It’s always interesting when you go back and rewatch the pilot of a long-running series,
because it reminds you of how the series started and what it eventually became,
and sometimes the difference between those is striking. For example,
Star Trek: The Next Generation eventually became a watchable show!
This is a review of the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation,
“Encounter at Farpoint.” If you have not seen this episode,
and you don’t want to know what happens in it, be warned: spoilers beyond this point!
I’ve been very hard on this episode in the past. I’ve called it the worst Star Trek pilot. But,
I just watched it again for this review, and I have to say — it’s still easily
the worst Star Trek pilot — but! I was more impressed by it this time than I have been in
the past. There’s a lot about this first adventure of the Enterprise D to admire,
even if the episode is still ultimately a failed effort.
For example, right away we get that Captain Picard is a complicated guy. He’s not
complicated in the brooding, morally ambiguous way that so many more recent action/adventure
protagonists have been — it’s more about how he deals with his crew, which parts of
himself he chooses to show them and when. Lots of fans, myself included, tend to characterize
Picard from the first two seasons of the show in reductive terms — we call him “surly” or “stern.”
And, he is those things. But, in “Encounter at Farpoint” we also see that he is thoughtful
and sensitive and passionate and, at least to a degree, self-aware.
He treats Commander Riker coldly when Riker first comes aboard the Enterprise, but then, in a later
meeting, comes across much more agreeable. Perhaps his earlier gruffness was due to the seriousness
of the situation they found themselves in, having just left their first face-off with Q. Or,
perhaps Picard was testing Riker to see how he would react. Either way, their second meeting,
in the observation lounge, ends with a warm handshake and a “Welcome to the Enterprise.”
That scene also has a comedic beat, which Patrick Stewart nails flawlessly,
when Picard confesses to being uncomfortable around children. Despite his personal feelings,
a captain needs an air of geniality, he explains to Riker with an affable smile,
before instantly shifting back into serious mode to say, “So, you’re to see that’s what I project!”
There’s also a nice thread involving Picard and Wesley. Picard first sees Wesley when Wes,
soaking wet from having fallen into a stream, walks out of the holodeck with Riker and Data.
Picard doesn’t know who he is and treats him brusquely. Later, when Beverly brings Wesley
to visit the bridge, Picard realizes who Wesley is — “I knew your father, Wesley” — and they have
a corny little scene of Wesley being awestruck by the bridge that ends with Picard yelling at
Wesley and ordering him to get lost. Then, a bit later, Picard visits Beverly in sickbay
to apologize for yelling at Wes and officially welcome her aboard. It’s a satisfying little arc.
Like all pilot episodes, “Farpoint” has to establish the premise of the series and who
all the players are — and in this case, even with a feature length episode, there’s a lot. But,
the episode does a pretty good job, I have to say. We meet Picard, of course, and Tasha, and Data —
Data’s first scene does a very good job of letting us know that Data is an android without anyone
actually coming out and saying it — and Troi, and Worf, and Riker, and Beverly, and Wesley,
and Geordi. Everybody gets a moment to give us a sense of who they are, though some, like Worf,
don’t get much more than that. We establish that there’s romantic history between Riker and Troi,
and . . . some kind of history between Picard and Beverly. And, we meet Q, who isn’t quite as
delightful as he will be in future episodes, but that’s no fault of John de Lancie — he’s
clearly got this character figured out already and is waiting for the writers to catch up.
There’s also a cameo from DeForest Kelley, playing an incredibly old Dr. McCoy,
who appears to do the hand-off from one generation to the next, so skeptical Trekkies in 1987 would
know they were allowed to like this new show. It’s a good scene, fun and a little poignant,
and Kelley is obviously having a ball playing the ancient McCoy,
who has seemingly grown more stereotypically southern as the decades have gone by.
The episode also establishes that the Enterprise D can separate its saucer section from the lower
drive section, and introduces us to the holodeck. Like I said, there’s a lot.
The story is classic Star Trek, through and through: the crew meets a judgmental godlike being
who tests them to prove that they are worthy of continuing to explore the galaxy, and in the end
they prove themselves not by defeating an enemy in battle, but by recognizing a creature in need and
acting with compassion. They encounter lifeforms they’ve never seen before, they right a wrong,
and when their job is done they leave the planet never to return! Like I said, classic Star Trek.
So, those are all points in the episode’s favor. Unfortunately, those good points don’t combine
into a cohesive whole. If you know the story behind this episode, you know that there was
a lot of back-and-forth between Gene Roddenberry and the studio over how long it was going to be.
