1y ago

Fans reacting to the announcement of Star Trek: The Next Generation

It's so bizarre to read this in the present, knowing how incredible TNG was, but I get it - the original crew WAS Star Trek to them.

The dedicated fans revived this series in syndication, well after it had gone off the air in 1969, and felt attached to the characters that they had obsessed over between then and the 1980s. Like modern fans, they thought that departure from what they knew would ruin it.

I wish I could go back in time and tell them that TNG is going to rock.

185 comments

"unknown British Shakespearian actor..." Wow, I never thought I'd hear Patrick Stewart described that way.
- Shlock shock journalism to sell issues.

TNG > OG series any day, everyday.
- It took me a long time to reach this conclusion. I love TOS, and the characters are cultural icons, but when I want to fanboy over the whole "philosophy" of Star Trek, I'm thinking of TNG every single time.
  
  I'll probably get wrecked in here for saying this,but I never liked TOS. It's so campy and hokey. Even the movies with the original cast don't interest me all that much. I respect them for paving the way for TNG, but I'll never choose TOS over TNG.
  
  That is very well said. Tng embodies the philosophy of start trek better.
- Unfair advantage, TNG has Picard.
  
  Picard is definitely the top card there, but seriously the rest of the cast was damn good too.
  Had a rather large crush on Beverly and Troy. Hubba hubba
  
  Star Trek: Picard has Picard too...
- Season one of TNG was compared to TOS and TNG didn’t fare too well early on. The Naked Now? A copy of The Naked Time. Data trying to be human was compared to Spock. LaForge wasn’t like Scotty. Picard was stuck up and by the book compared to Kirk rushing into battle and brawling with aliens with his bare hands.
  It wasn’t until the show developed into its own thing that it became great.
  
  Laforge wasn’t the engineer season one, right?
- unpopular opinion: the first 3 seasons of tng were the best
  
  Ooh, that's a spicy take. I like it.
  
  @eldavi @Hazdaz I’m happy that Star Trek is big enough for a lot of people to find their favorite parts. I love all the engine room scenes in VOY
  
  I love the first two seasons for their episodic adventure structure. But I also greatly appreciate the character driven structure of seasons 3+ and I definitely think the aesthetic changes for s3 were an unadulterated improvement.

It's also funny that the article suggests that Laforge is the new Spock, and not obviously Data.
- If you read the initial material, Data is drastically different. There is no explicit mention of being unemotional, just that he tends to speak more formally. He's supposed to be more like the Ilia probe than Spock.
  Worf didn't exist at first, so Geordi the teacher with bionic vision would be the most "other" character. If they'd seen any of the early press material for Phase II, Spock's replacement there was a very junior officer.
  
  Wow, could you imagine the show without Worf? It just wouldn't feel right.

I mean let's be real here they had every right to be concerned. TNG had serious problems in the beginning and had some pretty big flaws even as the show got going. Off the top of my head
The first few episodes (besides Q) were straight trash. Even if you take out the ample racism and sexism, they still kinda suck
Worf didn't become a thing until Yar died. He was just kinda there. Also his hair looked ridiculous
Riker was half as sexy in terms of looks and a quarter as sexy in terms of personality
Picard was a dick. Not firm but fair. A straight up dick.
They straight up got rid of crusher for a season
The Ferengi were awful. Not like in a "lol what shenanigans is Quark up to now" but in a "TOS Gorn" way
- I'm watching TNG now with someone who's never seen it before, and that's making me 'see' the show with fresh eyes. The first few episodes are so hard to get through. Some are straight up cringey. Many remember Code of Honor and Last Outpost as being horrible, but Naked Now is awful in its own way. Don't get me wrong: TNG goes on to be an excellent, culture-defining show. When people talk about how good it is, they're probably thinking about Measure of a Man, Inner Light, Darmok, and Best of Both Worlds.
  Let me add that DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise got to build on the risks that TNG took. Those shows were more consistently good at their starts.
  
