ChrisTalbot.com

A little while ago, my brother picked up all of the complete seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. About a month or so ago, I started borrowing them one by one. At this point, I've now watched the first two seasons in their entirety. I remember watching TNG years ago after the first three seasons were syndicated, but I forgot just how truly terrible it could be -- and because I watched them spaced out over months or even a year or two (and definitely not in order), I didn't catch all of the simple continuity mistakes and the illogical behaviours of the characters.

For instance, in Season Two, Dr. Kate Pulaski replaces Dr. Crusher, and the character starts out as a bit of a bigot (against Data, that is). However, that soon changes. I guess they couldn't keep that form of racism (androidism?) in the show for long. However, it just seemed that the character didn't really have a learning process. One show, she was still calling Data an "it" and the next she was his buddy. Odd. However, one big error in her behaviour is in her contradictory behaviour when it comes to competition. During the episode where Commander Riker and his father go at it in martial arts fashion (Ambo-Jitsu?), she very seriously suggests conflicts and competitions are primitive. However, a couple of episodes later, when the great strategist and Stratagema (spelling?) master is on board, she not only thinks competition isn't bad, she's the one setting Data up to play against the alien and hoping the android will kick the strategist's ass. A writer's flaw or did they modify behaviours to fit the plot?

Of course, nothing serves the plot more and has as many contradictions as the Prime Directive itself. I'll get into that next time, maybe.