S1E13 Datalore

Season 1 Episode 13: Datalore

Watchability: Recommended
Short Answer: Starts one of the best character arcs of the show that carries over to the movies.
Notables: Introduction of Lore. "Shut-up Wesley" internet meme.

As I have said before, TNG existed in an era of television before there were sweeping plot arcs. Most episodes are fairly self-contained and in large part can be watched in any order. That being said, there are a couple character arcs that run throughout the series. This episode begins one of the more involved story arcs and it is one of my favorites. Unlike a lot of other story lines, it reappears in season finales and it is even present in the TNG movies.

This particular episode delves into Data's backstory. Until this episode, I feel like Data is mainly a reboot of the Spock character from TOS. In every iteration of Star Trek, there seems to be a character that plays to the same story beats as Spock.

In TOS, Spock's character played the role of an outsider; an alien that questioned the strange tendencies of humans. Sometimes it was used for comedic value, but it was often used to examine what makes humanity unique or special (or at least as the writers saw it). That plot device was so successful it has become a de-facto part of Star Trek. Every show since the original series has a character that serves the same purpose (ex. Data, Odo, Seven of Nine, T'Pol).

Depending on the series, the attempt to recreate the Spock character has varying degrees of success. With Data's character, I think they do that successfully and even manage to build on it. Data has his own unique story lines. Some of them we won't see until later, but this episode marks the beginning of moving Data away from just a Spock clone. For that reason, and because it sets up stories and characters to come, I definitely recommend it.

Side Note: The scene where both Picard and Dr. Crusher tell Wesley Crusher to "Shut-up" has become an internet meme. You can see many clips of it on YouTube, and even a Tumblr or two, but if you want a T-Shirt, they have those too.

S1E03 Naked Now

Season 1 Episode 3: Naked Now

Watchability: Extra Credit
Short Answer: The episode is really bad. That being said it is one of the most "talked about" episodes, so it is probably worth watching for that conversation.
Notables: Rehash of an ST: Original Series plot.

This episode is probably the best "test" of my review format. I'll say this up front: It is one of the worst TNG episodes. In a lot of ways, this is a prime example of what made the first two seasons on TNG awful.

TNG came out almost 20 years after its predecessor. With that time gap came a lot of baggage. For one, there were several scripts that were written for the Original Series (TOS) that never made it to production before it was cancelled. Some of those were revamped to work for TNG. Also, there were episodes like this one, which merely recycled plots from TOS.

That being said, this episode is probably one of the most referenced episodes of TNG, because it is that bad. Data's often paraphrased line "I am FULLY functional" comes from this episode. For that reason, I have tagged this episode with "Iconic" and "Memes". This episode is not good, but chances are, if you are going to talk about TNG with anyone who has seen the show, this episode will come up eventually.