  Hey Naked Now has Data laying android pipe and therefore is fully functional in terms of canon.
  
  The Naked Now was a bizarre choice for such an early episode. It's the very first one after the premiere, and it's based on the crew acting out of character – before the audience has had time to learn what their personalities are supposed to be.
- Completely irrelevant to the topic, but my personal head canon is that Janeway admired Worf's S1 Hair and copied it when she was given Voyager to command.
  
  She definitely wore it better.
- Riker was half as sexy in terms of looks and a quarter as sexy in terms of personality
  Without any other context, you could easily assume that Riker's beard is what really made TNG work.
  
  @Kolanaki @hesusingthespiritbomb
  Whoopie Goldberg's desire to come in the show probably helped a bit, too. Or did she come for the beard?
- They straight up got rid of crusher for a season
  I believe McFadden was fired, which was why she disappeared for no reason or fanfare.
  TNG had serious problems in the beginning and had some pretty big flaws even as the show got going. Off the top of my head
  You're not wrong. I think the only main character that really had any development in the first 2 seasons is Dr Pulaski, going from someone completely unfamiliar with Data, and conscious machinery, to being an ardent supporter of his. We had a little but in Data settling into being an emotionless Android trying to learn to be more human, and Geordi becoming Chief Engineer, but they were very minor background tweaks to the characters.
  Everyone else barely changed at all in that time, except for Lt. Yar, who went from being a living breathing person to corpse.
- I love the first few episodes, I prefer babyface riker, and I think Dick Picard was a cool badass who I fully support.
  But they should have kept Crusher, and the political conflicts were a ridiculous joke epitomized by the cartoonish ferengi. S3 gave us much better aesthetics and politics (though the new character driven storytelling might be a matter of taste).

Haha, Spock wasn't replaced by LaForge. Spock was replaced by Data.
- Yeah, who even thought that for a second?
  I grew up with Next Generation first, sitting on my dad’s lap watching the show with him.
  When I first watched TOS I remember seeing Spock and saying, “oh yeah, the original Data”.
  
  Especially since Spock was often described by Bones as being a walking computer, and Data was described as an Android. It would be less of a logical leap than having Geordi be the new Spock.
  
  I remember thinking, "I don't wanna watch a Trek without Spock," and then Data came along and I was hooked.
- Was that part of the marketing at the time, or just some bizarre leap from the author? I'm having a hard time finding any good comparisons between La Forge and Spock. In season 1 Geordi wasn't even in engineering, let alone the science officer. He was a helmsman, so in that sense more comparable to Sulu or Chekhov, and he certainly doesn't have anything like the relationship with the captain that Spock did.
  Is it just because he was a recognizable name at the time? It's just a weird jump to make.

It's always funny looking back at stuff like this. I remember looking at old articles about Catherine Tate becoming a companion in doctor who and people were furious - and in retrospect not only was she one of the best companions, but that was probably the greatest era of the show.
- Heath Ledger is another classic example. I remember the Internet being so confused and mad about the choice. ‘The 10 Things I Hate About You guy!?’
  
  Same thing with Michael Keaton as Batman. He was still Mr Mom at that point.
  
  I came here to post this. I remember someone insisting it was like casting Gary Coleman as Two-Face.
  Although the response wasn't as strong, there were fans who were also convinced that Robert Downey Jr. was a poor fit for Tony Stark.

Nobody dislikes Star Trek as much as Star Trek fans.
- Damn Star Trek fans, they ruined Star Trek!
  
