EARLY ACCESS - Skin of Evil | First Time Watching Star Trek TNG (S1E23)

Was my this the episode where Patrick Stewart had the “I played Richard the third! Three curtain calls!.” The bit that was used in Galaxy Quest?

Crankygrandma

If I was interested in misogyny I go on the hate-plateform formerly known as Twitter. If you hate Star Trek, leave!

Sam Langanke

True. Obviously not a main character, but a named character.

Josh (Target Audience)

I think the first TNG death was Engineer Singh in the “P for Picard” episode.

OmniRaider

There are other examples in recent movies where the male character is compromised to ensure the female character can take the lead. The pendulum is swinging, with a little help.

James Baloun

Chtphr Rrr

Angelaina yup, definitely. I think it was TOS that Berman was trying to distance the series from. Even then it was pretty common for people to sing the "battle music" from TOS (often Amok Time) as an in-joke, for comedy skits/parodies and things like that. Berman didn't want anybody to be able to sing any music from TNG in the same way. He specifically wanted music where nobody would notice it, so that with 90% of people if you asked them about the music in the episode, they wouldn't even realize there was music. I think music to him was something that the episode had to have because it sounded empty without it, but he wanted the music to do as little as possible. So then you end up with a situation where the music for every scene sounds the same - in many cases you don't even get Klingon music for Klingons or Romulan music for Romulans - it all sounds the same. Thankfully they started to loosen up over time with the other series, specifically Voyager has some real standout music in the later seasons that would have been banned in the second half of TNG.

Michael Ducharme

That's sad. The cues from the original TOS, written without someone screaming at them to 'not be emotional' are so classic that they've been ripped off by successors. It's always wrong to stifle artistic talent.

Angelaina Marie

DS9 had some great music cues. I guess Berman was distracted!

tyranusfan

I agree, tyranusfan. I feel like the music later on got too "sonic wallpaper" (sometime in Season 4 after Jones was let go) and it wasn't until much later (during Voyager) that they started to loosen up on the restrictions for composers. A lot of the sonic wallpaper music written for later TNG seasons was still quite good in terms of working with picture, but for the most part there was never anything that made you think "oh this is from episode 5" - the music was generic enough that it could have been from almost any episode as it was often just a series of chords.

Michael Ducharme

I have never understood Rick Berman's aversion to dramatic music. Jones' scores are among the best Star Trek music ever made.

tyranusfan

Thomas Monk, I'm going in part from Ron Jones' own words: https://trekmovie.com/2018/05/28/interview-ron-jones-on-his-suicide-mission-to-compose-emotion-for-star-trek-the-next-generation/ Rick Berman yelling at him "Jones, can't you write anything non-emotional" and slamming the door in his face.

Michael Ducharme

I think the music in the first season was just too ever-present. I don't think producers complained that it was overly emotional in a sentimental way. Just too bombastic at times.... too orchestral, with little plot reason... Like going into warp, or transitioning between story beats that just weren't that dramatic. Okay, so maybe there should be transition music. But it didn't always need to be on steroids. (I'm not talking about this episode, per se. This was characteristic of the first season.) The composers were encouraged to tone down the music, making it less intrusive and more atmospheric. That pissed them off. But I happened to agree with the assessment that it was just overdone. Too bombastic, grandiose, ceaseless... for sure.

Tom Occhipinti

Good ol Seth is a big fan of the star trek good on him

Narnman

There is a silver lining at least - he went on to become the main composer for Family Guy, for the theme and everything, for the pilot episode onwards, in part due to the strength of his TNG scores. He got to imitate/recall some of his own music in Family Guy episodes where the TNG cast was brought in.

Michael Ducharme

FYI the rank pips in this show, and other subsequent shows are directly copied from Royal and US Navy officer, rank stripes. The rank pips are solid gold or a gold ring with a black center. Ensign = 1 solid LTJG = 1 solid, 1 black LT = 2 solid LT Commander = 2 solid, 1 black Commander = 3 solid Captain = 4 solid also, whenever Q shows up a Starfleet uniform, he puts five solid gold pips on just to have one more than Picard.

Just another Red Shirt

Bro got fired for doing his job too well 😔

Josh (Target Audience)

Composer Ron Jones was on thin ice with the producers after scoring this episode. The composers were under standing orders to not write music that was emotional, and the music for Tasha's memorial had the producers and musicians crying and they were really angry with him for that, and it was one event that led to him being released later.

Michael Ducharme

Denise Crosby asked gene Roddenberry just to have a cut out of her legs because that’s all people ever seen of her, he reminded her that he focus of the show would be on Picard and riker

Mark

It's real, and it's spectacular -ish.

Nolan