A Collection of Episode Reviews Originally Posted on MI6 Forums Between June 20 and October 6, 2009
"Encounter at Farpoint"
I find it so shocking that the "Q" plot was added only to fill out the show to two hours. Not only because it became the primary story arc of the series, but because it is SO much more interesting than the Farpoint "mystery". The entire Farpoint story is so routine and ordinary a puzzle, but it's made interesting in the context of being Q's first test for the Enterprise crew.
Q himself is a great character right off the bat. While he's a lot like similar life forms encountered by the original crew, he's better because he's much more three-dimensional -- neither a remote demigod nor a childish imp, he's completely unpredictable, and a great nemesis therefore.
Because TNG had already been sold, its pilot gets to focus on introducing the characters rather than showcasing an adventure. Each of the ensemble gets a little moment to let us know who they are. However, even at this point Tasha Yar feels underdeveloped compared to everyone else. Also, while some characters instantly pop and seem interesting, others are... cringe-worthy. So far I think the best character is Riker, followed by Data and Picard. And the worst are Troi and Wesley. I'll break them down:
PICARD -- He's really one-dimensional in this episode. He basically barks orders and yells at things and is generally unpleasant to people. However, they certainly immediately establish him as being different from Kirk. He's a much more professional, by-the-book Starfleet captain. One of my favourite moments is when the Red Alert klaxon goes off and he yells "Shut off that damn noise!"
RIKER -- So far Riker is the most fun character, and the only one who acts like he has a personality. Everyone else in the episode just takes or gives orders, but Riker actually comments on things and has a growth.
GEORDI -- Basically at this point he's just the blind guy with the gold hair barette on his face. But LeVar Burton is such a likeable performer that we like Geordi anyway.
YAR -- Denise Crosby is a fine actress here but she's given little to do. I feel that will be a running note.
WORF -- *gasp!* A Klingon in Starfleet?? I wonder what that's about?! Rofl, I'm looking forward to first season Worf. Michael Dorn says his take on Worf for the first two years was that he "didn't like anybody."
BEVERLY -- She's a soccer mom. In "Farpoint" the dynamic between her and Picard is very interesting and indeed it's almost as if Picard doesn't know her very well at all beyond her being the wife of his dead officer. By the way, can anyone confirm or deny if Gates McFadden's first-season hair is a wig? It looks really fake and much more red than in subsequent years.
TROI -- Troi's an annoying bimbo in this episode who states the obvious, over-acts, and stands with her mouth open. Probably my least favourite featured character in this episode. I also find the relationship between her and Riker much different than I remember it -- she's more like the ex-girlfriend who still carries a torch even though he's moved way beyond.
DATA -- Data's cool because he's interesting. We don't know where he came from and he don't know where he's going and he's got a cool attitude and of all the characters a definite initial story arc -- become human. Personally I've always thought there should've been more progress in that arc over the series, that by the end he should've been more close to human than he was even in Nemesis.
WESLEY -- What can I say? The kid's annoying. And it's not just the golly gee whiz attitude, it's his massive arrogance. The fact that he buts into conversations and acts like he knows what he's doing.
Definitely the best scenes in "Farpoint" are the Q/Picard scenes, and the worst are the scenes with Goppler Zorn or Troi, both of whom overact to extremes. "Of course we have NOTHING to hide! That's why I'm so jittery and anxious!!" "I sense PAIN. Immense PAIN and LONLINESS."
Probably the finest scene in the whole episode is the very touching scene between Admiral "Bones" and Data around the mid-point. Really sweet and moving, and a great send-off to the show.
All-inall, this episode's job was to convince Trekkies that a new show with a new crew would be worthwhile. It succeeds, but only provisionally. It's good enough that I think a fan would say "well, let's see what comes next."
"The Naked Now"
"But, if we ADMIT we're copying the Original Series, that makes it a sequel, not a rip-off!"
The original Naked Time episode worked for two reasons. One was that it was fun. Sulu ran around swashbuckling and Riley took control of Engineering while singing Irish folksongs. The other was that it defined the characters -- we finally learned of Spock's inner torment, and of Chapel's love for him.
Clearly the episode was ripped off for TNG so that the same easy, one-step character development could occur -- despite the fact that the pilot had wasted our time doing a lot of that already.
