I was never intrigued enough to view any of the Star Trek series that followed the original, although I have seen all the movies. Can't really say why, other than I didn't think they could compare with the Kirk/Spock version for interest and compelling sci-fi. However, I decided to take the plunge with 'Next Generation', and I found this first entry to be a decent starting point for more adventures on the newly outfitted Enterprise-D. With a lot of character introductions and not much to go on, it wouldn't be fair to pick a favorite character just yet, although Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Brent Spiner as Lieutenant Commander Data as a surrogate Spock hold a lot of promise. The introduction of a major villain like Q (John de Lancie) was probably premature, as dealing with an omnipotent being like him needed more time to demonstrate the ability of the Captain and others under his command to engage with such a powerful adversary. It also bothered me a little that Picard called the members of his crew 'children', as if they didn't have the expertise to be aboard a starship with someone of his experience. But that conversation he had with Commander and newly assigned first officer Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) about maintaining the safety of a starship captain was well written and set up a trusting relationship between the two officers. It wasn't clear to me whether the challenge imposed on the Enterprise crew was engineered by Q himself or Groppler Zorn (Michael Bell) with Q as an observer, but it went far to test the crew's humanity, under question by Q for the history of human savagery. Those arguments between Q and Picard were also put to a good test, and it will be interesting to see how Q faces off against the Enterprise-D crew in further installments. All in all, a generally good introduction by a new series set one hundred years after the voyages of the first Starship Enterprise. Oh yeah, and a neat nod to the original with that appearance by a one hundred thirty-seven-year-old Admiral Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley). He really did look that old!
Review of Encounter at Farpoint
