Star Trek: The Next Generation 1-01: Encounter at Farpoint - Part 3

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the final part of my three-part Encounter at Farpoint review. If you want to jump to earlier parts you can click here: PART ONE or here PART TWO.

It's not really the most interesting looking title card I'm afraid, especially if you're seeing it three times in a row. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the only episode of all of Star Trek to just have a starfield in the background while its title is up and nothing else, but I could definitely be wrong about that. On the plus side at least it has a title for me to show. For later live-action spin-offs like Star Trek: Discovery all I can show up here is the series logo, though I'm crossing my fingers Strange New Worlds will bring them back.

SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to recap the entire episode and maybe even mention things from earlier episodes and movies. I won't spoil anything that comes after though.

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Previously, in the first two thirds of the episode:

The Enterprise was waylaid by the godlike Q, who put humanity on trial for its savagery. Picard convinced him to judge humanity on how the crew carries out their next mission and was given 24 hours to solve the mystery of Farpoint station. Meanwhile first officer Riker was already on Farpoint, and soon discovered that things seem to magically appear there when you want them. But he hasn't had a chance to investigate further yet as the two halves of the Enterprise arrived separately and he was tasked with putting them back together.

Farpoint's administrator, Groppler Zorn, is really getting tired of Starfleet questioning everything so much instead of taking the station he's offering them at face value, but Picard's suspicions were piqued after Troi cried out that she's sensing pain, loneliness and despair from it.

Then Riker visited the holodeck and finally met Data!

And now, the conclusion:

ACT SEVEN

Here's something you never see in later versions of the holodeck: something hitting a wall and making it go low-res for a moment.

The holodeck is a confusing bit of tech and it doesn't help that we're given a number of explanations for what it does during the different series. Sometimes they talk about forcefields, sometimes they mention 'holodeck matter'. Here though Data mentions two of the other ways it fakes an environment:

• The plants in this particular program are apparently replicated, though they don't use that word in this episode, so they're all real plants and you could just grab them and take them out with you if you felt like it.
• The holodeck walls, on the other hand, are acting a bit like the LED screen they use to film The Mandalorian, except it somehow fakes the parallax to be correct for multiple people at once to create the illusion that the scenery continues on into the distance.

It's interesting that this is all new to Riker. He never had anything like this on the Hood and he definitely didn't grow up with this technology as a kid. I think later series eventually retcon it so that holodecks have been around much longer and everyone grew up with them, which is a bit disappointing if it's true.

Then Wesley goes and breaks into Data's program like Riker did! Maybe this is just an open program for anyone to join in? He tries to jump across the stones like Riker and manages to fall into the water. Fortunately Data's stunt double is there to leap into action and pull him out with one hand. Which seems like it would hurt.

When Wesley comes out of the holodeck he's still dripping wet, establishing that the water was definitely replicated. Or maybe just pumped in there, seeing as that would save a lot of energy. The holodeck utilises a whole bag of tricks to pull off its illusions so it's unfathomable and inconsistent by design.

Sorry I keep getting off track... is what this episode should be saying to us right now. It's gone off the rails at this point, and keeps getting distracted with whatever random characters are up to. Weren't they supposed to be solving a mystery or something? Wasn't there a time limit mentioned? Isn't humanity in danger of being confined to the Solar system forever if they don't get this right?

It's weird, as it seems like this holodeck interlude exists to give Riker an important clue. He's inside an environment generated by a holodeck that can materialise any object he wants. How is this not familiar to him? This is exactly what Farpoint station is doing! Why is no one commenting on this?

At least he's going back to work now so we're finally returning to the story.

Oh, hang on, we're following Wesley instead now. He's put a dry sweater on and he's bothering his mother at work, pestering her to let him go visit the bridge.

I suppose this does give me an opportunity to show off a better screencap of the sickbay, with the observation lounge windows visible in the background. It's the same room, they've just covered the glass. It blows my mind that I never noticed this when I was watching it the first time.

That's a nice shot of the huge Farpoint mall set. Also there's another guy in a skant.

