by Emily Maesar, Associate Editor, TVJawn

So… uh. This is it, huh? I mean, it’s not really the end of Captain’s Log forever and ever. I imagine I’ll revisit the core concept of this column in the future, having set myself up with a truly one-of-a-kind outlet to talk about the Star Trek franchise. It’s not something I’d really just put down and fully walk away from—not when it’s my favorite of all the sci-fi worlds. It just won’t be because I’m breaking down a Trek series on a season-by-season basis. No, it’ll probably be more of an overall look at elements that make up the universe, even if it’s within specific parameters.

And there’s a lot to talk about in the future. I haven’t really discussed any of the films, after all, and then there’s the (current) 580 episodes of eight different Star Trek shows that have aired since S6 of TNG, when Deep Space Nine started. I have many general thoughts that will eventually become deep thoughts, I'm sure. Like, I’m fascinated by the preoccupation we, collectively, have with nostalgia in media, and the Star Trek franchise is not immune to it. As evidenced by the fact that we have three Kirks, Spocks, Uhuras, and Pikes, all of whom are main characters in different shows and movies. (I will not be pleased until Strange New Worlds gives me a Bones, though!)

But, okay! Having finally seen all of Star Trek: The Next Generation from start to finish, in the order it was meant to be seen in, my ultimate conclusion is that… I think it’s fine? There’s a lot to love, but there’s also a lot to feel dispassionate about. Is part of my emotional disconnect that I’m a TOS girlie through and through? Probably. I’m not discounting the possibility. However, I would also argue that TNG existing in the middle era of television makes it vital but also kind of uninteresting, on the whole. I don’t think it’s actually that weird to feel the way I do about it, given the modern era of storytelling we’ve been in since the beginning of Peak TV with The Sopranos in 1999. 

I know that’s a big statement to make, but I want to unpack it. What this series (both Captain’s Log and TNG, specifically) has really crystallized to me is the storytelling capabilities of television in particular eras. In fact, I’d argue that Star Trek, as a franchise, might be the best way to understand television through time, which makes it inherently important—beyond all the other ways it’s vital to our popular culture. 

The Original Series was this perfect hallmark of what was happening in the, specifically American, television system in the 1960s. Deeply episodic and interested in big, weird stories that would go as far as they could but were ultimately rooted in the social politics and ideas of the time period. And they almost never ventured past the confines of a single episode. Roddenberry looked as far forward as he could, within his limited means, after all. The Next Generation was no different, though because of the changing tide of television, it conformed to the subtlety changing ideas of the 1980s, ideas that were ushered in with shows like Hill Street Blues. With its episodic plots but serialized characters, it was part of the late 1980s and early 1990s changing of the guard, in terms of how television was being perceived and written. A hallmark of just how far TV had come, able to rest side-by-side with the first show in the franchise. They make a great case study, honestly. Not to mention what happens when you move forward into shows like Discovery or Strange New Worlds, where the show is deeply serialized from top to bottom. 

I don’t think that shows in the style of The Next Generation are bad, by any means. I also don’t think TNG is bad or anything. It was a good time and some of the episodes are ones I’d put on a “Best of Trek” list. However, the problem is that TNG comes a tad late in the balancing game of episodic vs serialized TV storytelling. Which isn’t to say that the episodic nature of the series is inherently bad. My favorite show ever, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is a mostly episodic show, in function. No, the problem is that while the TNG crew are serialized, unlike the TOS crew, they don’t exist in a lot of serialized stories. Also… they’re kind of the lightest version of serialized, if we’re being honest. It gets better as the show moves into the 1990s, where this became a huge part of television writing, but they’re always kind of rooted in Roddenberry’s original vision—one that lives forever, at least in part, in the 1960s. 

So, like a lot of episodically plotted shows, The Next Generation is great background fodder. The Original Series is too. If you know the characters, then it’s pretty easy to just put a random episode on and go forth into the final frontier. Which is why the characters only being kind of serialized is key here. They don’t really change all that much from season to season and there aren’t any totally huge arcs that happen over the course of the show. Not ones that really leave a lasting, felt change on the show. 

Which… okay. Let’s talk about the end of The Next Generation because I’ve got some thoughts! The first of which is related to the lack of actual serialization. The finale is great, honestly. But it’s split between two thoughts that contradict each other (though one of them is much truer for the trajectory of the show). Picard is living through a time flux. He’s jumping between three time periods—the present, his far future, and the pilot—trying to figure out what’s happening across them all. The answer is, of course, Q. Well, it’s slightly more complicated than that, but ultimately it’s a Q and Picard story. The trial from the beginning of the show seemingly never ceased and Picard has been fighting to prove humanity's worth to the Q Continuum, without his knowledge, for the last 178 episodes. 

It’s something I actually really like, because I’m a contradiction unto myself. But these kinds of stories are really fascinating to me. The ones where you (and the main character) get the rug pulled out from under you as everything you thought you knew goes out the window. But how could you be surprised when the one ripping apart the universe is basically a god, you know? Also, I’m never going to be over Q and Picard’s relationship. It’s a weird and wonderful dynamic that spans the confines of life, time, and the universe itself. I know we relate the Borg to Picard more than anything else, pop culturally, but we’re silly for that. It’s Q, baby!

