Better than the original! (Star Trek - The Next Generation)

Member Name: jazz_mavericks

Product:	Star Trek - The Next Generation
Date:	08/10/09 (8 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You can pretty much drop in on any episode, intelligent, charming, occasionally funny

Disadvantages: Some implausible characters, and some slow episodes

In many ways, Star Trek: The Next Generation is far superior to the original series, with William Shatner as Captain Kirk. This version, set many years after the original, is now captained by Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), a thinking man's captain instead of Kirk's brute force and arrogance.

Now blessed with much better special effects, due to a much larger budget, the show can also boast some fine actors amongst the crew, even if some of them can seriously overact at times, and would surely give Shatner a run for his money.

The one most guilty of this, in my opinion, is Picard's second in command, William Riker, played by Jonathan Frakes. Frakes, a staple of TV, has a tendency to be a little over dramatic at times, and often comes across as very bad natured, which has led to me affectionately calling him Grumpy Riker.

Next we have Commander Data, a humanoid robot, who is pretty much this version of Star Trek's Spock. He is constantly trying to understand and become more human, in a very Pinnoccio like way.

In a sign of how things have changed since the original series, the Chief Security Officer is a Klingon warrior named Worf, who can be very aggressive, but is generally very good natured, and very loyal.

Keeping things non-discriminatory, everyone in the future can work for Starfleet, even if blind, as evidenced by our Chief Engineer, Geordie La Forge. No, he's not from Newcastle, but he does wear a high tech visor that allows him to 'see' on different wavelengths.

The doctor on board, is Beverley Crusher, the widow of one of Jean Luc's old friends, and the mother of [quite annoying] Wesley, (who later in the series will become an ensign). She is a warm and caring doctor, with an analytical mind.

Another member of the Bridge staff, is Councillor D'anna Troi. She is an empath, which means she can sense the emotions of people. Basically, she is a walking lie detector, that has a penchant for being a good listener.

Other cast members throughout the years have included Tasha Yar, who dies fairly early on, Chief O'Brien, who started off as the transporter chief, before moving series to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and becoming their chief engineer. He would later also be joined by Worf. Ensign Ro Laren, also became a popular character in later series, as did Reg Barclay, a bashful, but amazingly intelligent engineer.

Through the years, many of the cast of the original series appeared on the show, including Scotty and Spock, and many of the cast of this show would, themselves, cross over into the following Star Trek series.

Most episodes would be singular, but there were quite a few multipart episodes, which were excellently put together. One of these introduced us to the evil Borg Collective. A race of cyborgs that wanted to assimilate every living thing into their group's hive mind. A classic creation if ever there was one.

Generally though, each episode was a sort of mystery of the week style of programme, or alien of the week, in which the crew find themselves stuck in a situation, and have to work out a way out of it. A lot of these situations revolved around moral and ethical decisions being made, so really when you boil it down, it was all about right and wrong.

Every episode was thrilling though, and you will be pulled into each one. I will happily say that the show is far superior to the original - it even has its own charm... in a different way of course!

Summary: An impressive continuation of the Star Trek legacy, with humour and charm