First, I love TNG. I grew up with it. It is the reason I became a Trekkie. I believe TNG and DS9 are the gold standard of Trek shows. However, I cannot watch season 1. I think it is terrible. In my opinion, it is the worst season 1 of any Trek show (never watched TAS). DS9, ENT, and VOY were not the best either, but they are watchable. I believe each NuTrek show had very good first seasons, especially Prodigy and SNW. Agree or disagree?
I still have alot of episodes in season 1 that I rewatch. Some are duds, but in general, i'll put it up against any other season on number of good episodes vs duds.
YMMV of course, but yes, I think TNG season 1 was horrid. The only thing that saved it from being cancelled was the fact that it was the first Star Trek TV series to air after TOS/TAS. Everyone wanted Trek back on TV, even if it was a pile of shit.
I feel bad for people trying to get in the show but start with season 1. They may not get that far. I have told a friend who was willing to give TNG a chance to start at season 3. IMO that is when the real TNG starts. Seasons 3, 4, 5, and 6 are tv gold. Season 7 is ok but a lot better than season 1.
Disagree. S1 is flawed, but fascinating. It has an awkwardness between the characters that I actually like, because in-universe this is a newly assembled crew on a brand new class of ship. I also like it because it’s really off-the-wall and weird…which unfortunately means the stories are hit or miss, but it also means it isn’t boring or mundane. Much of the mid-to-late seasons of TNG became super formulaic and cyclical (need a Q episode, need a Lwaxana episode, need a “Spiner gets to play a personality other than Data” episode, need a “”Wesley comes back” episode, need a Klingon Kulture episode, etc). The show’s premise also gravitated away from space exploration and more toward patrols and milk runs in the later seasons…which made every feel less exciting. Yes, objectively TNG S3-5 were far better television (I’d argue S6 and 7 were inferior to 1 and 2 and I’ll die on that hill), but I definitely think there are major bright spots in S1. The later seasons feel more like riding around in my grandparents Cadillac going on various errands and visiting people rather than rip roaring space adventures. Here’s how it shakes out from my perspective… S1 Bright Spots: Encounter at Farpoint The Last Outpost Where No One Has Gone Before Hide and Q The Big Goodbye 11001001 Heart of Glory Arsenal of Freedom Conspiracy Guilty Pleasures: The Naked Now The Battle Coming of Age Skin of Evil We’ll Always Have Paris Horseshit: Code of Honor Lonely Among Us Justice Datalore Angel One The Neutral Zone All others are in the “forgettable but not horrible” category. Overall, that’s really not bad for a season of 25 episodes produced in the mid-1980s. There 14 episodes I’d say are “enjoyable,” 6 that are absolutely abysmal, and 5 that are just sort of there. See, I’d say S6 of TNG is much worse than S1…as is S7. S6 is, in my opinion, the bottom of the barrel. There’s not many bright spots there at all. Just dull, stale, and plodding mundanity.
Yeah. Say what you want about Season 1 (and 2), at least most of the episodes were never bland or boring. And some episodes (like "Where No One Has Gone Before" and "The Big Goodbye") are classics and belong to the best. There are clunkers but isn't this true for all seasons? And a lot of their late 80s charm makes the entire season(s) even more watchable now for me.
STNG was the first season 1 for a long time so other series that came after it had a better template to work with. Season 1 of STNG was Star Trek finding its form after many, many years not being on TV so we have to accept what it is. TNG really starting at season 3, agreed. Star Trek - The Next Generation: Created by Gene Roddenberry, Developed by Michael Piller.
It's the first of a long stretch of Trek TV productions. It was always going to be off, all that. Look at other long running shows (including those with spinoffs). The first season of the first one looks weird. I caught a couple of NCIS episodes few weeks back. It was strange. Gibbs wasn't Gibbs yet. Grissom was flirty in the first season of CSI, early on.
