A Journey

[Spider]

I meant to get this started last week, but got side tracked. So this week I'm pulling our season one and getting started. I'm going into this with a sort of black slate on how to do this, and any suggestions are welcome.

I was thinking of submitting a review of the episodes after each DVD, but I'm open to anything.

 

[Orac Zen]

A group of posters got together in the DS9 forum last year to watch Babylon 5 (figures, doesn't it? ). What ended up working pretty well there was watching a disk a week and posting a mini-review (or, in some cases, a not so mini-review) of each episode. I don't know if that'd work here, but I figured I'd at least suggest it.

 

[K-Star]

I've just started. Watched Encounter at Farpoint just now. Tomorrow I'll watch The Naked Now and Code of Honor (not entirely looking forward to rewatching Code of Honor).

 

[tomalak301]

I hope to get some TNG seasons to bring back to school with me this weekend. I might start it then and see how far I get.

 

[Spider]

K-Star said:
I've just started. Watched Encounter at Farpoint just now. Tomorrow I'll watch The Naked Now and Code of Honor (not entirely looking forward to rewatching Code of Honor).

I meant to get started last night and didn't. I will tonight.

Yeah, some of these first season episodes I'm not exactly looking forward to, and some of my comments probably won't be pretty, but the 1st season did have some great shows. I look forward to seeing them again.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I'm up to "Unnatural Selection", but having so recently revisited Season One, I'm sure I'll be chiming in.

I'd recommend that everyone involved also check out Wil Wheaton's reviews for the early episodes. They're out of order, but he's done most of them up to "The Big Goodbye"...and if you haven't read them, you don't know what you're missing. A highly entertaining mix of snarky humor and behind-the-scenes insight. So far, he's been pretty merciless to the show's early flaws, including the portrayal of Wesley.

 

[Orac Zen]

Damn, I'm behind schedule already. That didn't take long. I'll try to trawl through a few eps this weekend.

 

[K-Star]

Just finished watching The Naked Now and Code of Honor. To be honest I think I missed Data's comment about the French language the first time I watched that episode, and Picard's reaction followed by Riker's insistance for Data to "drop it" was hilarious!

 

[WillsBabe]

Spider said:

What do yall think of this idea?

I think it's a great idea. I've got too much other stuff on my "to watch" pile at the moment to join in, but I'm looking forward to reading some of the comments and insights. I might even join you for a few episodes along the way if I get time.

Enjoyed the comments so far - K Star. Keep them coming.

 

[2of1million]

I haven't watch TNG in 3 days! There are new shows to watch and stuff. I will get to it this weekend again. The last one I watched was 'The Most Toys' where Data gets kidnapped by that collector dude. Which I always thought was a cool episode. Loved when Data played dumb! Next up, 'Sarek'!

 

[Spider]

Encounter at Farpoint C+

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this, and quite frankly, it’s not nearly as bad as I remembered it. Yes, Troi is horrible and so is Wesley. Quite frankly, so is Yar. And mercifully that silly trial room thingie scene didn’t take up near as much time as I remembered.

But, I had forgotten all about the alien jellyfish starships and was actually surprised by that. That was nice, and it was also quite well done. Another scene I especially enjoyed was when Crusher stepped out on the bridge with Wesley still in the elevator and Picard was at first upset, then Crusher and Picard had that wonderful scene together. Which was immediately destroyed by Wesley walking about the bridge and opening his stupid mouth. LOL

The whole thing with the alien space jellyfish was, as I said, a surprise to me. So I’m old, the memory is going. I liked how they built up to that. The ending seemed a little to easy, and frankly it was like Q letting them off the hook, but it was a good plot idea by the writers even if it wasn’t handled that well.

I’m going to grade the episodes as I watch them with the standard school letters, not a number. I’m going to give this one a C+. It might have been a B- except for Troi and Wesley.

Next on the list are the other two episodes on the DVD, The Naked Now and Code of Honor. Being a Picard/Crusher shipper, I’m looking forward to a little action between Crusher and Picard on The Naked Now. I’ll probably watch these on Saturday.

I haven't seen those two in a long time either, so I'm likely to have a few suprises there also. That could be either good or bad.

 

[Smiley]

As a regular episode, "Encounter at Farpoint" is a bit stilted and clunky. As a premiere, however, it does a wonderful job of introducing the new characters in memorable ways and showing the grandeur of space travel. I hate the judge outfit and makeup, but I love John de Lancie's performance as Q in this episode.

 

[tomalak301]

You know what. Some of my plans changed in that I won't be able to go home this weekend and get TNG. However, earlier in the year I had watched all the first season episodes up to When the Bough Breaks. I think what I will do is jump in there and join in the discussions. For the ones before, I will probably say something if I can but this way I can participate, not have TNG, and not have to go through episodes like Justice again this year. Sorry but there are only a few episodes I will see far in between if you know what I'm sayin'.

Regarding Encounter at Farpoint, I think I really love the first half of the episode, while the second half kills it. I mean it does a great job of introducing the characters, has the action when you first meet Q, and love the saucer seperation sequence. Also, the scene with McCoy is an all time classic.

