Revisiting ST-TNG...

[Trekker4747]

"Coming Of Age" **

Wesley tests to attend Starfleet Academy while an Admiral investigates Picard and the Enterprise.

I have mixed feelings about this episode. It has some decent moments sprinkled throughout it, and I can't really fault any of the performances, but I didn't really care for it overall. Essentially it didn't really engage me.

Firstly I found the whole issue of the tests the Academy candidates underwent patently boring. I think this could have been interesting, but just not the way it was done here. I also found it amusing that the monitors the candidates were working off of were CRT's. Funny, but I don't recall ever seeing any CRT monitors on the TOS Enterprise and that had been done twenty years earlier.

Regarding the investigation aboard the ship I found it mostly dull and predictable. Notably, though, I found Riker's behaviour distinctly unprofessional. This guy really needs to mellow out.

My lower rating is partly due to my not finding this episode particularly interesting. It isn't that what they gave us was executed poorly, but that it was just dull.

FWIW, and you may already know this, the "investigation" on the ship is the first in a very small "min-arc" in the First Season that'll be resolved and fleshed out in the season's penultimate episode.

I agree that after after the first few episodes Troi's character became better. It the first few episodes it seems like when they were coaching her on how to react to another being's feelings she was supposed to act as an extreme an example as possible for that emotion. (Pretty much any scene with her reading the mind of the aliens in the pilot episode is a perfect example of this.) As the season went on she displayed emotion in a much more natural and less grating sense.

 

[Warped9]

^^ Yes, I know what the investigation related to, but at the time it was first aired we wouldn't have known that...and it was still dull and predictable.


"Heart Of Glory" ***

Worf's feelings are conflicted when Klingon renegades are brought aboard the Enterprise.

In 1987/87 what we saw of Klingons post TOS and TAS was limited to the movies. First glimpsed briefly in The Motion Picture and then in The Search For Spock. Beyond that we only had what some writers had given us in novels, most notably John M. Ford's excellent novel The Final Reflection, which by nature wasn't considered official and binding. The Klingons we see in this episode certainly aren't patterned after those seen in TOS or Ford's book and certainly not just in appearance. These new Klingons seem more patterned after those seen in TSFS and later in TFF. Essentially these are almost comic opera Klingons who wax constantly about glory-in-battle and a warrior's honour. I only mention that last part because it gets overdone and tiresome after awhile.

Now that said I still rather liked this episode because it gave us a glimpse of conflicted Klingon feelings in regard to the peace and detente now existing between the Federation and the Empire. We can see in the behaviour of everyone in the episode that while peace exists between the two powers there still remains a measure of unease. And later on we will see more nuance in regard to the Klingons and their culture. For now this episode wasn't a bad start...although I still prefer John M. Ford's take on their culture.



"The Arsenal Of Freedom" ***

While searching for a missing vessel the Enterprise and its landing party are attacked by sophisticated weaponry.

This was a surprise for me. I remember liking the idea of this story while being critical of its execution. And yet here after twenty years my opinion has changed and I find it to be better than I remember. Laforge comes off better than I remember. I must say I still think Chief Engineer Logan is an inconsistent putz---first he wants Laforge to leave then he criticizes him for leaving the landing party behind.

One thing this episode shows up is the less-than-impressive f/x which I don't think have aged well. I'm also not that crazy about the whole saucer separation thing and don't get why Laforge couldn't have done what he did without separating the ship in two.

The other appeal of this episode is once again we get by without a B plot and without the pseudo technobabble.


Now unless there's some huge letdowns coming things seem to have settled into a groove and are beginning to look up...hopefully.

 

[Holdfast]

"11001001" ****

"Home Soil" ***

"Heart Of Glory" ***
"The Arsenal Of Freedom" ***

For me, these episodes are some of the best of S1, and are the run that converted me into a TNG fan from someone who just watched the show out of interest in seeing what they'd do with Star Trek.

11001001 has an interesting new race, and good execution of the story. Home Soil is a straightforward well-told sci-fi story, as is Arsenal of Freedom, and Heart of Glory is an exciting romp with some nifty little touches. I made sure to watch TNG regularly after this run of eps in close succession to each other.

 

[Trekker4747]

Anyone else notice how the Binars had intended only to kidnap Riker to save their planet should they not make the trip but in the end it was fortunate that Picard happened along for the ride since apparently two people are needed to run their home world's computer?

