Seasons 7 is harder to get through than Season 1

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Once again I must say that I'm not 100% sure but didn't Ronald D. Moore say that while he and Brannon Braga were writing 'All Good Things...' they were also working on 'Generations' and sometimes almost mixed the two during writing?

Yup! Found the quote:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2003/12/04/an-interview-with-ron-moore

MOORE: Yeah. It got really… I don't remember when, but it was in the preproduction period, when we were in full swing on the series and preproduction on the movie – and still doing rewrites on the movie – that's when it was just overwhelming. And then when we were writing "All Good Things…" and writing the movie simultaneously, that was the point when you were truly edging close to burnout. Because you were writing a two-hour format for the exact same group of characters, and we would get confused. Sometimes we would be in a scene, and then we would have lost the thread of where we were – "Which one is this?" Especially in technobabble scenes, where Geordi teching the tech on the engines or something, and you're writing, and then you start talking about the Nexus, and one of us would realize, "Oh s***, this isn't the movie, this is the finale."

 

[Ragitsu]

I said it before and I'll say it again: I'll take "Sub Rosa" over "Shades of Grey" any day of the week.

 

[Tosk]

So would I.

But I wouldn't be all that happy to have such limited options.

 

[Seven of Five]

S1 does have much better music, and even though the episodes may not have been great, the crew had a sense of wonder about them that was lost later on.

 

[Ragitsu]

So would I.

But I wouldn't be all that happy to have such limited options.

Okay, okay, you've twisted my arm; I'll throw "Code of Honor" into the mix. Never let it be said that I'm opposed to compromise.

 

[Qonundrum]

I said it before and I'll say it again: I'll take "Sub Rosa" over "Shades of Grey" any day of the week.

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At 3:00 in, she mentions who else is buried there, but didn't notice Chaka from "Land of the Lost", and I bet that Enik, Mork, Uncle Arthur, and ALF are all around there as well...

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The ghost with the most for sure, since this episode is only good for the reactionary videos!

 

[suarezguy]

I do find indeed find Season 7 worse, with more awful to unwatchable episodes, and yet it still also has a few really good gems as well as some enjoyably average.

The writing of season 7... you can tell the writing staff was burned out.

I think Braga, Moore, Menosky and Echevarria's writing was always hit-and-miss but their misses did get more and worse in the last season, probably some element of fatigue and in other cases ("Masks", "Genesis", "Emergence", the other kind of ridiculousness of "Inheritance", "Sub Rosa", maybe "Homeward") maybe trying to go too far. Piller unfortunately was less involved and Taylor, maybe Moore and Braga were also too unfocused. Moore and Braga did have a long time to write Generations but yes doing that while also still doing episode scripts would be a difficult combination.

 

[PoorSailorsAirline]

I'm not counting the number of episodes, but in general S1 had a quirkiness to it that makes the whole thing fun to watch today. Even some of the really bad outings--I'm looking at you, Code of Honour and Angel One--are now so bad while they're not *good* per se, at least to me they've become sheer comedy in how awful they are. Even the weird season finale smash-up of the time capsule rescuees vis-a-vis a looming Romulan return is so bizarre - it must've been quite the writer's room back in the late 80s.

Other than All Good Things... of course, I do have one huge great standout from S7, personally. It doesn't redeem the lot of clunkers they sputtered across the series finish line with, but I love Lower Decks. Something about Sito Jaxa getting caught up in that Academy cover-up, then working so hard to regain her colleagues' respect; and all of them trying to prove themselves--ok, Lavelle is annoying, but the others are interesting--just seeing that slice of shipboard life, their worries for the future, etc. was a new twist back then. Then this young 20-something who just wants another shot, keeps trying new things, gets knocked down and gets up every time, goes way out of her comfort zone to support a greater cause, and is blasted into space dust as a reward for her efforts. Maybe it's just me, but that's always a, 'I'm not teary, it's just allergies' moment when Worf sits with the kids at the end. (I guess I'd make a better Betazoid than a Vulcan. ) Otherwise, S7 was...ehhhh...I can't believe they got Robin Curtis back just to waste on Gambit.

