Note: most of these are my posts copied over from a Star Trek group-watch going through the entire series in broadcast order, rather than properly written reviews.
TNG S01E01&02 "Encounter at Farpoint" Stardate 41153.7 Broadcast date 1987-09-28
So, only ten months after the latest TOS movie, this comes out. Incredibly slick, especially for a tv show, and it still gets filed as modern tv in my mind even though it's 40 years old now. I remember the first time I saw this show, I was 8 or so on a family holiday to America and it was on in a hotel room - it hadn't aired in the UK yet, and I just assumed that all American tv was mindblowingly advanced.
I'm really looking forward to this, even though I know it's pretty creaky for at least the first season. I'm so glad they kept it 4:3 and they had all the source footage for a proper remaster, including (I believe) the elements for composite shots and stuff like that.
Oh shiiit, you can see people walking about in that little dome on top of the saucer! At least in the title sequence. I don't think I've ever noticed that before.
Interesting that Alexander Courage gets a theme credit, I didn't notice any of his tune in there. Maybe it's just a legal thing...
Women crewmembers still in very short skirts BUT I think I just saw one of the few skirted crewmen, plus a crewwoman in trousers. I like that they're acknowledging the sexism of the original, but it's still pretty silly to go "see, anyone can choose to wear skirts or trousers, some people find miniskirts more practical and dignified for working on a spaceship!" instead of just putting everyone in trousers.
Worf looks almost as grey as Data!
Enjoying it so far, very pacey. I like how there's a robot, a Klingon, a psychic, and a Vulcan in engineering. Makes it feel more like this is the Federation exploring, not just Earth. (Undermined a little by Q's rant, but never mind!)
Ugh, this all feels a bit too TOS so far - a cheesy alien dressing up in Past Earth cosplay, a settlement with some sort of secret being hidden by a character actor in a goofy wig. I feel like this is going to end with Picard talking a computer into blowing itself up.
The whole trial thing is an odd choice for the first episode - we spend a bunch of time learning about a time period in which the show is not set.
Ha, something else they've taken from the movies - the security footage gets auto-edited into a handy 'previously on' format!
The pacing is all over the place. Started with the Q thing and got right into it, then went to medium intrigue, then everyone just having a chat and a quick gratuitous TOS cameo, then Q suddenly pops in to shout 'ticking clock!' and goes again, and now they're explicitly just proceeding as if the whole Q thing weren't happening. Not great to have one of your characters say out loud how redundant your b-plot is! (Is it the a-plot or b-plot? Hard to say.)
Saying all that, though, I did like the Picard/Riker stuff, getting to know our new characters and how they interact with each other. The Data/McCoy scene was sweet, too. His make-up and accent were better than I remember, and I love that he has the old buccaneer trouser and boot style. I just think it would have been better to drop Q and get to this point in the first ten minutes.
Holodeck! Data's super-strength (as well as his mimic ability we saw back in the court - wonder if that gets used ever again)! This stuff is all cool - again, would have worked nicely in a 'slowly getting ready for the first mission' opening act.
Ah, that was Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa in the court scene! Just going by "Cary-Hiroyuki", though - reminds me of how Ming-Na Wen was credited just as Ming-Na in her first stint on E.R. then her full name when she returned. Her character made the same change and commented on it iirc, must have been some sort of cultural shift I don't understand.
Anyway, episode over. I liked the resolution, those jellyfish aliens were cool. I just wish they'd kept Q back for his own episode and either used this very slender Bandi story as a way to introduce everyone in a single episode or deepened it for a leisurely TMP-paced double-episode.
Aside from that, some slightly clunky moments (mostly around Yar and Worf being idiots, that again felt very TOS for the professionalism porn to get compromised by having crew act foolishly in one way or another because it's an easy way to get some conflict or drama going) but overall enjoyed it. I especially liked Picard's awful people skills - Captain Stick-arse, more like (as in, up it).
I think that, just as I had to modulate my expectations for TOS to 'very good Saturday morning show', I'll need to expect this to have a lot of the same foibles and flaws as TOS despite the slicker presentation.
I wonder if an exec or Roddenberry insisted they crowbar a ticking clock in there to give the Farpoint story more thrills. Maybe alpha-memory will tell us.
So, turns out, to simplify only one side of the story, Q was planned for later in the series but Roddenberry took over writing the script to screw DC Fontana out of some money, and just shoved Q in there.
"This episode is the only TNG episode in which a male stunt performer doubled for an actress. In this episode, an unknown stunt performer doubled Denise Crosby's fight scene in the courtroom."
I knew it! That wig looked terrible. Weird decision seeing as it was all shot from far off and the fight scene was really basic.
Here's what I said about this episode on the forums ten years ago (!) when I was attempting a skiplist watchthrough:
It's interesting that they immediately go with the "god-like alien dressing up in period clothing" trope so familiar from TOS. So far, it feels more considered and less goofy, but also quite stilted and not very fun. I like Picard's characterisation as a grumpy old bastard, though, and I guess that matches well. With all that, though, the crew still seems to be full of people who need to be told off every five seconds for emotional outbursts. Plus ça change... I like the way they've retroactively explained the awkwardly short skirts of the female uniforms in TOS by putting some female crewmembers in trousers and some male crewmembers in skirts. Very clever!
Favourite line is Data's: "I'm sorry sir, I appear to be commenting on everything." Also, cool to see a 137 year old Bones McCoy, though he seems to have gone a bit redneck in his extreme old age, boyyy.
Very similar thoughts!
TNG S01E03 "The Naked Now" Stardate 41209.2 Broadcast date 1987-10-05.
I enjoyed this one! It's a little bit disappointing that they're still following the TOS template so closely, to the point of explicitly stating "yeah, it's just that exact same episode again", and also a bit of a rum choice to have a 'the people you know so well acting really out of character!' story as the second episode. But at least it's tried and tested, and their own version of it works well. 'Stick Arse' Picard is a great straight man, and then hilarious once he finally gets infected and starts doing all these weird little laughs and skips. I liked as well that a lot of the characters had different reactions, they weren't all just horny drunk, they also got wistful drunk or manic drunk.
I'm looking forward to this series finding its own identity a little more, but good updates of TOS episodes is also fun.
Also, hooray, Troi in a pant suit!
TNG S01E04 "Code Of Honor" Stardate 41235.25 Broadcast date 1987-10-12.