Then in the second half you get down to the planet and things go down from there. Zorn is annoying, Troi is annoying, and while it was an interesting resolution, seeing Giant Jellyfish as well as Troi and her attitude makes me wonder if that was the gayest scene ever in Trek.

 

[Spider]

tomalak301 said:
Also, the scene with McCoy is an all time classic.

Yes, it was. I forgot to mention that. I loved that scene.

tomalak301 said:
Then in the second half you get down to the planet and things go down from there. Zorn is annoying, Troi is annoying, and while it was an interesting resolution, seeing Giant Jellyfish as well as Troi and her attitude makes me wonder if that was the gayest scene ever in Trek.

I liked the jellyfish, but Troi and Zorn were annoying for sure.

Also, yall just jump in with anything. There are no rules for this thread. In a somewhat haphazard manner we’ll just make our way through all seven seasons and it will just take as long as it will take. The point being, just having fun is the point.

 

[Orac Zen]

I just finished "Encounter at Farpoint." Wow. It's been a long time, and revisiting the ep has reminded me why. It's not as bad as I'd remembered it but it's still very slow and uninvolving, and even with the basic idea of the Trek universe already established it still feels like there's an awful lot of (boring) exposition. And as one of the apparently very few people who (with the exception of four eps) can't stand Q, there's waaay too much of him in this. Compared to the pilots of some of my other favourite SF series, this one doesn't come up too well.

Still, it's not all bad. The idea of the space jellyfish and Zorn's people using one for their own ends is pretty good. Seeing the very beginning of the Picard / Crusher thing was nice, if bittersweet (considering how badly the relationship was dealt with over time). And Data's scene with McCoy...wonderful. I enjoyed that bit back then and I enjoyed it all over again just now.

Overall, I'd give it 5 / 10.

 

[Spider]

Orac Zen said:Seeing the very beginning of the Picard / Crusher thing was nice, if bittersweet (considering how badly the relationship was dealt with over time).

I agree. It would have been nice to see something of that instead of the Worf/Troi thing, which never made sense to me. Riker/Troi won out in the end, at least that was good.

 

[WillsBabe]

Smiley said:
but I love John de Lancie's performance as Q in this episode.

I think de Lancie's performance is the best thing in the episode. I love the Oliver North moment for one.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I never understood the dislike for "Farpoint". It positively wowed me in '87--Trek was back on the small screen, better than ever! And while 20 years of hindsight exposes a fair share of flaws, it still doesn't strike me as being an unusually bad episode. It does the pilot thing pretty well, setting up the various characters and their mission, and establishing what's changed and what hasn't since the era of TOS. For me, there was a tangible joy of discovery in these earliest episodes. And this was the first time that Trek had done a pilot in which the characters were meeting each other while we were meeting them.

They did the right thing by talking Gene into making it a two-hour episode by adding the Q angle, though. The "mystery at Farpoint" stuff by itself would have been a pretty flat first episode. The Q story did a good job of framing this rather methodical mystery as one part of their greater mission. And of course, the annoying Groppler Zorn didn't come back approximately once a season and appear in the spin-offs, did he?

 

[Spider]

The Naked Now - C-

Not nearly as bad as I remembered, but not very good either. Again, Wesley and Yar were horrible, cringe worthy to be exact, but performances by everyone else were fine. I’m not used to seeing Data with that many facial expressions in one episode.

The progression of the “disease” was for the most part handled quite well. The silliness of the crew wasn’t that bad really, if you accept the premise. Well, except for the Oriental guy playing with the chips which was embarrassing to watch. And I like the Chief Engineer, although I can’t remember her name. It’s too bad she didn’t make it in that role; I think she would have been a good fit with the crew. It certainly would have been a different show had she stayed the Chief Engineer instead of La Forge taking over the role.

And of course, Data gets laid. Way to go Data! To bad Picard and Crusher didn’t find the time to do so, I would have raised my grade on this episode by two letters.

All in all, it wasn’t a very good episode, but it’s certainly not as bad as Code of Honor.


Code of Honor – F

This was an absolutely stupid, horrible and demeaning episode. I hated it. It made no sense no matter how you look at it. Women own all the property yet the men rule? Huh? They have transporters but no starships? Well, at least we didn’t see if they had starships or not. How does one have a society advanced enough to develop transporter technology and still live by these stupid codes? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

I just found the whole thing asinine and unbelievable and the ending contrived. Yech.

Well, you know, the less said the better on this one.

Comments? Feel free to baste and broil the mod, but be nice. I’m old you know.

 

[K-Star]

I just watched The Last Outpost and Where No One Has Gone Before. There's not much more I can say about Last Outpost because I've watched it so often (it's one of my favorites.) That scene with Data and the Chinese Fingertrap is PRICELESS.

Where No One Has Gone Before... I must not have been completely awake the first time I saw it on Spike in the morning, because this was almost like watching it for the first time. It was pretty interesting. Too bad they didn't focus on the thoughts of some of the other senior staff, just Picard, Worf, and Tasha (and the numerous random people). I kinda liked the scene with the couple running down the hall screaming for the captain to help. "Can't you see what's following us???" LOL!