It occurred to me recently that most of these people who complain about the first season of ST:TNG are actually younger than I am. I wonder if they watched it while it was on the air or later on DVD. I have clear memories of discussing "that new Star Trek show" when it was first announced and wondering if it was going to be any good. We weren't big ST:TOS fans but we still had our doubts that a spin-off of a 20-year-old show could be successful, as did many people in the media. In that climate, the first season of ST:TNG was much better than anyone expected.

Speaking of young people and TNG, my daughter says one reason she likes Voyager a little better is because the cast seems younger to her. She thinks it's easier for her to identify with them.

The riker-in-love was episode 16 called 11001001 and involved him falling in love with Minuet, and the Binars are on board causing the trouble. He plays music in this episode which is cool.

The Riker-sex-toy episode was 106 "The Game"

I think it was actually the other way around for many people - for all the avid Star Trek fans, when TNG first came out everyone was up in arms that they had "changed things". They would say things like "Dr. Crusher is AWFUL compared with Bones" or "Who is Troi supposed to be - is she supposed to be Spock???" So no matter what the new characters did, it was wrong and an affront. I think that it took the whole first generation for people to get over that, so it was only the second season when people had begun to accept this new series as a standalone show in its own right and started to accept Riker for being Riker and not a Kirk wannabe and so on

Thanks for the info on those two episodes, Lisa.

At the time that ST:TNG originally aired, I didn't have any friends who were genre fans. My husband and I weren't even genre fans then; we were what you would consider mainstream. So I'm coming from that perspective. As I recall, mainstream media was solely focused on whether a decent show could come out of a 20-year-old idea and they were surprised that it did.

Now that I have more geeky friends, I am not surprised that they picked ST:TNG apart :-). Honestly, I'm surprised that more of them haven't picked the new Doctor Who apart. Genre fans have long memories and to them, writers better have a darn good reason for changing their beloved shows. That's why I would never be a good geek -- if it is even mildly entertaining, I'm good!

I think it's MUCH easier with Doctor Who - there have been, what, 8 or 9 doctors at this point? Every one was different. So Doctor Who fans are very used to new doctors coming in and changing things and have come to terms with it Although we all have our "favorite doctor" ...

I got hooked on Doctor Who when the Tom Baker episodes were aired late night on the PBS stations way back. So that is what I grew up on. I can get used to the newer Doctor Whos but it's just not the same with the Doctor asking someone if he wants a Jellybaby

Yes I grew up with Tom Baker too and he was always my favorite. I think it's like with James Bond, you tend to identify the most with the one you grew up with

I love Patrick Stewart so did not have too much of a problem with TNG - but I still prefer the original Star Trek. "I'm a doctor, Jim!" was one of my favorite lines to wait for.