TNG's first two seasons had a completely different tone than later in the show. There was less dependence on technobabble, for instance. The music was excellent. It's also nice seeing younger versions of the characters, and you can really get a feel for how they evolve and mature over a couple years into the more hardened versions of themselves from season three on. It kind of feels like the events of "Skin of Evil" and "Q Who" put a few years on everyone. Oh, and the skant uniforms for men. Awesome.
And, really, season two gets lumped in with season one too much. Season two had some of the best episodes of the series. "Elementary, Dear Data," "Q Who," "Loud as a Whisper," "A Matter of Honor," "The Measure of a Man," "Contagion," "Time Squared," "Pen Pals," "Manhunt," "The Emissary," and "Peak Performance" I would consider all solid episodes. Frankly, I've always considered season two rather strong. (Special mention for "The Royale," which is wacky as
hell and I kind of adore how it skewers terrible fiction writing.)
Season one has gems, like "11001001," "Home Soil," "Coming of Age," "Conspiracy," "Heart of Glory," "The Big Goodbye," "Too Short a Season." "The Arsenal of Freedom," "Datalore," "We'll Always Have Paris," and "Where No One Has Gone Before." I kind of think of season one as basically Star Trek: Phase II. If you accept that it's really just an updated version of TOS, overwrought, old-style scripting and all, it works on a camp level for me. Even "The Naked Now" is such a monstrous, entertaining mess as long as you kind of excuse how corny it is. The only episodes that flop for me are ones that really botch whatever message they thought they were getting across, like "Code of Honor" and "Angel One."
To be perfectly honest, I adore season one and two. But I tend to find something to love about any and all Trek, even the crap episodes. It's all nostalgic for me. I adore corny eighties schlock.