Why the TNG version doesn't work is that it's only the second episode and the characters aren't interesting enough (Picard and Crusher want each other, Riker wants to save everyone, Troi wants Riker, Tasha wants everything, Data wants to be human, Geordi wants sight, Wesley wants command -- all of these things were already established in the pilot) -- and it doesn't have the fun of the TOS version. TNG always was guilty of taking itself too seriously, and this episode lacks the comedy of the TOS outing. Instead of Riley we get GOD DAMN ANNOYING WESLEY CRUSHER.
However, there are some good bits. Tasha testing how "fully functional" Data is will always be memorable. And the Crusher/Picard scenes are great, though more for Gates McFadden than Patrick Stewart. I love "Drunk Beverly" in this episode -- McFadden should've given more of this sense of fun to the regular Beverly character and she might've been more likeable. But Patrick Stewart is playing things in this broad farcial way and doing weird things with his voice and it doesn't work.
Wil Wheaton once said that Wesley only really saved the ship "one and a half" times. I'll test that theory.
WESLEY SAVES THE SHIP: 1.
I'm keeping count.
I also noticed that Worf wasn't affected -- probably because in the eyes of the writers he wasn't a real character. He hadn't really been focused on in the pilot, either, and at this point he's just there to be a visual reminder of the Federation/Klingon Alliance, and to take orders, rather than be a real character.
"Code of Honor"
The reason this episode fails is that the exact code of honour isn't really explained. I never really understood what was going on with Lutan and his wife. And, of course, the racism.
Also -- this is a TOS episode. Really clearly a TOS episode. The need for a vaccine on another planet, the primitive alien culture needed to barter with, the fight to the death (where's the MUSIC?) -- it's all very much in the style of the old show.
On the other hand, the actor playing Lutan clearly had fun, and I liked that this episode focused on Tasha, since we'll get so few episodes with her.
Despite all that, I did have fun watching this episode for the most part. I liked the scene between Geordi and Data with Geordi shaving and Data trying to tell jokes. Sure, it's just there for filler, but it's the beginning of the long-lasting Data/Geordi friendship.
So far the series has convinced me that Riker, Geordi, Data, Tasha and even Beverly are likeable characters. Picard is basically a still a hard-ass, which is a cool change of pace from Kirk, but not necessarily likeable. Worf just sits there and takes orders, occasionally growls (where was he in "Code of Honor?" You think the Klingon would've been a great choice to deal with the honor-bound black guys!). Troi has yet to redeem herself (beyond being cute despite an awful costume/hair-do) and Wesley might be the most annoying goddamn thing ever.
"Haven"
This episode fell flat for me. It was a neat attempt to develop Troi and expand on the Riker/Troi relationship, and Majel Roddenberry is fun as Lwaxana (thank god there's only one episode of her a year though) and it's cool seeing Lurch as her valet. But the whole thing is rather dull, and ultimately senseless. How again do the boring mullet guy and the boring blonde bimbo make contact? Because all life is connected? How the f*ck does that make sense? Also, Marina Sirtis' performance is really uneven. Is she for the wedding or against it? The whole thing was a big, "meh", and of course the ending is a big reset button.
"Where No One Has Gone Before"
This may be the first episode this season I liked. For one thing, it looks like a new DOP came on board because the visual style of this episode is a lot more interesting than the previous four. I like Kosinski and his arrogant attitude and the conflict that brings. And I like that the Traveller gives the Wesley character the beginnings of a possible storyline, an arc, a reason for Wes to be there other than him being the annoying kid (and I love how everyone in the episode just calls him "the boy"). Sure, the writers never really did anything with it, and Wes remains an annoying arrogant brat, and this thread was never picked up on until the third last episode of the series -- but still. I also liked the visions the crew had -- especially Tasha's flashback and Picard seeing his mother. They're trying to really push home this idea that Tasha's upbringing was exceptionally hard and its molded her into this tough individual -- but they do it half-ass. They should've devoted an episode to exploring it rather than giving out piecemeal mentions throughout the season. Ultimately Tasha's background doesn't get explored until three seasons after her death. Also, some of the sfx imagery is very cool and memorable.
