Star Trek: The Trekkening

he mad quest continues. To date, the rabbit hole goes as deep as season one of The Next Generation, which is quite a ways from where we left off. I've seen six movies, two of which were bizarrely off-kilter and kind of charming because of it. I've been through all of third season of the original, most of which is unequivocally bad, but with a few solid gems. Probably the most singularly memorable episode featured a mad prison gambit by a former Starfleet officer who, in addition to being a cooler version of Kirk in the past, was a cooler version of Kirk in the present. Probably the most terrible episode featured Abraham Lincoln wrestling a Klingon. All in all, there are good times to be had.

TnG hasn't grown the beard yet, so what I'm getting is supposed to be a mixed bag. Nonetheless, I was startled by the episode "Coming of Age", which a) features Wesley Crusher in a completely not-hatable plotline of his own, and b) features Captain Picard at his finest. The episode hints at a grand plot of conspiracy at Starfleet, which is so much cooler than any external crisis threatening humanity. Real characters here. Real intrigue. God do I hope they run with it.

Currently TnG's only running web of recurrence is Q - who is interesting only in that he's the most charming form of god-creature to grace the set - so it's nice to have this floating on the horizon. Also, Picard dons a Starfleet topcoat-thing in this episode, and it's a hundred times cooler than any other costume the military has yet designed. Represent!