Season Two

Here we are, season two! Before I start talking about it, let us recall that by the time season two started TNG had already accomplished two things, the first considered difficult, the second impossible. The difficult thing was proving that a science fiction show could be successful. Remember in 1987 there were no sci-fi shows on television, and nobody was even talking about them. Every sci fi series attempted in the 80s–from Buck Rogers to Misfits of Science–was a flop. The impossible thing was to create a new Star Trek series, which most everyone discounted from the beginning. However there was an audience that was hungry for sci-fi and for Star Trek, as Season One’s success shows. Season two was a celebration from the first episode that they had survived!

There were several big changes for season two. Perhaps the most recognizable was the change in the cast. Gates McFadden’s character, Beverly Crusher, is not in season two, because she’s gone to “become head of Starfleet Medical.” I always considered that one heck of a promotion, by the way. The official announcement from Paramount was that she’d left “to pursue other career opportunities”; this was true in a sense, but it makes you think that she decided to pick up and leave. The reality was she got a call from her agent the Monday after the wrap party for season one, who told her the producers decided to ‘go in another direction’ with the character–she was fired. According to Gates she knew the person against her was Maurice Hurley: “I definitely pissed him off.” Why? First, she didn’t like that her character never talked to Wes about anything serious, it was always the male characters, whereas her role was to say “Oh Wesley!” Second, she spoke up about some blatantly sexist episodes like Angel One, where all female-controlled planet lose their minds over Will Riker and change their form of government. Executive Producer Rick Berman confirmed Hurley hated her, and convinced Roddenberry to let her go.

Another change was, if you look carefully you’ll see Michael Dorn’s head piece looks different than in season one. The reason was simple: between season one and two Dorn’s head pieces were stolen from the set!

There were two additions to the cast: Diana Muldaur as the new ship’s doctor, Dr. Kathryn “Kate” Pulaski, and Whoopi Goldberg as Ten Forward’s bartender, Guinan. Whoopi was by far the better received of the two. Dr. Pulaski is one of the most disliked characters there has ever been on any Star Trek series, and once you start watching season two it’s not hard to figure out why: she’s replacing a character that TNG fans liked, and during the course of the season proceeds to bicker and argue with Captain Picard on a regular basis, calls Worf a coward, mispronounces Data’s name and doesn’t believe he’s alive. The plan, according to Rick Berman, was to have a “crusty” doctor who could hold her own with Picard, similar to the Kirk/McCoy dynamic. No chemistry developed.

Behind the scenes things were even worse. While they were shooting the episode Unnatural Selection she had to wear some prosthetics and said she would never again work in science fiction–it was only the seventh episode of the season. After she left the show she had this to say: “It wasn’t what I hoped it would be. I thought it would be wonderfully inventive and wonderfully creative, and I found it was not any of those things.” When asked about working with the cast, she said, “Everybody was out for themselves. I don’t think they were happy to have me there.” It was interesting to read that Michael Dorn has said in interviews he got really close to Diana while she was there. During her tenure on the show she was always billed as a special guest star.

Whoopi really had to cast herself. One of her childhood idols was Nichelle Nichols from the original series, and she has always loved Star Trek. She described herself as a huge fan of TNG, and asked LeVar Burton to let the producers know she wanted to be on it. About a year passed and nothing happened. When she asked LeVar he said they didn’t believe him, so she talked to Gene Roddenberry and said, “I really wanna be on the show.” Gene arranged a meeting with the two of them and Rick Berman, both of whom where very skeptical and asked why she wanted to be on. She explained that Star Trek was the first time science fiction (in any form) featured any Black people, and that inspired her. Gene checked on that, called her back and said she was right, and wrote her a character. Her character is named after a Prohibition bartender, Texas Guinan. Whoopi revealed in a Con appearance that Gene said he was writing her as a character that is very old, and may be the ancestor of several of the characters we have met on Star Trek. She said she always thought of Picard as one of her descendants!

Later on Whoopi ended up getting Dwight Schultz (Reginald Barclay) his recurring role on TNG, having worked with him previously. In an interview Brent Spiner said that once she joined the cast there was a big perception shift in the general public, that a major movie star wanted a regular part on a television show. I think he’s probably right, that it did make a difference, who knows how big. Whoopi said in one of her interviews that Guinan has a bond and back story with Picard that to my knowledge no one has ever revealed, but it’s the one great unanswered question that I would like to ask if I ever met either of them.