We're back here because Riker is finally leading an away team to investigate the station. Tasha, La Forge and Troi are going to check out the passages under the station, while Riker and Data stay around here and do some shopping I guess. Hang on, Troi's a higher rank than Tasha and La Forge so is she going to be in command down there? Nope, they're all staying in contact with Riker.

They don't have tricorder props at the this point so Data's examining the walls with his android eyes. He admits that La Forge's VISOR has much better vision than he does, but from what he can tell the materials seem pretty much what you'd expect. Meanwhile La Forge is in an underground passage looking at materials he's never seen before. Troi has been keeping her powers set to 'off' after the incident in the Groppler's office, but Riker needs her to see if she can sense anything.

So she does, and she immediately picks up "Pain, such pain. Unhappiness. Terrible despair".

Riker and Data beam down to the tunnels to apologise and then they all continue searching for clues. At this point it's clear they they'll have more chance of solving the mystery of Farpoint station by hiking around down here than they will hunting for bargains up there.

Sideburns! I forgot to check if the new crew has the proper pointy Star Trek sideburns! Turns out that they do, so that's good. It's the only way you can tell humans apart from the human-looking aliens.

Meanwhile, in the more important 'Wesley wants to see the bridge' plotline, Dr Crusher has brought him up to take a look from the safety of the turbolift. That way he's technically not really on the bridge, just in his own tiny adjacent circular room. Picard's furious when he catches sight of him standing there, but calms down a bit when Crusher walks out. Maybe because he's trying to figure out why her uniform is currently as green as Wesley's sweater. There's something very weird with the colour in this version of the episode.

Then he suddenly switches into 'impress the doctor by giving her son the tour' mode for some reason. Maybe there's something in the series' writer's bible that can explain this bizarre switch in attitude...

Ah. Well that makes sense then.

In the actual episode it's not just her appearance that changes his disposition towards Wesley, it's the revelation that he's actually her son. The one he hasn't seen since that time years ago that he informed him of his father's death.

Wesley's invited to look around and we get that familiar first person shot of the bridge for a third time this episode. They seem really determined to make sure we're familiar with the layout of this room.

Picard even invites Wesley to sit in the captain's chair. Though the episode still in first person view at that point, so he's actually offering viewers a chance to sit down.

Turns out that Wesley already knows what all the stuff on his chair does, because he's a huge nerd.

Okay, sorry, he's a perfectly normal spaceship enthusiast.

We learn here that the flip open panels on Picard's chair do all kinds of things, with the one on the right being where he records his log entries. So there's one mystery solved.

Picard's inexplicably pissed off that Wesley knows so much about how this all works, and he's even more furious when the kid tells him about the perimeter alert going off. In fact he sends both him and his mother off the bridge! The guy really doesn't like children, or people touching his stuff.

Wesley was right about there being an object approaching though and it's nothing they recognise. It's ignoring their hails, so Picard orders shields raised and phasers armed. The plot's finally thickening!

ACT EIGHT

The mysterious vessel flies up to the Enterprise and scans it, but it's not doing anything else. Picard's so mystified at what it might be he even suspects it could be a Ferengi vessel, but Zorn assures him that all his talk about calling them was just a bluff.

All they know about the object is that it's 12 times their volume. Which is 360 times the volume of the original Enterprise!

Hey, it's another new shot of Farpoint! The matte paintings that show up later in the series are great, but the advantage of a model is that you can shoot it from different angles. And then later you can blow it up... if the script calls for it.

Riker's away team is still wandering around the tunnels under Farpoint, even though Picard wanted them beamed up. Their combadges are being blocked by something so they're walking out to the surface on foot.

Back in space, the mysterious ship starts to open fire on the planet! Picard orders the photon torpedoes readied, but Worf stops him from firing! He's figured out that it's aiming at the old Bandi city, not Farpoint station.

