I did a search for threads on Star Trek The Next Generation and didn’t see anything on the level of the usual discussions here about Star Trek TOS and DS9. So if there’s interest, I’m starting a TNG one. I have the entire TNG series on DVD purchased back in the day they first came out. I’ve seen several of my favorite episodes many times, but I have not done a sequential viewing since the first aired and since I bought the DVD sets six years ago.
Recently, I was open to re-viewing the first season of Star Trek The Next Generation from discussions about the music of Star Trek TOS on a TOS thread. I wanted to check out Fred Steiner’s effort for one episode of The Next Generation and I decided to keep watching.
If there’s interest, perhaps we can have a discussion about the series somewhat rocky start and eventually finding it’s own footing. I remember it very well, watching Encounter at Farpoint in 1987. So far, I’ve re-watched most of Season 1, 2 and all of 3.
I forgot a lot of little things that changed after the first 2 years. I remember that Riker was promoted by Roddenberry as the Kirk-like character who went on all the away missions and got the girls. Which he did. Data had a tendency to go on about something as he realizes what the definition of a slang word or task is. And this season had the beginnings of Worf’s use of short and descriptive comments; “Nice house, good tea”.
The first half of the first season is rough. And I am surprised by how bad the effects look! Some bad stuff was an attempt to do a Chief Engineer that tried to redo Scotty. A lot of the early stories were very much in the mold of TOS, morality plays like Justice and Angel One to the discovery stories that Humans aren’t so bad after all with The Last Outpost. Where No One has Gone Before was interesting in that it sets-up Wesley as a special person. I liked this episode, it sets into motion Wesley getting the attention his abilities warranted and marks Picard’s change of character from a guy who hates kids to someone with more affinity for kids in later seasons. I know a lot of people hated Wesley because he always saved the day, but he didn’t do it that often.
Some other early stand outs for me is Too Short a Season and The Big Goodbye where we start to see how the Holodeck can become a crutch later on for contrived situations. Too Short a Season I liked for the story and motivation of Admiral Jameson. Datalore also stands out as a good story for developing Data’s history and origins.
I particularly like a lot of the second half of the season. 11001001 is a great episode, we see Riker loosen up and I liked Carolyn McCormick! Good idea for the Bynars and the need to restart their planet. Home soil is a strong episode too, a modern version of Devil in the Dark. Sure the micro computer’s use of “ugly bags of mostly water” was lame dialogue, but I liked the story.
Coming of Age I felt was a real turning point for the series. We see that Wesley wasn’t perfect and the start of the storyline of Remmick and Admiral Quinn. Heart of Glory was a great start of the Klingon storylines that continues to develop their culture later on with the Duras, K’Mpec, Gowron and K’Lar storylines of season 2 and 3.
The Arsenal of Freedom was a fun episode that I’m fond of because of the adventure aspects and we see the ship in the hands of Geordi and a very bad actor playing the Chief Engineer who fights to take over command. Geordi and the green crew prevail! Skin of Evil is interesting as it’s a dark episode with a sad ending as Tasha dies from a really bad tar pit creature. Conspiracy was a really great episode and tied up the events from Coming of Age. I suppose you cn say that it seems preposterous that Starfleet could be that easily overtaken, but it’s a fun episode. And seeing other starship captains conspiring together to sort out the conspiracy is really cool. Makes you wonder at the end if the writers had more in mind, or did the chaos of the writers revolving door at the studio lose a storyline or did it eventually become about the Borg as the final episode, The Neutral Zone alludes to. This is a fun episode that I am also fond of for the fish out of water aspects and the first contact with Romulans that is an intelligent meeting trying to resolve the mystery of the missing outposts.
By the end, Patrick Stewart starts to really get his footing for Picard as do the others. But he seems to change the most in my mind as he’s so loosey goosy in the beginning. Brent Spiner is also a standout through out the series for how he so deftly plays Data.
The second season was an interesting continuation of the same kinds of stories from the first. The replacement of the doctor with Diana Mulduar was more interesting for me to see this time as I enjoyed how they make her essentially McCoy. I enjoy how she treats Data as nothing but a soulless machine to eventually coming to respect him at the end.
But more on the second season if this thread survives. One final thought about the whole reason this thread started, the music was much more lively then I remembered it, though at times electronic sounding early on, it is true as a poster pounted out in the TOS thread, the Ron Jones scores are very emotional, but they're right too for the stories. Too bad he left. Also, the first two seasons really use the Star Trek Alexander Courage fanfare till the series matures into it's own in the third year and used less or not at all IIRC.
