The Neutral Zone is not a particularly strong ending to the first season of TNG. It has a dual story: first is a group of late 20th century Americans being thawed from a cryogenics capsule, the second involves the Romulans.

The story surrounding the cryogenics survivors’ struggle to adapt to the 24th century suffers from characters that are oversimplified. You have the typical Wall-Street tycoon, the Country Singer, and the housewife. And neither of those characters truly deviates from their mold. And, as such, they offer very little to the crew of the Enterprise. Had this episode been written in later seasons, the characters would have been more well-rounded and would have, somehow, given the crew a perspective from the 20th century that would have benefited their current, 24th century mission.

The Romulan storyline is simply a story about almost nothing. The Romulans only show up in the last few minutes of the episode — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, provided the buildup created a sense of tension that helped shape the rest of the story. Unfortunately, whatever tension we may have received from the buildup was continually pierced by the cryogenics survivors. And, too, the whole point of the episode was to set up the fact that we’ll be seeing more of the Romulans in season two. It isn’t a bad idea to “tease” us with possibilities for the next season, but the execution was clearly lacking.

When compared to the season-ending episodes of later seasons, The Neutral Zone is a clear let-down. Only the final episode of season two is any worse.

The Neutral Zone has some interesting ideas and concepts and we can certainly appreciate its intent. Unfortunately, it is not a very memorable episode.

Topics: Borg, Romulans
Filed under: TNG Reviews