Riker orders Troi, La Forge and Tasha to beam away, while he and Data head towards the explosions. Troi's not keen on him going into danger, because she obviously still cares about him and he might be hurt! But she pulls herself together and follows his orders. I was half expecting Yar to point out that Riker and Data are the two highest ranked command officers after Picard and it should be her that goes into danger, but nope she stays silent.

Meanwhile Zorn's freaking out, yelling into his communicator for the Enterprise to save them. Picard's not really into loud annoying repetitive noises on the bridge though, so he has him turned down.

Then we get to see a phaser in action for the first time as Data cuts a door open. Unfortunately it's only one of the tiny phasers. I wanted to write a bit about how the new phaser and tricoder props are deliberately not just updates of the classic iconic props, but the episode's not showing them off!

On the plus side the two of them reach the city in time to see it being blown up!

They're so badass that they don't even flinch from anything happening on that green screen in front of them.

Picard's able to get in contact with them now so he phones Riker to see if he'd have any problem with him ordering an illegal kidnapping. Riker doesn't even have to think before saying 'nope'. Groppler Zorn is in one of these buildings and Picard wants him up on the Enterprise instead. In fact he might be the only person in any of these buildings, it's really not made clear what the situation is here.

Troi tells Picard that protecting the Bandi here probably doesn't violate the Prime Directive, as they're currently in talks to become allies, and that's all Picard needs to hear before locking phasers on the hostile vessel.

Just then Q reappears!

ACT NINE

Picard has been careful to show Q respect since the trial, calling him "your honour", but he goes into full 'get off my bridge' mode here, yelling at him to "Get off my bridge!"

Q's not going anywhere however. He's here to mock them for not following their own rules (because they locked phasers, not because they're literally about to kidnap someone). Q also points out that they should be doing something about the casualties on the planet. Turns out that Crusher's medical team is preparing to beam down as they speak though, so the Enterprise crew have at least gotten that part right.

Alright, so there are people living in the Bandi city then, they've just been hiding off screen this whole time. Okay, I'm glad that's been made clear.

Also Picard fires back at Q for allowing the alien attack to happen in the first place when he knew what was going to happen. He's not going fire back at the mysterious vessel though, instead he orders that the Enterprise is to be brought between the vessel and the city with "forcefields on full", to block their attack. It's a good idea, but it doesn't happen. They've lost control of the ship for some reason so they're just stuck there.

Riker and Data were right under the volley of weapons fire this time and get knocked down for a moment. But Brent Spiner takes the opportunity to sit up like a robot so it's all good. Oh hang on, I just noticed that he's wearing a tricorder prop. So they do have tricorders in this episode, they just haven't been using them despite this being a mission to investigate what Farpoint is made from.

They're currently in the corridor outside of Zorn's office, and they step inside to find him crying under his desk. He's a terrified groppler and it's really starting to seem like any kidnapping at this point would be more like a rescue. In fact Riker decides to walk out and leave him here as a ploy to finally get him to talk.

It would've worked too, but he gets beamed up by the other vessel! Maybe it was listening in, trying to figure out who was responsible for whatever's going on, and Zorn just gave himself away. I dunno!

Either way, the Starfleet kidnapping mission has failed. Riker contacts the ship and wonders if it could've been Q who beamed their groppler away, which Q finds to be hilarious. Though he's also getting a little tired of how clueless they are. I can kind of see why, as he's trying to judge whether they're savages or not and they haven't even figured out what's going on yet!

Q gives them a clue, suggesting that they beam over to the other ship, which Riker's up for. The idea of just beaming over to a hostile ship isn't something that comes up often in Star Trek, because they usually have shields up. In this case the issue is that they can't scan it, so they don't actually know where they'd be beaming them to. But no one raises the possibility that Riker could end up embedded in a wall or a floor.

There's a flash and their judge is gone again. Picard's a bit more hopeful now that Riker seems to have impressed him. Though he doesn't call him Riker this time, he calls him 'Number One', just like Captain Pike called his first officer in The Cage!

Awesome, the plot's finally moving again and we're about to get the next big piece of the puzzle. Wait, why is Picard walking off to a turbolift?

