Season 1

[Noname Given]

YMMV of course, but yes, I think TNG season 1 was horrid. The only thing that saved it from being cancelled was the fact that it was the first Star Trek TV series to air after TOS/TAS. Everyone wanted Trek back on TV, even if it was a pile of shit.

Actually, it was saved from being cancelled because it started with a 2 season syndication order. And when the writer's strike hit, they were actually considering it and just bailing - but then they found out Academy Award winning Whoopi Goldberg was truly interested in joining the cast, and would work for the salary they were offering...

 

[Oddish]

In other words... they said: "Whoopeeeee! We got Whoopi!"

(Not a bad dad joke, considering I was never a father)

 

[Finn]

Coming of Age: Liked the academy plot with Wes... was there a B-plot?
.

Admiral Quinn and Remmick coming aboard, doing an investigation that makes Riker paranoid. Not sure which one is the B plot

 

[Gary Seven of Nine]

In the days when the writers and producers were still considering calling the Klingon planet Kling!!!
I was never happy with races calling their planet of origin Home World or Our Planet. Then we got the next cop-out in Cardassia-Prime or in B5 Centauri-Prime!!! Why not just call them Cardassia or Cardassa or maybe even Centaura for B5? It sounds much better and more like that's why they're called Cardassians anyway!
JB

I say we rename Earth to "Sol Prime".

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Solans instead of humans?

 

[Oddish]

I remember a MAD satire that called the Klingons the Kling-Free's.

 

[Trek Survivor]

It's not as polished as other seasons but I found S1, in many ways, more ambitious than later episodes. TNG found its groove and settled into a fairly 'safe', albeit high quality, approach to storytelling later on.

Season 1 is a show finding itself, exploring what works. I remember Brent Spiner saying that while he acknowledges better episodes exist, the most fun time for him was seasons 1-2 precisely because more risks were taken. And they were. Just look at alien makeup - later on, we get the stereotypical "alien with something on their forehead" approach, but season 1? Armus! Minos attack droids! Bynars! Q's "vicious animal things"! Stop motion parasites! The imagination was far more interesting, even if the results were sometimes mixed.

No, I find it hard to hate season 1. It just felt a little more 'adventurous', an atmosphere enhanced and expanded on in the criminally underrated season 2, which had a real 'space is dangerous/weird/unexplained' vibe ("Where Silence Has Lease", "Time Squared, "Q Who" and the like) running throughout that I really liked.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

It's not as polished as other seasons but I found S1, in many ways, more ambitious than later episodes. TNG found its groove and settled into a fairly 'safe', albeit high quality, approach to storytelling later on.

Season 1 is a show finding itself, exploring what works. I remember Brent Spiner saying that while he acknowledges better episodes exist, the most fun time for him was seasons 1-2 precisely because more risks were taken. And they were. Just look at alien makeup - later on, we get the stereotypical "alien with something on their forehead" approach, but season 1? Armus! Minos attack droids! Bynars! Q's "vicious animal things"! Stop motion parasites! The imagination was far more interesting, even if the results were sometimes mixed.

No, I find it hard to hate season 1. It just felt a little more 'adventurous', an atmosphere enhanced and expanded on in the criminally underrated season 2, which had a real 'space is dangerous/weird/unexplained' vibe ("Where Silence Has Lease", "Time Squared, "Q Who" and the like) running throughout that I really liked.

Yeah and a lot of fans seem to have brainwashed themselves somehow when they talk about the greatness of the later seasons and how bad Season 1 and 2 are, according to them

There's no other way to explain how they seem to ignore some of the real stinkers further down the way and how bad and boring they were, while they keep on poo pooing the first two seasons

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

I didn't start watching TNG until partway into Season 2 (long story). When I saw season 1 in reruns, I enjoyed it a lot and had definite favorites but never wanted to dump on any episodes. All the anti-S1 rhetoric just sounds like mental masturbation to me.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

I didn't start watching TNG until partway into Season 2 (long story). When I saw season 1 in reruns, I enjoyed it a lot and had definite favorites but never wanted to dump on any episodes. All the anti-S1 rhetoric just sounds like mental masturbation to me.

"Cost of Living" is actually one episode worthy of slinging mud at

 

[JesterFace]

All the anti-S1 rhetoric just sounds like mental masturbation to me.

As I am one of the people who got into TNG with later seasons in the 90s the first two seasons felt too different for a long time.
But, now I think those early episodes had to be made. The entire Star Trek franchise was finding itself again in the 80s. Besides, apart from few episodes I haven't watched those seasons in many, many years. I'm interested to revisit episodes that might feel like watching them again for the first time.

I didn't start watching TNG until partway into Season 2 (long story)

Am I the only one here that got a little bit curious after reading that?

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

Am I the only one here that got a little bit curious after reading that?

I've told this story before but... When TNG was announced, I thought the title "The Next Generation" was hopelessly derivative and I simply refused to watch. Partway through Season 2, a good friend convinced me to watch "just one episode" with him and I agreed. It was The Measure of a Man and I was instantly hooked. The rest is history.

 

[JesterFace]

Partway through Season 2, a good friend convinced me to watch "just one episode" with him and I agreed. It was The Measure of a Man and I was instantly hooked..

That's a good friend right there.

 

[Picard578]

I didn't start watching TNG until partway into Season 2 (long story).

I am the same. I believe the first episode I watched was the "Unnatural Selection". At any rate, it hooked me up, and I started watching the rest.

 

[Oddish]

Cost of Living" is actually one episode worthy of slinging mud at

"Half a Life" deserves worse than mud.

I've told this story before but... When TNG was announced, I thought the title "The Next Generation" was hopelessly derivative and I simply refused to watch. Partway through Season 2, a good friend convinced me to watch "just one episode" with him and I agreed. It was The Measure of a Man and I was instantly hooked. The rest is history.

It's a great story. Kudos to your pal.

Good thing it wasn't a rerun of "Code of Honor" or something...

I am the same. I believe the first episode I watched was the "Unnatural Selection". At any rate, it hooked me up, and I started watching the rest.

Another good one.

 

[Gary Seven of Nine]

the criminally underrated season 2, which had a real 'space is dangerous/weird/unexplained' vibe ("Where Silence Has Lease", "Time Squared, "Q Who" and the like)

Those 3 episodes are among my favorites in the whole series!

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Those 3 episodes are among my favorites in the whole series!

Same with me

 

[JamesRye]

If I try to be objective - then I must conclude that season 1 is terrible.
But I was an impressionable 10 year old when it came out here in the UK and I loved it. I remember my Dad saying after Farpoint that the effects work would not remain at 'movie level' throughout the show - how wrong he was.

Subjectively, I still find enjoyment watching the season 1 episodes. It's somehow great despite itself. It really is Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek writ large. A proper utopian vision, over earnest and well meaning. I know that the modern Trek shows have better visuals, sometimes better writing, better this that and the other...But somehow they aren't 'Star Trek' They're more like Star Wars to me, especially Picard, which I think tramples on the TNG show (and legacy) that I love so much.

I realise that makes me sound like a Gatekeeper, or a toxic fan to some people. But you like what you like.

 

[Oddish]

Worst thing about being a Gatekeeper is having to suck face with Rick "Keymaster" Moranis...

 

[Shat Happens]

I am completely convinced "Justice" is the best episode ever -- better than "The Best of Both Worlds", better than "All Good Things", actually not only the best of TNG but the best episode ever of all series, including The Clone Wars and series that have nothing to do with Star Trek.

The reason Naked people they wanted to kill Wesley.