Naked Now too soon...
Posted by TrueSonOfChaos@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 24 comments
I mean, most of episodes in Season 1 are blah, but I am wondering what they were thinking doing the 2nd episode as a "lose control" episode. I mean, these kind of episodes are most effective after the characters have had some real establishment time for the audience even when the episode is something better than Naked Now.
JediSnoopy@reddit
I think it would have been better to have moved the episode until a later date when their characters were better understood. I thought much of the acting was cheesy, especially the scene between Crusher and Picard.
In fact, TOS season 1 had "The Naked Time" air 4 episodes into the series when it probably should have also been later.
IIIaustin@reddit
They needed to establish early that data could fuck and did
Memento_Morrie@reddit
Everyone lost their trademark personalities again in Conundrum, and they did it right that time. So I say to hell with Naked Now. I sometimes forget it was an actual episode. Except for Jim Shimoda (weird!) and of course Yar/Data, it's completely forgettable and if it had never aired, TNG would have been fine.
P.S. I originally saw this when I was a kid, and even then, I thought Yar and Data could have and maybe should have continued to see each other, on the down-low.
RedditOfUnusualSize@reddit
The more you know about Yar and Data, the sadder it gets, because it turns out that the reason those two were picked was explicitly because those two were the most androgynous members of the crew. The writers explicitly felt the need to "reassure" the audience that the badass security chief and the android could nevertheless fulfill their expected gender performances. More or less in those words, if you read the behind-the-scenes studio notes about the episode.
Which is a double pity, because I actually agree with you that had Yar remained on the show, they could have had the opportunity (perhaps with a different writing team, but still) to develop a really great love-work relationship between the two of them. Natasha is . . . a bit of a mess of a character because the writers' room is so very clearly objectifying Denise Crosby, but one thing is pretty clear and that is her character has a pretty disordered view of sexuality, which is unsurprising given that her homeworld of Turkana IV is described as having roving "rape gangs". Having a relationship with Data might be the healthiest thing she could possibly do, because I can't imagine a safer partner to explore her likes and dislikes with. Similarly, sexuality is a huge part of being human, as are romantic relationships. To try and balance work with a sexual relationship would be a huge, ongoing source of development for Data, especially if he also has to help Natasha through her lingering trauma.
Basically, supposing they could approach it thoughtfully and healthily, it could have been a great springboard for both characters. Yar was a character that was way ahead of her time, and a lot of the best female characters in Trek are to some extent repurposes of the mold that broke her character initially. But she also doesn't have a lot to her beyond being very competent at her job and a complete hurricane in her personal life. Data could have helped her be more. By extension, Data's attempts to be Pinocchio had one glaring absence in the show that could have been filled by a developing relationship between Natasha and Data.
blue-marmot@reddit
I completely agree. It was a perfect set up. The PTSD sexual assault survivor finding the safest possible partner to heal with and the "40 year old virgin" learning to explore.
wesmackmusic@reddit
I think about this all the time. IT WAS INSANE as episode 2. Like fully insane. The fact that Data was Fully FUNCTIONAL 1.3 hours into the franchise is wild. What was happening in the writer room?!?!? What a time to be alive.
dnkroz3d@reddit
Early or not, without it we would never have had Data's "fully functional" to still be talking about 37 years later. :)
garth54@reddit
I think they came up with the line, and couldn't wait to send that out.
VajennaDentada@reddit
I always assumed it was because that's exactly what TOS did. I thought maybe they weren't confident enough to push fresh ideas out first.
I have to remember.... there were literally protesters outside Paramount at the time..... that were angry it was an all new cast. It was a scary time.
TrueSonOfChaos@reddit (OP)
I was 3. I'm pretty sure Naked Now was the first TNG episode I saw. I remember that I watched TNG with my dad and I was spun that something could be Star Trek without Spock and whatnot. I also remember that I had missed an episode and I think it was just Farpoint. I mean, I don't remember watching "Naked Now" at 3 years old but I remember the circumstances I first watched TNG.
GammaPhonic@reddit
I presume they were trying to connect it to the original series. To get those fans back onboard by making a sequel episode to The Naked Time.
TrueSonOfChaos@reddit (OP)
Ah, I forgot that there was one named that and just now realized it was named after the TOS episode. I remember the water alcohol episode vaguely. I don't like TOS that much - I mean, I like it well enough but it's not that entertaining to me - if that makes sense. So I don't get a hankering to rewatch it so much.
triggeron@reddit
Yeah, that thing between Data and Yar would have been much funnier if it happened in later seasons
Bensfone@reddit
About half of S1 was ok or better IMO. But, many of these episodes were also rehashed from TOS or unused scripts from TOS. It was unclear from the start if TNG was going to make it, and it wasn’t until S3 that it found its stride as its own entity separate from TOS.
starkraver@reddit
While I agree, and I think it's a terrible episode, but I think it makes sense that they would essentially do a re-make of a TOS to try and show the continuity of the shows. I think in the end, it was a real stumble it's not the type of episode that belongs to what TNG ended up being.
TNG - unlike TOS, really ended up being a think-talky show about some pretty repressed overachievers obsessed with duty. All the sex of the early seasons really feels out of place when you go back and watch them. Not that I will begrudge them some out-of-place Rosalyn Landor mid-drift.
Ghost_of_Nellie_Fox@reddit
There are some gems in season 1 though, “Where No One Had Gone Before” I have always loved (the bit with Wesley is super corny yes, but I like the overall story) and the “Neutral Zone” I alway found captivating and really captured that optimism of the future thing that is so lacking these days.
sage_006@reddit
It's one of the reasons I always recommend people new to TNG to start with season 3. S.1e.2 is hilarious when you know all the characters intimately.
HughofBoar@reddit
It's a season 7 episode, one you do when you know you've only got a few episodes left, so you can do silly and crazy things with established characters and not have to really deal with repercussions.
NotTravisKelce@reddit
Rascals has entered the chat
Toronto-Will@reddit
I don’t want to defend that episode, because I don’t think much of it (especially Wesley’s wonder boy characterization), but I get why they’d put it early in the season. It has a hook back to TOS, and you have to remember at this point TOS was a cult classic TV show, whose fans were very skeptical of TNG. They were cashing in on the success of the movies, but too cheap to pay the original cast to come back. So you have this early episode with overt references back to a TOS episode, and it’s a cozy and familiar plot framework for getting to know these new characters.
I don’t mind a drunk episode early as a way of giving insight on the characters. I think it’s the body swap episode that you can’t do this early, because it depends too much on a contrast between with how the character usually behaves. That comes just a few episodes later in “Lonely Among Us”, and I’d be more critical of the timing of that episode.
frankduxvandamme@reddit
Most of season 1 feels like another season of TOS somehow getting made 20 years later, which isn't a good thing.
watanabe0@reddit
Yeah, I'm trying to build a 'salvaging S1' list and Naked Now is a perfectly good episode, it just needs to be halfway through the season - everyone is so stiff you'll get the relief of them all acting out of character!
TrueSonOfChaos@reddit (OP)
I hope I didn't imply I think "Naked Now" is a "perfectly good episode" - I mean, aside from the fact that it's not a perfectly good episode they chose to make it before the characters had been established which is just baffling to me.
woman_noises@reddit
According to Wikipedia, Gene Roddenberry wanted to do an episode early in the season that reveals the characters inner motivations, and he used the TOS episode The Naked Time as a jumping off point for his ideas. Now the episode may not have been very successful in the end, but that was their reason.