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Star Trek Blind! -- The Next Generation

Isrieri

Isrieri

My father told me this would happen
Star Trek: The Next Generation will be 40 years old before long. Far older than TOS was when the series first broadcast in the 80s. It was a major formative part of my tastes in both television and imaginative storytelling. I loved the setting, characters & scenarios, and the camaraderie of the core cast. I can’t recall another show that captivated me in the same way.

Recently it struck just how old. With the decline in traditional TV viewership and all Star Trek series being confined to Paramount+ its semi-prevalence in pop culture has diminished, and we may well be in the midst of a generation that knows Trek by the films and newer shows alone; never dipping their toes into the past and even then, only seeing it as a bunch of cheap sets and silly costumes.

A few years ago I watched The Original Series for the first time and had a blast, connecting with a time far removed from my own. There were some gems and some stinkers, but overall a solid show that was a fascinating watch with my foreknowledge of how it would get even better with time and an actual budget (can you believe it?!). Naturally I want to continue with the mainline series and conclude with Deep Space 9 which I’ve less knowledge of, but seven seasons is a pretty daunting investment so I might need another break before that.

I’ve secured some time for myself and I’m eager to revisit this classic with fresh, or perhaps Not Quite Blind, eyes! Even though I grew up with it, I didn’t watch all the episodes and only caught one now and again. It has been quite a while! Maybe old favorites don’t hold their spice anymore? Will there be classics I cherished but long forgot? Maybe I can find new appreciation in the subtler details I didn’t notice as a young’n?

If you have the time & means and especially if you’ve never seen it, please watch along with me! My favorite part of the previous thread was all the little factoids I didn’t know about the behind the scenes production and linked articles. I may not respond if I have nothing to contribute, but I do read everything (obviously).

★ = Irritating
★★ = Mediocre
★★★ = Interesting
★★★★ = Engaging
★★★★★ = Riveting


There will be no SKIPPING in this house. We start with SEASON ONE!!


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Pilot – “Encounter at Farpoint” (★★★)

So y’know what the most striking thing was for me? The intro theme is very different in season 1. The strings do these big swoops up and down and the trumpets don’t harmonize like they ought. Nevertheless, the sustained violin over Patrick Stewart’s narration still conveys the cold expanse of space and gets you excited like nothing else. I’m excited. This is my excited lip-biting smile.

Naturally. Naturally we cannot begin a Star Trek without the incipient visit from your friendly Omnipotent Cosmic Space Being! So, Q was right here at the beginning huh? That’s great because I love Q but something feels a little off. Q is almost acting… out of character? That’s going to be one of the challenges of these initial episodes wherein the cast has not yet codified their characters and everybody’s still a fresh mound of clay, doubly so because I believe some of the TOS writers yet held the reigns. One thing I noticed is that even before Data gets his first line – during the panning shot of the bridge we see him do a lil’ finger wiggle at his terminal, like a virtuoso before playing Liszt. Most noticeable of all: Geordi says “sensores” I thought we were past that!!

So Q apparates a neon Brick Wall before the snazzy new Enterprise D, hopping aboard the bridge to tell humanity We Don’t Want Any. We begin a chase that the music does its damndest to make exciting before we separate the saucer section for… some reason. So, I know that Enterprise is capable of saucer separation for dire situations, and they do it here to show it off. However how often does it come up in the show I wonder, and what exactly are the tactical benefits of such a move? Maybe you could outmaneuver some spaceborne foe with double firepower from two directions but surely you’d have weaker shields and much more difficulty defending two targets.

Further, imagine the immense difficulty of trying to remount the saucer to the engines afterwards! Think on the precise calculations and all the teamwork required for an actual space shuttle to dock or refuel at a station. They address this with a great moment between Picard and Riker where he orders him to dock it manually and although they kind of handwave the finer points its a sufficiently tense little scene. My point is, imagine having to do that in deep space! Seems like a liability than an asset. Its probably solely to protect the civilians aboard but I’ll have more to say about that later. For now, let us take note of how the separation sequence is overlaid with the triumphant opening theme and multiple takes of milquetoast expressions from the crew of the battle bridge. Imagine if the music was gone! A lot of the camerawork is a little shakey in this first outing, but the special effects are hitting their mark at least.

