A Brief Guide to Star Trek (24 page)

Picard leads the non-emotional grouping of characters: those who look to ideas and pragmatic solutions rather than acting on instinct. Among this group are Data (searching for a way to experience emotions that Spock suppresses, Data discusses their opposite views of humanity in ‘Unification II’); the Crusher family, consisting of Dr Beverly Crusher (who returned to the show in the third season, also a long-term romantic interest for Picard), youthful prodigy Wesley Crusher (although Picard initially dislikes having children on board his ship) and Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge.

Riker heads up the emotional group, those who might leap before looking, whose actions are driven by instinct and feelings. Among this latter group are (of course) the ship’s telepathic
half-Betazoid counsellor Deanna Troi, and security chief Worf (whose Klingon aggression is a problem to be overcome, as was Spock’s half-humanity in the original series).

The Next Generation
took a more sophisticated view of encounters with other species than the original series managed. In many episodes, the
Enterprise
appears to be the space equivalent of the United Nations, negotiating disputes or mediating between alien species in search of conflict resolution. This was a very 1990s obsession (following perestroika in Russia, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the Cold War), and departs from the cliché of 1960s
Star Trek
in which Kirk was thought to shoot his phaser first and ask questions later. This approach to storytelling was even reflected in the design aesthetic of the new
Enterprise
, which appeared to be an inter-galactic conference centre, with its colour schemes, décor and design all reminiscent of a public building or international chain hotel.

Whereas Kirk emphasised human values as correct above all else, Picard and co were more respectful of life (or consciousness), whatever form it might take. A story like ‘The Devil in the Dark’ from
The Original Series
– in which a ‘monster’ threatening miners is found to simply be a mother protecting its young – would not be possible in
The Next Generation
, since the crew would not be as blind as Kirk and Spock initially are to the creature’s virtues just because of its appearance and actions. The 1960s values are replaced by Roddenberry’s oft-sought ‘perfect’ humanity, where professionalism (in exploring space and making contact with alien species) trumps human limitations (fear of the alien ‘other’) at all times.

This is a universe seventy-five years after Kirk’s time, where the Prime Directive of non-interference in other cultures is taken a lot more seriously, at least by Picard. The Cold War idea of offering aid to countries that might be allies in the fight against Communism (or military ‘advisors’ to those who need a little ‘persuasion’, as in
The Original Series
episodes ‘Errand of Mercy’ and ‘A Private Little War’) was replaced by a more
understanding approach to relative cultural values, even where these conflict with the values of humanity. Changes to a civilisation’s mores or culture might be suggested by Starfleet or the Federation (embodied in Picard), but were very rarely imposed through the use of overwhelming force (or subterfuge, as might have been employed by Kirk).

In the post-Cold War world of
The Next Generation
, the simple oppositional politics of the original series (Klingons = Russians) had to be rethought in a more complex world of mosaic-like politics, where different interest groups vied for dominance and alliances became conditional and shifting. Instead of the Klingons and the Romulans (although both featured and were further developed in the series),
The Next Generation
introduced new, more relevant antagonists such as the Ferengi, signifiers of 1980s ‘Greed is good’ (to quote Gordon Gekko in
Wall Street
(1987)) unregulated capitalism. Although intended as serious antagonists for the Federation, the Ferengi rapidly developed into comic figures (later rehabilitated in
Deep Space Nine
).

A more serious enemy – and one not susceptible to reasoned negotiation – were the Borg. Literally single-minded (through their sharing of one hive-mind) and not open to pleas of mercy or rational debate, the Borg’s sole purpose is to conquer and assimilate other life forms in order to secure their spread throughout the galaxy. Their mantra of ‘resistance is futile’ represents their unstoppable nature. The crew of the
Enterprise-D
first encounter the Borg in the episode ‘Q-Who?’, thanks to the meddling Q, who boosts the ship to an unexplored sector of space as a warning of some of the threats awaiting humanity as they continue to expand ever outwards (echoing the purpose of Q’s debut appearance in ‘Encounter at Farpoint’). This very act, of course, brings Picard, the
Enterprise
and humanity in general to the attention of the Delta Quadrant-inhabiting Borg, making them a target. The Borg are a riff on
Doctor Who
’s 1960s cybernetic creatures the Cybermen, whose ‘You will be like us’ catchphrase and cyber-conversion modus operandi were restated in the Borg’s process of physical assimilation.

