NEW BUT FAMILIAR
Since Gene Roddenberry understood his audience, he did not stray far when he re-created Star Trek. Andrew Probert, who had contributed to the redesign of the Enterprise for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, was tapped for the job of redesigning the Enterprise for its new and far more advanced version. Although looking more sleek with a slightly squashed appearance, it was still quite recognizable. The biggest change was internal, such as the addition of the holodeck. The kinds of recreation areas on the original Enterprise were rarely referred to outside of the first movie. The only one that comes to mind is a reference to the “bowling alley” in “The Naked Time,” and it has never been established whether or not this was a joke. After all, with the way the original Enterprise would periodically hurl its crew back and forth, the thought of bowling balls having similar violence done to them could only cause one to imagine large holes in the bulkheads on a fairly regular basis.
The other design alterations on The Next Generation extended to the expected: the uniforms, hand weapons and other items such as the tricorder. Just as they had been redesigned for the Star Trek movies, they were redesigned for the TV series. Again, the designs were superficial and seemed to have been done mostly for purposes of merchandising: more new Star Trek toys could now be licensed by Paramount.
Although set seventy-five years after the original series, the technical changes were not as major as they could have been. By making the changes so slight, Roddenberry insured that the old Star Trek fans would more willingly accept this new version in spite of the completely new cast.
FINE-TUNING THE STAR TREK PHILOSOPHY
In describing the future life he envisioned for Earth in the twenty-fourth century, Roddenberry stated, “I do not perceive this as a universe that’s divided between good and evil.”
For The Next Generation, Gene Roddenberry chose to expand the Trek philosophy, and perhaps he went a little too far. Roddenberry decided that his crew of the Enterprise-D would, frankly, be perfect. He decreed that they would get along without complaint and never have the kind of personality clashes experienced by Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The only time disagreements appeared on TNG was when someone who was not a part of this tightly knit inner circle came aboard, such as when Ensign Ro stepped aboard in the fifth season (about the time Gene Roddenberry died).
Otherwise the main crew members, consisting of Picard, Riker, Data, Dr. Crusher, Geordi, and Troi were always in harmony. Worf was the only wild card, but then he’s allowed to be—he isn’t human. Tasha Yar seemed to have the makings of a character with spunk and personality, but she was quickly dispensed with.
Roddenberry remained the eternal optimist, in spite of all the failures, disappointments, and difficult times he had endured during the years between the cancellation of Star Trek in 1969 and its return to life in 1979. Roddenberry continued to promote his philosophy of life that consisted of bold optimism (there will be a future and it will be wonderful), a belief in social progress, the benefits of technological advancement (he did not equate progress with the diminishing of the quality of life), the pursuit of knowledge, life affirmation (he objected to Captain Kirk’s casual killing of the Ceti Eel in The Wrath of Khan), the tolerance of other cultures, and secular humanism (the dominance of reason and experience over supernatural deities and mysticism).
MAKING THE OLD WAYS BETTER
It is because Roddenberry’s basic Star Trek philosophy had been reinterpreted and sometimes altered in the motion picture treatments that he made certain that all of his beliefs for the Star Trek universe were firmly in place for The Next Generation. With that as an underlying philosophy, the shows therefore exhibit a point of view and occasionally moralize.
There were some contradictions in the original philosophy, though, which Roddenberry himself sought to correct in The Next Generation. Instead of having the Klingons dismissed as being just the bad guys, he rewrote them as a proud warrior race with a culture as deep and diverse as anything seen on the other worlds in the Federation.
The Next Generation continued the use of the transporter with little alteration other than in visual effects and the sound. This is explained by the difference in technology. For instance, in The Next Generation episode “Relics,” when a ship is found with the old-style transporter in it, the old-style sound effect is used when the transporter beam materializes. The transporter is perhaps the prime example of Star Trek magic. Created for the convenience of scriptwriters, it allows for the characters to move from the ship to a planet and back again instantaneously, thereby dispensing with scenes of ships landing and taking off again.
REWRITING THE RULES OF REALITY
Which brings us to another device of magical technology: the holodeck. The holodeck that Roddenberry introduced on The Next Generation clearly alters our views of what is possible in reality in any number of ways. The computer can be programmed to create virtually anything in the holodeck, from the lush surface of a planet with jungles and a waterfall to London in the 1890s. The holodeck creates images of substance. In “The Big Goodbye” those images strike back with potentially deadly force. In that Peabody Award-winning episode, Captain Picard creates a realm in the holodeck based on his favorite detective stories. Set in the 1930s, Dixon Hill is clearly based on the hard-boiled detective thrillers of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Like Sherlock Holmes, they are archetypes that are very much a part of their era.
It’s not unusual that a science fiction series should be so captivated by images from detective stories. Mystery fiction tends to be very popular among screenwriters and science fiction writers. Using this to create a film noir setting, The Next Generation created a tech noir in which the holodeck world became a reality. The people projected by the computer evidently are not just images that move according to a design but have a sense of self, which as time went on was enhanced, as shown in “Elementary, Dear Data.” In “The Big Goodbye” the hologram people debated whether they were real and struggled to prove their individuality. One of them, who possessed memories of a wife and family, even questioned what would happen to all of them when the program was ended. This question would ultimately be addressed in the sixth-season episode “Moriarty.”
AIMING FOR THE STARS
Although Roddenberry was intensely involved with the creation and development of The Next Generation, the show had problems from the start.
In spite of a series bible that established who all the regular characters were, no detailed background had been worked out for them. Their personalities were largely being established during filming by the actors and their various directors, with a result that the characters were often inconsistent from one episode to the next, particularly Captain Picard. Worf was a late entry in the character roster because initially Roddenberry didn’t want to bring the Klingons back. It was only when he decided to give the Klingons a real background and make them richer characters that he agreed to include them.
Although episode twelve of The Next Generation, “The Big Goodbye,” won the coveted Peabody Award for television excellence, far too many of the first-year episodes suffered from a distinct lack of excellence. One of the other few exceptions is “Heart of Glory,” the episode that established Worf as being more than just a fixture on the bridge.
The second year improved consistently, demonstrating that all involved had learned from their mistakes (and the mistakes of others) and were ready to finally get down to work.
Seasons three through seven continued the process of fine-tuning the characters and establishing them as individuals with distinctive personalities. Picard went from being an inconsistent leader to a seasoned starship captain worthy of the position as commander of the flagship of Starfleet. Episodes were done which spotlighted the many facets of Jean-Luc Picard while capitalizing on the fine acting abilities of actor Patrick Stewart.
Riker