Fifth Season Bland?

[Praetorian]

Does anyone else feels this? That it was too bland? With many "routine" episodes? Enterprise solving some non-sense technobabble issues with even more technobabble? With no sense of excitement, compeling action or character drama? Or tired cliched plots? And touchy-feely feelling?
I'm talking about episodes like The Game, Violations, Matter of Time, Hero Worship, New Ground, Cost of Living, Imaginary Friends, Disaster, Power Play... Episodes that hardly go anywhere?

I know all seasons have it's bad episodes but something about the Fifth Season just gives me this bland, procedural, pc feeling about it. I know some say this about all of TNG, but when watching my dvds the Sixth Season always seems like a breath of fresh air after the Fifth Season...

 

[mr.peany]

A couple of those episodes such as "Power Play" and "Disaster" are a couple of my favourite episodes of the entire series. Hardly what I would call 'bland'. Each to their own i guess.

 

[Praetorian]

Power Play does has some nice action and music for TNG's standards, but stuff like body posession and even hostage situation are hardly original. It's better than the others though.

Disaster: Thinking better and remembering the Troi-Ro conflict the episode does seems more interesting but what is it about really? Simply blowing up the ship and see how people react? Plus Picard in the turbolift with the kids..hum..

But yes, I agree these two weren't really bland but more in the cliche category.

On a further note, even the lightning and the music seem bland to me in this season to me. It's quite strange, because it does have some of my favourites.

 

[mr.peany]

Yeah, on the lighting, I did notice whilst watching season 5 on DVD that the colours and sets seemed somewhat muted in comparison to the other seasons.

 

[Dane_Whitman]

Praetorian, I agree. Though I wouldn't call the season as a whole 'bland', season 5 is my least favourite of TNG's golden core of seasons (3,4,5,6). The reason being, season 5 has fewer remarkable episodes and more dry episodes than the other seasons. I consider Hero Worship, The Masterpiece Society and New Ground a bit dry. I don't care much for The Outcast and I don't care for Imaginary Friend at all. After Unification there aren't really any big episodes.

 

[Anika Hanson]

I think the fifth season was my favourite!

 

[Piper]

Season Five has quite a lot of those A/B episodes, where the two plots don't mesh at all, but there are enough good episodes in it that I wouldn't call it bland - taken overall I find it more enjoyable than either of the two seasons which followed it.

 

[Trek Survivor]

The proliferation of the A/B unrelated storylines (as seen in eps like "New Ground" and "Cost Of Living") hurt some of the stories, making them jar more than they should.

But season 5 bland? How could any season that produced the below eps be considered thus? It has a lot of generally well regarded eps (and some personal faves):

"Darmok"
"The Inner Light"
"I, Borg"
"Cause And Effect"
"The Next Phase"
"Unification" (a 'big' episode, even if the end result could be considered disappointing)
"Power Play", "Ensign Ro", "Time's Arrow" and "Conundrum" are all fun to me as well. I liked "Ethics" too.

On a slightly related note, I rewatched season six lately and was surprised at how DISAPPOINTED I was with many of the episodes. Like many fans, I remembered enjoying this season a lot, but this time round... episodes I'd liked previously just didn't "do" anything for me.

 

[TheGodBen]

I can understand where you are getting the idea that Season five was bland, and part of me agrees with you. However, season five did have Ensign Ro and I thought she managed to spice things up a bit. I really wish she had stayed around for the final two seasons.

Season six is probably my favourite, followed by four, and then five.

 

[apenpaap]

Season 5 is my favourite season in all of Star Trek. The only episode in it I don't like is "Cost of Living".

 

[Cyke101]

The proliferation of the A/B unrelated storylines (as seen in eps like "New Ground" and "Cost Of Living") hurt some of the stories, making them jar more than they should.

But season 5 bland? How could any season that produced the below eps be considered thus? It has a lot of generally well regarded eps (and some personal faves):

"Darmok"
"The Inner Light"
"I, Borg"
"Cause And Effect"
"The Next Phase"
"Unification" (a 'big' episode, even if the end result could be considered disappointing)
"Power Play", "Ensign Ro", "Time's Arrow" and "Conundrum" are all fun to me as well. I liked "Ethics" too.

On a slightly related note, I rewatched season six lately and was surprised at how DISAPPOINTED I was with many of the episodes. Like many fans, I remembered enjoying this season a lot, but this time round... episodes I'd liked previously just didn't "do" anything for me.