I enjoyed the start of this one, all the stuff about having to research a new species' culture and act in ways that seem unintuitive for diplomacy's sake. Then it all gets a bit silly with the death fight stuff. And boy does that arena feel cheap! It all deflates a bit at the end as well, as some previously unexplained cultural thing solves everything. Then Picard grumpily barks out a couple of orders on the bridge and that's it - it's an interesting naturalistic approach in general, but it does lack the punch of those TOS banter denouements.
It suffers from being Yar-centric, too. Denise Crosby has been pretty bad in every episode so far. She's being given some very clunky dialogue, to be fair, but she isn't able to manage it quite as well as Sirtis, say. I can't remember the full details (I guess I'll see them again when I read the Memory Alpha page for Skin Of Evil), but I'm not surprised she quit the show in frustration.
(The choice to cast the primitive, pompous species exclusively with African-American actors and style them after traditional African culture was a dreadful misstep as well. I think the episode wouldn't be so poorly thought of if they hadn't done that...)
TNG S01E05 "The Last Outpost" Stardate 41386.4 Broadcast date 1987-10-19.
I feel a pattern emerging where I enjoy the opening acts of mystery and diplomatic tangles, and then they actually come up against the aliens of the week and everything gets really cheesy and silly. As soon as they got to the planet surface, everything felt really cheap and the writing suddenly became all about slapping humanity on the back for having become so enlightened while the Ferengi jumped about like naughty monkeys from a simple morality tale. The structure just kind of falls apart, there's some vague fighting and then some stuff about joining that old empire and then the portal guy apparently doesn't distinguish between how the Federation and Ferengi have acted in the episode up to this point but then comes down on one side because of Riker passing that one test, but also he's a mind reader. It's all so messy.
Neither the Ferengi nor this ancient dead empire get properly explored.
Also some jarring tones with the comedy onboard and Geordi's characterisation as a whooping wise-cracker. I feel like if Picard's in a serious mood, the rest of the bridge crew shouldn't be goofing around with finger-cuffs.
Not an awful episode, but no real meat or identity to it.
TNG S01E06 "Where No One Has Gone Before" Stardate 41263.1 Broadcast date 1987-10-26.
I quite enjoyed this one. It's very slow and the story is slight, but the dialogue and acting is on point and the trippy 'thought dimension' discussion is deftly evocative. It gave me a TMP vibe. The sillier hallucination stuff was a little jarring, but never mind.
I find it endlessly amusing how grumpy Picard is. I'm going to enjoy watching him warm up over time. I'm also finding Wesley a lot less irritating than I expected so far - perhaps being around his age when I watched the show on and off originally made his wetness more grating to me. I'd still prefer him not to wear monstrosities like that jumper anymore, though...
TNG S01E07 "Lonely Among Us" Stardate 41249.3 Broadcast date 1987-11-02.
Colm Meaney as "First security guard"!
This felt very slight as an episode. Weird stuff happening, no one doing much about it even with their magic eyes and brains and stuff. I know Troi being useless is a common complaint, but no one else was much help in this one either.
Data's Holmes stuff was quite fun but again fairly insubstantial and didn't achieve anything storywise.
And then the delegation sub-plot, which I only realised in the last few seconds of the episode was supposed to be comedic. Someone got murdered and eaten, big laffs!
Reading the memory alpha entry.
Ah, I thought the delegates stuff felt reminiscent of some TOS stuff - DC Fontana was "inspired" by her old episode Journey To Babel. It's cool to have TOS writers on staff and it sucks how some of them got pushed out, but also if they're just going to keep recycling their own old stuff then maybe the show will improve once they're gone...
TNG S01E08 "Justice" Stardate 41255.6 Broadcast date 1987-11-09.
How could Wesley possibly have known he shouldn't have run directly at that barrier then jumped over it and crashed through that greenhouse into all those flowers?! He's only a super-genius!
Again, this is a very slight episode. They're (very heavy-handedly) covering themes of Eden and religion and justice, but without anything to say about them. And the story itself barely has any conflict or drama. Consequently, all the skin on show doesn't feel justified in some Garden Of Eden way at all, and just feels like a gratuitous viewership grab.
Looking at memory alpha, it sounds like the original story had a bit more substance to it. Also, it correctly points out that this episode is fairly similar to The Apple from TOS. I get the feeling that as long as TNG is doing 'planet of the week' episodes, it's going to keep on telling very similar stories to TOS; when it drills down into the politics and relations of established species is when I think of it as getting interesting and finding its own identity...
TNG S01E09 "The Battle" Stardate 41723.9 Broadcast date 1987-11-16.
This one is solid but bland. The Ferengi are a little more credible here than their last appearance, and everyone's doing a fine job. But the problem here is that the 'mystery' is revealed to the viewer 15 minutes in (and the basics of it are obvious about 5 minutes in) and then the rest of the episode is just watching the symptoms of it repeat until finally Wesley just notices something and solves it. What's more, it's essentially just another 'crew(member) under a hypnotic spell' episode.
At least Wes got rid of that jumper.
TNG S01E10 "Hide and Q" Stardate 41590.5 Broadcast date 1987-11-23.
Enjoying this one so far. Interesting to have a returning villain so soon, marks it out as different to TOS. Q is great, perfectly pricking Picard's pomposity. And the story is moving on quickly without giving everything away immediately.
The only weak spot so far is bloody Yar. Petulantly shouting out of turn at Q like she's Sarah in Labyrinth, crying in frustration at being zapped about by an alien (get used to it Yar, this is Enterprise mission meat and potatoes) and then coming on to the captain because he said one nice thing to her! She's like all those TOS one-episode-only crewmembers who were brought in to do something too silly or impulsive or horny for the main characters, except she is a main character and she's doing something stupid every two minutes. Even her jump over the bridge console wasn't as good as Worf's...
It's a shame they've had to revert to crappy planet exteriors after the pilot. If they could just do something better with the skies it'd really help.
I liked this one! I think this is perhaps the first one that I could call good without any major provisos. (Riker's turn to arrogant Q-like behaviour is a little fast, but they do acknowledge that in the script. And Worf's reasoning for turning his gift down seemed a little sad - I was expecting an 'I must earn it' response similar to the others - but perhaps it will end up working well with his characterisation once it develops, though I get the impression that doesn't really happen until DS9!) It keeps moving, the central conceit is interesting and doesn't feel stale, and there are lots of nice character beats and acting moments.
