Season 1
I think this is the remastered or something. This isn’t 4k, but i don’t believe the original had such HQ CGI models. This doesn’t look as out of place as the remaster of the first show. And they didn’t needlessly replace every cool practical effect with bad CGI. So i wasn’t bothered by the remaster. Tho, i saw them adding some new real buildings to earth’s photos. Now that’s objectionable. What now? We start digitally removing yankee towers from every old movie?
I loved watching it as a kid. But i don’t remember a single plot of a single episode. Maybe that there was a Moriarty threat and the first encounter with borgs. Also i remember a saucer landing and Worf’s walk of shame being beaten on a klingon planet.
After seeing so much of the original trek the phat enterprise looks really weird. And i used to hate the first one compared to this one. The old design is unusual and interesting. It’s ugly but it is genius. Judging by the concept-art they started with many conventional variations. But then successfully perverted the basic forms and objects to create something really alien, wrong and outstanding.
This new design is taking that idea but makes it done by the professionals. You can see the thought that went into making it look slick, sexy and powerful. Now i do consider some of the refinements to the original ship being superior, since this is sci-fi, not a contemporary car dealership for functional vehicles for every day family use. But even with my appreciation for originality i still think this new one is a great design. They wanted to make it sexy and it is.
The new crew consists of really cool characters. Instead of beer-bellied WASPs and their adventures with a token alien who acts like a normal human, this is a very diverse cast of very interesting characters with interesting backgrounds and sets of skills. And the main roster is really big. The first show barely featured anyone outside of the main three, here, a lot of different characters are pivotal to the different episodes. Even a WASP boomer, out of shape captian was made french to be less generic.
The original Data is really interesting and cool. He is just a random robot accepted into the crew. Pity, it seems he was turned into a chosen one or something in the new show. Also with the good-quality footage his skin is very imperfect, which counter-intuitively feels cheap for this character.
It’s kinda weird that they have a ton of kids on a combat ship going on suicide missions.
Encounter at Farpoint
Usually these movies opening a new series are made to the best of future team’s ability with increased budgets. They often offer the best writing the writers prepared. Well this one has many production errors and the writing is mediocre.
I once saw the dish crash-landing on TV while switching the channels, so it’s nothing new to me. But chronologically-wise this is the first time it actually gets separated. Makes sense considering that they haul entire families on the ship. What a way to open a sequel show.
But also this is another magic gods and trial nonsense episode. These are fit for a fourth or fifth season, when the writers have run out of ideas, while the audience is familiar with the characters and all their past sins.
Q is one of the weakest of these beings i saw. Another clone of Star Trek‘s The Squire of Gothos. Q isn’t even on Discord‘s tier of omnipotent incomprehensibility.
At least when digging up the past, TNG shows some of the new past, not just regurgitating same old.
Well, with all what counted as optimism at the time for 2300s, Gene really didn’t believe in the nearest future. The dude didn’t see full Yeltsin and the fall of people-eating union. But also he should be glad he didn’t see the great Xi nephrite rod and squat thief Pu big baldness.
Turning a poorly comprehensible ghost-vessels into a generic overused jellyfish is unimaginative. And gendering aliens is so damn boring. I read The Gods Themselves and that’s not even the most interesting alien gendering in existence.
Troi wears ST1-type bare-ass dress. Some guy that i also saw somewhere in the later ST but not in this season is present on the battle bridge. Riker watches cinematic-cameras CCTV footage, with jump-cuts. So McCoy is an admiral now. Admiral of what? Of medicine? He is a medic not a field or command officer. Also they’ve used too much make-up, he isn’t recognisable as DeForest Kelley at all. And this cameo puts into the question The Naked Now and that movie with a much younger Shatner.
As the games told us having visual GPS tracker is an extremely useful feature, can’t wait for it properly exist in reality.
The Naked Now
On the one hand opening a new show with a chaos curse episode’s remake is really lazy and cheap. Especially considering that it’s a sensationalized clickbait story about people you don’t even know yet.
On another hand this highlights the difference in tone of this show and its crew from the Banging All The Green Chicks Trek.
Since the entire IP so far is in continuity, didn’t Kirk’s crew record / report anything? That was one of the more existentially dangerous episodes, yet the event was not included into the Starfleet academy’s main course?
