The single greatest cliffhanger of all time.
Try to imagine it. It’s the spring of 1990, and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” has been on the air for three seasons - and is about to break the Original Series’ record by having a fourth season.
Denise Crosby (Lt. Tasha Yar) left the show before the first season was over. Gates McFadden was summarily fired and replaced for season two, only to return in season three at the insistence of Patrick Stewart. So change had always been a possibility.
There was no internet. Which meant no spoilers like we now know them. No set reports. No speculation amongst the fans outside of conventions or groups of friends. Which meant no way to cope with the anxiety, no bulletin boards to post “AHHH! WTF?” on while you waited.
We may know now how it all turned out, but back then? I’ve got friends who were trekkies in the day, and the summer of 1990 was full of anxiety!
This was me, you guys. I was 17 when this cliffhanger aired. IT WAS HELL.
TRUTH.
Totally true in terms of pop-culture on the Internet, but um, I was on the Internet at the time. Internet was real.
Yep ^ Prodigy, anyone?
I remember reading a rumor that supposedly they wrote the episode like this because they weren’t sure Patrick Stewart was going to return for a fourth season. If he hadn’t, they would have killed off Picard and Riker would’ve succeeded him as the new Captain.
Just a rumor, though.
THIS WAS THE BEST CLIFFHANGER OF MY CHILDHOOD THAT ACTUALLY HAD A CONCLUSION.
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itinerantpoet reblogged this from fuckyeahtng and added:
I was eight years old that summer. Trust me, I remember that cliffhanger like it was yesterday, still. I had been...
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avalonmaybe reblogged this from fuckyeahtng and added:
I’m pretty sure I spent most of that summer hyperventilating in a corner.
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mercutiounbound reblogged this from fuckyeahtng and added:
ugh, the feels. Fantastic
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Except there was Internet, just no web, and there certainly were plenty of BBSes. I’ll just be over here in a corner...
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