So Picard and Riker get to shine. We introduce our cast with a lot of exposition, some good moments, and McCoy shows up! With terrible makeup! Yet the most interesting part of the episode by far is the trial. Q smacks Picard into a facsimile of a 400 year old kangaroo court to rub humanity’s barbarism in our faces in a way that, well you can’t really deny. We don’t yet know why Q cares about us so much or why he’s so determined to keep humanity out of the far reaches of the galaxy but we sure do know that we’re setting up the thesis of the show real damn good. Some good quips here too: “Guilty… provisionally!” Any glipse into the mysterious history of the Trek universe is a lot of fun for me.


Ep 2 – “Encounter at Farpoint pt.2” (★★★)

Counselor Troi is a fascinating character. In a sense, she’s cursed: She’s actually a really good idea, to have a psychiatric or mental health professional aboard a starship that encounters frequent traumatic events is to maintain both morale and solidarity among the crew for the multi-year voyages. There’s a lot of potential for a character with a command of vast emotional intelligence, and is a really novel and forward thinking idea. No doubt that’s precisely why she occupies a seat on the bridge. So what do they go and do? They make her an empath. With this one move they write themselves into a corner that folds in on itself exponentially AND make so many of her scenes too silly to take seriously. A bona fide fool’s mate. Right here in the second episode she telepathically speaks to Riker, her old flame. It should be the reveal of her telepathic powers but I’m cracking the hell up at how she’s just silently staring daggers at him while slowly walking up into his personal space. Like, does the empath not feel the awkwardness?! Maybe she was deliberately messing with him.

There’s a lot of funny bits in this episode with regards to body language. On the holodeck, when Wesley falls into the river Riker has this dramatic pose with his hand outstretched and his spine ramrod straight. Geordi on the station also does this weird pose with his hip cocked out and pointing forward with a face of pure determination. When Wesley is allowed onto the bridge, one of the helmsmen has an amazing face of “are you actually fucking kidding me with this, captain?”

While we’re on Wesley, forgive me but, is it not really weird that Wesley is getting this special treatment like sitting in the captain’s chair? Even if Picard and Crusher were an item (and that’s already weird) would that mean he’d be willing to let him do so despite his clearly delineated dislike of children ONE episode into the series? He’s acting like… like Wesley is his illegetimate kid. I know that isn’t the case but we don’t yet know where Wesley’s late biological dad comes into the picture and y’know…. The way the scene was conducted seems to lean toward that implication.

The “mystery” of Farpoint is much like Q espoused, a pretty simple puzzle. A diplomatic vessel’s very first question to an unallied and unknown population when fired upon by a mysterious ship is “why is it shooting you?” Yet we act like there’s some dilemma here. Perhaps a strange take readers, but I’d like to think that the ambiguities they’re trying to dramatize would be solved by… starfleet regulations. I imagine that’s the point. Q at this point so underestimates and devalues humanity he think’s they’ll get spooked and start blasting but then we wouldn’t get to see the two cool jellyfish. Honestly a pretty nifty sequence to end the episode off, being just a taste of the wonders to come.
 
Isrieri said:
Counselor Troi is a fascinating character. In a sense, she’s cursed: She’s actually a really good idea, to have a psychiatric or mental health professional aboard a starship that encounters frequent traumatic events is to maintain both morale and solidarity among the crew for the multi-year voyages. There’s a lot of potential for a character with a command of vast emotional intelligence, and is a really novel and forward thinking idea. No doubt that’s precisely why she occupies a seat on the bridge. So what do they go and do? They make her an empath. With this one move they write themselves into a corner that folds in on itself exponentially AND make so many of her scenes too silly to take seriously.
Click to expand...
Troi is a character who should be overpowered in the world of Star Trek, in a much different way than the space gods they constantly meet. Because in the world of Star Trek, the goal is often making peace and understanding. Except when the franchise is an action movie but I digress. She should be able to constantly find ways to help even if she can't read the literal thoughts because she can get into the feelings behind that. When characters are communicating through space at what is likely at what is at least a planet's length away, she can detect their feelings and act as a lie detector. So it's hilarious and unfortunate how often this character is useless and they don't even bother writing around it.
 
ep 3 – “The Naked Now” (★★)

The team rolls up on another Federation ship that has caught the SEX VIRUS and partied so hard that they killed themselves in their mania. So naturally we send an away team over.

