Here's an episode I didn't hate from first season when I first saw it and
it holds up adequately. It's a nice tale of obsession and revenge, a far
better episode than "The Last Outpost" that had introduced the Ferengi.

Daimon Bok (Frank Corsentino) presents a gift to Picard, his old
starship The Stargazer. Bok calls Picard "the hero of Maxia".

Bok's first and second officers are horrified that Bok would present a
gift and that the mission is so terribly unprofitable.

Picard suffers a worsening headache throughout the episode. Crusher is
concerned because they've fully charted the brain and understand the
nature of pain. Despite this dialogue, Gates McFadden barely performs
curiousity, concern, and horror as Picard gets worse. At one point,
there's a brief discussion about Picard's brain with Troi, who really
should have been more concerned as well.

Of course this leads to notorious Wesley Wesley Crusher dialogue. All
throughout the episode, he'd been hanging around in engineering (off
screen) making unauthorized improvements to the long-range sensors,
'cuz they simply let a civilian child wander around pushing buttons.
Wesley happened to notice a low-intensity transmission from the Fergengi
vessel (otherwise unnoticed on the bridge or in engineering) and then,
glancing at Picard's brain scan on the sickbay display, recognizes the
same pattern!

I found a great comment on this from Wil Wheaton.

In his online reviews of the TNG episodes, Wil Wheaton states
that this is the episode in which Wesley went from, in Wheaton's
own words, "mildly annoying to vehemently-hated character,"
talking about how having Wesley figure out the problem and the
solution before the senior staff could was "perhaps the worst
way to help the audience accept that this kid (Wesley) is going
to be part of the main crew." Wheaton also remarked that the
scene in sickbay where Wesley tells Dr. Crusher and Troi that he
"glanced" at the scans while Dr. Crusher was researching them
and, quote: "...in that brief moment, magically divined exactly
what the rest of the professionally-trained crew - including the
hypersmart robot - hadn't noticed: the patterns in Picard's scan
are identical to the low-intensity transmissions picked up from
the Ferengi ship. Wesley cements his relationship with Trekkies
by muttering, "You're welcome, ladies... heh. Adults." after
they leave the room. Oh, that's pure genius writing there, guys;
that's not going to alienate a single fan. Bravo." Aside from
that (and feeling the episode was derivative of Star Trek II:
The Wrath of Khan) however, Wheaton deemed the episode to be
solid overall, in large part due to Rob Bowman's direction, and
the performances of Patrick Stewart and Frank Corsentino.

I agree about the performances. Corsentino was great as Bok. Stewart did
lengthy scenes by himself, when he'd become lost in the past on the
Stargazer, to which "ghostly" images of the crew he'd served with had
been added in post.

I also liked Riker a lot in this episode, who wasn't passive, showed
leadership, and moved the plot forward believably. There are plenty of
episodes in which he doesn't. I liked his "first officer to first officer"
discussions with Kazago over ship-to-ship, which I thought were
effectively done. I really liked the resolution in which Kazago removed
Bok from command for unprofitable activity.

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
> Here's an episode I didn't hate from first season when I first saw it and
> it holds up adequately. It's a nice tale of obsession and revenge, a far
> better episode than "The Last Outpost" that had introduced the Ferengi.
>
> Daimon Bok (Frank Corsentino) presents a gift to Picard, his old
> starship The Stargazer. Bok calls Picard "the hero of Maxia".
>
> Bok's first and second officers are horrified that Bok would present a
> gift and that the mission is so terribly unprofitable.
>
> Picard suffers a worsening headache throughout the episode. Crusher is
> concerned because

They don’t have a doctor on board, and…

they've fully charted the brain and understand the
> nature of pain. Despite this dialogue, Gates McFadden barely performs
> curiousity, concern, and horror as Picard gets worse. At one point,
> there's a brief discussion about Picard's brain with Troi, who really
> should have been more concerned as well.
>
> Of course this leads to notorious Wesley Wesley Crusher dialogue. All
> throughout the episode, he'd been hanging around in engineering (off
> screen) making unauthorized improvements to the long-range sensors,
> 'cuz they simply let a civilian child wander around pushing buttons.
> Wesley happened to notice a low-intensity transmission from the Fergengi
> vessel (otherwise unnoticed on the bridge or in engineering) and then,
> glancing at Picard's brain scan on the sickbay display, recognizes the
> same pattern!
>
> I found a great comment on this from Wil Wheaton.
>
> In his online reviews of the TNG episodes, Wil Wheaton states
> that this is the episode in which Wesley went from, in Wheaton's
> own words, "mildly annoying to vehemently-hated character,"
> talking about how having Wesley figure out the problem and the
> solution before the senior staff could was "perhaps the worst
> way to help the audience accept that this kid (Wesley) is going
> to be part of the main crew." Wheaton also remarked that the
> scene in sickbay where Wesley tells Dr. Crusher and Troi that he
> "glanced" at the scans while Dr. Crusher was researching them
> and, quote: "...in that brief moment, magically divined exactly
> what the rest of the professionally-trained crew - including the
> hypersmart robot - hadn't noticed: the patterns in Picard's scan
> are identical to the low-intensity transmissions picked up from
> the Ferengi ship. Wesley cements his relationship with Trekkies
> by muttering, "You're welcome, ladies... heh. Adults."

“Adults“ isn’t really fair. “Women folk“ would have been, though. I mean,
name all the competent enterprise crew women on TNG first season.

after
> they leave the room. Oh, that's pure genius writing there, guys;
> that's not going to alienate a single fan. Bravo." Aside from
> that (and feeling the episode was derivative of Star Trek II:
> The Wrath of Khan) however, Wheaton deemed the episode to be
> solid overall,

Wheaton also told Frakes on a recent ready room episode that he hadn’t
played Wesley in 30 years despite that he played him in the awful movies,
20 years ago, and in Picard just last year!

in large part due to Rob Bowman's direction, and
> the performances of Patrick Stewart and Frank Corsentino.
>
> I agree about the performances. Corsentino was great as Bok. Stewart did
> lengthy scenes by himself, when he'd become lost in the past on the
> Stargazer, to which "ghostly" images of the crew he'd served with had
> been added in post.
>
> I also liked Riker a lot in this episode, who wasn't passive, showed
> leadership, and moved the plot forward believably. There are plenty of
> episodes in which he doesn't. I liked his "first officer to first officer"
> discussions with Kazago over ship-to-ship, which I thought were
> effectively done. I really liked the resolution in which Kazago removed
> Bok from command for unprofitable activity.
>

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.