posted
I just realized we let this anniversary sorta slide by... Blame it on the end of continuous TNG-era material on TV four years ago, I guess.
But it was fifteen years ago this past September, when we saw Starfleet get handed its first collective kick in the balls on TV. Prior to "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", we in the TV audience had learned to accept the Trekkian standards of Brinkmanship: huge fleet battles just didn't happen, or were always avoided at the last minute for some reason. Never had we seen more than a handful of starships go at it at any given time... We had grown to accept not only the relative lack of large-scale action in the franchise, but also the relative invulnerability of Starfleet.
Then along comes BOBW II. After a summer on the edges of our seats wondering how the hell the crew would get out of THIS one (what with no real internet gossip at the time, nor real leaks from the studio), or even IF we'd get Picard back from the Borg, we all settled in for a multiple whammy of an episode. One of the highlights of which, of course, being the Battle of Wolf 359 - not directly seen of course (early TNG TV budgets talking here), but whose aftermath floored everyone I've ever talked to about it, who saw it in September 1990.
Holy shit! Here was our nigh-impregnable Starfleet, who loses a whopping FORTY mighty starships to a single enemy vessel, in a battle that could not have lasted more than minutes - an hour perhaps, at the outset. Like me, many fans were wordless upon watching the powerful "graveyard" scene, where we were treated to a plethora of new starship designs - that had been thoroughly destroyed. Talk about pleasure and pain for us! Talk about having a long-held desire to see other ships in the fleet, only to see them AFTER being trashed!
And in terms of powerful Trek moments in visual effects, this ranks at the top, among such other candidates as the uber Enterprise-D appearing in the future segments of "All Good Things...", or the Defiant opening up with pulse phasers blazing for the first time in "The Search, Part I". Memorable moments such as these are defined by newness and visual impact - Wolf 359 had both, AND a significant story impact to boot.
Since that battle, no other single battle in Stafleet history has been referenced to, scrutinized, analyzed, nitpicked, written about, or re-created as this one. Who talks as much about the duel of Constitution and Warbird in TOS? Or the invasion of Chin'Toka? Or the Enterprise-A's tactics at Khitomer? Or even the subsequent Borg incursion in "First Contact", which was arguably a bigger blow to Starfleet in terms of losses? Not as much as Wolf 359. It's referred to countless times in TNG and VOY, and its aftereffects have been felt as far ahead/back as the most recent series in "Regeneration".
We even get to see parts of the actual battle at the top of the DS9 premiere, and the impact is no less dramatic. We KNEW that Starfleet would be trounced, that thousands of people would die; and it gave a Starfleet CO one heck of a character starting point that has perhaps never been matched elsewhere. And he wasn't the only one - through various contrived means in VOY, we learn that other survivors have been just as affected, or worse. And not just people - Federation policy changed irrevocably as a result of this focal battle, affecting storylines and motivations for countless episodes afterwards.
I'm done rambling for now. However, I invite everyone to reminisce about their experiences as Trek fans, Treknoligists, RPG players, fanfic writers, and so on, and how YOU were affected by this historic FICTIONAL battle. It's hardly too odd a question for us - most of us remember where we were on 9/11, or when the Challenger or Columbia was lost, or our first Trek episode... And how our lives changed as a result. The above are some of my recollections. You?
posted
Well I began watching Trek in '92/'93 - so I didn't have to wait all year (who KNOWS how long I would have had to have waited in Australia)...
I had seen some of the movies and had caught a few eps of TNG on late night television. I borrowed Emissary out from the video store (it was the only DS9 release) and I LOVED it - I mentioned Trek in passing to a friend at school and he said "Oh me and my brother are big fans and get a whole lot of eps from our family in the States" the next day he brought me a 'video that would make me a fan'.
QWho, Yesterday's Enterprise, Best of Both Worlds 1 and Best of Both Worlds 2.
I've been a fan ever since.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
TNG started on BBC2 in 1990. I watched a couple of episodes but wasn't that impressed. Plus it clashed with the weekly scuba-diving club meet at Uni. The fact that there was Star Trek on telly seemed irrelevant to my life at the time; if I happened to be free at 6pm on a Wednesday I'd watch but it was a rare occurence.
Until I happened to wander into a crowded TV room in 1992, and found them showing BoBW2. By ignoring the summer hiatuses (hiati?) the Beeb had managed to almost catch up. They showed the standard "Previously on. . ." recap (even though BoBW1 had only been on the week before); I think I'd even managed to see "Q Who?" so knew who the Borg were. But what I saw that evening blew me away. Many people claim that part 1 is better than part 2, but I don't agree. You had Wolf 359, the rescue mission, and best of all Riker's smug expression when said mission worked.
And then - diaster! "That was the last we'll be seeing of Star Trek: The Next Generation for the time being. But tune in next week and see how it all started as we begin a complete run of the classic Star Trek series."
