Am I crazy for saying that TNG is the best show of ALL time of any TV show ever?

[NigellaDeanna20]

I guess I'm alone in this boat eh? Lol. All good.

No you're not. I love TNG as well but i love all of Star Trek regardless.

 

[MaximRecoil]

Am I crazy for saying that TNG is the best show of ALL time of any TV show ever?

No, as long as you know it's your opinion rather than a fact, i.e., it's your favorite TV show of all time.

There's no way to establish which TV show is objectively the best one of all time unless you include some objective parameters. For example, you could establish which TV show was objectively the best at making money (most profitable) or the best in the Nielsen ratings. But most people watch TV shows for entertainment, and entertainment value is inherently subjective.

My all-time favorite TV show is Magnum, P.I. (1980–1988). Star Trek is among my all-time favorite shows, but I don't know exactly where I'd rank it on a list. It's definitely in the top 10, probably even top 5.

Star Trek: TNG on the other hand, isn't among my all-time favorite TV shows at all, but I do like some of the episodes, one of the characters (Data), and I have some nostalgia for it because I often watched it when it originally aired, including the first episode, which originally aired when I was 12 years old.

When TNG came on the air in 1987 I'd already been watching Star Trek reruns every weeknight since about 1984 and I loved it. The biggest appeal for me was the main characters and the way they interacted with each other. When I started watching TNG, the main characters never gelled with me like the original characters did, and some of them even annoyed me, especially Wesley Crusher. I did like Data, but not as much as Spock, and I thought Tasha Yar was a smoke show (unfortunately she wasn't on the show for very long).

 

[DonIago]

One of these days, when I'm particularly bored, I should try to aggregate various websites' "Best TV Evar!!!" lists to see what consistently shows up, and which Star Trek series are among those. Assuming Rotten Tomatoes or somewhere else hasn't already done that.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

You should do that! Maybe even see how the results change over the years.

 

[FredH]

While I would never call TNG the best show of all time, I would certainly call it — or rather, the basic TOS/TNG story format — one of the most versatile. As with Doctor Who: surface details aside, you can use it to tell pretty much any kind of story under the sun. (You wouldn’t necessarily produce or televise some of the possibilities, but you could certainly do them.). In both cases, the actual produced series may not always be of as high a quality as one might like, but the basic idea is pretty much unlimited in potential scope.

 

[Moonglum]

There's just something about this show that just never gets old to me, no matter what episode (yes, even the shitty ones). I can watch any episode over and over and I still feel the same emotions I always did the first time I watched said episode. I can't tell you how many times I've seen all episodes throughout the years ever since I first watched the show as a kid back when it was actually airing in 1987.

Every time I watch The Inner Light, I FEEL the dread and sadness that that ancient civilization felt when their world was about to end.

Every time I watch The Best of Both Worlds I FEEL the emotional and physical trauma Picard endured as Locutus (that single tear that drips out of his eye while he is being assimilated is powerful stuff), as well as the PTSD he was suffering in the follow-up episode "Family."

Every time I watch Chain of Command I FEEL inspired when Picard screams out, "THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!" at the end when being released from his torment.

Every time I watch Yesterday's Enterprise I clap when Picard says, "Let's make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise."

Every time I watch Deja Q I shed a tear when Data gets to experience what it's like to laugh.

There are just so many great and iconic moments in this show that, quite frankly, no other show in history can match IMHO. It's the only show I've ever bought the complete series of on disc (Blu-ray, in this instance). Sure, I love me some Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Seinfeld, Cheers, Breaking Bad, The Twilight Zone, The Wire and OF COURSE TOS and DS9, but there's just something about TNG that no other show can hold a candle towards IMHO.

No, you are not crazy. There is one and only one person who can determine what is the best thing, and that is you. Nobody else has your exact same life experiences, interests, hobbies, and thought processes, so whatever you say is the best, is the best no matter how much evidence to the contrary someone might try to present if arguing it. I personally think Chris Farley is the greatest comedic actor ever by a wide margin, and no matter how many people say things like "Oh but he just screamed and jumped around etc." or "But Dan Ackroyd had such greater range of characters and acting chops blah blah blah...", I still somehow manage to laugh at the smallest things he does and haven't changed my opinion.

