Patrick Stewart to Star in new Trek show!

I was so excited by the idea of Next Generation, but the first season was very disappointing. I still gave it a try from time to time, and noticed when the show got a lot better. But I wasn't as forgiving with later Star Trek shows. I gave up during the first season of every subsequent Star Trek show, except Discovery, which I shunned completely for having purple Klingons. Though I did accidentally discover that the final season of Enterprise was actually good. And even now, on the rare occasions where I am watching a clip from a Next Gen episode online, I am struck at how much that crew comes across like an earnest corporate HR meeting. Professional in a realistic way, but very much lacking the adventurous spirit of the original series.

I think very highly of Patrick Stewart, and Jean-Luc Picard was an interesting and nuanced character. But I have zero expectations for this new Trek. It's been too many years, and there will be different writers so the tone will probably be off, and the only good Star Trek that I've seen in a long time was the first reboot movie.

Excited in theory, but it really depends what and who they build around him.

As it happens, The Inner Light was on last night at 12:20 so of course I had to stay up and of course I got wet in the eyes more than once. It’s by far my favourite tNG episode. Patrick Stewart is great in it.

I think the script has one thing that I would have changed and I think it would make the ending far more impactful. I bet it was a network decision to cut back to the Enterprise crew trying to revive him back on the bridge. Every time five years passes for the Captain in his alternate life, we are brought back to the Enterprise bridge and we clearly see only five minutes have gone by.

Now... instead of that, what if they never cut back to the Enterprise. Imagine the ending now. As the Captain wakes up and is shocked to see that fifty years have not gone by, so are we. Also, as we are watching the episode, were probably wondering what the hell is happening as the Captain is aging. We’re probably expecting (as he did during those first five years), for Starfleet to eventually find the planet and maybe rescue him.

I think that would have been better. It’s still the best episode just the way it is.

You make a good point, but I think the flashes to the Enterprise serve several purposes:
-It lets the audience know that it's all in Picard's head, so he isn't in danger and can't rescue himself.
-Since it's in his head, it reassures us that everything will return to normal (broadly) by the end of the episode, so we can enjoy the ride.
-It helps to make the passage of decades more seamless and acceptable.

Black Barney wrote: As it happens, The Inner Light was on last night at 12:20 so of course I had to stay up and of course I got wet in the eyes more than once. It’s by far my favourite tNG episode. Patrick Stewart is great in it.

I think the script has one thing that I would have changed and I think it would make the ending far more impactful. I bet it was a network decision to cut back to the Enterprise crew trying to revive him back on the bridge. Every time five years passes for the Captain in his alternate life, we are brought back to the Enterprise bridge and we clearly see only five minutes have gone by.

Now... instead of that, what if they never cut back to the Enterprise. Imagine the ending now. As the Captain wakes up and is shocked to see that fifty years have not gone by, so are we. Also, as we are watching the episode, were probably wondering what the hell is happening as the Captain is aging. We’re probably expecting (as he did during those first five years), for Starfleet to eventually find the planet and maybe rescue him.

I think that would have been better. It’s still the best episode just the way it is.

The plot of this episode was swiped from the Superman portion of Alan Moore's excellent comic book story, "For the Man Who Has Everything." It has been reprinted a few times, but originally appeared in Superman Annual #11, in 1985. It was also adapted into an episode of the same name for the Justice League cartoon.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_Man_Who_Has_Everything

ah, i hope Zack Snyder takes a go at it then.