What are the best seasons of Star Trek The Next Generation ?

I agree with you. I think I've posted earlier that I usually skip over the first two seasons of TNG when I've binges the series over the years, but this time around I watched it all and I was pleasantly surprised by the very low count of 'unwatchable' eps in those two seasons. I now give seasons 1 & 2 a much higher rating that I had in the past, better in fact than S7.

 

I recently started rewatching the first season, got about 10 episode in, and gave up. It's actually worse than I remember . . . and I thought it was pretty bad.

 

The last third of the season is where it starts to normalize and even out. The arrival of Richard Manning and Hans Beimler really help the writing. They stay around for two more years. Beimler went on to write for DS9.

 

it is funny how we all can differ in our opinions, to me season 7 is nearly as bad as season one, it comes across as very tired and like everybody has had enough, there are some great eps in season 7 - probably more than in season one i grant you - but it is way too dark for me, and usually i like dark but this is depressingly dark and you could see the direction DS9 was going to head up going with with its depressingly unending war against the Dominion. Several season 7 eps i dislike but from memory the ep where the enterpise starts turning into alien artifacts, the ending of the ep where Ro gos over to the Maqui ( just depressing to lose that great character ) and Troi's dream sequence episode about suicide thats just down right silly and confusing ( i still am not sure if she and Worf actually played hide the sausage or was it all a dream like a whole season of Dallas ?? ), and thats just three that i can remember. I also agree with the poster who is not keen on the ending, its not bad, but its not great either, just as season 6's ending wasn't great either.

So for me the answer is seasons 3-6 but with an honourable doff to season 2 for imdo steadying the ship & saving the franchise for four great seasons that were to come.

 

unfortunately it was just annoying, she should have stuck with either American or her native english ( although not estuary lol ) or the transatlantic one which is where she ended up.

As you say its a nice idea but it did not work at all imho.

 

yes its a bad season but one or two eps are actually quite good.

I know that the cast are finding their feet but also everyone of the characters from Picard down are just annoying, the Captain is the most crucial role ( although it was clearly intended to be Riker in season one ) and one of the reasons that i am not unfond of season two is that Stewart finally starts to get a handle on Picard and then the others seem to click better into place - and It is possible that Pulaski helps facilitate this with her fractious relationship with Picard.

 

of those four i'd take the middle two, both could have worked in a future season, Arsenal is probably my favourite season one.

Ya's death episode is not bad either, only in the sense that killing her off was a shock at the time - and it was bold & dark too, the end is a bit mawkish but two point 5 stars for being brave and killing off a core crew member.

 

Yes season 7, looking back was less than "Stellar" in many regards.
I still love "The Pegasus", great story, acting and suspense.

Most of the rest of the episodes were not truly bad, but they were a mix match of ideas that looked like they were out of great ideas and just trying any random story they could come across.
Some trying to propel the characters forward, or trying to put a bit of semi-closure on the show as the end was near, but all wildly different in nature and not very cohesive if watched all in a row.

"All good things" still seems good overall, but is still lacking. It seems like they realized "OMG we need to end all of this, and do it with a huge Episode!"

 

Great thread. My wife and I tried watching the season 1 and were really disappointed. Thanks to this thread, I convinced her to jump back in starting at Season 3.

 

Yup, different people see things differently, as you say. For me, I don't have a problem with 'darkness', but I really didn't see season 7 in those terms. It just wasn't particularly good overall (with a few exceptions). As for DS9 being 'dark', I guess you could say that, but for me it felt realistic in how people, idealogical factions, non-aligned races, etc, would behave in real life. But it's not like the whole series was like that - there were just as many lighthearted, frivolous, optimistic episodes as there were war-like episodes (some devastatingly effective). I love DS9 and is my favorite Trek series, followed by TNG & Voyager (I don't rate Enterprise or Disco, and TOS only has a handful or so of good episodes, by today's standards).

 

Wow - kinda looks like a lobby in a posh hotel - maybe the first Lunar Hilton.

 

Ironically, it's not far removed from another episode where a strange game gets a hold of the entire crew. Almost the same plot, really. Wesley once more saves the day.

 

I agree with other posters in that Season 3 is when TNG really started finding it's groove. Don't like every episode but some definitely some strong episodes in this season.