How did these super-smart aliens fuck that one up?

 

[RAMA]

"11001001" ****

"Home Soil" ***

"Heart Of Glory" ***
"The Arsenal Of Freedom" ***

For me, these episodes are some of the best of S1, and are the run that converted me into a TNG fan from someone who just watched the show out of interest in seeing what they'd do with Star Trek.

11001001 has an interesting new race, and good execution of the story. Home Soil is a straightforward well-told sci-fi story, as is Arsenal of Freedom, and Heart of Glory is an exciting romp with some nifty little touches. I made sure to watch TNG regularly after this run of eps in close succession to each other.

I know some TOS fans cried foul on "Home Soil" for being too close to Devil in the Dark, but I like the the sentient planetary computer concept (well before Avatar) and the investigation into the deaths.

RAMA

 

[RAMA]

Anyone else notice how the Binars had intended only to kidnap Riker to save their planet should they not make the trip but in the end it was fortunate that Picard happened along for the ride since apparently two people are needed to run their home world's computer?

How did these super-smart aliens fuck that one up?

Smart, but perhaps too two-dimensional

 

[Trekker4747]

Anyone else notice how the Binars had intended only to kidnap Riker to save their planet should they not make the trip but in the end it was fortunate that Picard happened along for the ride since apparently two people are needed to run their home world's computer?

How did these super-smart aliens fuck that one up?

Smart, but perhaps too two-dimensional

:rim shot:

 

[Warped9]

"Symbiosis" ****

Picard is caught in the midst of a dispute between two worlds.

Except for the heavy-handedness of Yar's drug addiction lecture to Wesley this is a pretty decent episode as Picard weighs what the Prime Directive will and will not let him do in the midst of a dispute between two worlds over a shipment of drugs. Not bad.

That said, and it's no fault of the story, but the f/x depicting the solar flaring stare were rather cheesy looking.


If the first season as a whole had been as consistent as the last handful of episodes it would have been a more promising start for this series.

 

[Holdfast]

"Symbiosis" ****

This ep really gets ragged on by a lot of people who otherwise like TNG, and it's purely for the one minute Yar/Wesley scene. I think that's immensely unfair to what is otherwise, as you suggest, a really solid episode.

I also thought Picard and Crusher's debate about the spirit/value of Prime Directive was right on point, very relevant, and Picard's solution to the problem was the mark of a true diplomat who uses intelligence rather than force to allow him to remain true to his morals even when it appears a situation will force him to betray them.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, I find this to be an okay episode. I'm also no fan of the "powers" the Aliens of the Week have but overall I think it's a decent episode that's trying to say something about drugs, withdraw, providers, providers needing the users to sustain their personal lifestyles, the reduced life style of the tweakers and more. The Yar, "Drugs are bad, m'kay, Wesley." scene with Yar is horrible but overall I think the episode itself is a fairly decent one.

 

[RAMA]

Not a fan of Crosby's delivery in the speech, but I see nothing wrong with it being in there specifically because she came from a world of that type that Wes had no idea about. It doesn't seem out of place to me. Also I think G Roddenberry's take on drug use is not the typical, "they're evil bad guys" and this comes through in her speech. Perhaps it was a bit overlong though.

"Symbiosis" ****

Picard is caught in the midst of a dispute between two worlds.

Except for the heavy-handedness of Yar's drug addiction lecture to Wesley this is a pretty decent episode as Picard weighs what the Prime Directive will and will not let him do in the midst of a dispute between two worlds over a shipment of drugs. Not bad.

That said, and it's no fault of the story, but the f/x depicting the solar flaring stare were rather cheesy looking.


If the first season as a whole had been as consistent as the last handful of episodes it would have been a more promising start for this series.

I really enjoyed the way they used the "tools" of stellar exploration in the episode, such as masking the photosphere, and thought the FX were very good. I believe they used the actual sun for the star, and just added FX to fit their needs.

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s1/1x23/symbiosis011.jpg

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s1/1x23/symbiosis020.jpg

RAMA

 

[RAMA]

^^ Yes, I know what the investigation related to, but at the time it was first aired we wouldn't have known that...and it was still dull and predictable.


"Heart Of Glory" ***

Worf's feelings are conflicted when Klingon renegades are brought aboard the Enterprise.