So, the contradictions inherent in the finale! That would be the whole of the plot, with Q and the endless trial. The universe doesn’t reset or anything, but it tingles there in the back of your head for the rest of time, I think. Especially because that does kind of feel like what consuming The Next Generation is like, which I find fascinating. Things change, but they’re also inherently the same. It’s comforting, and I understand why people love The Next Generation… I just wish there was a little more to it, overall. 

And then there’s the poker game. It’s the final moments of the show, and it’s also something I love. I love that we’ve been watching the bridge crew play poker throughout the whole of the show, sans Picard. It’s a running theme, something for them to do in their downtime, and it works well at making them feel connected to each other when very little does otherwise. Having Picard join them, realizing throughout the episode that he’s been too distant from the very people who he’s elected to spend his life with? It’s stunning. It’s a really smart choice and it’s emotional to its core. It’s a great finale. 

It’s also only earned in so far as the finale is concerned. Which is the preeminent issue with The Next Generation. I only ever feel Picard change and grow within specific episodes, so it almost always feels like you have to start at ground zero with him and worth him through the episode. But that’s also true of all the other characters. No one is particularly different from how they were in the first few moments of “Encounter at Farpoint” in 1987. And so, each character arc feels episodic, even when the events seem serialized throughout the characters’ lives. It makes the poker game meaningful within the episode, but not within the whole of the series.

Also, my biggest problem with this season of The Next Generation is that it really showed off how much more interesting it can be to follow crew members who aren’t in charge.  Which is my way of saying that I’d like to talk about “Lower Decks,” an episode that pops up in the middle of season seven and absolutely fucking rules. In fact, other than the finale, “Lower Decks” and “Preemptive Strike" are the standout episodes of the season. 

Let’s start with “Lower Decks,” though. It’s the episode that one of the more recent animated shows, Lower Decks, gets its name. And it’s a show that follows lower ranking officers, like the episode of TNG does. Which is brilliant, by the way. It’s about a handful of officers who are all going through their crew evaluation, a stressful event that is headed up by our principal characters. It’s a funny, sweet, and emotional episode about the types of characters we never get to see in Star Trek, the people who do the menial tasks and make the ship run. There’s also a really lovely parallel of poker games between our lower deck crew and the bridge crew, which I find very charming. Same-same, but different. And to be totally honest, until the last three episodes (two, if you consider the finale a single episode, rather than a two-parter), it was the most tuned into the show I’d felt in the last few seasons. Maybe part of it is because I’m a person who wants a Starfleet Academy show, but with how many people live and work on any given star ship in the fleet… it seems wild to not have a show that focuses on that. (Redshirts by John Scalzi is a pretty fun exploration of this idea, with some wild meta elements thrown in.)

Then there’s “Preemptive Strike." It’s an episode I love mostly because it brings back my favorite character in the series who isn’t an all-powerful god creature, Ro Laren. Played by Michelle Forbes, I’m always excited to see her pop up. She’s horribly underutilized throughout the course of the series, having only appeared in eight episodes since her introduction in season five. “Preemptive Strike” is an episode that really showcases the kinds of stories they could have been doing with her, but simply weren’t. Additionally, I find her relationship with Picard to be incredibly interesting, kind of surprising in the best way, and it gives Picard a lot of character beats to play with going into the finale. I don’t think she ever would, but the things I’d do to have Michelle Forbes play Ro Laren again… especially in a more modern show like Picard? It’s a lot!

But even with the show ending there was more TNG to come. Even though they ended the show on purpose (and weren’t canceled or anything!), the studio was ready to transition the crew of the new Enterprise into films. They’d gotten as far as they thought they could with the TOS crew and their ship—their stories fully extrapolated for the time being—and it was time to move Picard and company onto the big screen. In the grand tradition, of course. And maybe that’s why the other three shows, before the modern era, don’t have the same pop cultural impact as The Original Series or The Next Generation—they didn’t make movies with the crew. That’s an idea worth thinking about, I’d wager. At any rate, the Enterprise flies on to go where no one has gone before.

You know, I always have big ambitious ideas of what I want these yearly columns to be. I had strong thoughts on what I’d end up exploring in Captain’s Log over the last twelve months. Some of those things I did get to and I’m really happy about how they turned out. Sometimes, though, media surprises you and you have to rewire the entire way you’re thinking about things. And that’s the game of chicken we play when we’re watching something that’s new to us and we’re coming into it with an idea about a future piece. Like the Enterprise, Captain’s Log will continue at some point in the future. I’m excited to watch shows I truly know nothing about, but that were running parallel to my childhood. The ones that weren’t always on, and that I’d take a 50/50 bet on if my mom’s even seen in their totality. Captain’s Log is my continuing mission, and I look forward to the next transmission.