Now in sick bay when they’re examining Geordi who caught whatever they were stricken with, Beverly says that all of the tests and diagnostics they ran on him came back negative, and that before they sent their away team over they made full precautions. Troi says he feels like he’s intoxicated but that surely they would have uncovered that in their checks.

But like… no. If your future technology can account for all that. Then whatever the mysterious bug is should be detectable. Maybe not the cause but certainly the symptoms are not inexplicable. He’s sweating and not acting like himself by his own admission and their own eyes. They should be detecting either hormonal imbalances or unique brain chemistry. Even if they’re only looking for some ailment of the body you would imagine that Picard, who heard the hail from the dead ship’s bridge team and how goddamn horny they were, would be able to draw some correlation.

I don’t like getting pedantic about this sort of thing but I mention it to back up a hunch of mine: I think the TOS writers used this setup early on as a creative writing exercise. They have this handful of characters who have yet to be developed but we know who they are ‘on paper’ so lets chuck them into a pressure cooker of wild abandon and let their inhibitions run free so we can get to know their ‘bizzaro’ versions to contrast what we’ve already set up. That was able to work in TOS because of the show’s overall tone – due to the somewhat hokey nature of the sets and the campyness of sci-fi in the cultural climate the original run always felt rather tongue-in-cheek and had leeway to be a bit silly and fun. That was always a core part of the experience.

I get a different feeling from TNG. The pilot laid down pretty firmly that we want to take this on a different course. You get that impression from the stage direction and the whole debacle with Q. Knowing what comes later just reinforces that perspective. So it was a mistake to not only do this premise again but to do it now. This is only the first proper episode of the show and we don’t really know who these guys are yet. But the first time the writers did this it was a lot of fun and received well so what the hell, lets go for round 2! And we’re going to ignore any attempt to justify this in-universe to make it happen!

This is a confused start. We imply a direction one episode, and undercut it the next making it clear that internal consistency in the writing is not yet a strong priority. We’re just chucking everything at the batter still, but that batter is now 50 years old.

Now with that aside, the episode is fun despite the frustration. Geordi is wistfully poetic, Wesley takes over the ship with the power of editing, Picard is a man who has only heard about fun in a medical journal, Tasha is monumentally repressed, and the poor ladies have to deliver the cringiest dialogue with a straight face! Wesley calls the captain ‘skipper’ which is right out of Gilligan’s Island. The whole thing’s a big goof. Even Data gets the bug by getting lucky with Tasha which makes absolutely zero sense no matter how they try to explain it away.

I love when the exasperated chief engineer calls up to the bridge to tell them that “SOMEONE pulled out all the control chips” and Wesley immediately whines “It was an adult who did it!” with all the stung bitterness of someone who’s gotten blamed for something he didn’t do AND is stone cold drunk.


ep 4 – “Code of Honor” (★★)

Truly readers, are you ready for this? I was kind of fascinated by Code of Honor. I hadn’t seen it before and on paper this is a cool premise. Take a moment to consider: The Enterprise wants to establish a trade agreement with the Ligonians for a vaccine, and they beam a delegation of their people aboard for talks. Things go well: They are a patriarchal culture that values honor and ceremonial displays of strength and when Tasha, as chief security chief wishes to inspect a gift from the delegation she demonstrates her strength to them by not taking sass, and even impresses their leader Lutan with a nice scene on the holodeck. There’s some good character stuff for her this episode.

Before talks can conclude amicably Lutan abducts her and she’s taken down to their planet to garner status for himself among his rivals. Now we have a diplomatic incident on our hands. The crew is forced to play Lutan’s game so that he is able to return her with his honor unstained, and so Picard can secure the vaccine. There is some merit here, and the dialogue is not half bad. That kind of intrigue is my favorite sort of Star Trek episode.

So its a shame that the Ligonians are all portrayed by black actors with a culture & adornments that echo the antiquated “darkest africa” tropes of the Victorian age, practically verbatim. I don’t know what amalgamation of earth cultures forms the Ligonian sets but my guess is they rip some elements from ancient Numidia and Kush. Do you know what’s most insulting to me in all this? That apparently those cultures are visually “foreign” enough to pass as “backwards aliens” with only slight modification. That’s not very Star Trek of them.

TOS has pulled this kind of thing before. Look at the Romulans, full stop. However the Romulans, while they may have begun as just “ancient rome with pointy ears” TNG will develop a more unique look for them. This episode? Given the prejudices of the past and present, viewers were justifiably upset. I can’t bring myself to believe this is malicious racism on the writers’ part, I just think this kind of appropriation is an old trick they used to stay under budget and it struck a nerve this time.