TNG S01E11 "Haven" Stardate 41294.5 Broadcast date 1987-11-30.
This episode was okay, but the whole thing is made out of half-hearted vagueries. Deanna seems very upset about her arranged marriage but then seems into it? Riker kind of has feelings for Deanna, enough to get jealous but not enough to do anything about, and he can't be with her because he wants to be a captain? All living beings are connected, Wyatt and plague lady (Ariana) suspected this was the case, therefore they had a psychic bond? The plague lot have the plague but aren't dead, and Wyatt is able to teleport over without being affected?
The Homn comedy is all a bit weak as well, the whole 'Silent Bob' bit and then endless shots of him drinking something and Data pulling an amused face for some reason. Again, undone by vagueness. The gong bit was good though.
The main attraction is Lwaxana, and I enjoyed her as a one-off character thanks to the way Picard and Data bounce off her. I understand she is pretty strongly disliked by the fandom, and I can imagine how repeat appearances by her would cause this!
TNG S01E12 "The Big Goodbye" Stardate 41997.7 Broadcast date 1988-01-11.
Well, this was a fun idea but it was so slow-paced. Having Picard et al stuck in the office having to just play for time until the holodeck got fixed was a really bad choice, it would have worked so much better if they needed to actually solve a murder or find a macguffin to stay alive for whatever reason.
TNG S01E13 "Datalore" Stardate 41242.4 Broadcast date 1988-01-18.
Another fairly big recurring character/bit of lore (ho ho). I hadn't realised how much stuff was getting put in place this early, even if the overall quality doesn't pick up until at least the next season.
Huh, I didn't realise there was initially a mystery to Data's origins. I like the idea that the Federation found this mysterious unique android, the only remnant of a disappeared colony, and were just like 'nice to meetcha, you can become a citizen and join Starfleet if you like'. That optimistic utopian approach.
This was a good one! Proper adventure stuff, with a light scattering of vital backstory and then the gradual reveals through exploration and environmental detail of the secret passage and the hidden base, Lore and the crystal entity.
Lots of fun with Spiner's duel performances, too. Lore is great, creepy and then full-on scary.
Then a couple of fight scenes that were fairly well executed - certainly much better than Yar hanging off a climbing frame.
It also has a nice balance of making Wesley sympathetic with the senior officers not giving him an inch of slack while also showing that he's still a kid who can't quite manage the Starfleet Professionalism that could have allowed him to get his message across effectively.
The sudden ending is a bit of a double-edged sword - the resolution of the entity and Lore feels rather abrupt, but also it's a relief that they didn't feel obliged to have a three minute epilogue.
TNG S01E14 "Angel One" Stardate 41636.9 Broadcast date 1988-01-25.
Rather a timid episode. Nothing too offensive, but nothing too bold or interesting either. They don't get their teeth into gender politics or discrimination or anything like that. Yar and Troi's reaction to Riker diplomatic outfit felt a little retrograde, too.
I like the idea of a virus that evolved to smell nice so that people breathe it in deeply, and it's quite neat how that ties in with the discussions of perfume and evolution elsewhere, but otherwise it's a rather perfunctory way to stop Riker from making a bad decision and do some mild 'people get a bad cold' comedy.
TNG S01E15 "11001001" Stardate 41365.9 Broadcast date 1988-02-01.
I really enjoyed this one! I could have spent the whole episode just watching the crew chill out and be giant nerds. Really liked the contrast between this docking sequence and the one from the pilot where Picard gruffly demands Riker do it manually, a nice illustration of how the crew has bonded already and the captain trusts them enough to let the formality drop a little. Also hilarious that 'horndog' is an explicit and large part of Riker's characterisation!
The switch to the main story worked nicely as well, mostly thanks to Spiner's performance. Amazing how he can inject emotion and drama while remaining convincingly robotic and neutral. I really liked the cybernetic theme (or at least motif) running through the episode as well, with the Binar, Data painting, Dr Crusher's research, Minuet. It's a smart touch that, much like Klingons, 'species run by a master computer' is no longer by default a villain and at least one of them seems to be in the Federation. I was disappointed when it seemed like they were turning out to be villains after all, so it was a relief that they ended up sympathetic. Really, the only bum note of the episode was Riker's immediate suspicion of the Binar, which seemed wholly based in racial or cultural prejudice. It's a shame that stuff like this or Yar and Troi getting judgemental about Riker wearing an 'effeminate' outfit is still making it into the show.
TNG S01E16 "Too Short a Season" Stardate 41309.5 Broadcast date 1988-02-08.
This is a very bland episode. It's utterly predictable from the start - the guy in old-age make-up has been specifically requested by the angry military guy to deal with some terrorists we don't see? Guess he's going to de-age and turn out to be the thing the military guy really wants! (This makes Troi's uselessness even more glaring.)
So it's just a slow grind of the specifics being revealed, no character or thematic development, and no one actively participating until the situation resolves itself. Picard is bizarrely lackadaisical throughout!
Then it wraps up with a half-arsed attempt at a philosophical resolution and some unearned smug nods. Feels pretty lazy.
TNG S01E17 "When the Bough Breaks" Stardate 41509.1 Broadcast date 1988-02-15.
My immediate guess on Riker, Troi and Crusher getting beamed down is that the Aldeans (or whatever they're called) want someone from the crew to permanently stay with them. It'll get resolved with that kid going to stay because he hates calculus and will therefore love being on an arty planet. A very TOS story, if I've guessed it correctly!
Bah, they just scanned Wesley, so maybe they want all kids, but they'll settle for that one calculusphobe? Okay, am going to stop guessing now!
This one was okay. It was very gentle, but intentionally so which is more enjoyable than an episode trying and failing to be exciting. None of the child actors were too bad or annoying, the guest stars are solid. Really the main issue is that it felt like a reheated TOS episode - liberal artist types who have forgotten the importance of getting their hands dirty, a society dependent on an ancient computer - without much to say outside of 'don't get too reliant on technology' and I guess 'look after your ozone layer'.
I did enjoy the swagger of holding off on their big model/effects shot until right at the end, when they probably could have gotten away with not doing one at all.
TNG S01E18 "Home Soil" Stardate 41463.9 Broadcast date 1988-02-22.
