Change Your Image
matt_boing_kpow
Reviews
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Naked Now (1987)
I want to kill Wesley Crusher!
I have recently decided to go through all the TNG episodes in order. Of course we all know the first few seasons weren't great. I got through Encounter At Farpoint okay, even though it was not the best of the Star Trek pilots.
This episode is your typical average opening season race against time to defeat an alien disease/infection before everyone on board dies! Specifically an homage to the original series', "The Naked Time" helps bridge the two series together.
It starts off okay establishing the weekly plot format. Marina Sirtis instantly improved from her over-acting in the previous episode and we learn more about the new crew and how they and the Galaxy-Class starship function. However, the nature of the disease in this episode requires the cast to act as if drunk, which never really works convincingly in drama, and predictably the performances, not helped by the poor script, become embarrassing! The longer the episode goes on, the worse it gets.
A major chunk of this episode is devoted to Wesley Crusher, who not only is a major part of the problem that the main characters have to get by in order to survive, but holds all the answers to their survival, thanks to Wesley's "genius!" I have no idea why Gene Roddenberry wanted to be represented by such a smug, snot-nosed, vomit-inducing, detestable character as Wesley Crusher! He is by far the most annoying and worst character in all of Trek, possibly in all of TV and Will Wheaton admits it! I know he's a kid, but at least Jake and Nog are likable and funny in DS9 and grow up to be quite respectable characters. I should not have to boo main characters we are "supposed to" like in any Star Trek.
I thought "Babel" in DS9 was bad (a similar type of episode), but at least that had some good dialogue, character interaction and progression. The Naked Now is dire on almost every front! Data contracting the virus is another major fail, and btw, space-mom Bev Crusher suddenly comes up with a cure at the end! And yet the captain still insists on giving Wes some credit for his genius despite the ship being full of highly qualified Starfleet officers who should know better! Yuk! The end moralising reminds me of the old He-Man episodes I used to watch when I was six years old!
If you're looking to watch random individual TNG episodes, avoid this one like the plague! If you're going through the series, this is one you will have to endure, and there'll be many more (especially the Wes-heavy episodes)! I can't wait for when TNG starts to get good at the end of the third season!