But at least the new crew handled it better. I still think they should’ve just neverlet it all out of control.
Code of Honor
It is a pretty dumb cat-fight episode. But it’s not terrible as a film. Instead of brute-forcing everything they actually went into legal trickery in the end. Even if it wasn’t written good and was hard to understand since your PoV is of a humie and not even a contemporary one.
The Last Outpost
So the telepath can sense through two hulls that are many kilometres apart? Isn’t she OP? And she is a half-blood, there’s an entire civilization of such maguses. The episode is very, very dumb. But the bad jokes make it work as an entertainment.
Where No One Has Gone Before
Is season one a bit rude? I don’t remember Picard being this grouchy. Also this is yet another time a ship went way beyond warp 10. And more so in the early episodes of the first season.
Lonely Among Us
The doctor is lying about her condition when she should know best. All unusual symptoms on an exploration vessel require instant quarantine. All investigation and research should be transparent and accessible to all. If all humans die, there’re still aliens and Data on the ship. When encountering unknown the chain of command should jump species to avoid putting all eggs in one basket.
This isn’t a first time an episode ends on a morbid joke or just on a joke with no resolution.
Justice
This stupid-ass episode feels like something from the Star Trek. It’s a naked porno-planet and they want to take their much more puritanical kids to see it.
The Battle
The captain didn’t confine himself when he was feeling himself wrong. Isn’t this a recon vessel instead of a routine-one where nothing unexpected is expected? But even as such Picard is still not as brazen as Kirk.
Hide And Q
Again Q’s nonsense. The episode goes for recycling napoleonic war setting, but at least changes it around to not be as terrible as the first show. Though, the characters pointing out all the differences to the camera was awkward.
Riker’s acting is off, he often doesn’t reflect the mood of the situation and the rest of the cast. Also the writing is rushed — Riker goes from 0 to 100 with zero transition and is triggered by the most minor things.
Haven
It’s another dumb new age mumbo-jumbo magic episode. But overall, at least it’s not terrible.
The Big Goodbye
The first show had stupid time-travel and props-recyle episodes. But this one at least puts them into the holodeck to give them some legitimacy.
This stupid device for fiction cravings is good. At least some fiction exists in the Star Trek even if a 250+ years old one. Even as an arguements of real game enjoyers go, them enjoying this torture chamber requiring physical activity is as realistic as real people actually playing Wii for fun. And the Wii gameplay is as bad. The difference is, Wii won’t kill you.
With every designated holodeck episode about it making everything worse, i hope there are a lot of episodes with its brief appearance where everything goes fine, otherwise why not jettison this jumanji-machine after the first malfunction?
So Data can crush a gun with his hand, but he didn’t crush all the opposition single-handedly?
Datalore
And this is why Start Trek 2: Star Trekening is much more enjoyable. Instead of sending top officers on suicide missions every time, the captain is captaining, Riker recons.
But also it’s Khan 2: Re-khanening. The first thing they do to an unknown entity, that captain already suspects, is to show how to steal the ship in minute detail. And everyone is butthurt about Wesley, even despite everyone already being suspicious. They even asked him directly to spy, and then dismiss his intel? It’s still cinematically better, but it’s written as bad as the first Star Trek.
Angel One
Why did not they send a full-female crew if they expect victorian-england-tier sexism? Diegetically, this sacrifices efficiency to virtue signalling of federation’s equality. And didn’t the federation agree to not play progressors anyway? Not very logical, since they did not plan to use honeypot Riker from the start. It was an accident.
Is every episode combining two threats? This time it’s corona with self isolation and the lost boys.
101011001
The episode works as a cheesy hokey B-movie and that’s all. The binary system is garbage, it’s used in computing because it’s so caveman, like humanity, not because it’s good. And even in the binary computers most of everything runs hex because even base 10 can’t contain all of that. Also as we know it, every base is the base 10.
The current future of the computing is quantum computing because that goes beyond binary. So if those social network aliens are so advanced why didn’t they go analogue computers ages ago? Like brains in the organic jars. Or at least any other system with more than two states.
So out of the entire population of the planet they managed to find people with four most elite names on the whole planet. Or is that their title?