There were several other changes this season as well. Season two has the fewest episodes of any season; this is because there was a Screen Writer’s Guild strike in 1988, so the first episode didn’t air until late November. Geordi got a promotion to full lieutenant, a job as Chief Engineer of the Enterprise, and a uniform change from red to gold. This was great because the engineers from season one frankly sucked, and he really shines in that role. They weren’t quite sure how exactly to use him so several times in season two you’ll see him walk on the bridge and say “engineering transfer to bridge” so he can still be on the bridge. It’s a little ridiculous, but not too terrible.

Worf gets promoted to Chief Security Officer, a natural fit, and switches from red to a gold uniform as well. He has a different prosthetic forehead, and another change was his baldric. If you liked his sash from season one you’re out of luck because from here on out he’s got a new one that I personally like better. His new baldric was made from bicycle chains and leather was woven through them. Jonathan Frakes got married over the summer, and more importantly for the show grew a beard as well. According to Frakes Roddenberry said “I love it, it’s nautical!” It’s with him for the rest of the series, and for some reason it actually makes me respect him more. In an interview Frakes said they were five or six episodes into the season when a memo was circulated from middle management saying he needed to ‘reduce the beard by two percent’! That’s how closely they watched it. Another change was that he was allowed and encouraged to start smiling and let a little of himself inhabit the character.

Marina Sirtis didn’t have to wear wigs like she did throughout season one, and I consider it an improvement. She also gets a new maroon uniform, which she was probably grateful for as the costume from season one was made from denim! Wesley Crusher dons a new gray “acting ensign” uniform this season which is a vast improvement from season one, and he will continue to wear it up until the end of the third season. Another really nice addition was the institution of the poker game. The poker game became a part of the series as it proved so popular, starting with two episodes in this season and lasting all the way up to the series finale.

The bridge had some slight modifications which you will notice if you look close enough. Also cool was the addition of a new area of the ship, Ten Forward. It refers to its location on the ship, deck 10 section 1 (the most forward section on the ship) and is a place where crew members go when off duty. It’s a combination bar/lounge. The last really cool change was the addition of Dan Curry as visual effects supervisor. He started in season two and they kept him through all of TNG as well as DS9, Voyager and Enterprise. He went on to win seven Emmy awards and receive an additional 12 nominations as well as other awards. He’s that good. In addition to being in charge of special effects he also did other stuff, like designing the iconic bat’leth. I’ll be pointing out cool stuff he does during certain episodes this season.

The quality of the HD remaster is pretty uneven in season two. This is because CBS digital outsourced the remastering to a company called HTV-Illuminate instead of doing it themselves. As a result of their uneven work, they will be pulled after this season and CBS Digital will again do the work in season three. For this season though, the remastering is much like the quality of the episodes themselves–sometimes great, sometimes not-so-great.

Update: During this season there is a Star Trek extra I was recently able to find. The 80’s television show Webster series finale had the main character (Immanuel Lewis) appear on TNG! The whole story is here, thanks to TrekCore. Since writing this I have found the episode. It’s a clip show, with Michael Dorn delivering lines so bad even he had some trouble with them. Here is the link.

Season two itself is rather hit or miss. It doesn’t have the utter excellence that will constitute seasons three through six, but it’s certainly a welcome improvement from season one. The plots became more sophisticated, humor became more allowed and there was more of a focus on character development, particularly for Riker and Data, but also for Worf. As a reward for reading this whole thing, please enjoy this gag reel for season two. Following are the links to the episodes:

• The Child                                 **
• Where Silence Has Lease     ** 1/2
• Elementary, Dear Data         ****
• The Outrageous Okona        * 1/2
• Loud as a Whisper                **
• The Schizoid Man                 ** 1/2
• Unnatural Selection             * 1/2
• A Matter of Honor               *** 1/2
• The Measure of a Man        *****
• The Dauphin                         **
• Contagion                             ***
• The Royale                           **
• Time Squared                      *** 1/2
• The Icarus Factor                **
• Pen Pals                                ** 1/2
• Q Who?                                **** 1/2
• Samaritan Snare                 **
• Up the Long Ladder           * 1/2
• Manhunt                              * 1/2
• The Emissary                       ***
• Peak Performance               **
• Shades of Gray                    1/2

Season One                  Star Trek: The Next Generation page                      Season Three