I made a post about Doohan on OCR just to easily post my big rant about the first seasons of TNG. I hold these seasons to be essential, and in some of ways, better than the later periods of the shows. Yet today, after posting my advocacy of beardless Riker and the "TOS Feel" as some begrudgingly call it, I brooked much resistance. People actually like the bearded, career-halted, hair-smoothed back Riker of the later seasons, who seems to sit around and play poker, get irrationally angry at nothing, and occasionally do something worth looking at. He loses this amiability he had in S1 & 2. Additionally, I've read that because TOS producers were with the show in S1 & 2, it had a "campy" and "womanizing" feel that felt too unprofessional (I think the womanizing thing entirely comes from a couple scenes of those short skirts Roddenberry liked, though). Anyway, I'll post my words on the subject, and see what other Trek fans think. I hardly thought I would become an advocate of these seasons, since I started watching the show on season four. For a time, I bought the lie that seasons one and two were shoddy and unwatchable; I was gravely wrong. I just can't conceive why, for instance, people on startrek.com rate "We'll Always Have Paris" a 1.8. That's totally backwards; it is a great episode and adds a totally new dimension to Picard.
The first two have their slight inconsistencies and rough qualities, but I find them purely amazing and enthralling. Encounter at Farpoint is so delightfully fresh, like someone floundering to get out of bed, that it's actually really enjoyable. The absence of the collars on the uniforms lend the characters more to an active style. Data's at square one, Tasha Yar's on the ship, which is always good, and Troi's exercising that ability regularly. However, there are two things I adore most about the first couple seasons. Firstly, beardless Riker is the true version of that character, unfortunately locked away to a slow death come the later seasons and shows. As the beard overtook his youthfulness, and he began fattening up, Riker was condemned to rot. He became less active, less interesting (as opposed to the hotshot who boards at Farpoint and is thrown on the fire by Picard), and much less amiable as time went on. Riker became an irritable lump on Picard's right arm, getting angry and all upset at any little thing or alien that pretended to spite him, and meanwhile taking every possible moment to romance someone or something while putting off the genuine article -- Troi.
Gone too was his character development. Riker came to be invulnerable in regard to plot, and had to be on the ship. The result? Riker is never in danger, but he's never really doing anything, either. Whereas he exuded this sense of action, interest, and high spirits of ambition in the first couple seasons, regardless of whether the episode was centered around him, in later episodes he only became remotely intriguing whenever the episode directly dealt with him. He had moments here and there, but above all he'd always come back to being a constantly annoyed first officer who shouted at enemies, appeared to be close-minded, and was only happy when talking to a female. Beardless Riker had volatile chemistry with just about everyone, especially Picard.
Speaking of which, next point -- the feel of the first two seasons. I'm going to start watching DS9 soon, but I'm afraid of something -- that like the bearded Riker, it's going to have this "going through the motions" feel. The first two seasons of TNG were, as stated above, like a newborn animal dashing around with incredible dare, finding itself in situations of either intense philosophical meaning or good space drama and science fiction. Later, the episodes seemed to adopt this somber mood. The writers and such settled into their shoes, as did the actors into their roles, leaving the show in the hands of the stories. Things didn't seem to be terrifyingly on the edge anymore, or as trend-setting; the death of Tasha Yar, that helpless feeling of "Where Silence Has Lease," the evaluation of Data's sentience, the introduction of Lore, "We'll Always Have Paris" and Picard's wonderful development, conspiracy in Starfleet -- these stories and ideas seem to explode with vitality on the screen, whereas later, the writing had the characters and everyone else dealing with things much more professionally. Whereas before, an away team would be running around an alien incursion as Picard and Data juggled tremendous moral issues, later episodes opted instead for characters sitting in chairs deciding the fate of some poor, wretched society.
This may make it seem as if I'm belittling those future episodes, and that is not the case. To me, TNG is the greatest television show ever produced; however, I must say that the feel of freshness -- of adventure, balanced with serious considerations, and of evolving character relationships -- makes the first two seasons appeal much more to me than the others. Everyone seemed to be happy, or at least in a state of evolution as people. Picard continued with this, as he received the captain's treatment, and Data due to his ... situation, but Riker stagnated, Geordi was written to be a little too susceptible to flying off the handle and whiney, while Crusher seemed to be dutifully confined to Sickbay, occasionally freaking out about some predicament Wesley was in, or exchanging spiked words with others, while Troi continued to sit there beaming and frequently holding her head in her hands as some being's emotion proved too great for her. The Riker / Troi relationship could have taken off, but it never did; likewise, Worf's development and disposition seemed to be toned down in later seasons, a departure from his cry in "Heart of Glory." These moments of character revelation and interaction, juxtaposed with the exciting tales of the first couple seasons, make them truly memorable.
I'm still mad about beardless Riker, though. That guy was cool, but he came to be what he would have resented in his youthful age -- a decrepit, bitter Starfleet officer. I can't evaluate Insurrection at this time, but I can say that I was extremely overjoyed when he lost that beard. That movie was one wonderful TNG ep, seeming to capture some of that earlier flair. As for a serious motion picture, that's up for debate, but I still like it.
