*Why* are TNG Seasons 1 & 2 Bad?

My main gripe would be the attitude shift from TOS.

TOS was aspirational. The 23rd century was better, but still not perfect. Same for Kirk & Co. and the Federation et al. Trying real hard and moving the right direction, but still striving for improvement - smart but flawed people trying to do the right things.

TNG, on the other hand gives us all these perfect people who come from a perfect society. Arrogant, annoying, and a bit dull. This seemed to get toned down a tad after the first couple of seasons, but the undercurrent is still present thoughout the series (as well as Voyager and to a lesser extent Enterprise. Deep Space Nine did an admirable job of bucking the trend and trying to move things back to a more TOS-esque outlook and is to my mind the best of the series which followed TOS.

 

The "perfect people" thing was just meant to apply to the crew of the Enterprise. In the show's premise, The Enterprise is the flagship of Starfleet, is a brand new type of ship, is going on a new deep space mission(further than ever before), and only the "best of the best" could get a posting on it. So, Picard and crew were meant to exemplify the very best humanity had to offer. Other people or humans that we see(even in season 1) are very imperfect.

Voyager was very much the opposite. They were very smart and talented, yes, but everyone on the ship was very flawed.

Enterprise, too. They start out totally inexperienced, naive, and overly optimistic. And then slowly become more seasoned, cynical, sometimes amoral. You don't have to drink Raktijino and blood wine in Star Trek to be a cool kid.

 

Going by this thread I think some of the episodes originally had some neat ideas that were a bit watered down. https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/tng...-creating-tng-by-mark-altman-ed-gross.263539/

 

Ya man. Royale kicks a.. I can rewatch it several times over and not loose interest.. Almost Matrix like in appeal to me.. So many good lines. . "think you are trapped here.."
Sure feels like that when youre losing!!!

 

Season 1 isn't bad, maybe uneven but not bad. Season 2, on the other hand, is my least favorite. Some of the reasons given are: The strike, production turmoil, writer turmoil.

Scripts were late in developing, and we wound up with a lot of soap opera-like bottle shows. Season 1 was more ambitious.

Some highlights:
Peak Performance
Measure of a Man
Contagion
Q Who

Lowlights:
Shades of Gray
Outrageous Okona
The Royale
Icarus Factor
Manhunt

 

Which is ironic, arrogance is not perfection. But even the Q didn't know that. The Borg certainly didn't.

DS9 definitely feels more TOS-like in terms of characters (VOY felt more TOS-like in terms of weekly action stuff but without Seven, there'd be very little discussion of the human condition at all! Jeri was not hired for her body, she did a great job acting, but the catsuit routine was poorly explained in-universe, that part does seem "ratings ploy".)

TNG almost feels like what "The Cage" had presented (pretty much perfect(ly bland) people, with the alien Spock doing all the grinning and emoting.)

TNG's first 2 years were hampered by differences in style and storylines that feel rushed or mishandled, especially the first half of season 1. Even "Datalore", which had much potential, feels like a rushed mess - never mind Wesley being shown as smart by having everyone else written as being dumb.

And yet, TNG1 and TNG2 did have some great stories - or at least stories with great potential, regardless of what was filmed. (Indeed, the blu-ray remaster made a lot more season 1 even watchable, since the muted color palette from videotape also clobbered the show, though not deliberately.)

I'd still recommend the following eps anyway - two asterisks suggest they're worth looking at first:
* Encounter at Farpoint
* Where No One Has Gone Before
* Lonely Among Us
** The Battle
* Hide and Q
* Datalore
** 11001001
* Too Short a Season
** Home Soil
* Coming of Age
* Heart of Glory
* The Arsenal of Freedom
** Conspiracy

* Where Silence has Lease
** Elementary Dear Data
* A Matter of Honor
** The Measure of a Man
* The Dauphin
** Contagion
** Time Squared
* Pen Pals
** Q Who
* The Emissary
** Peak Performance

 

Most S1 eps at least had great original concepts/ideas that gave you something to think about. Wesley, Troi, and Tasha are annoying but really didn't have that much dialogue, so it's tolerable. Their awfulness is overstated here. Data is actually really annoying sometimes too though. You know, "annoying"... "bothersome, obnoxious, irritating-" "THANKS DATA, BUT WHAT I REALLY MEAN IS STFU DATA."

"We'll get there in about 12 days." "12.02384-" "STFU DATA." It isn't often but it grates me almost as much as the other bad characters b/c it's the same thing every time. It would annoy me more than Wesley, but it's more forgivable b/c that's obviously just how he's programmed, so I can't really blame him. It doesn't detract too much from the eps though.