I don't think that I consider TNG the absolute greatest TV show of all time (although it is very high up), but I do think the series finale was the greatest finale of any show of all time.

 

[DonIago]

You should do that! Maybe even see how the results change over the years.

Unfortunately I just got a novel to edit, so I'm not likely to be particularly bored until (checks calendar) August.

 

[Qonundrum]

No, you are not crazy. There is one and only one person who can determine what is the best thing, and that is you.

^^this

Nobody else has your exact same life experiences, interests, hobbies, and thought processes, so whatever you say is the best, is the best no matter how much evidence to the contrary someone might try to present if arguing it. I personally think Chris Farley is the greatest comedic actor ever by a wide margin, and no matter how many people say things like "Oh but he just screamed and jumped around etc." or "But Dan Ackroyd had such greater range of characters and acting chops blah blah blah...", I still somehow manage to laugh at the smallest things he does and haven't changed my opinion.

Ditto. Objective and subjective prevailing, entertainment is ultimately subjective, regardless of acting, budget, genre, script quality within the genre, improvisational reactions, and so on.

Besides, Norm MacDonald is clearly the best comedian.
(Just kidding, of all things, comedy is the most subjective to personal tastes. So is Soylent Green.)

I don't think that I consider TNG the absolute greatest TV show of all time (although it is very high up), but I do think the series finale was the greatest finale of any show of all time.

Actually, I think Blake's 7 finale is the greatest. See, it was aired just days from Christmas, kids like adults loved the show, and they show all the heroes being murdered. One with blood splattering. One offscreen but definitively so nonetheless. And people say today's sci-fi is too dank and dystopian! But I digress: ATG is best, and one-ups B7's finale, because of its thematic sci-fi creativity and juxtaposition of Q opposite Picard. B7 was generally more a space opera than sci-fi. TNG embraced both but used and introduced more science. It also had more than thrice as many episodes with more room to explore styles, blend genres, etc. B7 generally had to remain focused, and the few times it didn't it didn't feel like the same show at all. TNG more often did feel like the same show, all while experimenting. That's not easy to pull off.

 

[at Quark's]

TNG is a series I still like very much. It's comfort food. It's one of my favourites still, after all those years.

But seeing it as the best show of all time? Nah. I don't think so. The show clearly has its flaws.

Frankly, I'm not even sure what criteria you'd need to estabish what 'the best show ever' would be.

 

[DonIago]

TNG is a series I still like very much. It's comfort food. It's one of my favourites still, after all those years.

But seeing it as the best show of all time? Nah. I don't think so. The show clearly has its flaws.

Frankly, I'm not even sure what criteria you'd need to estabish what 'the best show ever' would be.

I think one of the criteria would have to be, "Appreciated well by non-fans of the show as well," which would rule out members of this board's ability to determine that anything Trek is the best anything without reference to external sources.

 

[fireproof78]

Frankly, I'm not even sure what criteria you'd need to estabish what 'the best show ever' would be.

This.

 

[Greg Cox]

I appreciate the apology, though I didn't think you meant ill with your OP, and if it rubbed me a bit the wrong way I wouldn't say I rose to the level of being offended.

I couldn't put it better myself. I felt obliged to push back against the idea that any show can be objectively the "best," but I certainly wasn't offended.

 

[JesterFace]

STNG, the best?
I just might be the best for me.
However season 1 of 24 gets pretty darn close, maybe it's a tie?
Maybe it depends on which one was the latest I watched.

 

[tomalak301]

I don't think TNG is the best series of all time, but it's a top 10 for me of all time. It was the series of my childhood and helped expand my interests at a very young age. I don't think I would be interested in the sci fi genre and shows like Orphan Black, Fringe, Silo, or Severance if it had not been for TNG at the time.

 

[1001001]

I don’t think it’s the best show, or even the best Sci Fi show.

But it’s my favorite Star Trek (well, along with Voyager). It’s really good and I have enjoyed all of it (show and films) over the years.

I posted in another thread about what it means to me, so I won’t repeat it here.

But I do love TNG.