Televisual Advent Calendar #04 – Star Trek The Next Generation

Captain Jean Luc Picard

Make it so….

This is my 2019 Televisual Advent Calendar. I did a musical version in 2011 and a cinematic one in 2012. It is in no particular order and I make no apologies for the TV series that I am blogging about. These TV series have either made me think, I have enjoyed or have had some impact on me. These are scripted TV series, some are drama, some are comedy, some are both. I found it really hard to narrow this down to just 24.

There are quite a few series of Star Trek and I do say I am enjoyING Star Trek Discovery and looking forward to Picard next year.

Having reflected though on the different series, I decided that The Next Generation would be the series that made it into this Televisual Advent Calendar.

Star Trek The Next Generation Crew

I never really watched the original Star Trek, I remember seeing a few episodes. I remember watching the first episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation at university, well I say remember, they were shown late in the Junior Common Room and I think I might have drunk a little too much. As I got older, I started to watch a little more science fiction television, I did start to watch Star Trek The Next Generation and really enjoyed it. I hit it when it was in its third series and unlike other TV series I started to watch this by buying the VHS tapes when they came out. I remember having no real idea of release dates, as in the early 1990s we didn’t really have the internet we have today. Every so often I would head off to WHSmith and buy the latest episodes on VHS tape and watching them on my VCR. Some episodes were good and some were not so good.

I really enjoyed season three and season five. Yesterday’s Enterprise is probably my favourite episode of the whole series. A time travelling episode involving an alternate darker Enterprise. Really clever story.

Yesterday's Enterprise

I liked the characters and their interactions. Looking back now, the sets and costumes look very dated, and the effects are very much of their time. However many of the stories are still strong, both entertaining and thoughtful. I was quite sad when the whole series ended, but the finale episode was very enjoyable.

As a result of getting into The Next Generation I did become a bit of a “fan” and have watched and enjoyed the other Star Trek series as a result.

I did enjoy Deep Space Nine, but felt that it was a bit of a copy of Babylon 5. This was different to The Next Generation in that there was a series of long story arcs within the different seasons and an overall arc.

This for some was somewhat of a disappointment, but I quite enjoyed he later seasons of Star Trek Voyager but in the end it wasn’t The Next Generation.

I must have been one of the few people who enjoyed Enterprise, I liked the early days of Star Fleet, but in the end I think it suffered from the weight of the preceding series of Star Trek.

When it comes to Star Trek Discovery, I did think it would suffer from the same issues that I had seen with Enterprise. I will say I wasn’t an early fan, but I gave it some time and now quite enjoy it. I think the revamped style was difficult to grasp within the context of the design of the earlier series, but It grew on me. I did enjoy the second season much more than the first.

I am looking forward to Picard, the next generation of the The Next Generation perhaps…

Get Star Trek The Next Generation on Blu-Ray.
Get Star Trek The Next Generation on DVD.
Get Star Trek The Next Generation on Amazon Video.
Get Star Trek The Next Generation on iTunes.

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