In 1987/87 what we saw of Klingons post TOS and TAS was limited to the movies. First glimpsed briefly in The Motion Picture and then in The Search For Spock. Beyond that we only had what some writers had given us in novels, most notably John M. Ford's excellent novel The Final Reflection, which by nature wasn't considered official and binding. The Klingons we see in this episode certainly aren't patterned after those seen in TOS or Ford's book and certainly not just in appearance. These new Klingons seem more patterned after those seen in TSFS and later in TFF. Essentially these are almost comic opera Klingons who seem to wax constantly about glory-in-battle and a warrior's honour. I only mention that last part because it gets overdone and tiresome after awhile.

Now that said I still rather liked this episode because it gave us a glimpse of conflicted Klingon feelings in regard to the peace and detente now existing between the Federation and the Empire. We can see in the behaviour of everyone in the episode that while peace exists between the two powers there still remains a measure of unease. And later on we will see more nuance in regard to the Klingons and their culture. For now this episode wasn't a bad start...although I still prefer John M. Ford's take on their culture.



"The Arsenal Of Freedom" ***

While searching for a missing vessel the Enterprise and its landing party are attacked by sophisticated weaponry.

This was a surprise for me. I remember liking the idea of this story while being critical of its execution. And yet here after twenty years my opinion has changed and I find it to be better than I remember. Laforge comes off better than I remember. I must say I still think Chief Engineer Logan is an inconsistent putz---first he wants Laforge to leave then he criticizes him for leaving the lading party behind.

One thing this episode shows up is the less-than-impressive f/x which I don't think have aged well. I'm also not that crazy about the whole saucer separation thing and don't get why Laforge couldn't have done what he did without separating the ship in two.

The other appeal of this episode is once again we get by without a B plot and without the pseudo technobabble.


Now unless there's some huge letdowns coming things seem to have settled into a groove and are beginning to look up...hopefully.

The saucer separation seems to happen because of the information from the planet surface to the effect that the robots continually improve when they attack. The assumption is if they destroyed the entire population, there may be no limit to their potential and therefore will eventually have no trouble destroying Enterprise.

RAMA

 

[Warped9]

"Skin Of Evil" ***

A menacing alien stands between the Enterprise crew and the survivors of a wrecked shuttlecraft.

I'm conflicted about this episode. Firstly its overall execution is better than I remember. And it plays like something of of a horror story. The entity Armus' sole purpose is simply to torment the Enterprise crew. In that respect the story works given the creature's ability to stymie anything the crew attempts to do. But it's the nature of Armus that doesn't work for me---it's supposed to be the the cast-off evil or negative aspects of an alien race that left him behind? That's just a little too exotic for me to find even remotely credible. And it isn't helped by how the creature is depicted, and this has much to do with the f/x limitations of the time. No doubt today cgi could make Armus come across more effectively and convincingly, but as is it hasn't aged well and seems rather clumsy.

Now I think the death of Tasha Yar was done well enough. By that I don't mean I wanted to see the character removed from the show. My criticisms of Yar's character are due primarily to the actress chosen to perform her and how the character was written, particularly early on. I have no problem with a female Security Chief. And I will say I think Denise Crosby's performance improved as the season progressed. The way Tasha was killed was quick, sudden and unexpected and thus I think effective. She was, after all, not just another nameless crewman, but one of the main cast. And I think she got a decent enough farewell at the end. That said although Denise Crosby wanted off the show I do question whether it was necessary to kill off her character rather than simply have her promoted and/or transfered off ship other than to lend the story more dramatic impact.


"We'll Always have Paris" **

Picard encounters an old flame while responding to a science outpost's distress call.

This wasn't badly executed except that I really couldn't get interested. Again the A and B plot structure seemed to diminish each other. I also didn't sense much chemistry between Picard and his long lost love, and she didn't appear to express much convincing concern for her suffering husband. Michelle Philips was quite attractive, but didn't project much screen presence. And just what the hell was she wearing?---it looked stupid.

As I said it wasn't poorly executed overall, but I felt they were mostly just going through the motions.

 

[RAMA]

"Skin Of Evil" ***

A menacing alien stands between the Enterprise crew and the survivors of a wrecked shuttlecraft.