  This is actually true though
- LOL. The TNG hate was ridiculous, but one other thing - nobody ignores a Star Trek fan better than other fans of Star Trek.
- I thought that was a Star Wars thing, but I guess it's just a thing in general. For reference I like it all, Star Wars, Star Trek, TOS, TNG

"LeVar Burton: The new Spock" 👀

There were Star Trek fans at the time screaming from the rooftops about how TNG would ruin Star Trek. Before TNG even aired. But, there were also Star Trek fans who, while disappointed to not have the TOS crew back, were curious about what TNG was going to bring to the table. And, really happy to have a Star Trek series again. But, "Curious Trekkies Wait to See What's What with TNG" wasn't going to sell as many papers and stir up as much drama.
- “Bad Trek is better than no Trek” was the begrudging opinion of TOS fans for the first season of TNG.
  
  Lol. That was it. I'm glad TNG had more seasons, getting better and better as time went on.
- Wasnt it 20 years later too? I mean the og crew probably didn't want to come back
  
  Yeah. The TOS cast did movies, but there's a difference between doing a film and doing a weekly series. TOS was comfort viewing, and fans were going to fan in wanting more of the same.
- There were Star Trek fans at the time screaming from the rooftops about how TNG would ruin Star Trek.
  Is this what people had to do to spread their word before the internet?
- Clickbait certainly existed well before clicks did.
- Well, they probably have one point - how many modern Trek fans have even watched TOS?
  
  Surely most, right?
  I'm a millennial, and TOS was my first introduction to Trek.
  
  A lot, I think. At the time of TNG's initial broadcast, TOS was omnipresent in syndication. And outside of TAS, the only Star Trek series at the time. Star Trek fans watched the heck out of TOS. Then, the Star Trek movies with the TOS cast. The first four films were released before TNG first aired.

I’ll bet that any TOS fans who were furious at the time probably did not go on to like the show. If they were looking for that witty love/hate triangle of Spock/Kirk/McCoy they didn’t get it.
But as the name suggests, TNG reached a totally new generation of fans. American culture had changed a LOT between these two shows and anyone attached to the old one was either old themselves or hooked on reruns.
TNG didn’t slap big right away, either. It took time to get good and find its audience. But I’m so glad they succeeded.
I say all this to point out that angry fans weren’t actually wrong. The Trek they knew was never coming back. It became a whole other thing for a whole other group of people.
The difference between this and, say, the Star Wars sequels is that those sequels disappointed fans AND failed to find a new audience that was just as dedicated and even larger.
People like to use this article to show that angry fans are just idiots- always there and usually wrong. But the TNG miracle hasn’t been repeated many times, if ever, by any of these other franchise rehashes that a Hollywood has shoved out to grab for cash.
- I’ll bet that any TOS fans who were furious at the time probably did not go on to like the show.
  As a TOS fan who wasn't too happy with what I had heard before TNG came out, I would bet against you. Most of them probably became TNG fans eventually, because the most impactful thing a show can do is simply to be great. Canon complaints and complaints about characters not returning are mostly about nostalgia, and if the show is compelling (especially if it's compelling in a similar way to the old show), nostalgia can't compete. If anything I'd guess that the people in this article were more likely to become fans of TNG, because it would have exceeded their expectations, which can make things seem better than they would otherwise.

If you've seen the original Battlestar Galactica you'll know why they were worried.
Only good thing about that show was that in space, bras were unpopular.
- That's because, according to renown space expert George Lucas, wearing a bra in space would strangle the wearer, which is why Princess Leia jiggled her way around the Death Star. So, it's not that they were unpopular, just that they were a safety issue.
  
  I mean, she wasn't jiggling. Carrie had often complained about how tightly bound she was, he specifically didn't want that look either. Nothing at all in that outfit would have honestly made a huge difference in how the whole thing felt I think, at least in hindsight it would really cheapen it.

Help Geordi is staring into my soul.
- LeVar Burton has striking eyes to begin with. When a person is used to seeing him as Geordi with his visor on, seeing him with it off is like he has 100 watt bulbs screwed into his head.
- There had to be a better picture of him to use, lol
  
  Nope, that's the best picture I've ever seen of him.