I quite like Season 1. My opinions largely echo @Vger23 , particularly the greater sense of exploring strange new worlds, before essentially becoming Team Federation:Space Police. I think the music and cinematography are much better as well, later seasons have bland sonic wallpaper sound and an overlit soap opera look. I also like the S1/2 uniforms better, the jumpsuits were much sleeker and more futuristic.
Let's see... Encounter at Farpoint: Probably the weakest series premiere... but passable. The Naked Now: Would have been better later on the series. Plus, loses points for Wes saving the ship. Code of Honor: Good fight scene, pretty bad otherwise. Made worse by poor casting decision. The Last Outpost: Ruined the Ferengi for 5 years. Where No One...: Need to rewatch. Lonely Among Us: Not horrible. Justice: Don't intend to rewatch. The Battle: Weird. Hide and Q: Smarmy "Q powers bad" morality play. Hate it. Haven: Weirder. The Big Goodbye: Not bad as holodeck episodes go. Datalore: Mediocre "evil twin" episode. Angel One: Saved by Riker's ending speech. Ironic that a mediocre TNG episode gets right what DS9 got so incredibly wrong. 11001001: A really good episode, one of S1's few. So, given the Minuet wasn't actually created by the holodeck... which Bynar was snogging Riker again? (My money's on Zero Zero) Too Short a Season: Need to rewatch. When the Bough Breaks: Ruined by stupid smarmy feel-good "win-win" ending. Home Soil: Has not aged well, given that inorganic life has popped up everywhere since S1. Coming of Age: Liked the academy plot with Wes... was there a B-plot? Heart of Glory: Not the best Klingon episode by any stretch. Arsenal of Freedom: This one was actually pretty good, even if the enemy was mainly floating telephone receivers. Symbiosis: Turned this one off on disgust when Picard started his Big Speech. Not sorry. Skin of Evil: A main character died. Not much else to see here. We'll Always Have Paris: Remember the triple Data, and that Crusher actually admitted the possibility of her and Picard... not much else. Conspiracy: Unmemorable, aside from the gruesome ending. Liked the fight scene with Admiral Quinn, though. The Neutral Zone: The Romulan bit was meh, but I actually liked the "fish out of water" bit with the 20th century humans. So for me, not a lot of horrible stuff, just a fair amount of passable but mediocre Trek.
I also mostly agree with Vger23. Season 1 feels like the crew might be exploring the final frontier while the later seasons mostly feel like the crew are definitely in the middle of Federation space. I like the creativity of the ideas. What do you love about the later seasons that is so different to season 1? Is it just that the show was still finding its feet in season 1? The show being serialised is a good thing because you can watch the good episodes and skip the bad ones.
Season 1 is, shall we say, unique. The show is continuing the legend of Star Trek, introducing new character archetypes (Yar and her surviving rape gangs), switching a few around (Riker = Kirk), cold war will be over (allegory via Worf), and stumbling to find its own way - especially given the reuse of TOS plots and even its style. Adding in old props and Ertl models of TOS/movie era ships certainly did NOT help, as at best that only distracted. At worst it made people long for the old show. Ditto for the vague lines from characters about "the old Enterprise" (erm, which one? There's to choose from the original, A, B,C, D, the old sailing ship, navy vessel, etc, etc all hanging off the wall as every episode loved to show emphasis for in the oft-used briefing room...) Gene Roddenberry had the most direct influence for the first half, and his influence was kept back as time went by. Season 2 is an all around massive improvement, despite the effects of the writers' strike. His influence could be hit or miss. Big kudos go to the premiere episode, as his Q subplot - despite being a partial retread (but updated use) of the Trelane trope - pretty much saved the day, as what's left is fairly generic. Other influences were not as grand... Despite the misfires and problem episodes, season 1 has a sense and feel of exploration and adventure that later seasons largely drop, since being a space taxi to discuss why Alexander needs to stay or how exciting it is to see what