Wesley Saves the Ship: 1.5
Chief Engineers This Season: 2
"The Last Outpost"
This episode actually isn't half-bad. Up until the moment DaiMon Tar gets revealed on the viewscreen it's probably the most exciting TNG has been so far. But the Ferengi are so laughably misplayed here. Not even poorly written, per say, but misplayed. Their weapons are big plastic dildo whips and they are dressed in furs. The way they scamper about and over act and hand-talk is totally weird and makes them seem like animals. They come across as dangerous, yes, but in the way that a child with a lighter is dangerous. Not really a threat to the Federation so much as something to keep an eye on. It's interesting that the parallel to American capitalism is made immediately. Ferengi aside, the Tkon Empire plot and the Portal character and very cool and interesting, and I noticed a real growth in Riker here commanding the away team, you really feel like he would be a great starship captain. The other thing I liked in this episode was that LaForge suddenly gained a really fun personality and this is also the first time we see him in Engineering and he really seems in his element there. It's so weird that he won't be Chief Engineer until second season.
I'll briefly recap what I think of the characters so far:
PICARD -- Honestly, he doesn't really engage me at this point. He stands on the bridge and barks orders but seems somehow. He almost never leaves the bridge and is always reluctant to take action and he seems more like a distant father figure, while
RIKER seems more like the main character of the show. I really enjoy his take charge attitude and it's fun how even in just six shows you can really see growth in his character already. He's a fun guy and so far my favourite character.
LaFORGE When he gets to do something, I like Geordi, and it's entirely because of LaVar Burton. He just goes for it and gives a really lively, fun performance. Geordi feels like a real personality at this point.
TASHA is okay, when she gets something to do. The last three episodes she's just stood there, and it's weird that they added a tactical officer as a regular character on this show when so far the Enterprise has not had a single battle and Picard makes a definite point all the time of staying out of confrontations. So Tasha ends up being this third appendage who suggests they fight and gets turned down. Which bring us to
WORF, who serves the same function as Tasha only male, black, bumpy foreheaded, and more grumpy. And growling and snarling. Still, whenever he does say something it's always an interesting contrast with the human crew. He's probably my third fav character so far behind Riker and Geordi, just because he's mysterious and different.
BEVERLY has barely been developed. We know she's competent, compassionate, and has the hots for the Captain. She's okay so far. Can't ever have enough redheads on a show.
TROI is annoying. She's attractive but always just says the obvious. She's also kind've whiny. Of all the major developed characters, so far I could do without her.
DATA is really weird in first season. Instead of the flatly played automaton, he's being played as someone trying to act human, with smiles and jokes and slang and such, but it always sounding odd and unnatural because he doesn't understand the reason or feeling behind any of it. It's neat, but not really engaging. I could take or leave him.
WESLEY sucks. He should've been like Ioan Gruffudd in the early episodes of Hornblower -- a really bright young kid whose trying his best to learn and slowly becoming a good officer -- someone who we root for and see make mistakes, but also learn. Someone we want to see grow up and become a leader. I get that more from Riker, actually. Instead, Wesley has this attitude like he knows everything all ready and that just makes him an arrogant, unlikeable brat. He's sunny, cheerful, and incessantly insipid.
"Lonely Among Us"
I had completely forgotten this episode existed until I watched, so that tells you something. It's basically a complete rip-off of Fontana's TOS episode "Journey to Babel", only minus interesting character development and plus another energy being that possesses the crew. The whole thing was lame, schizophrenic, and kinda dumb. The make-up on the aliens was imaginative and better than just forehead ridges, but poorly accomplished. The only things really worthwhile are that Data's fascination with Sherlock Holmes begins, and that FINALLY we start to get a hold on Picard's character a bit when we establish that his dream is to explore. Picard the Explorer was really the handle for that character. It should've been shown in "Naked Time" or earlier, but for the past seven episodes all we got was Picard the Angry Captain. Kirk was a Swashbuckler, a leader of Men. This episode finally begins to define Picard. Other than that, it sucks. It just sort've runs out of steam and ends, and for some reason someone thought that the brutal murder of an ambassador for the purpose of dinner was a good joke to go out on.