"WHAT?!" I roared. It was true. TNG didn't come back on until 1994, after they'd shown all 70+ eps of TOS. Their one concession was showing BoBW2 to round off the cliffhanger, rather then leaving the British audience hanging (unless they had Sky, or bought the videos) for a year and a half.
But it's because of BoBW2 I'm here today. Things would be a lot different if I'd not popped down to a University Hall of Residence TV room just to see what was on. Which is quite a profound thought which will probably haunt me for the rest of the day!
posted
To switch gears a little, I call into question the notion that a perception of Starfleet's invulnerability had anything to do with the episode's success. Just two years earlier the whole organization had been infiltrated from top to bottom by intelligent cockroaches. And how often have Star Trek stories, or for that matter almost any story, in or out of science fiction, been resolved by large organizations working as designed?
Consider that the original series, as far as I can recall without doing any research, never mentioned another Federation ship that wasn't destroyed, missing, or otherwise in distress, and if you actually saw one it was a sure sign that everyone aboard had died unpleasantly, or was about to. (The sole exception that I can think of being the commodore's ship in "The Ultimate Computer," but he made up for it by losing half of his taskforce.)
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Season three was the first season of TNG I watched with lots of interest. I spent the summer between seasons three and four on pins and needles. I don't know why, but I didn't really feel like someone punched me in the goat when the Wolf 359 wreckage appeared. I mean, I thought it was cool and pretty powerful, but I just didn't feel it like others did. Maybe it was because I was still so new to Trek?
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
I had watched TNG since it's start, but i was really floored by BOBW- mostly because I never thought we'd see the Borg again at all: Trek had not exactly followed up on storylines prior to that (and totally dropped the ball with the parasites). At most, we got annoying characters like Lursa and Betor popping up on occasion.
I love BOBW pt. II, but it's a bit hard to watch the two parts together- Shelby was either lobotomized or suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder in the second part. She's a total cunt in pt 1 and all for heroics and fighting the good fight in pt 2.
Riker's smug look from the battle bridge is priceless though- if only we'd seen more of that.
Hmmm...I wonder how the later TNG stories ould have played out if Patrick Stewart had not reprisee his role... Stuff like Darmok and The Inner Light would be cool to see with Riker in Picard's place.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
posted
I like Shelby for the meringue pastry she wore as a hat for work. Chilled to perfection. Goes great with that glib "slightly-better-commander-than-thou" smile.
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by Toadkiller: I think Frakes would be a good Captain, Riker just was never written consistently.
Exactly- sometimes he's a great lead character, ready to be a captain and others he....just there. If they had made him captain after BOBW II, it would have worked out nicely (assuming they wrote him as he appeared in that episode- or even as he was in The Pegasus).
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
posted
Funly enough, TV1 - a cable station here in Australia just finished airing a season 3 marathon. They usually play the first episode of the next season if it is a cliff hanger too.
It was an interactive marathon too - so you could press the 'red' button if you have digital and watch interviews and behind the scenes on four different channels!
Anyway - of course they just finished up with Best of Both Worlds.
Gotta love the music. The first time the Borg Cube appears and the end the cliff hanger after Ricker says "Mr Worf... Fire!" BAM BAM BAM! BAM BAM BAM! BAM! Awesome.
So many other things too.
Season 3 is one of the best seasons - consistant all the way through with fantastic episodes.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
It always bothered me that (due to encapsulating stories foe syndication) no real follow-up from Picard's Borgification was done between "Family" and "The Drumhead" (where it seems that his role in so many deaths has preyed on him somewhat.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
posted
Wow Jason.. you sure just put the last 15 years into perspective.
Don't forget to add a comparison to the battle in FIRST CONTACT.. where it was more even, after a few years of Federation science and what was probably a crash-shipbuilding program.
-------------------- joH'a' 'oH wIj DevwI' jIH DIchDaq Hutlh pagh (some days it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps in the morning) The Woozle!
Registered: Nov 2002
| IP: Logged
posted
Y'know...W359 would have been a mostly moral defeat for the Federation. No "crash-shipbuilding program" would have been required to recover from a loss of 39 starships.
Consider: during DS9, we saw that Starfleet has at least 2000 operational starships ( a low number, but for the sake of argument, we'll leave it there). This makes sense to me (indeed, a much larher number would make more sense- though comprised of mostly smaller vessels) considering the immense volume the Federation covers.
It does, however make the 'ol "only ship in range" more annoying than ever- it should be common to see four or five starships within populated systems- they'd never have to be remotely near each other- not even within visual sensor range- but to think that systems like Vulcan, Sol, Andor, Betazed dont have constant inter-system commerce is assinine.
At the very least, there should be hundreds of starships still in service from the MIranda era forward- many downgraded to civilian or "home fleet" service.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
