TNG Season One: Slooooooooooow

[CoveTom]

Okay, so actually, I am not a season one hater. I think there is alot of good in season one. I think some of the stories are quite intriguing, I think they took some risks they wouldn't have taken later (i.e. "Conspiracy"), I think the music was better, and so forth.

Unfortunately, I do not own TNG on DVD. However, one of my local stations has picked up the syndication run and so in the last week or two, I've been re-watching the season one episodes for the first time in a long time. And I've come to realize what it is that bothers me about those episodes.

Even though I think the stories are good, they feel so freaking slow. I'm not even sure it's the pacing of the episodes in terms of how it's edited and so forth. It really is the dialogue to me. It seems like the characters are speaking really slow and ponderously, that there are unnatural pauses, that people are stopping to think a whole hell of alot, and that it takes a long time for anyone to get to the point.

Has anyone else noticed this about season one? What do you think?

 

[Canuck69]

When I watch season one I find everything to be so awkward. I agree it has its good points, but some of the acting is so...weird to watch.

Picard is hard to see because he is so unlike what we know of him later, and yes there are a lot of awkward pauses and stalls in the lines. I always think of Picard as such an elloquent (sp?) speaker and for the first few episodes everything seems so forced. It is not just him either, the whole crew is like that. I think once they learned more about each other as the season went on they fell into a more comfortable rhythm. Troi and Crusher are also difficult to watch, and both took a little longer to fall into place and seem more natural than the rest. It wasn't until season three that I felt those two were really coming through. It also seemed to depend on who they were acting with. Some cast members interacted better with each other than others IMO.

I think it was all a case of the actors and directors trying to get a feel for the characters, by the end of it we can see the characters as we know them begin to shine through.

 

[gottacook]

I would say that "Coming of Age" is when TNG season 1 finally starts to cohere. I thought so during the original run and think so again after having seen it last night on WGN.

It's a faster-moving episode than those that preceded it, I think because of the dual plot lines - Wesley's Star Fleet entrance exam (and the characters he meets there), as well as the introduction of the plotline that would culminate in "Conspiracy" along with its two main guest actors. In retrospect, I see that the writers left it ambiguous whether those two were already inhabited or were genuinely trying to ferret out a conspiracy to subvert the Federation (a conspiracy that didn't yet include them but soon would) - good for them.

 

[swaaye]

I am always amused with the way they initially presented StarFleet as a prodigies-only club...

Also, I think I liked early Picard the best. The crew becomes way too soft/casual as the show progresses IMO. Their whinyness peaks at Chain of Command.

 

[Kegg]

Season one was just sort of a mess in every single respect. I'm inordinately fond of it, but I'm not sure why - probably just nostalgia, but then this sort of nostalgia I don't feel the same way for a lot of other things. It may simply be how totally bat crazy TNG's first season was at times. An episode like "Justice" simply could not happen any other year, not even in the similarly botched second season.

In retrospect, I see that the writers left it ambiguous whether those two were already inhabited or were genuinely trying to ferret out a conspiracy to subvert the Federation (a conspiracy that didn't yet include them but soon would) - good for them.

At that point it was going to be a real conspiracy within Starfleet, but that plot point got nixed.

 

[CoveTom]

^ Conspiracy, if I'm not mistaken, went through several permutations. First, it was going to be a genuine conspiracy within Starfleet. But Roddenberry nixed that idea, saying that no Starfleet officers would be part of a conspiracy. And I don't think he was too happy when TUC later did it, nor do I think he would have been fond of Section 31 on DS9.

Then, once they ruled out a real conspiracy, the first idea was to make the parasite aliens the new recurring villain on TNG, what would eventually become the Borg. That's why it's left open-ended. But it was decided that the insect creatures would be too cost prohibitive. Conspiracy was an expensive episode as it was, and the effects were barely passable.

So, instead, we end up with an arc of only two episodes that doesn't really resolve itself in any fulfilling way. We never find out where the aliens come from, what their true motives are, etc., nor do we ever get a resolution to the signal they send at the end of the episode.

 

[gottacook]

As someone who bought and read Spock Must Die in 1970 (at age 13) but has read no Star Trek novels since, please excuse my ignorance: Is there possibly a novel published since 1988 that continues the "Conspiracy" story arc?

 

[Alrik]

Perhaps nostalgia has gotten a firm grip on me, but a local station has been airing TNG at 11 pm week nights and has been running through season one. While many of the nit picks are valid, the last two nights has brought 'Skin of Evil' and 'Conspiracy'. Sure the fx are dated and the acting a bit iffy, but damn. What great stories.

