What are some TNG story arcs?

[Spock's Brain]

On top of whatever is going on in each episode, in DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise there are many very prominent story arcs that cross many episodes and seasons. With TNG, that is not the case. Once our heroes figure out how to remodulate the main deflector dish to get themselves out of whatever jam they've gotten themselves into that particular week, it's a complete reset for the next episode. Aside from simple normal character development over the series, I can think of only one true story arc: Worf's honor. Worf has honor, then his family is wrongly dishonored (but for the good of the Empire,) and then honor is rightly restored. I seem to remember that this takes place over a couple seasons, but I could be wrong.

Can you think of any others?

 

[Kor]

Most television was like that at the time.

Story arcs and serialization were mostly reserved for either special-event miniseries, or cheap soap operas.

Kor

 

[RoJoHen]

Yeah, Worf's whole Khitomer/Duras/Romulan/discommendation story is the main one that comes to mind.

Otherwise, I'd say Data's quest for humanity. Between his dealings with Dr. Soong, Lore, and Lal, we saw him grow as an individual and develop a better understanding of humanity, though I think the movies kind of ruined it for him. They finally gave him an emotion chip in "Generations," but then in FC he turned it off, in INS he "didn't take it with him," and in NEM it was pretty much ignored. So that was disappointing.

Riker's career?

Hell, honestly, I think Wesley got more of a story arc than most of the cast.

 

[ItIsGreen]

Q's 'trial' of humanity, mentioned in his first few appearances, dropped later when he became more of a recurring annoyance for our crew, then picked back up for the series finale.
Picard had sort of an arc with the Borg, assimilated in BoBW, coming to terms with it in Family, roleplaying as Locutus in I Borg, dealing with the fallout from that in Descent and culminating in ST: First Contact.
The whole Duras family/Romulans thing, which tied in with Worf's honour of course.

Can't really think of much more tbh.

 

[Spock's Brain]

Hell, honestly, I think Wesley got more of a story arc than most of the cast.

Wes's ascension into whatever-it-is-he-became with The Traveler was the closest thing to another story arc that I could think of as well.

 

[Spock's Brain]

Q's 'trial' of humanity, mentioned in his first few appearances, dropped later when he became more of a recurring annoyance for our crew, then picked back up for the series finale.
Picard had sort of an arc with the Borg, assimilated in BoBW, coming to terms with it in Family, roleplaying as Locutus in I Borg, dealing with the fallout from that in Descent and culminating in ST: First Contact.
The whole Duras family/Romulans thing, which tied in with Worf's honour of course.

Can't really think of much more tbh.

Thanks! I would definitely consider Picard's Borgness as a story arc.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Most television was like that at the time.

Story arcs and serialization were mostly reserved for either special-event miniseries, or cheap soap operas.

Kor

And pretty much what happened to the spinoff series for TNG had become. Inputting arcs which didn't need any and could've been said and done in 1 or 2 episodes max. Especially when the stories are not interesting enough to follow it through doesn't seem appropriate. The producers should've looked at ratings or listen to critiques whether the story was good enough for audiences to have an investment in seeing more of the story. The arcs in TNG spinoffs were cheap soap opera cliches which became stale. I'm glad TNG didn't do that because it would've tied it down to a level of redundancy, which would've hurt creative storytelling.

 

[T'Girl]

Picard's snapping of the Borg Queen's neck was likely an important cathartic moment for him, and basically ended Picard's "Borg Arc." Between that action and his talk with Lily he was able to put the Borg experience behind himself.

+

 

[Lance]

With all due respect, I think the OP Spock's Brain is conflating the phrase 'Story Arcs' with the phrase 'Serialization'.

One does not necessarily reflect the other.

'Serialization' is when a series does storylines back-to-back and carries them through an entire show. So, 26 episodes with a broader 'umbrella theme' that unfolds gradually over an entire season (or even multiple seasons) and escalates and evolves. It's a very dynamic story-telling format.

