Encounter at Farpoint by: Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana and directed by: Corey Allen

 

“Encounter at Farpoint” is written by: Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana and is directed by: Corey Allen.  It was produced under production code 101/102, was the 1^st and 2^nd episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and was broadcast as a TV movie on September 28, 1987.

 

The beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation is one of those long journeys to screen.  Obviously, Gene Roddenberry wanted to get Star Trek back on television or on film as soon as it was cancelled, and before Star Trek: The Motion Picture was greenlit extensive pre-production was done on a potential Star Trek: Phase II, though that would have been made with the original cast.  Even with the films, Roddenberry still wanted to produce a television series with which he would have influence, Paramount pushing him into an executive consultant role starting with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  Roddenberry wanted control to see his vision of the future on screen “updated” for the 1980s, yet pitching to networks would be unsuccessful, the series eventually airing in first run syndication and produced by Paramount Pictures.  The production team gathered for the pitch is one made up of people who worked on the original series, including D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold.  Fontana would be tapped to write the pilot before Paramount asked for it to be a 90 minute TV movie, produced and occasionally aired as two episodes so Gene Roddenberry stepped in to write extra material.  This is where the problems of “Encounter at Farpoint” really begin.

 

“Encounter at Farpoint” as a pilot episode is incredibly padded to meet the TV movie runtime, the script itself having several scenes that really go nowhere and are there for exposition.  The Enterprise is a brand new ship with a fantastic new model actually reflecting that this is a production for the 1980s and not a retread of the 1960s design, but it seems in places Fontana, and more likely Roddenberry, are more interested in showing the viewers the new features.  There’s an extended sequence where the two sections of the ship are separated, largely to get the non-Starfleet personnel to safety as humanity is being put on trial by the Q, played by John de Lancie, which is a fine enough explanation and it helps characterize Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, but it doesn’t actually move anything forward for the plot.  There’s a moment when new first officer Riker, played by Jonathan Frakes, doesn’t know how to navigate the large ship and is told about helpful arrows on the walls.  There’s an extended sequence introducing the holodeck that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the episode, it’s just another diversion to fill time when it would have been effective to introduce both of these elements in episodes where they would be more relevant.

 

Superfluous introductions can also be extended to the character introductions of our cast.  Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered with eight characters introduced intended to be regulars, a ninth promoted to being a regular after this episode, and a tenth as a recurring villain.  “Encounter at Farpoint”, having 90 minutes to work with, should be able to introduce each character and give them at least a little role.  The only characters who get a proper introduction is Frakes as Riker, introduced over halfway through the episode on Farpoint station, Stewart as Picard who gets a dramatic establishing shot where the character is shrouded in shadow on the Enterprise because director Corey Allen doesn’t seem to understand how to introduce a protagonist, and Q whose arrival in the plot works because it’s over-the-top and John de Lancie leaning into the camp is one of the few things holding the episode together.  The rest of the characters are just there, which would be fine if Roddenberry and Fontana were proactive in establishing the character relationships and characterizations, but these are either absent or one-note.  Riker gets to have an established relationship with counselor Deanna Troi, played by Marina Sirtis, mainly a romantic one that is communicated through a look and a nice music cue from Dennis McCarthy which is actually one of the few pieces of information not conveyed through exposition.  The ship’s new doctor Beverley Crusher and her son Wesley, played by Gates McFadden and Wil Wheaton respectively, have a nice mother/son relationship with tension about the death of Wesley’s father and the beginnings of Wesley’s own ambitions to join Starfleet.  Wesley may be infamous as an annoying kid character, but here through Wheaton’s earnest performance while he makes some mistakes he’s actually a perfectly fine character.  Everyone else gets a one-note beat: Denise Crosby and Michael Dorn as Tasha Yar and the Klingon Worf respectively both fill the tough guy roles, LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge is blind (and sadly forgettable), and Brent Spiner as Data is a discount Spock with even less understanding how conversations and words work.

 

Nothing is helped by everyone’s performance is stilted, de Lancie is the only actor in the pilot making any sort of performance choices and Stewart is skating by on his powerful voice despite Picard’s main trait being hard, cold diplomat.  Some of this is likely down to Allen’s direction, many of the shots are aimless or fairly standard in terms of blocking indicating that there is any motion to any of the scenes.  It doesn’t help that the actual plot on Farpoint, a mystery about how the station grants people’s desires as shown through clothes and food appearing, is also barely enough to fill a single episode, much less two, with the Q trial plot really only being bookends until the denouement revealing that everything about this was Groppler Zorn, played by Michael Bell, and his people have been torturing an alien jellyfish which needs to be freed so it can mate.  There’s potential with both of these plots, they just do not mesh together at all and really there isn’t much to discuss in terms of what it does because there really isn’t much plot.

 

Overall, “Encounter at Farpoint” is a pilot that suffers from both poor direction from Corey Allen and a script where Roddenberry and Fontana are clearly fighting for control to build things up, making it so none of the characters really get any depth or an introduction.  Roddenberry as a writer in particular is stuck in the 1960s, setting things up like he would an episode of the original series with characters in those roles, smart enough to not rely on emulating the performances of the previous cast, but not enough to replace those performances with anything.  There are moments of potential, both plots could make an interesting episode, the resolution and general reliance on diplomacy helps set Picard out as budding towards his own character, and of course John de Lancie is stealing the show, but this is a rocky start.  4/10.