 

[CoveTom]

^ As I said in my original post, I think TNG season one at least managed to take some risks that most (not all, but most) other seasons of TNG and the later shows would not. In "Skin of Evil," for example, we have a main character being killed off in an arbitrary way, not going out in a blaze of glory as we've come to expect. In "Conspiracy," they actually pushed the envelope for what was acceptable on Trek.

Say what you will about Roddenberry and his rules, but he was clearly at that point willing to take risks that later producers were not.

 

[thew40]

As someone who bought and read Spock Must Die in 1970 (at age 13) but has read no Star Trek novels since, please excuse my ignorance: Is there possibly a novel published since 1988 that continues the "Conspiracy" story arc?

Spoiler: For Star Trek novels

It's followed-up on in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Relaunch novels.

 

[StardustSteph]

I probably can't give a fair review, but I never saw Season 1 in its entirety until about a year ago. I made the mistake of re-watching Star Trek series out of order I did VOY, DS9, and then TNG, so when I started on Season One it obviously seemed so dated to me. A lot of the episode story lines were just "blah" to me and dragged on. I'm not a fan of the first season at all, but I'm sure if I had been old enough to appreciate it when it aired I'd like it more.

 

[Kira Nerys]

Season one is usually the weakest point in most series.

 

[RapidNadion]

I had a really rough time with Season One in past years, but I too have been re-watching it every night on WGN, and I gotta tell ya - a lot of the praise here is valid. There are certainly a fair amount of clunkers in there, but once you look past the cheesy 80s sweaters, weird lighting and set dressing, horrible audio, etc ... some of the stories are wonderful.

Where No One Has Gone Before was just on the other night. I'd forgotten how much I loved that episode.

 

[mackula]

Having caught "Skin of Evil" the other night, it struck me as one of the "darkest" eps. of the series. I had been a long while since I had seen it.

 

[Shazam!]

Season one is usually the weakest point in most series.

Prison Break and Lost had great first seasons and then kinda fell off, but for the most part I agree.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

. A lot of the episode story lines were just "blah" to me and dragged on. I'm not a fan of the first season at all, but I'm sure if I had been old enough to appreciate it when it aired I'd like it more.

Don't be so sure. I was in High School during TNG S1. I watched it every week, despite being less than thrilled with it, mostly because it was new Star Trek on TV. During the first run I found it lacking quite a lot and find most of the first several seasons forgettable. I recently tried re-watching reruns of S1 on TV and couldn't sit through it at all.

And this garbage about all shows having a weak first season is nonsense. On most networks if a show has a weak first season, it doesn't get any more.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Season one is usually the weakest point in most series.

That's a matter of opinion.

Actually TOS' strongest season was the 1st, IMO.

Some people think Space:1999's best season was the 1st....(I personally don't mind the 1st, but I prefer the 2nd)...

Andromeda had a good 1st season, but I understand--not having seen other seasons--that it turns into the 'Kevin Sorbo Show' and the writing isn't as strong...

The same can be said for Earth: Final Conflict, where the continuity wavers in other seasons....

Blake's 7's first couple of seasons was the best before Terry Nation left, and the feel of the show changed...

I'm sure there are other shows that have strong or pretty good first seasons, which then go downhill...

 

[Alrik]

^ As I said in my original post, I think TNG season one at least managed to take some risks that most (not all, but most) other seasons of TNG and the later shows would not. In "Skin of Evil," for example, we have a main character being killed off in an arbitrary way, not going out in a blaze of glory as we've come to expect. In "Conspiracy," they actually pushed the envelope for what was acceptable on Trek.

Say what you will about Roddenberry and his rules, but he was clearly at that point willing to take risks that later producers were not.

Skin of Evil is a perfect example. That was just on last week, and I had forgotten how much of an emotional impact it delivers. I remember when it first aired and my initial reaction was WTF!!! They just killed a main character? No way.

Needless to say, a couple of years later that didn't make things any easier the summer between BOBW I & II when the rumours were flying around that Stewart might not be back. Would they dare kill Picard off? Uh, there's already a precedent set.

But yes, sure they were still getting their legs in Season One. But underneath, there were some pretty good stories.

 

[swaaye]

TNG is almost two series in one. There's pre and post Season 3. Almost everything was overhauled. The name of the first episode of S3 is quite appropriate. Aside from some of the mind-blowingly horrible early episodes, I appreciate both "halves" of TNG.

DS9 goes through a similar change but it's not on the same scale as TNG's evolution.

 

[Klaitu]

Season One certainly has that "getting into the groove" feeling, but it's also got a good sympathetic vibration with TOS, which I think is part of the charm of Season 1. You really can see the transition happen from 60's to 80's.. and I think that for when TNG originally came out, it was much needed.