'Story Arcs' sometimes come about in serialization, but they are not exclusive to it. A story arc is any character driven storyline which gets revisited over many, many years. It may be as simple as recurring characters, or a developing storyline for specific people.

A story arc could be best described as anything which fundamentally changes the status quo for any given character, and which gets revisited on later occasions. Whether that's the very next episode or twenty episodes later makes no difference.

TNG's format may not have been serialized, but it had a lot of these kinds of 'character arcs'. In fact, it was this which (more than anything else) stood out so much about it at the time; that, unlike TOS, the TNG characters and the universe that they inhabit did not exist within a vacuum where everything gets wrapped up in an hour and then forgotten about. For me, that was one of the most alluring things about TNG during it's original run, that it had these kinds of story arcs.

To whit:

- Data's Search For Humanity. Beginning with the pilot (in that holodeck scene with Riker) and ending in Nemesis (with an act of noble self-sacrifice), with a great many episodes in the interim exploring the concept. Throw in any episode with Dr Soong or Lore, and take note of the fact that the emotion chip from the movies was first introduced in the fourth season of the TV show.... and Nemesis even bookends it with Riker remembering that very first meeting with Data.

- Worf, Son of Mogh, and the Klingon Way. Start this one with Season Two's "Emissary" and carry it through with "Reunion", "Sins of the Father", "Redemption Part 1", "Redemption Part 2", and then anything involving either Alexander, the Klingon high council, or both.

- Deanna And Riker. Starting pre-series, with continuity nods towards it at many points all the way through to their recoupling in the movie 'Insurrection' and their wedding in 'Nemesis'.

- Q's Test. This is one of those interesting one that only seems obvious in hindsight. Many of Q's episodes can be summed up as "Q shows up and messes around with the crew for a bit", but when we're told in the series finale that he's been watching the characters grow and develop, it casts a shadow back across all his appearances, and you can kind of see that, yes, his fascination with the crew does seem to be a part of something bigger. In particular compare his behaviour in "Tapestry" (where he gives Picard a second chance to see what his life would have been like without his biggest regret) to the finale (where he is trying to help Picard see 'beyond' his linear existance.) There's some deep stuff going on there.

There are many, many others.

These may not be examples of what we would call a 'story arc' today. But nevertheless, they ARE story arcs. In isolation they stand, but viewed culmatively they draw a much bigger picture. A story arc doesn't necessarily need to be told in the format of a 26-episode epic storyline.

 

[Spock's Brain]

Great post.

The ones that you mention seem to be the best examples. And I think you're right, TNG does dive deeper into telling the stories of characters over time than TOS did.

So would you consider the others serials? They each tell a broader ongoing story. DS9 is about the end of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor and Sisko embracing the role of Emissary. Voyager is about getting home. And ENT is mostly about the Xindi and saving Earth.

TNG is not told in that manner. You may have a point about Q continuing to have humanity on trial, but we only see that in retrospect. We do learn things about the characters along the way, and there are revisits of previous scenarios, but there is not an over-arching plot.

Excellent discussion!

 

[Lance]

Great post.

The ones that you mention seem to be the best examples. And I think you're right, TNG does dive deeper into telling the stories of characters over time than TOS did.

You may have a point about Q continuing to have humanity on trial, but we only see that in retrospect. We do learn things about the characters along the way, and there are revisits of previous scenarios, but there is not an over-arching plot.

True. I guess it's a difference between 'character arcs' (which TNG definitely did) and 'story arcs' (which they did sometimes, but not in a serialized way -- the progression of Worf's character often felt more like a story arc than a character arc simply because it was tied up with other recurring characters like the Duras clan who did return.)

I guess a story arc is something which can be told over many episodes but with gaps in-between, whereas 'serialization' is when each episode blends into the next as an ongoing plot. The latter naturally leads to story arcs, but it isn't the only way to tell them.

