[Gemini1999]

Damocles -

As I said, you don't like TNG and I agree with your reasons to not like it. My only issue was in regards to bad science, which abounds in SciFi programming going all the way back to the beginning to today's TV shows.

The characters for TNG - you're absolutely right. As Q once put it "the home for the abandoned, the unworthy, the unwanted...":

Picard - a man who's not comfortable with children, yet assigned to a ship where children live on board (he mellowed with time). Picard was one who excelled through life, but suffered being bullied by his older brother Robert when he was young.

Geordi LaForge - a man that has been blind all his life, but can see with a prosthetic device that allows him to see "better", but not in the same way - yet, pilots a starship and runs engineering as well, or better than anyone else. I won't even get into his family situation.

Data - An android devoid of human emotion, yet has the desire to fit in and be as human as possible. Is he a man, or his he a machine? Is he less than a man, or better?

Tasha Yar - a woman in charge of Security, but as a person, grew up on a planet where society fell apart, without the comfort of a home or parents, but still managed to become greater despite such tragedy.

Worf - the first Klingon to serve in Starfleet. Is Klingon by birth, but raised by human parents when his birthparents died during an attack on the Khitomer outpost. The idea that he is Klingon, but raised as human, yet has an unflinching devotion for Klingon tradition and society, when he's never really known it always befuddled me.

Beverly Crusher - Widowed Medical Officer with a young son. She also seems to share a "past" with Picard on some level - a past that takes years to realize even though the audience knew about it all the time. As mentioned in one episode, she was raised by her grandmother on a failed colony, but no mention of her actual parents.

Wesley Crusher - Young son to Beverly, who just happens to be a "genius" and routinely saves the ship when no other person aboard that are years beyond him seem to be able to. I always liked the idea of Bev & Wes - a small family unit traveling on ship, but they never really properly explored that angle.

Deanna Troi - Half human, half Betazoid - has limited empathic ability. Human father is dead and mother, Lwaxana is just so over the top, you can't imagine that they ever lived in the same house all those years. She also shares a romantic history with the First Officer as well, but not any more.

Will Riker - A real go getter of a guy - tall, good-looking, confident, but who's mother passed away when he was young and his father ignored/bullied him to toughen him up. As mentioned earlier, shares a broken romantic history with Counselor Deanna Troi.

I know that some would either say that all of these people are either the most dysfunctional, yet attractive group of people to travel in space, or that they are "so true to life" because the average person doesn't live the perfect life under perfect circumstances, but is still capable of rising to the occasion and being better than their upbringing.

You could say that they're "cardboard characters", but if you compare them to the characters in Trek TOS during the original series, they've got much more depth and detail to them than say Chekov, Uhura, or Scotty. Even after all the films finished, there wasn't a lot of detail about family, etc. to flesh them out.

Bryan