And yes there’s the holodeck again and Riker is being horny for an uganda knuckles in the VRChat. Why absolutely everyone likes 300-years-old music and pop-culture? Imagine the majority of 2000s people loving 1700s culture with powdered wigs, suffocating corsets, boys wearing dresses and slavery. Instead of enjoying R’n’B, rap and nu-metal, instead of having bright hopes for the future and using the internet.
Too Short A Season
Old people being allowed to make decisions doesn’t look like a good idea even in the future. Picard is already old as hell here.
It’s not a very exciting episode, story or kino. But it’s okay with its gimmick.
When The Bough Breaks
The premise of the episode is that there is an invisible planet that hides from everyone. Well if they wanted to hide why not just let them be? They don’t want to meet you.
But even if it’s invisible they can’t hide their gravity. It affects the entire system. And what they will do if a random ship crashes into them? They can’t kick it out or they will be discovered all the same.
The voodoo magic of Troi knows no bounds. She can sense an entire planet from the edge of a system. Humans haven’t discovered Pluto until 1930, Troi is a half-blood and there’s an entire civilization of full-blood magic users that can detect any cloaked object with sentience inside.
So the legendary planet with a civilisation turned out to be… A yellow gas giant from outside, but a solid planet with purple sky inside. And the legendary aliens are just like humans, of course.
What is the aldeans’ plan? Are they saying that aldeans are genetically human, or do they want to just replace aldeans with genetic humans? And what is exactly the problem? Just like with the orbital cumbardments episode of the first serial, there’s a simple compromise no one wants to talk about. Why kidnap 3,5 family kids from one starship when they can arrange for an industrial scale adoption of federation’s orphans? Federation can even send an official beholder to monitor the conditions.
Maybe the core worlds of the humans in the federation solved the orphans problem by turning them into biodiesel or something, but all the high-risk fringe planets probably have a ton of orphans. You know, Tasha Yar’s for example. All those could’ve been adopted to a rich world legendary for it’s prosperity. Star Trek enforces the Dima Yakovlev Law for no reason.
Like yeah, aldeans turned out to be genetic degradants and humanities (which is basically the same). And their peaceful culture with religion of peace made them into kidnappers who want to indoctrinate and brainwash kids. Their problem lies elsewhere, but still the away team didn’t even negotiate. They outright refused to give away orphans for adoption.
During the proper talks federation’s overseer could check the medical conditions and discover all the same without antagonizing everyone.
Also the planet has its orbit, it won’t go anywhere. The federation can wait or black out the sun, no matter how powerful the AI overlord is, it can’t compete with the entire federation.
But even as is, it’s cinematically better than the first series.
Home Soil
Now finally a good episode worthy of high expectations from my memory. Tho, i already seen one such story in the Stargate. And on this topic i doubt anything can beat Simak‘s Drop Dead.
Why Riker is a designated weaponized playboy? Like yeah the dude looks not bad, probably because of eyes (even if lazy) and mascara. But as the character he isn’t too charming so far.
So the designers of the ship are smart enough to add a quarantine mode, but aren’t smart enough for a jettison button?
Coming of Age
A very solid episode with cinematic ambition. One interrogation sequence has a very good editing. It’s a bit too early to have an internal affairs episode in TNG right in the first season. But it was desperately needed for Kirk.
Yankee media hates internal affairs, but in a stable democracy there shouldn’t be anything to fear if you did nothing wrong. And in the yankeestan internal affairs seem like much gooder guyser than alphabet agencies with their amazing human operations like “sea-spray” or cops.
Picard fiddles with a box-cutter. What it is supposed to represent? That’s an eerie object outside of manual labour environment.
Heart of Glory
The first dedicated Worf episode that wants to give him some backstory and explain the character. Worf was already cool as just some random klingon in the federation. But now he is the chosen one, a unique solitary klingon in the starfleet. And together with Data that’s two chosen ones on one ship already.
So if Worf is an adopted human, how come he knows so much of klingonhood? If in all these years few saw funeral rights how come he knows them if he never lived in the klingon space?
They use patissons as klingon food. Is it because they are not extremely common in usa? But the plant is native to americas.
And just like Kirk, Worf showed the shady doods how to steal the ship.
Why the floors are so weak? Anyone can slip on them and ruin two floors with their bum?
The Arsenal of Freedom
An okay episode about brand-realism. But the resolution was offered by the salesman much earlier. Picard just chose to ignore it. Also when data has jumped he should’ve hang on the edge first and then roll on landing.
