like that beautiful enterprise B
I disagree... I don't like the bloated look. Sure, the wide look suits the Enterprise-D/Galaxy-class Starships, but not for the Enterprise-B/Excelsior-class Starships. John Eaves did a bad job with the Enterprise-B, which was likely a part of his quest for a Hot Rod/Porsche of a Starship, by the streamlined look of the Excelsior-class and making it look less streamlined, more "fat" in the primary and secondary hulls (
Why would you need to expand the secondary hull for no reason--other than real life reasons--and add big impulse engines that'd melt the front side of the warp engines). The Sovereign-class was a continuation of such a project that, if not then (
a decade ago being a kid), I frown upon in recent years.
Anyways, back on subject:
Early TNG has had its bad moments, and some of Trek throughout its three seasons had its bad moments. Even DS9 and Voyager had their bad moments. It's the same with most everything else in life.
But you have to admit there was
something good in the early seasons of ST: TNG and the rest of Trek (
I don't know about Enterprise though... I guess). For Season 1, I liked the following episodes:
01. "Encounter at Farpoint" [TNG]
02. "Where no one has Gone Before" [TNG]
03. "The Last Outpost" [TNG]
04. "The Battle" [TNG]
05. "Too Short a Season" [TNG]
06. "11001001" [TNG]
07. "Coming of Age" [TNG]
08. "Heart of Glory" [TNG]
09. "The Arsenal of Freedom" [TNG]
10. "Conspiracy" [TNG]
11. "The Neutral Zone" [TNG]And for Season 2:
01. "Elementary, Dear Data" [TNG]
02. "A Matter of Honor" [TNG]
03. "The Measure of a Man" [TNG]
04. "Contagion" [TNG]
05. "Time Squared" [TNG] (Although
"Cause and Effect" [TNG] does a better job at Time Loops than this)
06. "Q Who" [TNG]
07. "Samaritan Snare" [TNG]
08. "The Emissary" [TNG]
09. "Peak Performance" [TNG]My favorites of each season on both lists were #2 of Season 1 and #6 of TNG. My reasons:
Season 1 Favorite:"Where no one has Gone Before" [TNG]Not by far I guess, but a favorite of mine since I was a kid. A more explorative way of Trek. No violence, no death, just exploration. One of the reasons I like Trek. Some ideals, a nice dillema that might be overused nowadays
(Voyager was all about getting home too. The Enterprise-D took one episode to get stranded on one or two places in the universe before getting back home. Voyager was on the other side of the Milky Way Galaxy and took seven seasons.), but still, it's a nice episode. I just can't
exactly put my finger on why I like it, but as you see here, some parts are described in an attempt.
Season 2 Favorite:"Q Who?" [TNG]Well... What can I say? A recurring "villain" that puts some darkness into the campyness and optimism of Trek (
but not eliminating it, and I'm suprised Star Trek: First Contact accomplished that too) by slapping the Human species on the back of their heads Jethero Gibbs-style by sending the crew of the Enterprise-D to System J25 and giving them their first ever encounter of a technologically-superior and virtually-dangerous technology-based species that has "evolved" to being normal everyday villains, but their "simpleness" and ungeneralization in this episode helps add to their nightmareish appearence.
A race interested in technology and culture-absorbing, their morality virtually different. How we see them as evil, they see their motives as good and justifyable, as they believe they're improving the quality of live for each and every species they see, whereas we see them as evil, perverting species and cultures and robbing them of their freedom and individuality, etc.
Basically, this episode was good as an hour-long adventure, along with Q (
one of my favorite Trek "villains" thanks to John De Lancie).
It was tougher to choose for Season 2, since it was between this and
"Contagion" [TNG], a good episode in itself.
Overall, I don't find both seasons appealing nowadays, but they have their fair share of episodes that are pretty good, even if they would pale in comparison to the better episodes of the later seasons of ST: TNG.