From: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com (Jim Mann)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv
Subject: Re: DS9:I liked it, dammit.
Date: 12 Jan 1993 20:34:14 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer Inc, Marlboro MA
Reply-To: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: gondolin.pubs.stratus.com

In article <C0r82o.8Jx@acsu.buffalo.edu>  
v129j6ed@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (This is F.U.N.) writes:
> In article <1irudfINNj6u@transfer.stratus.com>,  
jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com writes...
> I definately remember all of the bad episodes.  The third season is  
loaded
> with them.  "plato's stepchildren", "elanus of troyus(it's so bad,  
I cant
> even remember the name)", "all our yesterdays".  I admit these were  
really
> bad.  I actually find the reverse is true for TOS than TNG.  I  
think about
> at least a 2/5 of the TOS was really good. (I have to check this  
figure
> tonight when I get home).  I struggle to name 10 good episodes for  
the TNG.
> The highpoint for the show was the early-middle of the third season  
to the
> beginning of the fourth.  Those were actually good stories, and  
they had them
> in a row.  However, since 'Remember Me', the show has spiralled  
downhill, 
> hitting rock bottom in the fifth season. I do see a spark of hope  
in the sixth,
> but I will wait and see. 

I can name lots of good TNG episodes. While a high percentage of
them are from the 3rd and 4th seasons, there have been a number
of good ones this year, in the 2nd year, and even a couple in years
1 and 5.

The 5th season, while it had a few poor episodes, still had
many good episodes: Darmock, Disaster, Ethics, The First Duty, 
I, Borg, and The Inner Light (which was one of the best things of its 
type I've seen).

> It started poor went to really good, and then dropped like a  
perverbal rock.
> With the exception of odd episodes, we had two really good seasons  
of TOS.

No, we had about 1.5 good seasons. The decline was well under
way by the second part of the second season.

> We never had that much consistancy in the TNG.  

I disagree.  The third season of TNG is better than anything
the old series ever did and most of the fourth season is
comprabable.

One note: one thing I've very much liked in TNG has been the
way they have tried different kinds of things (not as much
SF things, but ways of exploring the characters).  Last night,
for example, our re-run station showed Data's Day. This is 
a marvelous episode, and the old series never attempted anything 
vaguely like it. The whole episode is really nothing more than
an examination of several of the characters (particularly
Data). I liked Family for similar reasons.


I think that may be the basis
> of my argument. Consistancy of entertainment.  The plots are  
slapshoddly
> written.  I utterly hated the second part of "Redemption" with a  
barrade in
> deep space.  I felt insulted at that.  Why not go around it?  I  
blame that
> on the writers because they did not want to have the Federation  
fight.
> 
> I think you are using character traits as examples of stereotypes.   
It is
> a part of each character.  

But the old series used it more in the "funny hat" school of
writing: you know, the author who doesn't know how to really
develop a good character but wants to make him somehow
distinctive has him be the "man in the brown hat" or somesuch.
Many of the lines uttered by McCoy, Spock, and Kirk by the
end of the 2nd season (and throughout the movies) come off that
way to me: I get no feel for the characters. They just go
through the "required" dialogue.

There were stereotypes in the show, and I will
> admit that.  They also had the dilemma that the writers never  
followed up
> on previous episodes, with the exception of a few.  (Mudd,  
Organians)
> This seems relevent in the TNG too.  When Picard had part of his  
brain
> sliced up in "Best of Both Worlds", they did look into what  
happened to
> him in the next episode, and one of my favorites, "Family", but  
forgot
> about it until the highly dissapointing "I Borg".  The TNG is not  
very
> good in keeping up with its own characters, and with the flimsy  
plots 
> they usually get, this makes an excrucating episode to watch.

I liked I, Borg. In what way was it inconsistent I thought it
was very consistent: Picard, because of his experience with
the Borg, hated the young Borg (as did Guinnan). Both had to
be convinced to look beyond their prejudices.




--
Jim Mann            
Stratus Computer   jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com