I skipped seasons six and seven on both DVD and Blu-ray. They were mostly a wasteland of poor material outside of "All Good Things", which I picked up the Blu-ray of.
Seasons 1 & 2 Unwatchable?
- Thread starter ConRefit79
- Start date
I skipped seasons six and seven on both DVD and Blu-ray. They were mostly a wasteland of poor material outside of "All Good Things", which I picked up the Blu-ray of.
I just finished rewatching season six last week. Many, including Brent Spiner and Ronald D. Moore, consider it the best season of the show - and I for one would consider it definitely up there.
Basically I think from seasons three-to-six it was a great show and in the other three seasons it's probably got around a dozen good episodes.
For me it's seasons three, four and five. Seasons six and seven were poor. Those two seasons were a pale comparrison and featured some of the worst episodes of the series:
"Rascals"
"The Chase"
"Dark Page"
"Force of Nature"
"Inheritance"
"Sub Rosa"
"Masks"
"Genesis"
"Journey's End"
"Bloodlines"
And a number of boring episodes that are pretty much "I'm bored" viewing.
There were some highlights:
"Chain of Command"
"Face of the enemy"
"Lower Decks"
"Thine Own Self"
and of course "All Good Things..."
"Rascals"
"The Chase"
"Dark Page"
"Force of Nature"
"Inheritance"
"Sub Rosa"
"Masks"
"Genesis"
"Journey's End"
"Bloodlines"
And a number of boring episodes that are pretty much "I'm bored" viewing.
There were some highlights:
"Chain of Command"
"Face of the enemy"
"Lower Decks"
"Thine Own Self"
and of course "All Good Things..."
I never got the love for this one.
Though I love the Data story in this one. The Troi command test was terrible.
Oh yeah, many good episodes have bad aspects; there are very few perfect episodes.
You know, the command test for Troi just highlighted the pointlessness of her on the Bridge to begin with: if Picard felt she needed to be there, plus the ship needs a counselor, she's not tasked with mroe duties which can pull her off the Bridge and severely divide her time (especially since she's the only known counselor on a ship of over a thousand people).
Career highlights:
* Wore skimpy outfits of various colors for six years.
* Offered mediocre counseling.
* Passed the command test.
* Crashed the remaining parts of the Federation flagship.
You know, the command test for Troi just highlighted the pointlessness of her on the Bridge to begin with: if Picard felt she needed to be there, plus the ship needs a counselor, she's not tasked with mroe duties which can pull her off the Bridge and severely divide her time (especially since she's the only known counselor on a ship of over a thousand people).
Career highlights:
* Wore skimpy outfits of various colors for six years.
* Offered mediocre counseling.
* Passed the command test.
* Crashed the remaining parts of the Federation flagship.
Season 1 is quite awkward, Season 2 inconsistent but with some good episodes.
I don't really find the first season very enjoyable, but the writers were having to stick to the ridiculous outdated TNG 'bible' that Roddenberry created. Once the shackles were taken off the writers from Season 3 onwards the show's quality hugely increased.
I don't really find the first season very enjoyable, but the writers were having to stick to the ridiculous outdated TNG 'bible' that Roddenberry created. Once the shackles were taken off the writers from Season 3 onwards the show's quality hugely increased.
There is some elements of Season 1 that I find fascinating. I feel like some of the characters had sharper corners and a little more emotional in say "The Naked Now" or "Justice", even if they're a bit more full of themselves. I really love the continuity references in "Coming of Age" and how Dexter Remmick is a jerk to everyone but I really dislike how "Conspiracy" follows up that story, although I used to love that as a kid. There's a whole bunch of Early Installment Weirdness like Bill Riker, Q, the Constitution-class ship in Picard's ready room, the Klingons, the Neutral Zone outposts etc that you could build an entirely different universe out of. I thought I hated Hide and Q with it's cardboard set and crappy pig man costumes but I love Picard's "What a piece of work is man" scene with Q. I do hate how everyone is bunch of idiots in Datalore.
I actually prefer the season one Klingons to the Bad Hair Band Klingons we got once Ron Moore came aboard. They were comical more often than not.
I wish people would stop lumping seasons 1 and 2 together. 2 is where the show came alive and became great. It also isn't hampered by the excessively dignified reserve of the later seasons, which some of the makers of the program must have noticed serve as a very effective substitute, in terms of viewing numbers or popularity, for challenging drama.
The positive difference with s2 is an edge and vitality. Riker in particularly is written as a character, an interesting one, rather than as a living, and occasionally moving and speaking, authoritative hatstand.
The negative differences with s2, compared with later? I think it's that the necessary filler episodes are more blatantly filler, they stick out like sore thumbs. In following seasons, they mesh pretty seamlessly in with the good ones, creating an overall impression of competence and high quality throughout. But is the filler actually better, in later seasons? "Pound for pound" (as Bones said about Harry's space wives), are the ideas better, is there more substance, is there even more entertainment? I say no. I say it's smoke and mirrors.
