1/2
I have violated one of my own prime directives. But, you know what, sometimes you gotta do that when you are in command. I found myself getting a little ansty watching the Original Trek series in order, so I decided to watch the pilot episode of The Next Generation . . .something I have not seen since it first aired in 1987. And ya know what? It kinda blows. And, upon reflection, I thought it blew back then, too. I didn’t become a TNG fan until a little while in. The problem here is that we don’t know who the bad guy is. Is it Q? Is it this dude Groppler Zorn? Are we supposed to like Riker more than we like Picard? What’s with Picard, anyway? Why is he such a hard-ass? That’s not the Picard we’re used to. Also — what’s with this catchphrase “Now Here This!”? Is that gonna go away by the second episode? I hope so. (I much prefer “Make It So,” which I use in my daily vernacular constantly.) It’s always hard introducing new characters, but it isn’t done all that smoothly here. (Especially while there is a complex plot with two sets of bad guys running around.) Plus introducing all the new technology. The word I’m looking for is artless. That plus the horribly overdone music and the sledgehammer-like editing. Yeesh. TNG is going to get better, right? It just has to.
