Yay, I'm not alone! Honestly, my first reaction to "The Inner Light" was that Patrick Stewart's son was a pretty horrible actor. I remember thinking it was a shame he didn't inherit his father's talent.
The Inner Light puts me to sleep, forty minutes of watching Picard watch a movie and the less said about Picard's decision in I, Borg the better.
I did like "The Inner Light" and "I, Borg." But I also like "Descent," which I know most people hate. On DS9--I also like "Move Along Home." Maybe it has to do with the fact that I first saw it when I was little. It's the perfect episode for a child, and thankfully (at least, I think it's a good thing), even though I'm older, I can still see it with the eyes of a child and enjoy it.
I thought the first part of "Descent" was interesting. I liked the idea that introducing emotion into the Borg Collective could backfire on Starfleet. And tying in Lore with the Borg was not a bad concept. But the second part was pretty lackluster.
A lot of people say that about the second half of "Descent," but honestly, I've never found any of it bothersome. In fact, it's what I liked about that episode, and about "I, Borg," that put me totally off of the character of Seven of Nine (in addition to her being a transparent grab for the teenage male demographic). It seems like a major, major continuity break with everything we knew about individualized Borg to that point. Also, add me to the group that liked "Masks." Again, I wonder if it was due to my age, when I first saw it, similar to "Move Along Home," but even though I haven't rewatched it since (I actually don't re-watch most TNG because I don't want to spoil my memories of the parts I did like) I can still remember how much I enjoyed it.
TNG is my least favorite post-TOS series. ENT is my favorite post-TOS series. I don't get the Patrick Stewart worship. TOS: I think The Corbomite Maneuver is overrated. ETA: VOY: I was glad when TBTB brought Seven of Nine on board. I honestly never understood the big deal fans made over the terminally boring Kes.
I was glad they brought her on as well, and not just because I was a teenaged male at the time. But as for Kes - I liked Kes. There was great potential in that character. It certainly wasn't the fault of Jennifer Lien that she could come off as boring. I place that fault squarely at the feet of the writers who obviously didn't know what to do with her, or who didn't want to do anything with her. If they were going to get rid of a character in order to bring on Seven - which I admit was necessary - there were more plausible candidates. Kim, obviously, is the first choice - talk about boring. Chakotay is another - after Seska's death, he really had little to contribute. Neelix is another - CAN'T.... STAND... HIM! To be honest, even though I really like him, I would have rather they got rid of Tuvok than Kes.
I wish they had added Rain Robinson to the crew of VOYAGER, as was apparently considered. That could have perked things up a bit.
Kes didn't bother me...I would've liked to see more done with her, but I at least felt like she was there to be a character, not a ratings ploy by writers desperate to prop up their falling ratings with boobs instead of writing.
I thought McCoy was hotter than Kirk OR Spock. While I wouldn't call myself a fan of the pairing, I didn't have a problem with Chakotay/Seven. I thought Jeri Taylor's books about the VOY crew were horrible. I liked the Troi/Worf pairing.
But it backfired because the writing for 7 of 9's character was some of the best in the series and boobs had nothing to do with it.
There were several key problems with her, though. It is very clear from what was established in TNG that there is in fact nothing that would have forbidden strong emotions (indeed, Hugh, while certainly as smart as Seven, was very, very emotional and clearly a heart-over-head type person!), and frankly, I think we should have seen her, rather than being emotionally dead and Vulcan-like, experience childlike emotions. Extremes, in other words. Now, I could go on with other problems in the writing, but that continuity breach is one of the most aggravating things for me.
I'll defend Seven by saying she received some of the show's best writing. However, having her be child-like and not Vulcan-like would have been a wonderful idea.
Put me in the camp of loving DS9's "Move Along Home." Don't know what it is, but I always really enjoyed it...
I used to hate it, but now I enjoy it as its campy like "Little Ship" and now that I don't take it super-serious, its much more entertaining episode. that, and that song WILL get stuck in your head...
I was disappointed went watching Voyager's first few episodes that Neelix and Kes were not sharing quarters, nor apparently having sex. Also that the series never made clear exactly how they first met, and managed to initially interact.