BBC2 - Star Trek: The Next Generation

Advantages: Understated cast. Epic double episodes. Genuinely interesting story arcs. Raises moral issues.
Disadvantages: Some very weak moments. First three series are average. Never really reached it's potential.

Picture a Star Trek convention: hordes of sweaty young men with bad facial hair, rotund women wearing figure-hugging uniforms and little kids dragging their parents around to see all the latest exhibits. Can you imagine any possible motivation to destroy your life in such a pointless manner? The truth of it is, Star Trek Fans (capitalised, for they are a breed of their own) are little more than a vocal minority which the media just love to pick up ...
...more interesting than Dave from Kent, right? The result is that your perception of Star Trek is likely to be somewhat tainted. The best I can do without having the luxury of a knife to your throat is to simply reassure you that the majority of the show's viewers wish these irritating fools would go away just as much as you do. The reality is that Star Trek is no longer the domain of geeks alone. The modern incarnations of the series have brought ... Read review

Advantages: Very original despite the familiar setting, new characters with added dimensions, new challenges, and some great stories.
Disadvantages: This is Star Trek, how can it have disadvantages?

Captain Kirk has boldly gone off into retirement, leaving Jean Luc Picard a hard act to follow. The logic of Spock is now transferred to our android friend Data. There are major differences between the two, Data wants to become more human, I couldn't imagine Spock contemplating that one. Sorry McCoy but you would have been out a lot earlier if Kirk had seen your replacement, Dr Beverly Crusher. Star Trek The Next Generation is very different from ...
...more realistic image, and special effects are just that little bit more special than I remember them. Allow me to introduce you to some of the crew. First we have Captain Jean Luc Picard, (Patrick Stewart). A man of excellent diplomatic skills, a born leader. Of course as with all great men he has a weakness, he is very unsure of himself when it comes to dealings with children. Next we have First Officer William T. Riker, (Johnathan Frakes). He ... Read review

Advantages: An excellent cast
Disadvantages: The first couple of seasons had some quite dodgy storylines

Following the success of the STAR TREK movies featuring the original cast, Gene Roddenberry chose to resurrect his show for television, and STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION was the result. It debuted in 1987, and starred Patrick Stewart as the new captain, Jean-Luc Picard. Picard's ship, also named Enterprise, was much larger than the original - one of the reasons for this was that the mission was to last much longer, and for this reason, crewmembers ...
...Picard's first officer was Commander Riker, played by Jonathan Frakes. Frakes was more of a lover-boy than Picard, taking on many of the traits of Kirk from the previous series. The true love of Riker's life had been Deanna Troi (played by Marina Sirtis), and she was also assigned to the Enterprise, as the ship's counselor. There were many other characters, including Data (an android who wanted to be human) and Worf (a Klingon security officer whose ... Read review

Advantages: Great entertainment,Considerable staying power, Access to a wide variety of different people through the network of devotees
Disadvantages: Don't let it take over your life!

The word 'Trekkie' evokes several images in the minds of many. A rather sad,lonely individual, who dresses up in strange costumes,wears spectacles and postulates,together with his kin and kith about whether 'the Borg Queen and Data really did do it' or on the feasibility of 'reaching Warp factor ten'. As the star of the original series,William Shatner said to some more dedicated fans at a convention 'GET A LIFE!' - perhaps the franchises epitaph ...
...massive appeal. At the outset, let me make it clear that I do have a life - a very varied one I like to think.That I enjoy Star Trek is to my mind a minor detail.I do not speak Klingon,Dress up to look like an alien, or wake round entranced pointing out people in the street and saying 'Beam me up Scotty'.Although certain people like to lampoon Sci-Fi fans as a bit geeky, the truth is there are millions of us out there and Like those millions, I ... Read review

Advantages: Engaging, easy-to-watch sci-fi drama, accessible to fans and non-fans alike
Disadvantages: Uneven in terms of quality: some seasons better than others

Nearly twenty years had passed since the Original Series of Star Trek was cancelled, but following the success of syndicated reruns and a lucrative film franchise, a spin-off series was commissioned and Star Trek: The Next Generation was born. Beginning its run in 1987, TNG successfully reinvented Star Trek for a new generation and, unlike its predecessor - which wasn't fully appreciated until after its time - topped the ratings and became a big ...
...Jean-Luc Picard, a Captain very different to James T. Kirk, but all the better for it. The other stand-out among TNG's cast was Brent Spiner, whose amiable performance as Commander Data, the jaundiced android operations officer, made the character a more than worthy successor to Leonard Nimoy's immortal Spock. <p> In terms of quality, however, it took TNG a good couple of years to fully come into its own. The first season was very choppy, perhaps ... Read review

Advantages: better stories, better characters simply excellent
Disadvantages: Why did it finish after series 7

...I have to admit I am a Trekkie!! I watch BBC2 whenever Star trek is scheduled but i still can not figure out what was so good about Kirk!?!?!? Next Generation continues the truespirit of Star Trk, a captain with a loyal crew seeking out new life and new civilisations and boldly going.... The next Gen met much more interesting races, look at Q who started and ended the series with Ecounter at Farpoint Station and All Good Things... He provided us with the opportunity to meet the Borg and look forward to the inevitiable conflict that ensured, and afterall without Next GEn where would the VOyager fans have got 7of 9 from? The stories are much better, the acting and the on screen relationships are pure brillance! the comic timing when Data makes a mistake, the concern of the crew when something goes wrong for others, something you... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful