Amentep

It's funny, I was prepared for him (from memory) to be awful and he was more just there than anything else. In a too large cast that left many with nothing to do, Wesley had the least to do. And when he did have something to do, it was often him being the stupidest smart person, but it was more dumb than annoying this time around for me. But seriously, why did the show think they needed 9 series regulars on TNG? Sure TOS had a lot of named reoccuring characters, but they often had little more to do than fiddle with their dials and buttons in the background until the series rotated them into a major role in an episode with the main 3.

Maybe pick a few key okay or better episodes from 1 & 2 to bridge to 3?

Eh, I remember Code of Honor being a bit dull and silly, but there were worse episodes I thought. I'm only early in Season 6, so I have no clue how good/bad it'll become. Season 5 had some great episodes, of that I cannot disagree. But it was a high-high/low-lows thing for me, where as Season 1 has a lot of middle-of-the-road episodes to me.

i don't disagree that COC doesn't happen without Roddenberry; I just don't think it violates Roddenberry's take on the future to have Jellico-Riker disagree, even as strongly as they do. I think that's the kind of conflict that fits the world (but definitely of a level Roddenberry would never have allowed). While Jellico and Riker both tell each other their views one another, I think another show of the era would have had them yelling at each other, throwing things around and/or getting into one another's faces or something. I give them credit that after they basically say they hate one another, they also reach the common ground necessary to do what is done. Jellico asks, and Riker agrees because it is what needs to be done and they both recognize it. I never got the Maquis philosophy, so it always just seemed like an excuse to have a conflict. Might feel differently when I see more of them on-screen as much of the non-TOS shows I haven't seen since they first aired, so I got pretty dim memory of the Maquis to begin with.

Thing is, I think you can have conflict (over differing interpretations of rules and philosophies) without getting into people just arguing back and forth each week. I think the better TNG episodes manage it, as did the better TOS episodes. But often what TNG does for drama isn't really good (IMO) particularly the family drama stuff. I also think Roddenberry by the time TNG rolls around had his own issues (for one, he seemed to have doubled down on his sex obsession from the late 70s) so I get that there was problems with his own interpretation of his vision by that time. I actually think Chain of Command works, though, because the issue that divides Riker and Jellico is ultimately philosophical (their idea of what leadership is and their view that the other is lacking in it) and not just a pissing match so the actors get to yell at one another. When Jellico has to come and ask Riker for help, there's not bitter recrimination from Riker, they both recognize what has to be done even if they don't like each other.

Those ****ing kid episodes in Season 5 were like watching paint dry on someone's ****ing armpit while being annoyed by a yippy dog that you can't do anything about. But also, there's no accounting for taste, and no one's ever accused me of having good tastes! For me, just a quick gut check list comparing Season 1 and Season 5: SEASON 5 SEASON 1 S "The Next Phase", "The Inner Light" "Conspiracy", "Datalore" A "Darmok", "Ensign Ro", "Cause And Effect", "I, Borg" "The Neutral Zone" B "The Game", "A Matter of Time", "Conundrum" "Skin of Evil", "Hide and Q", "11001001", "The Last Outpost", "The Battle" C "The Masterpiece Society", "Power Play", "The Perfect Mate", "Time's Arrow, Part I", "Redemption, Part II" "Code of Honor", "The Big Goodbye", "Too Short a Season", "Haven", "Encounter at Farpoint", "Lonely Among Us", "Where No One Has Gone Before" D "Unification, Part I", "The First Duty", "Cost of Living" "When the Bough Breaks", "Home Soil", "Coming of Age", "Heart of Glory" E "Silicon Avatar", "Ethics", "Imaginary Friend" "Justice", "Angel One", "The Arsenal of Freedom", "We'll Always Have Paris" F "Disaster", "Unification, Part II", "New Ground", "Hero Worship", "Violations", "The Outcast" "Symbiosis", "The Naked Now"

I like darker and violent shows, but I also like variety. Unfortunately I think the general modus operandi in modern media is "how can we make this more like [insert something popular]?" Since anti-heroes are all the rage, I think Paramount/CBS have been doing backflips for years to figure out how to make Star Trek focused on anti-heroes. TNG Season 1 and 2 had some storytelling problems (and I think that Roddenberry himself created some issues and you just feel a fight behind the scenes about the show was going on in that it lurches back and forth a good bit and can't seem to decide how to use some of the characters), but I'd still rank them over season 5 which is, IMO the worst season so far on my re-watching (but even Season 5 has some good episodes). I think the thing about TNG that helps it is a really, really good cast.

I think its part of the same thing - its an erosion of the original idea that removes the "problems" so that it ends up basically remaking anything that was unique so that instead it becomes every other SF show or movie.

Its funny, because I find the erosion of the 'ideal' of Star Trek to begin in TNG. The producers hated that Rodenberry wouldn't allow the characters to squabble amid themselves (much as Ellison, two decades earlier, couldn't believe that humanity wouldn't still be doing drugs for recreation which caused the fallout over COTEOF), and while TNG may have only been a step away from Rodenberry's vision, by the time you get Voyager you can tell that the mixed crew of Starfleet and Maquis was designed so the producers could allow a reason for the crew to bicker amid themselves. Enterprise, being set before Starfleet comes into being does similar. Then JJ's reboot does away with the idea entirely, and the post JJReboot seems to fall in line with that. Unfortunately most modern storytellers can't get past the present day to project themselves into a theoretically better tomorrow, IMO. Plus all the people who want Star Trek to be Star Wars...

Chain of Command TNG A good two parter; the strength of the story is the characters and their conflicts which have parallel conflicts of personality and will.

Goku by the end of one of the DBZs was supposedly able to destroy solar systems vs Superman who in the silve age could move sun's around and was more or less immortal..those debates never ended.

*has flashback to Superman vs Goku debates on usenet* *dies*

I guess the Cornish are considered too assimilated to assist and thus get attacked - or does Ireland have some sort of historic grudge with them?

I don't disagree with you, I've always wished there was a major team called the Spiders in the modern day, and since there was a Cleveland Spiders, it'd have had ties to the city's baseball history. BUT if it was even considered, I bet some marketing people crunched some numbers and were like "Nope, Arachnophobia is real."

I was rooting for the Cleveland Lake Shores to make a return. Pretty sure they weren't going to return to the Napoleons... While I'd love for a team to be called the Spiders, I think there's too many arachnophobes around to make that a viable name anymore. But seriously, I kinda like that the name ties in with the city. Here's hoping the logo design is faux art deco to match the art deco statues.

Funnily enough they did the same thing when I was in high school. ...well, except the actual year I was to take it when they changed the rules so that I couldn't take it unless I wanted to do it out of school for a fee, a move that was so decried they changed it back the next year, but I'd missed the only window where it'd have fit in my hs schedule...

Which is all well and fine until its found by a universe that is a giant three-dimensional Homer Simpson...

Can't...unsee....

I get emails from the public asking why my staff haven't processed a request they sent on Saturday and its now on Sunday, a day later. Our offices are only open M-F.

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IIRC they were only going to suborbital space for 5 minutes or so.