Watching first season TNG

[SabreMau]

Working at a theater, I've had to overhear the Maleficent 2 trailer a bit too often, which always brings this season to mind.
https://twitter.com/SabreMau/status/1171670511392362496

[CharlesPhipps]

Funnily, I just re-watched this with my wife this week.

I think Will Wheaton's character made a bad first impression and the show's editorial mandates closed off a lot of what the character could have been used for. If they were going to pursue the Picard/Crusher romance (and they had plans to before it was nixed) you could have Wesley as an eternal reminder of Jack Crusher's presence.

Also, the show started to turn Wesley around with his failure to get into Starfleet Academy. When he had to drag someone away and leave another to die, you actually got a decent amount of sympathy out of him. If they'd added, "Wesley, you're a genius at warp propulsion and engineering but you're woefully lacking in experience as well as knowledge beyond that. You don't qualify for command and probably should be in engineering" then I think it might have helped him much more with audiences too. Characters are defined as much by their weaknesses as they are by their strengths.

I will say, yes, Season 1 had some of the worst episodes of Star Trek with "Angel One" and "Code of Honor."

Another statement? Tasha Yar is a MUCH more interesting character than people gave her credit for and really needed more plots. However, we know that the executives didn't want her getting into fights or exploring her horrific backstory.

[CharlesPhipps]

In my personal opinion, many substandard season 1 TNG episodes would have made great season 5 episodes. It wasn't the stories themselves that sucked it was the overall execution.

The drugs episode ''Symbiosis'' for example: as it stands, heavy handed, heavy on bad special effects, heavy on eighties hair. But done well and the concept of the breaking the symbiotic relationship and possibly dooming the world that is completely reliant on slave labour to reveal the truth to the other is an interesting moral question.

Symbiosis was a heavy handed Drug PSA back in the 80s. Now we have legitimate medical corporations having been revealed to have sold addictive narcotics to the public at large for profit. It's kind of sad that it has gone from heavy-handed to prophetic.

[Yukaphile]

Always skip TNG Season 1, period.

[Deledrius]

Always skip TNG Season 1, period.

Yeah, who needs those good episodes?