Wesley Saves the Ship: 1.75
Chief Engineers This Season: 3
"Justice"
A planet of sexy Aryans who run around having constant orgies want to kill Wesley? Excellent! Oh, wait, Picard wants to save Wesley. Ugh, fine. You really see in this episode just how bad a child actor Wil Wheaton was. He's unbearable. You want him dead so bad. Gates McFadden gives a good turn worrying for her son, and the over-sexed Edo and their interactions with the crew are hilariously good times -- but a lot of this episode falls flat. It takes waaaay too long to get going, so the whole resolution gets rushed. The crew meets yet another God thing (yawn). The ending is literally a deus ex machina ending, and feels like a cheat as we never actually explore any of the issues of Justice that the episode vaguely brings up. One good note is that at the end of the show we get the very first "Picard morality speech" that will become a hallmark of TNG and one of the prime reasons to watch the show. Side note -- Sweet lord is Troi a completely useless character or what? In nine episodes I've seen her give one (just one) statement that wasn't already completely obvious.
"The Battle"
Well this episode was giving a very good effort to be dramatic and to restore the Ferengi to the place of verified villains. It also gives us some good dramatic backstory for Picard, with his old ship being the source of many moments mentioned later in the series, and of course the model in his ready room. Unfortunately, the whole thing never really coalesces. The episode feels like too much jam-packed into too little and it doesn't really work. Some specific problems include Patrick Stewart's ridiculous over-acting, more god-awful smart-ass Wesley Crusher moments, and a problem that's been plagueing this series since the start: a retarded crew. Whereas the TOS crew was the finest crew in Starfleet, the TNG crew solves problems by flailing its arms about until the runtime of the episode is over and the deus ex machine saves the day. For example -- several TNG episodes so far, including this one, have been mysteries. But instead of letting the audience solve the mystery with the crew, the audience is given the answer (the villains are behind it!) before the first commercial break, whereas the crew doesn't figure anything out until the final scene. This leaves us shouting at the television set because the entire cast looks retarded. Another issue I have with this episode is that it makes Picard look very weak, what with his headaches and his mental breakdowns and so forth. The series so far has given the impression of Picard as something of a lame duck captain, boring and somewhat indecisive, with Riker being the true hero of the show. Bad choice.
Wesley Saves the Ship: 2.75
"Hide and Q"
Oh, this episode could've been good too! It starts well enough, with John De Lancie really stealing the show, and a great sort've TOS set-up to the whole thing. But the final act with Riker is completely mishandled. None of the crew are tempted by his gifts because of course they're all so perfect, and none of the real implications of granting omnipotence to a human is dealt with aside from a tired reiteration of that old "power corrupts" schtick. Again, with Q making fun of Picard and leaving him out of the action he is presented as a lame duck with Riker the focus of the story. The whole thing falls flat and isn't nearly as fun as it's set-up could've made it. Tasha gets some moments though, and I jumped for joy when they announced they had booted Troi off the ship at the start of the episode. Ah, if only that had remained a permanent change...
"Too Short a Season"
This episode was awesome. Probably the first episode I really enjoyed watching all season. The main cast finally all seemed like competent individuals, Beverly got some great stuff, Picard got to make excellent speeches -- which is what an actor like Patrick Stewart is FOR -- and overall the entire plot and premise was great. I mean, yeah, it was "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", but this time with hostages and phaser fights and awesome old-school Starfleet admirals who are almost but not quite James T. Kirk. That's right, this episode was originally supposed to be a sequel to "A Private Little War" (TOS), and really they didn't change much of the backstory other than replace "Kirk" with "Jamison". Of course, with the aged Admiral not-Kirk, they were able to give him a perfect sci-fi "don't mess with nature" tragic ending. Great episode though. Dramatic, action-packed, emotional, prime.
"The Big Goodbye"
Another great episode! Yeah, it's a holodeck malfunction episode -- but at THIS point that's not an overdone cliche. In fact, everyone in this episode is totally gaga over the holodeck like it's Mass Effect 2 for Xbox 360. The whole thing is believable and very cool. The 1940s film noir setting is also a lot of fun -- though I'm seriously surprised Warner Bros didn't sue for the OBVIOUS Maltese Falcon rip-off storyline. Lawrence Tierney gave a GREAT guest appearance as Sidney Greenstree -- erm, I mean the guy from Resevoir Dogs -- erm, I mean Cyrus Redblock. Again, Beverly and Picard got some great, believable chemistry in this episode and the whole thing was very enjoyable. Other than some minor Wesley.
