{"id":35316,"date":"2010-06-29T17:23:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-29T17:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jordanhthonextract2.wordpress.com\/2010\/06\/29\/the-next-generation"},"modified":"2011-09-23T04:00:01","modified_gmt":"2011-09-23T04:00:01","slug":"the-next-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jordanorlando.com\/ns\/the-next-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Next Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pretty much every time I bring up Star Trek The Next Generation<\/i> I’m saying something bad about it (unless you catch me on those rare occasions when I’m referring to the super-binge-marathon where I watched all seven seasons, back in 2006 or thereabouts, and came to really appreciate and admire the whole project). Just a couple weeks ago (in a post<\/a> that didn’t get that much attention) I wrote that TNG “was a big bucket of liquid nerd cheese that got poured over Star Trek<\/i>, rendering it unpalatable to nearly everyone on earth except super-geek-nerds.”<\/p>\n

But then I finished the sentence by observing that “J. J. Abrams somehow sucked all that nerd-cheese out of Trek<\/i> and returned it to its true form.” I think I’d have to change “true form” to “preferred form” or “optimal form,” which, of course, involves some serious compromises, but the compromises are sensible. Star Trek<\/i> is many things (it’s much<\/i> more malleable and chameleonlike than Tolkien or Star Wars<\/i>; you’d have to look at the DC-comics universe to find a comparable degree of elasticity and adaptability to the mores of the time), and, now that the J. J. Abrams movie has triumphed, I’m finding that I can go back and watch TNG and really<\/i> enjoy it, because the pressure is off; I know Star Trek<\/i> is in good hands and what I consider to be its essential ideas (including the crucial requirement of mass appeal<\/i>) are on the front burner, so I can now be a Trek<\/i> connoisseur and really enjoy TNG, which is way at the other end of the Trek<\/i> spectrum.<\/p>\n

In other words, back when TNG<\/i> (and its spin-offs and movies) were all Trek<\/i> was, I was just so irritated at being forced in that specific direction (and so worried that the whole franchise was going to fade into oblivion) that I resented what they were doing and constantly pined (no pun intended) for a return to what I considered to be the “essence” of the show. But now, everything I wished for has come true beyond my wildest dreams (at least as far as Star Trek<\/i> is concerned) and I can finally groove on the total, complete, intellectual, hard-sci-fi immersion in the “deep end of the pool” that is The Next Generation.<\/i> It’s really great stuff (as I have acknowledged before) and, now that it doesn’t have to carry the full burden of the Trek<\/i> legend into the future, I can totally enjoy it.<\/p>\n