From: v129j6ed@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (This is F.U.N.)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Re: Possible future stories (was Re: SEASON SEVEN CONFIRMED)
Date: 27 Jan 93 05:11:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1993Jan27.013245.9550@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>, dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Schaumann) writes...
>In article <1993Jan26.131804.1642@galaxy.gov.bc.ca>, bclarke@galaxy writes:
>However, I think the biggest obsticles to new stories on TNG lies
>elsewhere.  One problem is that the characters are essentially cast
>in stone.  No-one changes, no-one evolves: Picard gets kidnapped by
>the Borg and forced to decimate Starfleet?  Back to normal in 3 episodes.
>Geordi brainwashed by the Romulans into a killing machine?  We never
>hear of it again.  Picard gets zapped by 1000-year-old technology and
>spends 30 years living an alternate life?  He's back to normal the next
>time the opening credits roll.

I don't post often, and I usually slam the TNG and prefer the TOS, but I
have to point out a few things.  Yes, I also have that same problem too.
I hated the idea that what happened to these people rarely show up in
later episodes.  Hell, we never here about the 1/3 of StarFleet that was
devestated by the Borg ever again.  That in itself, should cause major
reprocussions w/in the Federation.  It has been totally ignored.  However,
the TOS suffers the same fate.  Look at "Requiem for Mesulith(sp?) and
"The City on the Edge of Forever" and "The Paradise Syndome".  Kirk, in
each story, loses someone who he cares deeply about.  With the exception
of "RfM"(Spock helping Kirk forget), the rest has been ignored.  

>This, my friends, is the straight-jacket the TNG writers find themselves
>wearing.  They can't change the characters, they can't introduce any
>persistant new traits, and every situation that gets introduced (with a
>few exceptions) has to be completely resolved within the 45 minutes they
>have outside commercials.

My main problem is a lack of a definate plot.  They run 3 or 4 little
stories that are usually as interesting as watching your toilet flush.
In the TOS, everything revolved around the plot.  In the TNG, they are
independent of it.  This is good in certain situations, but I feel the
stronger episodes put everything together in one.  

>These are characters cast in amber, and we're already seeing the results
>of that in episodes that sound more and more like retreads of ideas already
>explored in earlier episodes.  Frankly, unless the powers that be show a
>lot more willingness to take chances with the characters and situations,
>there's little (creative) reason to go past the end of the 6th season.

I find it funny that most people claim that the characters have grown.
In fact, I believe that only Riker's beard has grown on the show.  

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"Or watch Richard Gere follow the Dali Llama across the world, and then do
those oh-so Zen-Like movies with those oh-so Zen-Like messages like 'Hey, it's
fun to be a prostitute!'" - 'Folk Song' - Bongwater
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Jef Kolodziej                    Cliche Dude                    The KaTeFan(tm)
v129j6ed@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu           State University of New York at Buffalo
History Major      #(716) 834-2606      611 LaSalle Ave.      Buffalo, NY 14215