Do the seasons two part finales and openers get less as the show goes on?

[TheAdmiralty]

Redemption and Time's Arrow are pretty even for me. Agree Descent is the worst although mainly for the second part, the set-up is good but they couldn't figure out what to do with it so the ending is kind of dumb.

Also in the later seasons the mid season two parters were better than the finale which I'd imagine wasn't the intention, you'd think they'd save the best for the finale and premier the next year. Chain of Command and Gambit are both great.

 

[Tosk]

Also in the later seasons the mid season two parters were better than the finale which I'd imagine wasn't the intention, you'd think they'd save the best for the finale and premier the next year. Chain of Command and Gambit are both great.

The Mids had the advantage of being written together, whereas the Ends were worked on with a big gap between them. So they often had no idea how the conclusion would go when they finished working on the first part.

 

[Paul Weaver]

Agree Descent is the worst although mainly for the second part, the set-up is good but they couldn't figure out what to do with it so the ending is kind of dumb

Descent Part 2 has a great B plot with Crusher in charge, part 1 is somewhat meh. It's a rare reuse of a technology introduced in earlier episodes too (metaphasic shields).

 

[Atomic_Monkey]

Descent Part 2 has a great B plot with Crusher in charge, part 1 is somewhat meh. It's a rare reuse of a technology introduced in earlier episodes too (metaphasic shields).

I liked Descent Part 1 because I thought it built up a lot of tension. I agree that Beverly was great in Part 2 (one of her few shining moments), but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I was unhappy with Part 2 because it undermined the menace of the Borg by making them second fiddle to Lore and humanizing them. In my humble opinion, all the tension built up in Part 1 went to waste.

 

[Tallguy]

I liked Descent Part 1 because I thought it built up a lot of tension. I agree that Beverly was great in Part 2 (one of her few shining moments), but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I was unhappy with Part 2 because it undermined the menace of the Borg by making them second fiddle to Lore and humanizing them. In my humble opinion, all the tension built up in Part 1 went to waste.

The one thing I liked was that after all of the agonizing over what to do with Hugh it turned out that sending him back had terrible unintended consequences for the Borg.

 

[DonIago]

I liked seeing Hugh again, but thought he was underserved by the script. Crusher in command would have worked better for me if the things she did to outwit the Borg weren't all things we'd literally seen her learn about that season. In retrospect it comes across as though "Suspicions" was written so that Bev would learn the tricks that she could utilize in "Descent". I would have liked to have seen more original thinking and a little less technobabble, I suppose. But otherwise, it's a good moment for her.

 

[FredH]

It was Star Trek's Who Shot J.R. (Look it up.)

Oh, Dallas and that mystery were so ubiquitous that all these decades later I still remember who shot J.R., even though I never watched the show and know nothing about the character who did it, or why she shot him.

 

[somebuddyX]

Just watched Times Arrow Part 1 and that still works really well for me. The ending is deliciously creepy and feels more like a something out of X files or a horror movie. Jerry Hardin is absolutely amazing as Clemens and holy shit he's still alive! I cannot even picture him as Deep Throat at all. And I loved Data's past adventure and seeing young Guinan. I don't know how the second part stacks up, probably not as good, and this may not be a great cliffhanger but I think it works as a season closer.

 

[AntonyF]

I think they varied, but I never sensed an overall pattern just differences in execution.


Post-BOBW I found Redemption more and more problematic as the years went on, part two feels so unattached to part one. I never really ranked Unification but its two parts also felt a bit detached.

I adore Time's Arrow.

Descent is okay and felt like some nice concept stuff, but not great.

Birthright has always been a snoozefest.

Gambit is a lot of fun with a great cliffhanger.

 

[SteveJRogers]

Oh, Dallas and that mystery were so ubiquitous that all these decades later I still remember who shot J.R., even though I never watched the show and know nothing about the character who did it, or why she shot him.

BTW, it amuses me that at least one of the tricks used by soaps to bring actors back from character demises ended up being used to bring that actress’ niece back to TNG!

 

[SteveJRogers]

The worst thing BoBW ever did was to be so successful that it imposed the need to have something like it at the end of every season thereafter. I think we'd have been fine without that. HTF was any other story going to live up to human annihilation?

I also think a lot of the two parters after didn’t have the same “EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS SHOW COULD BE FOREVER/FOR A TIME ALTERED” stakes that BoBW did

Like you kind of knew going in that the reset button was to be hit by the end, or the stakes were more personal than world defining.

 

[CoveTom]

DS9's "Call to Arms," with its evacuation of the station and the final shot of the rendezvous with the fleet was, in spite of not actually being a cliffhanger, better than all the TNG cliffhangers that came after BoBW, IMHO.

 

[Farscape One]

DS9's "Call to Arms," with its evacuation of the station and the final shot of the rendezvous with the fleet was, in spite of not actually being a cliffhanger, better than all the TNG cliffhangers that came after BoBW, IMHO.

Fully agreed!

In fact, I'd "CALL TO ARMS" as the best season finale of not only DS9, but of the franchise. Everyone had their moment to shine, and it was a perfect way to get all the pieces that were in play over the last year going forward at once.

Just flawless!


"The Best of Both Worlds" is still excellent, but in the end it really just mostly focuses on Riker. I gravitate to ones that involve the whole crew, or most of them.

 

[DonIago]

"The Best of Both Worlds" is still excellent, but in the end it really just mostly focuses on Riker. I gravitate to ones that involve the whole crew, or most of them.

This is one of the reasons why I find "All Good Things" to be just a little disappointing. It's a great Picard and Q story, and it has a neat (if slightly mishandled) premise, but I wish the secondary characters got a bit more to do.

 

[Farscape One]

This is one of the reasons why I find "All Good Things" to be just a little disappointing. It's a great Picard and Q story, and it has a neat (if slightly mishandled) premise, but I wish the secondary characters got a bit more to do.

I hear you about "All Good Things...". I still think it's excellent and is the perfect bookend to the pilot with the trial of humanity, but I would have liked some more stuff given to the rest of our heroes.