I'm conflicted about this episode. Firstly its overall execution is better than I remember. And it plays like something of of a horror story. The entity Armus' sole purpose is simply to torment the Enterprise crew. In that respect the story works given the creature's ability to stymie anything the crew attempts to do. But it's the nature of Armus that doesn't work for me---it's supposed to be the the cast-off evil or negative aspects of an alien race that left him behind? That's just a little too exotic for me to find even remotely credible. And it isn't helped by how the creature is depicted, and this has much to do with the f/x limitations of the time. No doubt today cgi could make Armus come across more effectively and convincingly, but as is it hasn't aged well and seems rather clumsy.

Now I think the death of Tasha Yar was done well enough. By that I don't mean I wanted to see the character removed from the show. My criticisms of Yar's character are due primarily to the actress chosen to perform her and how the character was written, particularly early on. I have no problem with a female Security Chief. And I will say I think Denise Crosby's performance improved as the season progressed. The way Tasha was killed was quick, sudden and unexpected and thus I think effective. She was, after all, not just another nameless crewman, but one of the main cast. And I think she got a decent enough farewell at the end. That said although Denise Crosby wanted off the show I do question whether it was necessary to kill off her character rather than simply have her promoted and/or transfered off ship other than to lend the story more dramatic impact.


"We'll Always have Paris" **

Picard encounters an old flame while responding to a science outpost's distress call.

This wasn't badly executed except that I really couldn't get interested. Again the A and B plot structure seemed to diminish each other. I also didn't sense much chemistry between Picard and his long lost love, and she didn't appear to express much convincing concern for her suffering husband. Michelle Philips was quite attractive, but didn't project much screen presence. And just what the hell was she wearing?---it looked stupid.

As I said it wasn't poorly executed overall, but I felt they were mostly just going through the motions.

Not a big fan of Skin of Evil. It was borderline fantasy, and the production looked like something out of 3rd season TOS. Crosby does accomplish some of her better acting, which isn't saying much really.

Not much chemistry in "Paris" but I enjoyed most of the "B" story, which to me was the "A" story.

RAMA

 

[Trekker4747]

"Skin Of Evil" ***

A menacing alien stands between the Enterprise crew and the survivors of a wrecked shuttlecraft.

I'm conflicted about this episode. Firstly its overall execution is better than I remember. And it plays like something of of a horror story. The entity Armus' sole purpose is simply to torment the Enterprise crew. In that respect the story works given the creature's ability to stymie anything the crew attempts to do. But it's the nature of Armus that doesn't work for me---it's supposed to be the the cast-off evil or negative aspects of an alien race that left him behind? That's just a little too exotic for me to find even remotely credible.

You realize that nearly every-other-episode of TOS had near-omnipotent and mentally-powerful aliens, right?

Now I think the death of Tasha Yar was done well enough. By that I don't mean I wanted to see the character removed from the show. My criticisms of Yar's character are due primarily to the actress chosen to perform her and how the character was written, particularly early on. I have no problem with a female Security Chief. And I will say I think Denise Crosby's performance improved as the season progressed. The way Tasha was killed was quick, sudden and unexpected and thus I think effective. She was, after all, not just another nameless crewman, but one of the main cast. And I think she got a decent enough farewell at the end. That said although Denise Crosby wanted off the show I do question whether it was necessary to kill off her character rather than simply have her promoted and/or transfered off ship other than to lend the story more dramatic impact.

Well, on the one had the production values and the acting as a whole in Season 1 (and Season 2) is uneven as is the development of pretty much all of the characters so Crosby was hardly alone in this regard but she got a bad case of the prima donnas, felt she was deserving of better and got off the show. Had she stuck around past Season 2 when the series found a groove (and granted she didn't know this would have happened) I'm sure she would've been happier. But, nope, she wanted better and more and out of her contract.

Which is why she was killed off. It's fairly "common practice" to kill a character off when the actor wants out of their contract as this precludes the actor from being able to come groveling back when they don't make it big. In lieu of killing them off the character is sometimes even destroyed in such a fantastic manner that their return is just as unlikely in the same cpacity. (see: David Caruso, NYPD blue)

Crosby wanted out of the show because she didn't think she was being treated well, thought she could do better by striking out on her own and reneged on her contract. Result: "We kill your character off so you can't change your mind and come back to the people who hired your unknown ass. So go ahead and try and to find a better job with your limited talent, exposure and your now documented propensity of backing out of contracts." Sorry, I've just got no love for Crosby. Yar could've been an interesting character but Crosby's ego wouldn't let things grow (some how figuring TV series reach their stride before ending their first season) so she left and she's pretty much been trying to show-horn her way back in ever since.

