For something different...

[FredM 0]

Hey there,

 

If you had your choice...and you could change one thing with TNG...what would it be? The elimination of Super Brat? The promotion of Super Brat? Speak your mind! Give your thoughts! :)

[Nemesis 0]

Well I would've made Wesley into a Q but no one would know that it was him constantly putting Picard in his underpants :)

[Dumbass 0]

Well I picked "Most of the above". My specific choices would be:

 

Never invented Wesley Crusher.

Never invented the "counselor" post.

Kept the bridge from looking like a hotel lobby.

 

Actually the Counselor position was a compromise. A lot of people wanted to see some type of Chaplan position created but Rodenbury wouldn't hear of it. (With so many races in the Federation, each with their own belief system, I doubt such a position could have worked anyway.)

 

One thing I noticed about TNG is there were too many characters trying to replace Spock. You had Worf as the resident alien, Riker as the XO, and Data as the logical one. Of these I think Riker was the most expendable as Data could have easily been XO from the OPS position the way Spock was XO and CSCI.

Edited January 26, 2004 by Dumbass

[Grom 0]

James T. Kirk...yeah baby! :)

[Seiben 0]

I chose "most of the above".. I would have never invented Wesley Crusher, made Picard English, and kept the bridge from looking like a hotel lobby. lol. But other than that, I'd probably leave it as is. :)

[Captain Huff 0]

Oh hindsight and all that... Given some, I'd have:

 

1. Kept Wesley, why not, but without the gross volume of saved-by-the-prodegy plots. Make him a little more real, feature him much less. He was tolerable toward the very end.

 

2. Dumped his mother for someone who could act. Bleechies. I cried when Polaski left and Brainless reappeared, with bad hair to boot.

 

3. Killed Tasha earlier or dumped her for someone who could act.

 

4. Give Troi a real uniform about 7 seasons earlier.

 

5. Never let Troi invent that accent. ::shiver:: And sure, let her have a brain a few seasons earlier. I liked her in the later seasons.

 

6. Never used Spandex for any of them. Ever.

 

7. Never given the Romulans forehead ridges. Come on, show some Latex restraint.

 

8. Had less holodeck malfunctions

 

9. Either made Jordi weirder or more normal... He was right at that "uncomfortable" level.

 

10. Shown more skin.

[Travis Kroells 0]

I would have had 7 of 9 rescued from the borg during TNG, Riker and Kirk are still the top two players in the shows, so he and 7 would have hit it off...I waited all of Voyager for her to take it off!!!! ARGHFGJSLKFNS!~!!!

 

Ok seriousness now, I would have put an extended plot in. The only reason TNG lasted so long, with out much plot strutcher SP (you know, new adventure every show) was due to some really brilliant writing. If TNG had the writing that ENT has now, with out a plot, we'd be talking about how it was the worst startrek series ever.

 

Best. Writing. Ever!

[FredM 0]

Hey there,

 

Well, dealing with Trio, I have to agree with above remarks. Season 5 - Movies era featured a great character. The earlier seasons made her look like at 13 year old.

 

As to Wesley, it's kind of a shame. The writers so destroyed the character in the first two seasons it made it out to be "Kill everyone except Wesley and Data...ship will survive." The character really did have some serious potential and I thought they started to do some nice things with it towards the end. I would have liked to see him develop in a fashion similiar to Ro. Go to Starfleet Academy and come back...grown up, mature, realistic, etc. Instead, they go off on this odd thing that turns him into Mini-Q...who happens to show up for Riker's wedding.

 

As for Doctor Crusher, I thought they did some interesting developments with her character in the later years. Unlike many, I did enjoy the character of Doctor Polaski. I'm still bothered by the fact they never explained her departure and Crusher coming back, who had supposedly gone to become the "head of Starfleet Medical." I mean, did she do such a horrible job they fired her?

 

I standby earlier remarks I made months ago. I still do not understand why the position of "Tactical" and "Chief of Security" were different. In fact, I'm not really sure they ever were. Honestly, can someone tell me what Worf did for the first half of Season 1? Anyone? Anyone at all?

 

As for the poll, I actually selected the option about the bridge as a hotel lobby. The Enterprise of the 1701, 1701-A and every other starship bridge up to TNG (and since) were functional. There was not a ton of wasted space. TNG...was completely wasted space. I'd compare it to the bridge of a battleship vs the bridge of a cruise liner.

 

The sad part is, I think we saw the real potential of the design towards the end. Episodes like "Yesterday's Enterprise" and even the final copy in Generations showed a really wonderful concept for the bridge. If they'd had it like that to begin with, might have been a little more...realistic.

[Nemesis 0]

Fred about what you said about the Enterprise D's bridge I need to remind you of something, the Enterprise was an exploration and diplomatic vessel with great tactical capabilities. I believe the bridge should look like a hotel lobby for the fact it would've been more welcoming then some sort of battle bridge motif like Voyager or Enterprise-E.

[Dumbass 0]

OK, I went back and changed one of my answers. I think keeping separate Tactical / CSEC positions could have worked with some better writing. The way I see it, the person at the bridge pushing buttons needs a different skill set than the person coordinating the efforts of a security force to maintain order. They did a decent job of showing the difference in the latter half of DS9 with Worf and Odo but I think the writers of TNG often thought "OK, this sounds like a military thing. Give it to Worf." I think the Worf character could have worked as strictly Tactical if they expanded the role to include, maybe, a military intelligence capability (Pushing buttons gets old after a while, just ask Garnoopy.) the way they did in DS9.

 

Would there be some overlap with TAC and CSEC as separate positions? Sure. But to give one character all the functions that might show some violence is just bad writing to me.

