Engage!

[andraste]

When I got up this morning, yesterday's poll was narrowly in favour of Encounter at Farpoint, so I've decided to begin at the beginning. (I'm not necessarily going to go in order all the way through, though. At the moment my plan is to watch Q's eight TNG appearances and leave the DS9 and Voyager eps for another time.)

It's easy to forget when you haven't watched it for a while just how bad this episode is, especially as the opening of a series. We're hardly introduced to most of the cast, many of whom have nothing interesting to do. The producers clearly expected the audience would be fascinated enough by the special effects to indulge lengthy scenes of the Enterprise docking. The costumes are laughable - Troi's space cheerleader outfit with the kinky boots wins the prize, but Wes Crusher's green sweater isn't far behind. The 'plot' mostly consists of the ship's counsellor looking distressed and telling us she senses pain. (Can you feel my intense boredom, Deanna?) The most convincing relationship in the whole thing is between two giant space jellyfish.

And yet, it's bizarrely entertaining in its own way. It got to the point where I giggled every time someone blurted out a piece of their backstory at random, or a past relationship was referred to with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. ('Let me tell you about how much I dislike children, Commander Riker.' 'Um, sir, we just met, why are you telling me this?' 'It's going to be important later in the episode, and they had to put the exposition in somewhere.')

But never mind all that, there's a reason I watched this: Q!

Even before he takes on the more playful persona of later appearances, Q brightens things up whenever he appears. He moves the plot along, has great chemistry with Picard (he's already calling him mon capitane, awwwww) and wears many silly hats. You know, I think that's what actually impressed Q about our species. Humans may be a grievously savage child race, but they have so many silly hats.

Q also thinks that William Riker is interesting. It's OK, though, he'll get over that delusion by the end of his next appearance and spend the rest of the series mocking him.

Luckily, from Encounter at Farpoint the only way is up and TNG did eventually produce some fantastic episodes. Riker and Picard sum it up:

"I'm just hoping that not all of our missions will be like this."

"I'm sure most of them will be much more interesting."

You said it, mon capitane.

So, all in all, I am glad to have a full set of Q-related episodes on DVD. Even if it does mean I technically paid money for The Q and the Grey. I just wish Paramount would produce more Star Trek Fan Collective sets I want to buy. I might consider picking up the Borg and/or time travel collections eventually, but I have zero interest in Kligons. Why can't I have a DVD box about Cardassians with Chain of Command in it?

There was a Picard DVD released a while ago - never came out in Australia, but I could probably get my hands on it - but it bewilderingly failed to include Chain of Command, The Best of Both Worlds, Family or Tapestry. My resources are limited. I don't want to buy a whole season of TNG just to get Chain of Command!

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

God yes, that pilot was so bad. What's fascinating, tough, is how well they use the basic scenario for the series finale, All Good Things, meaning the scenes there set in the Farpoint era really do feel as if they could have been in the pilot, and not in a bad way (they're way better written than the pilot), just in how the characters still don't know each other.

[andraste]

What's fascinating, tough, is how well they use the basic scenario for the series finale, All Good Things, meaning the scenes there set in the Farpoint era really do feel as if they could have been in the pilot, and not in a bad way (they're way better written than the pilot), just in how the characters still don't know each other.

Yes, I'm still amazed that they found a good use for Encounter at Farpoint that didn't involve burning it for fuel *g*. Those scenes really demonstrate how far the show had come in terms of quality.