Roddenberry wanted a one-hour episode, Paramount executives wanted two hours, D.C. Fontana’s first
draft was for ninety-minutes, and then when the decision was made to make it two hours,
Roddenberry himself added thirty minutes worth of material to Fontana’s script,
and most of that thirty minutes is the stuff with Q that opens the episode.
Even if you don’t know that, you could probably guess that something like that was the case just
by watching the episode. The Q sequence at the beginning is the most action-packed part
of the episode, and Q himself is an intriguing adversary right off the bat — although, again,
he would become a lot more fun in subsequent appearances — but ultimately it plays like
what it is: a hastily added frame story to extend the running time. As a result,
“Encounter at Farpoint” has a clunky, hammered-together quality.
Also, while I appreciate how many characters and concepts the episode has to establish, its way of
establishing them isn’t terribly elegant. There are several times throughout the episode where it
feels like we’re being conducted on a tour of the Enterprise rather than being told a story. “Next
stop, the holodeck! After this, we’ll stop by sickbay so we can listen in on Geordi telling Dr.
Crusher how his visor works! And then maybe we’ll have another scene to establish that Data is,
in fact, an android, even though beating it into the ground like that sorta undercuts the indirect
way we established it in his first scene, but whatever, let’s keep it moving, keep it moving!”
Finally, when we get past the Q prologue,
the main story of the episode — the mystery of Farpoint Station — isn’t all that interesting.
The solution to the mystery is so telegraphed that it’s not really a surprise — I’m not saying
the first time I watched it I guessed exactly that the station was actually a living being and
that the spaceship that arrived later was its mate coming to rescue it, but you get the general idea,
and it doesn’t feel like it demands all that much from Picard and his crew to figure this out.
There’s also not much in the way of tension or suspense. There’s never a point where it
feels as though the ship or anyone on it is in danger, and there’s never really a point
where it feels like our heroes aren’t going to solve the puzzle and succeed,
which means the threat hanging over their heads from Q doesn’t have any weight, either.
It all looks great, especially for something produced for TV in the late 1980s — I know
it’s been remastered and upscaled to HD since then, but still. The performances
are mostly good. There is a noticeable stiffness and excessive formality in the
way the characters interact with each other. They communicate mostly through
declarative sentences delivered with varying degrees of urgency. Though, that’s probably
a result of this being the first episode — everybody loosens up eventually, even Picard.
Actually, the next episode is “The Naked Now,” so
they all loosen up a lot, very quickly, don’t they?
Which is not to say all the character interactions are so stilted. Just as we sometimes reduce season
one Picard to a humorless grump, we also describe the rest of the cast as being overly rigid in this
early phase of the series. And, while that’s often the case, it’s not always the case. Counselor Troi
spends most of “Encounter at Farpoint” seemingly on the verge of bursting into tears for one reason
or another, Tasha Yar has a very passionate angry speech in response to Q during the trial scene,
and Patrick Stewart even plays Picard’s desperation and indignation in the face
of Q’s accusations and threats against humanity with some very raw emotion.
I know a lot of folks have criticized Star Trek: Discovery for its characters yelling and crying
too much, and I get it — I see it, too — but, have you all watched “Encounter at Farpoint” lately?
Disco didn’t introduce that shit to Star Trek.
There are no doubt some high points in the episode — more than I remembered from the last
time I watched it — but they are still greatly outnumbered by the lows. There is one perfect
moment, however — perfect not because it’s good, but because it perfectly, though unintentionally,
represents my feelings. It comes right at the end, when Picard, Riker and Troi have taken
their seats on the bridge and the Enterprise is about to head off to its next destination.
Riker turns to Picard and says, “I hope this isn’t how our missions will usually go.”
And Picard says, “Oh, no, Number One. I’m sure our missions will usually be much more interesting.”
It’s supposed to be a flex, a “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet” kind of thing. I’m
supposed to hear Picard say “Our missions will usually be much more interesting” and think,
“Even more interesting than this?! Wow, how is that even possible?! I can’t wait!”
Instead, I hear Picard say “Our missions will usually be much more interesting,”
and my first thought is “Christ, I sure hope so!”
And the good news is, they would get more interesting! Eventually.
Those are my thoughts on the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Please do share
your thoughts in the comments. If you’d like to support this channel — and I sure wish you would,
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I’ll be back next week for a retro review of the pilot episode of Star Trek:
Deep Space Nine, “Emissary”! Thanks for watching, and take care, everybody.