Impromptu TNG Runthrough

squonk · 18-08-2025 05:34PM #1

I’d thought it might be time to revisit TNG from the beginning at some stage over the next while. As it happens an unplanned hospital admission yesterday has gotten me on that plan as I have a lot of bed time and not much else interesting that daytime tv can provide.

Just 3 episodes down so far and it’s an interesting beginning now I’m seeing it 35-36 years later from first viewing.

Encounter At Farpoint is a strong opener. It does all the things i wish modern trek would do. Introduce the characters and not rush through it and introduce the ship. Farpoint was a great advertisement for the Enterprise D. I was also impressed how many sets they had built even for the first episode. Now with cgi they barely manage as much. Straight into engineering straight off. SNW is the only show recently that showed engineering and there isn’t enough in that show for my liking. Story wise, grand. Kind of meh but not awful.

Next up, The Naked Now. Pretty awful episode. Data swanning around with a ****-eating grin after getting his hole is a low point for the character and the show. There isn’t really a lot positive to discuss really so I’ll say no more.

The core was there though. Stewart, Spiner and Frakes were well able to carry the plot and support from Sirtis, Dorn, Crosby and McFadden was not ready on great display as yet but they weren’t embarrassing themselves either Actually of all actors you’d expect to not see out the season it would be Sirtis as Troi is kind of a stupid character early on.

You’d think that after getting over the pilot they’d make a big statement with episode 2 to keep the momentum going but I think we’d all be on here complaining if TNG was released now i after watching this third episode. I know I should jump to season 3 which, for me, is really when the show really stood on its own feet but I’ll keep going for now. It’s not like I’ve anything better to do or anywhere else to be right now

eadrom · 18-08-2025 06:34PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058422191/impromptu-tng-runthrough

I know I should jump to season 3 which, for me, is really when the show really stood on its own feet

Season 3 is of course where the show comes into it's own, but… I love the first two seasons! It's such a mixed bag in terms of story quality, and things don't feel quite right in terms of the characters (Picard is a bit of dick throughout season 1!) and even things like the lighting, music, and cinematography seem 'off' (they all got an upgrade in season 2, and a more significant upgrade in season 3) but it also has the campy, 1980s, and endearingly 'cheap' sort of feel to it that's a lot of fun if you role with it, imo.

And some of the stories are pretty great too (particularly season 2). Some episodes you find in those seasons that you really don't see the likes of again in Star Trek (particularly season 1).

Like I wouldn't ever wish for 7 seasons in that style but I'm glad there's a couple of them.

Although… if you're counting episode 3 as being "The Naked Now" (I kinda like that one actually), then just wait until you get to the next one, "Code of Honour". Wooooof. 😅

squonk · 18-08-2025 07:08PM

I did Code of Honour. Bloody awful for sure. Episodes 2 & 3 feel a lot like TOS with a mid life facelift. On The Last Outpost now. So far I’m enjoying it and rendering I loved it as a 15 year old and kind of wondering why actually but even these early stinker episodes have more heart than the likes of DISCO ever had.

eadrom · 18-08-2025 07:21PM

Yeah, exactly — you can really feel the TOS influence. Plus plenty of heart, and loads of imagination.

They haven't quite figured it out and it's all a bit silly, but they're going for it anyway. In contrast to that sort of confident swagger they get, justifiably, in the later seasons.

"There was a young lady from Venus, who's body was shaped like a…"

Rawr · 18-08-2025 07:50PM

On a bit of a rewatch myself. I’m up at Season 5 at the moment.

On this rewatch I found myself being a bit kinder on Season 1. It’s still the weaker season by far, but you could make out what they were trying to go for. Essentially TOS, but with more interpersonal baggage and better SFX. You get to see early character beats from everyone and there’s a shot at building up the Ferengi as the new Big Bad of Trek.

They had no idea at that stage that the show would go on for another 6 years, be one of the most popular TV Shows ever, have 2 spin-offs and 4 movies directly attached to it. It had plenty going for it…even if that did also include «Code of Honor» or «Justice».

breezy1985 · 18-08-2025 08:32PM

The music is much more prominent in the early seasons. They really try use it as part of the scene and not just background.

I love that tune they use in Boobytrap.

Was surprised looking at the episode list how late that episode is and how early the first Lore episode is.

squonk · 18-08-2025 08:45PM

The Last Outpost was a fair introduction to the Ferengi but it’s hard to Ray appreciate it now after so much on DS9 where they came into their own. My problem with that episode really was the portal itself was a bit of a menace to society and seeing should have been done about it but, yeah no, let’s just go on our way.

Where No One Has Gone Before feels like tge point where the show just begins to find its own best. I do dislike the pandering to Wesley but they dud fix that later.

