But the biggest problem of the first season was that the cast was too big. The original series had the big three, with the rest as mostly background players. This show has Picard as the lead, but then seven regulars. That’s eight characters that constantly need juggled. Denise Crosby left the show because Yar was being pushed to the background…but so was most of the regular cast every other week. We don’t get to know most of them.
No one has a real clear role. Geordi and Worf are interchangeable. Wesley kind of sits around for the first half of the season, then gets inexplicably promoted to take over half of Worf and Geordi's already filled out role. Troi is mostly there to just tell us what she is feeling all the time (though she doesn't really grow beyond that). There is no clear Chief Engineer, but it seems that Lt. Junior Grade LaForge or the irritating kid can take over at a moments notice.
A lot of characters are gimmicks: the boy genius, the blind guy is driving the ship, a woman is in charge of security (not saying that there’s a problem here just that it is the ONLY reason she’s there), there is a Klingon in Starfleet, an older man is the Captain (instead of the young and happening Kirk), Riker is just a bland Kirk imitation, the Doctor is only there to serve as the mother of the boy genius....hell even Data is lacking something in this season. Luckily losing Yar and some crew position rearrangements at the start of the following season help to rectify a major issue this premiere season had.
Most the stories are boring. Some of them are silly. There are only a few gems in this season, “The Big Goodbye” and “Where No One Has Gone Before” maybe a few others. Beyond that most of the season is mediocre to terrible. You get a sense that the series is just humdrum, that it is going nowhere, and really beyond the excellent production values, there is little in this first season, that actually comes close to touching the quality of the original series, or that cast's film series.
Again, this series became excellent, stepping out of the original's shadows, but the first season was a rocky start with some weak scripts and an ensemble cast too large for the writers to tackle, and a Creator who had let a few too many fan letters go to his head to approach this new venture with any kind of humility or a sense of drama (trying to let his so-called vision drive the ship, rather than play into the storyline and drama). The first season sets up the most basic of elements of the grand sequel series, but it took a little while to really come into it's own.
NEXT TIME: Knocked-Up Troi