Popverse's top stories

• Dispatch ending explained: How to get the Hero, Antihero, and Everyman endings
• Watch now: Watch Marvel's Fantastic Four movie reunion with Ioan Gruffudd & Michael Chiklis from NYCC 2025
• Why Captain America quit: The political crisis that reshaped Marvel’s most iconic patriotic symbol

All week long: Revisit the highlights and lowlights of 1987 with Popverse's Made in 87 week.

Nostalgia is a funny thing. There’s a tendency to believe that things were inherently better way back when, simply because people don’t remember them being as bad, and yet… well, reality has a way of contradicting those recollections. Take, for example, the September 28, 1987 premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Today, it’s accepted that ST: TNG was a high water mark of sci-fi television with engaging characters, unexpected concepts, and a spirit that didn’t just inherit the pioneering optimism of the original 1960s series, but evolved it for the times. Back in 1987, however…

“On this initial voyage, the Enterprise and its new crew simply fail to take flight,” read the New York Times review of the pilot episode, ‘Encounter at Farpoint.’ “True Trekkies will no doubt discern profound optimism in the fact that Mr. Roddenberry — who wrote the teleplay with D. C. Fontana — still insists on envisioning a 24th century, and that it is, in his words, ‘a time of peace, prosperity and plenty.’ The rest of us can only hope that things get a little livelier in coming weeks.”

In 1987, the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon debuted - and all our lives were changed. Watch this reunion of the original voice actors:

Okay, that’s not exactly a rave review, but, sure; ‘Encounter at Farpoint’ isn’t the finest episode of the show. (It is, arguably, one of the best episodes of the first few years, although your mileage may vary. Still.) Maybe the august Washington Post was kinder in its review.

“The casting leaves room for complaint. Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (any relation to Jean-Luc Godard?), played by Patrick Stewart, is a grim bald crank who would make a better villain. Jonathan Frakes, as commander William Riker, verges on namby-pamby,” went the WaPo take. “Star Trek aims to fill the eye and engage the mind; it has a long way to boldly go at both.”

Okay, so much for kinder. But, hey! Those were professional critics, and Star Trek’s for the fans! Let’s look into what the nascent online fandom of the era thought about Star Trek: The Next Generation’s debut broadcast, courtesy of this Usenet post from the period. Surely they'll get it, right? Right?

“I mean really, a fifteen year old boy and a @#*&^ robot. Yeah, right. ‘Danger! Danger! Will Robinson, Aliens approaching!’ And then there is the First Officer, Mr. Boring. Large, humorless with a puttylike face and a drone that would make Jack Webb yawn. Like his girlfriend the Counselor. The beta-nerd? ‘Pain! Pain! Sorrow! I only have two pairs of shoes!’ How much did her BMW-dealer husband pay off Roddenberry to get this excruciatingly untalented person on The Lost Generation.”

…If there’s one good thing to learn from seeing just how shockingly disliked TNG was when it debuted, it’s this: maybe the discourse surrounding all this stuff hasn’t been getting worse all along. Maybe it’s always been this bad, and we’ve just been forgetting for our own sanity this entire time.

Get your wide-shoulder blouses and your Members-Only jackets, and go back in time with Popverse's Made in 87. Highlights include:

• How Bart Simpson was quietly toned down from being "so mean" before The Simpsons' first episode, as revealed by his long-time voice actor Nancy Cartwright
• Marvel Comics killed the X-Men in 1987 to reset the franchise - but it didn’t stick
• Why the Princess Bride’s iconic duel is an even better swordfight than you remember
• How The Golden Girls became a staple at gay bars in the 80s
• Inside Spider-Man’s chaotic 1987 bachelor party that Marvel turned into a real-life spectacle