Back in 2004, after absorbing so much of the great series Babylon 5, I started to become curious about watching it's once-competitor, Deep Space Nine (of which numerous similarities and accusations of copying between the two shows were observed over the years) and I really wanted to see how they compared. Especially since what little I did see of DS9 back in the day when it first aired was apparently just before it started to get good and it's major war plotline began.But then I got to thinking, well, I know DS9 was birthed out of The Next Generation, but I don't remember too much about TNG, other than a few choice episodes (The Best of Both Worlds, etc), and had never seen much of the (lesser quality) early seasons even back when I was watching it.
And then I got to thinking, well, I've never really ever watched a whole episode of The Original Series, either (mostly due to styles and tropes of the era that made me inclined to turn it off), let alone the whole series (though I had thoroughly viewed most of the TOS films). There were bound to be some episodes of interest (the origin of KHAAAAN, for example) that could be seen as "essential" if one wanted to get the important broad strokes of the franchise. So, why not start at the beginning and just hit the whole franchise in order (release order that is)?
Well, that's what I did. As of this posting I'm still watching TNG Season 6 & DS9 Season 1, but I figured I could archive here the comments I've jotted down on each episode during the course of this project, starting with TOS.
With this project, I basically set out to determine what episodes would be considered "Definitely Essential" (introduced important recurring events/characters/etc, or is just so damn good that it shouldn't be missed), what episodes were "Potentially Essential, But Not Necessarily Good" (episodes featuring lesser events/etc that recur down the road, and/or are possibly of lesser/questionable quality), "Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential" (most likely worth seeing, even if it doesn't contain "essential" or recurring elements), "Average" (take it or leave it), "Ok Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential" (possibly tolerable, but not a good example of the series-likely has some awful moments of some kind), "Forgettable" (bad episodes, really no reason to watch them other than for completeness sake) & "Trash" (avoid them like the monkeyfighting plague).
In a way, it is a rating scale. If you ignore the "Definitely" and "Potentially" Essential categories as must-sees anyways, that leaves 5 categories. In other words, a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best:
5: Good Episodes
4: Average Episodes
3: Ok Episodes
2: Forgettable Episodes
1: Trash
One thing I'll be very forthright about: I'm a very harsh critic when it comes to period production styles that do not hold up to the test of time. I call it "60's Syndrome". The acting styles, though not used by all actors, prevalent at the time (I hesitate to call them cartoony, but they' lack the realism of modern techniques), ridiculously cheesy lighting and camera choices (how a well lit room in a wide shot suddenly become dark and shadowy in close-ups of male characters, except for a band of light across their eyes, or, for the ladies, going into sudden soft focus), etc. However, I do not hold the F/X at fault. That limitation was not their fault. The others they chose.
So, in short, I seek out the episodes that could be viewed today and still be considered watchable or good, without any sense of nostalgia to excuse the aforementioned weaker elements (in other words, no "Well, remember, at the time, it was good." excuses). Good today is good today, no excuses.
I'll post an entry for each episode, with a premise description, followed by my comments. Initially they'll usually be relatively brief, but over time, the comments evolve into almost a flow of consciousness reaction to the episode as I watch it.
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