Epic Star Trek Re-Watch - The Next Generation - Movie Week 2!

[Lagamorph]

This rewatch is making me think I should try and give DS9 a go.

I know everybody raves about it, I tried a few episodes years ago, couldn’t get into the first series. Have seen some of the final season by chance when it’s been on TV but just hasn’t clicked the way TNG did.

DS9 is definitely a very slow start, the first two seasons especially are spectacularly dull at times with a few exceptions. It's not until the third season where it really starts to pick up the pace, then by the fourth season finally finds its footing.

[Imrahil]

Yep, it's definitely worth sticking with. Once the long term story arcs get going it maintains a high level of quality.

It's a very different show to TNG though, so best to temper expectations in that regard. Personally I don't think it reaches TNG's heights, but it does its own thing really well.

[Moggy]

I'm not all that far off finishing Enterprise. Goodbye Netflix

I've "acquired" the 3 JJ Abrams movies so they are ready to go.

Do the later series have any connection to each other? I'd usually watch all of one series before starting another, but I don't really want to pay for more than 1 or 2 months of Paramount+. So I was thinking of watching Picard (I already have Prime) and then blasting through Discovery/Strange New Worlds/the others.

[Lagamorph]

I'm not all that far off finishing Enterprise. Goodbye Netflix

I've "acquired" the 3 JJ Abrams movies so they are ready to go.

Do the later series have any connection to each other? I'd usually watch all of one series before starting another, but I don't really want to pay for more than 1 or 2 months of Paramount+. So I was thinking of watching Picard (I already have Prime) and then blasting through Discovery/Strange New Worlds/the others.

Strange New Worlds is basically a spin off from Season 2 of Discovery.

[Moggy]

I'm not all that far off finishing Enterprise. Goodbye Netflix

I've "acquired" the 3 JJ Abrams movies so they are ready to go.

Do the later series have any connection to each other? I'd usually watch all of one series before starting another, but I don't really want to pay for more than 1 or 2 months of Paramount+. So I was thinking of watching Picard (I already have Prime) and then blasting through Discovery/Strange New Worlds/the others.

Strange New Worlds is basically a spin off from Season 2 of Discovery.

Cheers.

Picard is basically separate though?

[Lagamorph]

I'm not all that far off finishing Enterprise. Goodbye Netflix

I've "acquired" the 3 JJ Abrams movies so they are ready to go.

Do the later series have any connection to each other? I'd usually watch all of one series before starting another, but I don't really want to pay for more than 1 or 2 months of Paramount+. So I was thinking of watching Picard (I already have Prime) and then blasting through Discovery/Strange New Worlds/the others.

Strange New Worlds is basically a spin off from Season 2 of Discovery.

Cheers.

Picard is basically separate though?

Yep, though it assumes you've watched TNG and Voyager.

[Cheeky Devlin]

I'm not all that far off finishing Enterprise. Goodbye Netflix

I've "acquired" the 3 JJ Abrams movies so they are ready to go.

Do the later series have any connection to each other? I'd usually watch all of one series before starting another, but I don't really want to pay for more than 1 or 2 months of Paramount+. So I was thinking of watching Picard (I already have Prime) and then blasting through Discovery/Strange New Worlds/the others.

I'm so proud of you Moggy.

Discovery and Strange New Worlds are connected. Picard doesn't link to any of them so far.

Don't forget Lower Decks and Prodigy, both of which are excellent and so far have no connection to the new shows.

Your order should be Discovery->Picard->Lower Decks->Prodigy->Strange New Worlds, but to be honest as long as you watch Discovery season 2 before Strange New Worlds you can watch them in any order.

Discovery is quite divisive. I think it's mostly ok, but it's definitely got issues. Picard Season 1 was also divisive, but most people have united to agree that Season 2 is trash (I genuinely believe it's the worst season of Trek ever produced). Season 3, which will be its last, may be better but we'll need to wait and see.

