Diving into long lost STNG episodes

[JesterFace]

Have you had some episodes you haven't watched in many years?

It has been at least 10 or perhaps even more years since I last went though the first two seasons of TNG apart from few episodes, those few are 'The Measure of a Man' and 'Q Who'. TMOAM is great and 'Q Who' is a must watch because of, you guessed it, the Borg. After a while I watched 'Encounter at Farpoint' quite recently to begin the trial of humanity properly. But eveything else, I don't remember much if anything about them.
It's almost like going through these episodes for the first time.
On some level I feel fortunate to have this kind of opportunity. =)

I guess I have skipped these two first seasons because I've always thought they're not as strong as seasons 3 to 7. Also, the uniforms, stupid reason, right?

Now I'm interested to know if there might be some hidden gems that I have skipped for no good reason for years. This is a silly post with not much purpose, I just wanted to share that in my case there are ”new” TNG episodes coming this fall. =) I'm guessing episodes like the one with Bynars and Minuet might be interesting and 'The Neutral Zone' too. After all, the latter has the Romulan Gul Dukat.

Confession, I might skip 'Shades of Grey', I'm not sure yet.... But I guess I might have to watch it to make sure if it really is that bad.

 

[Finn]

^Sometimes, I watch it for a chuckle or two, like how they implied Riker's being swallowed into Armus' tar pit wasn't the worst memory he had (or not even one of).

 

[Qonundrum]

The uniforms are IMHO decent, lacking only the collars and the synthetic spandex material that holds in bacteria and smells real bad over time, so now look at season three lower ranking staff who had to wear those things and rejoice by season five when the rest of those outfits were finally disposed of... just not in a dumpster fire as synthetic garments smell far worse while being burned than emitting odors of someone else's remnants of decomposing skin bacteria stuck in the synthetic fibers, but I digress and will return to what you were initially expecting from a response:

From memory, I will readily defend:

from season one, not including "Encounter at Farpoint" as that's a given:

• Where No One Has Gone Before. I wrote a review abouit it once; it is TNG's first genuine robust episode.
• The Battle: Has some plot holes and throwback tripe-riddled cliches about curing ancient diseases, but is more than the sum of its parts and has good character building for Picard.
• Hide and Q: Ignore the penalty box garbage, despite Q getting in a jibe at Picard's and Yar's expense that makes up for it; the other subplot with Riker is fairly decent
• Haven: It's sold as a love story, but the setup for the Tallarians would have been an epic idea to explore. A civilization hunted to extinction because they had a communicable disease, from what I recall. Shame it went down the fairy tale route, but as a two-parter to explore multiple genres could have made it as robust as WNOHGB. Most of the humor holds up as well, and without the need of all the hairspray that kept Yar's hair up...
• Datalore: The script is 90% crap, but - dang - Spiner, Jones, and Bowman really make this a ton above the sum of its parts. Literally. (though they left in Data using a contraction at the end, but it wasn't an outtake...)
• 11001001: Not since WNOHGB has there been such a first-rate entry. This one's even better.
• When the Bough Breaks: Somewhat limited in scope, but a solid idea. It also has one of the better "after school special" messages, or one of the least cringey ones anyway. Indeed, the season is definitely trying different genres. This one is about as distant to "Justice" when it comes to the category of "being family-friendly". Note that "Justice" is not on my list...
• "Home Soil": Another great reason in showing how TNG season 1 is clearly trying every genre imaginable. This is the "hard sci-fi" genre in action and it's rather good IMHO. But hard sci-fi is unsustainable, and casual audiences might poke fun at some of the phraseology because it's so different and intentionally so, to show perspective.
• Coming of Age: Decent Wesley tale and sets up plotting resolved in a later episode
• Heart of Glory: a robust Worf tale.
• The Arsenal of Freedom: The plot conveniences are easily overlooked, it's a nice action piece
• Skin of Evil: I still love this one, and appreciate they didn't go corny with Tasha's death. Hers is unexpected and a genuine surprise, thanks in part to the teaser that's suggesting that Riker dies. Oh, for the love of spandex doused in Metamucil and Bic ink... mind Tasha's perfectly timed death video, which foreshadows Windows XP's default wallpaper too!
• Conspiracy: Impressive, especially for season 1's standards, and resolves the issues hinted at in "Coming of Age"
• The Neutral Zone: It's crap, but oddly watchable. For me, it's got to be solely nostalgia

from season two, not including "Measure" or "Q Who", since those are givens:

