Waiting the entire summer for that cliffhanger's conclusion would have killed me.

WIMP! I had to wait a whole summer for it! UPHILL BOTH WAYS! IN THE SNOW!

As much as I like "Best of Both Worlds," I liked the film "First Contact" better for the Locutus residual.

There were a lot of things I liked about First Contact (James Cromwell among them), but it was still a long TV episode. IMNSHO, there's not a single actual Next Gen movie. They're all long TV episodes that I had to go to a movie theater and pay to see.

As for unforgiven Next Gen sins, my personal beef is what they did to Data in the movies. They spent seven long years carefully laying the ground work for Data to spontaneously develop genuine emotion, then they screwed it up once by fusing the emotion chip into his brain, and screwed it up a second time by giving him the ability to switch it on and off at will.

HATE!

There were a lot of things I liked about First Contact (James Cromwell among them), but it was still a long TV episode. IMNSHO, there's not a single actual Next Gen movie. They're all long TV episodes that I had to go to a movie theater and pay to see.

What is the distinction between a long TV episode and a movie? I have wondered about this. For instance, Serenity felt to me like a movie, whereas The X-Files: I Want to Believe felt to me like a long TV episode. I remember really liking First Contact as a movie, not a long TV episode (but I had never watched the series).

the feeling that nothing really terrible will happen because there will be a new episode next week? Epicness?

yes, "did I really have to leave the house for this?"

What is the distinction between a long TV episode and a movie?

For me, it's a little bit of what Juliebird said, but also it's about the timing of the dramatic beats. Now I'm not talking some formulaic, this-happens-by/on-this-page thing, but there is a fundamental difference in how you should approach the rhythm of your story when you're making a movie as opposed to a TV show.

I think First Contact was the most valiant effort the Next Gen crew put forth, but I can still pinpoint where the commercial breaks are supposed to fall. 100% pure, undiluted TV storytelling.

I never saw I Want to Believe, but I believe that it was TV movie making. Fight the Future had the same problem.

I do think Serenity suffered from it a little bit, but in a more residual, ghost-like fashion. As final arbiter on this matter, I thus deem Serenity an actual film.

I think to earn "movie" the airing should exceed the standard scope, either visually or narrative-wise, preferably both. The stakes should definitely feel higher, if not the reward.

I think to earn "movie" the airing should exceed the standard scope, either visually or narrative-wise, preferably both. The stakes should definitely feel higher, if not the reward.

Very much this too. For me, I never once felt like First Contact (or really any of the Next Gen movies) wasn't showing me something they couldn't show me in a two-part episode.

No love for Picard as Locutus?

I have enough to make up for any lack on other people's part. My friends and I were amazed that TNG actually improved on the excitement of "Yesterday's Enterprise," when we'd previously thought it was probably going to be the high water mark for the entire series.

Yeah, I think they should take more chances or something, and not just with nudity and language. Yeah, now that you mention it, I get what you mean about holodeck eps, but I just wanted one so I could play with it. And I don't see why some of those things couldn't change anything; we've all been changed by stuff we've read or watched, or we wouldn't be here, right?