Fun stuff and this re-viewing really makes me appreciate the series more as it's a pleasure to see the show grow and improve over two or three episodes viewed in each day!
Recently, I was open to re-viewing the first season of Star Trek The Next Generation from discussions about the music of Star Trek TOS on a TOS thread. I wanted to check out Fred Steiner’s effort for one episode of The Next Generation and I decided to keep watching.
If there’s interest, perhaps we can have a discussion about the series somewhat rocky start and eventually finding it’s own footing. I remember it very well, watching Encounter at Farpoint in 1987. So far, I’ve re-watched most of Season 1, 2 and all of 3.
I forgot a lot of little things that changed after the first 2 years. I remember that Riker was promoted by Roddenberry as the Kirk-like character who went on all the away missions and got the girls. Which he did. Data had a tendency to go on about something as he realizes what the definition of a slang word or task is. And this season had the beginnings of Worf’s use of short and descriptive comments; “Nice house, good tea”.
The first half of the first season is rough. And I am surprised by how bad the effects look! Some bad stuff was an attempt to do a Chief Engineer that tried to redo Scotty. A lot of the early stories were very much in the mold of TOS, morality plays like Justice and Angel One to the discovery stories that Humans aren’t so bad after all with The Last Outpost. Where No One has Gone Before was interesting in that it sets-up Wesley as a special person. I liked this episode, it sets into motion Wesley getting the attention his abilities warranted and marks Picard’s change of character from a guy who hates kids to someone with more affinity for kids in later seasons. I know a lot of people hated Wesley because he always saved the day, but he didn’t do it that often.
Some other early stand outs for me is Too Short a Season and The Big Goodbye where we start to see how the Holodeck can become a crutch later on for contrived situations. Too Short a Season I liked for the story and motivation of Admiral Jameson. Datalore also stands out as a good story for developing Data’s history and origins.
I particularly like a lot of the second half of the season. 11001001 is a great episode, we see Riker loosen up and I liked Carolyn McCormick! Good idea for the Bynars and the need to restart their planet. Home soil is a strong episode too, a modern version of Devil in the Dark. Sure the micro computer’s use of “ugly bags of mostly water” was lame dialogue, but I liked the story.
Coming of Age I felt was a real turning point for the series. We see that Wesley wasn’t perfect and the start of the storyline of Remmick and Admiral Quinn. Heart of Glory was a great start of the Klingon storylines that continues to develop their culture later on with the Duras, K’Mpec, Gowron and K’Lar storylines of season 2 and 3.
The Arsenal of Freedom was a fun episode that I’m fond of because of the adventure aspects and we see the ship in the hands of Geordi and a very bad actor playing the Chief Engineer who fights to take over command. Geordi and the green crew prevail! Skin of Evil is interesting as it’s a dark episode with a sad ending as Tasha dies from a really bad tar pit creature. Conspiracy was a really great episode and tied up the events from Coming of Age. I suppose you cn say that it seems preposterous that Starfleet could be that easily overtaken, but it’s a fun episode. And seeing other starship captains conspiring together to sort out the conspiracy is really cool. Makes you wonder at the end if the writers had more in mind, or did the chaos of the writers revolving door at the studio lose a storyline or did it eventually become about the Borg as the final episode, The Neutral Zone alludes to. This is a fun episode that I am also fond of for the fish out of water aspects and the first contact with Romulans that is an intelligent meeting trying to resolve the mystery of the missing outposts.
By the end, Patrick Stewart starts to really get his footing for Picard as do the others. But he seems to change the most in my mind as he’s so loosey goosy in the beginning. Brent Spiner is also a standout through out the series for how he so deftly plays Data.
The second season was an interesting continuation of the same kinds of stories from the first. The replacement of the doctor with Diana Mulduar was more interesting for me to see this time as I enjoyed how they make her essentially McCoy. I enjoy how she treats Data as nothing but a soulless machine to eventually coming to respect him at the end.
But more on the second season if this thread survives. One final thought about the whole reason this thread started, the music was much more lively then I remembered it, though at times electronic sounding early on, it is true as a poster pounted out in the TOS thread, the Ron Jones scores are very emotional, but they're right too for the stories. Too bad he left. Also, the first two seasons really use the Star Trek Alexander Courage fanfare till the series matures into it's own in the third year and used less or not at all IIRC.
Fun stuff and this re-viewing really makes me appreciate the series more as it's a pleasure to see the show grow and improve over two or three episodes viewed in each day!
