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Star Trek: The Wrath of Fans


Derfel Cadarn

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There's the really good episode of DS9 where Sisko flashes to 1950s New York and life as a sci-fi writer. It's a really well done episode about systematic racism, but it's also just so fun to see all the alien actors without their makeup, including Dorn.

Speaking of great episodes, I watched In the Pale Moonlight last night. Wow, that was phenomenal.

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9 hours ago, Caligula_K3 said:

There's the really good episode of DS9 where Sisko flashes to 1950s New York and life as a sci-fi writer. It's a really well done episode about systematic racism, but it's also just so fun to see all the alien actors without their makeup, including Dorn.

Speaking of great episodes, I watched In the Pale Moonlight last night. Wow, that was phenomenal.

In the Pale Moonlight. Directed by Avery Brooks as well.

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9 hours ago, Werthead said:

In the Pale Moonlight. Directed by Avery Brooks as well.

You mean Far Beyond the Stars right? Those two are definitely up there for episodes that lived up to the hype I've seen people put around them online.

Caligula - as another more recent viewer of Trek I find my opinion of them is quite similar to yours. I quite enjoy the new Treks and agree that most of the first season of even DS9 was tough going and Move Along Home in particular almost stopped me from progressing. It did at least have a couple of stand outs though, almost I don't agree with Wert that the two part premiere was among them. It was OK but it wasn't enough to sell me on the show on its own.

I watched a "great episodes of TNG" list rather than slogging through the whole thing and then all of DS9 before DISCO started. I'd seen some random episodes from later in the DS9 run as a teen so knew there was stuff I wanted to get to later in the show which helped get through the start. I'd also seen a lot of Voyager as a teen which had never convinced me to embrace Trek lol.

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2 hours ago, karaddin said:

You mean Far Beyond the Stars right? Those two are definitely up there for episodes that lived up to the hype I've seen people put around them online.

Ouch, rookie error.

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5 hours ago, karaddin said:

You mean Far Beyond the Stars right? Those two are definitely up there for episodes that lived up to the hype I've seen people put around them online.

Caligula - as another more recent viewer of Trek I find my opinion of them is quite similar to yours. I quite enjoy the new Treks and agree that most of the first season of even DS9 was tough going and Move Along Home in particular almost stopped me from progressing. It did at least have a couple of stand outs though, almost I don't agree with Wert that the two part premiere was among them. It was OK but it wasn't enough to sell me on the show on its own.

I watched a "great episodes of TNG" list rather than slogging through the whole thing and then all of DS9 before DISCO started. I'd seen some random episodes from later in the DS9 run as a teen so knew there was stuff I wanted to get to later in the show which helped get through the start. I'd also seen a lot of Voyager as a teen which had never convinced me to embrace Trek lol.

Glad I'm not alone in the Trek fandom in terms of my tastes! I definitely agree about the premiere. I really enjoyed the first half (though I was very confused, as a non-TNG viewer, why Picard was in a cube blowing things up), but once we got to Sisko and the Prophets yelling at each other about linear time... If it weren't for my SO's pressure, the fact that I'd seen a couple much later (and better) episodes of DS9 on TV a few months earlier, and the introduction of Garak in an episode soon after, I probably wouldn't have made it very far into DS9. This scene basically singlehandedly sold me on the show:

 

Do you mind sharing your great episodes of TNG list?

 

 

 

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Not Karaddin but... here's my must watch TNG Episodes.

  1. Measure Of A Man
  2. Q Who
  3. *Booby Trap
  4. *The Enemy
  5. *Deja Q
  6. Yesterday's Enterprise
  7. The Offspring
  8. *Sins of the Father
  9. *The Most Toys
  10. Sarek
  11. Best of Both Worlds Pt. 1 and 2
  12. Family
  13. *Reunion
  14. *The Wounded
  15. *The Drumhead
  16. *Redemption Pt. 1 and 2
  17. Darmok
  18. *Ensign Ro
  19. *Disaster
  20. *Cause & Effect
  21. *I, Borg
  22. The Inner Light
  23. Chain Of Command, Pt. 1 and 2
  24. *Face Of The Enemy
  25. Tapestry
  26. *Parallels
  27. *The Pegasus
  28. *Lower Decks
  29. *Preemptive Strike
  30. All Good Things...

Episodes marked with an asterisk are not "must watch" but ones that I think are pretty damn good and generally worth watching, but are are not the best of the best. There's a couple others that I maybe could put on here, but I think 30 is a nice, round number. You could also watch Encounter At Farpoint Pt. 1 and 2 (the pilot episode), but it's neither a must watch nor at all that good or enjoyable to watch, but it does introduce the characters and it's interesting to see the upward trajectory in quality from it to Measure Of A Man. But otherwise, skip it, it's not important and not good.

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13 minutes ago, Durckad said:

Episodes marked with an asterisk are not "must watch" but ones that I think are pretty damn good and generally worth watching, but are are not the best of the best.

I object to "The Drumhead" having an asterisk then! It's one of the best TNG episodes of all time!

