By Liam Murphy
It will come as no surprise to most readers of I’m With Geek that a good number of us are Trekkies. Whether we label ourselves as such or not, we can pretty much all say that Star Trek is part of our eternally expanding list of shows we love. But when we start to talk about what Trek is the best Trek ... that’s where things get a bit tricky. So read below to find out one Trekkie’s opinion on their favourite series, and watch out all this week for more of us telling you how the opinion below is complete twaddle!
It will come as no surprise to most readers of I’m With Geek that a good number of us are Trekkies. Whether we label ourselves as such or not, we can pretty much all say that Star Trek is part of our eternally expanding list of shows we love. But when we start to talk about what Trek is the best Trek ... that’s where things get a bit tricky. So read below to find out one Trekkie’s opinion on their favourite series, and watch out all this week for more of us telling you how the opinion below is complete twaddle!
For many of us at I’m With Geek, myself included, I have no doubt that your first experience of watching a Star Trek episode was the voyages of the USS Enterprise-D with her captain Jean-Luc Picard and her motley crew. And while there have certainly been spin-offs galore since, whether TV series, comics, films or books; The Next Generation was THE spin-off, the first since the original series and its films (and lets not forget The Animated Series ... on second thought, lets!), and as the only spin-off worked on by Gene Roddenberry himself before his passing in 1991, it remains to many Trekkies the closest series to Roddenberry's vision for a true utopian society, one free of religion and bigotry, working to better themselves and their Federation. So just what makes TNG the best Star Trek spin-off series?
The Characters
A Star Trek series would be nothing without the complex characters that occupy the screen, and the crew of the Enterprise-D are most definitely within that category. Whether it’s Data, the Android who aspires to be Human; Worf, a Human raised Klingon; Deanna Troi, the half-Human, half-Betazoid telepath; or Jean-Luc Picard, the French born Captain rebelling against his family’s traditions; they all have unique troubles in their lives and trials to overcome, and during the course of the series these character driven stories lie at the heart of what makes this series what it is.
The Characters
A Star Trek series would be nothing without the complex characters that occupy the screen, and the crew of the Enterprise-D are most definitely within that category. Whether it’s Data, the Android who aspires to be Human; Worf, a Human raised Klingon; Deanna Troi, the half-Human, half-Betazoid telepath; or Jean-Luc Picard, the French born Captain rebelling against his family’s traditions; they all have unique troubles in their lives and trials to overcome, and during the course of the series these character driven stories lie at the heart of what makes this series what it is.
The Enemies
The Next Generation certainly had its fair share of races and people with grudges against the Federation, but no enemy came even close to the Borg. Introduced in the second season by our favourite omnipotent being known as “Q”, the Borg almost obliterated the Federation on two separate occasions, destroyed over 40 ships throughout their time in the series, and continued to plague the Federation throughout Voyager’s run as well as an Enterprise episode.
The Episodes
No series would work well without great storytelling, and TNG has a great many stories to tell. Top episodes on most peoples’ lists include The Measure of a Man (Season 2, Episode 9), the alternate universe Klingon war in Yesterday’s Enterprise (Season 3, Episode 15), the epic battle against the Borg in The Best of Both Worlds Parts I and II (Seasons 3 & 4, Episodes 26 & 1), and of course, the series finale All Good Things... (Season 7, Episode 25).
The Next Generation certainly had its fair share of races and people with grudges against the Federation, but no enemy came even close to the Borg. Introduced in the second season by our favourite omnipotent being known as “Q”, the Borg almost obliterated the Federation on two separate occasions, destroyed over 40 ships throughout their time in the series, and continued to plague the Federation throughout Voyager’s run as well as an Enterprise episode.
The Episodes
No series would work well without great storytelling, and TNG has a great many stories to tell. Top episodes on most peoples’ lists include The Measure of a Man (Season 2, Episode 9), the alternate universe Klingon war in Yesterday’s Enterprise (Season 3, Episode 15), the epic battle against the Borg in The Best of Both Worlds Parts I and II (Seasons 3 & 4, Episodes 26 & 1), and of course, the series finale All Good Things... (Season 7, Episode 25).
The Films
Okay, so I’ll say straight away, not every TNG film is a stunner, but then again, as the only Star Trek spin-off series to have films as part of their library; they must have done something right. Personally, Generations and First Contact have always been favourites of mine, Generations for trying to bridge the gap between the old and new, and First Contact for showing the foundations of the Federation and how even flawed men (and Androids) can change their lives when given the opportunity... We just won’t talk about Nemesis, alright?
The Ship
You can’t really talk about a Trek series without talking about the ship/station. The fifth Federation ship with the name Enterprise (or sixth if you include the Earth Starfleet’s NX-01), the Enterprise-D was probably the most unique ship over each of the different television series. Designed for exploration instead of war, the Enterprise-D was the first ship to have families onboard, as well as being one of the few modular ships in the fleet, able to separate into two sections to allow the civilian crew to escape whilst the command crew dealt with emergencies, or be able to attack an enemy from two sides. But all good things must come to an end and with the Enterprise-D destroyed during the Generations film, the Enterprise-E was born. The Enterprise-E was much more the warship than its predecessor, and whilst only having three on screen battles under her belt, the brief time we saw her, she took one hell of a beating.
Now does this all make the best Star Trek spin-off? I think it makes the best one so far, but you never know where the franchise might lead in the future. Every spin-off has its own quirks, its good and its bad, but TNG is the one that came first and in my opinion, the one that worked best.
Okay, so I’ll say straight away, not every TNG film is a stunner, but then again, as the only Star Trek spin-off series to have films as part of their library; they must have done something right. Personally, Generations and First Contact have always been favourites of mine, Generations for trying to bridge the gap between the old and new, and First Contact for showing the foundations of the Federation and how even flawed men (and Androids) can change their lives when given the opportunity... We just won’t talk about Nemesis, alright?
The Ship
You can’t really talk about a Trek series without talking about the ship/station. The fifth Federation ship with the name Enterprise (or sixth if you include the Earth Starfleet’s NX-01), the Enterprise-D was probably the most unique ship over each of the different television series. Designed for exploration instead of war, the Enterprise-D was the first ship to have families onboard, as well as being one of the few modular ships in the fleet, able to separate into two sections to allow the civilian crew to escape whilst the command crew dealt with emergencies, or be able to attack an enemy from two sides. But all good things must come to an end and with the Enterprise-D destroyed during the Generations film, the Enterprise-E was born. The Enterprise-E was much more the warship than its predecessor, and whilst only having three on screen battles under her belt, the brief time we saw her, she took one hell of a beating.
Now does this all make the best Star Trek spin-off? I think it makes the best one so far, but you never know where the franchise might lead in the future. Every spin-off has its own quirks, its good and its bad, but TNG is the one that came first and in my opinion, the one that worked best.
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