"Fixing" TNG

[Gary7]

I do agree there were too many holodeck malfunctions. I find it reprehensible that such a device doesn't have a MANUAL OVERRIDE, such that no faulty programming can prevent the holodeck from being shut off. AND, any manual shut off would invoke a firmware routine that would conduct a SAFE SHUTDOWN. Lastly, safety protocols should require a TWO LEVEL authentication to disengage. AND, it would only be permitted for a fixed period of time that cannot be overridden by any programming. This way if there was some silly malfunction and safety protocols could not be re-engaged, at least there would be a limited time until engaged again.

 

[JJohnson]

For me here are some of the my favourites and ones which i consider pretty bad.
The Strongest:
1. Where No One Has Gone Before (The first introduction of the Traveller)
2. Coming of Age / Conspiracy (The whole 2 story arc involving Admiral Quinn and Commander Remmick, I thought was great.)
3. The Arsenal Of Freedom (love the story and great ep too IMHO)
4. 11001001 (Love the whole thing with the Bynars)
5. We'll Always Have Paris (Love the whole Time repetition thing as well as the whole Picard and Janice love story.
6. The Battle (Love the whole mind-conrol thing.)

The Weakest:
1. The naked now (continuation of the TOS Story The Naked Time)
2. Code Of Honour (because of the whole racist vibe to it)
3. Angel One (not the best but like all the others here, could have been developed a lot better.)

To be fair to TNG though, one should try and remember that this show was just trying to finding its feet and it eventually did, thank goodness.

Naked Now was an interesting episode but it'd probably have had a lot more angry folks and perhaps some liaisons happening. That's in my maybe drop it list.

I'd put Encounter at Farpoint in the 'mild rewrite' list of cleaning up a few bits here and there.

Come to think of it, maybe we should categorize stories in a way like this:
Keep as is - overall a good episode, nothing to really change at all
Mild rewrite - just a few things here and there need to be fixed or rewritten
moderate rewrite - a character, a scene, or a subplot or something needs some rewriting, not just a touch up
heavy rewrite - the concept itself is interesting and could be a good story but the episode needs to be redone from scratch
trash it - the episode is not salvageable and the core concept of the episode is not worth saving.

Given that five-way split:
Keep as-is: The Battle
Mild rewrite: Encounter at Farpoint,
Moderate rewrite: 11001001
Heavy rewrite: Angel One
Trash it: Code of Honor

I have the first two seasons on blu-ray so I'll look through them and try to work out which ones I'd keep and which ones I'd 'fix' up soon.