TNG revisited

[Start Wreck]

Hide And Q
I don't get the pun here. Hide and seek, hide and queue? Pass.

Anyway, Q returns in this episode, this time with an interest in Riker. We learn that the Q are, in some way, concerned about humanity eventually surpassing the Q in their natural evolution (however that works) and they want to understand the human drive which eludes them so. This is quite a fascinating look at the Q and a good followup to their appearance in Farpoint.

Ultimately it is just an excuse to have some fun and toy with the characters for a while. I used to find Q episodes quite annoying, but De Lancie has such a screen presence, he really brightens up the episodes he's in. His chemistry with Stewart is particularly good; Picard and Q quoting Shakespeare at each other is a highlight of this episode.

Riker has a more casual attitude to Q and it's good to see him not getting worked up over him, taking his little games in his stride. Then, we see the subtle transition from man into god as his attitude to his crewmates changes without him realising it. Picard's little ploy to get Riker to realise the error of his ways is well done, and we see Q taken back to the continuum, having failed in his task. Quite a satisfying conclusion. I'd have to say this episode has held up better than I remember it.


Noteworthy things:

- Double-whammy of luck: no Troi in this episode and The Crusher Boy dies (temporarily)!!

- If they ever remaster/enhance this series, they should get Wil Wheaton to reprise his role 'Old Wesley' and digitally replace the dude who looked nothing like him.

- Q's true form is a weird floating ring with feathers sticking out the top? Doubtful, but interesting.

 

[TheKeeper]

I'm pretty harsh on Hide and Q, it nearly made me give up on the show. "Vicious animal things", really? GEICO cavemen with colonial era uniforms and laser muskets? It was like Lost in Space: The Next Generation!

Don't even get me started on Riker. Despite some blandness in these early episodes, I was starting to see potential in him (like Q, I suppose.) This episode squandered that, and as far as I'm concerned the character never recovered. He keeps a promise not to use his powers to save lives, and a few minutes later he's basically taking over the bridge and playing pimp to Worf? I'm doing a crossword puzzle and need a nine letter word for "Riker in Hide and Q." First letter D, last three letters B-A-G...

 

[Start Wreck]

Haven
For a Troi-centric episode, this isn't too bad. She isn't moany, preachy or irritating, and remains level-headed while her eccentric mother takes the centre stage.

The arrival of Lwaxana troi usually marks a 'comedy' episode, and this is broadly the case here. I did enjoy her ordering the captain around, him trying to carry her luggage, Data commenting on "the petty bickering", Mr. Homm getting drunk and hitting the gong over and over again, and so on.

Amidst this light-hearted plot is a fairly underdeveloped sub-plot about a Talerian (EDIT: Tarellian, even; wrong species) "disease ship" seeking Troi's husband-to-be. It's never really explained how the two of them were telepathically linked, other than some wishy-washy talk from Mrs. Troi, nor do we see or hear from these people again.

Far from pointless, however, the episode serves to flesh out Troi's backstory, and although I find the character of her mother somewhat annoying, I can't deny she has a screen presence which, much like John De Lancie, brightens up the show that little bit.

That said, it's not an episode I'd be in any rush to see again.


Noteworthy things:

- Lwaxana implies that Deanna's accent is inhereted from her father. I had never noted this before now. However, in a later episode (Dark Page, I think), I'm pretty sure the memory of her father has no such accent.

- The meaning of 'Imzadi' is explained in this episode.

- First sighting of the holodeck 'arch'. Noteworthy, albeit uninteresting.

- This is the only episode in which Mr. Homm speaks.

 

[Amaris]

^ I liked "Haven" fairly well myself. Oh, and for the record, I'm also a fan of "EaF". So that's what, five?

 

[Alrik]

^


Count me in as another one who likes EaF. Don't mind Haven either. Actually, for me, there is nothing in season one that I find unwatchable.

To address two things brought up earlier in this thread, IIRC the reason there wasn't a specific Chief Engineer was that Roddenberry didn't want one. By the start of season two, he got over ruled by the suits that realized that there needed to be one and they passed the torch to Geordi. The other point about the stories looking so similar to TOS once again goes directly back to Roddenberry. Early on, he had quite a bit of power and say, so he got the stories done that he wanted. It almost looks as if he was cherry picking some of TOS's more popular eps and reworking them for TNG. And some wonder why the show got turned over to Berman.

 

[SchwEnt]

I'm pretty harsh on Hide and Q, it nearly made me give up on the show. "Vicious animal things", really? GEICO cavemen with colonial era uniforms and laser muskets? It was like Lost in Space: The Next Generation!

