Characterizing the TNG Seasons

[Sisko4Life]

I grew up watching this show.. the first Trek watched. I've probably seen about 90% of the episodes, but this was probably 10 years ago and I've only seen episodes on my Borg and Alternate Realities Fan Collections since... .

I think I was too young to really remember how this show transitioned between seasons. And ever since about 5 years ago when my father bought DS9 for me, I have gotten used to the serialized nature of Star Trek. Saw Voyager and its entirety and noticed the same kind of element, as it had recurring villains / species as well. But from what I remember, TNG was very "free."

With all that being said, how would you describe each season, based on quality, difference between the other seasons, and any themes (if they exist)?

I'm really interested in feedback since I don't know where to start on my TNG netflix run I will be doing!

 

[Mark 2000]

Season One #6: The Growing Pains year
Season Two #2: The Space is Going to Kill Us year
Season Three #1: The High Adventure year
Season Four #3: The Return Guest Star year (nearly one in every episode)
Season Five #4: The Kids year
Season Six #5: The Personal Drama year
Season Seven #7: The Data is Going to Kill Us year

 

[AviTrek]

Season Seven: The crew have family.

In terms of watching order, just watch them in the original order and enjoy how the show evolved. Just like fans did while watching it live.

 

[StalwartUK]

Season 1: The TOS Homage Year
Season 2: The Starting to get Better Year
Season 3: The First Good Year (with some abductions)
Season 4: All About Families This Year (with some politics going on too)
Season 5: Not A Bad Year (probably one of my favourites, you can thank nostalgia for that)
Season 6: DS9 Started This Year (still a good season)
Season 7: The Plain Weird Ideas Year (and running out of them, too)

TNG can largely be watched in any order you want as episodes don't generally refer to one another with a few exceptions such as the Q and Borg episodes and the ones dealing with Worf and the Klingons.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Here we go...

Season 1: Beyond Known Space
Season 2: Spooky Stuff
Season 3: Quintessentials & Classics
Season 4: Family
Season 5: A Mixed Bag of Tasty Nuts
Season 6: Refining and Expanding the Trek Universe
Season 7: Braga Goes Bonkers!

 

[MikeS]

Season 1: Riker
Season 2: Worf
Season 3: Picard
Season 4: Geordi
Season 5: Troi
Season 6: Data
Season 7: Beverley

 

[Gary7]

Season 1: Beyond Known Space
Season 2: Spooky Stuff
Season 3: Quintessentials & Classics
Season 4: Family
Season 5: A Mixed Bag of Tasty Nuts
Season 6: Refining and Expanding the Trek Universe
Season 7: Braga Goes Bonkers!

Season One #6: The Growing Pains year
Season Two #2: The Space is Going to Kill Us year
Season Three #1: The High Adventure year
Season Four #3: The Return Guest Star year (nearly one in every episode)
Season Five #4: The Kids year
Season Six #5: The Personal Drama year
Season Seven #7: The Data is Going to Kill Us year

Combining these two together pretty much sums it up for me. I know there are some who really like seasons 1&2, but they didn't appeal to me very much. Some good stories... and yeah, I'd pretty much say "Homage to TOS". But the actors clearly didn't have their footing yet, compared with what came later. I also didn't like Worf in this time either; he really came forward to his best representation going forward with Season 3. Somewhere during Season 6, the "formula" began to show signs of aging. And Season 7 definitely felt like Braga was grasping for straws. TNG ended at a good point, while it still had value but at the same time evidence that it had run its course.