Symbiosys
A pretty solid episode, that is less interested in the plot and more in what prime directive dictates. And unlike Kirk, Picard does believe in it. By the time Kirk would be incoherently screaming, shooting six shooters in the air, swearing at the sun and smooching babes of every species at the same time, Picard said screw you guys i’m going home. An episode refuses to participate in war on drugs and that’s in 1988 usa. Yet neither it hides that drugs are bad.
Skin of Evil
This feels like a ST1 episode tackled by the crew of TNG. But also it’s not that strong. Yar was a cool character, it was unexpected that she had to die on-screen with a goofy cartoon splodge on her cheek.
So now the main cast is down one non-stock character. Of females all we have left is Troi being horny for Riker and Crusher being horny for Picard for no reason. The rest is a selection of sausages of different shapes and colours.
Did Armus ever introduced himself?
This writing is weak but it’s a tolerable watch.
We’ll Always Have Paris
So it starts with time shenanigans, then mixes-in boring unoriginal soap that even Kirk has already done, gets a little bit of nice visuals and then instead of an ending it’s unsatisfactory fizzles out. With a dude that almost ruined the universe promising that the next time it won’t be “almost”.
Conspiracy
This is a very lousy conspiracy, it’s more of a gotcha horror or a Twilight Zone and it’s descendants type story, than a functional existential dread. They are too brazen and their limited sucess was guaranteed by the crew being stupid. Riker declared emergency for security and instead of armed goons two unarmed bridge officier came. And neither did Riker carry. Their PG guns are so tiney you can covertly have one in your pocket at all time. And well the sticking out part is too obvious with starfleet’s colar-less uniforms.
Well, but as a trashy alien short B-movie, this is good, the effects are very cool.
Tasha Yar is still in the opening credits.
There is a male extra in ST1-style miniskirt. And i think i saw one before. Is this a jab at the first show?
So wouldn’t teleport detect two life forms?
The admirals eat Çäkçäk instead of worms. Meanwhile the worms are actually edible and are just fine (as people tell). Many braver actors do eat them on camera. And what’s the point of eating worms if they are in human bodies? They don’t eat them with their mouths and human bodies would be better with some greens.
The Neutral Zone
There are two plots and neither is resolved satisafactory. And the main one is more of a cliffhanger setup for serialization and for the next season, than a real episode.
They bridge crew was literally looking at a museum exponat and only a klingon gave it some mind. What a glorious future where they are burning museums.
Uninvited civilians distract top brass while they can be jailed if needed. At least the crew didn’t show Khan how to steal their ship.
One thousandth (probably much less) of matching DNA blood relatives looking the same is such terrible nonsense.
The episode declares that TV didn’t last past 2040. Well i declared it dead in mid 00s, but it’s still clinging to life in the boonies. The choice of poor and stupid. But to be fair i do appreciate radio and TV broadcasting as a concept. A curation system that has such sights to show you. I saw a lot of movies and shows and stuff on the TV that i would not see otherwise. Like hundreds of italian and french movies would be completely out of my memory in this yankee-dominated world. You can’t search for VOD of something you don’t know exist. I know that i can seek movies with Louis de Funès, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Pierre Richard, Gérard Depardieu, Adriano Celentano, Paolo Villaggio, Coluche. But if i would want to see something deutsch i have no idea where to start. All my expectations of what internet can recommend is garbage dramas. Stupid people love dramas. And if i try to seek a genre, say, comedies i only expect to find nothing better than Axel Stein’s filmography. Even from nihon i know only of gojiras from my childhood, everything else that western internet talks about is stupid dramas, the only two names you would hear is Takeshi Kitano and Akira Kurosawa. A curated watch-list from someone who fits your taste would be a great feature for VOD platforms. And the ad-less radio is even better — anything you don’t like will last only 3-4 minutes. Broadcasts are amazing discovery tool if done right.
— / • / —
You win some, lose some, all the same to me. I didn’t encounter any great episodes in the first season, but even with the weaker ones this is a very solid sci-fi show with it’s universe, with sci-fi crew and with sci-fi episodes. Instead of constant bad no-budget recycling of unrelated sets and props, this is, for the most part, actual sci-fi material. And people claim it will get even better. 
Inside my shell i milk and hate 