Star Trek: The Next Generation 1-01: Encounter at Farpoint - Part 2

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm still going through Encounter at Farpoint, the very first episode of seminal syndicated sci-fi series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

I feel like Star Trek: The Next Generation probably shouldn't work as a title, but it does for me. It helps that 'generation' is a sciency word and 'next' has an X in it. Plus it's arguably better than just naming the series after the setting like the next four series did (Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise and Discovery). Though it was really only the next generation in real world terms, as it was made two decades after the original show but set eight decades after the last movie.

This is the second part of a three part review by the way, so if you're on the wrong part and you want to go back to the start you should click here: PART ONE.

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.

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

Episode:

1

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Writer:

D. C. Fontana and Gene Roddenberry

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Director:

Corey Allen

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Air Date:

28-Sep-1987

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching the 106th story in the Star Trek franchise: Encounter at Farpoint! That's such an old school sci-fi title; it sounds like it's from a tie-in novel.

Encounter at Farpoint is also the very first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which itself was the first of the live-action Trek spin-offs. The Rick Berman-era of Trek started here. 15.7 million people tuned in for the episodes in the US, and 11.5 stuck around for episode two, The Naked Now. The series then hovered around that level for the rest of the run, with even season seven pulling in 11 million, so it's no bloody wonder they kept making more spin-offs.

I got that information from Wikipedia so you know it's all true. Though hang on, Wikipedia claims that The Naked Now is actually the third episode, not the second. The reason for this is that Encounter at Farpoint is a two-hour telefilm that can be split into two parts. Though I'm going to be splitting this review into three parts, because I've got a lot to talk about. It's a fairly important episode!

CBS spent a lot of money to go back to the original negatives and remaster the entire series, and it really looks fantastic now in HD. It's one of the best remasters I've seen, it's awesome. Though you can just go to TrekCore if all you're after is beautiful high resolution screencaps, you don't need me for that. So instead I've decided to show off the authentic fuzzy 1987 version of the episode...because I've spent money buying the ancient DVDs and I'm determined to get some use out of them. You should be grateful I'm not showing shots captured from a VHS tape recorded off BBC 2 really.

I should also give you a SPOILER WARNING as I'm going to give away absolutely everything that happens in this story. I might also spoil things from other Trek stories that came out before 1987 (so The Man Trap to Star Trek IV: The One with the Whales), but that's as far as my spoilers will go.

Star Trek: The Original Series 1-01: The Man Trap

Episode:

1

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Writer:

George Clayton Johnson

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Director:

Marc Daniels

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Air Date:

08-Sep-1966

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It's Star Trek Day today, September 8th, so to celebrate I've decided to rewatch The Man Trap, the very first ever episode of Star Trek! Well... maybe. It's arguably not even the first with 'Man' in the title.

The Man Trap was the sixth episode of The Original Series to be filmed and it's at least the fourth chronologically (after The Cage, Where No Man Has Gone Before and The Corbomite Maneuver). But it's undisputedly the first Trek story to air on televisions and it aired exactly 55 years ago today, so that's why I'm writing about it. Well okay it aired two days earlier in Canada, but no one counts that for some reason.

There were a few reasons why this episode was chosen to get moved to the front of the line, such as: it has the characters down on a strange new world instead of being bottled up on the ship, it doesn't include any "space hookers", it's got a straightforward story, the visual effects could be completed on time, and it has a scary space monster. Uh, spoilers, sorry. Basically they wanted to put their best foot forward to maximise their chances that viewers would come back for a second story.

It was directed by Marc Daniels, who was credited on 14 episodes over three seasons, leaving him tied with Joseph Pevney as the series' most prolific director. On the other hand this was writer George Clayton Johnson's only Trek story. He wrote a bunch of Twilight Zone though and co-wrote the novel Logan's Run, so he wasn't the worst choice for the job! In fact the Star Trek producers made a habit of trying to get acclaimed science fiction authors to write for the series... and then heavily rewriting them afterwards to make their stories feel like Trek. The writers weren't always impressed.

Okay, I'm going to go through the whole episode one scene at a time, writing a recap under my screencaps and sharing my thoughts along the way. This means that there'll be SPOILERS for this episode and every single other Trek episode that aired before it. All zero of them.

Babylon 5 5-04: A View from the Gallery

Episode:

92

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Janet Greek

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Air Date:

11-Feb-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching Babylon 5 season 5 episode 4, A View from the Gallery.