Why is Picard visiting Crusher in sickbay?

It turns out that he's come down here to apologise for his behaviour on the bridge earlier, and to kick her off the ship. He realises it's awkward that Starfleet assigned her to a ship commanded by someone she's had such a traumatic history with and he's going to make sure she can go somewhere else. Is it a bit dodgy that he's trying to help get her reassigned instead of leaving the ship himself? I'm not sure to be honest. He's the captain, so I'm thinking it would probably work out better this way.

But she tells him that she requested this position! It's actually the most prestigious position for a doctor in the fleet. He realises he's got it all wrong and welcomes her aboard.

This is the sickbay office set that appeared as a lounge earlier in the episode, by the way. Now it's appearing as the sickbay office, which means that the starfield behind those windows blinds shouldn't really be there.

The black arrow on this sickbay blueprint shows the direction the camera's pointing, towards Crusher's office windows. If they're on the edge of the ship then the corner of the sickbay up there is sticking out into space.

Sorry, my attention starts wandering when an episode keeps switching to whole scenes of exposition or padding whenever the story threatens to go anywhere. You can totally pull off a Star Trek episode that isn't entirely focused on one plot line, modern Trek series have a ton of things going on at once, you just don't pull it off like this.

ACT TEN

The next scene starts with Riker getting ready to beam over to the alien ship, standing in front of the mysterious corridor on the right side of the transporter room. In seven seasons of TNG we never get to see where it goes, or if it goes anywhere at all. Chief O'Brien could have his own room back there, with a sofa, a fridge and a big TV, and he might spend most of the day playing PlayStation games, we just don't know.

Though there are clues hidden in the first two Original Series movies to where the corridor takes you, and if you put them together it reveals that...

... it takes you behind the windows of Dr Crusher's office!

Riker joins his away team of Tasha, Troi and Data on the transporter pad (no La Forge this time), and he tucks away a tiny phaser into a pocket underneath his armpit before they're beamed over to the alien ship.

Wait what? These uniforms have pockets? My whole understanding of Star Trek has just collapsed!

The crew beam over to the other ship without the transporter knowing where it's putting them, and they survive! So that's good. They didn't even materialise in mid-air and fall on their asses.

Right away they notice that the corridors here are identical to the tunnels under Farpoint station (though they haven't noticed that the tunnels behind them are a painted backdrop yet). Troi isn't feeling pain here however, this time she's in angry mode, and it's no less ridiculous than the other times she's been overcome with emotion. She seems to experience all the emotions she's sensing in this episode, so she's saddened by sadness, cheered up by joy etc., a bit like Spock during a mind meld. It's not really working out though so I can see why they dropped the idea for later stories.

Data notices that the being Troi is sensing seems to be directing all its anger towards the people that constructed Farpoint... then stops, realising that he's commenting on everything. Data's so smart he's analysing the weaknesses in the episode's script! Riker just tells him to carry on doing it though.

They don't come across any crew or controls, or any of the usual things you'd expect to find in a spaceship, but they do eventually come across Groppler Zorn being tortured in an energy field. The guy's still maintaining his innocence, though this time Troi is certain he's lying.

Riker and Data free him from the field with some coordinated phaser fire, but the ship's clearly not happy about it.

Picard orders the transporter room to "Yank them back," but Q reappears in a Starfleet uniform and locks them out of their systems again! Because he's a jerk, and because their 24 hours are up. Picard is desperate enough now that he promises to do whatever Q says if he'll help his away team. I guess he means he'll agree to turn the ship around and go back to Earth like he asks, which will be a bit of a depressing end to his career.

His officers appear safely on the bridge. But they appear with the alien beaming effect instead of a Q flash! Not that Picard notices.

Troi explains to him that it was the alien ship that saved them, so any deal he made with Q isn't valid. But Q still tries to give Picard a command, telling him to fire at the other ship. Troi reveals that the ship's alive, but Q accuses her of lying! Q's sitting in the captain's chair at this point so he tries issuing some orders, saying "make phasers and photon torpedoes ready", but his heart's clearly not in the role this time. It really comes across like he's rushing them towards the correct solution by telling them to do the opposite.