I'd rather not hang out in someone's meticulously tidy house with no scuffs on the floor, no ragged edges on furniture, where people have respectable "conversations" over hors d'oeuvres. I'd rather hang out at the other house that's full of noise, fun, chaos, frayed furniture, frayed people, with a lot of things going wrong, but also some inspiring ideas that form out of the chaos.
I'm not angling for invitations-- that's just what the last few NG seasons seem like to me, vs. #2.
My golden age for Next Gen encompasses the final 3 or 4 from s1, up through the first third of season 4. Then it became suffocatingly stagnant.
The positive difference with s2 is an edge and vitality. Riker in particularly is written as a character, an interesting one, rather than as a living, and occasionally moving and speaking, authoritative hatstand.
The negative differences with s2, compared with later? I think it's that the necessary filler episodes are more blatantly filler, they stick out like sore thumbs. In following seasons, they mesh pretty seamlessly in with the good ones, creating an overall impression of competence and high quality throughout. But is the filler actually better, in later seasons? "Pound for pound" (as Bones said about Harry's space wives), are the ideas better, is there more substance, is there even more entertainment? I say no. I say it's smoke and mirrors.
I'd rather not hang out in someone's meticulously tidy house with no scuffs on the floor, no ragged edges on furniture, where people have respectable "conversations" over hors d'oeuvres. I'd rather hang out at the other house that's full of noise, fun, chaos, frayed furniture, frayed people, with a lot of things going wrong, but also some inspiring ideas that form out of the chaos.
I'm not angling for invitations-- that's just what the last few NG seasons seem like to me, vs. #2.
My golden age for Next Gen encompasses the final 3 or 4 from s1, up through the first third of season 4. Then it became suffocatingly stagnant.
Season three is where it came alive, mid season two is where the tide started to change and we got "The Measure of a Man", "Time Squared", "Q Who?", and "Samaritan Snare". But aside from those ladder half episodes, the rest were either mediocre or complete garbage like "The Outrageous Okona" and "The Royale".
If Season 2 has a strength compared to other seasons, it's that it captures that TOS Season 1 vibe of the ship being out there alone in a big, dangerous universe.
Also, Riker is generally stronger here, while they were still working him as the Away Team-leading man of action. (Willfully ignoring one of the most Riker-centric episodes, the horrendous "The Icarus Factor", which would compete with "Masks" as my least favorite TNG episode.)
Also, Riker is generally stronger here, while they were still working him as the Away Team-leading man of action. (Willfully ignoring one of the most Riker-centric episodes, the horrendous "The Icarus Factor", which would compete with "Masks" as my least favorite TNG episode.)
I just wanted to say, I think you've hit it out of the park.
I think a couple years ago when I attempted to review the whole series, I made a comment along the lines of (defending specifically "The Naked Now") that the camp tendencies of the first two seasons are what puts the lie to the observation that TNG is a boring talkfest all of the time, unlike the dynamic and funny original series. The truth is that TNG could be extremely camp (in a good way) when it wanted to be, but lost sight of that aspect somewhat in its later years. Even something with potential for tongue-in-cheek camp like "Rascals" in season six is told in such a straight laced way it becomes boring. Take that episode and put it into the cheesy seasons one and two, however, and it would've rocked, because they would have been able to approach the scenario with the right amount of humour to make it *fun*.
The same is true of something like "Conspiracy". In this case we have a parallel, because Deep Space Nine did effectively do a take on a similar topic in the "Homefront/Paradise Lost" arc. Whereas the latter is dramatic and moody and full of some great, dark undertones; "Conspiracy" instead has exploding starships and people eating maggots out of bowls. It's creepy and it's camp, but it's no less valid for that. I like them both.
S e a s o n 2:
Elementary, Dear Data, The Schizoid Man, The Emissary, Peak Performance...
and most of the rest are solid.
Why the underlining? Beats me.
Elementary, Dear Data, The Schizoid Man, The Emissary, Peak Performance...
and most of the rest are solid.
Why the underlining? Beats me.
I've got a soft spot for TNG Season 2 specifically, because it was the only full season of any Star Trek that I owned on video when I was a kid. (I owned other tapes of other episodes from the other shows, but not full seasons.) Therefore, it has a special place in my heart, because I watched it front to back constantly. I feel more innately familiar with it than any other Trek, and whenever I think of The Next Generation, I'm far more inclined to think of something from Season 2 than I am from any other season.
Two of my favourite episodes from the entire series. Indeed "Measure Of A Man" could well be my absolute favourite TNG episode.
Yup, there are literally dozens of great episodes from the last 2 seasons, even though season 7 is weaker than seasons 3-6. Lots of people consider season 6 one of the best.
I'd rank them this way, with season 3 and 6 being close, and 3 having the slight edge.
Season rank, best to worst: 4, 3, 6, 5, 7, 1, 2
RAMA
I kind of wish there was more of that dangerous feeling from Q Who a bit more but maybe that would've felt too much after a while.
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