Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Best of Both Worlds,
Parts 1 &2
Today is a special edition of Watch It-Talk It! My Roommate’s birthday is today, so Happy
Birthday Paul Evans! As a gift to Paul I
took him to see the one night only theatrical release of Star Trek: The Next
Generation’s “Best of Both Worlds” episodes.
Paul loves Next Generation and a one night event of one of his favorite
shows on his birthday was too much to pass up.
So I’ll be reviewing the Star Trek episodes tonight instead of
Madmen. To incorporate this switch into
my schedule I’ll be watching Madmen next week on Tuesday instead of going to
the theaters in a simple trade with tonight.
So, if you are waiting on bated breath for my review of Madmen I apologize
for the delay, but I’m sure you will understand.
On to the review.
I’m not a big Star Trek fan, I’ve watched a couple of
episodes of the original series and I’ve seen bits and pieces of next
generation, but I never got too into the franchise. Of course, I loved the J.J. Abrams
movie. Please Trekkies, hold your death
threats until I’m done. You might like
to hear what I have to say. Going into
this movie I didn’t really know what to expect.
Paul told me it would involve The Borg, which I’ve seen a little bit of
The Borg before and I find them interesting so I went into the theater with
moderately high hopes. After watching
probably my first full Next Generation episode(s) I have to say I enjoyed the
experience. It was a well told story
with plenty of tension and character conflicts.
Sure, there were some cheesy moments, but they didn’t
detract from the show as a whole. I’d
almost say they added a level of charm.
I chuckled every commercial break because I noticed there are only two
ways to cut to commercials in The Next Generation. You can either do a low angle dolly into
someone making an intense face, or you can have a spaceship flying away from
the screen past a terrifying visual (destroyed starships or The Borg’s ship
flying past Saturn on the way to assimilate Earth, or as I like to call it:
Borgify something.) Also, I still don’t
understand what Whoopi Goldberg is doing on that ship, but God bless her she
can do whatever she wants apparently. I’ve
never watched a full episode, but she always seems to randomly pop up whenever
Paul is watching an episode in the living room.
My favorite character through line was Riker’s. A normally success driven man has been
turning down offers to captain his own ship.
Then, in the midst of this episode he’s forced to deal with Commander
Shelby who intends to take his job.
Riker is forced to deal with whatever inside him is causing him to
refuse a captain’s rank on another starship.
By the end of the two episode arc he’s had to captain the Enterprise,
when Picard is captured by The Borg, and successfully rescues Picard and
destroys The Borg’s ship. I don’t know
if it was ever explicitly said in the show, but I think Riker sees that he’s
integral part of the Enterprise team. If
Picard had been captured with anybody else as first officer they all very well
could have died. He might not be the
captain of The Enterprise, but he is just as important to their crew. Also, if he would have taken the captain’s
chair on The Melbourne, where it was stated he would go, he would’ve been
killed when The Federation attacked The Borg’s ship. So The Enterprise is his home and he is where
he belongs. That’s what I took from it anyway.
Another short post tonight, but I must go celebrate my
friend’s birthday. He only gets one a
year I have to make the best of it.
Thanks for reading, and tell me your thoughts below!
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