Were you really a Trekkie if you thought TNG was going to be good in 1987?
Kidding, sort of. I remember thinking it was going to be a cash grab, and I still think I was right to think so at the time. Keep in mind, you couldn't go on the Web and instantly know everything about an upcoming TV show. I think I learned it was in production from the back of a cereal box. I didn't even know Gene Roddenberry was involved. The Enterprise-D design was pretty weird, and the cast of characters was more than a bit out there--a Klingon? On the Enterprise crew? Come on.
- As a kid, I saw a contest on a box of cheerios(?) where you could be an child extra in one of the first TNG episodes. So for most of the first season, I sincerely thought Wil Wheaton/Wesley was the winner.
  Anyway, the first few episodes during season 1 were not great, but I was content to finally get some new material. I'm glad TNG had enough time to "find its own groove".
  
  Man, that cereal box really launched Wheaton's career. Haha
- It's fair to have expected TNG to be a cash grab. I'm sure TNG was a cash grab among all the other things it was. We all want to get paid, after all. I'm just glad it turned out to be so much more as well.
  I'm reminded of the letters page of Aquaman in the issue after he lost his hand.
  "To those of you saying we did it for the shock value, we have this to say for ourselves: we sure didn't do it for the boredom value."

The only thing I wish TNG did from the get go, or kept from season 2 onwards, was Dr. Pulaski. She was simply a much better character and doctor than Crusher, she fit in with the rest of the crew much better as well.
- She was so reminiscent of McCoy
  
  Including, most importantly probably, naturally having the believable ability to stand up against the captain. There's natural chemistry in that sort of dynamic, you're almost waiting for a plot line to come along that splits them against each other.
- I was fine with the character but hated the actress. She was an old crone and didn't mesh into the ensemble IMO. The same for Natasha. Her acting chops were simple subpar.
  
  I don't remember Tasha being more subpar than the rest of the cast, the first two seasons were abysmal compared to seasons 3+.

Angry neckbeards never change. Check out the reaction to the casting of Burton’s Batman
- Or Heath Ledger as The Joker.

Honestly, those people, or rather their opinions, can all go to hell.
A new star trek series then or now won't take away, alter or affect in any way TOS and their ability to enjoy it. Not to mention how incredibly un-Trek like it is to literally avoid "explore[ing] strange new worlds" like the plague.
I get that Trek is comfort food for many of us, and that probably creates a strong form of protective nostalgia, but staying in the past to the exclusion of the future is just awful (not to mention that I'm personally bothered at the extent to which this has happened with modern Trek and it's proclivity for reboots and prequels, SNW becoming increasingly both).
Also, is that picture of Stewart from Dune (1984)?!
- There is one legit worry in the article, that the new show would impact TOS movies. But the rest of the article is spent talking about how it would be impossible for the new show to be good. It's wild to read it with the benefit of hindsight lol
  
  how it would be impossible for the new show to be good. It’s wild to read it with the benefit of hindsight lol
  But also, so what if it turns out to not be good? You can't know ahead of time in the same way no one knew TOS would be good. Plus, if being progressive was remotely anything these fans valued in Trek, there was plenty of room for improvement. Like, how has Trek fared against the Bechdel test? I'd imagine it takes up until Voyager that you start to get consistent episodes that pass (I'm not sure how often Jadzia-Kira and Troy-Crusher conversations happened)
  
  Especially knowing that they went on to make 6 movies!

I wish I could go back in time and tell them that TNG is going to rock.
Don't worry, they know now.
- Seriously, how old do people think Gen-X is? Some of us haven't even hit fifty yet.
  
  I mean that I wish I could tell all the people who were worried back then that everything was going to work out great, not that they're all gone and dead now - lost to the sands of time, from the forgotten age of the 1980s...

