Best NextGen character?

[filmnut]

Data for me except any episode where spot was prominent featured... but I also loved worf the... He cracked me up.

 

[Essie]

Some great characters throughout the series - Picard, Data - fantastic. How about Lwaxana Troi - possibly the most annoying mother in the universe but a great charater nonetheless. I suppose she didn't really come into her own until you saw the other side of her in DS9. Reg Barclay was a great character too.

I find it fascinating that one person's favourite another person hates. Back there someone said they like Crusher and thought she was under-used. To me Beverly was the most irritating person ever (no-one's that nice!) barring only her annoying and precocious offspring!

 

[The Ace]

Stuck between Worf and Data, with a nod to Geordie.

 

[L'Har]

My favourite has always been Data I want to be his friend! Although I like Troi as I'm a counsellor myself and think it's cool that my profession is still around in the future.

 

[Essie]

Troi was definitely a more improved character as the series went on - by the films I actually didn't mind her so much. I think I'll have to watch back a bit to see when she stopped annoying me so much.

 

[MontyCircus]

I thought Wesley Crusher was the most hated-character...in any Trek series...all-time

 

[manephelien]

Possibly. I think Wesley doesn't deserve all the hate that gets dumped on him. He improved a lot when his mother left the ship for season 2, and by all accounts she realizes he's become a man in her absence and doesn't cling to him like a drowning woman clings to the last straw. Her overprotectiveness is part of why he's so annoying at first.

However, my favorite character's Riker, because he's the man Kirk wished he was. Worf gets a nod as the cuddly Klingon and Data's so sweet in his attempts to understand humanity. And Picard is the most awesome Trek captain ever! Not that I have anything against LaForge or Doctors Crusher and Pulaski either, or counselor Troi for that matter.

 

[Celeritas]

Ro Laren and Data.

but the very best...the man....the bomb diggity...

Q!

 

[Essie]

However, my favorite character's Riker, because he's the man Kirk wished he was.

I liked Riker - I thought he had real potential but I don't think he was ever developed enough. I can't quite put my finger on it but everything 'memorable' was given to Picard or Data and lets face it when you have two actors of their abilities you can sort of understand why.

Interestingly - I've recently read the first couple of the Titan books in which Riker is captain and I think there's still a lack of his character development there too.

 

[HanaBi]

Favourite principle character would have to be Picard, because you could emphasise with him so easily; and you just knew he would sort out the problems of the Galaxy in his usually calm, collective and rational self.

Of course he was also PDG as part-Borg too!

Favourite Support Character, would have to be Q. John DeLance understood the character precisely, especially when he zapped the Enterprise a million light years across the Galaxy and their eventual encounter with the Borg thanks to the arrogance & aloofness of Picard and his crew.

What an eye-opener that was!

 

[J-Sun]

This is a small thread to be so long-lived.

I will ditto Picard as main character (with honorable mentions to Data and Worf). Picard was probably the most well-rounded, complex, nuanced character.

I will ditto Q as guest star (with honorable mention to Guinan). A brilliant performance and, like Data, but in its own way, an excellent vehicle for exploring the human condition via something that isn't human. And often hilarious - I still enjoy Q calling the Captain "John Luck Pickerd".

And I will ditto Ro Laren as the best tiny character who shoulda been more. She was just neat.

(For DS9, it's easily Garak, though I recognize the accomplishment with Dukat. I give honorable mentions there to Dax and Kira - and Worf again, I guess.)

 

[Protectobot]

DATA was my fave' character, of course (sidenote: I HATE Nemesis ).

I'm ALREADY a sucker for robots cos I'm OLD and grew up with the original Transformers cartoon, and I always thought they were cooler than organic lifeforms, but nowadays, I'm finally not so sure lol...

Picard was my fave' captain, although, at this point, Archer from Enterprise is up there with him! I've only seen about 1 season of Enterprise so far, though.

Patrick Stewart seems like a cool, down-to-Earth guy: even though Picard hadn't been on Earth for so long haha...

Q and Lwaxana (sp?!) Troi got on my nerves sometimes, while at other times, they were pretty cool and funny.

I like LaForge and Guinan. I met both Levar Burton and Whoopi Goldberg, because I LIVE in L.A., and my Mom has unique connections with actors (she's not in the movie or t.v. show businesses). I was a kid.

I pissed off Levar, but I think he was stressed out. He was NERVOUS that day, for some reason. He was presenting my mom with an award for 1 of her published children's books, and kept pronouncing the book's title wrong, even though he came over to her table, before the ceremony part of the banquet started, to ask her how to pronounce it He wanted me to hurry up and get closer for the group picture we were taking, so he could do whatever he needed to do, at the moment. He was there with his wife and they had at least one child at the time. He's kinda short, while his wife is tall, which I find interesting.

