From: ottoh3@CFSMO.Honeywell.COM (Otto Heuer #3)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc
Subject: Re: Series' beginnings
Date: 13 Apr 92 15:27:19 GMT
Article-I.D.: tyrell.9204131527.AA22947
Organization: Hack-Man's Hangout
To: rec.arts.startrek.misc (rec.arts.startrek.misc)
Posted-Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 10: 27:19 CDT
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Atsushi writes:

| intertxt@network.ucsd.edu (Jason Snell) writes:

| >ottoh3@CFSMO.Honeywell.COM (Otto Heuer #3) writes:

| >>Someone (sorry, the article was too long for me to sift through
| >>to get an attribution) started comparing TOS's "Where No Man
| >>Has Gone Before" to TNG's "Encounter at Farpoint".
| >>
| >>This is interesting, because I was just thinking to myself that
| >>almost EXACTLY half the TNG episodes have been better and half
| >>have been worse than the original two-hour premier.
| >>
| >>On the other hand, at least 90% of the TOS episodes were better
| >>than WNMHGB.  From such a lame beginning, it was extremely hard
| >>for them to come up with a worse piece of dreck than the opener.
| >>The only ones that come to mind right now are "Charlie X",
| >>"The Doomsday Machine", and "And the Children Shall Leave."
| >>At least "Spock's Brain" and "The Way to Eden" were fun to 
| >>laugh at.

| >Wow, Otto, I think you're totally out of the water here. 
| 
| It's not unusual. I've always thought of Otto as the second most 
| out-of-the-water r.a.s. tide-bucker (behind me, of course :-) 

Wow!  I'm up to #2, eh?  :-)

Maybe I shouldn't have stopped my reviews!  ;-)

| >TNG is indeed a sorry
| >show if "Encounter at Farpoint" is the midpoint in episode quality. 
| 
| Well, I gave it a "C" which is around midpoint in TNG quality (slightly
| higher than midpoint, actually.)

Hmmmm... I'm in good company... I guess....

| >"EaF" is a
| >hideous episode. Worst acting I've ever seen in a TV series? Well, yeah, Don
| >Rickles in "CPO Sharkey," but second up is Denise Crosby's "You've gone too
| >far.." speech to Q in "EaF." 
| 
| Crosby was awful, I agree, but that was about five lines worth. 

All three in agreement here.  The acting was awful.

They DID set up the character as having an interesting background.
Unfortunately, they never got a chance to explore this (except a little
bit after the fact with "Legacy").

| Most
| of the regulars were acceptable.

The writing for Troi was pretty bad (which they fixed eventually) but
her outfit, makeup, voice, etc were better (which they messed up for
the rest of the season--but then re-fixed).

Picard seemed a bit too smug, but his voice was better than the next 100+ 
episodes.

The only other  point I  have is  that when  under pressure,  the crew said
"sir" about 50 times in a five minute span.  I think under those conditions
(military or not) you should DROP the "sir"-ing  and say  things as quickly
and briefly as possible.

| I didn't care for the guest stars though --
| DeLancie camped up the Q role way too much for my taste (the way he mugs
| when wearing that "drug-warrier" outfit on the bridge especially comes to
| mind)

I've alwasy  liked  DeLancie.   The first  time I  saw this  I was torn--he
seemed like  a  competent  actor,  but I  wasn't sure  about the character.
After the next three Q episodes (especially Deja Q and  Q-Who) I definitely
enjoyed the character as well as the actor.

| and the guy who played Groppler Zorn overacted his role. 

I didn't like Zorn until about the third or 4th viewing of this ep.

| >transparent plot about
| >space jellyfish,

HERE I am in agreement.  The scene of the jellyfish at the end was
reminiscent of the flyby of the Enterprise in ST:TMP (though not as
drawn out as the movie).

| >the
| >show's only satisfying bits are the introductions to the characters
| >(Picard/Riker, Bev/Wes, Bev/Picard, Riker/Data) and the Data/McCoy scene.
| 
| I'll agree with the last statement, but I tend to give it more weight
| than you do. It's pretty par for the course as a pilot -- though as I said 
| elsewhere, starting with a strong plot and fleshing out the characters more 
| slowly would have been an interesting alternative.

works well either way for me.

| >I recall liking
| >it at the time (and still liked it after having to watch "Code of Honor"..),
| >but in retrospect it really was a vile piece of junk with few redeeming
| >characteristics.
| 
| It was weak, but it wasn't vile. JUSTICE, or NEW GROUND -- *that's* vile.

heh...

| >Now, to flame point #2: "Where No Man Has Gone Before," which, in my mind, is
| >one of TOS' best episodes. 
| 
| Yep.

eeuuuuw... I won't re-iterate the points I made in response to Jason's post.
Read it in previous article.

| >your choice of "Doomsday Machine" also baffles me. 
| 
| As does me. I thought it was a fine episode -- it combined action and
| character drama with plenty of crackling personal conflict, humor
| and some of the best music ever to appear on TOS. One of my favorite
| TOS episodes.

again, see my rebuttal in Jason's post.

|   "Captain, we are getting unusual readings 20,000 km off the
|    starboard bow." -- Worf, Worf, Worf and Ensign Ro.

Ro, Ro, Ro your Worf
Up there on the screen.
Verily, verily, verily, verily
more explosions than we've seen.

                --Otto "HACK-MAN" Heuer
--
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