It's another Janet Greek episode, who's directed half the episodes so far this season after skipping the last few years entirely. She's got her name on some of the series' best stories so that's a good sign... though I remember not liking this one for whatever reason. This is also the first episode since Knives back in season 2 to have someone else's name in the writing credits: legendary author Harlan Ellison.

Ellison had been a credited as a conceptual consultant for Babylon 5's whole run, plus he also played the roles of a Psi Cop (in Face of the Enemy) and Sparky the Computer (in Ceremonies of Light and Dark). This makes him one of Garibaldi's greatest enemies. He was known for being a bit antagonistic in general, famously getting into a feud with Gene Roddenberry over the script for The City on the Edge of Tomorrow and suing James Cameron for The Terminator. But this trivia is all pretty much irrelevant as he apparently only gave writer jms the basic concept for the episode and didn't really do anything else on it. Though one of the main characters may have a bit of a resemblance...

SPOILER WARNING: I'll be screencapping, recapping and reviewing all of A View from the Gallery, and the episode builds on events from earlier stories, so a mountain of spoilers awaits you here. I won't spoil anything that comes after it though.

Babylon 5 5-03: The Paragon of Animals

Episode:

91

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Mike Vejar

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Air Date:

04-Feb-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm still watching Babylon 5, and I've reached season 5, episode 3: The Paragon of Animals. The title's a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet and in context it basically means 'humans are the best'. Though the character saying the line in the play is being sarcastic, so what it really means is 'humans suck'.

It's always nice to get a B5 episode that's put something other than a CGI shot of the space station under its title for a change. I like seeing the station, but you've got to have a bit of variety. Sometimes what you want is a shot of Garibaldi putting his shoes all over a table in the council chamber.

The episode was directed by Mike Vejar, which is generally a good sign as he was one of the series' best directors. Sadly he only returned for one more episode of B5 after this, but he did direct a couple of the TV movies and a third of Crusade.

That's the last thing I'm going to say here about future B5 stories, but this recap and review is definitely going to contain huge SPOILERS for this story and earlier ones. If you haven't seen the series up to Paragon of Animals then you might want to stop reading here.

Babylon 5 5-02: The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari

Episode:

90

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

David J. Eagle

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Air Date:

28-Jan-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the second episode of Babylon 5, season 5: The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari. More like the very long title of Londo Mollari...

The episode made history when it aired as it's the only episode of television to ever have the words "Londo" and "Mollari" in the title. Though it's not the first to have The Long Night in it, as B5 already did that last season. It's not the first to have a character's name in the title either, but unlike Vir and Garibaldi, Londo was blessed with having his full name immortalised on episode lists.

Here's some more title trivia for you: there was going to be an episode called The Very Long Night of Susan Ivanova in season 2. Creator jms dropped the idea in the end, but reused the name when this came around. They've also reused this shot of the station as I remember seeing it under the title of season 3's Exogenesis!

Alright I'm going to recap the whole episode and throw my opinions and observations in along the way. That means that there will be SPOILERS for anyone who hasn't watched the series up to this point. I won't say a thing about anything that happens afterwards though.

Babylon 5 5-01: No Compromises

Episode:

89

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Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

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Director:

Janet Greek

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Air Date:

21-Jan-1998

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the first episode of Babylon 5's awkward final season: No Compromises.

I've mentioned already that the series lost its network and was rescued by TNT at the last minute, but things didn't entirely work out for the best. For one thing the budget stayed the same while the cast and crew got contractual raises, so were working with less money this season (and it was already a low budget series). They had to switch to six shooting days instead of seven to make up the difference. Plus they lost Claudia Christian and no one seems entirely sure who's to blame for that. She apparently wanted to come back, but she felt like they were rushing her into signing a contract that might prevent her from filming movies, and maybe didn't realise that production really was that pressed for time. All I know for certain is that this season will have far below the recommended amount of Ivanova.

This is the first episode of 1998, by the way, which wasn't a bad time for live-action sci-fi. Deep Space Nine was in its final years, Voyager was halfway through, and Stargate SG-1 was just getting started. It was a year of asteroid movies, with Armageddon and Deep Impact both hitting cinemas, and it was also a year of sci-fi TV shows getting movies. There was Lost in Space, Star Trek: Insurrection, The X-Files: Fight the Future... oh plus Babylon 5 got its own TV movie, In the Beginning, which aired a couple of weeks before this episode. I just wrote about that film actually, if you're trying to keep track of what order these reviews go in (and what stories I may end up spoiling).

Right, I'm going to get on with recapping, screencapping and sharing my thoughts on this episode, which means there'll be EXTREME SPOILERS for this and earlier episodes. Continue with caution.