Trollheart

Now that I've woken up and can think a little more clearly, here are (for those who care) some more examples of Next Gen following up ideas/premises/plots:

1. Ensign Sito: When Wesley Crusher's squad at the Academy engages in a dangerous aerobatic manouver in "The first duty", which results in one of the cadets getting killed, they all cover up the truth so as not to be kicked out. Ensign Sito, who was one of those who participated in the coverup, is later assigned to the Enterprise on the specific request of Captain Picard, who wants to ensure she gets a chance to turn her career and her life around. He chooses her for a secret mission, in "Lower decks", which ultimately results in her death.

2. Worf: We learn in "Firstborn" that sometime in the future Worf is killed by members of the Duras family. Duras's father was the one who betrayed the Klingons at Kittomer, resulting in the death of thousands of them at the hands of the Romulans. Because the Duras family has powerful links to the Great Council however, it is decided to frame Worf's father. When the truth comes to light, Worf accepts the disgrace to prevent the empire from descending into civil war. Later, Duras kills Worf's mate and Worf kills him, but Duras's sisters continue to plot against Worf and the Council. Thus a blood-feud develops, which culminates with Worf's assassination in the far future.

3. Ensign Ro: Seconded to the Enterprise against Picard's wishes, Ro Laren has been serving time in a Federation prison for desertion of duty, but Picard warms to her and she becomes his protoge, eventually infiltrating the Maquis near the end of the series, but "going native" and joining them, thus destroying the faith Picard had placed in her.

There are so many more examples. Characters in NG and DS9 developed, grew, or sometimes regressed, and anything major (or sometimes minor) that happened often had consequences further down the line. In Voyager, Janeway spouts high and mighty ideals but does not stick to them. Kirk broke the Prime Directive as easily as breaking wind, where Picard was so adamant NOT to break it that he was prepared to allow an entire civilisation to fall ("Homeward") and ignore a cry for help ("Pen pals"), but at least he stuck to his convictions. Janeway used the PD as it suited her, implementing it when she wanted and ignoring or finding a way around it when it was inconvenient to her purposes.

That could have been accepted. They were, after all, far from home and surely the ideals of the Federation could not necessarily be expected to apply. But she decided they should, then broke that code whenever she wanted. She would have been much better to have adopted the Maquis way of thinking, which would have been more appropriate to, and useful in, the Delta Quadrant.

I'm not saying Voyager was awful: there were a few good episodes and a story like "The year of Hell" showed what the writers could do when they tried. It's just that they didn't try all that often. There was of course, Seven of Nine, but then, to balance that out, there was Neelix, possibly the most hated Trek character ever (yeah, even including Wesley!) --- sort of Star Trek's answer to Jar Jar Binks!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018