Star Trek - The Next Generation - Series 1 - Complete (DVD)

...and the freshman year of Star Trek's first television sequel offends more than most in this regard. The new series would take roughly three years to become fully embraced by fans of the original series, and watching these first twenty-six episodes it's fairly obvious why. Gene Roddenberry's vision of the 24th century is noble and exciting, and sets the scene perfectly for infinite exploration of the human and alien condition, yet this opportunity ...
...that eventually became the first Star Trek film in 1979. It seems ridiculous that, will all this preparation, things could meander along so fruitlessly for so long before the series started getting anywhere.

The series is set in the tranquil political climate of the mid-24th century (okay, 2364 if you want the specifics. No point pretending I don't know these things). The Federation, which still seems to consist primarily of humans ... more

The first season of most long-running shows will end up looking a little naïve and discordant in hindsight, and the freshman year of Star Trek's first television sequel offends more than most in this regard. The new series would take roughly three years to become fully embraced by fans of the original series, and watching these first twenty-six episodes it's fairly obvious why. Gene Roddenberry's vision of the 24th century is noble and exciting, and sets the scene perfectly for infinite exploration of the human and alien condition, yet this opportunity is somehow wasted almost entirely.

At its worst, The Next Generation sees a crew of wooden caricatures in spandex pyjamas visiting unconvincing alien cave sets and solving a boring ecological problem over the course of forty-five tedious minutes, and it often feels like season one couldn't escape this formula. The new U.S.S. Enterprise and its crew had been thoroughly detailed and evolved over the course of more than a decade, based in part on the aborted 'Star Trek: Phase II' series that eventually became the first Star Trek film in 1979. It seems ridiculous that, will all this preparation, things could meander along so fruitlessly for so long before the series started getting anywhere.

The series is set in the tranquil political climate of the mid-24th century (okay, 2364 if you want the specifics. No point pretending I don't know these things). The Federation, which still seems to consist primarily of humans as it did in the Original Series despite the series' claims otherwise, is engaged in a period of galactic exploration and diplomacy that will all too soon be shattered as new and old alien forces threaten its safety over the course of the next seven long years. Old enemies the Klingons are now content to sit behind their borders thanks to a peace treaty, and the new Enterprise under command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) even has a Klingon serving on its bridge. Picard's crew fits the bill for a late-80s TV show, led by white American actors with a couple of notable exceptions. Owing to the sensibilities of the time, the Captain is now accompanied by his psychiatrist on the bridge, and the security officer is - wait for it - a woman!

The show's updated tagline, 'to boldly go where no one has gone before,' self-consciously removes the masculine pronoun with something more fitting to the universal message the show always intended to express, even if it often floundered along the way. None of the characters are particularly interesting in this first series, perhaps owing to Roddenberry's specific instruction of 'no conflict' that seriously weakened the show, apart from Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner), the android who wishes to be human. The characters would all receive more generous development and storylines in the future, but series one is content with shallowness. This isn't a criticism of the cast, who are mostly excellent apart from Marina Sirtis as Counsellor Troi and Wil Wheaton's ever unpopular boy wonder Wesley Crusher, but lies entirely in weak writing.

This DVD set, released several years ago, collects the entire first season in its original grainy late-80s print, with an extra disc of passable special features, mainly interviews recorded in 1987, 1988 and 2001. The packaging is unusual and quite interesting, and seems to be modelled on some aspect of 24th century technology, perhaps a storage case of some kind. Whatever it is, it fits in perfectly with the look of the series, even if the weak plastic case is in constant danger of snapping. Each DVD contains four episodes, which come with subtitles, audio options and the customary scene selections. Beginning with 'Encounter at Farpoint,' the feature length (90 minute) series opener, we are introduced to the cast, to a new on-off enemy, and to the rushed writing that would pervade the series as a whole, as it's obvious even before being informed on the special features that this was a 45-minute story that had to be padded out to two parts.

There are some classic shows collected here, but far less when compared to seasons three to six, for example. Especially notable are 'Datalore,' where the android is given an evil twin, the confusingly titled '11001001' in which the Enterprise is half-inched and Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) falls in love with a hologram, and my favourite, the X-Filesesque 'Conspiracy,' a surprisingly effective and gory conclusion to a plot thread introduced several shows earlier. Unfortunately at this point, for every strong episode there's at least two horrendous ones. This can be seen right from the first disc, which is rounded out after the pilot with the embarrassing remake of an Original Series episode in 'The Naked Now,' and the questionably racist presentation of a tribal African-style culture in 'Code of Honor,' which led to the writer being sacked.

Star Trek: The Next Generation was a staple of 1987-1994 TV, and remained prominent for some time after, amidst the ever-growing spin-off series it spawned and inspired. The first season presents the show at its very worst, and even by its very average conclusion hasn't managed to drag itself into a truly distinctive style. The characters are inconsistent and frankly pretty boring, and many wouldn't be treated with any depth for years later (some never at all). This series is enjoyable to watch partly from a purely nostalgic viewpoint, as the naïve presentation of technology and designs that change every week before becoming standardised forever after is quite a fun thing to spot. It's also interesting to watch Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby), the security officer who was eventually fired from the series twenty episodes in after old Playboy photos came to light. Yar was one of the most interesting characters in the few scenes she was given to truly shine, and though her meaningless death is quite cool and bold, it represents a loss for the series. The only benefit is that her position can then be taken over by the Klingon Worf (Michael Dorn), whose character was a last-minute addition to the show and therefore seemed to just hang around the corners of the bridge without any obvious task to perform.

In failing to set up any kind of consistent universe or political scenario, The Next Generation was free to warp into its second, equally disappointing season burden-free, and directionless. It's hard to look at these mediocre, often childish early episodes as anything other than wasted opportunities and a waste of everyone's time. This wasn't going to win over any die-hard fans just yet. At least these DVDs have finally come down in price. 

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