I generally agree with the list though. And if I wanted to add anything, let's see... "The Neutral Zone", the first season finale I found somewhat enjoyable and it's interesting from a lore POV as the first buildup to the Borg. "Peak Performance" and "Who watches the watchers" would ones I'd give an asterisk to. Or the Moriarty holodeck episodes, just for how terrific Moriarty was acted in "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Ship in a Bottle". I maybe am overlooking a few other good ones.

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5 hours ago, Rhom said:

Are the older Treks available for streaming somewhere?  Are they on the CBS All Access too?

A lot of the Treks are on Netflix, TOS, TNG I think DS9 maybe others.  I've been rewatching Original Trek, which is a strange experience, maybe 1/3? of the episodes are amazing, even w/the bad effects and costumes, but probably at least 20% are pretty bad.  Watching it now, you would never imagine it became  a cultural touchstone or even that it ever got aired on network TV in the 1960s.

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11 minutes ago, Toth said:

I object to "The Drumhead" having an asterisk then! It's one of the best TNG episodes of all time!

:P

Well of course, there's going to be some variation based on personal taste. Normally "The Offspring" is not included on most "Best of TNG" episodes but I absolutely love it, almost brings me to tears every time I watch it and thus it goes on my Must Watch list. Similar to "I, Borg," lots of people consider it one of the best but I merely really like it, not Must Watch material for me. I do think it might be a bit more critical after season 1 of Star Trek: Picard.

"The Drumhead" is pretty great, but I just love the others far more.

Quote

I generally agree with the list though. And if I wanted to add anything, let's see... "The Neutral Zone", the first season finale I found somewhat enjoyable and it's interesting from a lore POV as the first buildup to the Borg. "Peak Performance" and "Who watches the watchers" would ones I'd give an asterisk to. Or the Moriarty holodeck episodes, just for how terrific Moriarty was acted in "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Ship in a Bottle". I maybe am overlooking a few other good ones.

Surprisingly, there are quite a few episodes I could've marked with asterisks, but I tried to keep it concise. TNG has a lot of episodes that are merely good but still worth watching, though it does have more than its fair share of mediocrity and outright drek. Makes going through the series an interesting rollercoaster ride of quality sometimes.

"The Neutral Zone" is probably the "best" episode in Season 1 (which isn't saying much), but if I had to pick two episodes from that Season to watch it'd likely be that one and either "Encounter At Farpoint" (not for its quality) or "Conspiracy" (for being absolutely bonkers). Maybe "Skin of Evil"? Season 1 is so hard to judge sometimes. I sometimes feel as if I unconsciously go easy on episodes that aren't outright terrible simply because of the other more "quality deficient" episodes in season 1.

And yeah, I think all of those other ones are worth watching. The Moriarity episodes are both surprisingly good and "Peak Performance" is one of my favorites from Season 2, just maybe not quite great.

Some other "Worth Watching But Not Entirely Necessary" Episodes:

  • "Contagion"
  • "The Defector"
  • "Hollow Pursuits"
  • "Brothers"
  • "Data's Day"
  • "First Contact"
  • "The Mind's Eye"
  • "The Outcast" (I know some disparage this episode now for some problematic aspects to it, but for its time, I think it was very progressive. Also, I view the ending as more chilling and frightening than it's actually played out in the episode. Very worth watching and it has stuck with me since I first saw it back in the early 90's.)
  • "Relics" (Enjoyable only for the guest star, a rather "meh" episode otherwise)
  • "Schisms" (An initially very eerie and unsettling episode that doesn't totally live up to its potential)
  • "Starship Mine" (Die Hard... IN SPAAAAAAACE)
  • "The Chase" (Just a fun, actiony episode that I enjoy. Might be a bit dumb, but it's fun and the ending is wonderfully subversive.)
  • "Frame Of Mind" (Legitimately good with no reservations)
  • "Timescape" (A good timey wimey episode that doesn't... totally make sense, but it's still fun)
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Ah yes, Data's Day and Frame of Mind! Totally forgot those! Yeah, those are really good!

The season 1 trouble I know as well. TNG overall is my favourite Star Trek and I think even in its blandest episodes you can still find at least an intention of what message they were going for that can be appreciated.

If we want to add "not really necessary, but fun" episodes, how about "The Ensigns of Command" for pretty much just this scene:

 

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CBS All Access has all of the Star Trek shows in the USA. Netflix paid a ton of money for the international streaming rights, but only up until Discovery, so outside the USA all of the Treks up to Discovery (including the forthcoming third season) are on Netflix, whilst Picard is on Amazon Prime. It also sounds likely Lower Decks will end up on Amazon Prime once they sort their shit out.

You can also buy the seasons to stream from the usual suspects (Amazon, Apple, YouTube). For TOS and TNG I'd also consider the Blu-Ray boxed sets, which are at somewhat saner prices now then when they came out. The TNG set in particular has a ton of spectacular, excellent documentaries on the making and restoration of the show, and the native HD quality seems better than what they're using for the Netflix stream.

DS9 and Voyager also work a bit better if you can run the DVDs through a Blu-Ray player, which helps upscale them a bit and looks better than the native Netflix stream.

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So basically this series has now become Andromeda. Just replace the Federation with the Common Wealth and the Andromeda ship, with the Discovery. The only major difference is the entire crew is sent into the future and not just the main character.

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