Meanwhile Zorn still claims the Bandi did nothing wrong and that they just helped an injured creature! This is all Picard needs to hear to rig the phasers to fire an energy beam. He and Riker have figured out that there could presumably be some kind of creature out there that could have the power to create matter from energy, like the holodeck replicators transporters do! They never quite connect the dots and realise that there's another creature with that power standing right next to them in a Starfleet uniform though.

Suddenly the ship outside begins to transform for whatever reason, and everyone moves to get a good look.

There's a term called 'blocking' which refers to the position of performers in the frame. A director will work out where everyone should be and where they should move to during the scene, with marks placed on the floor to give the actors an exact position to hit. So the director did well with the blocking of this scene, getting twelve actors in a position where they're all clearly visible, without it coming off as unnatural. He's even got the uniform colours grouped together in a nice way!

The ship flips over and changes into a jellyfish! There's absolutely no explanation given for why it wasn't a jellyfish from the start, except that maybe it likes to travel in disguise? All I know is that the effect was created practically, with a model, and it looks way way better in the remastered version.

Turns out that Farpoint station is another creature like this, held prisoner by the Bandi who give it just enough energy to survive but not to leave. Picard is pretty certain the the Farpoint creature must be this creature's mate, considering the lengths it's going to in order to save it, but he's making a big assumption there. I mean Picard was about to do anything to save his away team and none of them are his mate.

Then we get one of the few shots that actually looks better in the original SD version than the remaster. I mean sure the engines are the wrong colour and the beam is clearly not coming out of the phaser strip, but the HD version features a digital matte painting with the contrast way too high and I'm not keen on it.

Farpoint has (hopefully) been evacuated at this point, so the other creature is able to turn into a jellyfish as well!

Aww there's a blue and a pink one because they're a boy and a girl (it's a lot more obvious in the remastered version). They don't stop to say thanks before joining tentacles and flying off together, but Troi senses their gratitude.

Q agrees that the crew have passed the test and he will leave... but only because he wants to, not because Picard keeps yelling at him. Also he might be back! Maybe even once a season. That's something pretty different for Trek, it's never set up a recurring villain before now (though Harry Mudd did make a return appearance).

Well they didn't get to use Farpoint station in the end, but that's probably for the best considering it was a living being that the Bandi were torturing. Picard gives us an update on what happened next using his captain's log, mentioning that the Enterprise stuck around the planet until stardate 41174.2 (about a week later maybe) to get a different agreement in place: to build a new Farpoint station! So the Bandi will be able to sell fabric and the Federation will get their base and everyone will be happy! He doesn't mention what happened to Groppler Zorn, but it's possible he's still got his groppling job and he's happy too.

And then we get another nice shot of all the characters on the bridge together. I'm not usually this fortunate when I'm taking screencaps.

Riker hopes that they won't have any other missions as exciting as this one, but Picard assures him that future missions will be much more interesting. Man, even the episode itself can't help making quips about how dull this story is.

Picard gets the last line of the episode, saying "Let's see what's out there... engage!", and a heroic fanfare plays as the ship warps off to explore the great unexplored mass of the galaxy. I don't want to spoil what comes next this season but, uh, don't get your hopes up for that.


CONCLUSION

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They should've called the episode Encounter on the Way to Farpoint and Then a Second Encounter in Orbit Above Farpoint. Or maybe just Mystery of Farpoint!

D.C. Fontana's version of Encounter at Farpoint was originally about one thing: the crew investigating the mystery of an impossible starbase. The previous live-action pilots, The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before both had the captain dealing with a problem that affected them personally, with Pike being tempted by alternative lives and Kirk having to decide what to do about his friend, but this time it seems like the episode was mostly going to be about characters walking around identical tunnels and sensing things. A captive space creature disguised as a starbase is a very Star Trek concept, but I don't think the story they came up with here would've ever been a great one-part episode.