That line stuck on me first damn time I heard it back when it originally aired! And coming from Worf, no less! HE'S talking about "vicious animal things"??? Take a look in a mirror, pal.

But seriously folks...what kind of thing is that to say?
In a galaxy with pig-faced Tellarites and insect-Xindi and all manner of species, how can one speak about "vicious animal things"? One could call Klingons the same thing.

 

[TheKeeper]

Haven is fine with me, mostly because I've always liked Lwaxana Troi. She brings a good combination of humor and pathos to her episodes. And just so the Farpoint fans don't feel embarrassed, I admit to liking Cost of Living. And there goes my last shred of dignity...

 

[Start Wreck]

The Big Goodbye
And so begins the very first in a long line of "the holodeck malfunctions" episodes. It isn't the most imaginitive setup: the Jarada sensor probe causes the holodeck to lock, communications to be blocked, and the safeties to be switched off. That's a bit of a stretch, and it's hard to take the idea seriously.

Still, in the holodeck, the Dixon Hill program provides plenty of ambience, atmosphere, and a change of pace for TNG. I'm sure it was a fun episode to make, even if it's not the best to watch... although it's probably worth it for any scene with Data, who plays his role well. Again, no first season episode would be complete without Boy Wesley saving the day, this time repairing the holodeck with moments to spare.

I'll give this episode a little bit of tolerance for not yet quite nailing down what the holodeck should or should not do, and in fact it is stated early in the episode that it recently underwent an upgrade, so perhaps there were some bugs to iron out. Things like characters being aware of the program, of the costumes and of themselves are probably preferences that can set depending on how real the user wants the simulation to be. My main gripe is when Cyrus Redblock leaves the holodeck and is standing there for a few seconds before he starts to fade - from what we later learn about photonic projections, that should be impossible.

As the episode wasn't too interesting in its own right, all I can do is nitpick the details. Here's another one: why did Picard have to learn the exact syntax/grammar of the Jarada's language when he only had to recite one greeting? Further, why couldn't, say, Mr. Data learn it instead and then speak it in Picard's voice? How would the Jarada even know the difference?


Noteworthy things:

- The holodeck apparently had some upgrades made to it. This is the first time we see a proper simulation of places and characters inside it. Previously we've only seen training programs and environments. This nicely allows the viewer to experience the wonder of the holodeck at the same time as the characters.

- We only ever see 'Mr. Whalen' in period costume, never in his Starfleet uniform.

- Data pretends to be from South America. "Can't you tell?"

- "Mr. LaForge... step on it!"

 

[Start Wreck]

Datalore
Despite being a big Data fan, I was never too keen on this episode. There's an off-kilter tone to the whole thing and nobody seems to act sensibly.

First of all, shortly after Lore is revived, Picard is asking Data where his loyalties lie, for no apparent reason. Later on, despite all the suspicions, no-one really bothers to watch what Data (Lore) is doing. If I was the captain and I had any suspicion at all that one of my officers was an imposter, I'd have him taken off duty, or at least post a security guard. And once again, it's Boy Wesley who saves the day. I hadn't noticed before, but this is becoming a definite theme of season 1.

At least we learn something about Data's backstory here, although it does raise the question of why has Data not been back to his planet before now? It does paint the picture of space being very vast. Did Starfleet originally launch any sort of investigation of why their Earth colony was destroyed? Our heroes seem initially surprised by the barren nature of the planet but I don't know why.

There is some good stuff about the episode: Spiner plays the dual roles very well indeed. Lore is a sinister character, even when he's being friendly - actually, especially when he's being friendly. The cheesy 80s synth music shows us how cunning and devious he is. If only the characters could hear it; they'd have identified him much earlier!

The crystaline entity is a good idea and also impressive for an 80s TV show. Sadly, a lot of the prosthetics are harder to swallow. Lore's plastic head doesn't actually look that much like Data, so showing the two side by side for a sustained shot probably wasn't the best idea for the director. The laboratory, however, was very nicely designed. A shame we never see the rest of the colony.

Noteworthy things:

- They beam Lore out into space at the end. Then what? They just leave him there? They make no effort to retrieve him?

- Geordi pays another visit to a window in this episode to take a 'real' look at the crystaline entity. The idea is already getting old, though.

- Lore's head has no ears attached, yet in a future episode (Unification?), Data tells Dr. Crusher that his ears are not removeable. Whoops!

- For the first time, we officially learn that Data either does not or cannot use contractions... although it does sound as though he says "I'm fine" at the end of the episode.

- We also learn that Data has an "off" switch. I'm not sure why he had to tell Dr Crusher it was there, as surely the engineers would have noticed Lore had one there when they were putting him together.