Wesley Saves the Ship: 3.25
My reaction after these two episodes is -- WTF? Is there any behind the scenes reason why this show SUDDENLY got really good?? These last two episodes were great!!
"Datalore"
Another fun, good episode. Some beats are a bit ripped off from "The Enemy Within", Wesley is damned annoying, and the ending makes no sense (if Lore's plan was to beam something out to lower the shields so the Entity could attack, why didn't it attack when they beamed Lore out?) but at the end of the day none of it matters because we get a really fun time seeing Brent Spiner in his dual roles of Data and Lore. It's some really fantastic acting and you can tell he had fun doing it. Also, we finally learn about Data's past, and I for one always liked the Soong Androids storyline. One thing that never gelled for me though -- Soong was the foremost expert in robot design. He gets laughed at for bragging he can create a positronic brain. He disappears. An entire Earth science colony is destroyed. The starship sent to investigate finds a positronic android with the stored memories/knowledge of the colonists. This android then serves with Starfleet for 26 years. Yet the android's origin still remains a mystery all that time? And Data still has problems understanding things like perfume (next episode)? But pointless quibbling aside, good episode. Also -- SHUT UP, WESLEY! Also -- OMG, it's the chief engineer from "Where No One Has Gone Before"! He lasted more than a single episode!
Wesley Saves the Ship: 4.25
"Angel One"
Really heavy-handed. And also kinda silly. The A plot on the planet is okay, but patronizing, but the B plot on the ship is just ridiculously overplayed. I think I figured out the pattern though -- you can tell a Season 1 TNG episode will suck when TROI is in it.
"11001001"
Another good episode. And look - No Troi! Haha! But seriously Minuet is great and all the effects shots are fantastic and overall its a good episode that gives us a better insight into all the characters from Riker and his jazz, to Data and his painting.
Overall, since "Too Short a Season" I've seen a marked improvement in how the crew has been portrayed. They are all much more competent individuals and Picard especially is becoming a much more active Captain, though "Angel One" is an example of an earlier style episode with Picard as the butt of jokes. Still, the season is definitively steadily improving.
"Home Soil"
"The Devil in the Dark", if the Horta had been complete dicks instead of loveably misunderstood. "Ugly Bags of Mostly Water" is all this episode is worth remembering for.
"When the Bough Breaks"
ARRRRRRGH! I wanted to TEAR MY HAIR OUT at this episode! Absolutely the WORST TNG episode so far! When someone STEALS YOUR CHILDREN you don't stand there and DISCUSS IT! You get the ENTIRE MOTHERF*CKING FEDERATION IN THERE AND BLOW THEM TO HELL! ARRRGH! That wasn't the only problem with this episode. The WHOLE TIME I was pointing how plot holes and groaning at how STUPID the writing was. And to think the premise is "We must save Wesley!" which NO ONE in the audience wants anyway (though I like him better than Troi -- at least he's not an episode curse). Finally, after thirty minutes of pussy ********, Crusher brings up the ozone layer problem and the whole thing devolves into preachy environmentalist ****. No one in the entire episode acts like a rational human being, instead they just stand around being mouthpieces for Gene Roddenberry's condescending preaching of his audience. I just wanted to kill everyone in the show. Every, single, element was badly done and poorly thought out. There was ONE good effects show in the show, very stylish, and all the money on a writer must've gone to it. I HATED, HATED, HATED this episode! Which is too bad, because it's the first time Wil Wheaton's actually been kinda good as Wesley.
ARRRGH! Just when the crew was starting to be competent and compelling they all turned into simpering whimps who let radioactive baby-snatcher mutants get the better of them. There are two cliches I HATE in Star Trek. One is the planet that has an EASILY solveable problem if they just asked the Federation for help through normal channels and the OTHER is when the Enterprise forgets its part of an entire FLEET, backed by a MASSIVE political body and doesn't call for any sort of support of back-up. ARRRRGH!!! *headdesk*
Headdesk -- for when facepalm isn't nearly enough.
"Coming of Age"
To be honest, it's not a bad Wesley episode. He's almost not completely irritating in it. And the Picard subplot is great, even though similar ground will be covered much more expertly in "The Drumhead" -- but it still sets up the (almost) season finale. I wish they had kept the themee of the episode as "positive racism" though, with Mordock only getting in because he was the first Benzite in Starfleet. Oh well. I still like to think that's what happened, even if it's no longer explicitly stated.