I think Season 5 started the trend of using technobabble as conflict resolution and then continued well into Voyager, but the episodes you cite I pretty strong pieces overall. Darmok and Inner Light are two of the finest episodes in all of TV, rather than just Trek.

Heck, one of the many things i love about Darmok is that "technobabble as conflict resolution" actually failed several times, and nearly got the Enterprise killed.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

A long slump between Unification Pt 2 and Cause & Effect.

Cunundrum was bright spot, not much else. Power Play amounts to a possession episode. I haven't seen it some time.

 

[Lynx]

Fifth season bland?

Sorry, but I have to disagree here. The fifth season is my favorite season of TNG.

Lots of great episodes in this season: Darmok, Ensign Ro, Unification, Conundrum, Cause And Effect, The First Duty, The Inner Light. All of them among my favorites.

 

[Praetorian]

Certanly the Fifth Season has certanly some of the best episodes ever as well as some of my favourites ever and was a good season of Trek, don't get me wrong.

But I think MeanJoePhaser hit the nail on the head. That slump *was* painfull and left a bad taste!

 

[euphorik]

Yeah, on the lighting, I did notice whilst watching season 5 on DVD that the colours and sets seemed somewhat muted in comparison to the other seasons.

yeah, i noticed that too - during first run, and today when i catch the occasional S5 rerun.

look at the crystal clarity and bright color of the main bridge in early season 3 episode like "evolution" and the "who watches the watchers?" then check out the bland, sterile, monochormatic look of the bridge scenes in episodes like "the game" and "the inner light."

in season 5, everything got bland - the cinematography, the jay chattaway music -as is that wasn't bad enough, there's the suddenly omnipresent *ADORABLE MOPPET-CHILDREN*...i am convinced that there was some sort of paramount corporate fiat in 1991, dictating that TNG attempt to build upon it's stellar males-18-to-45 (or whatever it was) demographic, by attempting to appeal directly to little kids by INCLUDING more little kids. the fact that there was such an abrupt turnaround in season6 from this dubious policy suggests to me that the writing staff were being coerced somehow...

of course, it could all be jeri taylor's fault, too. that's a distinct possibility.

anyway, yeah - S5 looks (and sounds) like bland, rainbow-brite shit.

 

[Praetorian]

Interesting!

I also thought about Jeri Taylor, specially because I think I remember her saying in a interview that she wanted the 6th season to be more adventurous and exciting.

 

[Red Ranger]

Sorry, no. Any season that had Darmok, The Inner Light, and Cause & Effect I wouldn't call bland. -- RR

 

[euphorik]

also, i hated (and hate) ensign "cousin oliver" ro. shoehorning her into the bridge crew is the earliest example of that annoying late-season 11th-hour it-ain't-broke-let's-fix-it mentality, the same thing that resulted in troi getting a uniform a season later, and crusher in command, etc etc. that sort of stuff really annoyed me, and it began in season 5. that was the beginning of the end for me.

i've seen some S5 reruns lately, and they (some of them, anyway) aren't quite as bad as i remember, but the last 3 seasons of TNG, for me, aren't anywhere near as enjoyable as the first 4.

 

[Dream]

the same thing that resulted in troi getting a uniform a season later, and crusher in command, etc etc. that sort of stuff really annoyed me,

Troi getting the blue uniform was the best thing that ever happened to her in the series.

 

[euphorik]

I know all seasons have it's bad episodes but something about the Fifth Season just gives me this bland, procedural, pc feeling about it. I know some say this about all of TNG, but when watching my dvds the Sixth Season always seems like a breath of fresh air after the Fifth Season...

that's an excellent point about the PC-ness; before season 5, the TNG writers had successfully avoided the kind of preachy, clumsy, obvious symbolism so on display in episodes like "ethics" and - especially - "the outcast." the cultural relativity and benevolent use of power was always a part of TNG's core approach, but it just got very blatantly PC in season 5. suddenly, it felt like the writers just didn't know the characters any more: worf as mr mom?!? androgyne-loving riker? whatever. and the episodes that didn't take something away from the original conception of the characters (ie all the worf/alexander episodes) didn't - with the exception of "darmok" and "the inner light" - really ADD anything. the greatness of season 4 is that so many episodes were character-driven. the blandness of season 5 is the prevalence of so much plot-driven "high concept" braga nonsense.