Her cameo in "Yesterday's Enterprise" was nicely done and I think even shows how Yar would've been handled and would've worked when the series finally hit a stride so I've no problems there. (Further the plot contrivances created by the writers allowed for the opening and they invited her back.) But after then she's kept trying to push her way back in with Sela and with her Trekkies documentaries. ("Hi! I'm Denise Crosby a woman who played a glorified background character on a TV series for 18 episodes 10 years ago before letting my ego walk my ass out the door! I'm here to tell you how great Star Trek is!")

"We'll Alway Have Paris" could've been an interesting episode but I think is pretty much made DOA by the soap-operaian B-Plot with Picard and his lost love.

 

[Warped9]

Two more episodes to go and then I'll have an overall assessment of Season 1 before going on to Season 2.

I'm also beginning to ponder doing a revisit of TOS, and in production order, after getting through with TNG. TOS is something I haven't seen regularly in quite sometime.

 

[Warped9]

"Conspiracy" ****

The Enterprise returns to Earth to investigate a possible infiltration of Starfleet Command.

The fact that the Enterprise can so easily and quickly return to Earth or any Federation world or starbase really undermines the whole idea of having families aboard ship. That bit aside I think this was a well done episode. Yes, it's a bit grittier than is usually seen in Trek, but really no more so than seeing a bloody eel like creature entering or exiting someone's ear in The Wrath Of Khan.

If there's a downside to this episode it's knowing beforehand that the haunting beacon heard at the end is never followed up in any subsequent episode or series. You also have to overlook the scientific and biological impossibility of such a sizable creature residing within the body of a living human.


"The Neutral Zone" ***

Data rescues three survivors from cryogenic suspension just as the Enterprise must venture into the Romulan Neutral Zone.

On the face of it this should be unlikely episode to have such disparate A and B plots, but somehow they make it work...for the most part. There is some interest in seeing survivors of the late 20th century awakening in the 24th century and without them being fleeing criminals or genetic supermen. The big question that is left unanswered is how a primitive orbital facility housing the survivors in cryogenic suspension manages to find its way out so remotely from Earth. That's quite a big contrived right there.

The other plot of encountering the Romulans again after a fifty-three year silence is tantalizing, but it does raise questions that to my knowledge have never been answered within the series later on. I get that there is some suggestion later that the Federation and Romulan outposts were destroyed by the Borg. But that's contradicted by events in Season 2's "Q, Who?" that will introduce the Borg and strongly imply that they have never been in known space before. The other question is what had been occupying the Romulans for fifty-three years?

I also have to say I much prefer an episode with a more or less definite ending to it as a season finale than the two-parters that would later become standard practice for the series.

This concludes Season 1, but I want to gather my thoughts and overall impressions before I comment further and I'll share them tomorrow...

...and then on to Season 2.

 

[Botany Bay]

It is interesting that Conspiracy - one of TNG's very best - wasn't followed up, particularly when sequels were made to plenty of less than brilliant episodes.

The creative team began to plant some seeds around this time - maybe they had a plan to follow up these things (Conspiracy aliens, the Rommie absence, the destroyed outposts...), but it all got blown away with the upheval behind the scenes and the long writers' strike that ruined season 2.

The Neutral Zone wasn't much of an episode on its own - it needed to be followed up with a Season 2 opener that began revealing the answers to some of the questions it left hanging.

Warped 9, you know TOS and Roddenberry as well as anyone around here, and you've just watched the first season, so I ask you this : how involved do you really think GR was with TNG? I see his hands all over the first half-dozen episodes maybe, but after that, I don't see those Roddenberry touches as much. I have always felt he was a figurehead for TNG, but had little input beyond the earliest scripts. What do you think?

 

[Trekker4747]

I believe the main reason the Conspiracy aliens weren't followed up on was because the writers/people behind the scenes didn't think that small bug-like creatures made an imposing enemy. (To say nothing about the practicality of using them on any regular basis using stop-motion animatics.)

 

[Warped9]

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...