Another gentle one, but more successful than Where The Bough Breaks, I think. I like the idea that this can sometimes just be a chillout show - they go to a planet, find something cool and just investigate it until any diplomatic and emotional wrinkles are sorted out. Not much more to say than that, but yeah, nice. I liked the alien concept and how the intrigue all turned out to basically be 'terraformers get stressed out very easily'.
Troi was a lot more useful this episode, helping the episode cut to the chase around certain things, give little misdirects elsewhere. I wonder if this kind of storytelling efficiency ("he's hiding something, Captain, let's not waste any time wondering and just get straight down there") was something the writers expected to use her for a lot and ended up just not needing most of the time.
TNG S01E19 "Coming of Age" Stardate 41416.2 Broadcast date 1988-03-14.
Interesting to see them dip their toe into serialised stuff even though they gave themselves plausible deniability there at the end!
I enjoyed this one, another chill ep where you're just watching characters react to every day stuff like an inspection or taking an exam. I wouldn't put it on a best of, but I wouldn't advise people to skip it either.
TNG S01E20 "Heart Of Glory" Stardate 41503.7 Broadcast date 1988-03-21.
I enjoyed this one. It's story light but atmosphere strong. Very solid. Cool to get a bit of the Worf origin story and some more Klingon stuff. It's great that the whole 'Klingons entering a peaceful alliance' thing can be delved into deeper than TOS (including Search For Spock) managed to. Also a fun situation where the TOS movies are still going and will be able to keep showing earlier stages in this process. They lucked into quite an interesting storytelling structure!
TNG S01E21 "The Arsenal of Freedom" Stardate 41798.2 Broadcast date 1988-04-11.
Yeah, I enjoyed this one. Solid adventure story, with all the threads balanced nicely. I liked LaForge sweating but not breaking, and Troi heading potential crew issues off at the pass. Minor issues are that the derring-do dialogue from Yar and Riker is super cheesy, the 'exterior' sets are painfully obviously studio sets (it's a real shame they can't at least do something better with the backdrops than just a big flat colour), and I would have like Picard to figure out the 'stop it by buying it' solution rather than getting it handed to him.
Good creepy casting in Marco Rodriguez and Vincent Schiavelli.
Sidenote: I thought Logan was going to turn out to be another hologram, sewing discord amongst the enemy, he was so abrasive!
TNG S01E22 "Symbiosis" Stardate unknown Broadcast date 1988-04-18.
A strong episode! A little ham-fisted at times (the 'very special episode' conversation with Wesley, who somehow has not encountered the concept of addiction before, the smarmy acting of the Brekkians - though it was very funny how when they're shown to their quarters they immediately adopt the most smug poses possible - and some very plain exposition by Dr Crusher), but it's a great examination of the Prime Directive and very smart in how each new revelation about the two cultures forces Picard to consider his position again. It's also fun how effectively unsettling it is at this point to encounter space-goers who aren't rigorously professional and formal. I was worried that once the drug revelation came, it was going to be a 'defeat the villains' situation with Picard deciding to hell with the rules, great to see the writers and therefore Picard being smarter than that.
TNG S01E23 "Skin Of Evil" Stardate 41601.3 Broadcast date 1988-04-25.
18 mins in, I'm kind of liking it - I like the fake-outs with the martial arts contest b-plot and then the 'oh, they got Yar to the magic medical station, she's clearly going to get revived... wait, what?' moment. And redshirting a main character is a baller move, even if it was done due to Crosby wanting off (iirc).
The oil slick is a really creepy idea, and it's a cool idea to have them encounter a being who is just primal and sadistic. Also neat to have Troi there to be able to read it and psychologise it.
The big problem is that the execution of the oil creature is so goofy in every way - the CG of it moving is a bit ropey, its humanoid figure looks like a cheesy 50s b-movie creature (why even do this, it would have been much smarter and creepier to just have it stay as a slick the whole time), and the voice performance sounds like a villain of the week from a Disney cartoon. Also, maybe this will change as the episode goes on, but I don't really like it having a name, it immediately makes it feel more mundane. At the very least, it saying its name so early and formally.
Oh, also, what was with that big red cartoon splat on Yar's face after she was attacked? Bizarre decision!
Shoutout to Leyland T. Lynch, clearly a ladder-climber who has decided the way to move up is to say your full name every single time so people remember you. Such a great little detail.
Anyway, finished it, and the ending is a bit of a let down - talk to him about his anger for a minute and you're done. I like the general idea of it, Troi figuring out the weak spots and Picard manoeuvring to exploit them, but it was too rushed and simplistic. And then that Scooby Doo "NOOOO" fade-out, terrible!
The funeral was sweet, but the wham-bam defeat-funeral-cut to triumphant end credits music of the last 8 minutes or so really undercut everything. The perils of episodic tv, I guess.
TNG S01E24 "We'll Always Have Paris" Stardate 41697.9 Broadcast date 1988-05-02.
This one was okay. Never really amounted to much, either in the Picard or time-hiccup plots.
Also, that end banter was bizarre!
TNG S01E25 "Conspiracy" Stardate 41775.5 Broadcast date 1988-05-09.
The first half of this episode is great. It's mysterious and creepy, well written, performed and directed. The scene at the mine entrance with the four captains (including Michael Berryman!) is great, and there's even room for some truly funny Data business (him getting told to shut up by the Enterprise computer is brilliant). And then in that moment when the one guy grabs Riker, everything gets silly and over the top and then wraps up too quickly. All the fights are clunky (especially now you can see the stunt performers so clearly!) and these patient alien masterminds are acting like dopes and it wraps up with some goofy effects straight out of an early Peter Jackson or Sam Raimi movie. I guess to be generous to the show, a lot of stuff (choreography, effects etc) might be suffering from being made to read on a 20" CRT telly and now being watched on a 65" 4K behemoth.
I don't know if I'd want this as a full series arc or whatever they were planning, but it certainly could have supported a two-part season finale, and might have worked better that way. I did enjoy the set-up from the previous episode paying off here, though.
TNG S01E26 "The Neutral Zone" Stardate 41986.0 Broadcast date 1988-05-16.
Season finale, and an exciting episode title!
Well, all the Romulan stuff was great, and the cryonic people were fun enough, but having them both in the same episode as essentially unrelated stories just did not work at all. The latter felt pointless and the former felt underworked.
It's really interesting to see there are still big differences between this fairly modern late-80s show and telly of the past 20 years. Any sci-fi show now doing a season finale with the return of a classic villain would be making a huge deal of it, probably doing a two-parter ending on a cliffhanger etc.