• The Child: Not the strongest entry and loaded with conveniences, but the new production team's verve is readily on display and is amazingly watchable
• Where Silence Has Lease: Yes, Wesley has a potty break at just the perfect time. That said, this one quickly shows just how big a leap in quality TNG has made
• Loud as a Whisper: A great premise with decent execution. And, as late 80s goes, more body gore horror shtick that was the norm for the time
• The Schizoid Man: Title taken from "The Prisoner" not prevailing, Dr Graves is meant to be a real horse hind, and some characters get good retorts. Data is wonderfully used. Season 2 is definitely Data-centric...
• Unnatural Selection: For some it's hit or miss. For me, they one-up "The Deadly Years" and play the idea with some actual respect. It's a great character piece for Pulaski.
• A Matter of Honor: a great Klingon and Riker episode, with many terrific lines. TNG definitely found itself by this point. A shame that this season has but 22 episodes and, by number alone, is lumped into the same bin as season 1.
• The Dauphin: Terrific coming of age story for Wes, who doesn't save the ship in a season 1 cliche that even season 5 would return to in "The Day Riker's Libido Almost Compromised Starfleet The Game". THIS is how Wes needed to be more often. He was so decent in season 2 that he as a character is arguably underrated.
• Contagion: I'm a computer nerd and screaming "antivirus software"' doesn't stop me from enjoying this one for lots of reasons. It gives a sense of perspective and even uses effectively some hints of fairy tale storytelling, but in perfect proportion. Try saying that while munching on pretzels, but I digress...
• Time Squared: Great use of a time loop idea, even if a couple issues were not explained. Not a biggie, sometimes it's fun when a fan can headcanon it
• Pen Pals: Ending aside, this is a great Data/Pulaski episode. Throughout the season, Pulaski starts harsh but warms up to the synthetic being and that's part of the fun.
• Manhunt: In the right mood, this sillyu campy outlandish over the top escapade is simply fun. If not dated.
• The Emissary: A MUST SEE. great Worf performance that also does some worldbuilding, and not in a way that demystifies or deconstructs. Even if it did the latter, deconstruction is best with reconstruction. That's where a certain BQ fails, but I digress.
• Shades of Gray: Yup, you read it right! Remove the clip show segments and what's left is amazingly good, and not since 1970s Doctor Who has any sci-fi sold an alien landscape with THAT much in terms of appearance and atmosphere.

 

[Orphalesion]

The Arsenal of Freedom is excellent. The story itself is already good and well presented, but it's also the only episode in the First Season in which every character is used effectively. Especially Geordie gets his time to shine.

 

[Oddish]

Seems like a good idea, actually... with almost 200 TNG episodes, easy to forget about one.

 

[JesterFace]

The uniforms are IMHO decent, lacking only the collars and the synthetic spandex material that holds in bacteria and smells real bad over time, so now look at season three lower ranking staff who had to wear those things and rejoice by season five when the rest of those outfits were finally disposed of...

Season 1 and 2 uniforms don't bother me in later seasons because it seems there was upgrading of uniforms going on in early TNG. The new uniforms aren't exactly the same through season 3, there are those seems running up and down in early season 3 episodes.

(though they left in Data using a contraction at the end, but it wasn't an outtake...)

Contradiction was left in the episode on purpose?

Skin of Evil: I still love this one, and appreciate they didn't go corny with Tasha's death. Hers is unexpected and a genuine surprise, thanks in part to the teaser that's suggesting that Riker dies.

If for some reason one doesn't like 'Skin of Evil' fortunately Data explains what happened to her in 'Legacy'.

The Emissary: A MUST SEE. great Worf performance that also does some worldbuilding, and not in a way that demystifies or deconstructs

I've been thinking about this episode, I shouldn't have skipped this one because this is where the thing with Worf and K'Ehleyr gets going and later she appears with Alexander.

 

[Oddish]

Contradiction was left in the episode on purpose?

Sounds more like Gadsby, the 100+ page novella that has no E's in it. To avoid an accidental inclusion of the offending letter, the writer had to render the key nonfunctional. Since contractions are so common, it's easy for one to get thrown in unnoticed.

I've been thinking about this episode, I shouldn't have skipped this one because this is where the thing with Worf and K'Ehleyr gets going and later she appears with Alexander.

And the timetable is REALLY screwy. Unless K'Ehleyr went through a time portal, that is.

 

[JesterFace]

And the timetable is REALLY screwy. Unless K'Ehleyr went through a time portal, that is.

You mean that Alexander looks a bit older than we might think?
I've explained this with some almost realistic headcanon, Klingon children just grow up faster, perhaps to be better warriors much sooner than human kids. =)

 

[Dukhat]

Alexander's age has never been consistent since the day we were introduced to him. But saying that 'Klingon kids grow up faster' doesn't take into account that this phenomena also happens to other kids on the other shows, like Molly O'Brien and Naomi Wildman.

