From: v129j6ed@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (This is F.U.N.)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv
Subject: Re: DS9:I liked it, dammit.
Date: 13 Jan 93 05:08:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1iva06INN1lk@transfer.stratus.com>, jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com writes...
>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 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.

I find that I can compare the 2nd season with the 5th.  The first season,
on the overall, was better than the 2nd or 5th.

>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).

The Inner Light was one of the 3 episodes worth watching, along with the
infamous "blow up the Enterprise a few 1000 times", and the first part of
Time's Arrow.  "Disaster" was, in my view, a disaster.  Never before has a 
title of an episode stated the content of its story.   My house mate gets
growing pains when he hears the phrase "First Duty".  

Then there are the two worst episodes I can remember in a LOOOOONG time.
Worf vs. barrel.   Barrel wins.   Viewers lose.  How many times can we
hear about stories about killing oneself can be told?  Then, the worst
offender, "I Bullsh!t, errr I mean I, Borg".  All the crew did was send
him back to the Borg to be one with them.  What also comes to mind is the
question:  HOw can the Enterprise crew get to capture 2 Borgs, whereas 
noone else has done before?  Seems a little bit ridiculous.

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

I liked quite of few from that era:
"Assignment: Earth"
"The Omega Glory"
"The Ultimate Computer" - old but likeable story
"Patterns of Force"
"By Any Other Name"
and the classic
"A Piece of the Action"

>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.

"family" had alot going for it. It was a great point for them to look what
can ahppen from fighting the Borg.  "Data's Day" was good too.  I find that
the Troi episodes are her being taken over or her mother appears. I dread
these episodes.  As a character, I find hers flat, and uninteresting.

>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.

I have to say that story was more important for the writers/editors
at that point, than to add character.  I would have loved to see the
effects of "Obsession", "City on the Edge of Forever", "Requiem for
Methsuleth", to be placed into continuity.  I almost forgot "The 
Enemy Within".  It tried to tell us what makes Kirk, Kirk.  I wish
they went into more character indepthness, and the latter season 
suffered for it.   I find alot of the tedious unnecessary background
plots hurt the TNG.  In the TOS, all of them were up front.  I find
that the TNG group of writers cannot write a good plot for the life 
of them.

>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.

I agree that Picard and Guinan should hate them, but the rest of the crew
thinking that he will be different if they return him as a independent
thinking Borg is nonsense.  Originally, they joined the consciousness, and
assimilated.  If he returns, he would return to business as usual. I blame
this episode and "Best of Both Worlds" on the writers.  They created an
unbeatable enemy, and their conclusions were unsatisfactory.  I did like
Peter David's Novel, "Vendetta".  That handled the Borg question better.

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"If you love your foot, dive for it!" - The Power of Lard - Lard
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Jef Kolodziej                    Cliche Dude                    The KaTeFan(tm)
v129j6ed@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu           State University of New York at Buffalo
History Major                                                  611 LaSalle Ave.
(716) 834-2606                                                Buffalo, NY 14215