"Heart of Glory"
What an episode! Fantastic! Really effectively fleshed Worf out into a character -- from background officer to three-dimensionality in a single bound!! I love the dialogue in this episode, it has a kind of heightened drama feel, like Shakespeare meets Robert E. Howard -- which is really the perfect way to write Klingons. The whole thing just had excellent drama and emotion and tension. At this point, however, Worf has severely eclipsed all the other characters, and some things in this show just made Picard look like a fool. If anything there should've been better efforts like this in the first season to really give a feel of exactly what the changes between the TNG and TOS eras were.
"The Arsenal of Freedom"
Of all the things going on in this episode, I liked the Geordi stuff the best. It was a great exploration of his character and a good natural outgrowth of what we've seen from him so far. I like "young officer excelling" stuff, like Hornblower. Weird that this Geordi is so different from the Geordi of later seasons. Also I liked the scene between Geordi and Troi -- it was a great moment for Geordi and possibly the first time I've seen Troi do any actual COUNSELLING onboard the ship rather than just a) state the obvious ("I sense danger") or b) be generally useless ("I can't read him").
As for the planetside stuff, the Picard/Beverly thing was okay, a nice extension of their ongoing romantic tension, but the fall into the hole was like a ludicrous comedic pratfall. The actual "main plot" of Riker/Tasha/Data fighting automated killer robots was boring and poorly done, mainly because of the pretty lame studio fake jungle set.
Ok episode, neither horrible nor really good.
CHIEF ENGINEERS THIS SEASON: 4
Symbiosis
This was actually a really good episode. It had tension, drama, even conflict between the main characters!! I really liked Picard's rather hardline solution to the problem, while still acting within the confines of the Prime Directive. I also liked the moral ambiguity of the episode - that we aren't sure if the right choice has been made or what the right choice even was. I think so far this was TNG's best attempt at emulating TOS's social conscience style episodes -- in a lot of ways it felt like TNG's "A Private Little War". The only negative to this episode I feel would be Tasha's after-school special speech about drugs to Wesley. But I liked Picard here.
Skin of Evil
Ah, the infamous "Tasha Dies" episode. This was another good one, actually. I think Roddenberry made the right choice in decreeing that Tasha die a quick and senseless death befitting a Star Trek security officer. I also really liked the Armus character and the episode's exploration of the motivations of senseless cruelty and sadism. Even Troi was used pretty effectively here. I also really liked Picard's, again, hardline stance against the creature. I prefer that to the Captain who couldn't make up his mind from earlier in the season. However, I feel like the "heartfelt farewell" funeral scene would've played better if Tasha had died in, say, Season 5, if we had known both her and the characters a lot better. At this point not only is her death not really a big deal (though we are losing the hottest chick on the show) but all her personal comments about the cast mean little, also.
CHIEF ENGINEERS THIS SEASON: 5
"We'll Always Have Paris"
I'd never seen this episode all the way through before. I knew of it, and seen bits, but I always sorta dismissed it as a cheasy "old flames" episode. In actuality, its quite well done -- especially the time distortion bits. The script itself is a bit better than how it was eventually pulled off -- but there is still a lot of good here. Nothing fantastic, but just a solid episode.
"Conspiracy"
and
"The Neutral Zone"
I can almost imagine the writers sitting around a table, flummoxed that they had two different ideas for the season finale. "I know!" one cries, triumphantly, "we'll just do both of them!"
At the end of the day, the mysterious alien invaders of "Conspiracy" should've been paired in the same episode as the mysterious Neutral Zone outpost destruction in the latter episode. And the 1988 Writer's Strike shouldn't've killed the plan for debuting Season 2 with the Borg. However, if everything had gone according to plan we would've gotten a (probably poorly executed) insect race for the Borg -- and I sort've prefer the hive mind cyborgs we got instead.
The 20th-century people subplot of "Neutral Zone" is fun, but really out of place in the episode -- especially since it gets to be more of the main plot than a subplot since the actual Romulan confrontation was saved until the last minute. Would've been interesting to see what happened to those characters down the line, though.
Well, that's first season under my belt. Started off mighty weak, but had a fairly strong finish. I look forward to Season 2, which apparently has... MORE WESLEY?? *comedic groan*
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