There’s a point when Troi notices something. She makes Tasha do a Freudian slip and admit that Lutan wanting to marry her made her happy. Data later asks if she loves him, and she says “Of course not! I’m attracted to him, but that’s not the same thing at all.” and I can’t decide whether I like this or not. Her first loyalty is to starfleet and the ship of course, and while on the one hand the fact that she would be attracted to the him at all isn’t out of the question it seems like it comes from this mindset of women liking strong masculine presences almost like a factory default. On the other hand, I personally find her comment a sign of high self-awareness and introspection. She doesn’t try to deny or dismiss those feelings away like other people might to save face among her colleagues. I don’t know what the word for that is but it points to her having a strong command of herself.

The most damning moment of all occurs at the end: There’s a big ol’ fight between Tasha and a rival wife and its dull and gratuitous. Eventually Tasha defeats her, and Picard warps them both to the Enterprise. Lutan wanted his first wife dead so he could swipe her family lands, and take Tasha for himself. Crusher revives Lutan’s wife and their marriage gets annulled. Lutan loses out on what he schemed for because the Codes of Honor that he thought to use for his gain also force his acquiescence. Picard and by extension the writers are telling us that the humans of the future look with disdain on this culture that reminds them so much of their own past and how this kind of scheming and posturing for status almost destroyed them. It's a naive take, and is especially bad considering the aforementioned controversies. I think we’re expected to cheer for the enterprise for ‘getting one over ol’ Lutan who thought he could mess with us at his pleasure” but that very attitude is precisely what they’re decrying! Tsk tsk.


ep 5 – “The Last Outpost” (★)

Oh lord here they come. The Ferengi have arrived! And they smell horrible.

We begin with the Enterprise chasing after a Ferengi vessel, a people the Federation knows little about. Their ship turns and fires on the Enterprise, and the Enterprise gets trapped by some forcefield. The opening minutes I kinda liked – we think they have some kind of super technology (because the plot demands our stupidity in season 1) but turns out whatever was keeping the Enterprise locked in place is on the planet, and the Ferengi are just as affected. They agree to send mutual away teams down to try and get themselves unstuck. We see the big ugly mug of the Ferengi and how both ships are distrustful of one another for their own reasons.

I’ve got a soft spot for these cheesy sets they use for the planet surfaces. Really dig all the fog and Riker’s big campy green screen shot. The Ferengi away team arrives around the corner and disable the Enterprise team with foam noodles. All gets interrupted by the Wizard of Oz, who transforms into a hooded old man. See this planet that has them trapped was some outpost of a long dead empire that collects and stores nearby energy sources, presumably to be collected and shipped elsewhere. The old guy’s the caretaker or something – I’m getting off track. Don’t worry about him he’s not important. I know what we want to talk about:

As the introduction of the Ferengi, I say that they smell because they are so not it. This is a spacefaring civilization that hops around like goblin men that make animal noises and are all teeth. It is not unreasonable to expect some level of sophistication from them but they’re like cavemen troglodytes or something. These guys are supposed to be traders? They’re an insult to the idea! What a bad way to introduce them. You can’t even pretend that they are in any way threatening or even interesting when you make them act so undignified. They’re not much better than some villain of the week. I remember liking the Ferengi because I thought they were pretty funny, but not like this. Like I can’t believe how embarrassing it is, let alone for the poor actors who had to jump and prance around like idiots. Riker and the old man just walk and talk while they’re trying to get a rise out of ‘em and they just ignore them. Were the writers trying to paint them as a disgrace? Honestly I find this episode more insulting than the last. I thought the whole backstory here was that humanity has achieved a utopian society where all of the conflicts and misery caused by our own nature was confronted and surmounted by rational thought and empathy toward different viewpoints? Yet they look at both the Ferengi and the Ligonians from last episode like they're primitives who are worthy of toleration and not respect. The whole thing's awful.

It is pretty humorous that of all things to keep from these early days, their whole thing about F e m a l e s was what stuck. Clothed women?!? How barbarous!

Poor Worf doesn't ever get to fight anybody. The old man literally issues a challenge to Riker and Worf was like “THIS IS MY MOMENT” but he gets blue-balled by yet another “test” where the answer was non-violence. “Ah yes you are truly civilized because you don’t immediately beat me up yeeeees.”


