Encounter at Farpoint

But weird story, difficult to understand and to follow. More difficult to understand than any Star trek ooriginal episodes. But at least its not boring ans we get to know the new characters !

And like the last sentences Say " our next mission will be more interesting" i truly Hope so , ahah.

'Encounter At Farpoint' is the double-length pilot episode of The Next Generation and introduces us to the characters, the ship and... the writers, who at this point were the weakest link.

The two main plots are engaging enough. Going on commentary from Roddenberry, the Q entity was written in later at Paramount's behest but, to me, is the most amusing part of this outing. Q almost represents the studio's viewpoint - in the show, the whole human race is on trial, in reality, the entire TNG concept was on trial. His presence is a definite highlight and he would go on to be one of the most memorable characters of any Star Trek incarnation. Q's presence interweaves comfortably with 'the trial' itself which is the unravelling an enigma: how did an obviously technologically deficient race build a frontier outpost of high-technology to service the Federation, and can the mystery be solved without resorting to violent methods thereby proving Q correct in his definition of the human race as barbaric and child-like?

From a technical standpoint this episode is respectable. For particular commendation I would single out Industrial Light and Magic's excellent special effects work. The models of the Enterprise-D and the alien spacecraft(s) set a high watermark which remains, for me, an engrossing aspect of the show to this day. We now take complex and expensive shots like these for granted in television shows, but until TNG it wasn't all that common.

As for the performances, the cast are still tentative within their new roles, finding their comfort zones and strengths. Some of the dialogue allows them chances to connect with their characters and therefore with the audience, other sections would be better delivered tongue-in-cheek rather than with deadly earnestness, or omitted entirely. My own assumption is that at this point Roddenberry was working towards the strengths of the old cast, whom he was familiar with, expecting them to be partial clones of Kirk and crew instead of relying on his new actors to take Star Trek in interesting new directions. When he stepped down as Executive Producer and handed more responsibility to Braga (who, sadly, would go on to lose his deft touch while in control of Voyager) many of the problems were ironed out.

'Encounter At Farpoint: Parts I and II' represent some of the best moments of the first season but not necessarily the entire Next Generation run or the four films that would follow. It is abundantly obvious that the premise has great promise, but it would not be until late into the second season that consistency would improve and truly great stories would be added to the Star Trek canon.

Clunky first episode. The Q story was bolted on to make it movie length. Good thing ultimately because the Farpoint plot is quite weak.

There is a positively surreal scene where Riker is watching this very episode on TV.

** out of ****

Star Trek: TNG was one of my favorite TV shows growing up. Space adventures always appealed to me, but it was the cast and the concepts the show explored that often won me over. After having seen the pilot episode, a two-parter entitled Encounter at Farpoint, I see many of the qualities I enjoyed about the series, but this is a fairly subpar episode that's only occasionally compelling.

Set some 80 years after the original Star Trek (thus placing it, if I'm not mistaken, in the 24th century), the new crew of the starship Enterprise is headed by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). The crew's assignment: to investigate Farpoint station, but before they can reach their destination they're intercepted by a god-like entity who calls "himself" Q (John De Lancey). Q has deemed the human race savage beasts and puts the Enterprise crew on trial. Their test is Farpoint and if they fail to uncover the dark secret of the station, then well...they'll assumingly receive a dreadful fate.

The first part of Encounter at Farpoint is pretty good, the characters are nicely introduced and mostly well-played by the cast. Patrick Stewart immediately stands out as the stern but well-meaning Picard. Brent Spiner is fantastic as Data, and Jonathan Frakes makes a likeable first officer as Commander Riker. Noticeably different from the original Star Trek is a larger female cast. Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, and Denise Crosby are all fairly attractive (Sirtis would later be a full-blown hottie by season two, and McFadden is actually the best-looking of all the Star Trek ladies right now, talk about aging gracefully; sorry, Jeri Ryan and Jolene Blalock just don't do it for me).

Unfortunately, the plot, while initially intriguing, ultimately doesn't really go anywhere and there's the certain feeling that fitting the whole story into two parts is really stretching it out. A lot of the material, obviously played for introductory purposes, could still have been cut out. In fact, all the stuff focusing on the mystery behind Farpoint barely adds up to a half-hour, excluding the really lengthy climax, which is just plain boring. When the secret of Farpoint is revealed (which you'll probably figure out before the cast does), all the conjecture and facts are messily spouted in one of those silly coversations where each character continues the sentence after the previous speaker has finished.

But Encounter at Farpoint works adequately enough as an intro to one of the best sci-fi television series, right up there with Stargate: SG-1 and the first two seasons of Sliders. Watch for Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Q's bailiff.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's pilot episode is a mixed bag. On the one hand, there's a decent cast and everything LOOKS better than the original series -- the spacecrafts, F/X, costumes and sets -- but, on the other, half of the story is goofy and awkwardly implemented into the main story.

The "goofy" part is the character of Q, an omniscient being, who suddenly appears on the Bridge of the Enterprise just past the 5-minute mark (!) and shortly later transports most of the Bridge crew to some absurd trial against humanity with a bunch of barbarians as the audience. This part of the story was written by Gene Roddenberry and he was pressured to add it to D.C. Fontana's script to make "Encounter at Farpoint" a double episode.

The problem with the Q subplot is that it's premature. The purpose of a pilot episode is to establish the characters and the basic tone of the series. Fontana's story about the cast grouping together and their experiences at the Farpoint station accomplish this, but Roddenberry's Q story seems tacked-on, outlandish and premature.

Sure, the character of Q was based on Trelane from the Original Series episode "The Squire of Gothos," but (1) that episode wasn't introduced until the second half of the first season when the serious tone of the series was well established, and (2) Trelane was presented in a believable way despite his goofy antics. It's called good writing.

In "Encounter at Farpoint," by contrast, it's not 6 minutes into the story -- the very first episode of the series -- and this goofball character suddenly appears on the Bridge and proceeds to kidnap the Bridge crew and take them to some bizarre trial in the midst of a bunch of uncouth barbarians. These events take place in the first half hour and it just mars the seriousness and credible-ness of the rest of the 2-part episode.

Thankfully, everything else is like the Original Series, just better, at least as far as appearances go. The writing wouldn't catch up till the third and fourth seasons, although there are some gems here & there in the first two, e.g. "Heart of Glory," "Conspiracy," "The Schizoid Man," "A Matter of Honor," "The Dauphin" and "Q Who."

The pilot runs 1 hour, 31 minutes.

GRADE: B-/C+