Episodes that got better or worse after repeated viewings

[Trekker09]

I always enjoy “The Next Phase” – one of Ronald Moore’s best stories, IMHO….Ro and Geordi passing through people and parts of the ship, their encounter with the phased Romulan, the party with Riker playing the trombone. Michelle Forbes brings a spark, has some great lines -
“Wait a minute, what're you gonna say about me?!" - to Riker
"I don't believe this. I'm dead, you can't even hear me and I'm still intimidated by you" -- to Picard

 

[DonIago]

^I thought that episode was pretty universally considered a good one except for some of the technical anomalies.

 

[Oddish]

It was trying to do "Ghost" (the 1990 Patrick Swayze movie), but without believing in ghosts.

 

[gweeps]

TNG's
'Qpid'

It was at first cheesy, and now I see it's merely campy.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I found the two-parter pilot "Encounter at Farpoint" to be underrated. I know it gets a lot of hate but the more I watch it, the more I like it. Aside from some bad acting at times (which I can forgive since Gene didn't really have a clear path for them at this point and didn't even know if the show would last after one season), both episodes are enjoyable and do a solid job at introducing us to these characters and making us care about them.

Encounter At Farpoint is to TNG almost as The Cage was to TOS. It's full of weird stuff that gets ironed out as the show goes on. I think when you take into account that it is essentially a pilot and it's possible to enjoy it for what it is. I always enjoy Q (YMMV), there's saucer separation and Bones. Like you, the more I see it, the more fond I am of it.

Edited to add - I think it's bold as well. It barely, barely leans into TOS and very much starts to assert it's own vision from the get go. There was a lot of anti-TNG sentiment at the time from fans (and the TOS cast) who thought only Kirk/Spock etc. were Star Trek. TNG may stumble at the gate but in the long run it proved that Star Trek was bigger than just being TOS. The characters are sort of lumpy in Farpoint, but they are all in some form there.

 

[suarezguy]

I do think "Cause and Effect" (director Frakes trying a little too hard to not reuse any footage and yet the scenes still feeling the same) and "The First Duty" (a little too forcefully one-sided including Locarno feeling too jerky) do slightly decline with repeated viewings but they remain good episodes.

 

[E-DUB]

"Frame of Mind". First time I watched it was like: WTF!!!! But on repeated viewings it comes across as TNG does Twilight Zone.

 

[Verteron]

In some ways I think Star Trek Generations has aged better than Star Trek First Contact, or maybe that's just me getting old and nostalgic.

 

[Lynx]

For me, a better way to articulate my feelings is certain characters come off better on rewatches.

Pulaski is a perfect example. When it was first aired, I hated her. Her berating of Data REALLY soured me, because he was my favorite character.

As I got older and rewatched more often, I took a step back and realized just how much she actually grew in that one season she was in. She started off thinking he was a walking calculator, until she gradually not only respected him as a person, but was fully on his side when he was in contact with Sarjenka in "Pen Pals". She even goes so far as to say the little girl is important to him, and that is reason enough for her.

I ended up really appreciating and loving her character as an adult. In fact, I daresay she got the best development of all the TNG leads in 1 year than almost all of them got in 7.

(And I truly love all the leads, but the nature of the episodic format really did hurt them in actual development. DS9 learned the lessons of what TNG didn't do very, very well.)

I had almost the same feelings about Pulaski.

I never hated the character but I didn't like her. I couldn't understand why they dumped Dr. Crusher and I was very happy when she came back the next season.

In recent years I've re-evalued my opinion about Pulaski. She was quite OK and I wish that she would have showed up in the later seasons from time to time.

But I still think that Crusher was much better.

As for the episodes, I haven't changed my mind that much. I found most of the episodes good when I watched them back then and I have almost the same opinion now about the episodes I found bad back then.

However, I did a TNG re-watch last fall and thought that Menáge à Troi somewhat better than I thought it was before.

