Wait, Season 1 really IS good!

[2takesfrakes]

ANGEL ONE is another of my favourite episodes in all of STAR TREK, in TNG in particular, and specifically... in its first season. I really like Ramsey a lot. I think he's a cool character, forced into a position of having to be Silent Partners with his beloved Ariel, in a Romeo & Juliet-styled Love Affair. Here is a Man of passion, who's defying The System, in The Name of Love! And Mistress Beata was the hottest woman ever on TNG -- an Alpha Babe, all the way! This show's accused of being sexist, or whatever, by Tree Huggers and that lot. Don't listen to them! ANGEL ONE is a fun romp!

I'm also a really huge fan of TOO SHORT A SEASON. Admiral Mark Jameson is another character I like, very much and have complete empathy for. He's become an invalid and a burden to others and has a rare opportunity to reclaim his virility ... to regain his Manhood! Doing so, he takes risks, again, as he did in his youth and the personal stakes couldn't be higher, as he looks for absolution from something he didn't do wrong ... but didn't do right. A lot of passion in this episode that's more of an undercurrent, than a driving force, as the secret he's kept hidden for decades comes to light. Except for the love of a good woman, there is nothing more important to a Man than being virile. Becoming old and weak ... it takes so much away, from that and wounds the pride. My heart really goes out to Admiral Jameson. His is a touching story ...

Also, I love THE NEUTRAL ZONE. It's a nicely layered story, with a lot of potential and portent of things to come. I especially love Clare Raymond, a soccer mom who misses her boys. She strikes me as being a really good mother and probably a great wife, too. She just wants things to be normal, every day kind of stuff -- taking the kids to school, making them their lunches, that sort of thing. She's not all into UFO's and weird shit like that, and yet ... here she is on the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, bristling with weapons and poised to do battle with aliens from Outer Space! "Get me the frig off this bitch!" is all she wants, at this point, but she's stuck, there. I also like the country guy, a lot. He's the total antithesis of the housewife. Like Bones from TOS, he likes to get liquored-up! We also see him plunking away on his guitar and he just loves to parTAY!!! This show never gets a miss, when Season One is on, in my household ...

 

[Qonundrum]

ANGEL ONE is another of my favourite episodes in all of STAR TREK, in TNG in particular, and specifically... in its first season. I really like Ramsey a lot. I think he's a cool character, forced into a position of having to be Silent Partners with his beloved Ariel, in a Romeo & Juliet-styled Love Affair. Here is a Man of passion, who's defying The System, in The Name of Love! And Mistress Beata was the hottest woman ever on TNG -- an Alpha Babe, all the way! This show's accused of being sexist, or whatever, by Tree Huggers and that lot. Don't listen to them! ANGEL ONE is a fun romp!

The moment you said "Alpha Female" the moment I was won over.

I dunno if the episode is sexist, deliberately or not, but on a certain level it is fun to watch. The women did get some nice jokes regarding the men, especially at Riker, from what I remember.

I'm also a really huge fan of TOO SHORT A SEASON. Admiral Mark Jameson is another character I like, very much and have complete empathy for. He's become an invalid and a burden to others and has a rare opportunity to reclaim his virility ... to regain his Manhood! Doing so, he takes risks, again, as he did in his youth and the personal stakes couldn't be higher, as he looks for absolution from something he didn't do wrong ... but didn't do right. A lot of passion in this episode that's more of an undercurrent, than a driving force, as the secret he's kept hidden for decades comes to light. Except for the love of a good woman, there is nothing more important to a Man than being virile. Becoming old and weak ... it takes so much away, from that and wounds the pride. My heart really goes out to Admiral Jameson. His is a touching story ...

Who wouldn't? Nobody wants to be a "burden", but any society is defined on how it helps the most vulnerable. Regardless of help, again, no individual wants to feel like a burden. Well, most, I remember my ex, who had no infirmity of any sort but took so much advantage and thus was far more approaching a genuine description of the term "burden"...

Jameson did seem to want to find Karnas and surprise him big-time - and then surprise his wife (in more than one way) with the drug. Had it not been for the hostage situation, the story would have been a lot more boring, and likely wouldn't have ended on such a tragic/sour/depressing note.

Also, I love THE NEUTRAL ZONE. It's a nicely layered story, with a lot of potential and portent of things to come. I especially love Clare Raymond, a soccer mom who misses her boys. She strikes me as being a really good mother and probably a great wife, too. She just wants things to be normal, every day kind of stuff -- taking the kids to school, making them their lunches, that sort of thing. She's not all into UFO's and weird shit like that, and yet ... here she is on the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, bristling with weapons and poised to do battle with aliens from Outer Space! "Get me the frig off this bitch!" is all she wants, at this point, but she's stuck, there. I also like the country guy, a lot. He's the total antithesis of the housewife. Like Bones from TOS, he likes to get liquored-up! We also see him plunking away on his guitar and he just loves to parTAY!!! This show never gets a miss, when Season One is on, in my household ...