Still enjoying it. Might switch tack til tomorrow. For now though my lasting impression 6 episodes in is that the writers hasn’t figured out who Picard was or what to do with him. Most episodes so far have been “Big bad shows up, threatens to shake down the enterprise. Picard goes along with it because…, it whether or ok in the end “. He just doesn’t seem mine flagship Captain material in these very early episodes and I can imagine TOS fans at the time hoping Kirk would come back and kick his ass!

breezy1985 · 18-08-2025 09:00PM

They tried too hard to make Picard not Kirk and made him very uncharismatic and stern. Also needed him to be different to Riker who was gonna be the "Kirk".

squonk · 18-08-2025 10:53PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123734252#Comment_123734252

True! He assist codes across as sobering from a dickens novel at ties with lines like “I’m sure you’ll agree….” It feeds to me like “We’ve a proper British actor, better make him sound proper British” if all you’ve watched is stuff like Oliver Twist and pride and prejudice and missed out on stuff like The Sweeney and Minder! Except he’s supposed to be French but… anyway!!! Considering Up The Long Ladder, modern European culture doesn’t look to have been. a strong point in the writing room at the time! 😀

ItHurtsWhenIP · 18-08-2025 11:22PM

@squonk … I’m seeing it 35-36 years later from first viewing.

Jesus … is it really that long ago? I really feel old now. 👴

I didn't know it was coming on TV and I just so happened to have walked into my local in Limerick on a Saturday evening for a night of imbibing and the opening credits were rolling on Encounter and I was like "What is this shiny new sci-fi show?"

I have re-watched TNG many many times in the past (nearly as many as TOS). Haven't had a run through in a long while though, but I do remember that, other than the occasional stinker like Code of Honour, they were all very enjoyable … very Trek.

… an unplanned hospital admission …

Best of luck. I hope it's nothing too serious.

fritzelly · 18-08-2025 11:37PM

Long time since I watched through all episodes but as I remember it S1 was very heavily Roddenberry influenced (think the one thing I saw as being his direction was the guy in the "skirt"), S2 he had backed off and by S3 it was out of his hands pretty much completely and the show got a lot better with it and more futuristic looking writers

breezy1985 · 18-08-2025 11:54PM

Art department improves massively too after the first few seasons. Outside of the improved uniforms you get a much improved redesign of things like the phazer and shuttle.

Inviere · 19-08-2025 07:53AM

First season is TOS 2.0, of a very different time. It still managed some excellent character and world building despite that, and helped lay the stones for what was to come. Yes it was shaky at times, but it improved, dramatically. Unlike other shows that shall remain unnamed.

breezy1985 · 19-08-2025 08:45AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123734977#Comment_123734977

Probably because stuff is being carried over from phase II.

I find it hard to watch due to how different some characters are.

Rawr · 19-08-2025 10:02AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123734766#Comment_123734766

It kind of highlights the agrument I use against anyone who rails on about Roddenberry's vision as a reason for why newer Star Trek might not be good. (There are other more valid reasons for that)

The less Roddenberry was involved, the better the TNG era got. The Season 1 writers had a hell of a job writing good scripts due to Roddenberry's insistence that inter-personal conflict didn't exist anymore in the 23rd Century. They had to do their best to create drama by injecting non-human reasons for it. Roddenberry was apparently also a bit of a horn-dog and much of the sexualisation in Season 1 is pretty much thanks to him. He had to be talked down on some of his more outlandish ideas there, and you just know that "Justice" was down to him.

Season 2 and 3 has a lot more interpersonal drama and Season 3 itself is possibly the best season of the show. But by then a stroke had already imobilised Roddenberry, who had practially no input in Season 3 or beyond. He died while early Season 5 was being aired. But it's clear that his distance from the production allowed it to improve.

Apparently he was made aware of DS9 being made, but didn't live long enough to see a finished episode. I'm pretty certain the Roddenberry would have tried to stop or otherwise sabotage a show like DS9. (Speaking of "sabotage", appearenty one of his last acts days before dying was to prepare legal action against Nimoy & Mayers to edit The Undiscovered Country in order to make it less….militant. One of the best TOS movies…and he still found problems with it. He died before anything came of it.)

We certainly thank Roddenberry for creating the Trek universe and for bringing TOS to television. But after his initial ideas, it almost always seemed inevitable that other people could to better work with it.

squonk · 19-08-2025 11:23AM

I think the problem with Roddenberry is he “lucked out” on Star Trek. He had the vision to create it but my interpretation was that, from his point of view, it was a space western where aliens gave much better leeway for drama than trying to think up of new bandits riding into town for the sheriff and his posse to deal with each week. I should really reminder how the characters developed but that might have been down to the staff writers more. Once the show took off in syndication he turned from a producer with an interesting two season show and an awful third season into a visionary and keeper of the flame.

I don’t think he ever moved beyond the 60s in term of tv production and you can see that in TNG. Much of it seems like a 60s show with 80s addons. Even by that stage in the 80s his level of horndoggery was over the top. Thankfully the show stayed away from the captain banging the alien of the week trope from TOS. Given the show was clearly aimed at an audience to include kids and young teens, The Naked Now seems particularly inappropriate

Rawr · 19-08-2025 01:51PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123735552#Comment_123735552

You also have to wonder:

The Naked Now was only the second episode of the whole show.
It's mostly a rehash of a TOS episode
They put "Naked" in the title.
They find what looks like a frozen orgy when they board SS. Tsiolokovsky
Yar goes and finds out how functional Data is.
They even go so far to have Data describe that functionality.
…and to top all off a Drunk Teenager saves the ship….