Oh, looking at memory-alpha reveals that this was a first draft script and couldn't get any more work done on it due to a writer's strike. So I guess actually this is less different to current telly than I thought!
Interesting, too, to learn that this was supposed to be the start of drip-feeding the introduction of the Borg, and stretch into a two or three parter over the start of the next season, but the writer's strike scuppered all that. I always thought their intro was an odd choice. Well, I take it all back - the show was trying to do some very modern stuff and just wasn't able to do so due to industry events.
TNG S02E01 "The Child" Stardate 42073.1 Broadcast date 1988-11-21.
I enjoyed this one. An interesting situation given a very gentle character-based treatment - I was glad they didn't go down the body horror or Evil Child routes. I also liked the mirroring of Ian and Wesley, suggesting we may as well all be aliens when we're kids, learning how the world works.
Pulaski and Guinan are okay here, didn't make incredibly strong impressions, but probably smarter to ease them in like this. (And in fact, iirc they start trying to make Pulaski into a Bones-type making jabs at Data, but it always just comes off as small-minded and cruel rather than lovably grumpy., so this is probably the better version of her.)
Fun to see Wes Anderson semi-regular Seymour Cassel show up as well, looking very much like a 1980s character actor and not a future spaceman. Genuinely good banter at the end as well, with Worf deadpanning that he will tuck Wesley in at night!
TNG S02E02 "Where Silence Has Lease" Stardate 42193.6 Broadcast date 1988-11-28.
Another enjoyable but slight episode. Very chill considering the entire crew nearly dies!
I guess I misremembered the deal with Pulaski and Data - the writers seem, in fact, to be going for a more serious representation of bigotry than the McCoy "why, you green-blooded blowhard!" style of 'hey, they're just kidding around, they like each other really' banter that didn't seem to be criticised by the show. It still feels incongruously regressive and lazy of her, though, to not even be able to stop herself from talking about him like he's a toaster.
TNG S02E03 "Elementary, Dear Data" Stardate 42286.3 Broadcast date 1988-12-05.
A very strong episode! I like the fun start with Data and Geordi, less stuffy than Riker or Picard's holodeck jaunts; the idea that their software and hardware is so advanced that a single thoughtless parameter can threaten the entire ship is amusing, and I love the absolute seriousness everyone takes it with as soon as Data gets that drawing; the mindfuck of getting helplessly lost in a small empty room because it's able to project endless space around you is effectively creepy; the ending with Moriarty becoming self-aware and therefore not a cartoon villain but a noble person was a great left-turn. Also, nice that we did get a bit of an answer on whether Data could solve a Holmesian mystery with the rando murder - Data deduced the human motive behind it as well as the method.
Honestly, the only problem with this episode is that I wish it had more time to spend on Moriarty evolving, and perhaps on some simple Data and Geordi hi-jinx at the top, maybe get Worf into a fight with some London thugs somehow - I don't know if it could sustain a two-parter, but another 15 minutes would have been nice. Perhaps they could have started in the bar discussing the idea of doing a Holmes mystery, have Pulaski interrupt and make the challenge and then get all three of them in the holodeck within the first few minutes...
TNG S02E04 "The Outrageous Okona" Stardate 42402.7 Broadcast date 1988-12-12.
Oh my god, I hate this Han Solo knock-off so much, and the show really wants me to love him.
This one fell incredibly flat for me - not charming or funny at all. Even the Data stuff felt like a stretched out version of conversations we've already seen him have.
TNG S02E05 "Loud as a Whisper" Stardate 42477.2 Broadcast date 1989-01-09.
Good episode! Another fairly chill one where the challenge is in negotiating the oddities of different cultures and species. I really liked getting to know Riva, finding him a bit standoffish at first, learning his idiosyncrasies and coming to empathise with and admire him by the end. I also liked Picard being a little more eccentric and professorial in this episode, it reminded me of Bartlett in The West Wing.
I appreciated the extra effort put into the alien planet' exteriors here - the establishing shot with lots of layers and the moving clouds, then the set cleverly keeps them in a valley and just shows little glimpses of sky and passageways for depth.
A little frustrating to not get a capper on Geordi's sub-plot, but I do like how it organically arose from the main story and that it adds a little extra layer to his character. Every time I see him now, I'll know that in the back of his mind he's weighing up the pros and cons of his visor (and apparently the physical pain it causes). I hope they return to it at some point - I know that eventually he gets rid of his visor but iirc it's done between movies and without much fanfare. (Okay, memory-alpha tells me that it doesn't really get dealt with in any depth!)
I also wondered whether the sign language was at least partly a conlang or just ASL. I recognised the sign for 'thank you'. Memory-alpha is ambiguous on this point. (According to an interview Seago did with Trek Untold, a lot of it was ASL but Spiner mixed in some conlang stuff because of the logic of this being an alien SL user, plus Seago used some Visual Gestural Communication in the scene with Troi. Very cool, and Spiner's signing was convincingly fast and precise.)
TNG S02E06 "The Schizoid Man" Stardate 42437.5 Broadcast date 1989-01-23.
I enjoyed this one but tonally it was pretty uneven, you never knew if a scene was going to be goofy and comedic or serious and dramatic, whether we were supposed to feel the peril or not. Both elements were solid, but it was hard to settle into enjoying them.
Spiner was really good, but boy was Sheppard hammy!
TNG S02E07 "Unnatural Selection" Stardate 42494.8 Broadcast date 1989-01-30.
Troi with the old "not telling the whole truth" bit. One thing I'd really like to happen at some point is they encounter someone who gives them what seems like bland exposition to get the episode rolling, but then after the call ends Troi is like "captain, that man killed fifty-two people and he's about to lure us into a laser-grid trap".
I found this one a little irritating. I thought I was settling in for another 'chill procedural' episode, but two things bugged me:
Firstly, that so many characters were ready to accept the theory that there was no connection between the 'genetically engineered to be old before their time' children and the 'old before your time' disease that a bunch of people got after hanging around with them. I know that technically the connection wasn't that direct, but still, it really compromises your slow-boil mystery story if everyone is being so thick!
