TNG run-through...

Myrddin

So, after running through the entire Stargate series over the last nine months, I need to now visit something else. I remembered I got a season 1 bluray of TNG form a user here some time ago, so feck it, I shall take the plunge & watch TNG again. So I'm starting from the very beginning, "Encounter at Farpoint". Leaving the show aside for a moment, can I just say how truly incredible the bluray conversion is. Wow! It's like watching an all new show, & like something that was filmed recently. The Enterprise looks the best I've ever seen it. I only have season 1 at the mo, but I hope to buy the others as I progress through the show.

As with all long running shows, a lot of the earlier episodes have well & truly aged by now. Encounter at Farpoint, is no exception. But the pain of watching it again is really relieved by watching it in this new, remastered format. Oh, I also spotted Data using a contraction early on :P Looking forward to the rest of the season now that the pilot is out of the way...

Optimus Prime

Doing this myself at the minute! Im on the third ep, the conversion is unreal, its like watching a new show, the episodes almost look like Movies now.

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

Doing this myself at the minute! Im on the third ep, the conversion is unreal, its like watching a new show, the episodes almost look like Movies now.

It really is that good isn't it. Kind of a kicker having to buy all these again, I remember paying £70/€100 or so for the dvd sets, which seems not that long ago! Some of the prices aren't too bad for the Australian box sets, which is the same region as here so I might import them that way, the only worry being duty charges

Optimus Prime

Well to be honest i didnt buy them, theres no way id spend that much money on them, I gave up buying movies years ago, I just think its a waste of money unless its something I seriously love, I think i have about 6 BluRays thats it.

I forgot how soon it was into the series when Data and Tasha Yar get it on, for some reason I always thought that was much later. Im gonna stick on an ep now, "Code of Honor" possibly the worst of all TNG episodes!

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

Im gonna stick on an ep now, "Code of Honor" possibly the worst of all TNG episodes!

I watched it last night. Good god...

melekalikimaka

conversions are great, but the first series is such a low production value off ship, its cringy sometimes, no about of sfx can save it, later series I imagine will be awesome

Myrddin

melekalikimaka wrote: »

conversions are great, but the first series is such a low production value off ship, its cringy sometimes, no about of sfx can save it, later series I imagine will be awesome

Some of the off-world sets etc look like they ripped them straight from TOS

Optimus Prime

Myrddin wrote: »

Some of the off-world sets etc look like they ripped them straight from TOS

I was thinking that myself last night, i ended up watching the next ep too, when they are on the planet its paper backgrounds and plastic rocks, they are clearly on a set haha.. still though.. i wasnt bored watching it!

Optimus Prime

Ive been flying through these, ive watched 20 of them so far! Really enjoying watching them from the start. Worf was pretty under used the first season, last night watched the first Worf-centric episode. Its easy to see why Denise Crosby wanted to leave, she wasnt used that much either to be honest.

Myrddin

I'm taking my time with them because I don't have season 2 yet. I watched the horrific 'Justice' last night, where Picard breaks the prime directive to save Wesley from execution from the nearly-naked running people.

'The Battle' is next, a far better episode where the Ferengi give the Stargazer back to Picard, along with a mind control device.

Interesting to see the direction they originally wanted the Ferengi to go in early on, compared to how they turned out

Optimus Prime

That one where he rescues wesley is crazy, ass cheeks and man packages on display everywhere. The aliens orbiting the planet reminded me of the caretaker from Voyager, wonder if it was supposed to be vaguely related.

The Ferengi seem more aggressive early on, especially in the first ep they are in, with their electric whips.

Only realized on this watch through, that Data and picard are the only characters that really start off on flying form, Riker and worf maybe too, the rest took a season to settle into the parts.

I think the show was better without Tasha to be honest, it gave Worf a chance to step into the front and Geordi took on a whole new life when they moved him to engineering too. Not looking forward to the eps in season 2 with polanski, never really liked her.

DenMan

Myrddin wrote: »

I'm taking my time with them because I don't have season 2 yet. I watched the horrific 'Justice' last night, where Picard breaks the prime directive to save Wesley from execution from the nearly-naked running people.

'The Battle' is next, a far better episode where the Ferengi give the Stargazer back to Picard, along with a mind control device.