I disagree with the consensus that Code Of Honor is the worst ep, bottom 5 for sure but not even for the same reasons other ppl have. It certainly isn't "racist" no matter what anyone says. They're black, yeah, but they aren't stereotypes. They look the same as each other just like any other alien species from any other planet, they just happen to be black. And have a custom similar to Native Americans which is described with a French phrase. They dress like Persians and present traditional Chinese style gifts. They're a mess of a bunch of cultures from Earth's past and the only original thing is the ridiculous weapons and arena Tasha fights in. But at least the plot moves and the dialogue is serviceable. Unlike "Skin Of Evil." The dialogue is just embarrassingly bad in that one and I'm sure you could find a similar plot in many children's cartoons. Worst episode by far and the only redeeming quality is the very end at Tasha's funeral.

Also, the hate for Lonely Among Us is unjustified. An entire episode isn't ruined by a line of dialogue or 2, get real. There's a serious threat at least, that means tension. "Not boring," unlike a few eps from S1. Data's antics are juvenile but don't take up a significant portion of the ep. Same could be said for the shenanigans of the Anticans. It felt like a bad sitcom at times but when that thing enters Picard it gets really good. This can't be said for "Justice," the only threat is to Wesley and you just wish he'd die anyway. Now that I think about it though, the ship/structure/god? thing above the planet in that ep was a redeeming factor and the dialogue wasn't bad. They all have redeemable qualities, even Haven, Angel One, When The Bough Breaks, Symbiosis, and We'll Always Have Paris, which all had plots that are either interchangeable with non-sci-fi shows, uncreative, or unrealistic. Still, they're my least fav b/c of their plots.

I also don't get the hate for Datalore. An original idea that adds to the character of Data as a bonus? I'll take it. I just remembered the crystal entity actually, yeah that thing was stupid but the rest of it was good. The Naked Now is an interesting take on The Naked Time, and while not as good, it helps to know how this crew would act while drunk. There's more characterization there than it gets credit for. They're both fun eps that get way too much hate, esp Datalore, it's one of my favs of S1.

I don't get the love for The Arsenal Of Freedom either, the plot is one of the most unimaginative in the series. The single drone that gets released conveniently every 12 minutes or w/e arbitrary amount of time is not the killing machine it's made out to be, it's a storm trooper. I would expect the machine that wiped out a world to be more capable than that. It might as well be a flying cardboard box. Actually I'd prefer that, it'd give it a sense of self-awareness, like it's obviously supposed to be as dumb as it is. I could laugh then. Picard was especially unconvincing while Crusher was injured. Actually, the threat the ship was facing meanwhile was interesting, I just remembered that. So there's def more of a threat than in the previously mentioned "extra bad" eps at least, but I wouldn't put it among the best eps of the season.

The best are:

Heart Of Glory 9.5/10*
Conspiracy 9/10*
Datalore 8.5/10*
The Neutral Zone 8.5/10*
Too Short A Season 8/10*
The Battle 8/10*
Where No One Has Gone Before 7.5/10*
Lonely Among Us 7.5/10*
Home Soil 7.5/10*
The Big Goodbye 7.5/10*
11001001 7.5/10*
Coming Of Age 7/10*
Hide And Q 7/10*

That's half the season at least 7/10 stars. The rest are 4.5-6.5 except for Skin Of Evil which is like 3.5, but most of the rest are 5.5-6.5.

 

My favorite episode that has some of the worst dialogue conceivable is Where No Man Has Gone Before

I love the the story, and the music, and Stewart has a fantastic line. When Data says "we 1 million blah blah light years from where we were." Picard whispers "I cannot accept that..."

 

I really liked the energy of season two. Dr. Pulaski, Beard Riker visits the Klingons, Guinan comes along, we meet the Borg and "Time Squared" was the first time Young Me saw the Enterprise blow up, which blew my mind. "Contagion" also rates highly for me.

 

Wasn't Times Squared, and Q Who meant to be tied together originally?

 

Yeah, the former was meant to be a test by Q as well, hence the paradox and how they stop it not really making any sense.

 

But didn't Present Picard shoot Future Picard? Shouldn't that mean you are killing yourself?

 

I'm not sure what it was exactly, but some of those season 1 episodes had such shallow characterizations and plots and unbelievable worlds that it made me feel like I was watching a kid's show.

On the other hand, there were also some truly original angles here that seemed to disappear somewhat once TNG learnt what their specific 'successful story template' was.

 

Yup. Their sanctimonious-ness wasn't limited to other species. The episode referenced above was one example. I seem to remember one or two(?) other episodes where they looked down on their own ancestors.

 

I agree. I'd rather watch earlier episodes than later ones.
And what was up with that jacket they gave Picard in later seasons? What was the point of that thing?

 

I loved the Drunk Irish people episode.
Lol.
What could be more racist than that?

 

You're joking right?

It was a request from Patrick Stewart to give him something unique to wear and stand out from the rest of the crew. I thought it made more sense as an alternate uniform than Kirk's tunic.

 

Thanks. I never knew that. I guess a unique color uniform for captains made too much sense.

 

I love that episode. "Send in the clones"