Thoughts on Season One

There's a fair amount to weigh, in creating an assessment of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I should say, if it's not clear enough from my reviews, that I found Season One of TNG to be quite weak overall. If Season One of Enterprise just barely did what the first season of a television series needed to do, then Season One of TNG fails to do even that much. If the series had been cancelled after this first season, I would have felt the cancellation entirely deserved.


Horrible Beginnings

Though Encounter at Farpoint was solid both as a pilot and a story in its own right, it did suffer from problems that would recur throughout the season. These problems could be summed up by the words "pacing" and "jeopardy." Namely, there wasn't any. The plot of the pilot has Q giving Picard a puzzle to solve to earn humanity's continued right to explore space. When Picard moves too slowly, Q gives him a time limit, in order to increase the stakes and amp up the pace. Then we cut to an extended, jokey sequence on the holodeck before the plot even attempts to advance further. If the writers were deliberately trying to undercut the tension, they couldn't have done a better job of it.

At least Farpoint had a solid story at its core, and had the excuse of being a pilot - meaning it was burdened not only with a story, but with the introduction of a large (too large) cast of characters. But it was followed by a series of some of the worst episodes any of the Trek series have ever seen: The Naked Now, Code of Honor, The Last Outpost, Lonely Among Us, Justice... Some truly horrible television. Out of the first third or more of the season, only Where No One Has Gone Before manages to show any real potential for this series to be good, let alone for it to be a worthy successor to the 1960's original.

I suspect TNG benefitted from the late 1980's television landscape. There had been no new televised Star Trek since the animated series of the early 1970's, and fans had all but memorized the episodes of the original series from the many reruns they had enjoyed. The movies were fun, but they only came out about once every two to three years. There was a real hunger for a new Trek show, in a television landscape that was otherwise devoid of outer space adventure shows. This probably helped to create a very forgiving audience. I can scarce credit that viewers would patiently wait out such a bad beginning otherwise.


Signs of Improvement

I'll be fair and acknowledge that the show improved around the series' midpoint. It was slow to do so, but we started getting watchable episodes like Hide and Q and Haven. They weren't brilliant television by any means, but they were enjoyable and the characters started to emerge from their one-dimensional sketch stages. Then actual good episodes began to come around with some regularity: The Big Goodbye, Datalore, 11001001, Heart of Glory. The dogs were still there too, but at least the show started to put out about as many good episodes as bad ones. With Coming of Age and Conspiracy, there was even an attempt at arc building... though the combination of a strike and the reconception of the Borg as something other than the insect race shown in Conspiracy meant that this "infant arc" effectively was stillborn. Still, it was a legitimate attempt.


The Shadow of the '60's

One of the show's biggest problems, in its first season, is a lack of its own identity. Particularly in the first half of the season, there's a real sense that the writers just don't know what show they're making. Gene Roddenberry clearly wanted a more intellectual show, hence creating in Picard an older and more intellectual captain, with Riker on hand to carry the "action man" duties. Unfortunately, the writers seemed to associate Trek with "action man" Kirk. The result is entirely too many episodes that feel like TOS retreads, with Riker shoved into the Kirk role and Picard left to wander around in the background like a badly-directed extra. This is particularly glaring in episodes such as The Last Outpost and Angel One.

The frustrating thing about the TOS knockoff episodes is that they are consistently the worst of the season. Not only do they feel like TOS knockoffs, they are often worse on every level (even technical ones) than the 1960's shows. When the good episodes start to come, they are ones that tilt in the more intellectual direction Roddenberry probably envisioned. Episodes like Where No One Has Gone Before, The Big Goodbye, and 11001001 are specifically Next Generation episodes. Not only are they not aping Kirk & company, they actually wouldn't work very well with Kirk's crew. Hopefully, the increase in these episodes in the season's second half means that there will be more of those in future seasons.


The Tasha Debacle

Wesley's annoying, there's not much serious question about that. But it does seem that the writers came to realize how annoying it was to have Wesley the Wonderful save the ship from the stupid adults, given that this became less and less common as the season progressed. It's notable that the last three episodes of the season don't even feature Wesley, while the last Wesley-centric episode of the season actually manages to make his character work for probably the only time this year.

As much of an easy target as "Shut Up, Wesley" might be, the show's real "miss" in character terms is Tasha Yar. It's fair to say that Denise Crosby is not the world's most versatile actress.  Still, both she and her character showed potential in the series' early episodes. Tasha has a genuinely interesting backstory, and Crosby's early performances demonstrate some enthusiasm. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that, cast in a "serious" role, Crosby's best moments are consistently comedic ones. She's very good in The Naked Now, and in her nonverbal reactions to awkward moments in episodes such as Haven, Justice, and Angel One.

Perhaps it stemmed from a realization of Crosby's dramatic limitations. Perhaps Trek writers just didn't know what to do with a character who had such a dark backstory.  It's not exactly in the Trek ethos to explore a background of extreme poverty, drugs, and battling "rape gangs." But as the season went on, Tasha became more and more sidelined. Thus began what I have dubbed "The Mayweather Effect." As with Anthony Montgomery's performance as Mayweather in Enterprise, Crosby's initially promising performances became increasingly flat, likely in response to increasingly anemic material. As the actor begins to realize that better material really isn't going to be forthcoming, at least not on a regular basis, the actor gives up and starts playing lines by rote. Denise Crosby leaves the show as a regular in Skin of Evil. But she basically checked out several episodes before that, and I find that I can't particularly blame her. It's tough to show up to play a part, and end up playing a prop.


Final Analysis

I find it very difficult to really come up with a firm evaluation of this season. If you were take the 26 episodes of this season and boil it down to the 13 episodes of the average cable television season, you would probably be able to present a fairly strong season of television. As I complained frequently in my early Enterprise reviews, when you have too many slots to fill in a given season, the result will inevitably be filler.

There is potential for a good series here. A show with no potential does not produce episodes of the quality of: Where No One Has Gone Before, The Big Goodbye, 11001001, Datalore, Heart of Glory, and We'll Always Have Paris. The cast ranges from adequate to very good.  Patrick Stewart is a splendid actor, and his character finally seems to be working by the season's end.  Supporting actors Levar Burton, Brent Spiner, and Michael Dorn also do consistently excellent work. Jonathan Frakes is more limited, but he is at least solid and fairly likable.

Unfortunately, this was not a good season of television. Too many bad episodes, too much lack of imagination, too many bland productions whose directorial vision amounted to shooting whatever happened to be (mostly) in focus.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's first season is the worst Star Trek season I've yet reviewed. Based on what I've viewed and reviewed thus far, it was very lucky to get a second year to improve.  However, based on the best episodes of the season, there is at least room to hope for real improvement.


Next: Season Two Overview

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