Interesting to see the direction they originally wanted the Ferengi to go in early on, compared to how they turned out

Great episode, 'The Battle', really enjoy it! I believe there is a huge difference between the Ferengi shown in space with their ships and the Ferengi we saw in the station on DS9. It would have been great to have seen more episodes of them in their ships. They are every bit as devious I'm sure. Quark could easily be another Bok if given the chance. Odo keeps him in check on a daily basis!

Greyjoy

A couple of years ago Wil Wheaton did a bunch of recap/reviews of S1 TNG for a website TVSquad. The reviews are lost in the interwebs by now but there's audio of him performing the review of 'Justice' at a convention back in 09

http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/files/PG-Special_080128.mp3

The 'Justice' review starts at about 24:00 although the first half of the audio is worth listening to, it's a funny/poignant story of a Star Wars action figure trade he agreed to as a kid. The comedy in Wheaton's recap of the 'Justice' episode is a bit hit & miss but the review itself that follows is thoughtful and there's some interesting behind the scenes stuff about the filming of the episode.

Sparko

I've been rewatching TNG daily on SyFy; I've found that episodes from season 3 onwards have held up well enough, despite being 20 years old. The HD conversions I've seen have been excellent as well.

Season 1 and 2 are cringeworthy though, in particular the episode mentioned here with Wesley and the running scantily clad folk, possibly the worst thing I've ever seen on tv! Tasha and the killer tarpit is another one..

Optimus Prime

I dont think they are cringeworthy to be honest, ive been really enjoying the first season. Some bits are dated for sure, but they are still hold up well i think.

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

I dont think they are cringeworthy to be honest, ive been really enjoying the first season. Some bits are dated for sure, but they are still hold up well i think.

Agreed, for nearly 30 years old, it's pretty decent. There are some awful bits, but on the whole, I'm really enjoying Season 1

SarahBM

I started to watch TNG from the start last year, but I kind of stopped for what ever reason somewhere near the end of S4.

Am I the only one who didnt like Tasha Yar?

I hated that old generic holodeck scene with the purple backdrop they used in the first series.

and Riker without a beard - yuck!

Kiith

It's the uniforms. They don't have collars before season 3, and it just looks weird.

Myrddin

I'm up as far as "The Arsenal Of Freedom" now. Thoroughly enjoying it so far, more than ever really thanks to the amazing HD reworking. It's so good, you can see things you'd never have noticed before...dirt on the carpets, badly painted doors, joins in the carpets, Geordi's use of Soul Glo, etc.

I actually stopped the Blu Ray part way through an ep, & switched to the same ep that's on my HTPC {ripped directly from my dvd box sets & not compressed in any way}....my god it's truly awful. I could never go back to watching them in SD again, & I think I'll actually delete the full TNG series from my HTPC now

All the episodes have been enjoyable so far, some cringe here & there as you'd expect from 80's sci-fi, but by & large it started very well when you look back. Stewart & Spiner as Picard & Data respectively are the stand outs in terms of hitting the ground running, their characters seemed firmly established very early on

Optimus Prime

I really enjoyed season 1, but im finding season 2 harder to watch, i dont know if its Dr Polaski or that the episode storys are just poor, especially in the first half. Best ep of the season so far, the "trial" about Data and is he property of Starfleet.

Also love datas speech about is dead grandfather in another ep.. "To know him.. was to love him" classic. Im making my way through these far too quickly! Dont mean to be hijacking your thread Myrrdin, sorry! Im trying to avoid posting unless its replys to your comments.

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

I really enjoyed season 1, but im finding season 2 harder to watch, i dont know if its Dr Polaski or that the episode storys are just poor, especially in the first half. Best ep of the season so far, the "trial" about Data and is he property of Starfleet.

Also love datas speech about is dead grandfather in another ep.. "To know him.. was to love him" classic. Im making my way through these far too quickly! Dont mean to be hijacking your thread Myrrdin, sorry! Im trying to avoid posting unless its replys to your comments.

Jeez man post away, I'm neglecting the thread anyway! I watch these at night & say to myself "I must post about this ep tomorrow" & always forget

Myrddin

They really should have made "Conspiracy" the season finale, it would have been the perfect way to end the series just knowing a signal was sent off into space by the aliens... "The Neutral Zone" isn't a great season ender at all.

Goodshape

Myrddin wrote: »

"The Neutral Zone" isn't a great season ender at all.

