Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1
Star Trek: The Next Generation
SPOILERS TOTAL. You've been warned.
101 & 102: Encounter at Farpoint 1987 September 28
Being the first episode of the series, and really relatively early in all of Star Trek considering how much came after, I won't nitpick about everything that seems a bit off 26 years later. But one thing that really stuck me as weird was when Counselor Troi said something like "I'm only half Betazoid. My father was a Starfleet officer." Those are totally unrelated things, unless we're either supposed to assume that every Starfleet officer is human (clearly not, though a disproportionately large amount) or male Betazoids are prevented from serving in Starfleet.
103: The Naked Now 1987 October 5
The Good: It's an OK idea to take a concept from the old series and bring it back, to see how it plays out differently.
The Bad: Given that this is only the second episode, the viewer isn't supposed to be very familiar with these characters yet. So seeing how they act when out of character doesn't mean much.
The Ugly: Seriously, who thought it was a good idea for the first episode after the pilot to have the crew acting stupid and sex-crazy? INCLUDING THE MACHINE!? It's a minor miracle that the Yar-Data hookup got put to dramatic use in The Measure of a Man next season.
104: Code of Honor 1987 October 12
Zach and I found it interesting that while the Enterprise crew had a plan in place so the fight to death wasn't actually to the death, nobody tried to save the guy in the audience that got scratched by the poison weapon. Also worth noting this is the episode the "I'm not entitled to ramble on about something everyone already knows." bit of the Picard Song comes from.
105: The Last Outpost 1987 October 19
Considering how awesome the Ferengi became on DS9 it's really weird to look back at this early time when they were supposed to be a new rival to the Federation. But looking at it now, there's more of the later Ferengi there than I remembered. Though they're an unknown with supposedly equal tech to the Federation, they're still presented as cutthroat businessmen. Even when they're trying to diss the Federation to the old empire's guardian, they say great things like how refusing to provide advanced technology to backwards planets is squandering a business opportunity.
106: Where No One Has Gone Before 1987 October 26
This is decent stuff. The weirdness of TOS or early TNG, but without TOO much of the stupid. The Traveler is an interesting character, and his talk to Picard gives a sensible in-universe reason for Picard to start treating Wesley like a member of the crew.
107: Lonely Among Us 1987 November 2
How were the two guest races even in the farthest consideration for Federation membership? They were both batshit crazy, and if they were at an advanced enough stage to join the Federation wouldn't they have their own ships that could transport them to Parliament?
108: Justice 1987 November 9
The planet that cloth forgot. Considering so much of this episode is about the Prime Directive, how did they get in contact with these people? They don't seem too technically advanced, and wonder if the Enterprise crew are gods for being in orbit.
109: The Battle 1987 November 16
Maybe it's my lack of practical starship knowledge, but I don't really get the Picard Maneuver. So a quick jump at high warp makes it briefly appear like there are two ships? The one way I can see this working is by the warp beating the light coming from the original image. HOWEVER, surely starship sensors aren't limited to detecting things at lightspeed? Also, when Riker and Data were talking about potential defenses... well, if you know it's coming in advance, what's to know? Even if the trick is played properly and there appear to be two ships, you know it's the closer and newly appeared one that's the real one.
I like that the Ferengi daimon got ousted from command due to unprofitable behavior.
110: Hide and Q 1987 November 23
Q is really something that could only have come from early TNG, a time when everything was more TOS-like, and playful weird godlike entities fit right in. But he gets to evolve along with the rest of the show, which is cool!
Adult Wesley is interesting for a few reasons. I like that the older actor matches young Wesley's dopey expressions pretty well. Funny that they use a somewhat deepened Wheaton voice rather than using the older actor's voice. And also funny how in retrospect he looks nothing like an older Wil Wheaton. Though since Riker was trying to give gifts, maybe he wasn't going for that sort of accuracy.
111: Haven 1987 November 30
112: The Big Goodbye 1988 January 11
They can't get in or out of the holodeck, and can't communicate... nobody tries beaming anybody in or out?
They finally succeed in fixing the thing and opening the door... and nothing? I mean, Wesley, Geordi, and several other guys were working right beside it. Nobody goes to the door and says "There you are, you're needed on the bridge!" or even notices the hologuys stepping out?
Interesting to note that at this point, a mistake in shutting off the program could mean all the real matter inside is vanished away, too.
Future baseball reference made to the London Kings, who would get more attention by Ben Sisko years later.
113: Datalore 1988 January 18
So they discover Data is the creation of a Dr. Noonien Soong... did nobody previously hypothesize that the guy who was Earth's leading cyberneticist and looked exactly like Data in his youth might've been involved? Though I guess at this point it hadn't been settled what exactly he looked like.
114: Angel One 1988 January 25
Not a two parter? Just felt as long as one to sit through? Okay.
115: 11001001 1988 February 1
I've got some problems with the basic conceits of this episode. A spacefaring species that has adapted to work with computers to an enormous extent, they're experts at making even Federation computer tech better... but they don't have a vessel with the computer storage of the Enterprise-D? You'd think that would be the area they WOULD outclass the Federation. Looking at it another way, though, how in the hell does the Enterprise-D have the storage space to hold all (or at least enough of all) the data stored by such a computer-heavy people? And weren't they trying to get the data onto the Enterprise to get it away from the effects of a nearby supernova? But once they hit Bynar orbit they seemed to just stay there.
The Bynars were really stumbling over their excuses at the beginning. They might as well have been adding "Yeah, that's the ticket."
It's got to be an awkward moment for Riker when his boss walks in on him kissing a hologram.
Picard sure jumps to "We'd better set the self-destruct." pretty quickly. He's right that it would be irresponsible to let the Enterprise end up in the wrong hands, but giving himself a max of 5 minutes to find out what's going on and do something about it seems a bit tight. There are other instances where the ship is taken over and that doesn't seem to be the first thing to come to mind.
116: Too Short a Season 1988 February 8
I was pretty shocked to find out the admiral was only supposed to be 85. Dude looked older than McCoy did in the first episode, and he was in his 130s.
117: When the Bough Breaks 1988 February 15
The Aldeans seemed... pretty stupid in how they handled this situation. They investigated the Enterprise at long range, but not enough to realize how pissed they'd be at having their children taken. So they risk poisoning any relationship with the Federation over a half dozen children? That ain't gonna help anything long term. Certainly the Federation could've helped them, even if their health problem wasn't a relatively simple fix that Doctor Crusher was able to take care of in the space of an episode. We have people now who act as surrogate parents or just donate genetic material to others. Surely there are some 24th century folks who'd be willing to give some sperm and help create the next generation of a fabled lost civilization. Surely there are some orphans out there who could use some help. Though maybe the Aldeans are just too picky--there were still a lot of kids on the Enterprise who apparently they didn't find worth grabbing.
I like that when the little girl "feels her music", it's music we've heard in a previous episode. Maybe this means the television composer is as talented as a child, or maybe it means she's a plagiarist. It's hard to say.
118: Home Soil 1988 February 22
119: Coming of Age 1988 March 14
120: Heart of Glory 1988 March 21
121: The Arsenal of Freedom 1988 April 11
123: Skin of Evil 1988 April 25
124: We'll Always Have Paris 1988 May 2
126: The Neutral Zone 1988 May 16