Encounter at Farpoint

An *Opinionated Next Gen Episode Guide* review.

Review of the Season 1 two-parter pilot episode of *Star Trek: The Next Generation*.

## Episode information

* **Season:** 1
* **Episode:** 1 / 2
* **Original airdate:** 28 September 1987
* *Encounter at Farpoint, Part I* & *Part II* at StarTrek.com, the official website
* *Encounter at Farpoint, Part I & II* at Memory Alpha, a canon *Star Trek* wiki
* *Encounter at Farpoint, Part I & II* at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
* *Encounter at Farpoint, Part I & II* at the Internet Movie Database

## Review information

* Review link *(first half)*
* Review link *(second half)*
* Published: May 22, 2011

## SF Debris synopsis

First half/episode:

*Opinionated Next Gen Episode Guide looks at where it began with Encounter At Far Point, aka thirty minutes of show stretched into an hour. An inscrutable alien named Q shows up to challenge the new crew, and only the might of their overacting has a chance of thwarting his various costumes. Plus, the first appearance of our official mascot: midget with a cowbell.*

Second half/episode:

*Opinionated Next Gen Episode Guide presents two horrible things in this segment: the closing half of the pilot, and my atrocious Picard impression, for which I apologize in advance. Sadly, the second part is even worse than the first. Special bonus: Trek elements that stopped here or didn't even make it this far.*

## Post-Episode Follow-Up

### Final Score: 3

***Slow, Boring and Slow***

"Final score for 'Encounter at Farpoint', in its entirety, is 3 out of 10.

The part dealing with Q in the first part is the only thing that really props this episode up. The pace is horrible, the performances shifting between boring and bad, and you need to duck occassionally, because of all the masturbating going on here. In many ways, it's going to get even worse in the next chapter of the Q arc.

This early episode's odd, with a lot of elements that are just going to be abandoned. For one, there won't be that many transvestites seen in later episodes. Another is that the ship's going to be less like a mall and more like an actual ship. There's some ideas that didn't even make it this far, that can, frankly, only be called a good thing. One was to have huge areas of the ship filled with water, so that dolphins and whales could be onboard. Which would have *really, really* dated this series, as the human love affair with dolphins is no longer at the ridiculous heights it was in the 80s. As for flimsy justification, they were supposedly there to help with navigation, because whales and dolphins are used to travelling in three dimensions. But with that kind of logic, why go to the trouble with all that water and those huge animals, when you can get the same sort of experience from bees. I mean, they move in three dimensions too, and you can have yummy home-made honey. And you can do the episode where Riker eats all the honey and gets stuck in Rabbit's house.

Next week, in 'The Naked Now', we'll see that, though the episode is likewise crap, at least the characters will start to find their footing. Troi's emoting is dialed down, Worf's IQ is dialed up and Tasha's scenery chewing vanishes completely... along with her dignity, unfortunately..."

### Annoying Character

***Troi: "Loneliness... Such Loneliness... Such Lonely Loneliness..."***

"The Annoying Character is not easy this week. Picard was as ornery and arrogant as he is on his worst day. Tasha Yar overreacts *everytime* a minor crisis appears. Worf proves that 'Microbrain' is a very appropriate name for himself. And we are introduced *(sigh)* to Wesley Crusher. But even if you take all of that, put it all together, it cannot overcome Troi. With not only her relentless emoting, but that it is so long and she has to say everything at least twice. She's like Johnny Two Times froom *Goodfellas*."

### Like Unto An Amoeba

***Q***

"We have a Like Unto An Amoeba award for Q. For having powers so beyond us, he's borderline omnipotent."

### You Can Go Home Again

***Post-Apocalyptic Court of Midgetry***

"Also a You Can Go Home Again, at the reproduction of a post-apocalyptic court of horrors."

## See also

* Opinionated Next Gen Episode Guide
* TNG Season 1 reviews