YMMV / Star Trek: The Next Generation S1E1 "Encounter at Farpoint"

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • When Data discusses McCoy's age, Bones quips, in perfect Bones fashion, "What's so damn troubling about not having died?" The remark becomes much less funny after DeForest Kelley's passing.
  • In the mid-21st Century, human soldiers were controlled using drugs. This would later become a plot point for the Jem'Hadar.^note One difference being the Jem'Hadar being engineered to use it as a necessary part of their diet/metabolism, versus "recreation", but that's about it.
  • Similarly, Q and Picard discuss that the 21st Century court eliminated lawyers and assumed anyone brought to trial was guilty until proven innocent - which also quite accurately describes the Cardassian justice system later featured in Deep Space Nine. Both could be considered examples of other powers continuing down dark paths which humanity eventually turned away from.
  • McCoy's line about the Enterprise, "You treat her like a lady, and she'll always bring you home", is harder to take after her undignified demise in Star Trek: Generations. Subverted in the long run, though, after Geordi brings the D back from the dead.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • As the first of the original seven of the series to pass on, it seems so fitting that DeForest Kelley would the one who would pass the torch to the Next Gen crew.
  • The counterpoint to the above about the Enterprise-D's demise - the official death toll of her crash isn't stated onscreen (the novelization says seventeen out of over a thousand), but still, with casualties being light, she did bring almost her whole crew to safety, despite her own demise, living up to that statement in her final moments. And then Star Trek: Picard revealed that Geordi spent more than 20 years secretly rebuilding the Enterprise-D after her destruction, and can now handle 25th century space exploration.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The very first shot of Picard in the series is him in the Observation Lounge and the slow push-in on his serious, silent face. During the final Season of Picard in 2023, Patrick Stewart revealed that as soon as the cameras stopped rolling, Jonathan Frakes (who was watching the scene) immediately snarked, "So, that's what they call British Face Acting, is it?!"
• Narm:
  • "He's frozen!!!" Troi would have a hard time living that comment down.
  • Groppler Zorn is supposed to be screaming in pain from being tortured by the space jellyfish, but sounds more like he's laughing from a rather vigorous tickle-torture.
  • Tasha leaps up in the court and delivers an extremely emotional attack on it, basically setting hot rage, extremely hot headed for a chief security officer. Even stranger, when she jumps up behind Picard, Picard says "Tasha, no" and she says "I must!"
• One-Scene Wonder: DeForest Kelley's cameo as McCoy, widely considered the best scene in this otherwise unremarkable premiere and an effective Passing the Torch moment.
• Padding: Because the episode was expanded to a double-length special at the last minute, a lot of this had to be inserted to bring it up to length. Notable examples include the lengthy shots of the saucer separation and especially the subsequent re-connection, scenes of Picard and Worf walking around main engineering (though these were at least inserted to justify the set's construction), and the scene where Picard drops in on Dr. Crusher to discuss whether or not she feels comfortable serving with him (the placement of which creates a plot hole, as it had been implied a few minutes earlier that Crusher was beaming down to Deneb IV to treat the injured in the Old Bandi City).
• Retroactive Recognition: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is the court bailiff.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • The "Q Net" in front of the Enterprise early on wouldn't have looked out of place on TOS, a show from twenty years prior; even at the time it didn't look smashing, and in the 21st century it is painfully obvious it's a film overlay effect. Similarly, the "Q Ball" is a spherical shimmer effect clean out of TOS and looked no more convincing in '87 as it did in '67.
  • During an exterior shot of the Enterprise approaching the "Q Net", the Bussard collectors are glowing blue instead of red.
  • The "saucer sep" sequence was definitely some of the earlier model-shooting work done for the show, and some parts of it, especially in HD, are very obviously a painted model; bringing the camera that close wasn't the best idea.
  • When we see Riker beamed up for the very first time, it's now a bit hard not to notice that the now-classic TNG transporter effect doesn't reach to the top of his head. Needless to say, this was corrected in later episodes.
  • During the "manual docking" procedure with the saucer section, the makeup crew has very obviously forgotten to apply the Data makeup to Brent Spiner's lips, specifically. Especially in HD, it sticks out like the sorest of thumbs.
  • Even Wil Wheaton points out that the jellyfish aliens are not particularly convincing as living creatures and don't hold up very well in an era of far smoother computer animation (which is a bigger problem here because it clashes a bit more with TNG's super-futuristic aesthetic).
  • The scenes of the Bandi city being bombarded are very clearly a miniature being blown up. The same bits are also blown up twice.

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