Whoopi was awesome. She bought one of my mom's paintings, and I stupidly asked for her autograph, almost before I even remembered to say "hello". I told her I liked her as Guinan on ST She was really nice and did a funny trick with her hair haha (kinda like Conan O'Brien's hair tricks), which my mom remembered.

Then my mom met Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar) this year. She must be a neighbor, cos she met her at the local dog park, and our pets played together. She said she was nice, but quiet and kinda shy, and she didn't let her know she had recognized her.

 

[The Procrastinator]

TNG had some great characters. Picard and Data stand out for me as for gazillion others - well written, well acted, character growth, blah blah - they're just good by anyone's measure, genre TV or not. And Worf of course. Angst, biceps, height, chest, deep deep voice, and Honour - very good character, and as someone above pointed out, excellent eye candy!

Shame they didn't do more with Riker, who had so much potential. And Troi for that matter, I don't know how much of it was script/direction and how much was Marina Sirtis's shortcomings, but she seemed to be very erratically used, overused one minute, underused the next, and cliched more often than not. I think if they were writing a half-alien empathic character these days they'd do more with her, certainly there's a lot more they could've explored there.

Geordie I mostly found boring I'm afraid, Wesley was irritating (is there anything that boy genius can't do?), and Dr Crusher was OK but probably a bit flat - she could've done with more depth, though I think Gates McFadden did a good job with her considering the limitations. Underused and underdeveloped I feel, with more potential than she was given.

Guinan, well what's not to like, Whoopi does cool like no one else. Dr Pulaski I really enjoyed, not that I have anything against Crusher but I liked her spark!

Not yet up to Ro Laren on my rewatching of the series yet, so can't remember what I thought of her...

 

[BolianAdmiral]

If I am speaking from a strictly male perspective, I would say Beverly Crusher, because IMO, she is simply the female form perfected. Period. And as hard as it is to believe, she actually looks BETTER in real life, in person.

But from an all-around general POV, I'd have to say Picard, because he was a great balance of principle and emotion, and he was just a decent and honorable man, as well as a great leader.

 

[Interference]

Scotty (Relics)


Ensign Ro was more interesting, I think, than she was allowed to become within the story arc, so she gets a tentative second place position.

Last position easily goes to the unnecessary Troi.

 

[Daisy-Boo]

I last watched TNG when it originally screened and I don't remember watching all seven seasons. Back then SABC (the state braoadcaster in South Africa) didn't always show every season of a show. So this year I bought season 1 of TNG on DVD (I already have all three seasons of TOS) and just finished watching it. So I can't comment on characters who appear from season two on.

I love Picard, I really do, but the character who evoked the most emotion from me was Data. I don't think Brent Spiner put a foot wrong in season one. Data was endearing, clever and very funny. One scene springs to mind immediately - the dinner with Lwaxana and Deanna's future in-laws. Data prowled around the dinner table, observing the guests with all the rapt fascination and delight of a child exploring a zoo for the first time. He and Lwaxana's wine-guzzling, gong-bashing man-servant kept me in stitches.

I can't wait to get season 2!

 

[Luc Valentine]

Jean-Luc Picard. Hands down. Unfailingly polite, intelligent, and his overriding interest in archeology even at the expense of Star Fleet orders is charmingly endearing. Of course, he's no James T. Kirk.

Guest characters, I liked Professor Moriarity, too. My all time favourite STNG scene is when Picard discovers he has, in fact, been in the holodeck rather than all over the ship, and asks Mr. Data, "Who is real, here, Mr. Data?" and Data answers, "I am, sir. As is Lt. Barkely", who entered the holodeck with them at the same time.

edit: Well, second favourite. My first favourite scene is the battle between the Ryker led Enterprise and the Picard enhanced Borg ship.

 

[No One]

Okay, just for the thread I'll say it's definitely between Picard and Data for best, most well-rounded character (to say nothing of being the two best actors on the show). Q, of course, was a secondary character, but the role (and actor, whose name I can never quite remember: John DeLancy?) was always a highlight.

I'm seeing a lot of people also volunteering their least favourite character though and that's why I have to post. Okay, Troy was an annoying, basically pointless, character, but c'mon - Wesley Crusher! One of the most downright annoying characters ever created. Right down there with Jar Jar.

 

[Interference]

Yeah, but at least Wesley left

 

[Holden von Vloppen]

My fav regular was Data with his looking to understand humanity. My fav guest star was Lt. Barcaley. His was a brilliantly written character. So many Star Trek characters are so confident and well-adjusted, but here was a nervous, self-conscious, but very intelligent man who you could really feel for. He was like the shunned kid on the playground who's always picked last for the team who you've gotta root for to save the day. Some of the best humor on TNG was in his episodes.