Star Trek: The Next Generation

[Lord Ba'al]

I'm about to start a rewatch of TNG with @Quetesh. Though I've seen the whole show a fair bunch of times, I'm still excited. That said, if memory serves me correctly, the first episodes aren't all that great. But I know it'll get fantastic later on!

Jean-Luc Picard, William T. Riker, Data, Beverly Crusher, Deanna Troi, Geordi La Forge, Worf son of Mogh, Miles O'Brien, and Guinan, here we come! Yes yes, even you Wesley Crusher, we're coming for you as well.

 

[Lord Ba'al]

S1E01&02 - Encounter at Farpoint - 26/09/1987

It's Picard! Making an entry in his log. Captain's log, stardate 41153.7. He looks young. Patrick Stewart was 47 at time of airing. Hasn't met Riker yet. They're gonna pick him up. Data (Brent Spiner, 38 at time of airing) doesn't know the meaning of snoop. Deanna (Marina Sirtis, 32 at time of airing) is sensing a powerful mind and pulls a face as if she's constipated. The mysterious net of light or whatever it is forces them to stop. It's Q! (John de Lancie, 39 at time of airing) He's wearing some kind of old-fashioned style of clothing. Now he's a cold war soldier. Time for a quibble. O, lieutenant Yar (Denise Crosby, 29 at time of airing), just piss off. Time to see what a galaxy class starship can do! Let's outrun this weird light stuff. It's something beyond what we consider a lifeform. Engine room, gives us more! The balls on Picard! Emergency saucer separation at high warp! If Riker had been on board he would have objected. OMG, the man-dresses! LOL! This is all taking far too long, the Q-ball would have caught up with them before they left. The saucer is coming loose now, they play the TNG intro tune over the ship's speakers to calm the crew's nerves. The ship looks dumb without its saucer. Battle bridge at full stop. I wonder how the saucer is going to stop without warp engines. Picard is surrendering! How uncharacteristically cowardly. Trial time. Peasants on the court benches. A floating judge. Lt. Yar attacks a court security guard armed with a machine gun, how smart. Then she mouths off at the judge and gets frozen. Too bad he didn't blink her out of existence. Instead he unfroze her. Booooo! Thumbs down for Q. Pffft, this court scene is taking too long. Finally time to head to Farpoint. Will without a beard, a babyface. Jonathan Frakes was 35 years old at the time of airing. And there's Wesley. (Wil Wheaton, 15 at time of airing) And now Geordi! (LeVar Burton, 30 at time of airing) Will is beaming to the Enterprise, first beaming on the show. Time to connect the battle bridge to the saucer again. Show the captain you can do a manual docking commander. This is a nice scene, the docking. Data picked up Doctor McCoy, (DeForest Kelley, 67 at time of airing) I mean, Admiral McCoy with a shuttle. Yes, Data is just like a Vulcan. Uh oh, commander Riker is meeting counsellor Troi. Awkward! Lol, the Farpointers might form an alliance with the Ferengi. Alright then, we'll be off, best of luck to you. Ferengi are people-eaters, apparently. Ah, the holodeck! Gotta love it, as fantastical and technologically impossible as it is. But that's what sci-fi is for. Data's there for whistle practice. And he's very strong, pulling Wesley out of the water one-handedly. Wesley says captain Picard is a pain, lol. The episode does a decent job of introducing all the characters and their capabilities to be honest. Ooh, Beverly (Gates McFadden, 38 at time of airing) and the captain meet each other for the first time, on this ship I mean. He lets Wesley on the bridge despite his rule that no children are allowed there. Favoritism! Don't touch anything! But take a seat in the captain's chair. Lol, perimeter alert! Cute little scene. Worf (Michael Dorn, 34 at time of airing) kinda looks like someone piled clay on his head. The Ferengi have arrived, in a ship twelve times the size of the Enterprise. Those darn Ferengi are shooting at the village! O wait, it's not the Ferengi! It's a giant space jellyfish! And they're holding hands now. Feelings of great joy and gratitude. Q is pissed. He'll be back later. Captain's log, stardate 41174.2. Episode done, and I didn't even get around to mentioning Miles O'Brien, played by Colm Meaney, who was 35 at the time of airing. Let's see what's out there. Engage!