Luckily Lower Decks, Prodigy and Strange New Worlds have been fantastic so far and really salvaged the franchise after the lacklustre beginning to this new era.

Especially Prodigy for me, which considering it's a kids show has no business being as good as it is. It's also got the best main theme of all the new shows.

Then you'll be up to date with it all.

At that point you should either watch Babylon 5 (Which I've never quite gotten through myself, but I'm going to do at some point) and The Orville.
Somehow Seth Mcfarlane convinced Fox to let him make his own, legally distinct, version of Star Trek. I'm finally watching the newest season of The Orville now and I've been blown away by how good it's been in places. It was always good, if a bit cheap and cheerful in places, but season 3 is a marked step forward. I saw someone describing it as its "Rikers Beard" moment.

[Moggy]

Cheers guys.

I didn't want to pay for Paramount+ and then waste time hopping over to Amazon before going back to P+. If there's one more Picard season to come, I might leave Picard for last.

[gaminglegend]

This rewatch is making me think I should try and give DS9 a go.

I know everybody raves about it, I tried a few episodes years ago, couldn’t get into the first series. Have seen some of the final season by chance when it’s been on TV but just hasn’t clicked the way TNG did.

DS9 is definitely a very slow start, the first two seasons especially are spectacularly dull at times with a few exceptions. It's not until the third season where it really starts to pick up the pace, then by the fourth season finally finds its footing.

I’m trying now with the pilot was a bit hard to get through. I imagine back in the day when TNG was airing it was easier. But I’ll do a season and see

[Moggy]

Enterprise done

I echo what other have said, it's a very hit and miss show, but season 4 was really good. Find out more of my thoughts in 2 or 3 years.

Onto the reboot movies now, I've seen them before but don't remember them very well. Plus I might now understand any references they threw into them!

[Jenuall]

I'm a big fan of the first reboot movie, taken on its own merits I think it's a great ride. The second is definitely the weakest.

Did you watch the TNG cast movies?

[Moggy]

I'm a big fan of the first reboot movie, taken on its own merits I think it's a great ride. The second is definitely the weakest.

Did you watch the TNG cast movies?

Yeah, straight after the TNG series.

[Cheeky Devlin]

The penultimate week!

At least one iffy episode this week, but we'll see how we get on.

I really need to get caught up. Only just watched Parallels!

[Moggy]

Masks

It started well and it was damn creepy when Data turned

Data's performance with the multiple personalities reminded me of James McAvoy in Split.

Wtf was this episode? It's starts so well and just descends in incoherent madness.

It's weird enough (and therefore intriguing enough) to not trouble the bottom of my rankings. But it's not good. It's not even anywhere near average.

Eye of the Beholder

Worf you smooth ( ) devil.

I felt that this could have been a really fantastic episode but it was let down a bit by being overly confusing. I wasn't sure at the end what had actually happened. I gather the Worf/Troi hookup was all part of the hallucination, which sucks. That could have been a neat plot point. But everything being a Troi hallucination doesn't explain the awkward conversation Worf had with Riker

Genesis

Klingons wear pyjamas?

"A lemur or a pygmy marmoset"

The iguana with the cat collar

Spider-Man Barclay

Electrifying the floor

That was strawberry floating mental. It made hardly any sense and was objectively awful. But I loved it. So bloody silly but massively fun.

Journey's End

The Netflix description for this makes me thing it is going to be horrendously racist. Probably in that 1990s way where they are trying to show a "noble savage" in a condescending "Europeans don't know everything!" heap of patronisation.

Wesley

Why is he still a cadet at the academy, while his classmate from a few episodes ago was an ensign going for promotion to lieutenant? Is Wesley actually a thicko?

Hundreds of years into the future and Native Americans are still being called "Indians"?

Why has Wesley turned back into an annoying teenage brat? I thought he was getting better in his last few guest episodes.

Finished now. What a load of shite. It wasn't as condescending as I was expecting. But was boring and the Wesley plot came from nowhere and was basically uninteresting. And the Picard's ancestor storyline was appalling.