 

[Oddish]

Near as I can figure, Alexander is conceived around Stardate 42900. K'Ehleyr shows up with him on Stardate 44246. So that's about 1350 Stardate units, or 16 months. Even assuming Klingons gestate faster than humans, he's way less than a year old. But he says in "Firstborn" that he was three in "Reunion". That would put him at six, seven tops as of "All Good Things". He seemed a bit older, though.

By "Sons and Daughters", he should be nine or ten, but he appears to be at least in his mid-teens.

 

[Dukhat]

Near as I can figure, Alexander is conceived around Stardate 42900. K'Ehleyr shows up with him on Stardate 44246. So that's about 1350 Stardate units, or 16 months. Even assuming Klingons gestate faster than humans, he's way less than a year old. But he says in "Firstborn" that he was three in "Reunion". That would put him at six, seven tops as of "All Good Things". He seemed a bit older, though.

By "Sons and Daughters", he should be nine or ten, but he appears to be at least in his mid-teens.

They needed him to be a believable age for serving in the Klingon military. A nine-year old (or younger) kid would not have worked.

I'm not defending their choice to have him played by an older actor. I'm just saying why it was done.

 

[Oddish]

They needed him to be a believable age for serving in the Klingon military. A nine-year old (or younger) kid would not have worked.

Having him show up there made no sense. DS9 didn't make as many blunders as its main contemporary, but it certainly made some.

 

[Dukhat]

Having him show up there made no sense. DS9 didn't make as many blunders as its main contemporary, but it certainly made some.

Maybe they wanted to have a contest as to which guy was the worst deadbeat dad, Worf or Gul Dukat? At least Worf didn't try to kill his kid.

 

[Qonundrum]

Contradiction was left in the episode on purpose?

I don't see how it could be an accident. Season 1 had a share of missteps and accidental use of contractions, but that ending seems a little too conspicuous - even in an episode where the adults are written as utter twits just to accommodate "Wesley is a bright kid". Rob Bowman's works in TNG are ones I gravitate toward as he can make even polished turds seem far more than the sum of their parts.

[/QUOTE]If for some reason one doesn't like 'Skin of Evil' fortunately Data explains what happened to her in 'Legacy'.[/QUOTE]

Good point! "Skin of Evil" is definitely not one of those fan consensus things, and even if it was I wouldn't tell someone not to see it just because everyone hates it. There's usually something not unlike a diamond in the hay, even if it's in one brief scene with one line of dialogue, or a good actor, or something else, or a combination therein.

I've been thinking about this episode, I shouldn't have skipped this one because this is where the thing with Worf and K'Ehleyr gets going and later she appears with Alexander.

Definitely give 'Emissary" a retry. On my first viewing, it was "meh". But after a couple season 2 reruns, something started to kick in. Not puberty, believe it or not. Something about the story just works, even with the nitpicks, but I will pick nits out of anything and then add them into my grape nuts the way others pick blueberries. Or strawberries. Or even those raspberries, which taste better than strawberries but whose name is usually accorded with bad movies or television or a person sticking out their tongue and spraying everyone with saliva while saying "pppfbbpffbbpbfppbfpbfpbfpfbpbfpp".

 

[JesterFace]

Alexander's age....
What if he wasn't conceived in season 2 of TNG but earlier? Alexander first appeared in TNG season 4, that's 2365.
Worf and K'Ehleyr had a thing in 2359, right?
She had a child with Worf before season 2 but didn't want to reveal it for some reason?

 

[Oddish]

Alexander's age....
What if he wasn't conceived in season 2 of TNG but earlier? Alexander first appeared in TNG season 4, that's 2365.
Worf and K'Ehleyr had a thing in 2359, right?
She had a child with Worf before season 2 but didn't want to reveal it for some reason?

As Spock said, it would explain a great many things.

 

[Warp 10 (Pepperoni)]

A few weeks ago I put on The High Ground and quickly realised that I'd never seen it. A great surprise to get what was, for me, a brand new TNG episode!

 

[Finn]

That would be nice. I always thought about how would nice it would be when one day, come across an episode from the TNG era that I somehow hadn't seen.

No. I've seen them all, few times at least.

 

[Oddish]

A few weeks ago I put on The High Ground and quickly realised that I'd never seen it. A great surprise to get what was, for me, a brand new TNG episode!

Like finding an overlooked Christmas present when you're taking down the Christmas tree.

 

[JesterFace]

I'm surprised, some of the episodes I have watched recently from the first two seasons are much better than I remembered.
Can't wait to see more.
I have picked random episodes that I remember somehow, so far I have gone through under 10 episodes but something like 'Elementary, dear Data' and 'Pen Pals' have been nice.
More STNG for me, gimme gimme.