Well for the first time since the series ended, I am embarking on a full series rewatch. I saw them all first run, even taped them and removed commercials. But once it ended, I cherry picked episodes, skipping the lousy segments. Well, now I'm doing them all and maybe I'll finish. It's a lotta episodes....
I'm exactly halfway through season 1, and I'll keep my reviews brief.
Encounter at Farpoint: Expository isn't the word. There's a really solid episode in here, but the need to pad it with the whole Q plot makes this one a bit of a slog. The actors aren't comfortable yet - with exceptions I'll get to shortly. One good choice was making this Enterprise brand new and so we get to discover what she can do along with the characters. Picard is shouty and crabbier than I remembered. Troi is a little grating and Denise Crosby is really in over her head. "This court should get on it's KNEEEEEZ to what starfleet is!!!" I will say, Wesley is presently as a likeable young man here and I enjoyed his childlike wonder very much.
Everyone seems off and searching for their place, except Brent Spiner. He nails Data from the jump. Even though the character has a way to go, Spiner has a handle on him. The most confident performance, though, comes from Deforest Kelley in his cameo and he and Spiner are magical together.
I remember how exciting the saucer separation was in 1987 - after years of only reading about it being possible. The ending was very touching, more than I expected. The music and - I admit - Marina Sertis made me well up.
As much as I don't enjoy Q for the most part, John Delancie steals every scene. Roddenberry loved Trelane, so he stole him for TMP and tweaked him a bit. It becomes super obvious in his next episode. 2½ stars / 5
The Naked Now - awful. Bad idea to kick off the first regular episode in this manner. Patrick Stewart gives a horrible performance under the influence and only Frakes and Dorn survive with their dignity intact. Spiner is funny though. 1/5
Code of Honor - I hate a lot about this one. Even without the racism, Yar impulsively jumps in front of Hagon and throws him across the room before otherwise more calmly asking him to pause so she can inspect the gift. Troi outing Yar's attraction for Lutan is just Roddenberry sexing up the episode. Fred Steiner's score is right out of Amok Time and Elaan of Troyius. Just an overall shitty episode. 1/5
The Last Outpost - another TOS influenced episode as the Enterprise pursuit of the Ferengi vessel and their halting by a mystery race is right out of Arena. The Ferengi are famously bad here. Portal is butchly overdubbed. The finger puzzles are just stupid. Riker hasn't gotten the stick out of his ass yet. 2/5
Where No One Has Gone Before - the first genuinely good episode. Really fantastic story as the Enterprise passes warp 10 and nobody becomes a salamander. I actually felt happy for Wes here. He's abused by the adults in this show for no good reason, really. Everything about this episode clicks. The mystery, the Traveller and the wonderful far off dimensional space is beautifully realized. I have to say, the series is pulling out all the stops when it comes to effects. I just wish the lighting wasn't so bright and bland. 4/5
Lonely Among Us - the Enterprise is ferrying fighting dignitaries to a planet for negotiations. "Journey to Parliament" anyone? It's a B story that shouldn't be there. The cloud creature (sigh) and the possession story could have been better fleshed out. Not awful. The Sherlock Holmes schtick got only slightly old. 3/5
Justice - first half is dire. Why is the Planet of Black People made up of strutting posturing greedy schemers and the Planet of White People want to f'k everyone in sight and forbid crime? The casual racism in this series is surprising. So is the tone deaf writing. The Enterprise goes to this planet for rest and send down an away team to evaluate. They come back with a report stating that the people there make love at the drop of a hat. "Any hat." In the same breath, Picard says "Hey Wes, you go down and see if it's good for kids." WTF? And naturally, Wes is immediately uncomfortable. He is paired with some kids, plays ball and commits a stupid accidental crime. After that, though, the episode is actually pretty good and seems to be heading to a great confrontation with the Edo "god." Excpet that, nope, after a short few words from Picard, the damned thing just let's Picard take Wesley away. Episode ends. 45 minutes wasted.