I give it an F+ for effort. This is the fourth episode. I promise it gets better.
 
Johnny Unusual said:
Troi is a character who should be overpowered in the world of Star Trek, in a much different way than the space gods they constantly meet. Because in the world of Star Trek, the goal is often making peace and understanding.
Click to expand...

Lets imagine that Troi does not have powers for a moment: Even as a specialist in emotions and mental health someone like that would be invaluable to have aboard a ship let alone a diplomatic vessel. Troi would be in the unique position to really hammer in the need for empathy and understanding with alien races that might come difficult to the enterprise crew in some circumstances, because she could be instrumental in bridging that gap via creating context via metaphor, or comparisons to each other's shared experiences. Likewise you could make truly alien encounters doubly so because of a lack of emotion or some kind of physiology that is purely instinctual with very shallow emotional range.

But I think she'd serve the show best of all as a liason between other characters and helping them to solve any conflicts that arise between them, plus helping them to overcome the overwhelming stress not just of living on a spaceborne vessel but with their own interpersonal relationships; doubts and things. The trick to such character really comes down to how you write them. They need some manner of charisma and likability because that's all part of the specialization.

When they make her an empath they make her too powerful, because now she is not only invaluable as a lie detector, it becomes impossible to create any real drama or intrigue with mysterious aliens because the only three answers she can give are "he's lying, he's not lying, or I can't read him." There are times where she's mysteriously absent for episodes where her powers would be super convienent, because if she were, she would have to not be able to read him. Its the same with Worf, who's the big strong guy who gets tossed around by the monster of the week a lot to show how strong it is, and it just ends up making Worf look not strong.
 
ep 6 – “Where No One Has Gone Before” (★★)

So there is this clip of an episode of some Discworld animated series where Death has a conversation with a wise man on a mountain about what the observable universe looks like from the outside. The man says its black. Death says its blue.

Well, Death was right. In this episode the Enterprise does some questionable experiments with the warp drive derived from principles nobody understands from some weirdos that nobody knows. Turns out that applying these functions breaks the warp barrier, and hurls the Enterprise beyond the boundaries of the observable universe. A premise which is extremely stupid, but we have some mindless fun along the way.

The weirdos in question are a nameless alien we call the Traveler; and Kazinsky, the most insufferable man in the universe. Can you guess who is the genius who figured out how move the Enterprise so far, so fast? The answer is neither because the Traveler is just using magic. Technically he says that it's because spacetime and thought are one and the same which is some Lovecraftian Colors from Outer Space sci-fi nonsense. How could electric signals possibly relate to the curvature of space time? Maybe magnet forces? Are thoughts made out of magnets? IS THAT WHY MAGNETO CAN SHOOT LIGHTNING?!

Wesley so far has been okay. He’s been a little irritating because he’s a child character and with all that implies. I don’t know how old he’s supposed to be. He looks like he’s a freshman but the way he’s written you’d think he’s like 14. However this, I feel, is where I must mention that while I have always liked Wesley and never had a problem with him hoo boy, do they mary sue the hell out of him in season 1 and especially here. Wesley gets showered in favoritism because he’s a super genius and can school even the main engineering staff at their own jobs. There’s nothing really wrong with having a super smart kid as a character but he has yet to do anything wrong. He’s often the one to point out the solution to the episode and this is no exception. Its when the Traveler is in sick bay recovering from the strain of moving the ship that he pulls the captain aside in private to say: “This boy, this Wesley he is the reason my people have decided to finally contact humanity. We have been searching for someone like him, who has a special talent than can be nurtured to be like us” and I’m like MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN c’mon!!!! He’s a space wizard too?!?!? The show will develop him more as we go but its a slow burn, and this episode made me understand where the dislike comes from.

Wesley didn’t actually save the day or anything, he just formed an attachment to the creepy Traveler and was bestowed the mantle of the Chosen One. For this, Picard decides to make him an acting Ensign, so that he can sit on the bridge and learn from them. So that’s how he became an officer?

Y’know. Once season 2 rolls around we can just put this episode out of our minds and forget it ever happened.


ep 7 – “Lonely Among Us” (★★)

No no no, star trek. You aren’t slipping that one past me: “We are to deliver these delegates to this sector’s neutral conference planet called Parliament.” Yes readers that’s the name of the planet. I CHECKED the captions.

