The Next Generation Season 1 (and 2)

I saw this on a meme on Facebook yesterday. It brought me back, perhaps it was something about how the first season was unwatchable, but it brought me back to 1987 when this was a welcome addition to the Original Series that was in reruns for almost 20 years. I remember me and a few friends taking in every special effect and hovering over it wanting more. I am not sure if it was before “The Battle” yes, it was before that I was saying that I wanted a departure from Original Series (i.e. The Naked Time v. The Naked Now), and The Battle was indeed a welcome departure, that was followed up by Contagion and The Neutral Zone. As I look back now, I see those episodes as an exception to episodes as bad as Worf’s plastic ‘turtle head’ and cloth honor sash, let’s not even get into the Death of Yar.

                I now think of the first (and second) as a growing period as the show shed off some bad influences on the production staff as well as the writers’ strike in the second season.  After that Star Trek The Next Generation underwent an incredible ramping up in production value and (finally) got some great acting to add to the stellar writing that has always been a staple of Star Trek. I have a disagreement with the producers of Star Trek because I believe that season 5 is the best, where the makers think it is Season 6. The truth is that in ranking all of Star Trek, up to the end of Enterprise, it is and extremely close. The production value rolled into Deep Space 9 (which is my favorite even now) and produced enough episodes of Voyager that are of the same quality. Perhaps the production value trailed off from the inhuman plateau, but Enterprise has some great episodes like Dear Doctor, Northstar and more than one of the two or is it three partners in the fourth season, by the way In a Mirror Darkly is the best Mirror story, and I have never been a fan of the Mirror stories. In the end, I believe that Enterprise Season Four is a shooting of the works that proceeded its cancelation and that ended the era of Star Trek one episode too late.

                Perhaps, I will talk about the present era of Star Trek another time. Just as in TNG season one, we need to give Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks and even Prodigy and Picard the same chance that not enough post-baby boomers never got. Although, in the case of Picard, I will give Legacy a chance to see what happens to Seven of Nine that goes beyond me thinking I have a chance with her (or Jeri Ryan). Perhaps I am biased, but Picard seems to a second rate (by Star Trek Standards) TNG reunion, but it might be that I saw past Seven’s space suit and saw a truly interesting and vulnerable character, that may be incapable of a human relationship. That probably is what drew me to Stardust City Rag which is by far my favorite episode of Picard. I am concerned about her drinking. Let me give it a chance, and then try to end this essay by keeping my word about commenting on the latest era of Star Trek.