Secondly, Pulaski's bigotry. She's so dedicated to making shitty remarks to Data that she's still doing it while in the throes of pain or in the last moments of ever interacting with him, pretty much on her deathbed. Maybe they're doing a very slow-burn story arc where she'll become less of an arsehole over the series, in which case they've certainly nailed the start of it, but in this episode it just meant that I didn't really care that she was going to die, as hard as the episode was trying to get me to like her. And I expect that they'll never get to finish the hypothetical arc anyway, considering how short a time Pulaski has on the show. I think I'm going to meta-head-canon her as a subtle critique of Bones from TOS and a way to make everyone eager for Crusher to come back.
Lots of other little strengths of the show that don't disappear in episodes like this and bolster them a little, though. I love all the tiny details in Picard's and Data's performances and writing, for example. And the way they write their technobabble to be just the right side of understandable from context and able to build up tension.
TNG S02E08 "A Matter Of Honor" Stardate 42506.5 Broadcast date 1989-02-06.
What an excellent episode! Mendon was perfect as the over-eager new starter, irritating everyone by immediately picking holes in stuff (a mistake I made once or twice very early in my career!), and the way the story was structured to tie this and the Klingon plot together via both the exchange program and the micro-organisms was really satisfying. It's interesting to see more Klingon cultural stuff, and see Riker's horndog and bullish personality traits serve him well. Also great to see every Enterprise crewmember doing such a great job - Riker comes up with a great plan and Picard immediately understands it, Worf is ready to stun the Klingon captain within a split-second and at the same time Data anticipates this and steps out of his way and in front of Picard, Everyone's making smart decisions and simpatico with each other. Even Wesley knows how to make sure Mendon gets his head back in the game. It's all very gratifying and even thrilling to watch.
The Klingon ship interiors were nicely executed, too, and it was fun to cut from those scenes with the red lights and smoke and Klingons puffing out their chests, to Worf on the Enterprise bridge, primly standing at his console.
TNG S02E09 "The Measure of a Man" Stardate 42523.7 Broadcast date 1989-02-13.
Another really strong episode! So many smart decisions here, like having Riker be the prosecution so that it's a matter of philosophy rather than beating some evil lawyer played by John Voight or whoever, or bringing Tasha Yar back into it and revealing how special that relationship was to Data. In fact, I have to admit I had to a certain extent been thinking of Data as a robot mimicking human behaviour, mimicking life. Reiterating that he is unique and perhaps impossible to replicate (by anyone other than Soong) as well as talking about the ineffable qualities of memory that he is absorbing really made me re-evaluate him as a character.
This episode also benefits as a whole from the show's decision to make Data pretty much a one-off so that these kinds of discussions and decisions can arise in the moment rather than be part of some worldbuilding backstory. The same choice as was made with Worf - in TNG many Federation starships may have Vulcan officers and so on, but a Klingon officer is perhaps a one-off. (I suspect the same could even be said of Spock way back in the early days of TOS, before TAS and the movies filled out the Federation with more non-human officers.)
TNG S02E10 "The Dauphin" Stardate 42568.8 Broadcast date 1989-02-20.
A bit of a flat episode. Anya is always interesting to watch, the stuff with people telling Wesley how to woo women is very funny, and I enjoyed the return of 'crew horniness' as a recognised condition that team leaders must manage (even if it's just by saying 'oh, go home, you're too horny to work properly today'). But the sincere romance stuff is too bland and Wheaton not a strong enough actor to carry, and the civil war stuff sounds far more intriguing but basically gets ignored. I thought Salia turning out to be a thingy-morph was going to be a political twist, like she and Anya were tricking both sides into making peace, but it turns out it was just there for Wesley to get sulky for a couple of minutes. I guess all the planet's inhabitants are sparkly morph beings? It wasn't very clear.
TNG S02E11 "Contagion" Stardate 42609.1 Broadcast date 1989-03-20.
I enjoyed this one, I like the suggestion of another progenitor race (though I'm not going to accept this one as the canon correct one, as they never have any proof of it except for the root language thing which is not conclusive), and having to figure out how to deal with advanced dead systems, and they build up all the dramatic elements nicely for the climax.
I don't think I'll put this on the skiplist, though, as it's just solid rather than standout.
TNG S02E12 "The Royale" Stardate 42625.4 Broadcast date 1989-03-27.
Incredibly dull. The only thing of interest was the novel being bad and they didn't do anything with that. This could have been another faulty holodeck episode, none of the details really mattered. It also comes across as very pleased with itself for such a pedestrian entry.
TNG S02E13 "Time Squared" Stardate 42679.2 Broadcast date 1989-04-03.
An intriguing set-up but I found the future Picard's condition and behaviour a little contrived and the solution - essentially, do things differently - a little simplistic. Plus, the crew are reduced to being passive for most of the episode.
TNG S02E14 "The Icarus Factor" Stardate 42686.4 Broadcast date 1989-04-24.
This one fell a bit flat for me. I'm not opposed to a character-based episode with no real sci-fi trappings, but this one didn't have much meat to it. The Worf subplot wasn't massively funny, touching or interesting, and the daddy issues A-plot was slow and rote. I was much more interested in how each member of the crew reacted to Riker's potential departure - I think an episode revolving around that and what it told us about him and them would have been a lot more interesting.
Also, hard to take the emotional climax seriously with those outfits!
TNG S02E15 "Pen Pals" Stardate 42695.3 Broadcast date 1989-05-01.
There's a lot of dodgy ADR in this episode, and it also feels sped up in places. I had to check the Netflix playback speed hadn't got moved off normal somehow!
Another rather slight but pleasant episode. I enjoyed the parallels of Wes learning the basics of authority and Data pushing at the limits of his, and both of them learning more about human interactions.
TNG S02E16 "Q Who" Stardate 42761.3 Broadcast date 1989-05-08.
The Borg! Outside of the assimilation element, they arrive well-conceived and almost fully-formed here. I can't remember if the baby stuff gets folded in or jettisoned later, though - it seems like the implication at this point is that they're a single human-like species that uses cybernetic enhancements. Regardless, it's all very effective, a striking and creepy concept. All the design elements and visual effects are great too.
Unfortunately, their introduction via Q rather than progression on the part of the Federation, the Borg or even the Romulans really dampens the Borg's impact. They feel more like an irritant brought in to prove a point by a larger foe and escaped thanks to the same, so the energies of the episode itself are split. It's a shame when they'd even done a little bit of track-laying in a previous episode.
Gomez also doesn't have anything to do with the story, and Guinan gets a double reveal of having dealings with Q and the Borg, so it's all a bit overloaded.