This one’s pretty fun. We meet our first cloud anomaly that the Enterprise speeds through to meet their time frame to drop off said alien diplomats. Some electric force hitches a ride on the Enterprise and possesses members of the crew to try and figure out what the hell happened to itself and where it is. Meanwhile the two different races, who despise each other, make things difficult for the crew while and have to be babysat while trying to figure out the strange lapses in memory but the affected crew members. The snake people even poke out a rope on a stick from off-camera to catch Riker. They meant it for the opposing aliens but like, was that going to work? Is the secret to defeating them to just put a collar around them? They do look a little like dogs so alright.

There’s a weird scene where Troi, who has an idea to help regain Worf and Beverly’s memory, decides to hypnotize them. I find this a little incongruous: I think of hypnotism as mumbo jumbo the likes of fortune telling, palm reading, etc. However, you can easily convince yourself that its actually some kind of Betazoid healing ritual. So Troi uses her mind powers to re-awaken their memories and re-live the events, and they realize the electric phenomena is intelligent. The best part is when it possesses Picard. Mr. Stuart gets to flex his acting a little more and is just off enough to make everybody suspicious but not really able to say anything to him about it.

Possessed Picard steers the ship back to the cloud so he can beam himself into it as an energy being, but then that leaves the captain adrift. I think it was Data who realized that if they just drive the Enterprise through it again, the captain might be able to latch onto it like before. They do, he does, and SOMEHOW they put him back together again. They imply that it’s the same ‘mind’ of Picard via the energy but they just reconstruct a new ‘body’ for him based on his previous transporter log.

This is where Data picks up his fascination with Sherlock Holmes! A feature of some of my favorite episodes later on.


ep 8 – “Justice” (★★★)

Ah yes, the planet of skimpy men and women running around the botanical gardens. I remember this one. As a young’n I felt annoyed & uncomfortable with all the hugging (displays of affection blech). Now I’m getting a kick out of the cast’s reactions. One of the men goes tohug poor Troi and she’s overwhelmed clearly thinking “no thank you” now Tasha she’s all “YES PLEASE” and Worf has all my favorite lines here.

I always liked this episode. I remember a lot of people saying I was a nutcase for it because every crime on their planet is punishable by death. Just the stupidest thing they said. I don’t think its so inconceivable. It wouldn’t create the “paradise” the planet has, but it could possibly ensure that nobody was above the law. The whole reason that death is the punishment is not to senselessly kill off someone for trampling in flowers. Its to make sure that there are never any exceptions. No one who’s “too important” to face justice. The real question is “how could the Ido possibly allow that” and I suppose the answer to that depends on your life experience. We’d have to ask the Ido about their history.

So here’s the thing: If we’re really taking the Prime Directive seriously then Wesley, of all people, should not have been on the planet at all. If we handwave that, then there’s the whole idea that extricating Wesley from the planet is somehow “interference” into their social customs. I don’t think the situation is comparable and I don’t think removing him violates the directive because he isn’t one of the Ido. The show is acting like creating this one exception to their rule by valuing the life of one of our own, we’re somehow disrupting the basis of their whole legal apparatus.

I think the real crux of all this is whether or not exceptions should be allowed. One might think, as I thought back in the 2000s, well of course you need exceptions. I think I still feel that way despite all the horrendous shit that people get away with because of it: The law cannot be absolute because the lawmakers are fallible. You can even make the case that law has nothing to do with any concept of retribution; that it is only about redress of grievances. In either case how can you possibly judge what a person deserves or not? I’ll bet if you ask different judges that question they’ll all have different answers. I’ll bet you another twenty that a lot of those decisions are based on religious beliefs. And here, we have the Ido, who might have had their laws handed to them from the literal god up in orbit. Did I not mention? Well there’s a weird space halo up there. You get my point.

Let me also praise the acting of the general cast (not the Ido they’re awful) and especially Gates McFadden. I always liked the doctor because she speaks with this zealous earnestness that's infectious. She does a pretty good job of being appropriately distressed that her son is on the chopping block without falling to pieces.


ep 9 – “The Battle” (★★)

This is the second Ferengi episode but let us assume it the first: It’s a much better introduction with far more interesting stuff going on.

The commander of a Ferengi vessel has gotten in contact with Picard to hand over a ship in their possession. Its none other than the Stargazer, Picard’s old command, and they want to gift it to him as a commemoration of the anniversary of a battle against a Ferengi ship.

