I've had a lot of fun watching old TNG episodes and reviewing them for TV Squad, and so does the audience, according to the feedback I've gotten from readers . I started with Naked Now, and I've been working my way forward, because it's fun to go chronologically and see how we evolved, but a lot of people have asked for a review of our pilot episode, Encounter at Farpoint, so this week I went all the way back to September 28, 1987, and looked at Encounter at Farpoint, Part I:
Well, now the Enterprise has a problem: run away or fight? Well, there'll be plenty of time for running away in the future, so Picard decides that the best way to protect his crew is to take the ship to maximum warp speed, drive it away from the mysterious net, and separate the saucer section from the stardrive section.
Wait. What? Separate the saucer section from the stardrive section? The ship comes apart, like a Transformer? Can it turn into a gun and a boombox and a dinosaur, too?
All the families head up into the saucer section, which will be commanded by Lt. Worf (who as a Klingon certainly won't want to shoot at everyfuckingthing he sees, and is therefore an excellent choice for the task of keeping them out of trouble) while Picard takes Tasha, Data, and Troi with him into the stardrive section, where he assumes control of the battle bridge, and makes plans for a sexy party.
The mystery net turns into a mystery shiny ball and chases the Enterpise at mysteriously fast speeds. After a minute, Picard orders the emergency saucer separation, a process which, though untested at warp speed and therefore theoretically deadly and dangerous, is made kind of silly by our knowledge as the audience that it's obviously going to work, and is accompanied by the triumphant Star Trek theme music. It's not The Motion Picture-esque in its lameness, but it sure comes close, especially when the saucer section pulls away, and the stardrive section makes a burning rubber sound as it turns past the camera and heads back to face off against Q.
The episodes that are the most fun to review are the ones that are really cheesy . . . and even though this one has its cheesy moments, I discovered a certain amount of reverence for it while I was watching it, mostly because there are a lot of emotional memories tied up in this particular episode for me. It was the beginning, I remember how lucky and excited I felt to be on the show and working with everyone, and I remember how excited everyone on the production side of things was to be involved with putting Star Trek back on television. This episode has its silly bits, but I had to work harder than usual to do more than a Chris Farley Show style, "Oh man, this is so cool!" review.
I have so many behind the scenes memories of this show, it was hard to pick out just a couple, so the story didn't get too long, but I wanted to include a brief bit about the Admiral, who ends part one in a touching scene with Data. The Admiral was played by DeForest Kelley, and it was obvious from Worf's introduction of him that he was actually Dr. McCoy, though he's never called that in the script.
I've known everyone from the original series at one time or another, and just like everyone else in the world, they all have their good days and their cranky days. I know it's tough to look back at these people we love and admire and acknowledge that they may be bitchy from time to time (WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER obviously exempted, of course) but I can honestly say that DeForest Kelley was always kind, patient, and Zen-like whenever I saw him. He had this quiet kindness around him that is best described as everyone's image of the perfect grandfather. I wasn't on the set the day they filmed his scene with Brent, but I bugged the hell out of Brent with questions about it (I was the cast's token fan, remember) and he told me that De was funny, gracious, and a pleasure to work with.
TPTB went to great lengths to conceal his participation in this episode, even scheduling casting for the Admiral (though I don't know if they actually called people in, I just recall seeing it on a production schedule.) I doubt we would have been able to keep it as good a secret today as we did then, with the Internets and stuff, but it's a scene that means a lot to me, and I hope meant something to Trekkies, as well; it was a passing of the torch to the next generation, and though we stumbled a lot (and fell down a few times) as we attempted to carry it forward, there wasn't anyone else from the original series who could have been happier or more gracious to hand it off.
I'll release part two of Farpoint next week. Until then, you can 'scape or Digg part one if you're so inclined.
