In the past few days I've been watching The Next Generation episodes that cover seasons 1 and 2. I've seen most of them in the past (I think) and not all because as most would agree, seasons 1 and 2 aren't exactly TNG's best of the best. Something struck me as I was watching The Outrageous Okona and Loud as a Whisper. It seems as if in the beginnings of TNG, they tried to be a TOS 2.0. I mean there were so many things that I saw, most of them were very small, but certain things that just seemed so 1960's TOS if that makes any sense. It seems to me that once they stopped trying to be like TOS and found their own identity, the episodes got much better and it actually felt like what we know to be TNG-style. My question is, what exactly went wrong with seasons 1 and 2 and what change was made in season 3 and beyond??
I actually love seasons one and two of TNG. The music and set lighting were better and the stories had a sense of "fun" that the show lost as it went along. Roddenberry was no longer in charge of the day-to-day operations starting in season three and Maurice Hurley left and was replaced by Wagner then Michael Piller with Berman at the top. I long thought that Berman and the writers began to buy into the hype that Trek was some type of groundbreaking social statement instead of entertainment.
Yeah, season one in particular was much different from the rest of the series. When it first aired, I very much got a sense of GR's '70s vibes, as seen in his pilots Genesis II/Planet Earth. Also, I did get a sense of TOS 2.0, that TNG was a follow-on to the series directly rather than progressing from the ST films. As mentioned, season one perhaps had more fun and adventure than later seasons. That's interesting in contrast to TOS. Early TOS season one was very serious, a drama that happened to be set aboard a ship in space. Later seasons brought the fun and adventure. TNG season one had more adventure, whereas later seasons it became more dramatic, a drama series set in space. Interesting.
There was some indecision about the characters as well. This doctor, that doctor, this security chief, that security chief, this chief engineer... Geordi commanding the ship, Riker beard/no beard, etc... They hadn't defined anybody all that well yet