 

[ThankQ]

If I want to have entertaining background TNG, I put on S1 or S2. They are just more fun. TNG S1 is like TOS S4 having just returned from a cast/character reset à la Transformers 1986.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I’d take S1 and S2 of TNG over S6 and S7 every time.

While it’s very clear the first two seasons are flawed and unsure, they are rarely boring. The last two seasons of TNG are just so pedestrian and dull that it is an immense slog to get through.

There's several things I appreciated from S6 was Troi finally wearing a duty uniform on the bridge and Worf making his 1st appearance on DS9.

 

[JoseNoodles]

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At 3:00 in, she mentions who else is buried there, but didn't notice Chaka from "Land of the Lost", and I bet that Enik, Mork, Uncle Arthur, and ALF are all around there as well...

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The ghost with the most for sure, since this episode is only good for the reactionary videos!

I feel this episode is the new "Spock's Brain" in that everyone on the net wants to talk about how bad it is. Kinda done hearing about it.

 

[Ragitsu]

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At 3:00 in, she mentions who else is buried there, but didn't notice Chaka from "Land of the Lost", and I bet that Enik, Mork, Uncle Arthur, and ALF are all around there as well...

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The ghost with the most for sure, since this episode is only good for the reactionary videos!

Gates gives us some...ah...faces...that are worth the price of admission.

 

[Quantum21]

I'm not going to disagree, but the episodes of season 7 that are good are often good because of the time that passed in the intervening seasons, like the richness of "Pegasus".

I'm not sure I would go so far as to say Season 7 is worse than Season 1, but I do find it harder to get through on rewatches.

And I think the reason why is there is a noticeable lack of passion in the final season, like they're just going through the motions and trying to get the season over with as evidenced by how often we get a "long lost relative of a cast member" episode over the course of the season. The last time I did a rewatch, roughly half the episodes had me glancing back and forth on my phone or tablet about halfway through because they can't hold my interest.

By comparison, as poor as Season 1 is, I wasn't usually bored watching it. Because there actually is effort being put in. The writers were just hampered either by Gene's restrictions, over reliance on TOS nostalgia, or just plain incompetence. But I never got the sense they were phoning it in.

I suppose if I were to give an honest comparison, Season 7 has a slight advantage due to a handful of episodes that are far better than anything Season 1 has to offer; Lower Decks, The Pegasus, and of course the finale. But it also has a much larger shade of episodes that just lose my interest after a while.

Does anyone else feel this way?

 

[STEPhon IT]

Oh brother. I am so glad the producers didn't make the decision to kill Will Riker and leave us with Tom in "Second Chances" because what would that dud of an episode "The Pegasus" could have been if it was THAT Riker who rejoined Admiral Pressman??? He wouldn't have been not far off from the mindset when he served on that vessel.

 

[Oddish]

The Pegasus was a good episode that caused two stupid things to happen.
1. Riker's age getting reduced by 5 years for no reason.
2. Do I have to say it?

 

[Tosk]

1. Riker's get getting reduced by 5 years for no reason.
2. Do I have to say it?

I don't know what either of those things mean.
Edit. Oh, number two I assume you mean it allowed for them to follow it up later.

 

[Oddish]

1. I meant Riker's AGE. Stupid autocorrect...
2. A certain ENT finale... not well liked... you know the one, I expect.

 

[Ragitsu]

Riker's sentence at Rikers.

 

[Oddish]

Jonathan Frakes was 34 when TNG began. Just right for a commander who had shot up through the ranks a little faster than average. But "The Pegasus" basically set his age at 35 in S7, or 29 in S1.

It also meant that at age 53, he was trying to play a 35-year-old in "These Are The Voyages". And sorry, Jon, you didn't pull it off.

 

[Eckauskas]

While S7 isn't great, I can't remember any episodes that were outwardly racist. So I think it edges S1 in quality for that alone.