That's actually one of the first times I noticed Geordi being a prick - he was about to walk out on Data and quit the game and was taking it all really personally. Geordi the engineer is a completely different character the Geordi the Cool Blind Pilot.
Fair point!
I don't see S1 Geordi having problems with the ladies, either.
Not sure either way, but I don't recall him hitting on anyone in the way Riker was?
Geordi's treatment of Scotty, and the movie Generations, soured me on TNG for decades. I have discovered a new appreciation for the first two seasons recently (i started a rewatch after Picard S3 got me over most of my hate.)
PIC season 3 I want to rewatch, it was really good and most nitpicks I had weren't taking me out of it and few existed...
TNG Seasons 1 and 2 are underrated, especially 2. IMHO, of course.
Geordi's ageism against Scotty felt as contrived as a lot of season 5-7's stories were...
GEN was a misguided and rushed mess with a couple great moments...
TNG is downhill after S3.
I think I know why, but I'll wait until I read there..
S1 has the more professional, people-who-work-together vibe of TOS, where they all don't know or even necessarily like each other, and are going to do their jobs.
While season 1 does have the bridge crew acting like a bunch of cliquish hamburger flippers at times, plenty of other times make up for it... indeed, of all the stories that TNG s3-7 would build off of from earlier years, the addition of Barclay (and Shelby and Ro, etc) countered the cliquishness beautifully...
Pulaski could stand up to Picard, relieve him if necessary, with no personal connection getting in the way. Her recognizing and coming to appreciate Data is one of the greatest bits of character growth in the series.
^^huge.
The Pulaski arc was an arc ahead of its time and Pulaski was shown to be more than just a toaster hater. How she was won over was more important, and in later episodes she backed Data.
Wes is better without his mommy around
(snicker!)
, and Pulaski's connection to Riker's dad, her beginning friendship with Worf, curiosity about alien cultures and rituals, master surgeon status (as she had to save Picard), everything with Data, and the possible tie-in to McCoy, make her an amazingly better character.
In which episode was she somehow related to Leonard McCoy? She does have a superficial aspect to some of her cold personality, but she's no clone. VOY's EMH comes far closer to that and everyone adores him... (Robert Picardo stealing the show sorta helps carry the tradition on, even if some storylines were too dumb, but before I digress...)
Crusher often comes across as condescending and petty, and I can imagine even identical bits of dialogue sounding better coming from Pulaski. One of the biggest wastes of the show, IMO. (*edit, bev couldn't even use pulaski's technique properly in who watches the watchers. lol.) i was honestly hoping that she was going to be one of the DSCS05 24th century scientists.
(snickers)
Excellent points, all. Not sure if their mucking up the mind wipe was intentional, and we never saw on screen if it worked on Sarjenka either (a novel indicates not, but given that Data was dumb enough to leave a big-bleep trigger next to her bed before he leaves, that amplified the chance of her remembering, telling mommy and daddy and every stranger, who may or may not have believed her because not all species react the same, blahbetyblah and so on...
Geordi is just so much better in S1, and yes, Arsenal of Freedom is a great episode for him. Another great Geordi episode, where he's stuck with the Romulan, could have still happened from his bridge post.
"Arsenal" is a
beautiful example of him growing as a character and showing and overcoming the obstacles and going outside of his comfy zone. The episode is often regarded as a fluffy action piece, but there's far more going on than
Russell P Coltrane
Chief Engineer Logan* being the punching bag of the week.
* the latest in the revolving door of chief engineers, because they didn't want a Scotty stand-in (despite Lt Argyle, one of (only two?) season 1 chief engineers who had more than one episode accorded him!) Geordi spent so much time there, and LeVar's handling of treknobabble made it sound authentic, every single time, so the role shift didn't feel as forced as it otherwise might have... but, yeah, "Arsenal"'s character drama of him having to take the bridge is underrated.
I don't buy that the first season character was even skilled or smart enough to become CHIEF engineer. I don't think the entire switch was very well thought out. He and Data as buddies at the helm-nav-ops consoles was a great dynamic and should have been continued. Wes could have taken up a mentorship with O'Brien in engineering, or with Pulaski in sickbay, having found his mother's calling.
We do see Geordi and Data remain as a double-act, and Geordi being elsewhere does expand the number of events they can get into. Or maybe by the 24th century, most roles are more easily interchangeable, despite one person doing the work predominantly? Anyone could do the hail, though it's usually given to the Security person standing in back slowly developing back problems while hunched over the console, et cetera.
at least the first couple seasons had sci fi plots and actual adventures and not just politics and moral debating from a conference room, courtroom or holodeck. sigh. as a kid, i never made the connections between TOS and early TNG, but man the thru-line is very apparent.
The sci-fi plotting definitely stands out, especially in retrospect. Forget the clip show faff, the opening bit of "Shades of Gray" and
exploring the alien landscape was real sci-fi and is a fine example of selling the threat and suspense. That can't be done in every episode, but rarely after that was there anything like that. Indeed, for exploring the unknown, "Masks" is a great latter-day example of TNG returning to sci-fi. (I often rank 7 as being better than 5 and 6 for returning somewhat to its exploratory and sci-fi roots.)
The moral debating felt integral but didn't overshadow or contrive the story or characters, making the experiences richer. The addition of drama hit a great balance for seasons 2-4 but then became more or less templated soap opera in a space hotel.
even early TNG had better camera angles and movements with the models, imo. and the music is just wonderful.
Ironic, as the 6' model was a pure pain to deal with (per some review articles/videos). Case in point: The model's saucer was damaged early on when developing beauty passes for stock shots. But later seasons often do feel more by-the-book. They still look great, but 1-3 definitely had more work put in with the camera work.
Ron Jones and the style that he and the other composers used in seasons 1-4 is iconic and made this show as unique as everything and everyone else put into it. The music change, in late season-4, was noticeable... but was often much worse in 5-7, and really drags down many episodes. "Power Play" is otherwise a strong story, let down by muzak that seemingly tries to take the audience out of the episode. Considering that the other composers (Jay and Dennis) were putting out primo stuff in seasons 1-3, it's not on them. Anything else aside, "The Next Phase" is a rare example of music that genuinely works WITH the story and doesn't detract. "Tin Man" remains one of the best scores ever, but before I digress... as weird as the new musical format was, it also reminds me of the teasers. The teasers for the season 4-7 stories felt far more lively than the episodes themselves because those had good action music! One would otherwise think that the season 4-7 teaser style fits 1-3 episodes better and the original teaser format was the sort of wallpaper that 4-7 would have used.