Interesting to note what could have been, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Neutral_Zone_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)#Writing_and_casting –

Wikipedia wrote:

Due to the impending Writers Guild of America strike, writer and co-executive producer Maurice Hurley developed the teleplay in a day and a half from fan fiction written by Deborah McIntyre and Mona Clee. Due to the strike, certain story ideas were removed from the plot including the planned first appearance of the Borg which was subsequently delayed until second season episode "Q Who"

Optimus Prime

Just watched Q Who earlier, great episode

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

Just watched Q Who earlier, great episode

Definitely an all time classic. Looking back on early TNG, there's definitely something lost in the shows that followed {DS9, VOY & ENT}. With TNG, you really do get the sense that the Galaxy is a huge, unexplored region. There's a great sense of exploration, boldly going where no-one has gone before, & a certain 'magic' that just isn't present in later shows. I'm not sure how directly Roddenberry was involved in TNG on a day to day basis, but his death is the only reason I can think of for why the shows became so sterile.

With Voyager, they had a whole new galaxy to explore over seven years. There was none of the sense of exploration, no sense of boldly going, no sense of 'family' among the crew. While I still enjoy Voyager quite a lot, it's only seeing TNG again for the first time in ages that I see what was lost when watching the other shows.

Optimus Prime

Yeh agreed, I watched voyager when it was on but i cant say i loved it to be honest, it ended up boring me in the end plus i cant stand the crew on it, especially Janeway and Tuvok, the only one i really liked on it was the Doctor, the rest where just bland characters. They should have made the marqi crew more rough and rebellious, instead they where integrated fully within a season, i always thought they wasted the potential there. Its like, when watching TNG you dont really like most Troi-centric episodes but you watch them anyways, well most episodes of Voyager feel like Troi-Centric episodes to me haha..

There is a lot of humour in TNG that for some reason i never noticed before as well. Though i just watched the episode where they rescue all the "Oirish" folk off a planet.. cringe..

Myrddin

keithgeo wrote: »

Though i just watched the episode where they rescue all the "Oirish" folk off a planet.. cringe..

God, that's an awful episode

SarahBM

Voyager was my first proper star trek experience. I used never like TNG, but I really got into Voyager and eventually DSN (gotta thank Sky and all the re-runs for that). Voyager got too obsessed with getting "home" I think. Like previous poster said, they should have played up the Marquis thing way more. Like they did with BSG.
The Doctor is by far my favourite character from all the series. What season you on?

Kiith

I just hated how Voyager came out unscathed from every single encounter. Even when they took a pounding, the ship was brand spanking new the next week. Plus, they utterly destroyed the Borg and ruined what could have been a good enemy in Species 8472.

TNG definitely did capture the exploration vibe very well though. Q Who, and the introduction to the Borg was done so well.

Optimus Prime

SarahBM wrote: »

Voyager was my first proper star trek experience. I used never like TNG, but I really got into Voyager and eventually DSN (gotta thank Sky and all the re-runs for that). Voyager got too obsessed with getting "home" I think. Like previous poster said, they should have played up the Marquis thing way more. Like they did with BSG.
The Doctor is by far my favourite character from all the series. What season you on?

Im running through TNG now, im on about ep 18 of season 2. I only started watching them about 3 weeks ago! Id say ill catch up too quickly and will have to wait for the last seasons to be released on BluRay. I hope they remaster DS9 next, the final seasons in that are brilliant.

SarahBM

saw this - I would love to get all the trek box sets. I better start writing my Santy letter.

Something about star trek that has annoyed me over the years, they never have Christmas or any other holidays. why is that???

downwithpeace

Might be connected with how they deflect religious questions (Human at least), can't remember how many times it happened but one captain is asked if he believes in a higher power and he says there are things humans believe in but leaves it at that.

Kiith

It's still celebrated by some people as far as i know, just maybe on as a religious thing, and not on the ships (that we've ever seen). Picard, when he was in the Nexus, imagined himself and his kids at Christmas, with a tree and all.

downwithpeace

Kiith wrote: »

It's still celebrated by some people as far as i know, just maybe on as a religious thing, and not on the ships (that we've ever seen). Picard, when he was in the Nexus, imagined himself and his kids at Christmas, with a tree and all.

Voyager also did a little Christmas bit, the ship became a decoration on a tree.

