Discussion Series / StarTrekTheNextGeneration

Deleted this entry, which almost entirely relies on background information, a.k.a. Trivia, and I have no idea how to rewrite it

• Hide Your Gays: Yes Star Trek is about tolerance, but even at that time, homosexuality could only be portrayed through metaphor. Through no fault of the writers or actors, however; they tried several times, and Whoopi Goldberg even changed some of her dialog. When explaining the concept of love to Lal, which was initially written from a purely heterosexual viewpoint, she pointed out that homosexuality would not be stigmatized in the 24th century of Star Trek, and so the lines were changed to be more gender-neutral and inclusive. However, a plan to have a same-sex couple in the background in that scene was nixed by someone on the set calling out the producers in secret, who stood around to make sure that nothing slipped by. The issue would have to wait for Deep Space Nine to get any real exposure at all.

Somebody just deleted the majority of the main page. Perhaps by mistake? I see no way of reverting that edit, wikipedia-style.

I'm having some issues with the below entry and I would appreciate any input:

• Informed Ability:
  • Troi's counseling skills, and even her empathy (or at least her application of it). Whenever we see her counseling someone, she's condescending at best, and outright hostile at worst. Usually this leads to whoever is being counseled to leave and ignore her advice. When a plot requires that someone get important therapy or even just good advice, they turn to Guinan instead.
    • Although it is worth noting that Troi's counseling sessions are rarely shown unless it is to reveal that some issue Troi is having is affecting her ability to do her job.

As far as I remember, it is true that Troi's counseling sessions were only shown if they were a plot point in some way, either elucidating someone's personal problem (like Reg Barclay), or showing when Troi's ability to do her job is affected (and this is in the majority). However when Troi is doing her job normally I can't recall any time when she was hostile or condescending (or at least not more so than any counselor or psychiatrist I'm familiar with). Her job is to counsel someone about their personal problems and try to find a solution, and she often suggests a path they should take based on her expertise, and I don't know if this is being interpreted as condescending, maybe? But I'm currently re-watching some TGN episodes and I can't see anything to support the premise that she's condescending or hostile towards her patients in normal counseling. I'd say Guinan was more condescending than Troi in fact, and I don't consider Guinan particularly condescending when you take into the fact her hundreds of years of life experience. (I agree that people tend to go to see Guinan about advice for their life problems, but that fits her role as the bar-tender).

In addition, although Troi's counseling skills are mostly informed, I wouldn't say her version of empathy was, considering she uses that on a regular basis. Also, despite rarely seeing her counseling someone in private, she does counsel Picard and some of the main staff during casual conversation.

In any case I just can't find or remember anything to support the above statement about Troi, and I'm not a fan of the character so I can't put it down to partiality making me blind to that aspect of her. It could be that my memory is faulty, but I just can't see it.

So I'm going to change the above to what I've written below. If anyone agrees or disagrees with me or what I've written, I'd like to discuss it, and ultimately if anyone else is convinced I'm incorrect, they're of course free to change what I've written back to the above, but I would like to know they're reasoning for doing so if possible.

• Informed Ability:
  • We rarely see Troi's counseling skills in private sessions. Her counseling sessions are only shown on-screen to either elucidate someone's plot-relevant personal/psychological problem - and this is done rarely - or, more commonly, to reveal that some issue Troi is having is affecting her ability to do her job, which normally results in her abusing the poor patient by being overtly condescending, downright hostile, or just acting really strangely. Typically when someone has a problem they need help with, they are shown talking to Guinan for advice, who uses her position as bar-tender to full effect (usually using some tough-love to manipulate or force someone to face their problems).

Thew New Media Are Evil example has a lot of sub-points making reference to quite modern videogames. The trouble is it's trying to explain a series that aired twenty years before Farm Ville and World Of Warcraft ever came out... are there any games from the late '80s or early '90s that could be comparable? (Were they that addictive and absorbing back then, given the limitations on technology?)

Y'know how J. J. Abrams has been making the reboot movies of The Original Series?

If they ever do a TNG reboot, I would like to nominate Wil Wheaton, formerly Wesley Crusher, to play Will Riker.

Wheaton not only has the face (and the beard!) to play Riker, but he also has the golden opportunity to make jabs at his own character!

New!Wesley: (Something annoying.)

Wheaton!Riker: Shut up, Wesley!

There are regular tropes in the "trope based episodes" section, im working on sorting them correctly, but any help would be appreciated.

Also any new examples being put int the correct sections would be great

These are not examples of Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome. This trope is the inexplicable increase in age of a single young character. Alexander might be an example, but we'll need details in order to list it, not just a name. Please see How To Write An Example.

• SORAS: Played with in "The Child"; an alien entity does this deliberately, becoming Troi's child and growing incredibly fast, to understand human existence.

• SORAS: Sometimes played quite straight throughout Trek. Alexander.
  • Klingon children supposedly mature faster than other species. When Alexander showed up in Deep Space Nine, he appeared to be a young adult despite being only eight years old.