Star Trek: Classic or Dud?

all good advice

there's a handful of S1 episodes that are worth it, others as curios maybe (the first holodeck episode, the Ferengi, crazy space worms!)

Em.... I'm gonna stay away from the space worms, hopefully. I love Wrath of Khan to death but I always have to look away during those parts.

Good call, that's kind of a low-budget Grand Guignol of an episode.

You can always go back and roll your eyes at S1/S2 in the future. I mean, for god-sakes, they ended season 2 with a clip show. Dr. Crusher also leaves the show for season 2 and comes back for season 3, though Wesley doesn't.

Doesn't leave, that is

I see you're part of the No Crushers Club too.

My favorite season 1 episode (non-pilot) is Justice.

Nah, I was cool with Bevs.

It's No Crushers, we're allowed to have one.

oic, ic

Season 1 is pretty crappy, but the idea that TNG only got good at season 3 is an exaggeration, as there are several of good season 2 episodes:

Elementary, Dear Data (the crew plays Sherlock Holmes, the first really good Holodeck episode)

The Schizoid Man (old geezer who doesn't want to die takes over Data's body, a nice showcase for Brent Spiner)

A Matter of Honor (Riker goes as an exchange officer to a Klingon ship, hilarity ensues)

The Measure of a Man (Data's personal rights become an issue that needs to be settled in a tribunal, this is the sort of plot TNG excels in)

Pen Pals (Data has a radio friendship with little girl on pre-Warp planet, another ethical episode, also has some touching Data moments)

Q Who (the first really good Q episode, plus the introduction of the Borg, this is one of the best TNG eps in general)

The Emissary (sets up a long-running Worf subplot, Suzie Plakson as Worf's half-klingon old flame is one of the best guest characters in the whole series)

Peak Performance (has a bit of a silly antagonist character, but it's a good showcase for Riker, he gets show his tactical chops, which will come into good use in The Best of Both Worlds)

Also, Season 2 brought in Dr. Pulaski, who I thought was a really interesting addition, so it was sad she was only in this season. Gates McFadden is not a bad actor, but Dr. Crusher is much more of a traditional, warm & empathetic doctor character... Where Pulaski was mean to Data, questioned Picard's authority (when she felt he was compromised), and in general was less nice but more compelling than Crusher. And Diana Muldaur was really good at playing her as a bit of smug but ultimately decent person.

what was the whole story with why they brought her in?

http://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/38668754140/marina-sirtis-well-you-have-to-remember-that-we

The only season 2 eps you should never, ever watch are the first (in which Troi essentially gets raped and impregnated by some energy being alien, but in the end is okay with it), and the last (which is indeed a Riker clip show, and not even a good one, as they clearly don't have enough good clips to use, since the show is only 2 seasons old, so they throw in pretty much anything they can think of).

That TNG clip show is terrible, it's worse even than the clip show from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Thanks Tuomas for summarizing my earlier post.

Pulaski was in two TOS episodes playing different characters about 3 episodes apart

Whenever a Pulaski episode would show up in syndication reruns my young self would just be like "oh.. it's one those episodes"

Elementary, Dear Data (the crew plays Sherlock Holmes, the first really good Holodeck episode)

this is exactly the kind of inherently-silly-but-let's-take-it-seriously sort of thing that drives me crazy about TNG. among other things.

Whenever a Pulaski episode would show up in syndication reruns my young self would just be like "oh.. it's one those episodes"

For me it was the crew-neck slim fit unis everyone wore.

I also like Time Squared from S2, it's really eerie and unsettling, and pretty unusual for a time travel story. It doesn't really make sense in the end - the reason being the writer planned to reveal Q was behind it all a few episodes later, but the idea got show down by Roddenberry - but it's still a good episode.

That episode also provides the "space, where time becomes a loop" quote (said by Worf) which was sampled in loads of techno and trance tunes in the early 90s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2KAplrXOPE

My other questionable advice is to maybe watch the first half of encounter at farpoint (the debut)? Just to meet Q. But then switch off when the ep switches to farpoint station or you get bored.