It's stilla mixed bag but the array of 20th century people was definitely diverse - at least in personality archetypes (businessman, stay-at-home wife, and - most refreshingly, believe it or not - the country music singer/alcoholic.) Indeed, the 24th century has Picard and everyone crowing about about how much better they are (fair and fine, they're trying to redo and invert Star Trek IV where the crew opine on the cavemen they'd met) and yet we never see 24th century civilian society/life, where one would expect more people being creative and less likely to drug'n'booze one's self to death in the first place, never mind how the boozer could afford "the fad of the week". The business guy getting Troi's lines was interesting as well. The homemaker too brought in some freshness, but so much is crammed into a 43 minute space that little detail is put out by the writers - and that's a shame since there's a whole lot more they could have done as creative writing, in a loose arc, spanning numerous episodes as opposed to cramming everything into a one-off and not bothering with them ever again. A few episodes on the ship learning how to do things and having more segues to the past was a missed opportunity. They're living history - given Picard's past and future speeches about how history is written as biased, that's another example of how TNZ has an opportunity but dismisses it in favor of Picard's nose bearing downward on these beings he may as well equate as cavemen.

 

[Vger23]

Seasons 1 and 2 of TNG were far more successful in tone and execution in fulfilling Trek's basic mission of "exploring strange new worlds."

The later seasons just made it feel like the Enterprise was a glorified courier ship. Bring the ambassador here. Settle a dispute there. Help a colony with this. Go negotiate for that. Deal with Klingon foolishness. Do some cloak-and-dagger stuff.

Granted, all Trek is like this to an extent, but S1 and S2 felt more like they were on the frontier, on their own. It's one of the reasons that the "take your family with you" concept made sense.

 

[2takesfrakes]

The moment you said "Alpha Female" the moment I was won over.

I dunno if the episode is sexist, deliberately or not, but on a certain level it is fun to watch. The women did get some nice jokes regarding the men, especially at Riker, from what I remember.

Haha! I'm glad I won you over. The late Karen Montgomery, who played Mistress Beata, was something really special in her day - and I don't really dig blondes! Femmed out, all the way. Also, I've read elsewhere that she became a Hollywood producer, as well, but I've never looked into her career, or anything, unfortunately. I'm just glad that she left her mark on TNG! My only regret about her appearing in this episode was that she couldn't come back for more. I would've loved it, had Mistress Beata and Will Riker become a permanent item, on the show.

... Nobody wants to be a "burden", but any society is defined on how it helps the most vulnerable. Regardless of help, again, no individual wants to feel like a burden. Well, most, I remember my ex, who had no infirmity of any sort but took so much advantage and thus was far more approaching a genuine description of the term "burden"...

Jameson did seem to want to find Karnas and surprise him big-time - and then surprise his wife (in more than one way) with the drug. Had it not been for the hostage situation, the story would have been a lot more boring, and likely wouldn't have ended on such a tragic/sour/depressing note.

It's interesting to note, also that Marsha Hunt is still with us, at 99 years young! That is correct! She was on the Committee for the First Amendment, that protested the actions of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the late 40's, which had an adverse affect on her career, for a long time, but she kept working in Hollywood and was known for her activism.

-- Just throwing all those tree huggers out there, a bone!

It's stilla mixed bag but the array of 20th century people was definitely diverse - at least in personality archetypes (businessman, stay-at-home wife, and - most refreshingly, believe it or not - the country music singer/alcoholic.) Indeed, the 24th century has Picard and everyone crowing about about how much better they are (fair and fine, they're trying to redo and invert Star Trek IV where the crew opine on the cavemen they'd met) and yet we never see 24th century civilian society/life, where one would expect more people being creative and less likely to drug'n'booze one's self to death in the first place, never mind how the boozer could afford "the fad of the week". The business guy getting Troi's lines was interesting as well. The homemaker too brought in some freshness, but so much is crammed into a 43 minute space that little detail is put out by the writers - and that's a shame since there's a whole lot more they could have done as creative writing, in a loose arc, spanning numerous episodes as opposed to cramming everything into a one-off and not bothering with them ever again. A few episodes on the ship learning how to do things and having more segues to the past was a missed opportunity. They're living history - given Picard's past and future speeches about how history is written as biased, that's another example of how TNZ has an opportunity but dismisses it in favor of Picard's nose bearing downward on these beings he may as well equate as cavemen.

