Season One...underrated?
- Thread starter Gojira
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Berman and Braga were millennials before millennials.
That's explained in the novels and also applies to Word: both officers were already qualified for their roles but couldn't have them because they were occupied already. Bridge duty as career advancement was the next best step.
In the comics, Nog had to play security chief before he could get chief engineer of DS9, in late 2375. Happens again when he served under Captain La Forge on the Challenger 2383-84 (TNG novel: Indistinguishable from Magic).
If I recall rightly, the galaxy class being new was used an opportunity to rotate experienced chief engineers through the ship on it's shakedown cruise, which is why the ship remained in close proximity of Earth for the entire season - even returning there.
Picard finally had enough, and after the Romulans turned up he used it as an excuse to kick off the useless engineers and put Geordi in charge
Picard finally had enough, and after the Romulans turned up he used it as an excuse to kick off the useless engineers and put Geordi in charge
Wasn't the original idea about Geordi that a blind person would be at the helm?
I've always found season one to be really erratic and off balanced but that's a common theme for many new shows as the actors and writers try to develop the characters. I remember being quite unimpressed with Encounter at Farpoint when it first aired but I've warmed up to it since.
For me, the stinkers are the following. (not saying these are bad episodes, merely that I don't care for them)
Code of Honor
Lonely Among Us
The Battle
Hide and Q
Angel One
Heart of Glory
Season two probably has about the same amount of personal stinkers
For me, the stinkers are the following. (not saying these are bad episodes, merely that I don't care for them)
Code of Honor
Lonely Among Us
The Battle
Hide and Q
Angel One
Heart of Glory
Season two probably has about the same amount of personal stinkers
We recently re-watched the HD versions, and Season 1 is sort of a hit-or-miss hodgepodge, but does have moments of fun or profoundness. My husband winced at a couple and said "Geez, how did this not get cancelled?" to which I replied, "We all watched it because, at the time, this was it, for science fiction on TV." In my opinion, Star Trek TNG opened the way for the SF TV shows that followed.
There's an episode in TNG Season 2 that I can't even bear to rewatch. Up the Long Ladder. To me, it's even worse than Code of Honor. At least with Code of Honor, you could shut your eyes, pretend the Ligonians are rock-lizard people, and then the episode's not as bad.
There's an episode in TNG Season 2 that I can't even bear to rewatch. Up the Long Ladder. To me, it's even worse than Code of Honor. At least with Code of Honor, you could shut your eyes, pretend the Ligonians are rock-lizard people, and then the episode's not as bad.
From Wikipedia:
Although commercially successful from its inception, the series was initially marred by Writers Guild of America grievance claims from Fontana and Gerrold, both of whom left the series under acrimonious circumstances; frequent turnover among the writing staff (24 staff writers left the show during its first three seasons, triple the average attrition rate for such series); and allegations that Roddenberry's attorney Leonard Maizlish had become the former's "point man and proxy", ghostwriting memos, sitting in on meetings, and contributing to scripts despite not being on staff. Writer Tracy Tormé described the first few seasons of The Next Generation under Roddenberry as an "insane asylum".
I presume 1st two seasons. Season 3 had a notable change. It definitely came off as a more professional and well thought out production. There are a couple of gems in Season 2... but overall, I try to avoid Season 1 altogether. Can't stand it, actually.
Although commercially successful from its inception, the series was initially marred by Writers Guild of America grievance claims from Fontana and Gerrold, both of whom left the series under acrimonious circumstances; frequent turnover among the writing staff (24 staff writers left the show during its first three seasons, triple the average attrition rate for such series); and allegations that Roddenberry's attorney Leonard Maizlish had become the former's "point man and proxy", ghostwriting memos, sitting in on meetings, and contributing to scripts despite not being on staff. Writer Tracy Tormé described the first few seasons of The Next Generation under Roddenberry as an "insane asylum".
I presume 1st two seasons. Season 3 had a notable change. It definitely came off as a more professional and well thought out production. There are a couple of gems in Season 2... but overall, I try to avoid Season 1 altogether. Can't stand it, actually.
Klingon Warrior serves in the most warriorish job on the ship. He controls the weapons and always wants to shoot things. He's also the head bouncer when it comes to unruly passengers. Oh...and he likes to growl.
To be fair, I think Worf actually created that image with Klingons. They use to no be Viking warriors until they started going with that aproach with Worf.
Jason
I think it's been said, but I hated the whole "honor" thing that TNG started with the Klingons. They had been conniving backstabbers whose word meant nothing. It's the Romulans that had been "honorable"...to a point. At least they had rules that they'd followed. The total reversal bugged me.
I kind of liked it myself. I think I like it because even if honor is a big deal with them, many of them are not honorable people. You got plenty of hypocrites from Duras to Gowron.
I like seeing a society that can't really live up to it's own ideas. I do wish we would have seen more about how civilians tend to live on their world. We mostly just see them from their military or government perspectives.
Jason
Watching seasons 1 and 2 without comparing them to the later seasons, there are some gems in there.
Also, 'The Measure of a Man' can be compared to anything, it's still amazing.
Also, 'The Measure of a Man' can be compared to anything, it's still amazing.
I agree -- that episode is ground breaking. Season 2 definitely had some gems, but sadly they were flanked by some absolutely terrible episodes.
