There's Always Another Frontier

I didn't much like the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation when I was a kid--I remember no-one I knew did. All the Trekkies I knew made fun of it. But, it'd been more than a decade since I last watched it, so I watched the new Blu-Ray last night. It still pretty much sucks, at least compared to later episodes. Patrick Stewart's not bad out of the box, though he's obviously still finding the character, not quite sure whether to be elegant or crabby as he's given several awkward moments to show he doesn't know how to handle himself around children. Later episodes are much better--making him just awkward instead of yelling at Wesley Crusher to leave the bridge like a little boy yelling at any girl trying to get into his tree house.

It sure looks nice on Blu-Ray. I hear they enhanced some effects, I'm not quite sure where--my memory's not up to the comparison, but the space shots are beautiful, especially since this is my favourite Enterprise design.

Though it also reveals some less than flattering tiny details, like all the guys in the background wearing dresses.

Not that these things are any more flattering on the women. But it's kind of remarkable for a series that so reluctantly even acknowledged the existence of homosexuality to suggest cross dressing was status quo in Starfleet. It's kind of a puzzle.

Also, I was able to get a clear look at Tasha Yar's stunt double, whose wig makes him look like Rod Blagojevich;

Am I the only one who thought of "White Christmas" when Q used his freeze ray on Denise Crosby?

The plot isn't exactly bad, about Picard and the crew trying to prove to Q humans aren't savages by rescuing a giant jelly fish. Q's not as unbearably corny as he is in later episodes yet. Though what this action demonstrated to Q that he couldn't get by looking in Starfleet records anyway I don't know, though I guess the idea was he was only using it as a pretext to play with them all along.