 

[Lord Ba'al]

S1E03 - The Naked Now - 03/10/1987

Captain's log, stardate 41209.2. Something's gone wrong on a research vessel. Seems more like a party vessel. They're dead! They're all dead! Maximum decontamination settings for the away team's return. Geordi's sweating like a pig. He's confined to sickbay yet just walks out the door. That's what happens when you have doors opening by themselves and don't post security guards. Geordi took off his visor, his eyes look like an extreme case of cataracts. He's hot. He's feeling Lt. Yar's face. I guess this is a Geordi-centric episode. Oh no, now Yar's affected as well. Data doesn't know the meaning of having a snootful. Now Wesley's affected. Now all the nameless crew members are having a party. The chief engineer is a woman! Sarah MacDougal, played by Brooke Bundy, 34 at time of airing. Picard is giving control of the ship to Wesley, lol. Yar is seducing Data, for as far as that is possible. Come to think of it, it's more like she's raping him. The assistant chief engineer is building a tower of isolinear chips. Oh no! Now even Data is affected! That darn b!tch Yar caused this. Beverly would love to show Jean-Luc something. The Enterprise is about to get destroyed by a collapsing star. Time for Data to very quickly put all the isolinear chips back in the spots they belong, like a pro. "Why not just see it in your head?", Wesley says, after the chief engineer says it would take weeks to turn the tractor beam into a repulsor beam. Yar tells Data that it never happened. Seriously, what a b!tch! Confusing an android with perfect memory like that. I'm glad this episode is over. Wesley should be in the log indeed, having commandeered the ship and put it and its entire crew in mortal danger.

 

[Joelist]

I always felt The Naked Now should have been later in the season so we know the characters better - it would have helped it a lot.

 

[Lord Ba'al]

That is probably a fair assessment. We hardly know these characters at this stage and seeing them interact this way is not funny. Once the characters are more established, there are probably a lot more things you could do with a scenario such as this.

 

[Quetesh]

I think I waited long enough to re-watch TNG. I did not find the first ep as difficult to watch as I thought I would. There was even a conversation with Picard and Riker that I had forgotten and I feel this really sets the tone for their chain of command/ yet friendship bondp for all the Star Trek shows &movies going forward. This ep made me really remember how annoying Wesley can be. I don't blame him so much for taking over the ship but instead for pushing his way onto the bridge. No kids on the bridge is a rule, so no respect for whining till he got his way. Q was also over the top too much in this ep and I loved the actor from his Days Of Our Lives role.

The second ep was maybe meant to be a homage to TOS, but since it was too soon ( I totally agree ) it felt more like a crutch leaning on the original too much since they had already done a bit of homage with having Bones on the first ep. It is felt like a missed opportunity since the ep did not feel as light as the TOS ep did.

I think this showcases how overall the show got so much better when it stopped leaning so much into TOS and embraced it's own very different characters.

 

[Quetesh]

I always felt The Naked Now should have been later in the season so we know the characters better - it would have helped it a lot.

I said that to hubby last night while we were watching it, not only that, I could have sworn it was later in the season , but I had been wrong since I found it not to be so memorable.

