Hi there. Welcome to Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II Vol 1.
Welcome to Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II Vol 1, the first in a series reviewing every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Here’s episodes 1 through 8!
Star Trek The Next Generation S1E01: Encounter At Farpoint
Dull, clumsy, shouty and appallingly wooden, it’s a wonder this made it past the pilot stage. John de Lancie’s Q single-handedly and literally saves the show. There’s a glimmer of self-awareness though because the script actually includes line of dialogue where Picard basically breaks the fourth wall to promise that future adventures will be ‘much more interesting’!
Star Trek The Next Generation S1E02: The Naked Now
Promise made, promise immediately broken. Let’s not tell a new story with these new characters that nobody really knows yet. Instead, let’s show them acting goofy and weird although the audience won’t know any better at this point in a story copied almost verbatim from the original series and – in case viewers don’t know it’s a remake – have Riker point it out repeatedly. All in all, sweaty silliness. It does, however, introduce a key component of season one: disposable chief engineers. This episode’s engineer of the week: Lieutenant MacDougal.
Star Trek The Next Generation S1E03: Code Of Honor
Make no mistake – if cancel culture had existed in 1987, this episode would have killed Star Trek forever. Racist, sexist and just plain awful. Arguably the worst episode of any Star Trek ever and the Roddenberry-approved riposte to any complaints of the franchise doing new things the Great Bird of the Galaxy might not agree with. 💩
Star Trek The Next Generation S1E04: The Last Outpost
Somehow Starfleet both does and doesn’t know about the Ferengi and the Enterprise gets trapped by this inconsistency in a low-power re-run of Arena. The Ferengi here are awful but the TNG crew are worse. And why did the crew never use the holographic interface on the conference table again???
Star Trek The Next Generation S1E05: Where No One Has Gone Before
The traveller has come! And he’s brought an arrogant douchebag called Kosinski with him. A Starfleet propulsion experiment hurtles the Enterprise a billion light years from home (Take that, Janeway!) and while Riker ignores Wesley, putting everyone in danger, Picard has tea with his mum. Still, it’s the first episode which really feels like proper Star Trek.
Star Trek The Next Generation S1E06: Lonely Among Us
Doggos and lizards distract the crew from the electric boogaloo. Data’s Sherlock begins but Tasha Yar fails at security again. The crew are surprisingly quick to mutiny but at least nobody’s shouting for once.
Star Trek The Next Generation S1E07: Justice
Picard sends his horniest crew members plus a young teen to a sex planet but when Wesley misinterprets deflowering, the crew must deal with a shouty god whose commandments pretty much decree a zero-tolerance approach to, well, pretty much everything except boning.
Star Trek The Next Generation S1E08: The Battle
The Ferengi are back and acting completely differently from their first appearance. Their gift of a mind control night light provides an acting headache for Patrick Stewart as Picard is visited by some very old flames. The crew doesn’t mutiny this time despite their captain being compromised by alien mind control for the second time in as many weeks. Who’s in charge of security around here anyway?
That’s all for Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II Vol 1 but stay tuned for Vol 2 coming soon!
Tune in next week for the next Omnibus or follow @TheCraggus on Instagram to get Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II directly in your feed. 🖖