Rasmussen, Dr Russell, and Jev were doing whenever the script needed to contrive it cuz it's like all exciting drrrrrama and shtuff. (ugh) Never mind some of the faff that seasons 6 and 7 put out and a lot of theirs (IMHO) have dated far worse than most of season 1's fumblings had. IMHaGO: * Best: Where No One Has Gone Before 11001001 Heart of Glory Home Soil (especially if you like hard sci-fi, this is TNG's closest example of it) The Arsenal of Freedom Conspiracy Good: Encounter at Farpoint Hide and Q Datalore (which is saying a lot, but Brent Spiner and Ron Jones really carry this a lot) Lonely Among Us The Battle Haven Coming of Age Symbiosis Skin of Evil Guilty Pleasures: The Naked Now (the most TOS-inspired) The Last Outpost (very TOS-inspired) When The Bough Breaks Angel One Code of Honor (Some dialogue really hits the fan as, among everything else, TOS was never so obtuse... but the fight scene IS good and Jessie Lawrence Ferguson pretty much saves this otherwise dire episode.) Meh: The Big Goodbye We’ll Always Have Paris Too Short a Season Udder cowdoodoo: Justice The Neutral Zone * aG = "And Goofy"
I’m amazed at the tolerance people have for Datalore. What an unbelievably shitty escapade. Terrible dialogue, horrible 4th-grade level contrivances, a goofy performance by Spiner, and Lore is an annoying, irredeemable character that popped up 3 too many times.
It had "Shut up, Wesley" as well as Lore wanting to kill him painfully. Think both things somehow redeemed the episode for a lot of fans
I don't much like Season 1 but it does fascinate me in how they were still figuring things out and the universe hadn't solidified so there was potential to go in different ways than what we ended up with. If the show had been "better" from Day 1 then it wouldn't have had people like Michael Piller come in and all the writers he would have nurtured. I do like the "vibe" of the first two seasons, where the universe does feel a bit more dangerous and less explored than the later seasons. Like "Conspirary" or "Q-Who?" feel more gnarly than anything in the later seasons. It has some interesting creature designs in the Selay and Anticans. There's also something interesting to me about a lot of the boring sets like "Hide and Q" that feel like a modern day TOS or how other parts of the show feels like an extension of TMP. I tried watching it a while back and got halfway though but it was a chore and the crew felt so full of themselves. I'm still surprised how it introduced the Ferengi as new villains and then undermined them as a threat immediately. I remember not hating "Code of Honor." When I was a kid I loved watching "The Arsenal of Freedom" and I hope that still holds up. Geordi in command was pretty cool.
Really think Berman and Piller threw out the baby with the bathwater, when they dialed back these aspects of the show. And it's really a shame!
I have to strongly disagree. While Season 1 does have some seriously questionable eps. (e.g. Code Of Honour, Angel One, etc.) there's a lot more good episodes in season 1 (e.g. Conspiracy, The Neutral Zone) being just two examples of them than bad.
I more think of S1 as being uneven than bad, and there's more shades of Classic Trek in it. In the time it took to find its own identity, it's natural that it sought its roots a little more. Some episodes even had the classic TNG trope of "cruising in and radically transforming a given world". Including... Encounter at Farpoint - Farpoint station effectively ceased to exist. Code of Honor - Major political change. Angel One - Foundation laid for greater gender equality. When the Bough Breaks - Aldea couldn't hide anymore. Symbiosis - The planet of addicts had to go cold turkey.
I don't particularly like "Datalore" because I like Wesley and the plot relies on all the adults missing something really obvious. I still like "The Arsenal of Freedom" - it's a cool idea, plus most of the characters are involved in the story. I think the set design holds up about as well as the planet of the week sets on TOS though, but I think there's something wonderful about seeing a time-capsule to 80s tv. I actually like "Angel One" because it used all the characters well. There are plenty of episodes later in the show where it's really obvious that Dr Crusher/Geordi/Deanna really doesn't have anything to do this week...