In the 24th century, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is commanding the Federation spaceship Enterprise, with the goal of exploring space and seeking out new civilizations. He is assisted by Commander William Riker, android Data, Klingon Lt. Worf, Dr. Beverly Crusher, Counsellor Deanna Troi, engineer La Forge, and others. They have to be careful of not to interfere into the development of other, less advanced alien cultures, while they also have to keep up the fragile peace between the Federation and the antagonistic Klingon and Romulan Empires.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" is arguably the best version of all the ''Star Trek'' TV shows, while its third season is sometimes ranked as the best season of the overall ''Next Generation'' series. The appeal of the series lies in its concept of a 'sneak peek' into the possible future, and the message that human reason in the future could prevail its problems and limitations of the present, offering some sort of idealism and optimism. However, even in this edition, some problems still remain. One of them is a lack of an overarching arc, a unified goal, since "Star Trek" is constructed like a tale of explorers who randomly travel around from place to place, which makes the story feel very episodic, isolated, and sometimes even lost. When compared to ''Star Wars'' or ''Sailor Moon'', the latter have an advantage, since their stories have a clear overarching arc that leads them, an ultimate goal, in their case how the good guys want to stop the bad guys. This goal may seem simple, but at least it is clear and serves as a unified guideline. Another problem is that "Star Trek" is sometimes very dry, schematic, humorless and stiff, while trying to present this humanistic future. The third one is that these characters are not as refreshing as they could have been, and do not quite come off as three-dimensional. Patrick Stewart is a great actor, charismatic, with authority, but his character Picard is somehow often below his capacity, rarely managing to rise to the occasion and feel alive. The characters are polite, strong and smart, but they lack personality and wit. Ironically, android Data is the only one who manages to insert some humor here and there, with his ironic observations about human contradictions. Unfortunately, Picard rarely interacts with Data, and thus they never quite reach the chemistry between Kirk and Spock. This restrained approach of characters hinders the drama.
Several episodes of Season 3 are outstanding, though, some of which even manage to turn philosophical and pose some universal questions about life. One of the most notable ones is the excellent 3.4, which presents an "Ancient Astronaut" theory told in reverse, by telling a story of the Enterprise crew accidentally injuring a man from a Bronze Age alien race, and thus teleporting him to the Enterprise to heal him, but rumor quickly spreads, and the alien people eventually start their own religion, worshiping Picard as their god. This serves as a double commentary, both as a satire on religion and a cautionary tale of breaking the controversial Prime Directive, which may contaminate a culture that is still not ready. The way Picard resolves the issue, by teleporting an alien woman to the Enterprise and explaining to her that the Enterprise is just a technologically advanced version of their civilization, is fitting. A brilliant episode. The episodes preceeding this one are also good, though not as great as some claim they are: 3.2 is a neat commentary on the concept of ‘historical right’ on land, with the Sheliak being one of the most realistic looking aliens in the ‘’Star Trek’’ universe; 3.3 is an interesting mystery, presenting Picard in Sherlock Homes form as he tries to figure out why only two people survived on the entire planet which experienced an alien extermination of the entire colony, yet the resolution is kind of underwhelming. Episodes 3.6 and 3.7 are ‘throw-away’ fillers, even though they have a few good moments: 3.7 plays out like Peterson’s movie "Enemy Mine", forcing La Forge to cooperate with a Romulan in order for both of them to survive after being left behind on a storm planet, which turns out rather grey, but it does feature an interesting insight into Romulan irredentist mentality, since the said warrior brags how "in a few centuries, humans will go extinct, and then Romulans will spread across the Galaxy". Episode 3.10 is interesting in presenting a defector from the Romulan Empire, who gives a very emotional speech in front of Picard: "There comes a time in a man's life that you cannot know. When he looks down at the first smile of his baby girl and realizes, he must change the world for her - for all children. It is for her that I am here. Not to destroy the Romulan Empire, but to save it." Certainly, the Cold War parallels are obvious in the story, and the dissidents' motivation rings true, while the ending is rather well done. Episode 3.13 is rather overrated: having Q lose his powers is amusing, but it does not quite exploit all the rich potentials to the fullest. It does have a moment worth of gold, though, the one where a grateful Q grants a wish to his temporary friend Data, who erupts in uncontrollable laughter, and for the first time gets to feel something. Truly a delicious moment.
Episode 3.14 is excellent, an Agatha Christie-like 'whodunnit' murder mystery where the Holodeck is used to try to recreate what happened, to the best of the knowledge of the witnesses, who accuse Riker of killing a scientist and blowing up his space station. This gives the episode almost a metafilm touch, since Picard, the prosecutor and Riker himself watch the holographic 3D recreation of Riker on the space station, while the two parties are disputing the flow of events. Episode 3.15, "Yesterday’s Enterprise", is often hailed as one of the best episodes of the entire series, and it truly deserves praise, since it is very cinematic, with wide lenses and shadows depicting an alternate universe with subtle differences of this Enterprise caught in an endless war. An excellent episode – but isn’t it basically just a remake of the "The City on the Edge of Forever" from the original "Star Trek" series, with the same theme of a double effect and the identical dilemma of a sacrifice of one (or few) to save many? Episode 3.16, where Data "creates" his own android daughter is remarkably touching, especially in the ending where she thanks him for giving her life. Data replies that he cannot feel anything, but she counters with: "I will feel for both of us". It is a pity that she is never mentioned again, indicating the schematic nature of the show where everything must return back to square one after each episode. Episode 3.18, which shows some sort of alien experiment involving a kidnapped Picard and three other aliens, who find themselves in a room and have to cooperate despite their differences, is another good story, but is overshadowed by the excellent 3.21, with a story reminiscent of "American Beauty" where official Barclay is dissatisfied with his life on the Enterprise, so he finds excitement in creating escapist fantasies in the Holodeck in which he beats up Riker and kisses Deanna Troi. This parallels the modern addiction of people to virtual reality and the internet, making them lose track of reality. Too bad the producers were not willing to go the full step in this story: in one scene, Deanna enters the Holodeck and makes a shocked face when she sees her own 3D holograph wearing an ancient toga, and realizes she is Barclay’s object of desire. If they had shown her wearing a bikini or some more really provocative clothes, this would have been much more logical. Other episodes are more routine, including 3.24, yet the said episode also has an ending that is comedy (and meme) gold: when the Ferengi Daimon forces Deanna’s mother Lwaxana to be his concubine on his spaceship, Lwaxana "accidentally" phones Picard that she does not love him anymore, and thus Picard secretly accepts the ploy and starts theatrically reciting Shakespeare’s love sonnets in order to feign that he is a madman and will destroy Daimon’s ship if he cannot have Lwaxana, causing a freightened Daimon to quickly return her back to the Enterprise. The finale episode, 3.26, "The Best of Both Worlds", conversely gave the storyline an overarching arc of sorts by presenting the bad guys, the Borg, who kidnap Picard. The episode is great and suspenseful, indicating that the authors had a much higher rate of inspired episodes than other seasons of "The Next Generation".
Grade:++
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