I was watching an episode of TNG on SyFy last night and then was thinking about the teenage thread. The thot occurred to me that to the current teenagers re-runs of TNG are the equivalent in timing as TOS episodes were to me when I was a teenager watching TNG for the first time. It could even be comparable to Bonanza in relative timing.
Just a question for the younger alpaca’s among us: Does TNG seem like an old and dated TV show? Just curious.
Geez, I’m middle-aged and TNG seems dated to me already. The hairstyles don’t help.
Well hair ALWAYS dates anything in film so I am not sure that is a fair gauge…
However that being said I think what dates the show is the dated idealism of it and the first two seasons which they seemed to be finding there footing for not only the TNG show, but for Star Trek as a whole post 23rd century.
Things like “warp to warp transport” and the phaser whips of the Ferengi and the silly creatures that implanted themselves and took over there host and so on and so on.
Any other opinions?
Yes and No. I at the age where I watched TNG as a kid durring its first run, so I’m not sure I’m exactly the group you are talking about. Because of that TNG will never been equivalent to TOS since that was long before I was born.
Some parts do feel dated, but I think overall TNG (like the original trek) stands up very well. The effects do at times look bad, but in most cases it can be overlooked.
I agree with the above that the first two seasons or so look much more dated then the later ones. I think part of that is they changed it to be a little more different then the original series, and they probably had a bigger budget. Same thing with the music, some of the early TNG music was cheesy beyond belief.
To your original question, I think that teens or younger kids today might look at TNG as the previous era of trek fans looked at the original series - but not exactly the same. Star Trek was ground breaking, TNG was a spin off.
Well the Hair dateing TNG is kinda interesting. See, in TOS the women wore harstyles that were very much like hair styles in the 60’s. It dates the show to the 60’s… but at least those were good hair styles ( and usually hot chicks!)
In TNG they didn’t give those people late 80’s/early 90’s hair-do’s. They gave them fictional hair styles that didn’t even really fit in at the time. I always think of Vash / Ro Lauren ( hair hairtyle was the “Skank do” where I lived) and Keera. The TNG hairstyles ( exception being Troi and Beverly) were not being worn buy 90% of Americans and NON of the “hot” people that you were seeing on tv at the time. Usualy the weird hair was shown when a race was a human looking alien or out of uniform federation citizen.
Point is every “makeing of” book, documentry, or comentary track on the DVD’s for TNG state that the costume and makeup people tried to make up their own “timeless” original styles. Unfotunantly I think that it dates TNG more than TOS’s hair and make up date it. And even thou it does date it… the TOS people often end up looking better.
Granted there was a deliberate attempt to make the TNG less sexy ( at least that what Majel Barret told us at the Trek-a-thon in Chattanooga in 1987 when they were promoteing TNG). So this might have been intentional.
Dateing isn’t realy that bad… as long as it still looks good. Miramanee looks like she was an actress from the 60’s… but she isn’t an eyesore the way Vash’s sideways hair style or ANY Kera hairstyle is when watched today.
Mmmmmmmm, Miramanee.
Definitely not a teenager, but not yet middle aged, I’ve just gotten into Trek TOS and TNG over the last year or so. It seems to me that TNG actually feels more dated than TOS. Maybe it’s just that I didn’t experience the 60’s, but as I watch episodes of TNG, the feathered hair and shoulder pads are distracting. 
It is funny that you mention that… Just the other day driving home from work I was thinking how 1987 (when I was 9) was 22 years ago, and when TNG came out (which at the time felt so old to me then) the TOS was 23 years old.
I wonder how my soon to be 10 year old niece would think about TNG if she saw it today for the first time.
I was thinking more of the MEN’s hairstyles more so than the woman’s…
Today we (men) have gone to ultra short or shaved heads. If you look at Riker’s hair, he actually has enough hair to part it. So does Wesley Crusher and even Data (even if his character doesn’t) had longer hair that one would today. I mean think of the hair Captain Archer had in the last season. That seems more modern by current standards.
Hell if you look at the men’s hair from TOS they had that super short shaved in the back, but enough hair on top to comb.
Oh well, am very tired been up all night and not sure if I am even making sense.