I. LOVED. THIS.

“Don’t be so vain.”
I struggled with how, or even if, to include the Star Trek: The Next Generation feature films in Blogging the Next Generation. They are such weaksauce antecedents to the series. Of the four films, only Generations – yes, Generations – bears any real stylistic, thematic, or conceptual relationship to the television show it’s adapting. The rest are widely hit-and-miss efforts at fulfilling whatever Paramount felt were the requirements of a big-screenization of the Star Trek franchise. They are horrible stories, made by (at best) mildly competent craftspeople, viciously underserved by miserly budgets and categorically unable to compete in the widening world of big-screen blockbusters in which they found themselves. They are, in sum, a wholly unworthy effort for the legacy of Star Trek: The Next Generation. And yet, they’re a part of the family. I didn’t really want to conclude #BloggingTNG by doing a run of four pieces on the feature films, as the real Next Gen, the one I grew up with, ended (and ended brilliantly) with “All Good Things.” But nor did I want to omit the feature films entirely, for obvious reasons. So here I am: sprinkling them into the mix, haphazardly over time. And in reverse order.
Read moreMy Cocaine commentary on THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL. I am CRYING over here.