 

[Lord Ba'al]

S1E04 - Code of Honor - 10/10/1987

Captain's log, stardate 41235.25. Oh no, this the one with the tribal like tribe with the men and the women. The men are sort of dressed like MC Hammer. Wait, the guy says they're not technologically advanced like Starfleet, then what the heck is Starfleet doing there? Are they warp capable? Oh no! They've kidnapped Yar! Oh well, let's move on to elsewhere. Darn Picard. He seems intent on rescuing her. What a waste of time. Of course, they need the vaccine. Now it makes sense. Wesley is spying on the bridge from the turbolift again. Picard lets him sit next to Geordi. Geordi doesn't like it. Data is explaining to Picard that French is an obscure language that used to be spoken on earth. Lol! The captain is forced to ask for Yar back. How degrading. Oh, they won't give her back. Ah well, we tried. Let Lutan marry Yar. Wait, his other wife, Yareena, won't allow it. There will have to be a battle to the death. Too bad that vaccine is so desperately needed, otherwise they could have just left. There's Geordi without his visor again. He's rubbing a block of blue plastic on his face that is supposed to be some kind of razor. Data tells a stupid joke about kiddelies. Yareena is pole dancing in preparation for the fight. The fight begins! Huh! Hooh! Hooah! Yar isn't even trying to attack. Wait, she stabber her with the poisonous prickly things. Now Yar kidnaps Yareena! What a twist! And now Picard kidnaps Lutan and the other dude! Yareena is still alive, or rather brought back to life by doctor Crusher. Within a span of 2 minutes, Yareena divorces Lutan, takes the other dude as her husband, and then takes Lutan as her second husband again. How civilized. Glad this episode is over now. Can't wait to get to the good stuff.

 

[Quetesh]

This ep is still leaning too much on TOS, using that same battle music and making team member fight to the death....YAWN.

Yareena looked like a child swing round in a playground not a warrior in training.

Why is Picard acting with so much bias to Welsley, I am sure many other kids his age on that ship would like to be on the bridge too since it is a "ship with families". Each time Picard does it, it feels a bit like the show is jumping the shark of who this captain true character is. Picard is supposed to should be about fairness except it seems for this one tween boy child .

 

[Joelist]

Code of Honor was a pretty embarrassing entry.

 

[Lord Ba'al]

S1E05 - The Last Outpost - 17/10/1987

Captain's log, stardate 41386.4. Picard is chasing Ferengi. The Ferengi fire on the Enterprise, but Picard isn't even firing back. The Enterprise is immobilized. Our first glimpse of the Ferengi. "The ugliness of humans was not in exaggeration." The planet belonged to the Tkon empire, an ancient and long extinct highly advanced people. Data got his fingers stuck, lol. I love that scene. Somehow the planet is holding both the Enterprise and the Ferengi vessel hostage. "Your alien images again shock us." This is without a doubt the best episode so far, easily. The characters are starting to come into their own and together as a team as well. You can see the actors are having genuine fun from time to time as well. The Ferengi away team has captured the Enterprise away team. Good thing Yar is there to save them with her phaser. The Ferengi are shocked to see the humans clothe their females. It's sickening. Lol! This episode did a great introduction of the Ferengi. A guardian of the Tkon empire appears. "Deception is the way of the human." Hahahah! Riker wants to beam some Chinese finger puzzles over to the Ferengi. Lol! One of the Ferengi, Letek, was played by Armin Shimerman by the way, who is of course well known for later playing the Ferengi Quark in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

 

[Lord Ba'al]

S1E06 - Where No One Has Gone Before - 24/10/1987

Captain's log, stardate 41263.1. Kosinski is a dick. I guess he broke Wheaton's Law. I find this episode interesting because they sort of break the show's own canonical parameters before they've even been properly established. If that even makes sense. Due to the actions of "the traveler", the ship breaks through warp 10 and ends up over 2.7 million lightyears away from where they were only a minute before. The Enterprise is already a ship of exploration, and as such travels to unknown places, but this goes way beyond where they would have ever imagined going. Interestingly, Geordi estimates that at maximum warp it would take them approximately 300 years to get back to where they were. That clashes with Star Trek: Voyager, where they were about 20 thousand lightyears away and that journey back would take them approximately 70-75 years, if memory serves me correctly. But, TNG of course being created earlier than Voyager, it would really be Voyager that broke continuity. Time to go back home. Oops! Now they're over a billion lightyears away from home. I think I just saw Data's cat appear on the bridge. I mean, the same cat that is later introduced as Data's cat Spot. But here it's Yar's kitty. Everything is well again, the traveler managed to get them back, but then vanished. Captain's log, stardate 41263.4. Wesley Crusher is made an acting ensign.

