It's been rather fun revisiting these early episodes, not the least of which has been encountering some surprises along the way.
Like many people, including a great many avid TNG fans, I basically write off most of Season 1 TNG as a discouraging dream that's not much fun, indeed mostly depressing, to dwell upon. But time and perspective can often allow you to see things in a new light. Back in 1987/88 it was easy to focus on all the things we didn't like and were disappointed while also overlooking potentially good things about the show. How interesting to see that things aren't as bad as we tend to remember them.
TNG's 1st season is often dismissed in much the same way as TOS' 3rd season: yeah, there are some okay moments, but generally it's a huge letdown. Well I've revised my opinion albeit with some qualifiers.
I used a five star rating system in grading the episodes and the season as a whole:
***** = Excellent
**** = Good
*** = Okay
** = Poor
* = Bad
And so out of a potential score of 125 the season scored 64 or an episode average of 2.56 out of 5. On the face of it that looks rather disappointing. And this gels with what many people, if not most, seem to think of the first season. But things look different when you start to break things down.
**** Unfortunately no episodes scored a 5. Some came close, but I didn't see anything that was simply so good as to put it over the top.
**** This is where they got most of it right except for perhaps a little polish. 4 episodes or 16% percent of the season hit this level.
"Where No One Has Gone Before"
"11001001"
"Symbiosis"
"Conspiracy"
*** These were okay in the sense of being competent. I don't have major criticisms of these other than a lack of polish and generally feeling they each could have been better with a little more effort. 9 episodes or 36% rated this level.
"Haven"
"The Last Outpost"
"Datalore"
"Home Soil"
"When The Bough Breaks"
"Heart Of Glory"
"The Arsenal Of Freedom"
"Skin Of Evil"
"The Neutral Zone"
** These were disappointing because you can see the potential, but it's mostly clumsily handled. 9 episodes or 36% only got this far.
"Encounter At Farpoint" (I treat this as one episode rather than two)
"The Naked Now"
"Lonely Among Us"
"The Battle"
"Too Short A Season"
"The Big Goodbye"
"Angel One"
"Coming Of Age"
"We'll Always Have Paris"
* These were just bad. Either it was a bad story idea and/or nothing seemed to go right. 3 episodes or 12% failed to get out of the basement.
"Code Of Honor"
"Justice"
"Hide & Q"
Of course other folks could interpret and rate the episodes differently, but I suspect it wouldn't skew the final results all that much differently. And note that sometimes the line between one rating and the next could be awfully burred.
Things begin to look differently when you break the season in two. Consequently you can't help but notice that the episode average rates a 1.92 in the first half of the season and a distinctly more promising 3 in the second half. In other words most of the 1 and 2 rated episodes are in the first half of the season while most of the 3 and 4 rated are in the second half. This follows my overall impression that as the season progressed things began to settle down and get better, markedly better. And so we have 48% (rating 1 and 2) of the episodes being disappointing and 52% (rating 3 and 4) being better than generally remembered.
The often cited poor performances of the cast fall predominantly within the first half of the season and most particularly in the earliest episodes. By mid season the show gets into a groove of some consistency. I was pleasantly surprised to see this. My impression is that the show reflected some of the chaos going on behind-the-scenes. As the situation improved so did the filmed product.
In 1987 I didn't consider TNG to be a worthy successor to the original series. I felt they simply got too many things wrong. Looking at it now (at least those early days) I'm not so sure. In many respects early TNG feels quite TOS like while also struggling to find its own identity reflecting that times had changed.
Things I liked?
- Casting Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard. He was a deft bit of casting which really lent some weight to the show particularly when it had to get by with less than impressive materiel.
- Data could be interesting (as well as amusing) particularly when they refrained from overplaying his naivete in regard to knowledge of humanity.
- Having a female Security Chief even if I didn't care for the actress portraying her. The idea was still a good one. That said if Tasha had hung around then one wonders if Worf would ever have come to the fore. We'll never really know.
- Worf. Having a Klingon aboard really signaled a change in the status quo.
- Getting to see some new alien races.
- The new uniforms. Not bad overall, but it could have been better and it should have been a more credible two-piece affair.
- Main title theme. In 1987 I was quite put off by the reuse of the TMP's main theme. I saw it as another example of cheap think. But since I've gotten used to it and it doesn't bother me anymore. Indeed it does rather establish something of a spiritual link to earlier
Star Trek.
- Music. While It's a challenge to recall specific instances I generally prefer the music of the earlier seasons to what would later become a staple of contemporary Trek: a soulless collection of random notes.
Things I didn't like:
- The new
Enterprise. I'm used to the design now, but I still think they could have done much better. I also have an issue with it's size. It's bigger than it needs to be although part of that is because it has to accommodate a thousand people including families. The ship looks decent from some angles yet terribly ungainly from others.
- Families. This was really ill-conceived in light of the ship could reach a starbase or Federation world or even Earth relatively easily, compounded by having family members able to visit rather conveniently.
- "Dustbuster" hand phasers. I think these things looked awkward and just plain dumb.
- Arrogance. Sometimes the characters could be a little too smug and self-congratulatory about humanity.
- Deanna Troi. I loathe this character yet mostly because of how she was utilized. She annoyed me to no end whenever she opened her mouth. And most of what she said was patently obvious and totally useless and redundant.
- Wesley Crusher. Wesley wasn't obnoxious or "hero of the day" as he often painted. But he was just a little too earnest and too innocent to be credible. He seemed more like a teenaged version of the Beav from
Leave It To Beaver. But he was also a reminder of the failed concept of having families aboard ship.
- Inconsistency. One of the things that irked me was how the ship was portrayed. A vessel the size of the 1701D, assigned to range into unknown territory, should have the best science facilities in flight...and yet often we'd hear a remark that some phenomena or other would have to wait for a full science vessel for further and complete investigation.
This was just too stupid.
- Denise Crosby. She was just ill-suited for the role of Tasha Yar.
- Jonathan Frakes. While nowhere near as ill-suited as Denise Crosby I don't think he was well cast for the role (at least at this point). He could say the words, but I often found his delivery lacking and he seemed to often strike a pose that was a little too self-conscious.
- F/X. Originally TNG's f/x could be seen as something of a revelation with their more vibrant colour and added visible detail...as seen on the CRT televisions of the 1980s and '90s. Now, as seen on contemporary flatscreens, the f/x range from okay to disappointing. Far too often I thought they looked almost like animation and rather cartoony.
Overall 1st season TNG comes off distinctly better than I remember, particularly the second half of the season. And in fairness it's not a bad followup to TOS, and in some respects a better followup than some of what we got in the films during the '80s
One other little thing I noticed. When I first watched these episodes I resented hearing the familiar
Enterprise fanfare during ship fly-bys, as I felt we were seeing an impostor rather than the "real"
Enterprise. This time around I actually felt it as something reassuring. Odd.
Next, onward to Season 2...
Oh how I love that line (and the way Frakes delivers it). Every time I hear it, I just laugh and laugh. I smile just reading it. I love how absurdly biased and implausible that simulation was. One of the comedic high points of the series!
I'm right there with ya on that one. Of the episodes I can actually remember of TNG (not much of season 1), I think my pick for worst episode would have to be "Skin of Evil". I know I was supposed to be moved at the end, but I just thought the whole thing was stupid, so all the maudlin stuff just bored me. I hate "Samaratan Snare" too, because the Picard surgery plot is just dull medical drama and the Pakleds are the most annoying characters in the whole series.