 

[Lynx]

"Dark Page" is one of the very few TNG episodes where Lwaxana wasn't totally obnoxious. The other being "Half a Life", which I hate passionately, virulently, and eternally for reasons unrelated to Lwaxana.

I can agree on that.

As for an episode where Lwaxana is obnoxious and the episode itself is somewhat mediocre but I actually like to watch is Haven, all thanks to Mr. Homn.

That scene with the dinner when he constantly bang that gong-gong or whatever is actually funny.

 

[Trekker09]

“Tin Man” is one I never used to like– the vessel looked like a pine cone, and Tam Elbrun, the hyper-Betazoid in a Peter Pan suit, got on everyone’s nerves. Took awhile to accept that the annoying attitude was his reaction to the constant intrusion of others’ thoughts. And – a space ship that was organic and sentient, mourning its lost crew - ? The one thing I later came to appreciate was how both Tam and Gomtuu found peace and belonging when they were joined in a symbiotic, mutually benevolent relationship.
Data-- Is that the purpose of existence…to care for someone?
Tam-- It is for me.

 

[Pikirk_Janesisko]

Well, I just watched Timescape and it was one of the episodes that I used to like. It seems to get worse everytime I rewatch. Now I'm puzzled as to why this episode is so praised, it just resumes itself to a lot of painful technobabble, random weird things happening and boring talk scenes. It's a combination of the worst elements that would eventually become a staple on the later day Berman Trek. And I wasn't surprised to see that it was written by Brannon Braga, which it explains everything. It's not the worst episode of the series, but it's pretty low on the list.

 

[Mudd]

“Tin Man” is one I never used to like– the vessel looked like a pine cone, and Tam Elbrun, the hyper-Betazoid in a Peter Pan suit, got on everyone’s nerves.

Yeah, well, the surviving author is a somewhat notorious dick.

 

[Summer Solstice]

This isn't about a particular episode but about the later seasons. When Data starts talking about Spot The Cat it seems weird to me now that he doesn't show everyone photos of Spot on his phone.

 

[Verteron]

When I was young I thought Masks was a boring snoozefest but as an adult who's done a bit of hobby acting I really appreciate Spiner's character study, plus the symbolism riddle is actually pretty neat.

 

[Trekker09]

“The Price” took me several rewatches to understand the negotiation and the deception staged by Ral and Goss. The dialogue was outstanding— Beverly and Deanna at the gym. Ral and Riker’s verbal sparring, Ral and Troi. One scene that grew on me…the dinner when Devinoni responds to Deanna’s accusation by saying she uses her own Betazoid ability to gain advantage in “life and death” situations, instead of “just business” as he does. A fair point about ethics…but I wonder if Troi ever actually did that. And why she is suddenly able to read Ferengi minds when she couldn’t before.
It also dawned on me later that it’s the first time we hear about galaxy quadrants, and it anticipates DS9’ focus on a stable wormhole--the 2 Ferengi stranded in the Delta quadrant came up again in “False Profits.”
This became one of my favorites….too bad it was Hannah Shearer’s last TNG episode.

 

[Oddish]

but I wonder if Troi ever actually did that. And why she is suddenly able to read Ferengi minds when she couldn’t before.

I call that a "world under construction" inconsistency, and I usually try to be tolerant of them... within limits.

 

[DonIago]

What I find a more interesting ethical conundrum is whether Troi could unconsciously sense others' emotions and react in a way that might be construed as taking advantage of them without even realizing she was doing so. Sure she wouldn't be directly responsible in such cases, but if she knows it's a possibility, then doesn't she bear some responsibility?

Of course, humans already have varying levels of empathy and use it both consciously and unconsciously to manipulate others at times.

 

[Farscape One]

I think the dividing line between Troi and Ral is she uses her powers to help others, while Ral uses them to help only himself. He's not necessarily a bad guy, just one I wouldn't be able to trust.

 

[DonIago]

That's a pretty solid dividing line.