Those episodes are the two-hour premiere, "Encounter at Farpoint," which introduces Captain Jean Luc Picard and his crew; "Sins of the Father," an inside look at the Klingon Empire as Worf faces a charge of treason an defends his father's honor; and "The Inner Light," one of the show's most critically acclaimed episodes in which Picard lives a lifetime in only an instant on a long dead planet whose inhabitants want only to be remembered.
There are two observations about this disc. First off, the image quality - especially when the viewer is given the opportunity to compare what it looked like in its original airing to the remastered Blu-ray version - truly is astounding. The second is that (thankfully) the storytelling for ST:TNG improved vastly as it went on. "Encounter at Farpoint" feels remarkably like the original series (not in a good way, but, instead, feels dated and some of the performances are just over the top), while both "Sins of the Father" and "The Inner Light," while embracing the scifi trappings, survive as damn good drama.
What follows is a look at the three episodes from the points of view of people involved with their making:
"ENCOUNTER AT FARPOINT"
EPISODES 1 & 2
ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 9/26/87
PLOT: On its maiden voyage the Enterprise-D is en route to the seemingly miraculous Farpoint Station when they're boarded by the enigmatic Q, who plans to put the crew on trial for humanity's crimes.
CO-WRITER DOROTHY FONTANA: "Roddenberry wanted to do a story that took place on a staging planet at the edge of space with a new station. We were working on the characters at that point. The preliminary outline really broke out the possibilities. It was not what you now see. the creature that first appears is a spaceship, but it is a space-going gun platform. That is the threat. Then we find out that it is a creature. It shows up as a gun platform and it's being used because it was weakened and nearly died from starvation, which is a chacterization I carried on. Of course we do manage to break the creature out of its enslavement. that was the very beginning idea, and then Roddenberry wanted one with the creature down on the planet, because he liked the idea of a mate."
DIRECTOR COREY ALLEN: "The script turned me on immediately. 'Q' is what you're doing right now. You're 'Q' and I'm 'A'. Every one of us has a constant Q pounding on the back of our head, saying, 'What about that? How do you feel? Are you really worthy?' It's the question we pose ourselves; it's a constant looking at ourselves, a questioning of ourselves and a probing. Many times we'll manifest that probe by getting involved in outside circumstances, saying, 'I'm tired of asking myself all these questions in my head. I think I'll go to the theater and let the actors on stage do it. Or go to the boxing match and let two gladiators do it. I'm tired. I need their help.' I think what Gene Roddenberry did was put two adversaries on the screen so they could effectively deal with those questions."
"SINS OF THE FATHER"
EPISODE 65
ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 3/17/90
PLOT: Wof returns to the Klingon homeworld to clear his father's name, at the risk of his own life.
CO-WRITER RON MOORE: "I was in love with 'Sins of the Father' and I fought for it when there was some question about which way we were going to go with it. I really like the fact Worf took it on the chin in that episode. It said he was willing to stand up and do the right thing for his people, even if they weren't going to do the right thing by him."
"THE INNER LIGHT"
EPISODE 125
ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 6/1/92
PLOT: A mysterious space probe disables Picard and sends his unconsious body to the deck of the bridge. When he awakens, he seems to be somebody entirely different having experienced a lifetime of memories in a matter of twenty-five minutes.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MICHAEL PILLER: "It's a great premise about a man who lives 45 years of his life in 25 minutes. Patrick gives a remarkable performance. He gets to be six or seven different ages and it works. As we were breaking the story with the writers, I remember putting the lines on the board and with each one creating the blocks to have connections and relationships grow in this other life for Picard, so that by the end of the show when they die or they are lost, there's an emotional impact that the audience should absolutely be heartbroken that he's lost these other people he loved and spent his life with. I actually had tears in my eyes when we were breaking this story and I hope we were on the money."
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