Episodes that got better or worse after repeated viewings
- Thread starter Pikirk_Janesisko
- Start date
"Chicken out"?
Same thing has happened to me. 20 years ago, I would have said that later seasons of TNG were 'better' than S1. Today I would mostly say they found a 'success formula' in later seasons. Ensuring a more even flow of quality, certainly, but also making it duller, somehow. Yeah, there were some real stinkers in S1, but I sometimes do miss that exciting feeling of 'literally anything could happen ... the universe is a wondrous, mysterious, dangerous place!' in later seasons.
I wonder whether 'Q Who', for all that it was a great episode that introduced You-Know-Who, kind of set the stage for Trek to come by fundamentally altering the in-universe paradigm. Suddenly the idea that there were truly dangerous things out there had gone from an abstract concept to a concrete fact, and it seems possible if not likely that Starfleet started to curtail the more outgoing exploration missions because they didn't want to have their best ships too far out to be able to defend the Federation if needed.
If not that encounter, then certainly after Wolf 359.
Old school term for "act cowardly". I always found it annoying that they almost never seemed to just fuck up some aliens.I suspected it was more budgetary than about the federation's peaceful ethos
What's wrong, McFly? Chicken?
I'm familiar with the expression, I was just having trouble believing it was being seriously applied.
I watched Where Silence Has Lease, an early Season 2 episode today and liked it well enough. It goes a bit awry when the weird space face shows up, but I loved the mystery elements and the ‘two bridges ‘ bit.
I’ll tell you what, I liked the cold open as well. The show opens with Picard looking a bit worried and it turns out it’s because Riker is playing rough stuff with Worf on the holodeck. The whole sequence is so TOS with strange beast aliens and bizarre fighting moves and finally Worf ends up in a such a rage that he feels like beating the shit out of Riker…
Early instalment oddness. It was 80% good though I thought.
I’ll tell you what, I liked the cold open as well. The show opens with Picard looking a bit worried and it turns out it’s because Riker is playing rough stuff with Worf on the holodeck. The whole sequence is so TOS with strange beast aliens and bizarre fighting moves and finally Worf ends up in a such a rage that he feels like beating the shit out of Riker…
Early instalment oddness. It was 80% good though I thought.
I love that episode.
I find that "What Are Little Girls Made Of" is an episode I didn't really like as a kid. Now, I've watched it 2-3 times over the last 5 years, and I really enjoy it. It's one of the better "early S1" episodes of TOS. Similar reaction to "Dagger of the Mind," which was one I didn't like as much as a kid. Now, I enjoy it thoroughly.
I remember watching "Tin Man" in first-run, and the Romulan Warbird swoops in and bashes the hell out of the Enterprise on it's way to the mysterious entity, and Picard barely even flinches and is like "No, no, Number One...let's not be too hasty in our reply now" and feeling like I was so frustrated I could punch a baby in the face.
My recollection is that as a kid I found Ruk fairly terrifying, especially when he's being violent.
I don't remember having any issues with DotM, but I'm also not entirely sure I understood what was going on?
I still use it.
Ruk was scary and I found van Gelder equally scary. I still enjoy them but avoid "What Are Little Girls Made of" for a while.
I didn't like Masterpiece Society in TNG when I first watched it... but as I've seen it about a dozen times now... I love how when Star Trek presents a no-win scenario, and what you may think is black & white actually turns out to be not so clear cut at all.... it keeps the episode fresh and new and relatable with every viewing...
I’ve loved “Little Girls…” since the first watch due to an appreciation of the hot hot hot Sherry Jackson.
It’s TOS does B-Movie. Great stuff.
It’s TOS does B-Movie. Great stuff.
I've been randomly revisiting Season 2 and watched The Royale today. Again I'm struck by how much like TOS it feels at times and the music really is more present in early seasons than later. Good episode! I like that it feels anything can happen in these early instalments. Lots of strange stuff that gets wiped out later as well, like Data laughing and smiling as well as saying "accessing" when he needs some knowledge (as in Where Silence Has Lease). I really enjoyed it. Some genuinely odd imagery (a NASA astronaut corpse in a hotel room and a revolving door in the middle of nowhere).
If I was going to take a ship outside of the Solar System though I'd make sure I took a book that wasn't shit. After all, probably you'd never see a book again. In fact, I'd load up a Kindle.
If I was going to take a ship outside of the Solar System though I'd make sure I took a book that wasn't shit. After all, probably you'd never see a book again. In fact, I'd load up a Kindle.
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I found the two-parter pilot "Encounter at Farpoint" to be underrated. I know it gets a lot of hate but the more I watch it, the more I like it. Aside from some bad acting at times (which I can forgive since Gene didn't really have a clear path for them at this point and didn't even know if the show would last after one season), both episodes are enjoyable and do a solid job at introducing us to these characters and making us care about them.
There's something about all Trek pilots that I like (especially TNG, DS9 and Voyager, all three of which really played this aspect up): introducing the characters. There's always an interesting hook to several of them: the blind helmsman, the first android in Starfleet, the first Klingon in Starfleet, the security chief from a failed colony, the child prodigy, the Captain and CMO/first officer and councilor with a past, the widowed single father with a grudge against the previous show's captain, the former terrorist who doesn't want to work with Starfleet, the joined Trill, the mysterious shapeshifter from he knows not where, the band of terrorists forced to work with a starfleet crew, the criminal recruited by the captain, the two newcomers completely unfamiliar with Starfleet. There's just something I really enjoy about seeing these random characters come together.
I thought the plot resolution wasn't strong, but it does do a good job in giving a strong initial outline of characters such as Picard, Worf, Riker, Data, etc - even if those characters changed (evolved) in later TNG.
