From: ottoh3@CFSMO.Honeywell.COM (Otto Heuer #3)
Subject: Re: Series' beginnings (was something about 3 in 1 review)
To: rec.arts.startrek.misc (rec.arts.startrek.misc)
Posted-Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 15: 56:04 CDT
Mailer: Elm [revision: 64.9]
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Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 20:56:04 GMT
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Dave S writes:

| ottoh3@CFSMO (Otto Heuer #3) writes:

| >On the outside chance that anyone cares which episodes I think are worse
| >than EaF...
| >
| >.298    DRUMHEAD, THE (N)
| >.30     COMING OF AGE (N)
| >.32     ANGEL ONE (N)
| >.350    SYMBIOSIS (N)
| 
| You rate Drumhead /lower/ than these three?!  "Angel One" is a dreary formula
| episode, and "Symbiosis" has got to be the clumsiest handling of the drug
| abuse issue I've ever seen.  Surely Drumhead (a competent at least handling
| of the issues involved with political power) rates higher than these...

I may  have  to  re-evaluate  a  few  of  these ratings.   I  only saw "The
Drumhead" once and that was back when it first aired.  the only thing I can
think of right now that would have taken a *small* amount of points off was
the "hearing".  I didn't especially like "Measure of a Man"  which I'm sure
no one  wants  to  hear  from  me  again)  :-)  and other "court-room-type"
episodes have been slightly downgraded for just his reason.   If  I want to
see courtroom  drama,  I'll  watch  L.A.    Law.   If  I want  to see space
exploration fiction, I'd like to be able to turn to ST:TNG.

| >.355    MEASURE OF A MAN, THE (N)
| >.378    FIRST DUTY, THE (N)
| >.39     WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS (N)
| 
| Ack!  Choke!  You rate WtBB *over* MoaM?  I rate WtBB as one of the 5 worst
| episodes TNG has ever done.  MoaM was a first-rate drama, expertly handling
| the question of Data's humanity, something it could've easily got bogged down
| in. 

See above rantings about courtrooms...

| I also liked First Duty.

I agree that it was the best the Wes character has  been written, directed,
and acted...  and it was nice to see SFA...  it just didn't have that oomph
to make it a "really good episode" in my eye.  Perhaps a  few more viewings
will raise it up a notch or ten.

| >.439    DARMOK (N)
| >.445    LOSS, THE (N)
| >.447    BONDING, THE (N)
| 
| I am beyond shock.  IMHO Darmok is one of the best eps ever done by TNG.

I liked both the acting and directing on this one.   Just didn't especially
like the writing, plot, etc.  Premise was okay  though...   It kinda seemed
like they dwelled a bit too much  on the  "we can't  understand each other"
thread (I know--that was the main point of  the episode--it's  just that it
got stale long before the end of the show).

| Getting back to the original point:
| 
| >.53     ENCOUNTER AT FARPOINT (N)
| >
| >
| >And the USENET-wide rating for EaF is....
| >
| >.564    ENCOUNTER AT FARPOINT (N)
| >
| >. which is slightly below the half-way point, but not by much.
| 
| I'd have to rate E@F about 40% through the pack.  It's not great, but it's
| got a /lot/ of competition for the low spots. :-(

I won't argue with this AT ALL.

And with a few more viewings of the above, I might even be swayed to 
re-evaluate a few of my older ratings.

                --Otto "HACK-MAN" Heuer
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