 

[Amaris]

^


Count me in as another one who likes EaF. Don't mind Haven either. Actually, for me, there is nothing in season one that I find unwatchable.

Hooray! Six!

I enjoy Season One. I started doing so after I purchased Season One dirt cheap. I grew to enjoy that one (and Season Two) for what they were. There were missteps, but I think they did well their first season.

To address two things brought up earlier in this thread, IIRC the reason there wasn't a specific Chief Engineer was that Roddenberry didn't want one. By the start of season two, he got over ruled by the suits that realized that there needed to be one and they passed the torch to Geordi. The other point about the stories looking so similar to TOS once again goes directly back to Roddenberry. Early on, he had quite a bit of power and say, so he got the stories done that he wanted. It almost looks as if he was cherry picking some of TOS's more popular eps and reworking them for TNG. And some wonder why the show got turned over to Berman.

Yeah, two episodes in, we've already had a tribute to TOS. Not a bad idea in theory, but the idea was to launch forward, not jump backward. Fortunately, the series exploded in Season Three.

 

[TheKeeper]

The Big Goodbye - I could see the holodeck episodes coming, with or without malfunctions, ever since the forest/creek scene in Farpoint.

Datalore - Another inevitability; once we have an android character, there has to be an evil twin out there somewhere. The Snowflake of Doom was pretty interesting, but calling it the "crystalline entity" continues the vicious-animal-things trend of illiterate descriptions. The Crystal reminded me of TOS' Doomsday Machine, but with a lighter appetite. It would have been interesting to see a Crystal meet a Borg cube.

 

[Start Wreck]

Angel One
Angel One is another social allegory episode, that Star Trek does so well. Only this time there isn't a metaphor for the theme, sexism. Instead it's quite literal about it. Angel One is a female-dominated society; the women hold positions of power and are physically stronger than the men, who are smaller, wear skimpy clothes and are subdued in their society. It's hardly subtle!

Ridiculous costumes aside (and Riker's is a sight to behold!), there's also the issue of scale. The Enterprise arrives at the planet and contacts its leader. The leader of the whole planet? Fair enough, but then we learn the freighter's escape pods just happened to land near there as well, as if the planet consists of just one city. Scale has often been a bit of an issue in Star Trek and it's particularly apparent here. We do get a good look at the (soon to be all-too-familiar) matte painting, which looks suitably alien yet strangely modern day.

The sub plot for this episode is the viral outbreak aboard the Enterprise, which delays our planet-bound heroes from beaming away. Docter Crusher gets to do some actual doctoring, LaForge gets to command the ship for a while, and Riker has time to be preachy to the Angel One leaders, preventing the refugees' executions just in the nick of time.

Pleasingly, this episode doesn't feature Boy Wesley saving the day; in fact, it's his fault the shp's crew caught the virus in the first place. It makes a change!

A bit of lighthearted humour saves the episode from total mediocrity. I even liked Data taking Riker's orders to leave orbit in time completely literally. It was a nice touch, and the first time we see Data take command.


Noteworthy things:

- The Enterprise is called to the Neutral Zone due to a Romulan threat. I believe this is the first time the Romulans are mentioned. This may or may not foreshadow events of The Neutral Zone somehow, I can't remember.

- The Angel One matte painting is seen for the first time in this episode. It's actually a pretty good painting, made from multiple layers, with a nightnight versions as well. I can see why they reused it so often. Just a shame I'm already sick of seeing it!

- Worf's epic Klingon sneezes.

 

[Start Wreck]

11001001
This is more like it. Essentially a Riker-centric story, but one that features the whole cast, is based on an excellent premise, has a good share of humour ("a blind man teaching an android to paint") and seriousness (the destruct sequence), and even manages to thrown in a bit of episode continuity by mentioning the earlier holodeck malfunctions.

On top of that, it's got some seriously good production values - the starbase docking sequence is great, the shot of the Enterprise passing the windows somewhat reminiscent of Star Trek III.

The Bynars are an intriguing race, perhaps not too dissimilar to the Borg, combining technology with biology and working in groups (though only of two), however they mean well and don't wish to cause harm. There is a common theme in early TNG of Starfleet using exotic aliens for their own ends, repairing and upgrading their ships (see also: Where No One...), which helps gives the impression that they really are venturing out far into space. Later shows would feature almost entirely human experts and technicians.

At the centre of this story is Minuet, a holodeck character programmed to distract Riker and keep him aboard ship. So persuasive is the Bynar's creation, so real the character, that she actually returns as quite an important plot point in a later episode! Picard and Riker also get some good screen time here, showing the characters can work well together. A bit of tension and action builds before the story wraps itself up. An altogether great episode; not just by season 1 standards, but proper sci-fi done well.