... AGREED!!!

Indeed, agreed! On all counts ...

 

[Mojochi]

The irony is that with so many years passed since the show aired, I've rewatched & discussed so much of the later seasons over & over again that I find now the only ones I can still relish like I did those are the ones from season 1 & 2, because I thought so little of them back then, that I didn't revisit them as much.

I mean there's really fantastic episodes from later seasons, that I truly love, but I can only really sit through them about once or twice a year now from all the rewatching I've done of them. It's pretty funny that I'll sit back & just let an episode like Hide & Q play because I don't have the whole thing memorized or deconstructed from front to back as much. lol

 

[Armus]

Simply put I think the first season episodes have more suspense and energy than later episodes. An episode like "Skin of Evil" will never be regarded as good but its so theatrical and entertaining and Armus is such an original villain with a cool back story.

 

[Armus]

The irony is that with so many years passed since the show aired, I've rewatched & discussed so much of the later seasons over & over again that I find now the only ones I can still relish like I did those are the ones from season 1 & 2, because I thought so little of them back then, that I didn't revisit them as much.

I mean there's really fantastic episodes from later seasons, that I truly love, but I can only really sit through them about once or twice a year now from all the rewatching I've done of them. It's pretty funny that I'll sit back & just let an episode like Hide & Q play because I don't have the whole thing memorized or deconstructed from front to back as much. lol

Hide & Q has great lines that I cannot forget.

Geordi(to Worf): "Worf, is THIS your idea of sex?!"

Geordi(to the adult buff Wesley): "Hey Wes, not bad..."

 

[Ensign Ogahd Ahmganadai]

So the popular opinion seems to be that season 1 of TNG is pretty dire, 2 is mediocre with a few good episodes, and season 3 is where it all started to get "really good".

I have long since disagreed with this assessment of season 2 (it is, in fact, my favourite season!) but have always been a little indifferent to season 1. A recent purchase of the blu-ray set meant a complete rewatch for me, and you know what...

Season 1 really is good as well!

I love the ensemble and how some of those early character interactions went (shame the Worf/Geordi friendship seen in "Lonely Among Us" and "Angel One" didn't go much further). I also think there are a lot of really interesting story concepts in almost all these stories, and a true feeling that the creators really were trying as hard as they could to make a quality SF show - plenty of missteps, but I appreciate many of the choices and risks taken.

Some highlights for me:

* Like I said some of the character dynamics show a promise and interaction that you don't necessarily get in later episodes; I enjoy Worf/Geordi, Data/Geordi (though they did spend a lot of time simply nodding at each other on the Bridge), Riker/Data, Picard/Crusher particularly.

* Episodes like "Heart Of Glory", "Arsenal of Freedom", "Datalore", "11001001", "Conspiracy", "Where No One Has Gone Before" are as good as I remember them... but others whose memory had faded over time have surprised me: "Coming of Age", "Too Short A Season", "When The Bough Breaks", "The Battle" spring to mind.

* The episodes weren't quite as "plodding", slow-paced as I remember... actually, there is a certain liveliness to many stories that is often lacking in later seasons.

* There is a 'feel' to these episodes - lacking the familiarity and 'formula' of later eps, of space being a little dangerous; truly unknown... this ramped up in season 2, and one of the reasons I love that season.

I'm not knocking later episodes - I love all of TNG - but I think season 1 gets a bad rap (on account of being different?) that's just not warranted.

I also re-watched quite recently, and had the opposite experience. If anything, the passage of time had made it seem less bad. All I could see were bad sets, cheesy dialogue, stilted, forced acting (even from the great Patrick Stewart!), cringe-worthy costuming and hair, the worst portrayal of Ferengi ever (which is saying something) and Wesley Crusher at his most insufferable. See, by the end of Season Three I was actually kinda liking the little twerp, but most fans can't get past his first impression, which was that he was a whiny, arrogant, attention-seeking little shit.

Brent Spiner had yet to get a hold on how to play Data, at times being too robot-like, as if Data were nothing more than a computer that talks, and at other time being strangely emotional. Denise Crosby was the queen of hammy acting. Marina Sirtis's incredibly fake accent was thankfully dropped for later seasons in favor of her (beautiful) natural one, and Patrick Stewart apparently thought Picard was meant to be an asshole. Were there good moments? Sure. I liked "The Battle" (which is odd because it contained more awful Ferengi, even if they had been toned down somewhat) and "Where No One Has Gone Before" (again odd, since it focused on Wussley) as well as "Datalore" and "11001001", but on the whole, no, I can't recommend that season.