 

[Quetesh]

I do agree about some of the humor in The Last Outpost. I found it odd the Ferengi were able to take down Worf, Data and Riker so easily. I enjoyed the way that Riker and the guardian just ignored the Ferengi at one point and had an instant bromance. " Should I just kill them for you? " LOL. They should have brought back that character again, but alas he goes back to sleep and will never be seen again.

The Where No One Has Gone Before was just a vehicle to justify how much Wesley was going to be made an integral part of the show...it still did not feel right. Am I to believe that Riker and the chief engineer are such twits that he could not figure out for themselves that the travellor was phasing in and out and not the fake gibberish in the control panel from the other guy ? I could see it on my view, so if they just looked up for a second they could have too! It did not take a genius to pick that up. I was a bit bothered by the giant snowflakes floating around in edge of the universe and what is with the guy that just happened to be thinking about a wall of fire, but the worst part of any of it, was that horrid orange monstrosity that Wesley was wearing. I assume it was meat to be a futuristic sweater but I just have no words for bad it looked.

 

[Joelist]

Voyager is actually the more accurate one of the two in physics terms.

 

[Lord Ba'al]

Turns out at least some of the cast didn't really like Code of Honor either. Here's Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn and LeVar Burton talking about it.

View: https://youtu.be/AnySfN02YYQ?t=1321

 

[Lord Ba'al]

S1E07 - Lonely Among Us - 31/10/1987

Captain's log, stardate 41249.3. Riker's wearing a dress! Lol, upwind, on a starship, sure. Ah, they're back in their onesies. Doctor Crusher asks the unknown crew member who got thrown across the room by Worf "are you okay?", as she casually walks out the room not paying any attention to him. Doctor Crusher just woke up from possession by an alien entity, and she has no idea what she's doing on the bridge, yet when Picard asks her if she's alright, she says she's fine. That's the chief medical officer of the flag ship of Starfleet for you. Great job chief! The alien apes aboard the ship have lightsabers. There's a mr. Singh in engineering. I don't really remember him. My guess is he dies on this episode. There we go, he's dead. Bye bye assistant chief engineer. Data is acting as Sherlock Holmes for the first time. I like those scenes. He does an excellent job of it. Troi wants to do a little hypnotic experiment on Crusher and Worf. Another great Sherlock scene with Data. Uh oh, now the captain is possessed. Chief O'Brien is caught between the two warring alien species. The crew are conspiring behind the captain's back. I can see the hesitation on Riker's and Crusher's faces as they tell the captain they believe he's possessed. I never noticed that before. Riker just got noosed by the reptilians. Patrick Stewart is doing a great acting job playing possessed. This is only episode 7 (counting the Farpoint episode as 2) and the characters and crew are already clearly developing and coming together. Picard wants to resign! Now he's electrocuting the entire bridge crew. And now he beamed himself off the ship into an energy nebula. I guess that's the end of Picard. No, he wants to come back. He has infected the ship. Data will reconstitute the captain using the transporter. There we go. He's back. Simple as that. Take charge number one!

 

[Quetesh]

The next ep is called "Lonely Among Us", first what a stupid name and does not make sense for what the ep was about ( Ba'al can handle those details ).

I will say that this ep is more interesting than enjoyable to watch. That being said the story played out well enough, with the entity going into person to person and learning to be more manipulative and crafty, similar to how a toddler , then a tween then a young adult would try to sneak behind their parents back to get away with something.

