Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season 2

-Greetings and welcome to my continued logs of my chronological voyages through the seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG). Click here to catch up with my entry on season one. It would be hard to tell by looking at the number of episodes in season two of TNG, but a writer’s strike in 1988 delayed the season premiere by a few months which resulted in them rarely taking many weeks off afterwards to finish the season off with a regular slate of 22 episodes.

-I want to kick things off by mentioning the changes to the cast this season. The primary addition to the show is William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) now sporting the most dashing beard in all of TV history! Gone is the incapable Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden). Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) gave the official plot reason in the season premiere for her removal being so she could help train new recruits at Starfleet Academy. Replacing her is Dr. Pulaski (Diana Muldaur). From the first two seasons I thought Pulaski was a far superior character than Crusher, and Muldaur delivered a strong performance throughout the season with her standing up to Picard better than Crusher and Pulaski having some entertaining supporting arcs with Worf (Michael Dorn) throughout the season. Apparently there was enough fan outrage for this swap that the powers that be brought her back the following season.

Other cast changes is Geordi La Forge(Levar Burton) transferred from helmsmen to his more recognized role as the primary engineer for the remainder of the series. Transporter Chief Miles ‘O Brien (Colm Meaney) is now a more frequent recurring character after only making a few miniscule appearances in the first season. Finally, I will give a big hoo-rah to the addition of the bartender Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) to the new lounge in the Enterprise, Ten-Forward. I forgot how legit awesome Whoopi was as an actress at this time and how much I loved her in the show as a kid and I recall at that time being intriguingly mystified with her unique hats and attire. She absolutely steals every scene she is in as she lays down her wisdom to various Enterprise crew seeking advice. She is only a recurring character however and only goes on to appear in four or five episodes a season which is only more reason for her guest spots to standout each time she is on.

-A big improvement this season is dialing back on Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton). Troi was written too over-the-top with her obvious telepathic deductions last season, and they are used far more effectively and sparingly in season two. Wesley Crusher is less annoying too as he settles in his role on the Enterprise and starts to gain more responsibilities. Both characters have a couple episodes where they are in the primary story arcs, but for the most part they are now more supporting roles.

-Season two of TNG sees the addition of the occasional poker scene that became one of the trademarks of the series. Having the infrequent poker game and scenes transpiring at Ten-Forward were a recurring treat where we got to see the Enterprise crew relax and fraternize for a breather from the serious threat of the week. One of my favorite scenes of the season is where Riker teaches Wesley how to talk to women after engaging in a sample of flirting with Guinan that winds up going to a whole new level to the dissatisfaction of Wesley.

-A few other random favorite moments and scenes from the season feature Picard and Wesley stuck with each other on a shuttlecraft for several hours playing out exactly how I wanted it to. Data trying to best a grand master at the fictional game ‘strategema’ was fascinating for its similar parallels to the cancelled Wii Vitality Sensor and having a computer AI trying to best grand chess masters several years later in the 90s. The fictional futuristic version of joust Riker and his father engage in is so over-the-top cheesy I could not help but crack up throughout it!

-Hats off to some good Worf episodes this season where the Enterprise crew team together to throw a holodeck klingon ceremony to Worf’s surprise and Worf mastering a plan to avoid a battle with a klingon ship. I was initially trepid with the holodeck episodes in the first season, but they won me over with the batch of holodeck-centric episodes in season two where Picard relives the adventures of one of his favorite PIs, and the crew has a memorable encounter with one of Sherlock Holmes’ top adversaries.

-The most standout episode of the season is ‘Q Who,’ the only Q (John de Lancie) episode this season where he introduces the Enterprise to the Borg (AKA Space Zombies). It is a tremendous introduction for what would become one of the Enterprise’s top antagonists for the run of TNG. From what I can recall for what I saw so far in the first two seasons, ‘Q Who’ is also the first episode of TNG to have an engaging back and forth dogfight between two space vessels that were some of my more prominent childhood memories of the show. It was also the first episode of TNG where they fired the vintage ‘Photon Torpedoes’ artillery of the Enterprise. If you have to watch just one episode of season two, make sure it is ‘Q Who’ because it is a big hint at what to expect of the rest of the series.

