TNG S01E01

In this installment:
(viewed Monday, May 6th)

Star Trek: The Next Generation, S01E01* - "Encounter at Farpoint Parts 1 & 2"

(* - This is usually listed as two episodes, but Netflix considers both parts to be the first episode of the first season. Keeping with Netflix's numbering will leave me an episode short on my numbering at the end of the season, but that's just aesthetic--and it would drive me nuts to start deviating from their numbering as I'm moving through the seasons.  Be there is mind as I encounter other two-party episodes that Netflix may treat as a single episode.)

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"Encounter at Farpoint (Parts 1 & 2)"

• Sadly, it doesn't appear that the TNG episodes on Netflix are the recently-remastered ones.  I can't really blame them though, as these are much more recent (and indeed, still on-going) remasters than TOS-R.  I guess it just gives me incentive to stop procrastinating and buy them on Blu-ray.
• Unlike NCC-1701 (which wasn't described as a "Constitution"-class until the 24th episode of TOS, "Space Seed"), NCC-1701-D is explicitly stated to be a "Galaxy"-class starship in the series premiere, in Patrick Stewart's opening monologue.
• "Shut off that damn noise!"
  "Uh, sir...that damned noise lets us know that we might be in trouble.  It's called 'red alert'.  You...have commanded a starship before, haven't you?"
• Sometimes I forget just how quickly we get to Q -- right before the first commercial break, even.  I love his condemnation of humanity as a "Dangerous, savage child race", which comes back in the series finale, "All Good Things...".
• They pulled out all of the toys in the first episode, including saucer separation.
• "This is 1987, we should probably have them visit a shopping mall."
• "The saucer module now entering orbit with us, sir."
  "Acknowledged...Commander Riker will perform a manual docking.  Picard out."
  
  Bwahahahaha!
• The first episode of TNG also features its first appearance by a member of the TOS cast -- 137-year-old Admiral Dr. Leonard McCoy.
• We also see our first non-Enterprise Starfleet vessel in TNG--the Excelsior-class USS Hood.
• Ugh.  I forgot that they busted out "Imzadi" in the first episode, too.
• Ah, Data whistlin' on a holodeck.
• "The meaning of that vessel is as plain...as plain as the noses on your ugly little primate faces."  We love you, John de Lancie.
• That's no moon starbase, it's a space station jellyfish.