So would you consider the others serials? They each tell a broader ongoing story. DS9 is about the end of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor and Sisko embracing the role of Emissary. Voyager is about getting home. And ENT is mostly about the Xindi and saving Earth.

Good question!

Of the other shows I'd say only ENT really approached doing serialization in the way that we understand it today, particularly in seasons three and four.

DS9 felt more like a serial simply on merit of the station itself being stationary and therefore having to deal with the progression of the characters on an episode-to-episode basis, rather than leaving planets behind and moving on, but closer inspection often shows the episodes as being more stand-alone than is often remembered (only the last batch of episodes leading up to the finale really feels like a 'serial'.) Nevertheless, it has got serial elements throughout.

VOY nominally took the TNG approach to character arcs interspersed with recurring characters, but in practice they contradicted themselves more than TNG ever did. TNG overall maintained a sense of consistency. Certainly after about the fourth season, VOY rarely revisited characters, apart from Barclay a few times and Kes once, and the nature of the show (constantly being on the move, trying to 'return home', visiting planets and then leaving them behind) meant that it was like a polar opposite of DS9. Probably outside TOS the most 'episodic' of the Trek shows. TNG at least took place in established space and regularly faced established threats, Voyager only really had a small handful of those (the Kazon, the Borg, Species 4872, the Hirogen), and usually left those behind and moved on after a batch of episodes were done.

As a side note I'd actually say the TOS movies were, interestingly, very serialized. TWOK/TSFS/TVH essentially are a serial, both in terms of being an ongoing dynamic storyline *and* through the use of character arcs, with TUC as a kind of isolated 'coda'.

 

[Spock's Brain]

I agree, by your definition ENT is the only one that gave the serial format a whirl. And it failed. Upon reflection, that's where the series lost me, because I didn't care for the whole Xindi storyline, and they became so heavily invested in it that you just couldn't get away from it anymore.

 

[Lance]

I agree, by your definition ENT is the only one that gave the serial format a whirl. And it failed. Upon reflection, that's where the series lost me, because I didn't care for the whole Xindi storyline, and they became so heavily invested in it that you just couldn't get away from it anymore.

That is a danger with doing full on serialization. If they aren't telling an interesting story to begin with, then being stuck in 20+ episodes of it can be too much for the viewers. And then you've got serials where the ending actually falls flat, and makes the previous episodes all feel like a complete waste of time.

I tend to prefer episodic TV, but I don't mind ongoing character arcs. Each format has it's pluses and minuses.

 

[Terok Nor]

Geordi trying to get a date.
Picard/Crusher attraction.
Coming Of Age/Conspiracy was kind of an arc.

 

[Seven of Five]

Pulaski/Data was an arc in this sense.

 

[JesterFace]

When it comes to Q and the trial of humanity, even if Q doesn't appear in the episode, episodes can be seen as something Q keeps an eye on, basically every episode is a part of humanity's trial story arc.. kind of.

I think TNG did well with the story arc thing, little bit here and there, but everything they do doesn't revolve around it. For example Data's quest to be human, it's something that is revisited occasionally, but other things can happen too that have nothing to do with it.

 

[RAMA]

The Shakespearean Worf saga might be the most notable one. Starting even from Heart of Glory, it was operatic in scope. It took off with Reunion, Climaxed with Redemption and settled in with Rightful Heir.

Wesley's superior intellect and insight: From WNOHGB, till his disappearance with the Traveler.

Data's search for humanity: Measure of a Man and Birthright Part 1 were a high point for me for this arc, but it didn't even stop until his death in Nemesis.

Q's test: Q never stopped testing humanity, though for awhile it got "personal".

Picard "loosening up" : A trip to Risa, guiding some children through a disabled Enterprise, and ending with playing Poker in the finale.

Borg: This started off as a Q test, then became a inhuman collective vs man, then Picard vs the Borg/Queen arc.

Romulan brinksmanship: Starting with Neutral Zone, continuing with Enemy, The Defector and Unification. Always at the edge of war with the UFP, but not quite. The Roms even took part in the Klingon saga.