So, the Borg themselves are cool, but their intro feels a bit rushed like the writers couldn't wait any longer and as an episode it's just okay.
TNG S02E17 "Samaritan Snare" Stardate 42779.1 Broadcast date 1989-05-15.
Disappointing. Cranking Picard grumpiness up to maximum and then trapping Wes on a shuttle with him for six hours is a delicious idea but they don't do anything with it, then there's some unconvincing jeopardy during his procedure and that story's done. I also like the idea of the crew getting hoisted by their own smug complacency, but at the same time they make a series of really stupid decisions to get to that point. Not doing a full scan, not sending any security personnel over with Geordi, Troi not being on bridge on the one occasion that she would have been useful, not immediately beaming Geordi back when Troi says he's in trouble, Geordi getting overpowered by one of the aliens simply grabbing his phaser and shooting him. There's complacency and then there's idiocy with a side-serving of 'why aren't there any regs in place against this stuff?'
Also, I didn't understand that ruse at all, and I have no idea how Geordi was supposed to intuit what to do! Pretty amusing as well that no one except Riker was willing to spend 40 seconds rescuing Geordi before heading to Picard.
TNG S02E18 "Up the Long Ladder" Stardate 42823.2 Broadcast date 1989-05-22.
Well, this one is pretty rough. Most glaringly, of course, there's the Space Oirish - the show does at least point out that they are Amish-style traditionalists, anachronistic even two centuries before this, but unfortunately they seem to have based their utopian vision on bad 1970s sitcoms. The mugging, the stereotypes, the pipe music, all pretty painful. But the rest of the episode is rather lacklustre as well - the Worf cliffhanger just fades away (slice of life stuff is great, but it's always a bit odd when you get five minutes of it lumped into a regular episode) as does the Riker romance, and the clone colony threat is predictable and resolves almost immediately.
TNG S02E19 "Manhunt" Stardate 42859.2 Broadcast date 1989-06-19.
Three separate story elements here, and none of them really amount to anything. It's a pretty aimless episode. I generally find Lwaxana manages to stay amusing rather than annoying, but this was pretty much a repeat of her last appearance. Might have been fun to do more with the marriage story and have her going around the ship appraising every crewmember and perhaps causing issues with another storyline. I did enjoy it when she casually revealed the fish people to be assassins - kind of a glimpse at how useful Dianna isn't most of the time!
Also a couple of odd choices in that Lwaxana doesn't know what a holodeck is, and Wes is all 'ew, gross aliens!'
TNG S02E20 "The Emissary" Stardate 42901.3 Broadcast date 1989-06-26.
Really enjoyed this one, it shows many of the strengths of TNG - good character work, intriguing alien cultures and a tricky quandary to think through. Suzie Plakson is great (again, after her appearance as a Vulcan in The Schizoid Man - apparently the writer originally wanted her to return as that character and have a romantic story with Worf!), and it's great seeing how she interacts with Worf, Troi and Picard and then how those interactions are reacted to by other crewmembers. Canny to have the idea of the old Klingon ways physically looming in the background as well, and a smart resolution to the conflict.
I'm not sure I'll put it on my skiplist as it's simply very good rather than transcendent, but it would definitely go on a second tier of 'also consider watching'.
TNG S02E21 "Peak Performance" Stardate 42923.4 Broadcast date 1989-07-10.
Oh shit, one minute in and we've already got that one character actor from Total Recall and Bogus Journey (something Shearsmith?), and Glenn Morshower!
(Okay, it's Roy Brocksmith. Have never fully absorbed that guy's name!)
OMG and I think that's one of Robert Picardo's tech team from Gremlins 2!
Yes, I had to look it up because she's only done like five things ever, but it's Leslie Neale. Wow, what a shower of minor riches!
Really enjoyed that one! The two storylines were both very satisfying and tied into each other nicely. I did initially find it irritating how flimsy a test of battle readiness the exercise seemed to be, but once it was clear that Picard and Riker were both taking a Kirk-like attitude towards it and accepting ingenious cheating as part of the challenge that solved the problem. Brocksmith is great with all his smug chirping and trilling and the Data character progression was really satisfying. I also like how Pulaski has overcome her initial prejudice but is now having to learn not to indulge in 'positive racism' either - her 'but how can a robot brain be beaten by a flesh and blood one?!' reaction had big 'all Asians are good at maths' vibes.
Another one for the 'very enjoyable but not at the heights of the show' secondary list.
TNG S02E22 "Shades Of Gray" Stardate 42976.1 Broadcast date 1989-07-17.
On the one hand, terribly disappointing to be given a clip show for a season finale. On the other, at least it means that if we ignore this one then the season went out on a respectable note with two strong episodes at the end.
I'd forgotten how hilariously transparent the cost-saving measures are on this one. They only use three small pre-existing sets, seven actors plus a couple of SAs, take up half the episode with clips and pad the rest of it out by repeating everything three times, and the villain of the week is a tree branch that wobbles a bit!
I get that sometimes 22-episode network shows had to cost-cut, but even so, just so many odd decisions here. Like, why make it the finale? Why not swap it with the previous one (or even better sneak it in mid-season)? And they choose so many duff Riker clips! The only good bit was at the end when they cut together all the ship explosions and gnarly special effects and Riker shouting SOMETHING'S GOT MEEEE. Why do a clip show at all, in fact? Why not, for example, just get a good writer in and have the characters sitting round a poker table for 45 minutes, so it's like a little one act play where you learn more about all of them, get some sad stories and some laughs in there? Do it in a single take (or five of them to allow for ad breaks) so you can act like you're showing off rather than penny-pinching.
TNG S03E01 "Evolution" Stardate 43125.8 Broadcast date 1989-09-25.
New title sequence. It's fine and probably a bit better technologically, but not (for me) as classic and nostalgic as the first one. Feels a little more random (though I did see someone on Reddit suggest that they represent stages of the universe of something like that - first a nebula, then a planet forming).
Bit cruel to start on an establishing shot of an angry red planet and then segue to an extreme close-up of Wesley's acne-ridden face! Probably no one noticed on their little CRT tellies back in the 80s though.
So, Pulaski is gone. I had started to like her by the end of the season. Pity to have her unceremoniously replaced, though I appreciate McFadden was mucked about in the first place and deserved to come back. Would have been cool if they'd killed Pulaski off for some high stakes, at least! I'll be interested to see how I take to Crusher on her return...
