Rewatching Season 1 TNG

[mswood]

Nope, he directed several first season episodes, enough to make such a solid impression with the producers that he was given the 2nd season opener.

1st season: Where No One Has Gone Before, Too Short a Season, Datalore, and Heart of Glory.

 

[RAMA]

Rob Bowman was a fantastic TV director. It's rare that you can discern a style from a director from one episode tothe next.

 

[letsconsiderit]

I just re-watched 'Home soil' last night and I think its one of my favorites, its got the central theme that I love about Star Trek, finding new lifeforms that challenge our understandings of what life is and how to respect the existence of other beginnings. lifeforms that are outside our classification of living things and discovering that there are other kinds of intelligence outside of the carbon-based lifeforms we're familiar with (within the star trek universe). these crystal forms were not only intelligent enough to interface with and take over enterprises computer fairly easily but they were also able to understand the limitations of the "ugly bags of mostly water" understanding of lifeforms and basically told them to comeback when they had learnt more about the universe and the possibility's of life.

I get that season 1 and 2 are a bit kitsch but they've got serious nostalgia value for me .
Other things that I love about 'Home soil' are the practical application of Geordi's visor's abilities, seems stronger in the first series, and Data breaking the laser, I dont know why that makes me so happy.

 

[DigificWriter]

I'm also starting/doing a TNG Season 1 rewatch, but am watching the season in Stardate order, which rearranges things and has necessitated the omittance of some episodes that I personally enjoy. I did want to give 'shout-outs', though, to Encounter at Farpoint (which is a better Pilot than I think people give it credit for), The Naked Now ("I am fully functional"), The Last Outpost (I wish they hadn't totally abandoned the militaristic characteristics of the Ferengi as seen in this episode), Code of Honor (extraneous issues aside, I love the focus on Tasha), and Coming of Age (I've always liked Wesley, and this episode gives him some nice growth).

 

[DigificWriter]

I'm watching Datalore right now as the fifth episode of the series, and it's an interesting exercise for several reasons:
1) We get insight into Data's character much earlier, which makes more sense in terms of his character progression

2) We see a more linear, less disjointed progression of Chief Engineers for the Enterprise before we get to Geordi taking over that position in Season 2

There is the incongruency of Wesley being referred to as Acting Ensign when he won't officially get that provisional rank until Where No One Has Gone Before, which is a few episodes later by Stardate order, but I at least wanted to try watching the episode in this order as a "thought exercise".

 

[RAMA]

I love Datalore, but looking back on it now..it should have been a two-parter. The wrap-up was the weakest part of the episode, though I still enjoyed it.

RAMA

I'm watching Datalore right now as the fifth episode of the series, and it's an interesting exercise for several reasons:
1) We get insight into Data's character much earlier, which makes more sense in terms of his character progression

2) We see a more linear, less disjointed progression of Chief Engineers for the Enterprise before we get to Geordi taking over that position in Season 2

There is the incongruency of Wesley being referred to as Acting Ensign when he won't officially get that provisional rank until Where No One Has Gone Before, which is a few episodes later by Stardate order, but I at least wanted to try watching the episode in this order as a "thought exercise".

 

[Seven of Five]

There are some good episodes in the first season. I do prefer the later seasons, but at the start the music was always interesting, and the tone of the show was different too. The crew were always so fascinated with things early on.

I saw season seven before anything else, so I found it strange at how alien the holodeck initially seemed to Picard. In retrospect though, seeing him discover it for the first time makes it almost magical.

I particularly liked The Naked Now (a blatant rip off of a superior TOS episode, yet it has a lot of good humour); Where No One Has Gone Before, 11001001, The Big Goodbye, Datalore, A Matter of Honor, Coming of Age, The Arsenal of Freedom, and Conspiracy.

 

[BillJ]

...A Matter of Honor...

I think you mean "Heart of Glory". "A Matter of Honor" was a second season episode where Riker serves on a Klingon ship.

 

[Seven of Five]

You're right. For shame!

I'll hand in my geek badge on the way out.

EDIT: A Matter of Honor is a really good episode too but that's neither here nor there I guess.

 

[Vandervecken]

I had to put on "Too Short A Season," recently and I have to say, I really like Admiral Mark Jameson, the way he's written and played.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsha_Hunt_(actress)

Clayton Rohner is horrendous here, my vote for worst acting in the whole series, worse than even the annoying kids in Rascals in s7 (English boarding school kiddy Picard would come in second). He acts alternately goofy, angry, and distracted when he is trying to be arrogant. If you want to you can chalk it up to the drug, but that would be our usual Trek BBS head canon/explanation. The death scene is just plain funny to me, it's so hammed up, and in the scene where he is in a chair in the dark he acts like a muppet (and whoever came up with the idea of that lighting as if it hid anything was on drugs). The truth is he was a lousy serious actor, but a good comedic one as it turns out (see G vs E).

 

[DigificWriter]

The issues with Datalore completely threw me out of my 'groove', so now I'm attempting to re-calibrate my thinking and figure out what to do. I ended up finding a site where somebody discarded a lot of the problematic Season 1 stardates and arranged the season in a fashion that makes more narrative sense by coming up with NEW stardates for certain episodes, and I might try rewatching the season using the outline it provided.

I might also just start the season over in production order, which is frustrating since I really wanted to watch things by Stardate.

Any suggestions on what I should do?

 

[2takesfrakes]

Clayton Rohner is horrendous here, my vote for worst acting in the whole series, worse than even the annoying kids in Rascals in s7 (English boarding school kiddy Picard would come in second). He acts alternately goofy, angry, and distracted when he is trying to be arrogant. If you want to you can chalk it up to the drug, but that would be our usual Trek BBS head canon/explanation. The death scene is just plain funny to me, it's so hammed up, and in the scene where he is in a chair in the dark he acts like a muppet (and whoever came up with the idea of that lighting as if it hid anything was on drugs). The truth is he was a lousy serious actor, but a good comedic one as it turns out (see G vs E).

I have different views and consider Clayton's performance as thoroughly entertaining! Which that episode really needed, because it was such a talky episode. And when they finally do show some action - specifically, in the tunnels - it's very thin. So, when we get to Admiral Jameson's over-the-top situation being acted out in such an over-the-top way, it's actually the more fun to watch. Also, he kind of reminds me of myself, some way. I like his interpretation of the Prime Directive, for example.