Perhaps the best sci-fi TV series of all-time.



The occasional campiness of the 1960's Star Trek series was not at all
evident in Star Trek: The Next Generation, arguably the best science
fiction
television series to ever be aired. It's funny TNG wound up so brilliant,
considering the first two seasons were a bit iffy in terms of quality.
The
show ended up the ultimate representation of Star Trek, with an immensely
engaging crew with a great sense of camaraderie, intelligent and
intriguing
stories, and special effects that were excellent by television
standards.<br><br>With the exception of Wil Wheaton, the cast was uniformly superb. Patrick
Stewart had a lot to live up to as a successor to William Shatner's Kirk.
With his magnetic presence and wonderful acting chops, he's crafted a very
different individual from Kirk, and probably my favorite Trek character,
period. Jonathan Frakes made for a likeable, intriguing Commander Riker,
who's occasional rowdiness reminded me a bit of good old Kirk. Brent
Spiner
is simply terrific as the android, Data, who aspires to be more human. I
can't imagine anyone else in the role, which is probably the highest
praise
you could give to an acting performance. Michael Dorn excelled as the
tough
Klingon Worf, Levar Burton was immensely likeable as chief engineer
Laforge,
and rounding out the cast were the series' two sexy and smart women,
Marina
Sirtis as Counselor Troi and Gates Mcfadden as Dr. Crusher (the latter of
whom looks even more beautiful now than she did in her first season on
TNG).<br><br>The series has had a barrage of standout episodes, whether it was with
suspenseful ventures into the unknown (the first appearance of the Borg)
to
the ultimate cliffhanger in The Best of Both Worlds, The Next Generation
was
an exercise in masterful storytelling and vivid characterization. Since
then, three shows have spawned from Trek lore: Deep Space Nine, Voyager,
and
Enterprise. I have only seen one episode of Enterprise (and clearly, it
didn't make much of an impression on me), but I had sporadically watched
DS9
and Voyager, enough to know neither of them were overall quite as
compelling
as TNG (the only aspect they definitely had over TNG were in the sets and
visual effects). For me, that's rather odd, since I often have a
preference
for a TV series that follows through a central storyline, as both DS9 and
Voyager have, but it simply goes to show how each stand-alone episode of
TNG
made an impression.



Star Trek The Next Generation Complete Series