The Most Dangerous Season of STAR TREK...

[Farscape One]

In the Winrich Kolbe game currently going on, I was inspired by an episode being taken out.

"Where Silence Has Lease" is an episode I always loved for many reasons, not the least of which is the supremely creepy vibe throughout.

But thinking about it, I am reminded of another reason why this episode was great, and it really is illustrated throughout season 2 of TNG.

Space is dangerous. VERY dangerous.

A lot of episodes can sometimes make us forget this. But season 2 of TNG is littered with danger.

"Where Silence Has Lease"
"Contagion"
"The Royale"
"Time Squared"
"Q Who"

And though I do not particularly like this episode, even "Shades Of Gray" reminds us of the dangers of just putting one foot out the door of the known into the unknown.

I might call season 2 of TNG possibly the best reminder that space is the most dangerous and hostile environment to human life.

What about all of you? What season gives you this feeling, and maybe list some episodes?

 

[Qonundrum]

Dang. I was writing up my next rescue from the list, was typing in TNG season 2's dangerous bent, then put it aside and waiting for the next opportunity to save it. That's when I saw this post (woohoo!!)

TOS season 2 had some dangerous and way-out events (Doomsday Machine, Immunity Syndrome, Who Mourns for Adonis, By Any Other Name, Changeling) but TNG one-ups it with those examples you'd mentioned. It's a coin toss but I'm leaning toward TNG due to scale. TOS/S2 is still really robust in that regard.

Especially "Shades of Gray" and a well-realized jungle planet. Clip show bits aside, that was one of TNG's best entries - exploring a genuinely hostile planet. And with no angry tasty produce:

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(dang, that episode of Lost in Space at least started with a modicum of potential...)

 

[Farscape One]

Interesting you mention those TOS season 2 examples. I was thinking about several of those, but my main thinking was hostile in terms of things not directly created by an intelligence. "THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME" is a perfect example of what I was going for.

I know it kind of eliminates "Contagion", "The Royale", and "Q Who", but those were such great episodes, each in different ways, that the danger still wasn't diminished. But it is precisely why I didn't use "Unnatural Selection" as an example.

In any case, those others you mentioned are great ones... my favorite being "THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE". Hands down in my top 5 of TOS.

But this is what I love about these kind of threads... it gives me food for thought.

 

[Timo]

I'm not sure any of your trio should be eliminated here. "Contagion" has the crew of a fellow ship come to grief because of an automated response from a long-dead civilization; "The Royale" centers on the nightmare of an Earthman who was abandoned by alien intelligence; and "Q Who?" features an intelligence that is so alien and non-interactive as to be a force of nature. A conventional adversary is missing from the encounters, even if one theoretically lurks in the deep background.

Indeed, early TNG was pretty good with depicting alien alienness, with inhuman motivations and unlikely responses to hero actions. There's no outsmarting or making peace with the Borg, and "outwitting" Hotel Royale is something the heroes have to do because they have no way of interacting with its creators. In the later seasons, we get more of the latex-masked human adversaries that so nicely serve as allegories for real-world issues, and fewer "true", "concept" aliens: even those from "Future Imperfect" and "Schisms" ultimately appear fairly human in motivations and actions in the end.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Qonundrum]

I'm not sure any of your trio should be eliminated here. "Contagion" has the crew of a fellow ship come to grief because of an automated response from a long-dead civilization;

Like "The Arsenal of Freedom" but with some nifty tweaks (both are great episodes, even if "Contagion" feels more taut.)

"The Royale" centers on the nightmare of an Earthman who was abandoned by alien intelligence;

The aliens were quite benign but they did what they did out of not knowing what this alien human critter was. It's like the aliens of "Galaxy Quest" seeing the TV show as being a documentary just like how "Gilligan's Island" was. It's an interesting twist, not used as comedy fodder, and is more or less a successful one. (Unlike the campy scene of running through oversized vent blower fans to get at a magic shield reset button.)

and "Q Who?" features an intelligence that is so alien and non-interactive as to be a force of nature. A conventional adversary is missing from the encounters, even if one theoretically lurks in the deep background.

Indeed, early TNG was pretty good with depicting alien alienness, with inhuman motivations and unlikely responses to hero actions. There's no outsmarting or making peace with the Borg,

^^this. It's not unlike the Kromaggs from "Sliders", where they're started out as entirely alien and different but become human caricatures later on.

and "outwitting" Hotel Royale is something the heroes have to do because they have no way of interacting with its creators.

Which was a nifty idea, just to play it through to the end... the only downer is, if the astronaut figured that out he could have not been in a good place afterward - had the aliens left. Still, it also - albeit unintentionally - shows a life of a person who is caught up in a TV show too much. I don't think it was intentionally so meta, or if it was they kept the sledgehammer completely in the toolcase.

In the later seasons, we get more of the latex-masked human adversaries that so nicely serve as allegories for real-world issues, and fewer "true", "concept" aliens: even those from "Future Imperfect" and "Schisms" ultimately appear fairly human in motivations and actions in the end.

Timo Saloniemi

^^this.

As much as there were good "latex allegories for the human condition" could be (Trek could clearly do both with deftness and interest), those earlier seasons just had more to them that were often more intriguing, in part for being more frequent.

 

[Sakonna]

That lonely-deep-space feel in season 1 and 2 of TNG is hard to beat. I also think it's striking how these seasons have so many ancient dangers... seems like they're always stumbling upon the remnants of long-dead civilizations that still might kill them. Something about that also made it feel like such a big universe.

But the most dangerous seasons are probably every season so far of streaming Trek.

Discovery season 1, we start out facing the death of the entire Federation, and escalate to the stakes being the complete destruction of all of the infinite multiverse.

Disco season 2, the stakes were the death of all sentient life in the universe, as we were frequently reminded.

Picard season 1,

Spoiler

a slight variation, the stakes are now the death of all ORGANIC life in the universe.

Trek of the past never went so big so consistently with it's threats.

 

[Tim Thomason]

That lonely-deep-space feel in season 1 and 2 of TNG is hard to beat. I also think it's striking how these seasons have so many ancient dangers... seems like they're always stumbling upon the remnants of long-dead civilizations that still might kill them. Something about that also made it feel like such a big universe.

But the most dangerous seasons are probably every season so far of streaming Trek.

Discovery season 1, we start out facing the death of the entire Federation, and escalate to the stakes being the complete destruction of all of the infinite multiverse.

Disco season 2, the stakes were the death of all sentient life in the universe, as we were frequently reminded.

Picard season 1,

Spoiler

a slight variation, the stakes are now the death of all ORGANIC life in the universe.

Trek of the past never went so big so consistently with it's threats.

TOS Season 1: The fate of the entire universe lay in the hands of a madman in a tiny UFO. The entire universe winks out of existence a few times before Kirk and crew are assigned the task of saving the entire universe.

Also, they saved the timeline on two separate occasions. But every Captain has done that.

 

[Lance]

I will echo what people have said. TOS, particularly season 2, and TNG seasons one and two had that great, unknown, dangerous feeling. The early bit of TNG season three also carries a few -- there are episodes like Ensigns of Command, Booby Trap, The Survivors, episodes where the crew feels isolated and alone out there, and there are real dangers around every corner.

DS9, VOY and ENT had it baked into the premises, but only sporadically touched base with it in any meaningful way. In most cases it simply felt like they didn't really face mysterious danger, everything felt a little more quantifiable somehow.