Communication and contact with other cultures was always central to
Star Trek
and it provides the dramatic thrust to some of the best episodes of
The Next Generation
. Iconic among them is ‘Darmok’, essentially a two-hander between Stewart’s Picard and an alien starship captain, Dathon (Paul Winfield, heavily disguised under alien make-up). In a set-up reminiscent of
The Original Series
episode ‘Arena’, ‘Darmok’ sees two antagonistic captains beamed to a planet where they must cooperate (or, in
The Original Series
, fight) to survive. The
Enterprise
has encountered the Tamarians, a race whose language cannot be translated sensibly by Starfleet’s universal translator (a gimmick used to get over the question of why everyone in space speaks American English). Forced to communicate with his opposite number, Picard deduces that the Tamarian speaks in metaphors drawn from his planet’s heroic myths. In trying to communicate with the representatives of the Federation, Dathon is trying to recreate one of his planet’s mythic battles in order to give the humans a shared reference point, and in doing so he and Picard create a new legend of their own. It’s a complex episode, the likes of which would never have been attempted on
The Original Series
, and many fans regard it as one of the best in the entire
Star Trek
canon, including the spin-off shows that came after.

The original
Star Trek
often focused on finite resources: failing dilithium crystals, colonies running out of supplies or in need of medical aid.
The Next Generation
, however, takes place in a universe of plenty where ‘new’ technology like the replicator and the holodeck caters to everyone’s immediate needs. Turning raw energy into matter, the replicator can provide anything needed by the
Enterprise
crew, from foodstuffs such as ‘Earl Grey, hot’ (as frequently ordered by Picard) to heavy machine parts to repair the ship. Where the original
Star Trek
was outward-looking, with a willingness on Kirk’s behalf to ignore the Prime Directive and interfere in the affairs of other planets (for their own good, of course),
The Next Generation
was more inward-looking, dealing with 1990s concerns like
emotional therapy and bodily health (whether that be the human – or alien – body or that of the
Enterprise
itself ).

Screened at a time when fear of AIDS was at its height and computers were beginning to make their way into homes and workplaces as tools regular people could use, several episodes of
The Next Generation
saw the metaphor of invasion (by biological or computer virus, alien species or unconscious contagion) drive many episodes. Nanites, parasites and bacteria infect the
Enterprise
and her crew with regularity (in episodes such as ‘Evolution’, ‘Phantasms’, ‘A Matter of Honor’ and ‘Contagion’). Counsellor Troi represented the touchy-feely Californian ‘talk about your feelings’ strain of self-help therapy rampant from the 1970s to the 1990s. Troi is as much about helping others as she is about suffering mental crisis herself, thanks to her telepathic nature. Such disruption of the crewmembers’ otherwise perfect mental states allowed for the kind of character conflict that Roddenberry’s dictates about the twenty-fourth century did not generally allow.

The Next Generation
took ongoing character development more seriously than the previous show had, in keeping with wider television trends across the 1990s. Characters were treated more like real people than they had been on the formulaic action-adventure shows of the 1970s. Television became more serialised in nature, where incidents had consequences and characters changed rather than reverting to type by the conclusion of any individual episode.
Babylon 5
would be the prime exponent of this in science fiction, while
Deep Space Nine
would take a similar approach in its later seasons.

