Reviews Series / Star Trek The Next Generation

\'Not as strong\'? Those first two seasons were outright God-awful. They were mind-numbingly, rage-inducingly BAD. True, there was a decent episode every now and then, and The Measure Of A Man is still awesome, but just about everything else? They give me shivers just thinking about them. Hghhhggh...

Huh, I didn\'t think I\'d find someone else who liked the first two seasons! I\'m also partial to When the Bough Breaks, Symbiosis (I\'m an odd duck like that), and Where Silence Has Lease, but I can\'t stand Datalore. Still, it\'s nice seeing someone looking over the first two seasons with some fondness, and I see I missed a few in my own list of good episodes. Thanks for posting!

@khoho man, if someone thinks TNG season 1 and 2 are bad, you probably haven\'t watched anything else from all of Star Trek... I mean, basically all of Voyager or Enterprise never manages to live up to even season 1 of TNG, and TOS is just campy all around.

Agreeing to all of those assessments (maybe barring "Hide and Q" – to me there's just not a whole lot to that episode...)! But I'd make a couple of additions there, mainly if look at how character development is approached in various episodes. So, for season 1, there would be:

• Home Soil: I'd agree that "Where No One Has Gone Before" is ONE of the the strongest S1 episodes. The other one would be "Home Soil". If you can look past the fact that the character interaction between Riker and terraforming scientist Luisa Kim (Elizabeth Lindsey) is – let's not mince matters here – cringe-inducing, this episode is ESSENTIAL STAR TREK. It takes many clues from the equally strong TOS episode "The Devil in the Dark" (even some visual ones, if you're observant) but ditches the somewhat old-fashioned "monster-story" aspect in favour of slightly harder sci-fi, dealing with essential questions like "What makes life?" and "under which circumstances could alien life evolve?"

• We'll Always Have Paris: Since the character of Picard tends to come across as overly stern and even a bit of a jerk in a lot of S1, it's refreshing to finally get to see a more human side to him in this episode. There are heartwarming moments and witty dialogue to found here and apart from that, it's a well-constructed, interesting story up to its very conclusion which admittedly stands out as a bit of a quick shot (but is at the very least delivered in a way that doesn't leave you TOO baffled).

For Season 2, I would add:

• The Child: A re-worked "Phase II" script, which surprisingly doesn't detract from the fact that we finally get an episode in which the character of Deanna Troi gets to DO something. Yes, Marina Sirtis gets to act and not in an "AUUUUGH! PAINNN!"-manner. An interesting episode for the reason alone that we get to see how much has changed since S1. Firstly in the regard that it's a very well-written, thoroughly constructed episode, the likes of which were scarcely seen in S1 – there's just a new sense of confidence in the writing and the performance permeating the entire episode. Secondly, this episode sees the introduction of Doctor Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) as the new CMO and while the character was divisive to say the least, in hindsight there's one thing to be said about Pulaski that cannot be said about a lot of Star Trek characters up to that point: Pulaski has an actual character arc! Compare her interaction with Data in this episode to the episodes that would follow, starting with "Elemenary, Dear Data" and basically ending in "The Measure of a Man", even though it only really becomes apparent in the recently released extended cut of the latter episode (another clue to this would of course be the way Pulaski treats Data in "Peak Performance" – let's just say: It's VERY different from the characters' first interaction). And thirdly, of course this episodes does its best to show off the redesigned and newly added sets. There's a bar on the ship, everyone!

Oh and the episode also introduces the character of Guinan...

That episode would be the only REAL addition to the S2 "must see"-list, but I think it's worth pointing out that "The Emissary" is actually an arc-setting episode. And "honourable mentions" should go out to "Contagion" as one TNG's more interesting Ancient Aliens episodes and "The Icarus Factor" for providing a bit of background on both Riker and Pulaski