Noteworthy things:

- First mention of the game "parrises squares", as Yar and her team, including an overly-competitive Worf, leave the ship to play the Starbase crew.

- There is more than one computer voice. The one in engineering is male.

- Picards pretends to be French again.

 

[Amaris]

11001001
This is more like it. Essentially a Riker-centric story, but one that features the whole cast, is based on an excellent premise, has a good share of humour ("a blind man teaching an android to paint") and seriousness (the destruct sequence), and even manages to thrown in a bit of episode continuity by mentioning the earlier holodeck malfunctions.

On top of that, it's got some seriously good production values - the starbase docking sequence is great, the shot of the Enterprise passing the windows somewhat reminiscent of Star Trek III.

The Bynars are an intriguing race, perhaps not too dissimilar to the Borg, combining technology with biology and working in groups (though only of two), however they mean well and don't wish to cause harm. There is a common theme in early TNG of Starfleet using exotic aliens for their own ends, repairing and upgrading their ships (see also: Where No One...), which helps gives the impression that they really are venturing out far into space. Later shows would feature almost entirely human experts and technicians.

At the centre of this story is Minuet, a holodeck character programmed to distract Riker and keep him aboard ship. So persuasive is the Bynar's creation, so real the character, that she actually returns as quite an important plot point in a later episode! Picard and Riker also get some good screen time here, showing the characters can work well together. A bit of tension and action builds before the story wraps itself up. An altogether great episode; not just by season 1 standards, but proper sci-fi done well.


Noteworthy things:

- First mention of the game "parrises squares", as Yar and her team, including an overly-competitive Worf, leave the ship to play the Starbase crew.

- There is more than one computer voice. The one in engineering is male.

- Picards pretends to be French again.

I LOVE the overly competitive Worf.

 

[mr.peany]

I too loved Season One, there was a sense of wonder and exploration I find is missing in subsequent seasons. Plus, I was always a fan of Yar.

 

[carlmarx]

11001001 I think is the best episode of season 1. It never stuck out to me when I was young but after watching it recently, I realized how great the dialogue really was.

 

[DevilEyes]

Angel One
Angel One is another social allegory episode, that Star Trek does so well. Only this time there isn't a metaphor for the theme, sexism. Instead it's quite literal about it. Angel One is a female-dominated society; the women hold positions of power and are physically stronger than the men, who are smaller, wear skimpy clothes and are subdued in their society. It's hardly subtle!

Angel One is one of those 'so bad they're good... well, almost' season 1 episodes. Not only is the premise not subtle - it's incredibly stupid. Don't get me started on the whole thing with females being dominant because they are bigger and stronger than males! I mean, really, is that how the writers understand sociology? Physically stronger people will always be dominant? Nice one, Trek writers. You have just implied that it's biologically natural for human males to be dominant over females just because they are taller on average and have more muscle mass. (Although I'm sure this was not your intention, you just weren't thinking things through...) Not to mention that the idea that physical strength determines the dominant position in the society makes little sense - or else the most powerful men in human societies would be athletes and muscular young men in top physical shape - certainly not older men in less than great shape who just sit somewhere and make decisions... nah, that couldn't possibly happen, right?
At least, if they were going for a less than subtle gender-reversal situation and a culture where women are in charge and men are oppressed, surely they could have been smarter and done it without basing it on muscular strength or reversing the biological and physiological characteristics of males and females! How about, say, a culture where women are considered the superior sex, say, because they give birth? Or for whatever other reason, but something that would show that sexism and the whole nonsense about one of the sexes being superior is purely cultural and ephemeral, not some kind of biological fact!

Pleasingly, this episode doesn't feature Boy Wesley saving the day; in fact, it's his fault the shp's crew caught the virus in the first place. It makes a change!

But it does feature something equally embarrassing and silly - Riker love scenes.

 

[JustKate]

I truly loathe "Angel One" - deeply, madly and fiercely. The "love" scenes just make me queasy, the entire concept is clumsily and ridiculously done, the writing is awful, etc.

But I do like "11001001" a lot, despite its Rikerosity. There were even times during this episode where he didn't bother me at all, which makes it fairly rare among my TNG experiences, though of course there were also times (the whole scene where he selects his hologal, for example - bleh!) that make me writhe a little bit. But all in all, a really interesting episode.

 

[Praetor]

^'Rikerosity.'

 

[JustKate]

^ Hey, it's word. You can look it up! Somewhere.