Worf, who we will learn was raised on Earth, knows very little about Earth. He doesn't know what "Rome" is. 2/5
The Battle - marginally good. I liked the worldbuilding though. Ferengi were a little better. Riker can't stop kissing Picard's ass though. 2.5/5
Hide and Q - someone told Delancie to "do Trelane" in a few spots. But this entire episode is predicated on one line of dialog in Farpoint that made Riker somehow stand out. The testing of Riker in the last act is comical. Older Wesley make me laugh at out loud. Riker aged him ten years and didn't change his voice. What a pal. Half a point off for Yar's Penalty Box scene. 2.5/5
Haven - ummmm... I liked this episode. A lot. I remember hating it in 1987. Majel was amazing and, again, I hated her back then. Marina was mostly pretty great and I liked Wyatt. Even the finale was touching. The oddball talking box sets an odd note (Armin Shimerman as the box face guy!) and Nan Martin overacts shamelessly, but this is a really great episode. I am damned shocked. I feel like they're finding their feet. 4/5
The Big Goodbye - okay let's get this settled. Regardless of TAS, which at this point I believe Gene was considering apocryphal, the holodeck is brand new technology at this point. Everyone is freaking gobsmacked over every bit of the Dixon Hill program, marvelling over the realism, the characters within, all of it. Putting TAS back into canon makes this gooey. Otherwise, a really solid story and a great tribute to noir fiction. The actors are settling in. Spiner is a riot. They do comedy well here. Funny how lipstick can stay on Picard long after he leaves the holodeck, but Cyrus Redblock can't exist outside. I'm sure there's a reason, I'm just noting it. 4/5
Datalore - first, I am 100% convinced they only named Data's brother Lore so they could have this title. Second, this episode cribs from The Enemy Within: the duplicate of our main character has a face thing that the evil version covers on himself but puts on the other (Kirk had scratches). Wesley is 100% correct in every observation, right down to his being ignored because he's a kid. Lore does suspicious things that, judging by the expressions on the cast, everyone notices and yet just lets go. Otherwise, this is another solid and important episode. Spiner is great as always. Worf gets his ass handed to him. Bev's arm catches fire and the fight at the end is reasonably well done. The whole thing about contractions is BS though. Data used them before and uses them IN THIS EPISODE. After Lore is beamed into space, when he's asked if he's okay he says "I'm fine." This would have been worth it if they revealed in the next Lore appearance that Data was beamed into space. But they were dressed differently, so there was no confusion.
Anyway, solid episode and the series seems to be finding its way. 4/5
Still some duds ahead (like the very next episode IIRC), but the better episodes seem much better after suffering through some real dregs. I totally forgot how awkward this series was when it started. I guess I was just too excited to have new weekly Star Trek again to care.
I'm exactly halfway through season 1, and I'll keep my reviews brief.
Encounter at Farpoint: Expository isn't the word. There's a really solid episode in here, but the need to pad it with the whole Q plot makes this one a bit of a slog. The actors aren't comfortable yet - with exceptions I'll get to shortly. One good choice was making this Enterprise brand new and so we get to discover what she can do along with the characters. Picard is shouty and crabbier than I remembered. Troi is a little grating and Denise Crosby is really in over her head. "This court should get on it's KNEEEEEZ to what starfleet is!!!" I will say, Wesley is presently as a likeable young man here and I enjoyed his childlike wonder very much.
Everyone seems off and searching for their place, except Brent Spiner. He nails Data from the jump. Even though the character has a way to go, Spiner has a handle on him. The most confident performance, though, comes from Deforest Kelley in his cameo and he and Spiner are magical together.
I remember how exciting the saucer separation was in 1987 - after years of only reading about it being possible. The ending was very touching, more than I expected. The music and - I admit - Marina Sertis made me well up.
