Encounter at Farpoint (S1 eps 1&2)

I was in high school when this show came out. I remember, oddly enough, reading about it in the paper. They were about to air a new Star Trek show. I’d spent the summer watching all the TOS episodes (they aired each weeknight at 11 p.m.) and had really dug it. It was my first time through all the old Kirk episodes and I was anxious for a bit more.

I can’t swear I watched the premier as it aired live. But I think I did. I remember sitting in my living room and watching Data throw a rock at the Holodeck wall. My mind was already blown. It wasn’t real? What?? The whole babbling brook was a computer simulation that people could just walk in to?

Yeah, great memories.

A few weeks ago I sat down to watch it again. Not one of those fancy ‘remastered’ blu ray editions. No, none of that. I watched it the way nature intended me to. In my underwear.

Wait. That’s not what I meant to say. I watched it in the crappy Netflix version that makes everything look wonderfully scratchy and poorly lit.

My take, quickly, is that this was clearly a two hour movie that was intended to be re-aired later in one hour chunks. The first half of the episode and the second half are pretty disparate. One half is about a portion of the crew wondering around the Farpoint station and marveling at how advanced the place is – with no explanation about why an open air market and an office is so amazing – and the other is about Q, the godlike entity that is about to judge humanity of its crimes (to itself) in the past.

Picard manages to turn the show-trial into an opportunity to show how amazingly evolved humanity has become (and Tasha Yar screams to Q about the Federation saving her from Rape Gangs). All they have to do is solve the mystery of Farpoint.

Easily said, I guess, but not so easily done. They totally had to wonder around some more, and wait until an angry alien started blowing stuff up. At which point they figure out that that Farpoint isn’t a station… it’s an alien!

They free the alien, Q begrudgingly accepts that humans are awesome, and the show is over.

A couple of things of note:

• Rape Gangs? That sounds pretty awful. But it also makes me wonder about where Tasha comes from. I thought she was human. Does that mean her home was a Federation colony gone bad? I’m sure it’s explained somewhere in the lore, but it really bugged me. I mean, how far does society have to fall before you have gangs of people running around looking to, primarily, rape people. Ugh.
• Troi is a weepy mess in the episode. At some point all the tears do is make me roll my eyes.
• Wesley was fine. I only remembered being somewhat annoyed with his character. No reason to hate on him here.
• The water in the holodeck was real. Again, I’m sure this is all worked out in some technical manuals. But I wanted to note that the water, it was water. Not the mere illusion of water.
• On a practical level, the production isn't that impressive. Right there in the opening sequence it appears the cameraman bumps into something on set and the camera jitters. It seemed very not-on-purpose. 
• Not thrilled with the jumpsuits.
• And man-dresses aren't great. 

  

  Man-Dresses!

In all, the show is oddly paced - way too much time dealing with the battle bridge and all that, then also too much time wondering around Farpoint Station and all that - but I was able to muddle through it just fine. I don't think a new viewer could sit through this and think it anything except torture. Still, it's where the legend began.


Rating?

2 out of 5