However,
The Next Generation
made its own moves in treating its characters more like real people with emotions, wants and desires. Prime among the crew for this serious treatment is Captain Picard. The opening episodes of the show’s fourth season resolved ‘The Best of Both Worlds’ cliffhanger, and Picard was freed from Borg control. However, the show then presented an episode (‘Family’) entirely based around Picard’s emotional reaction to his experience. In his tribute to Gene
Roddenberry,
Family Guy
creator Seth McFarlane noted: ‘The people [on
The Next Generation
] were not militant cardboard soldiers, far more they behaved like people you’d work with in your office, except they were thousands of light years from Earth. I remember watching the famous two-part episode where Captain Picard is captured by the Borg – it was exciting, thrilling, beautifully put together. Then next week the writers brilliantly followed it up with an episode that contained no sci-fi element at all: it focused on Picard returning to his home in France to sort out the psychological ramifications of the experience while reconnecting with his estranged brother. In two weeks I felt like I’d gone from
Star Wars
to
Upstairs, Downstairs
– I never knew what I was going to see, and I loved it. How many science fiction franchises are so well-founded they can tell a purely character-based story with no pyrotechnics? Gene knew
Star Trek
was about the people and the ideas.’

Another example of this in-depth character exploration of the captain came in the late fifth season instalment ‘The Inner Light’. Picard is targeted by an alien probe and awakens as a man named Kamin. He goes on to apparently live a full life as part of the extinct Ressikian culture, falling in love and producing a loving, extended family of the kind he does not have in ‘real life’. On the
Enterprise
, Picard is unconscious for only a short time but in his mind he experiences decades of this alternative life, one that is both as real to him as his life on the ship yet as artificial as a holodeck experience. For Picard, the life he lived and the experiences he enjoyed were ‘real’, and they and the long-gone Ressikian culture live on within his memory. Such events were not forgotten by the show, and served to deepen characters such as Picard, making them more relatable among all the crowd-pleasing space hardware and alien zapping that was a necessary part of a
Star Trek
show.

Other characters were also well developed, such as Worf and Data. However, others still had episodes that focused on them, but across the show’s seven-year run it could be argued that secondary lead characters did not fare well in this respect
– especially Riker and Troi, who more often than not were called upon to exhibit their basic characteristics and little else. The general approach, however, was a great step forward from the dramatic reset button of
The Original Series
.

The Next Generation
was the most successful of all the
Star Trek
television incarnations, proving a hit with general viewers and fans alike. It updated Gene Roddenberry’s concepts about the future of humankind and put them through a filter of the real world of the 1990s to great effect. Paramount, however, failed to realise that such in-depth exploration of issues and characters prospered effectively in the format of ongoing television story arcs, rather than in the less than two-hour format of movies. Like
The Original Series
before it,
The Next Generation
would be heading to the big screen – but with far less success than its predecessor.

‘
The Borg are the greatest nemesis of all things
Star Trek
. It made
Star Trek
not only an action-adventure movie, but made it a horror movie as well
.’ Jonathan Frakes

The cast of the original
Star Trek
had signed off (literally in the end credits) with
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
. Age, a theme first explored in
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
, had finally caught up with them. Now a new crew was waiting in the wings to take their place. After seven years of exploratory voyages on television, the bridge crew of
Star Trek: The Next Generation
were ready to step up to the movies – with a helping hand from William Shatner’s Captain Kirk.

The baton of
Star Trek
on television was being carried forward by
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
(soon to be joined by
Star Trek: Voyager
) so Paramount believed they could continue the big screen incarnation of
Star Trek
by promoting
The Next Generation
crew. After almost half a decade longer on air than the original series managed, the cast and creative crew of
The Next Generation
were rather tired. The show had gone out on a high and most of the cast were looking to move on to something new. The speed with which they were switched to the big screen proved to be a problem for some, not least Captain Picard himself, actor Patrick Stewart. ‘I wish we had not had to go into the movie quite so quickly as we did. I had four days off between wrapping
the series and stepping aboard the
Lady Washington
in Santa Monica bay [for a holodeck-set sequence]. Luckily, I did not have to do too much character research’.