 

What I found interesting is watching a documentary on it where the writers indicated that after the season cliffhanger when the Enterprise was about to shoot their large beam of energy via the deflector dish at the Borg cube at the end of season Season 3, they had no idea (zero!) on what they were going to do.

They basically painted themselves into a corner and had to figure out a way to get out of it. Apparently, the writing of the 1st episode of Season 4 (the 2nd episode of The Best Of Both Worlds) was a major headache to figure out.

Supposedly, they worked under strict deadlines and just *had* to deliver something to be shot by day X. Consequently, some episodes were better than others. They didn't have the luxury of trying to polish everything which is why they eneded up painting themselves into a corner in the first place.

 

no i also like dark but just not relentlessly like dark, like DS9 became in its last few seasons - it wears you down, season seven i think was more depressing than dark really - and it was not very good either i agree.

But i liked enterprise although that went too depressing when they went to war but they came out of that and the mirror episode is probably one of my favourite eps from all the franchises.

The new trek has not been seen in the UK on standard satellite or cable providers but i already did not like its look, it shows no respect for the original Star Trek universe and really belongs in the re-boot film universe, if i were doing a prequel to TOS i'd show a lot more respect to the look of the 23rd century of TOS ( it does not have to be a copy but it could be a tweeked version ) , as far as i can tell from the uniforms vessels sets and ... alien make it ( klingons ) this shows ZERO , i'll stick to the Orville.

 

the answer to that surely would have been simply to write & shoot the whole story and hold back the second installment until the start of the following season.

 

I can't answer (none of us can) but I suspect they had an order of X amount of episodes they had to film and put on the air. In a case like that, there isn't much anybody can do. Unless the writing is flowing easily or they sporadically work on an arc, the two-parters make more sense to write and film at the tail-end of a season.

In any case, it all worked out for the best. That was great TV, IMHO.

 

Definitely watch Conspiracy, Measure of a Man and Q Who from earlier. They are as good as any episodes in the series.

Others worth watching: The Battle, Arsenal of Freedom, and The Big Goodbye, Elementary Dear Data, Matter of Honor, The Royale

 

agreed and i get your point, if they are contracted to provide 28 eps say to do a back to back on a two part finale would leave them one short....

 

Well, Sirtis did ask the producers if they wanted her to do the accent, and they said yes. So the blame goes to them.

I think eventually - maybe around season 4 or 5 - one of the producers questioned her accent and told her to stop doing it because they didn't like it! Hence we got the more mid-Atlantic accent she used in the last few seasons.

Idiots.

Sirtis also relates a hilarious story about the non-uniform uniform they stuck her in for years. Essentially she was space bimbo with push-up tits for 4 1/2 seasons before Jellico forces her to put on a real uniform in "Chain Of Command" (which she looks fantastic in, by the way). Suddenly, Troi becomes competent, to the point where in a subsequent episode ("Timescape" from late in the 6th season), she's lecturing Geordi and Data on how Romulan ships work (and she still remembers the line - "That's impossible - the Romulans use an artificial quantum singularity as their power source.").

Along with Worf and Picard, she's the only character that really evolved somewhat over the course of the series.

 

I'd start with the episodes from season two I highlighted upthread. Indeed, I think you need to see a couple of them in order to make sense of a few episodes in season three and onward.

 

That sounds like the strategy employed on Breaking Bad, where they would get characters into all kinds of 'impossible' situations and then had to subsequently figure out how to resolve them, while still maintaining story integrity. It served as a device to get the creative juices flowing, and it worked a treat. Of course, to pull it off successfully, you need a team of very competent writers which BB had.

 

Hi, my name is John, I am a trek a holic..

I think the last season got to be a bit cheesy, but I did enjoy the Borg series.
..
I got into all the different Star Trek series trying to glue together the different writings and ideas, now I'm into the newer one on NetFlix, which isn't too bad and definitely has a lot of great effects

(is that series still running?)



"Star Trek or Star Wars... uhh really?"

 

Now you tell me. Just decided to get into NG from the start and it seems a universal opinion that S1 sucks. Well, there must be something salvageable.

 

There is. Conspiracy is a great episode!