any good at all. The bridge set is remarkably beige and I’m not sure if I like the idea of those lounging seats – you’re supposed to be at work people! If I had to work with seats like that I would be asleep in five minutes! At this stage in the game its clear Gene Roddenberry is trying to emulate the original series with a shocking degree of sexism, god like beings and very loud and dramatic music. I don’t know what to make the court scenes since they seem to be full of psychotic midgets in fancy dress having a fun day out and they go on way too long (although Q’s method of extracting an admission of guilt by having a gun pressed to their heads is novel). Farpoint Station is one of those studio planets that
Star Trek likes to build and nine times out of ten it fails to convince as location work would (plus the model work would be shoddy for Doctor Who). How cheap – the corridors on the alien ship are exactly the same as those on the planet! How exactly does solving the childishly simple puzzle of Farpoint station prove that human beings evolved beyond their previous barbarity? Myth Building: What’s up with those teeny weeny phasers? By the end of the season they are much chunkier buggers! Suddenly the Klingons have weird Mars Bar bumps on their heads with no explanations. Jean Luc calls the mid 21st Century the post atomic horror. Picard says that he hopes the Ferengi find Zorn as ‘tasty’ as they did their past associates seeming to suggest they are humanoid cannibals!
Orchestra: The conductor is clearly having an epileptic fit once the Enterprise tries to outrun the Q because the music goes crazy! The piano score when Data walks with McCoy conjures up so many memories of original Star Trek in a beautifully nostalgic way. As if the image of the two jellyfish joining tentacles wasn’t twee enough you’ve got an entire string quartet pouring on the syrup!
Result: In retrospect the Next Generation pilot story feels remarkably naïve and childish but at the time it was one of the most exciting things to hit our screens. With its exciting sets, fantastic model work and state of the art special effects this was a glossy science fiction serial that was bound to keep the kids happy at dinnertime. Unfortunately there are a manifest of problems that held back the first two series of the show; the main cast are completely out of their depth and trying to convince in some sloppily written characters, the plotting is childishly simple and treats the audience like idiots, the tone of the piece is all over the place and the dialogue is largely banal. With characters as unconvincing as Deanna Troi, Tasha Yar and Wesley Crusher the series clearly had a long way to go before it would prove its worth. Compared to the third or fourth series of TNG, Encounter at Farpoint is woefully embarrassing to watch. This is watchable if you are ten or under but any older and you might feel more than a little patronised: 3/10
Good mix of summary and opinion.
ReplyDeleteThe writers didnt want to use the small phasers after the first season because the audience couldn't see them properly. So unless a shot was put in or a reference made new viewers would be confused.
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