It definitely wouldn't have worked as a two-parter, so when it was decided to turn it into a feature-length story Gene Roddenberry did a rewrite and Encounter at Farpoint became about two things: the mysterious starbase and Q putting humanity on trial. The characters still weren't facing anything personal, but the episode now had a much more interesting villain played by John de Lancie and gave him plenty of screen time to argue about the nature of man with Patrick Stewart. The concept was already plenty Star Trek before, but now it'd been ramped up to 11 with the godlike superbeing and the crew facing a test of their ethics. Like The Corbomite Maneuver the story was meant to be a statement of intent right at the start, telling the audience that this series isn't about the heroes firing phasers and getting the mission done at any cost, it's about them collecting all the information and using it to figure out the moral option.

Sure the 'godlike superbeing standing in judgment over humanity' trope was done to death in the Original Series, but Q stands out from earlier examples because of how much fun he's having screwing with them, and how he shows up to add commentary to events. It's hard to get a read on Q because he's so deceptive and hypocritical, but I think the character makes more sense if he actually wants the crew to save the creature and pass his test. When they're slacking he gives them a time limit which coincides with when the other jellyfish is coming, he interrupts them when it looks they're about to fire on it, he straight up tells them to beam over, and he gives the alien an opportunity to prove its good intentions by preventing Picard from beaming his crew back himself. Then he calls Troi a liar and tells the crew to shoot it, which is so hilariously transparently the wrong thing to do that he's basically giving them the answer.

Unfortunately Corey Allen's fact-paced direction made this version of the episode underrun, so Encounter at Farpoint finally ended up being about three things: the impossible starbase, Q's test, and a whole lot of padding. The episode starts off tight and dramatic but then loses its focus and momentum just as they get given a time limit! And honestly the side scenes didn't do a great job of selling me on this new crew. Only Picard, Riker, Data and Worf really shine, and the other characters range from terrible to barely even there. Picard and Riker come off a bit like Kirk's been split into two again, but Picard's got a real commanding presence here when he's not being a dick. Riker has to put in some work to find Data but once they finally meet up the two are bros for the rest of the story and it works great. Meanwhile Worf is the surprise highlight of the bridge scenes, stealing all the good moments from Tasha even though it's not clear what his job actually is. At least the new role of security chief is well defined: she's there to be perfectly silent and do nothing until it's time for her to be impulsive and make an emotional outburst. Speaking of emotional outbursts, I liked Science Officer Troi but once she's replaced by "Pain. Unhappiness. Terrible despair!" Troi she never recovers.

So the episode's got real pacing issues, the story isn't all that interesting, the characters feel wrong, and it's so cheesy and overdramatic sometimes that I found myself laughing at it instead of with it. But despite its issues it had my attention from start to finish. Sometimes because of the earnest space adventure or because Patrick Stewart was dominating a scene, sometimes because I was fascinated by the bizarre conversations and how much of a train wreck it was turning into. Those scenes with Riker, Crusher and Wesley in Farpoint's mall are especially horrific.

This is a beta version of the show and it won't be fully patched up until season 3, but a lot of talented and enthusiastic people worked on the episode and that shines through. This is the very first TNG story and they already had the sets, the actors, the ship, the theme tune - everything that's iconic about Next Gen was there from day one. They just needed to work out how to use them properly. Also those visual effects look amazing... as long as you're watching the HD remaster. In fact they're pretty good either way; turns out that ILM knew what they were doing with their spaceship models.

Encounter at Farpoint is likely the worst of all the Trek pilots, but it's a lot more imaginative and fun than The Man Trap at least and I can see why I stuck with the series the first time around.

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NEXT EPISODE

Star Trek: The Next Generation won't be returning here, at least not for a long while, but next on Sci-Fi Adventures my Star Trek pilot marathon continues with the first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Emissary! Oh wait, hang on, seem I've actually covered that already.

Uh, next on Sci-Fi Adventures it's the first episode of Star Trek: Voyager - Caretaker! Though feel free to read about Emissary while you wait.