Optimus Prime

Just finished season 2 of TNG last night, apart from maybe 3-4 eps its a pretty bad season to be honest. Also the season finales are terrible, just stand alone episodes, it must not of been the done thing back then to finish on a high note.

SarahBM

keithgeo wrote: »

Just finished season 2 of TNG last night, apart from maybe 3-4 eps its a pretty bad season to be honest. Also the season finales are terrible, just stand alone episodes, it must not of been the done thing back then to finish on a high note.

or a cliffhanger.

Myrddin

SarahBM wrote: »

or a cliffhanger.

Eh what are you doing in here, you've SG1 to be watching...off with you now :P You're doing a TNG runthrough when you're finished Stargate, just so you know

SarahBM

Myrddin wrote: »

Eh what are you doing in here, you've SG1 to be watching...off with you now :P You're doing a TNG runthrough when you're finished Stargate, just so you know

well I was in the middle of a TNG run through. stopped round ep 20 of S4.

I wil return to it when Stargate is done.

SarahBM

How is the run-through going?

Myrddin

SarahBM wrote: »

How is the run-through going?

I've reached the end of Season 1 at this stage. Thoroughly enjoyed it, it was like watching a brand new show...the HD restoration is unreal, & the 25 year old shots of the Enterprise-D blow away the far more recent DS9 & Voyager CG ships...there's just no comparison.

This close to Xmas, I havn't got the beans to drop on Season 2 {I want to buy them & not download them as personally I want to watch them uncompressed & in as high a quality as possible}. So until next year, I'll have to pause my run-through. I've just started a run-through of Red Dwarf though, nice quick & easy show that should tide me over for a bit

Optimus Prime

Im up to ep 20 in season 3, big improvement this season for me in episode quality, lots of great ones this season so far..

The Defector, The Hunted, Deja Q, Yesterdays Enterprise, The Offspring, Sins of the Father, Allegiance, Captains Holiday are my favourites so far.. and best of both worlds is coming up soon.

Some great storys in those episodes with some great acting and moral lessons, star trek at its best.

Kiith

Season 3 is definitely where The Next Generation hit it's stride. As was season 3 of DS9.

IvySlayer

Star Trek got better when Gene Roddenberry took a step back

crazygeryy

Are there many extras on the blu ray discs?

Daith

Kiith wrote: »

Season 3 is definitely where The Next Generation hit it's stride. As was season 3 of DS9.

I actually think Season 3 of DS9 is weaker compared to season 2. 2 has got a fantastic set of episodes that tend to be overlooked because the Dominion/Defiant have't appeared

helimachoptor

The ep where Work, Crusher and Picard go off to some Cardi planet (cant remember the name) but such an awesome ep.

For me it asks the bigger question, if you are of the belief that you'll never be freed, do you still not give up any info, if you give up info will you then just be executed?

At what point will Picard break or will they kill him first?

suicide_circus

"There....are...four...Liiiiiggghtts!!"

DenMan

helimachoptor wrote: »

The ep where Work, Crusher and Picard go off to some Cardi planet (cant remember the name) but such an awesome ep.

For me it asks the bigger question, if you are of the belief that you'll never be freed, do you still not give up any info, if you give up info will you then just be executed?

At what point will Picard break or will they kill him first?

Celtris III

helimachoptor

DenMan wrote: »

Celtris III

I kept thinking it was Setlek 3 but i knew that was an O'brien story line, but just couldnt remember the damn name!

Kiith

Daith wrote: »

I actually think Season 3 of DS9 is weaker compared to season 2. 2 has got a fantastic set of episodes that tend to be overlooked because the Dominion/Defiant have't appeared

That may be true, however...the Defiant!! :eek:

Optimus Prime

Just finished up Season 4, decent series, a few boring eps in there. First appearance of the Trill race, though not exactly the same as in DS9. Standout ep for me probably Redemption, the season finale, Gowran is a such great character, brilliantly acted, loved him all the way through to DS9. They built such a strong back-story for the Klingon's with so much culture and detail its only now when i watch it again that i think the reboot in the films, throwing all that away was such a waste. I really hope if we ever get some new trek TV down the road they base it in this timeline and not the rebooted one.

Some good Barkley episodes this season too, always liked him. On to Season 5 next which i believe is the last remastered one so far.