Since my discovery of the county library's stunning collection of every DVD known to civilized man, I've begun a season-by-season viewing of my favorite television show, Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's steady going, several episodes on a weekend and one or two on a free weekday.
Three weeks ago, I began an essay on the first season. These shows came on the air when I was in fourth grade and they represent an incredible balancing act on part of Gene Roddenberry - meeting the demands of a syndicated classic while defining a new, fresh series. So revisiting them is eye-opening. And self-correcting: I long assumed the first season to be consistently shaky and corny. After borrowing the DVDs, the best of them turned out to be a promising collection. I never realized that TNG's potential was obvious before the end of 1987, that the cast was already putting on memorable performances. The clunkers were, indeed, silly, but if you'll forgive me: heavy-handed camp made Kirk's universe.
The essay may expand into a larger critique of the spinoff's spinoffs. Years ago I tossed around a screed against the limp Voyager, with a totally overserious title like Student's Blight on the Master's Legacy. After a few scribbled outlines I settled on simpler catharsis: turn the damn television off and stop watching the show. Funny how easy some cures really are.
Having finished the second season yesterday and begun the third season today, I'm enjoying the loose continuity I can draw out from each season's arc. TNN used to run a gratuitous block of TNG, four or five hours long some days - but it was a grab-bag rotation of the Trekkie Top 40. Nothing wrong with the classics; it's just that even the weakest shows were passable and stuffed with nuance. And, unlike the reruns of a local station years ago, TNN never played them chronologically. Want to skip along the months, watching the characters develop while their surroundings grow sleeker and smarter? That's the magic of DVD, matched only by a miraculously intact pile of taped-on-Saturday-night VHS tapes. Either way, it's all there. TNG was episodic, especially set next to its soap-operaish successor, Deep Space Nine. But start taking in the first three seasons as chapters, and TNG carries a powerful thread.
I've always been a passive fan; neither the conventions nor the fanatic sites interest me. Actors - minus the inimitable Clayton Moore - are preoccupied with their career, not a role, however popular it may become. You'd be surprised how many of them haven't even the faintest memory of everybody's favorite moment on film. Or how readily they leave the character behind. TNG's cast, perhaps because it was the first to come after the original series, always struck me as more eclectic and more professional. Talent was crawling out of that ensemble's ears. But I haven't followed any of them actively. So I found it out of character to search this out: an excellent interview of Brent Spiner, with a good deal of biographical warm-up before the inevitable Star Trek questions.
Five seasons to go, library willing. I'll keep you all informed.
UPDATE: I stumbled on the best review anyone could hope for last year's otherwise sub-par film Star Trek: Nemesis.
UPDATE II: Just watched "Sarek" before turning in. Patrick Stewart's performance of grappling with the old Vulcan's incontinent emotions, one I hadn't seen in years, was unbelievable. Seven years of mastery. As much as I look forward to Enterprise this fall and appreciate its uniquely rougher nature, I can't do it without a measure of wistfulness for a series come before that can never be rivaled.