Ditto.
As much as I can be snarky, I too adore a lot of season 1. There is a freshness that does grow on one, feet-finding always means there will be clunkers, but rarely could any of it be called "stale". Add in inevitable contemporary fashion, as TOS has 60s all over it as much as TNG has 80s, and it is irresistible. Especially when remembering other 80s shows at the time, TNG still felt better than those. If nothing else, at least "The Munsters Today" tried to be a sequel and wasn't too bad... until it became too trendy for its own sake with the neon-everything, which TNG thankfully eschewed. But before I really digress:
"Haven" was going to be my next save, but I saved what I had written:
The story had some first-rate ideas, but felt smothered by some cheesy soap opera stuff that season 5-onward would embrace as the norm. Now add in a little too much 80s hairspray in the formal dress scenes and it does beg a question or two. The hairspray smell on set must have been as horrible as the spandex by day's end...
That said, as I'm itching to applaud this story as soon as possible, the Tarellians - whose backdrop told to us is sadly little more than plot fodder - is more than merely Shakespearean when it comes to their plight and tragedy. That backdrop deserved to be the forefront as there's a ton of dramatic and plotting potential that could be wrung from it, as this buildup is anything but a turnip. Plus it's as allegorical as it is open-ended in that regard. Instead, we get 40 minutes of "love triangle hokum with comedy relief sprinkled on top". This story had so much backstory and potential that deserved so much more, but pushed aside to the point that I can't help but to snark it up. We get some snippets, from multiple points of view, including Valeda, but this easily could have been so much more.
That, and Riker is referred to as "Bill", despite having been referred to as "Wil" ("Will"?) plenty of times already.
But despite all that, even that plot choice of Troi's family for the arranged marriage still had a role to play as it's what allows us to first see Majel as Lwaxana - she has indeed a strong introduction, and her comedic timing helped elevate a lot of the soap opera/Springer shlock into something that's genuinely entertaining, but this one had some real story meat and ditched it. To me, that makes "The Immunity Syndrome" a better story, despite Chapel being a secondary character in it. Had this story took a bigger risk with the plot setup, instead of slaloming into cheeseville and the Wyatt connection could still be there.
To help demonstrate The Power of The Troi, let's look up some vidz:
1. First, let's have some fun with the videorama setting the stage:
Dang. This is an impressive setup, even with Crusher's season oneism where she's showing her fondness of "The Chris Rock Show" by namedropping "Damn Fool". Okay, "continents" could have been said instead of "land masses", but the scene is thought out really well. Considering the sentient species pretty much are biologically compatible, Crusher rightly points out that, oops, the bioweapon hurt the makers of it just as much because the cooties can't care.
2. Okay, let's see Lwaxana's introduction into the show as a person who isn't a computer voice:
A bit corny, sure, but how can it not induce nostalgia for 1987? Plus, it makes up for all of my whiny gripes about the story choosing to coast on a love triangle thing.
3. Here comes the cheese:
Under different circumstances, the dramatic weight of all this would be much more poignant, given what is said about the Tarellians early on in the story. They needed to have more of the story's focus for the eponymous locus, which just wasn't possible. Wyatt's journey is too clichéd, or at least unsurprising, but this is season 1 TNG and it would be more important to establish the crew early on, and this episode does help in that regard in setting up both Deanna and Lwaxana in particular. Still, I always get the feeling that so much potential with the Tarellian side plot was lost.
4. And if that hairspray wasn't quite enough, let's look at what could be mistaken as a late-80s soap opera with comedic elements:
Nitpickery aside, Majel clearly steals the show, but a story starting out with so much potential became too tropey. If nothing else, give Data some tapes of "The Jerry Springer Show" as learning material for more of that "petty bickering" and - TBH - the acting in "Haven" feels fairly authentic, but I digress: Were there any better reality shows between "Springer" and "Desperate Housewives" as I recall the latter only because of an episode of "The Orville"?
I really want to rewatch this one in full again, so much for a marathon of "One Day at a Time" but only by 44 minutes.
Also,