Edited January 26, 2004 by Dumbass

[Dumbass 0]

As to Wesley, it's kind of a shame. The writers so destroyed the character in the first two seasons it made it out to be "Kill everyone except Wesley and Data...ship will survive." The character really did have some serious potential and I thought they started to do some nice things with it towards the end. I would have liked to see him develop in a fashion similiar to Ro. Go to Starfleet Academy and come back...grown up, mature, realistic, etc. Instead, they go off on this odd thing that turns him into Mini-Q...who happens to show up for Riker's wedding.

Not just show up at the wedding, which I can understand, but in uniform? After he quit the Academy? No explanation given, even in the deleted scenes?

 

In my opinion the best Wesley plots were when we were allowed to see that he wasn't perfect after all, that he had the normal doubts about himself that anyone his age would have. I don't mean that one where Wesley fails the Academy enterance exam and still gets sunshine blown up his (colorful metaphor) from the tester and from Picard. I mean the ones where he participated in that cover-up of a training death because of a flying stunt, the one where he, Picard, and that one guy were stranded on the planet and for the first time in his life he needed a pair of (another colorful metaphor), and the one on that colony where he disagreed with the Enterprise's mission - although even this one could have been written better.

[FredM 0]

the Enterprise was an exploration and diplomatic vessel with great tactical capabilities.

Hey there,

 

So were the....

 

NCC-1701, NCC-1701-A, NCC-1701-B, NCC-1701-C, NCC-1701-E, the U.S.S. Odyssey (Galaxy class, completely different more functional design), etc.

[FredM 0]

Not just show up at the wedding, which I can understand, but in uniform? After he quit the Academy? No explanation given, even in the deleted scenes?

Hey there,

 

Supposedly there are so many deleted scenes that still have yet to see the light of day it's sick. The 1/4 of the entire ending of the film...explaining Geordi's supposed departure and that of Doctor Crusher...MIA. Ditto for several supposed conversations during the wedding explaining Worf's reassignment to the Enterprise a year earlier, Wesley's presence, etc.

 

As for the good Wesley plots, I agree with you. The ones that showed him as a regular person, not Superboy, were the great ones. Watching those, I think you can see the potential this character had.

[Dumbass 0]

The ones that showed him as a regular person, not Superboy, were the great ones.

Well, let's be honest here. They were better than average for Wesley episodes, but they weren't great.

[FredM 0]

Hey there,

 

I'm saying "great" in relation to other "Wesley" episodes, not the series itself. :)

[Nemesis 0]

Well the one Tom Paris was on and Wes was in trouble was good :)

[Dumbass 0]

Well the one Tom Paris was on and Wes was in trouble was good :)

Same actor as Tom, different character.

[Cptn Moose 0]

I don't know if I'm going to show my ignorance, or my brilliant powers of observation with this one, but here goes ...

 

I don't think Security and Tactical were two different positions in TNG. Tasha Yar was Chief of Security, and was always parked at what we now know as the "Tactical Station"

 

Worf spent his first season at the Helm, and as a red shirt on away team missions. I don't remember him having a real job until Tasha died.

 

I also don't remember the term "Tactical" being used until "Yesterday's Enterprise". I do remember Tasha arguing with the guy from the Enterprise-C about going back, claiming "Who's better equiped to run tactical than I am," and thinking "What the hell is tactical?".

 

As far as I recall, the Chief of Security and the Tactical Officer were the same post on TV. I'd never seen them as different jobs until I started simming, which I thought was clever because more people got to play.

[Dumbass 0]

Actually, they did make reference to a Tactical position in a TOS episode. But they used him for a ground assault, so go figure.

[Marris Krax 0]

Worf spent his first season at the Helm, and as a red shirt on away team missions. I don't remember him having a real job until Tasha died.

Worf was just kinda the person hanging around in the background, as far as I remember that first season. He wasn't always at helm, because I know for a fact that Geordi was the original helm guy, but I do recall Worf being there on occassion, maybe after they tossed that fat guy with the beard down in ENG out on his keester LOL Wasn't his name Argyle or something?

[FredM 0]

Worf was just kinda the person hanging around in the background, as far as I remember that first season. He wasn't always at helm, because I know for a fact that Geordi was the original helm guy, but I do recall Worf being there on occassion, maybe after they tossed that fat guy with the beard down in ENG out on his keester LOL Wasn't his name Argyle or something?

Hey there,

 

See, this is my point. What in the heck did Worf actually do? I've seen several episodes where he screams "Shields and deflector's up, sir!" with Yar standing right at tactical. It just made and makes zero sense as to what his actual job title was.

 

And you mention Geordi...am I the only person who honestly thought the man should have been in engineering from day one? Talk about missed opportunities...

[Dumbass 0]

And you mention Geordi...am I the only person who honestly thought the man should have been in engineering from day one? Talk about missed opportunities...

Yeah, and going from Ensign to Lieutenant Commander in the same season was a bit much.

[Marris Krax 0]

Yeah, and going from Ensign to Lieutenant Commander in the same season was a bit much.

I think Geordi started as a JG and went to a full lieutenant, and later LtC, but I have a faulty memory at the best of times :)

 

And I think Roddenbury put Geordi as helm for a very specific purpose...his character was supposed to pay homage to some disabled person, as it was somewhat ironic that the blind man was driving the ship. Least that's what I remember from some Reading Rainbow special or such as a little grade-schooler :P

Edited January 27, 2004 by Marris Krax

[Nemesis 0]

Worf was there to look like the dumb Klingon whenever Q showed up by being overly aggressive :)

[Seiben 0]

Yeah, I think Geordi and Worf were probably first intended as extras, not having much to say. Later on in ther series, Roddenberry realised their potentials and made them regulars.. at least.. that's what I think. :)