The next generation

We finally got R to watch Star Trek. It’s been about 5 years since we first tried and 3 years since the last attempt. But this time it seems to have stuck.

It all started out Saturday morning when listening to Underground from Labyrinth. I had an "all the things you like are connected" moment. Did you know that, for Labyrinth, David Bowie did the music, George Lucas produced it, Jim Henson from Sesame Street did all the goblins and creatures, and Gates McFadden, the Doctor from Star Trek, did the choreography.

The last bit L was unaware of, so after a quick check of her filmography online, confirming it was true, L suggested We haven't tried watching Trek for a while. Maybe she'll like it now.

Even R was up for it. So we agreed that, since it was clean-the-house day, we'd watch some episodes, clean a bit, and watch some more. In the end, we got through 8 episodes of The Next Generation and made a dent in the mess that just spontaneously generates in the house.

We started with episode 3 of season 3 because that was the first DVD we could find. It turned out to be a good place to start since that and the following 6 episodes were all self contained and needed no knowledge of who any of the people were or what the overarching story was. The most memorable episode to R was Who Watches the Watchers. She really identified with the primitive race being covertly observed and their leader who gets to tour the Enterprise (She says Nuria is her favourite character so far, even more than Data). Which makes sense because it really sets the scene of what's important in the series and from the viewpoint of an outsider.

At one point R had a wow moment when L pointed out that actor who played Picard was the Narrator on the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack.

Since then she's been asking to see another episode every day. Which is nice since it's always good to expand her horizons. I've seen the series enough that I've been bored of it, and it's also good to see it through fresh eyes with her. It's made me appreciate some things which I found very dull first time around.

Assorted highlights

How can she be 100 years old? Oh! She must be an alien!

They're all aliens. We knew she was an alien. It's got to be something else

... I think we'll catch the Romulans with their pants down...

With their pants down? What does he mean?

With their pants -?

A metaphor... goes on to explain it so we don't have to

After seeing Riker die in an alternate timeline Will is dead? Does he not appear in any more episodes after this? ... Wait... He's not dead. What happened?

No. He didn't die. dreading having to explain the next bizarre time travel episode