The actors playing Beverly, Picard and Data really came into their own in this ep. The Doctor and Captain for showing how the can seem to be one person one second and someone else instantly sinister the next. I feel that Beverly played a villian a bit less smooth than Picard, but again, this made sense. Data on the hand, was playing pretend but doing it with just the right amount of tongue in cheek and naivety at the same time.

Shockingly, Wesley was wearing that mofo ugly A** sweater again, it hurt my eyes so bad I was hoping, he would have been the one to bite it!

Please give TNG a better wardrobe buget and air lock that thing!

 

[Lord Ba'al]

Okay, it's been a while. Partly because things have just been busy. Partly because I've known this episode right here is a real stinker. But I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and get on with it, so here goes. And yes, I have been drinking quite a bit to get to this stage.

S1E08 - Justice - 07/11/1987

Captain's log, stardate 41255.6 People running around in super short clothing. Some blonde chick feeling up commander Riker. Michael Dorn obviously enjoying the hug. Yes, lots of pent up frustrations in the Enterprise crew. Invisible space station off the starboard bow. But according to Geordi it's not really there. A soap bubble penetrated the Enterprise. It's on the bridge now. It's staring Picard down hard. Soap bubble has an annoying loud voice. It attached itself to Data's forehead to exchange information. It was brutal. Riker's enjoying all the public sexuality. My wife just needed me to open a bag of crisps/chips, sigh, really. Ooo, they have only one punishment for any crime, death. How wise. What about that guy showing his nipples, is that a crime? Why aren't the women showing their nipples? Wesley just crushed it. The greenhouse that is. He disturbed the new plants. Death to Wesley! Starfleet doesn't lie! Riker assaulted a police officer! How rude, he was only trying to assassinate Wesley. This is a pivotal moment in Star Trek: The Next Generation history. If they had only allowed those police officers to assassinate Wesley, the rest of the show would have looked quite different. The captain beamed down to change everyone's minds. The prime directive is not in Wesley's favor. Geordi's visor seems huge. The out of phase space station is god. Dr. Crusher tells Picard, "If he were your son...", how interesting giving the recent reveal that Crusher and Picard have a son together, on Star Trek: Picard, season 3. The alien god space station is somewhat reminiscent of a thing you can use in a microwave oven to rest a plate on. Picard will not allow anyone to execute Wesley. Screw the prime directive! Wesley is wearing a horrible sweater again. The rest of the people on the planet are wearing hardly anything at all. Time to move on. No harm no foul. Nothing left to do here. Next episode.

 

[Joelist]

So you're still in the bad early days. I also wish Wesley had been executed - not only was he an annoying character (to me worse than Neelix) but the actor (Will Wheaton) grew up to be an aggravating, entitled snot.

 

[Lord Ba'al]

S1E09 - The Battle - 14/11/1987

Captain's log, Stardate 41723.9. Lol, they've just been hanging around for three days because the Ferengi said "stand by". I would have been out of there long ago. Wesley's not wearing his ugly sweater. Got his rainbow uniform on instead. The Ferengi want to give something, at no price. No price?! Yes, no price!! Well, that's not at all suspicious. Ugly, veeery ugly. The captain's headache just isn't going away. Ah, the Picard-maneuver! The Stargazer, NCC-2893. The Ferengi could have at least cleaned it before gifting it. Those dang Ferengi are behind Picard's headaches! And now they're trying to smear the captain's good name. What a down-low dirty trick. Ferengi using deep fakes. Deanna's face is so obviously much paler than the rest of her skin, all the makeup. O dear, the captain is going for a joyride. And he fell into the Ferengi's trap. How did the Ferengi beam off the ship while the shields were up? Captain's attacking the Enterprise! Devise a defense against the Picard-maneuver, Data! Very exciting music. The captain destroyed the mind-controlling sphere. Thank god. While this episode was originally much better than the previous one, once you're familiar with it already, it doesn't really have anything to offer, aside from some amusement with the Ferengi early on.