Meh.

[Imrahil]

Masks is one of the most pointless, meandering episodes of TNG they ever made. It's just tosh. They were really starting to run out of new ideas by this point I think and were struggling to fill the quota of episodes in the last season.

Season 7 is a bit of a dip after the quality of seasons 3-6. I wouldn't go so far to say they should have stopped at 6, there's enough decent episodes in there to make it worthwhile, but the show got a bit creaky towards the very end.

Also, I can swear Stewart shows less enthusiasm for the role in the last season. It's subtle but it's there I think.

[Jenuall]

I need to catch up as well, just watched the masterpiece that is Sub Rosa

[Moggy]

I think it's the final TNG week. I hope everyone watches the retrospective that's also on Netflix. It looks like I reviewed that as I was watching, my notes on it don't make much sense as I don't remember much of it.

[Cheeky Devlin]

I think it's the final TNG week. I hope everyone watches the retrospective that's also on Netflix. It looks like I reviewed that as I was watching, my notes on it don't make much sense as I don't remember much of it.

Indeed it is!

#

Bumper week to round off Next Gen!

Two weeks of movies to follow, then onward to Deep Space Nine!

[Moggy]

Firstborn

At the start I thought this was going to be a Klingon musical episode.

This wasn't a classic episode but was competently decent. It's always good to see more of the Klingon way of life (the mad bastards ) and time travel shenanigans are always welcome! Old Alexander is nowhere near as annoying as young Alexander!

Bloodlines

Took me a while to remember who Bok was. But I can't remember if I liked the headache episode.

What is it with Enterprise captains having sons they never knew about? And then a hostile alien tries to kill them?

Meh. I didn't think much of Picard's "son" and the episode is therefore straight into the mediocre camp.

Emergence

I've only watched up to the titles, but this is so far proving one of the two rules of TNG:

1 - The holodeck strawberry floats up every time they use it

2 - Jordi ( Cora ) strawberry floats things up every time he tinkers with anything.

I'm hoping the train was part of a Jordi (yes yes Cora) strawberry float up so I can combine the two rules.

Meh. I wish it had been the above. I can see what they were trying to do with this one, but it was clunky and made little sense.

This season has been disappointing. I'm hoping the last two redeem it!

Preemptive Strike

Are the maquis thick? I wouldn't have bought that bullshit in the bar or the bollocks when they were questioning Laren. And then to immediately give her a ship?

While I expected her to back out of betraying the maquis, I was surprised at the way she did it, running off to fight with the rebels!

Good episode and hopefully a return to form before the last ( ) episode!

All Good Things...

"It was........very stimulating"

The flashforward is interesting, it'll be a while before I get there, but I wonder how close to the Picard show this is? I've a feeling Brent Spiner won't look the same if he's in Picard.

It took me way too long to notice that Jordi (it's nearly over Cora ) has eyes!

The state of future Riker , he almost looks like he's blacked up

Dr Crusher was married to Picard? I love they they barely bothered aging her.

Why get Q to say "put an end to your trek through the stars"? He might as well just say "Star Trek LOL!"

Worf looks badass old! And Frakes clearly refused to shave, or got too fat, forcing them to reuse old footage.

A decent final episode*, in fact I thought it was pretty great. A nice mystery, a look back and a look forward. Great stuff!

TNG started terribly but got pretty damn good in the middle. The last season was a bit hit and miss, but overall was decent. I'm looking forward to the movies, although I'm pretty sure they are supposed to be mostly awful.


*although Netflix has a retrospective so I'll watch that before the movies.

Retrospective

Wow, this music is 90s as strawberry float

"Take advantage of what a pretty lady Marina is" :puke:

"Newly rephrased politically correct motto Star Trek: The Woke Generation

Jeri Taylor's shell suit

Meh, I forgot how bad 90s "behind the scenes" TV documentaries were.

Right, that's TNG TV done. Now onto the movies!

[Lagamorph]

All Good Things is still the best finale in all of Star Trek to me