Reply #18: "The Pegasus" & season 7 in general. They all have good and bad moments...

[Deja Q]

Season 1 had no direction, and as such a fair amount of otherwise decent episodes felt weak (which include "DataLore", "Too Short a Season" (a classic), "The Arsenal of Freedom", "Conspiracy", and the one with Robert Brown where they're terraforming a planet and kill the indigenous life form in the proces...)

Season 2 was mostly awesome. Great science fiction concepts is what makes this season great. So many good ones (Q Who and Contagion and Time Squared are the best) that I'll just say the clunkers: Outrageous Okona, Pen Pals, The Royale (which is odd as Tracy Torme wrote it and I highly respect his episodes of "Sliders"), and "Shades of Gray" (using a B-plot to make a one episode clip show was a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad idea.) "Elementary Dear Data" is highly underrated and what's wrong with "Where Silence Has Lease"? All in all, a great season.

Season 3 continues the qualitative feel. "Who Watches the Watchers" is decent but has dated badly. "Booby Trap" is outstanding, as is "The Ensigns of Command" and "The SUrvivors". Most of season 3 is great, except for "The Enemy" (great A-plot, but the B-plot where no blood-brother Vulcan can't possibly help out a Romulan with a blood transfusion yet a Klingon could is utterly cringing, it's no different than giving a human whale blood)... Best of Both Worlds pt 1 is refreshingly atmospheric... And "Hollow Pursuits" is highly watchable, with Dwight Schultz' Barclay top notch. "Yesterday's Enterprise" is another great one, though I doubt the same crew would be on the same ship given the state of the war...

Season 4 is the breakoff point. The first 8 episodes wear thin as they involve 'family matters'. "Legacy" is an awesome action piece. "First Contact" is superlative. The "Nth Degree" is great as well. "Redemption" part 1 also looks hopeful. The only clunker is the one where Data goes around being a walking diary... the other one where he's boffing Michelle Scaribelli at the end is pretty dumb too.

Season 5 is shite. "Redemption 2" is rubbish, why can't the Romulans fly AROUND the Federation's tachyon technobabble barrier? The Worf plot was solid though. Darmok was original, Ensign Ro was good, Powerplay was awesome, Silicon Avatar has dated badly, the rest is pure shite. "Ethics" is the worst offender of the lot - waaaaaaay too contrived. And the much vaunted "The Outcast" features an androgynous race which has genetic throwbacks who want to practice gross biological heterosexuality. If they're going to do an issue, they need to DO it and not hide behind something. TOS's "Let that be your last battlefield" is preachy, but at least it's WATCHABLE because THEY had the balls to speak of the issue. Even Jonathan Frakes would have preferred the episode featuring his love interest be a MALE... The season finale "Time's Arrow" wasn't TNG material (it's more like Dr Who and Sapphire and Steel and X Files combined, though it's a B+ for effort.) Oh, I Borg was a total joke and "Inner Light" is overrated. "Unifcation" is a solid romp, but far better in part 2...

Season 6: Q episodes and two Barclay episodes save the season. "True Q" is a FAR BETTER gay allegory than that crap from season 5. "Tapestry" is superlative. The Barclay episode with transporter phobia was uber-lame, but his other episode "Ship in a Bottle" is another masterpiece. I also like Rascals, so shoot me. And "Relics" is a classic. AWESOME Scotty material and the references to the past are not overdone and refer to some of TOS's better stories. :thumbsup: I did also like Timescape, but this season was generally season 5 on ritalin. Worse, as with season 5, the music is pure shit. I miss Ron Jones' uplifting style!!!!!! Dennis McCarthy watered himself down... And "Descent"?! Waste of time and effort.

Season 7 starts badly, concluding the truly awful "Descent". I gets a B+ for following up on the Borg's condition created by Picard (which was very nice) but the Lore part was badly hadled and the story had no feeling whatsoever. It felt 'blah'. Like a bunch of high school kids produced the last 2.1 seasons.

Season 7 vastly improves (the intellectual quality clearly returning to the series after 2 years of technobabble-ridden rumproast), even the music is tolerable. I mentioned "The Pegasus", that was great A+ stuff. Dark Page was a letdown and Liasons was mediocre but watchable character driven stuff. Gambit was great though I expected better effects. Sub-Rose was mediocre. And while I originally hated "Force of Nature" (the '55mph speed limit in space' episode), it's aged far better than some of season 3! Wow, Berman could display his balls once in a while... Firstborn wasn't great... Masks was highly original. Thine Own Self is VERY underrated. Parallels was a nice idea but the end makes it seem that Worf's parallel universes were also a time anomaly, so none of it ever happened. Oops. But otherwise AWESOME and it was kewl to see an Enterprise where the Borg had overtaken the Federation. Sweet stuff. I LOVED Homeworld, that was freakin' sweet. Attached seemed kinda trite though. Phantasms was way-cool too... more original stuff.

And "All Good Things", despite one little (big) plot oversight, is superlative (better than BOBW) and would have made for a far better movie than "Generations". AGT has a theatrical quality, Gen is tv fodder. (can you guess what the oversight was? :-) )

Overall seasons 2, 3, most of 4 (Berman's a dunderhead for firing Ron Jones), and enough of 7 were the series' better seasons.