Do you watch'em ALL?

[JesterFace]

If you watch TNG from normal TV broadcasts this might not concern you, but if you're like me, always watching TNG from DVD/bluray/whatever format where you can choose what to watch and when, do you watch every single episode, no matter what?

Every show has it stinkers, TNG too, so I skip the ones I don't like or the ones that have a plot hole(s) big enough to drive a train through...

 

[jimbotron]

When I got the Blu-rays, I watched the season from beginning to end first, including the stinkers. But for repeat viewing, I skip the worst of the worst - Code of Honor, Angel One, etc.

There are three sets of episodes for me - ones I will always want to rewatch, those I will watch if I want to do a marathon, and those I don't ever want to watch.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I watch most of them, but I skip over half of season 1, and most of the Lwaxana or kids episodes.

 

[dg1379]

Definately watch all the way through with the blurays; and then again with any commentaries. But after that, I usually just pick the ones I'm interested in.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

I watch a lot of Star Trek from across the franchise pretty much on a daily basis. I certainly have my favourtites, but I do at least try to resample some of the less than stellar episodes from time to time. Sometimes, they can surprisingly nudge up a notch or two in my overall appreciation.

It's always worth revisting a Trek you didn't like IMHO - never say never again!

 

[ChristopherPike]

When it comes to the Blu rays, I'm afraid I do tend to just pick specific episodes on the disc. Having watched all the special features first... Terrible! And I don't recommend it for first timers, because those documentaries discuss all the spoilers. I do go back to revisit those shows I was never been mad keen on later. Lwaxana Troi ones... God bless, Majel Barratt Roddenberry. Never my thing. I found them embarrassing in my teens and only slightly less as an adult. Some came as a surprise like "Half a Life" though.

My excuse is, I'm from an era where you had to watch them in order from VHS tapes. I just couldn't risk fast forwarding or stopping and starting, because the machine might snap or chew. Now I can just go nuts.

It would be completely different for DS9. TNG is pretty easy to just drop into and within reason, know there's maybe only one prior episode to get up to speed on. Most of the time, not even that.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

You know, in retrospect it's amazing that they never made a Lwaxana Troi/Q episode! This is good for us all...

 

[jimbotron]

I'm surprised they made a combined Lwaxana and Alexander episode and not have it manage to be the worst episode.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

I'm surprised they made a combined Lwaxana and Alexander episode and not have it manage to be the worst episode.

That is true! On paper the idea would just seem to look like ..!

 

[Count]

I watch them all, even the crappy ones. The only episode I've ever skipped in a series rewatch was Profile & Lace from DS9, but I watch all of TNG regardless.

Honestly, I think I watch the Code of Honor really more for the nostalgia then actual story. It was the first episode I remember watching with my father when I was a little kid (that and Datalore, but to be fair, I was 4 years old at the time).

 

[Lance]

Yeah, I'm an "all or nothing" guy. I'm the same with any show. If I set myself the task of rewatching a TV series, I prefer to see it from the beginning and work through to the end. Good episodes bad episodes *and* ugly episodes, it's all the same to me.

In fact I was quite surprised when I first came to this BBS a couple years ago and discovered that a lot of people do prefer the "pick and mix" approach (ie, they choose which episodes they want to watch, and then only watch those episodes).

I think every Trek series has their mix of good and bad, and if one chooses to ignore the bad then it's kind of diluting the formula. You need to watch the bad episodes as an offset to the good ones, and also unless one goes out of one's way to watch the episodes that are widely considered bad you'll never be able to eventually re-evaluate and possibly appreciate them on their own terms. Which I've managed to do with a lot of Star Trek's more maligned instalments over the years.

 

[SPCTRE]

If I set myself the task of rewatching a TV series, I prefer to see it from the beginning and work through to the end.

... "work" being the operative word here with some episodes

 

[2takesfrakes]

I try to avoid the bad episodes - like those featuring Lwaxana Troi, for example - but sooner, or later, you realize that you've gone through the Good and the Mediocre and if you want "more" TNG, you're going to have to resort to watching the Bad ones, too. So yes, I watch them all, but not out of zeal for STAR TREK, it's just that there's really not much choice about it. Eventually, you get used to the shows you're selective about ...

 

[BillJ]

I jump all over the place. I might go from "Where No Man Has Gone Before" to "Death Wish" to "Basics" to Star Trek: The Motion Picture to "Q Who" over the course of a few days.

My mood decides what I watch, not production order.

 

[jimbotron]

Eventually I'm going to rip these episodes onto a hard drive so I can watch in any order without having to swap discs.

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

Eventually I'm going to rip these episodes onto a hard drive so I can watch in any order without having to swap discs.

I've already done this for all of Star Trek - I can highly recommend it! Like BillJ, I can jump around the franchise at the touch of a button. Instant play back.

Other benefits include no disc loading times, no legal warnings etc. I've also organised TOS into the original production order and VOY into a 19 episode first season as filmed etc.

Also, you can just hit play and let the episodes run in order from where ever you choose to jump in.

I'll just add, I have purchased all the box-sets - and any ripping I do is purely, and only, for my own media system. I just store the boxes away once I've completed the said ripping.

 

[Alrik]

I watch all of them. I have found that some of the 'bad' ones aren't quite as bad a I had remembered.

You know, in retrospect it's amazing that they never made a Lwaxana Troi/Q episode! This is good for us all...

In 91' Peter David wrote Q-in-Law (TNG #18) which put Q and Lwaxana together. I don't remember how good the overall story was, but I do remember there were parts that made me actually laugh out loud.

 

[jimbotron]

Eventually I'm going to rip these episodes onto a hard drive so I can watch in any order without having to swap discs.

I've already done this for all of Star Trek - I can highly recommend it! Like BillJ, I can jump around the franchise at the touch of a button. Instant play back.

I was thinking of getting a 3-5 TB external drive from Seagate. What do you use? I assume you rip only the episodes with the 7.1 mixes without compression. How big is each episode, about 8GB?

I can go all the way with these rips. I have the software to revisit season 2 by tweaking the episodes - cutting out the substandard stock model shots and dropping in the better ones from seasons 1 and 3, and improving the lighting for the unique shots that can't be replaced. That would eliminate most of the bad shots. Plus I could tweak the DNRed shots by adding a light layer of grain to improve consistency.

Another tweak would be to go back to episodes like Encounter at Farpoint, Sins of the Father and The Inner Light and swap out the CGI with the improved shots that were used later in the show. I could also go back and get rid of nearly all of the blurry 4-footer shots that were seen throughout seasons 4 and parts of 5 with the improved CGI version.

It'd take a long time, but would be worth it in the long run.

 

[Makarov]

I watch everything. For me it's all about nostalgia. I like to simulate watching a completely random episode. Sometimes watching TNG as a kid you got a clunker of an episode. It's all part of the experience to me. But with TNG there's hardly an episode I hate enough to not watch.

I do the same thing with twilight zone box sets. With twilight zone I actually have a random episode generator. I like the feeling of randomly catching an episode on TV.

 

[jimbotron]

I watch everything. For me it's all about nostalgia. I like to simulate watching a completely random episode. Sometimes watching TNG as a kid you got a clunker of an episode. It's all part of the experience to me. But with TNG there's hardly an episode I hate enough to not watch.

I feel that way about seasons 6 and 7. That's when I became a fan and started watching it religiously. I was able to catch the other episodes in syndication, but I each of the episodes in seasons 6-7 as they aired, and eagerly looked forward to each one and enjoyed them after it was over, good or bad.

I still vividly remember going to see Jurassic Park, then coming home to watch Descent Part I.