Nah you gotta get through the pilot, for posterity. Also it informs the finale.

But just the Q scenes!

what happens in the finale I don't remember

Q happens in the finale! Old Picard! Contraction-usin', Lucasian-chair sittin' Data! Worf the functionary!

Best Q costume, too.

"inherently-silly-but-let's-take-it-seriously" is basically how i live my life

Oh man, the best part of Encounter at Farpoint is how they were setting up this big "Picard hates kids and families" thing that they tapered off of fairly quickly

Actually I REALLY miss that aspect, wish they'd kept it going

I love how they manage to meet the most powerful being in the universe within the first two minutes of the first episode.

how they were setting up this big "Picard hates kids and families" thing that they tapered off of fairly quickly

It didn't taper off quickly, Picard's uneasiness around children is referred to every once in a while throughout the series... For example, in the 5th season episode "Disaster" a power failure on Enterprise leaves Picard stuck in a turbolift with three kids, and he clearly has no idea how to handle them. (His solution to that problem is pretty cool, but I won't spoil it if you haven't seen the ep.)

http://homepages.wmich.edu/~johnsorh/Myth/images/cronus.gif

I would attend a Tuomas curated TNG viewing marathon.

Trekkin' With Tuomas

It didn't taper off quickly, Picard's uneasiness around children is referred to every once in a while throughout the series... For example, in the 5th season episode "Disaster" a power failure on Enterprise leaves Picard stuck in a turbolift with three kids, and he clearly has no idea how to handle them. (His solution to that problem is pretty cool, but I won't spoil it if you haven't seen the ep.)

― Tuomas, Saturday, March 8, 2014 10:44 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

totally! i like that he has weird flaws like that

Yeah, the fact that you had a show with three out of the seven leads were women, yet run such that 2/3rds of them were gone by the end of the first season probably should have clued me in years later has to how fucked up the early show was run.

Still several steps ahead of the original Trek, it should be noted, and still pretty good for the 80s when your model was... uh... Plus they tried harder, bringing back Crusher, bringing on Ro later, and of course Troi becoming a much more fleshed out characte

ironic typo?

Pain in the 'R's?

Tasha Yar was an interesting character in theory, so it's sad that they couldn't really figure out what to do with her, and that they hired such a mediocre actor to play her. (Crosby's later appearances in the series are totally meh too.) When Ro was introduced, it kinda felt like she was Yar done right, and with a better actor too, so it's a shame she only became a recurring character and not a regular one.

But yeah, it's nice that they at least managed to flesh out Troi better in later seasons. I remember when I was watching the show as a kid, I didn't much care for her, probably because she mostly just did all the girly stuff, like emotions and all... But now that I've been rewatching the series on Bluray, I find that the girly stuff is often more interesting than the technobabble.

Thanks for "Time Squared" recommendations above. Watched it this weekend - Patrick Stewart's so wonderful and intense in the episode, such a weird contrast with the larky "Riker cooks an omelette" stuff at the beginning, which might as well be from a children's cartoon.

The soundtrack also has this great, spooky pulse effect running through the story - kind of John Carpenter-style - I don't remember TNG going in for that sort of thing very often.

Riker feeding everyone plain omelets and beer is so hilarious to me.

I love the Ron Jones-era music (they fired him in the fourth season I believe). It's totally John Carpenter-esque and weird and great. The music gets pretty boring after he left.

It's a great episode. I don't like the story much, as I dislike time travel plots generally, but it's a brilliant look at how Picard handles a tough unknowable situation, up there with the best Kirk centred TOS episodes.

I'm going to rep again for the https://twitter.com/TNG_S8 twitter thingy due to their feel for the "Riker makes an omelette" backstory

NB I do like that scene! Trek wouldn't be Trek without squareness and goofballery. (Maybe that's why I find Voyager unwatchable.)

Also why most of those movies were so bad