Themes
In my opinion, the core theme of TNG is "what is it to be a man?".
I use the term "man" because, of course, some people are not human. But also because the writers seem to be incapable of having female characters interogate the theme. The women aren't even particularly poorly written as people (oh my, my sci fi standards are low): they feel believable. But they don't feel like *story characters*. But I'll talk about gender and TNG another time. Right now I'm talking about the CORE THEME.
Picard: The first episode, Encounter at Farpoint, addresses the theme very explicitly: Picard literally is forced to defend humanity, and defend that while humans are often evil, they are also good, and that there is something fundamentally curious, adventurous, intrepid, and flawed about us as a species. Picards core belief is that humans, and therefore humanity, can and does change.
"That nonsense is centuries behind us!"
"But you can't deny, Captain, that you are still a dangerous, savage child race."
"Most certainly, I deny it. I agree we still were, when Humans wore costumes like that four hundred years ago."
"At which time you slaughtered millions in silly arguments about how to divide the resources of your little world. And four hundred years before that, you were murdering each other in quarrels over tribal god images. Since then, there has been no indication that Humans will ever change."
To me, it's pretty clear that Picard is initially presented as a paragon of everything humanity COULD be (although this is deconstucted later). He is what it means to be a man.
Worf: Worf is a being between worlds. He is Klingon, raised by humans. He is a warrior amongst pacifists. He has his nature (which he says is violent, but I'm not totally convinced) and he has who he chooses to be. And it's HARD. He does not adapt to Starfleet easily. But just like Picard said, it's who we choose to be that matters. Worf's episode further explore these themes, having him negotiate between two radically different world views and their perspective on honour, righteousness, and masculinity (ok a little gender snuck in). Then, of course, there are Worf's children (well, 1.5 children? One just kind disappeared). Now Worf has to struggle with a new role: what does it mean to be a father? Oof! Our boy is going through it. He is trying so hard to meet some ideal he has a good man, even as he struggles to figure out that that means.
Wesley: Why is a teen piloting the flagship starship? Because he's thematically relevant. Here we have an adolescent boy without a father who is coming of age and trying to figure himself out. He is so earnest, so eager, he wants this so bad. Wesley idiolizes Picard, looks up to him as a father figure. When they are trapped in a cave together, he tells Picard that all he ever wanted was to make him proud [of the man he's become]. While Picard is a paragon, Worf is an adult male struggling with his role, Wesley isn't yet a man at all and we are watching him become one and negotiate what that means.
Data: I left the best for last. Data addresses the theme the most explicitly throughout the show. He talks AT LENGTH about how he respects humans and strives to find his own humanity (Betazoid and Klingon on the bridge need not apply, I guess). He literally asks questions about what it means to be human, and forces the other characters to reflect on the values they take for granted. GOD I LOVE DATA SO MUCH.
Geordi: Ok, I'm gonna be real, my hypothesis falls apart a little with Geordi. He doesn't really have much inner turmoil, or have much screentime other than acting as a tech-procedural. My hypothesis is that Levar is so charismatic and his vibes are so immaculate, they writers couldn't bear to give him the angst he would require to partake in the theme. They tried to convince me he has no game, and let's be real, a super hot nerdy genius boy with a job? I don't care if he fumbles his words, La Forge would be SWIMMING IN IT. This is the writers projecting, IN MY DISRESPECTFUL OPINION [this is me jumping into the screen and crawling out into the writers room 40 years ago like Samara to tell them what's up]. If women don't like you, it's not because you're nervous or nerdy -- because some women are also nervous nerds. Maybe you're just boring or kinda a dick.
Gender
OK fine, let's talk about gender and Star Trek.
For context, I kinda hate this conversation. I'm a trans non-binary girl-shaped human. I'm also a person in the nerd-sphere -- put those together and I get asked to speak about gender way more than I'd like. I get asked about being a female streamer, a female D&D player, a female woman girly girlboss queen ~I'm gonna throw up~ and it's not that these aren't valid things to talk about, but they make me in particular feel ~bad~ and ALSO I'm just fucking tired of talking about it. Ask me about my furbys. Ask me about my homebrew paladins in croptop armour. Stop asking me about my gender.
I've also been very spoiled with really bad ass female characters I love. Storm from X-men made me who I am. Buffy? Xena? October Daye? I've had so rad ladies who kick ass within the nerdy fiction I've consumed, which is probably why watching TNG hit so hard.
In the first few episodes, they are saying things that are progressive NOW, nevermind in the late 80s! We OPEN with a black disabled man at the helm and a female tactical officer. I feel like if they did this now, people would lose their goddam minds. AND IT WAS THE 80S! The representation is AMAZING!
