Star Trek: The Next Generation is 25-years old this week. I gave myself the length of the soundtrack to the landmark two-parter, “Best of Both Worlds,” to write about it.
Thinking about The Next Generation (TNG) feels like recalling a favorite schoolteacher or remembering old…
This is my friend, Will, about what TNG means to him.
I was a little bit younger and didn’t do the dice game stuff, but this is a pretty accurate summation of my feelings towards TNG. I was also too young to know about usenet or know how terrible people were to poor Wil (as an 8 year old who was sent to sixth grade English classes and fifth grade math classes, I likedWesley and considered him something of a hero).
I guess that ultimately, it’s one of those things where the first one (for you) is never going to be quite as close or important to you as anything that follows. Now that I’m older I can recognize a lot of things that I forgave or didn’t notice just because it was something my whole family watched together on Friday nights, and every night after dinner once they started syndicating episodes.
It’s also something that just sticks with you. Seriously. I adore Doctor Who, but it will never be the closest science-fiction show to my heart. I’ve never understood people who think Kirk is a better Captain than Picard. For me, TNG’s intro and outro music are the “real” theme songs of the entire franchise. I remain a Worf/Troi shipper and upset that DS9 and the movies broke them up. I use “There are FOUR LIGHTS,” and “ASSIMILATE” (the latter often countered with “EXTERMINATE” by equally geeky friends) in conversations at least once a week.
Anyway: happy birthday Next Generation. You boldly went where no man one television show had gone before: my heart. (I can’t say “story” because The Princess Bride came out a few months earlier than TNG and got there first).
