Ranking the Episodes of Season One

Excellent

Conspiracy
11001001

Very Good

The Arsenal of Freedom
The Battle
Hide and Q
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Big Goodbye

Average

Encounter at Farpoint
Where No One Has Gone Before
Lonely Among Us
Datalore
Home Soil
Skin of Evil
We'll Always Have Paris

Below Average

The Last Outpost
Haven
Too Short a Season
Symbiosis
The Neutral Zone
When the Bough Breaks

Bad

The Naked Now
Code of Honor
Justice
Angel One

 

Season one is certainly more of a slog than later seasons. But I do quite like The Naked Now and Skin of Evil. The Naked Now isn't as good as The Naked Time, but it's a lot of fun. The experience definitely stayed with Data for the rest of his life anyway.

Skin of Evil isn't helped by Armus not looking very threatening, but the rest of the episode is good stuff. Tasha is killed in the line of duty, and her friends at her memorial really chokes me up. Data speaking to Picard at the end about being confused about his thoughts was wonderful.

Good
11001001
Conspiracy
Where No One Has Gone Before
Skin of Evil
The Naked Now
Datalore
The Arsenal of Freedom
The Battle
Hide and Q
Coming of Age
Heart of Glory
The Big Goodbye

 

I don't know that I could call anything in the first season excellent, but Conspiracy definitely comes the closest. Great beginning and great last scene. It was missing a second act, though.

 

I love Conspiracy. It annoys me when some fans say that TNG played it too safe or was bland. In Conspiracy starfleet officers eat maggots, Dr. Crusher saves Worf from a fiesty vitamin-empowered Admiral, and Picard and Riker blow a man's head off and save the entire The Federation!

 

Yep, that's why I said it was excellent. This was a Halloween episode done really well

 

It's good that they were attempting continuity at that stage of the show as well. It's a shame that we never saw those aliens again.

 

It's a shame Conspiracy wasn't done as a two-parter, not just for pacing that story but also to get the writers in the mindset of doing mid-season cliffhangers. But I suppose the demands of syndication made it tricky so soon into the series.

The rendezvous at Dytallix at the start of that episode was the first scene that made me feel that TNG Starfleet was bigger than just the Enterprise.

 

"Code oF Honor" is the worst of the worst. It's as if it's been written by someone who hated the series and wanted to make sure it got canceled the next day.

 

Oh I quite liked that episode, hammily acted but lots of little character moments particularly from Picard ( like getting uppity with Data about French language, and later realising he was starting to lecture the crew )

 

I think one has to trash Code of Honor just to be PC. I find it an entertaining piece of camp with a good moral lesson. Lutan had no code of honor so when his plans were foiled by Dr. Crusher's medical skill and Yareena was revived, he lost everything.

 

Technically she never died though, so they just cheated the audience.

 

Good

Conspiracy
11001001
Encounter At Farpoint
Skin Of Evil
The Big Goodbye
Heart Of Glory
The Arsenal Of Freedom
Coming Of Age
Lonely Among Us
Code Of Honor
Haven
Datalore
The Battle
Justice
Where No One Has Gone Before
Home Soil
When The Bough Breaks
The Neutral Zone

Bad

Angel One
Hide And Q
The Naked Now
The Last Outpost
Too Short A Season

Ugly

Symbiosis
We'll Always Have Paris

 

Yeah, I made that point in my video.

There's nothing wrong with having a patriarchal society portrayed by blacks. I mean, if you're going to have it, someone has to do it. If Star Trek had repeatedly demeaned or portrayed black actors in a negative way, that would be different, but it didn't.

 

"Code Of Honor" is basically "Mogambo" on an "alien planet". It couldn't be more racist if it tried.

 

I'd contend that it's actually more racist to comment on the colour of the actors' skin. What does it matter?

They were portraying a fairly advanced society which had technology on par with or ahead of the Feds, in some respects. They just had some social customs on top of that. Were they all black? To be honest I didn't think about that until it was raised here.

Everyone in the episode acted with honour except the head honcho. Everyone agreed that he was greedy and dishonorable. The fact that his skin was blue or green or pearlescent purple isn't relevant.

Was Justice racist because all the dippy, sex-mad Edo were white ( I think? ).

 

For me, even the bad episodes of season 1 have things to defend it. Not the least of which is because it's the first season and the writers and actors are finding the characters.

In a way, I don't think this is a fair contest. The season that should really be looked at with a cold eye is season 7. I think it had fewer gems than season 1. That season doesn't really have any excuses to be less than good.

I look at the TNG series as a book... season 1 is the prologue, seasons 2-6 are the book, and season 7 is the epilogue. And honestly, the real meat of TNG is seasons 2-6... at least, that's what I have always thought.

 

I am sorry but I don't buy that. That episode was/is racist to the bone. The behavior, the customs and the skin color (which was the same for every inhabitant) after (or before?) we had a planet with only white people are offensive. Plus the episode is filled with racist clichés. With very little modifications it would have been similar to the films of Nazi propaganda that the Germans made before WWII.

 

"Code of Honor" was before "Justice".

 

Home Soil was perhaps not the best episode, but the Ugly bags insult/description is still excellent. I had to write a song about it.

 

That's your opinion and that's fine, but that's not an argument. And frankly the idea that it could not be more racist if it tried is absurdly hyperbolic.