Except that while the women are there, and they aren't damsels or victims, they don't really add to the *story*.
Let me explain.
There is the plot, which is the things that happen in the fiction, all the stuff that goes on, and Yar, Troi and Crusher are all really important to the plot. They are also very powerful *in fiction*. Beverly can overrule the captain! Troi is sometimes absurdly psychic! Yar has the photon torpedoes! In the world of TNG, these women are important.
But narratively, they are just kinda.... there.
While they are often key to the plot, they have little effect on the *story*: the themes as they weave together the plot, setting and character. It's what makes this more than a series of adventurous events. It's what makes us care about these people. It's what makes what happens matter.
A character is usually part of the story when they have an internal struggle the reflects the central theme (see above). This struggle will be explored through things that happen to them, and the things they do. Picard struggles to uphold his ideals in a reality that is often worse than he'd hoped. Worf struggles as an adoptee, forever caught between worlds. Wesley struggles as a young man growing up in a strange environment, without his father, and with more smarts than he knows what to do with. Data struggles with being both more and less than a human -- and in all these cases we get these POIGNANT MOMENTS that touch on the HEART of the show. We know what these characters want. We know their CORE VALUES.
And then we get to the women.
Troi gets the most screentime, so lets' talk about her. She is in some ways a developped character. She is a romantic. She likes chocolate. She has a complicated relationship with her mother. She is cheerful and empathetic.
What are her core values?
What does Troi care about, that no one else on the ship seems to value to the same degree?
What are her GOALS?
Why is she even on this ship? What does this job mean to her? Why did she take it? Why isn't she a therapist on a Starbase, or a nice chill planet with all the full-fat chocolate she could dream of? What is she constantly putting herself into danger? Every other character has some value that justifies them putting themself in danger, but Troi seems like she's be just as happy meeting new people on a Starbase or metropolitan planet. She doesn't need to be out here risking her neck. It doesn't make *sense*.
For (most) the male characters, I can answer all those questions. I know what drove them to adventure, even if it's not stated explicitly. I can see how their values align with Starfleet, and how their love of the unknown would make them choose this kind of work. But the women seem like they were teleported here and just started *reading a script*.
Let's talk about Beverly because she is SO CLOSE to being a great TNG character.
In one epsiode, a bomb goes off on a planet and Beverly stays with the victim even though there is a risk of another bomb *because she is a doctor*. This tells us a lot about how she views herself and her noble profession. Because being real, most doctors I've met will make you wait weeks for an appointment and tell you that stabbing pain is all in your head, have you tried deep breathing? Most doctors are NOT combat medics on the front lines. But to Beverly, being a doctor means putting herself in danger if it is for the good of her patient. That's cool! That's a core value that's noble, but could easily be challenged through the story. It could
easily
be
challenged
so they are going to challenge it, right? More than that one moment?
right?
surely....
They literally put Picard on TRIAL so he could wax poetic about the better angels of our nature (his core value) and they give him BANGER LINES constantly! And right next to him, we have a character with an even bolder assertation: that any life is worth dying for. Surely they will give her a similar moral quandry?
To top it all off, they have set up the most intense trolley problem of all time. Her stated value is that she will die for her patients, but also she's a MOTHER with her KID on the SHIP! You're telling me you couldn't even give her one moral conundrum where she had to choose between saving Wesley and saving a patient? Come ON medical dramas are rife with moral quandries that would fit in perfectly. Stop giving Picard the Trolley problems, and start making Beverly confront her vocational awe and get REAL about what it means to be a healer and a mother and an adventurer.
If we wanted the theme to be "what does it mean to be a person?", we could have Bev wax about how she became a doctor because of her love of people, and all their flaws, and her tragic story where she desperately wanted to help someone and couldn't, she felt helpless, and that she knew that in order to be who she wanted to be she needed to save as many people as possible. She needs to save everyone. Give her a martyr complex you cowards! It would be narratively interesting!
Yar is the greatest crime of all. So much that I'm writing a whole fan fic just to FIX how terribly she's written.
Many people have told me that, despite its noble themes, this show was marred by misogyny on set and in the writers' room. I don't know much about that, but as a work of fiction and from the perspective of a literary analysis, it's obvious to me that even if they tried to avoid being overtly sexist, the writers *struggled to conceive of women as full people the way men are*. People with complex inner lives who struggle to fill multiple competing roles. People who grow and change over time. People with conflicting core values. You know.... people.
And it's extra depressing because through the strong themes of the show and their general ability or write, they SET THESE CHARACTERS UP to actually have big, complex, meaningful stories -- and instead of following through, they went and did aerobics.
Oof.