-For as improved as season two is over the premiere season I would be remiss to not mention there are still a few dud episodes cluttering up season two. The episode where the Enterprise encounters a mute negotiator is a challenge and a half to get through, while another has the Enterprise taking on a group of refugees overflowing with Irish stereotypes. Due to the nature of the strike before the season, it resulted in budget cuts and there are some episodes where it is apparent where the cuts were made with the primary case in point being the season finale being a clip show. According to the behind-the-scenes interviews it was met with such disdain it resulted in being the only clip show of the series.

-I do not know if many of you dear readers are keeping up with Seth McFarlane’s lighthearted homage to TNG, The Orville on FOX. As long as you can tolerate Seth’s over-the-top brand of humor, it is an entertaining take on TNG. A season two episode of TNG saw Riker teaching Wesley leadership lessons for his first assigned team he was in command of. Ironic timing a few days later happened for me when watching the then latest Orville episode paying tribute to that exact scene, but with their style of humor in a fun homage.

-I will once again raise my hat to whoever Paramount hired for their excellent HD re-mastering of the season two BluRay. There are many great SD-to-HD comparisons in the first season extras and floating on YouTube I recommend checking out to see how well they make TNG hold up to the latest sci-fi shows on TV today. I never fail to light up with every panning, transitional shot of the Enterprise!

-I will once again plug the podcast, Star Trek: The Next Conversation for their thorough and entertaining breakdown of every episode in the series. It has been a great way to keep up with extra details that went over my head, and with the hosts also working in TV production it helps bring a unique perspective to TNG.

-Speaking of extra features…..damn…..season two is jacked with exponentially more than the first season. There are many hours of original on the set interviews, new interviews and features for when TNG first hit DVD in the early 2000s and all new extra features for the BluRay. I kept a running tally in my notes of all the extras and not including a handful of episodic commentaries there are a little over four hours of extra features! Thank you Paramount for spreading out a couple of features per disc instead of having one disc with all the special features which made it more manageable to consume throughout watching season two. About half of the extras are brand new HD bonuses.

Nearly all the bonus material appealed to me, but I will try and isolate a few I enjoyed the most so you do not have to indulge them all. There is an awesome 17 minute piece where Levar Burton reminisces about his other then-concurring job hosting the hit PBS kids show, Reading Rainbow and how they did a Star Trek themed episode during this time and through interviews how it was the catalyst for many new Star Trek fans. Once again the gag reel does not disappoint and it has a fun singing cameo from Roddenbery. Making It So: Continuing TNG is a two part, 80 minute BluRay exclusive feature I highly recommend where the cast and crew reflect on the big cast changes for season two and the evolution of the show and how they noticed how everyone was starting to feel more in sync and the show was hitting its groove. There are too many big interview moments to mention here highlighting key and controversial moments of the season, but believe me it is a must watch!

My final extra feature recommendation, and my favorite of all the bonus features is another BluRay exclusive, Re-Unification: 25 Years After TNG where the entire primary TNG cast sits down for a huge roundtable discussion reflecting on memories and anecdotes from the show for an hour. It was fantastic to take this in, and I could not help but get the feeling that this cast has no doubt stayed in touch through conventions and such over the years because they instantly were gelling with camaraderie and old stories and I could not help but feel like a lucky fly in the wall that happened to be in the room with them overhearing countless memorable moments and interactions from their time on the show.

-And that wraps it up for season two of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Minus a few episodes I am real excited with how the show is progressing and as I elucidated above, how everything is falling into place as the show I remembered from my childhood. I cannot wait to start up season three later this week, and from what I understand, that is the perfect jumping on point for the show as nearly the rest of the run of the series is top-notch from there on out. Please join me here once again in a few months for my take on season three!

Past TV/Web Series Blogs

2013-14 TV Season Recap
2014-15 TV Season Recap
2015-16 TV Season Recap
2016-17 TV Season Recap
2017-18 TV Season Recap
Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series
Baseball: A Ken Burns series
Angry Videogame Nerd Home Video Collections
Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1
OJ: Made in America: 30 for 30
RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13
Roseanne – Seasons 1-9
Seinfeld Final Season
Star Trek: Next Generation – Seasons 1-7
Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle
Superheroes: Pioneers of Television
The Vietnam War: A Ken Burns series
X-Men – The Animated Series: Volumes 4-5