A dull episode overall, not much in the way of drama or philosophy. It threatened to pick up for a few minutes there when the doctor zapped them and then Data offered himself up to communicate for them, but then everything resolved peacefully and that was that.
TNG S03E02 "The Ensigns of Command" Stardate 43133.3 Broadcast date 1989-10-02.
Solid episode - Data does some human learning, Picard has a diplomatic tangle to work through, Troi is useful. Snappy dialogue from Snodgrass.
TNG S03E03 "The Survivors" Stardate 43152.4 Broadcast date 1989-10-09.
A couple of shallow observations to start: first off, I'm now skipping the title sequence every time, whereas I rarely did with the previous version. Secondly, I really like the Crushers' new hairstyles. Very retro-futuristic! Wonder if they both went to get them done together when Beverly came back.
Dammit, she restyled it for the away mission!
Always fun to see actors you know from non-genre stuff pop up, like Anne Haney from Mrs Doubtfire and Liar Liar (though I guess the latter is technically fantasy).
An interesting concept, though I felt it dragged a bit once it was fairly clear what the reveal was going to be in broad terms. John Anderson's performance in that last scene definitely raised the whole thing up a bit.
I have to say, the third season has picked some pretty mild episodes to open with!
TNG S03E04 "Who Watches The Watchers" Stardate 43173.5 Broadcast date 1989-10-16.
Just started, already some fun nerd stuff here. Cool episode title! Vasquez Rocks! Ray Wise!
I also like the 'proto-Vulcan civilisation' concept. We've seen plenty of human-like species that have evolved separately on other planets, but iirc Romulans have been the only non-human example of that. Fun to think that there might be cave-Klingons and stuff out there as well.
Yeahhh, Vulcan disguises! This feels very much like an intentional TOS-callback episode, especially when Riker and Troi walk past those rocks.
Well, a perfectly nice episode, but one of those where you've got the gist of it in the first five minutes and it really feels like it should have been under a half hour.
"This was the last episode produced during Michael Wagner's brief tenure as showrunner", apparently, so maybe the season will start to pick up a bit?
TNG S03E05 "The Bonding" Stardate 43198.7 Broadcast date 1989-10-23.
A nice classy episode. I liked how they showed restraint in not getting distracted by some planetside mystery (it seems like they were going to with those unearthed detonators, but I guess that wasn't a thing) or having the fake mom be evil, and how they touched on the effects of this incident on a bunch of characters - not just the kid, but Picard, Worf and the two Crushers. A little bit of learning for Data too.
Probably the only weak spot is the child actor - he isn't bad, per se, just a little mechanical and subdued. Better than overacting, and it works for half of the stuff the episode is doing, but ideally when a kid is the lynchpin of an episode like this you'd find one who can knock it out of the park. I think this actor played the criminal kid in Robocop 2 around this time, a role he was a little better suited to!
TNG S03E06 "Booby Trap" Stardate 43205.6 Broadcast date 1989-10-30.
Whoof, what an incredibly mediocre episode. No tension or laughs or anything. I guess it was vaguely trying to say something about not getting reliant on technology but it didn't do much with it. I didn't find the logic behind Geordi having to create a holo-sim of a slightly different room with the inventor of the warp drive in it to solve this particular problem very convincing either.
Best I can say about this one is that the model work on the asteroid field and old ship looked good, and the bottle ship scene in the transporter room was gently amusing.
TNG S03E07 "The Enemy" Stardate 43349.2 Broadcast date 1989-11-06.
Very solid episode, nothing outrageously original about it but tightly structured and well-executed. I like that it didn't pull its punches - Worf didn't give in on the blood donor thing and the Romulan commodore espoused abhorrent views about disabled children. The alien planet was always convincing, which isn't a given on this show, and the Romulans already being established as a volatile and little-seen species is really effective. I love that ship design, too. And it's cool to see G'Kar from Babylon 5 show up in different alien prosthetics!
TNG S03E08 "The Price" Stardate 43385.6 Broadcast date 1989-11-13.
This one felt a little overstuffed - lots of very abrupt scene transitions, and it took me a while to figure out if Ral and Troi had met before (this might be my fault for not paying attention properly, though!).
I think they probably could have got rid of the romance thread, it didn't really add anything and the dialogue and performances felt very stagey, very Attack Of The Clones. Ral has a very TOS face, though, good casting. And the scene between him and Riker in Ten Forward was nicely written.
I'm enjoying the characterisation of the Ferengi as infuriating, devious pricks. Feels like they're slotting into the universe a little better now.
Finally: good grief, that yoga scene - they may not have crewwomen in miniskirts anymore, but they sure do put them in spangly leotards and get them to bend over in front of a mirror.
Very cool opening. I actually had to check in the first few seconds that I wasn't accidentally watching TOS! (Apparently the large scenic background painting in the opening shot was originally from Forbidden Planet!)
A weirdly structured episode. There's the negotiation strand, the romance strand and the assassination strand and they all just progress separately and slowly until right at the end. That last scene with Riker teleporting into the negotiation room was great, but it took an entire episode of mediocrity to set up! They even had to pad with the empty calories of the Wesley sub-plot.
They're not very inventive with the episode titles so far this season, are they?
James Cromwell! I like to think that whenever an actor plays multiple roles in Trek, it's because one of those ancient ancestor races had someone who looked like them. There are probably a bunch more Cromwells running around out there that we haven't seen!
A very gentle, touching episode, with strong performances from Lenard and Stewart. Perhaps gentle to a fault - it's pretty slight - but I'd rather a well-executed but slight episode to an eventful yet clunky and cheesy 'threat of the week' one. The latter seems to be mostly behind us now, thankfully.
Amazing episode! All the stuff with the Borg is great, trying to find different ways to deal with their abilities and set-up, hiding in nebulae and so on. Bringing Riker's ongoing character arc of refusing captaincies is a great choice to add a little weight to the episode without distracting from the main action thrust. I really like Shelby, and it was fun to see Riker's heckles go up immediately on meeting her (that grudging half-invite to the poker game!) as if he's subconsciously already recognised her reflection of his internal conflict. Also cool to see Dr Crusher beaming down ready for a fight - reminded me of Bones.
So, the classic TOS contrivance of one person being able to take over the whole ship finally returns! Here, though, Data at least has his mimicking ability, intimate knowledge of the systems and procedures, and the trust of the crew.
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