I get the premise of the 1st season having a certain grit to it... and because they were trying to find the "groove" or formula to work into the episodic process, there was experimentation. There's a little bit of fun in that. But after watching the best Season 2 episodes and taking a gander of Season 1, I'm not drawn in at all. In fact, I find it unsettling knowing how things play out later.
I just wish ENT had taken all this to heart. It took them a full 3 seasons to figure out things. No, it makes no sense for a captain to have his pet beagle join them on an away mission, bounding up and down in the grasses of a completely alien world. WTH? And Archer's "let's go out and explore" gleeful attitude, instead of being a bit more restrained and military in persona. He did get that later, having been "battle hardened." But unfortunately with the tenuous nature of the whole Star Trek TV series franchise at that time (Voyager was failing), ENT didn't have the luxury of doing this in a halfhearted way. The fans didn't appreciate it. Many fell off just as things were getting interesting. The Xindi arc was compelling, IMHO. But it was too late. That show died an early death. TNG was lucky to have changed course in Season 2. If they hadn't it would have died as well. The "new Trek" fervor would've worn off, leading the show into cancellation. Season 3 rescued it. Ratings spiked quite a lot from there.
These two things were great, and makes perfect sense. Archer, and his father, are from a world where military conflict is an alien (literally) concept, Earth had pootled around a few friendly star systems within the Vulcanian protective sphere, but that's it. You could say that mankind was naive (certainly the Vulcans thought so), but the "lets see what's out there" attitude is what I like to see from my Trek. We did the war thing - 5 years of DS9 with the dominion, culminating with a WW2 allergy, with very little exploring, of space. Plenty exploring the human condition, and how far the perfect humans of the 24th century would go when pushed. A couple of seasons of actual strange new worlds was really good.
From https://www.trektoday.com/articles/ratings_history.shtml
There was a spike in TNG s5, just before DS9 started. If you're basis season quality on ratings, season 2 (which did better than season 1) was better than any of the war-heavy DS9 episodes.
Of course you can't compare ratings across time in that fashion, if you did you'd clearly accept that S1 of Enterprise was the best, and S2 the next best - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_...a/File:Star_Trek_Enterprise_ratings_chart.png
Season 3 did not bring in better ratings. While season 3 and 4 had begun to receive more positive reviews, Viewership continued its decline. Not that Viewership should be used as an indicator of quality anyway. Even the very best Trek could never hope to compete with a popular reality show, wrestling, or sitcom.
There are some who prefer the earlier seasons of Enterprise. I personally think the stronger acting, dialogue and storytelling was in 2 and 3.
As for TNG, of course it looks hokey in hindsight when you have the later seasons in mind, but at the time, even season 1 was a hit.
I get what you're saying and I appreciate it. I didn't mean it had to be all lock-down military. BUT... Archer is the Captain of a Starfleet vessel. It IS military. There is military rank structure. It's Lieutenant Tucker, not Engineer Tucker. I'd just expect a certain level of military protocol and caution. You don't bring a pet along with you in an away mission to frolic around a field like it's the neighborhood park. Who knows what pathogen or parasite the dog could pick up, let alone be gobbled up by some alien animal. And if lost... then the crew is risking their safety aimlessly combing around looking for it. The "Let's go see what's out there, guys" thing would be fine for amateur or civilian adventurers, but not for this crew. It doesn't mean they can't have some innocent wonder during their adventure, but I just found the first 2 seasons of ENT having too much of that. It got better into Season 3. This was shaping up to be a great series... but they killed it. Because fans weren't supporting it. Not much different from Stargate SGU. That was a phenomenal series that was too radical a departure from the humoresque Colonel Jack O'Neill sarcasm and formulaic episodes of SG-1. I liked it... but it ran its course. Unfortunately SG-1 fans wanted more and were really let down by SGU, and abandoned it so that it ended up cancelled after just barely clearing 2 seasons. VERY sad. At least ENT had 4, but it was also such a disappointment to end before its time.
Archer's military hadn't fired a shot in anger for 3 generations (or more), you're basing what you think should happen on your own viewpoints which are set from a world where the military is worshipped in reality (in the u.s), and covered extensively in modern popular entertainment.
As for ranks, my pilot back from delhi last week was a captain, last time I was on a ferry there were all sorts of naval ranks and a command structure, they aren't military.
As for Porthos catching a bug, same applies to anyone on the away team. After Strange New World, did we see Archer take his dog down the a planet? Perhaps he realised that even though a planet seems idiotic, not everywhere is as safe as Alpha Centauri, Vulcan, Denobula etc. I believe Columbus had a pet dog with him, at least one dog was in Cook's fleet too, and of course parrots were well known pets on ships in days of yore.
As for ranks, my pilot back from delhi last week was a captain, last time I was on a ferry there were all sorts of naval ranks and a command structure, they aren't military.
As for Porthos catching a bug, same applies to anyone on the away team. After Strange New World, did we see Archer take his dog down the a planet? Perhaps he realised that even though a planet seems idiotic, not everywhere is as safe as Alpha Centauri, Vulcan, Denobula etc. I believe Columbus had a pet dog with him, at least one dog was in Cook's fleet too, and of course parrots were well known pets on ships in days of yore.
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