Arcs that continued in other shows: Cardassian/Bajoran. The Maquis. Borg. Q

 

[pressefr]

This may be an old discussion, but it is still a subject I'm still interested in. Since Star Trek is on Netflix, I want to watch them in a sorta Story Arc order. Alpha Memory (The Star Trek Wiki) classifies story arcs organized as; Feature-length episodes, Two-part episodes, Three-part episodes, Multi-episode arcs, The Mirror universes, Non-consecutive arcs.

See all of the Arcs at:
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Story_arcs

STO: Star Trek Online
I play STO: Star Trek Online and they have tied some episodes together to infer they are related; As Alpha Memory do not consider those par episode combination as a "cannon Story Arc." (for some reason). It is still fun to tantalize.

Lost Dominion
(Prior to Season Fifteen: Age of Discovery, the Lost Dominion arc was available to all players as part of the Cardassian Struggle main story arc.)
STO: The story of DS9: The Dominion War arc continues. A vision from the prophets says in the usual vague kind of dream, "A closed fist is not a helping hand." The profits release a Dominion fleet that went missing through the Bajor wormhole during the Dominion War, unaware that the Dominion War is over.

• Episode 0 “Lost Dominion”
• Episode 1 “Second Wave”
• Episode 2 “Of Bajor”
• Episode 3 “Operation Gamma”
• Episode 4 “Facility 4028”
• Episode 5 “Boldly They Rode”

STO: Season 7: New Romulus
In this timeline; Instead of Vulcan Planet being destroyed like in the Star Trek (2009). The neighboring Romulus homeworld is destroyed. They refuge to a new planet, Dewa III (later re-named New Romulus). Which the planet happens to have ancient ruins of Iconian Empire and their Gateways. Along with the Dewan Civilization abandoning post trying to reactivate the Gateways. Occupied decaying radiation patches and occupied by Tholians researching the technology.
TV Show References:
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Iconian
i.e. TOS: "The Tholian Web" S3E09
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Tholian

Season 8: The Sphere
The Dyson Sphere Story Line; ties together Luittent Worfs alien abduction by using Iconian Gateways.

Dyson Sphere cannon-story tie-ins:

• TNG: "Schisms" S6E05
• TNG: "Contagion" S2E11
• DS9: "To the Death" S4E22
• TNG: "Relics" S6E04

My own theory: Why Klingons look like that they do in ST Discovery.
DS9, "Trials and Tribble-ations" 5x06 - Worf tells them that those are Klingons and that it is a long story that Klingons do not discuss with outsiders.
ENT, "Affliction" 4x15
ENT, "Divergence" 4x16

Cardassian -vs- Bajoran "Comfort Women"
DS9: "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night" S6E17
DS9: "For the Cause" S4E21 - small remarks throughout DS9 and mix-raced children

 

[Lance]

Q is a story arc.

I only really noticed this recently when the old 'Fan Collective: Q' DVD set fell into my hands and I watched it through start to finish, but every Q episode actually holds together incredibly well across three separate Star Trek series as a unified story arc for... well, Q himself. They're a complete unit, that begins with an omnipotent alien being that comes along with really very little regard for humanity, but whose contact with them sees him gradually become more and more intrigued by them, adapting them, recognizing something in them, but also seeing something fundamental of himself in them, that the rest of the continuum is lacking. VOY's 'The Q and the Grey' actually feels hella significant, as a cresendo after watching Q grow and develop in all of the episodes and series before it. The character has become not just iconoclastic, but an actual force for change , all through his contact with humanity. Picard doesn't just learn things about himself from Q... the opposite very much occurs.

 

[Farscape One]

I do like the idea that each TNG episode is Q looking at the crew as part of the trial.

This probably explains, partially, his fascination with Picard. Picard is a likely candidate for the most moral person on the franchise, with Data being the only other competition.

Picard represents the best of humanity, and who better to act as defense attorney for humans than him.