The whole thing smacks of Roddenberry. And then you get Code of Honor right after that. It makes you wonder how they got renewed at that stage.

Of course, we're not far off from some quality. Very soon we get to a personal favourite Where No One has Gone Before. Now that episode is fantastic. It has this whole "space is big and mysterious" vibe to it, which I just love.

breezy1985 · 19-08-2025 02:26PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123735965#Comment_123735965

Naked Now isn't a bad episode if you ignore the fact it's essentially a redo of a TOS episode. It is surprising it got greenlit for a family show.

Code of Honor would be fine if it wasn't on Africa Planet.

odyssey06 · 19-08-2025 02:31PM

When watching Where No One Has Gone Before, keep in mind that the actor playing the Traveller was in the running for the role of Data.

It is based on a story by Diane Duane, an American fantasy & scifi author who moved to Wicklow after marrying Northern Irish writer Peter Morwood. Duane has written many Star Trek novels cast including mirror episode Dark Mirror.

JayRoc · 19-08-2025 02:35PM

It was such a strange decision to have an episode like Naked Now so soon into the first season. That stuff works best when it's subverting expectations or playing with established characterisation, but you couldn't have any of that because we didn't know the characters.

Personally I enjoyed Code of Hono(u)r more than Naked Now and particularly more than Encounter at Farpoint. One of the weakest pilots over IMO.

By the way @squonk hope you're ok

o1s1n · 19-08-2025 02:44PM

Just finished up a rewatch a month ago for the first time in many years and had completely forgotten The Naked Now was the second episode.

Absolute narrative insanity to take a cast of new characters the audience is completely unfamiliar with and then get them to act out of character. We literally have no real frame of reference at this point.

squonk · 19-08-2025 02:45PM

So far today I’ve got through Lonely Among Us and Justice.

LAU is pure TOS I thought. Kind of OTT having Picard suddenly decide to conjoin with the energy and head off on a life of better exploration. It’s the kind of silliness you’d have gotten in TOS. It was grand but didn’t take stand out for me.

Justice surprised me actually. I remember it being a great episode and saw it countless times over the years but it’s funny what age adds to the mix. There really wasn’t the need for Planet Porno really. That has to be a Roddenberry influence. I couldn’t imagine any responsible captain sending his crew on leave to bang the locals en masse on a passing planet. Certainly couldn’t imagine many wanting to partake either but they did get around this by it being an Away Team mission. The dilemma was quite interesting though and, honestly, Wesley should have been executed according to local laws. I’d have rathered a judicial episode based on arguing based on then not knowing the law and having the episode go that direction. The God ship seems kind of a Keep Off The Grass sign with a few teeth. Appealing to the advanced race took the interest built up all along away. It too conveniently wrapped up the problem with a bow. Also can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m sceptical about religion but at the same time don’t disrespect devout religious followers which I think this did by having the god ship solve the problem thus making the porno people look a bit silly, which they didn’t deserve even if I personally think their law is stupid. I just haven’t a good taste left in my mouth after this one

squonk · 20-08-2025 03:48PM

The Bsttle I had actually forgotten. It seems to be one of those that slipped through the cracks in the repeats I’ve seen over the years. Decent Ferengi episode and feels like the beginning of the show coming into its own.

Hide And Q: Christ I found this a bit tiresome. Very TOS and Riker got attached to his powers a little too quickly I thought. There was much more interest in focusing on Riker struggling with his power but it felt a bit TOS to have fun with wielding power and then act sheepish when it blew up in his face.

Haven: Feel I could have skipped this. I don’t like Lwaxana episodes in general and this had the”TOS silly filler” feel from it.

It’s beginning to annoy me a little how out of step Roddenberry was by the 80s but at the same time you can also see the efforts of a lot of people to take the edges off and produce a good show.

JayRoc · 20-08-2025 04:05PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123739603#Comment_123739603

Haven was Mammy Troi's debut, wasn't it? I don't have the same hatred for the character that many seem to, but it wasn't the best of her episodes. The naked wedding etc, cringe.

Rawr · 20-08-2025 04:56PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123739603#Comment_123739603

The Battle did a pretty good job at building up the Ferengi as a threat and had they kept that vibe going they might have eventually become a decent Trek villain. The earlier showing of them with energy-whips and their brutal capitalist nature kind of made me imagine a scenario where later on in TNG a powerful & militant Ferengi Alliance would attempt to invade or annex worlds to enslave their people in the interests of profit. In the end of course they gave up on them as villains and started working on what would eventually become The Borg.

I also really enjoy the perspective of seeing Picard’s earlier command. This was the first time we get to see a Trek Captain in command of another Starfleet vessel other than the hero ship.

Also Steward does a pretty good job at acting physically tortured by the Ferengi mind-probe. A good performance there.

Impromptu TNG Runthrough

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