The Last of TNG SEASON 1 which is the worse

[CrypticMirror]

Well I liked Too Short a Season, both as an episode in and of itself but also as a sort of spiritual sequel to A Private Little War. The Insane Admiral of the Week pulled the same sort of thing with the planet of the week that Kirk did with Planet Neural, and it did not end well. By using a new admiral and new planet, but same basic thing, it lets them explore the potential consequences without treading on the legacy and goodwill of the previous series. It is a good episode, albeit with horrible age makeup. I'm guessing Chuck will hate it though, just based on my track record of managing to like the ones he hates.

I like the idea of it, but the problem is that the episode is barely about that. It's largely the story about the Admiral having taken this de-aging drug, and most of the focus and mystery during the episode is centered on that.

The general exploration of the dilemma is Picard saying, "Well, that was wrong and you're wrong!" which doesn't really do justice. There's no depth to it because the writers aren't going to provide a very favorable take on the man who gave people weapons, regardless of the circumstances. His only path to redemption was to die. He doesn't make any argument that he was right.

And that is what makes it great. A firm and definite moral stance. None of this wibbling around going "oooh, there are shades of grey, and lets hear all sides to this abhorrent act". No. We are firmly told right and wrong. And we need more of that, because a huge chunk of the population today have shown a complete inability to tell right from wrong, and a worrying tendency to glorify and idolise violence. That is wrong. I like when the moral is simple and clear.

[Thebestoftherest]

Sure because it not like a situation can escalate quickly and the crew could be a holes not bothering to learn the facts.

[chaos42]

the bit in that one is an issue he gives the jerk the weapons but he gives the same weapons to his enemy so that it balances things out and it reminds me of the tos episode involving the klingons giving flit lock rifles to a primitive culture to restore things they would have to give that same tech to the others so they can defend themselves -and this is a pre warp civilization. Personally i think that there needs to be a redefinition of the prime directive. Its gotten so that its too stupid to live as is and needs to be amended.

[GreyICE]

the bit in that one is an issue he gives the jerk the weapons but he gives the same weapons to his enemy so that it balances things out and it reminds me of the tos episode involving the klingons giving flit lock rifles to a primitive culture to restore things they would have to give that same tech to the others so they can defend themselves -and this is a pre warp civilization. Personally i think that there needs to be a redefinition of the prime directive. Its gotten so that its too stupid to live as is and needs to be amended.

This is Rodenberry's jingoistic Vietnam War episode, and I wouldn't read too deeply into it. TOS was a lot looser in many ways, and frankly the Prime Directive is Rodenberry's paper shield against accusations that Starfleet is just Imperialism in space (an idea other writers played with more than once). It's not really a serious doctrine, as Rodenberry never used it to stop him from writing an episode he felt like writing.

[chaos42]

you have a point that is a bit of a paper shield as he claims there is no money but they have credits and they use it like money in multiple situations in the original series

i do think that these things could be fixed if given proper and more meaningful definition

the money thing i always figured was you don't need money but i does exist as starfleet and the federation need a currency to exchange goods with because direct barter of say medical supplies for ore is not always going to work as people don't always need what your giving them, money was created to have a standard items that could be exchanged for anything- it is not evil its efficient

[Makeshift Python]

I believe the whole conceit of never making any kind of contact or interaction with specifically pre-warp civilizations was not established until the TNG episode "First Contact". Prior to that, we saw Kirk and Picard visit various worlds that were pre-warp, whether incognito or as themselves.

[GreyICE]

The general exploration of the dilemma is Picard saying, "Well, that was wrong and you're wrong!" which doesn't really do justice. There's no depth to it because the writers aren't going to provide a very favorable take on the man who gave people weapons, regardless of the circumstances. His only path to redemption was to die. He doesn't make any argument that he was right.

Flashbacks to the Gene Rodenberry-authored episode where the Enterprise's solution was "give the natives weapons". Ah, times change.

Looking at those, it strikes me as how none of them are standout awful, but none of them are very good. We'll Always Have Paris is probably the best, not a stunning recommendation, but it apparently had an incomplete script, so it's kind of a miracle it was any good at all? Outside of the fact that they literally started shooting before they realized the script wasn't finished, there's nothing memorable about it.

Other than that we have two holodeck episodes (Season 1 and they're already old, gee) an evil admiral episode, an episode with an alien culture in a completely contrived situation that can only be solved with the power of friendship, and a Wesley Crusher episode. Oh and a retelling of Devil in the Dark, except... oh no wait, it's just Devil in the Dark.

Gee, you didn't Season 1. Oh boy.

I nominate Home Soil as the worst on that list for blatantly stealing a TOS episode. Devil in the Dark was better in every way - the miners tied in better, the struggle was more impactful, they had to actually make an effort to save "the Devil" rather than just having a Picard speech and the problem was resolved, the acting was better.

An inferior copy of an episode I've already seen is worse than the rest of the list, because at least the rest of the list was trying to do something new, however misguided that "something" might have been.

[chaos42]

those are some good points on those episodes

as for the pre warp i think that it needs to be called something other than pre warp because with all the alien races that have contact it has to be something other than getting to warp thats the issue because you need stuff to make warp drive a possibility and the issue i think some cultures might not be able to without help, it could also be that they developed interstellar communication thats the thing, they may not have warp but they found life is out there, i just think warp seems to be more arbitrary since that episode was aired

[Riedquat]

those are some good points on those episodes

as for the pre warp i think that it needs to be called something other than pre warp because with all the alien races that have contact it has to be something other than getting to warp thats the issue because you need stuff to make warp drive a possibility and the issue i think some cultures might not be able to without help, it could also be that they developed interstellar communication thats the thing, they may not have warp but they found life is out there, i just think warp seems to be more arbitrary since that episode was aired

Once a culture has warp it's definitely going to run into other civilisations sooner or later, so there's little point in trying to avoid contact then. It's a good point about communication, with all the messages flying around through space how likely is a society going to be able to develop the means of detecting them before building a functional warp drive?

[chaos42]

those are some good points on those episodes

as for the pre warp i think that it needs to be called something other than pre warp because with all the alien races that have contact it has to be something other than getting to warp thats the issue because you need stuff to make warp drive a possibility and the issue i think some cultures might not be able to without help, it could also be that they developed interstellar communication thats the thing, they may not have warp but they found life is out there, i just think warp seems to be more arbitrary since that episode was aired

Once a culture has warp it's definitely going to run into other civilisations sooner or later, so there's little point in trying to avoid contact then. It's a good point about communication, with all the messages flying around through space how likely is a society going to be able to develop the means of detecting them before building a functional warp drive?

its probably just a question of what they have, an old novel actually called prime directive, had kirk and co. dealing with a race that while they didn't have warp did have large deposits of rubindium crystals which could be used to create faster than light subspace coms.

Either way i think the warp drive being the deciding factor is over simplification. Plus races like the Bakku-i hate those guys- didn't use it even though they knew how to build one.

The problem i find is that once you get into warp your also dealing with antimatter as there seem to be only 2 technological ways to power a warp drive we know of not counting borg or other stuff its either you build an antimatter reactor or a artifical black hole to power it either way its something extremely dangerous

That aside im thinking that the paris episode is one hes going to save and use the time skipping in that episode to explain the fact he keeps feeling like he already finished season one but there is always more.