As much as I don't enjoy Q for the most part, John Delancie steals every scene. Roddenberry loved Trelane, so he stole him for TMP and tweaked him a bit. It becomes super obvious in his next episode. 2½ stars / 5
The Naked Now - awful. Bad idea to kick off the first regular episode in this manner. Patrick Stewart gives a horrible performance under the influence and only Frakes and Dorn survive with their dignity intact. Spiner is funny though. 1/5
Code of Honor - I hate a lot about this one. Even without the racism, Yar impulsively jumps in front of Hagon and throws him across the room before otherwise more calmly asking him to pause so she can inspect the gift. Troi outing Yar's attraction for Lutan is just Roddenberry sexing up the episode. Fred Steiner's score is right out of Amok Time and Elaan of Troyius. Just an overall shitty episode. 1/5
The Last Outpost - another TOS influenced episode as the Enterprise pursuit of the Ferengi vessel and their halting by a mystery race is right out of Arena. The Ferengi are famously bad here. Portal is butchly overdubbed. The finger puzzles are just stupid. Riker hasn't gotten the stick out of his ass yet. 2/5
Where No One Has Gone Before - the first genuinely good episode. Really fantastic story as the Enterprise passes warp 10 and nobody becomes a salamander. I actually felt happy for Wes here. He's abused by the adults in this show for no good reason, really. Everything about this episode clicks. The mystery, the Traveller and the wonderful far off dimensional space is beautifully realized. I have to say, the series is pulling out all the stops when it comes to effects. I just wish the lighting wasn't so bright and bland. 4/5
Lonely Among Us - the Enterprise is ferrying fighting dignitaries to a planet for negotiations. "Journey to Parliament" anyone? It's a B story that shouldn't be there. The cloud creature (sigh) and the possession story could have been better fleshed out. Not awful. The Sherlock Holmes schtick got only slightly old. 3/5
Justice - first half is dire. Why is the Planet of Black People made up of strutting posturing greedy schemers and the Planet of White People want to f'k everyone in sight and forbid crime? The casual racism in this series is surprising. So is the tone deaf writing. The Enterprise goes to this planet for rest and send down an away team to evaluate. They come back with a report stating that the people there make love at the drop of a hat. "Any hat." In the same breath, Picard says "Hey Wes, you go down and see if it's good for kids." WTF? And naturally, Wes is immediately uncomfortable. He is paired with some kids, plays ball and commits a stupid accidental crime. After that, though, the episode is actually pretty good and seems to be heading to a great confrontation with the Edo "god." Excpet that, nope, after a short few words from Picard, the damned thing just let's Picard take Wesley away. Episode ends. 45 minutes wasted.
Worf, who we will learn was raised on Earth, knows very little about Earth. He doesn't know what "Rome" is. 2/5
The Battle - marginally good. I liked the worldbuilding though. Ferengi were a little better. Riker can't stop kissing Picard's ass though. 2.5/5
Hide and Q - someone told Delancie to "do Trelane" in a few spots. But this entire episode is predicated on one line of dialog in Farpoint that made Riker somehow stand out. The testing of Riker in the last act is comical. Older Wesley make me laugh at out loud. Riker aged him ten years and didn't change his voice. What a pal. Half a point off for Yar's Penalty Box scene. 2.5/5
Haven - ummmm... I liked this episode. A lot. I remember hating it in 1987. Majel was amazing and, again, I hated her back then. Marina was mostly pretty great and I liked Wyatt. Even the finale was touching. The oddball talking box sets an odd note (Armin Shimerman as the box face guy!) and Nan Martin overacts shamelessly, but this is a really great episode. I am damned shocked. I feel like they're finding their feet. 4/5
The Big Goodbye - okay let's get this settled. Regardless of TAS, which at this point I believe Gene was considering apocryphal, the holodeck is brand new technology at this point. Everyone is freaking gobsmacked over every bit of the Dixon Hill program, marvelling over the realism, the characters within, all of it. Putting TAS back into canon makes this gooey. Otherwise, a really solid story and a great tribute to noir fiction. The actors are settling in. Spiner is a riot. They do comedy well here. Funny how lipstick can stay on Picard long after he leaves the holodeck, but Cyrus Redblock can't exist outside. I'm sure there's a reason, I'm just noting it. 4/5
Datalore - first, I am 100% convinced they only named Data's brother Lore so they could have this title. Second, this episode cribs from The Enemy Within: the duplicate of our main character has a face thing that the evil version covers on himself but puts on the other (Kirk had scratches). Wesley is 100% correct in every observation, right down to his being ignored because he's a kid. Lore does suspicious things that, judging by the expressions on the cast, everyone notices and yet just lets go. Otherwise, this is another solid and important episode. Spiner is great as always. Worf gets his ass handed to him. Bev's arm catches fire and the fight at the end is reasonably well done. The whole thing about contractions is BS though. Data used them before and uses them IN THIS EPISODE. After Lore is beamed into space, when he's asked if he's okay he says "I'm fine." This would have been worth it if they revealed in the next Lore appearance that Data was beamed into space. But they were dressed differently, so there was no confusion.
Anyway, solid episode and the series seems to be finding its way. 4/5
Still some duds ahead (like the very next episode IIRC), but the better episodes seem much better after suffering through some real dregs. I totally forgot how awkward this series was when it started. I guess I was just too excited to have new weekly Star Trek again to care.
