As an inaugural episode, this was a fairly weak story. Surprisingly weak, given the scope of material they had to work with and the strength of the actors, particularly Picard. With any new show there are always the usual allowances made for the new cast just beginning to work together, and unsure of how the writers are handling them.
Given the background of this series, one long in the planning, with huge expectations, great anticipation, and a passionate following, this should have been a powerful episode. The audience should have been treated to motion picture level directing and writing, which would have addressed those issues. My feeling was that this wasn't just your ordinary sit-com start-up, and the directing here wasn't up to the task.
The other major failing of this episode was with the writers. And I think it went beyond simply getting a feel for the show. For the very first episode, the audience was given a phantasmagoria of Q's making, where deliberate incoherence was a fundamental part of the plot. It isn't good design to start an entirely new show with an episode where nothing makes sense, where characters are reacting to abnormal and absurd environments, so that we are unable to get a firm idea of their characters.
Understanding the fundamentals of the setting is absolutely critical to
appreciating the new and the strange, particularly in a science fiction
story. This should have been an episode establishing the basics of the universe itself, what "world" will this new Star Trek take place in, what are the parameters under which we will be operating. The writers chose not to establish this baseline, so it was impossible to really grasp how powerful Q was, how bizarre the situations were, how much danger the crew was in. This show gave us absolutely no point of reference, something critically needed at this point in the series.
In fact, placing this as the first episode went a long way toward messing up the entire first season. Yes, The Original Series had its share of encounters with hyperpowerful beings, and bizarre episodes, but that was after the baselines, the reference points had been set. Moreover, this first episode signaled that the writers were more in tune with the strange Twilight Zone-style episodes - my least favorite from TOS - and it left me uneasy as to what to expect in the future. Personally, Q episodes are the greatest disappointment and the ones I enjoy the least.
The behind-the-scenes story is that the first episode was solely about Farpoint Station and the decision was made to add an extra hour to the pilot by including the Q material. If so, this was unsuccessful. The Farpoint narrative, while less than thrilling, was fresh and introduced the new characters well.
If we had simply left off that first episode, and started with episode 2, the whole first season makes more sense.
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