Levar already looking blind in his photo, he must've been researching the role

Might be wrong but I think they used a picture of Bronson Pinchot instead of Brent Spiner. Now I really wanna see Data acting like Balki from Perfect Strangers.
- I really want to see both characters and actors swap shows.
  "Back on Meepos, Unlcle Kalvash would reconfigure the deflector relays to reinforce phasers at random intervals, thus disrupting the enemy's shields. That certainly keep sheep on their toes!"
  "Cousin Larry, before you approach that woman I must inform you that your chances of dating her are approximately 1.78X10^48 to one."
  I would watch the hell out of that. So many wacky mixups!
- You might enjoy Bob Wheeler who he played on Night Court.

Leave it to the founder of Wendy's to do a Star Trek hit piece
- Whoa, what a weird career path.

The perspective is interesting and enlightening. For me, TNG was MY Star Trek. The first episode aired when I was 5 years old and I watched every episode with my dad over the seven year run.
Part of me grew up on the Enterprise D!
- I got into Trek only a few years ago. My son was curious and wanted to watch a few episodes of TNG. It was pretty captivating.
  
  I don't have kids, i can just imagine the joy of watching Stat Trek with mini-me
- I totally know what you mean. There’s a VR remake m of Enterprise-D called Stage 9. One of the live streamers broke down in tears of joy being in the shuttle bay in a VR headset.

Apparently the most recognisable name was Levar Burton, being in Roots and Reading Rainbow.
- Just take a look, it's in a book, Reading Rainbow.
  I... caaan fly anywhere!
- I thought RR was after Trek
  
  Says reading rainbow was 1983-2006. TNG was 87-94
- That's probably the only reason the article pegs him as "the new Spock".

That's some tasty retro-nerdiness.

“The Reading Rainbow guy on MY Star Trek?! Oh god, is he gonna read a book to the shields to get them to hold?”
- He reads several actually. He even turns documentation into a holographic representation of a woman and makes out with it. Typical Geordi.
  
  Then acts all weird when the real woman isn’t into it
  
  Yeah, you don't become chief engineer by never reading a book.
- It was mainly "Kunta Kinte?!?" coming from the boomers at the time.

I recall this being posted ad nauseum on r/startrek, and the comments were always full of people using it to dismiss any and all criticism of Discovery and/or Picard. Nice to see that not being rehashed here.
- The discussions on here are usually really positive.
  I haven't even seen Discovery or Picard yet. I just love TOS and TNG and thought this was surreal to read.

At least it reads like they were upset about diversity

I remember when it first aired. I was not a fan. Having re-watched the entire series in a loop since the first airing (I recorded the broadcasts on VHS), I can comfortably say that the first season is pretty shit. Once it finds its stride though...
- I think there are still a lot of people out there who watched the original and never gave TNG a chance. Yeah, once it grows the beard, it's peak trek for me.
- I can heavily agree with that. The first season of TNG is kind of stinky. But once it gets going its unstoppable.
- My feelings exactly.
  I saw TOS when I was 9-10 years old and it was mindblowingly good compared to almost anything else you could see on TV at the time in my backwater country.
  Few years later I learned that this new series TNG will start airing and I was very excited. My disappointment was endless when I saw the pilot.
  I strongly disliked the general production aesthetics and Enterprise-D looked just stupid compared to the iconic original/refit Enterprise of TOS era. The characters felt so empty compared to the old crew and the first season scripts weren't so great, so I gave up on the series after seeing few episodes. This was in the early 90's.
  15 years later I saw a few episodes from the later seasons and to my surprise found that they were good. So I watched the entire series and enjoyed it. I still prefer TOS and love the new SNW, there's something about the older era setting that just hits me in the feels.
  Nostalgia is a powerful thing.
  
  Really fond memories tend to hit the right Spock.
- I watched it as an impressionable 6 year old and loved every minute of it, but yeah, watching through it again, the first season was rough.
- I rewatched it recently and I found it better than I remembered. My partner who watched it with me for the first time loved it from the start.

How the hell does Gates McFadden look better now than she did 20 years ago
- It's all that ghost magic.
- Seriously, What a GILF!

I still remember when they Poochied the lesbian security guard.

185 comments