A gift? For a defeat?? From the Ferengi??? Well you can probably guess that can’t be good and no, the crew aren’t buying it either. Nevertheless Picard has some nostalgia for it and tows it along with him anyway. He’d be remiss to not present Starfleet with an intact ship.

So what’s the catch? That’s what I think is interesting – the Ferengi captain has a special mind control device that he’s using to disrupt Picard’s thoughts, in order to enact a revenge plan for his dead son, and kill both Picard and the Enterprise by forcing him to re-live that battle.

There’s some pretty good acting from Picard and the doctor, and the Ferengi feel much more like themselves. They aren’t hopping around like a buncha jackasses, but are being sneaky and slimy salesmen. My favorite part of the episode is actually between Riker and the Ferengi first officer. While Picard is crumbling under the slow effects of the mind control device, he’s trying to talk to this officer to get some clues as to what the angle of this “gift” was because it seems like their crew doesn’t really get it either. Eventually the Enterprise finds one of the two mind control spheres and presents it to the Ferengi.

You know what they do readers? The Ferengi throw their captain into the brig, because he led them on an “unprofitable venture” of revenge and because that mind control device is criminal to possess. That was pretty cool. It was still up to Picard to snap himself outta the mind control, but Riker shouting at you could probably snap you out of the grave. Not too exhilarating but it has some good bits.
 
ep 10 – “Hide and Q” (★★★)

Q comes back to the Enterprise, this time with open arms! Oh, that little mess at Farpoint station? Water under the bridge! Let bygones be bygones! You proved yourselves don’t you see? Lets be buddy-buddy we were wrong about humanity. Do you trust this, readers?

The Q have taken a special interest in Riker. They claim they want him to join the continuum because they see potential in the human race. This is of course still part of Q’s test. He wants to give god powers to whom they believe the most susceptible to them proving that humanity will bend or break their own morals so long as the gain is great enough. Riker does indeed succumb a little bit, but with the help of the rest of the cast he comes back to his senses as they stubbornly insist “We’ll get there ourselves one day.”

This right here is peak TOS. As part of Q’s game he dresses up in Napoleonic uniform and creates this hirsute line infantry to harass them. Riker, Data and Geordi in true star trek fashion, can’t fashion a plan of action until they first stand around and talk about the historical context of the uniforms and muskets. Riker’s got his foot up on a rock and its like a talk around the water cooler. It’s gloriously cheesy and I love it.

When Riker bestows gifts he imagines the crew would like, they all refuse. This causes Riker to say he’s been a damn fool and Picard responds “Quite right.” The idea is that his gifts are meant to give them what they always wanted, but the crew wants to actually earn their goals, qualifying them into achievements (notwithstanding Worf, they clearly didn’t know what to do with him).

I’m not quite sure what the writers were going for exactly but it makes me think about power in general: The power to determine your own destiny requires the input of your own will, and accepting such gifts would render the pursuit of those very dreams hollow. Power should also be a tool to achieve an end and not a goal unto itself. Riker wants to use his power for good, but the temptation of using it at all, means he’ll surely start using it for frivolous things and that can lead to its abuse. Q showcases precisely that – dominating and terrorizing the crew simply because it amuses him. Tasha’s remark of how awful it feels to be so out of control puts a nice bow on it.

I liked the scene in the ready room where Q banters Shakespeare. Picard turns it around against him by quoting Hamlet’s speech about humanity’s noble aspects. Q gets pissed, and I think the writers intend that he’s mad because humanity may ‘outstrip’ the Q in power one day and they’re afraid of it. I took it to mean that Q is still frustrated because Picard doesn’t get it and continues to possess a hubris that will bite them in the butt if they keep on their course.


ep 11 – “Haven” (★★★★)

I don’t like this trope that Riker and Troi cannot be together because he wants to be a captain. We’ve seen in prior episodes kids and their parents running around the ship and whom have dedicated quarters. Lets allow that these families want to come along with their loved ones despite the dangers because of 24th century culture and Starfleet condones it because the mental health benefits outweigh potential drawbacks.

That’s actually something I like about Beverly & Wesley: I thought her bringing her son along adds a human element that breathes some fresh air to the traditional military dynamic. Of course you see the issue: If the ship’s doctor can bring her son, and other crew members can have family, then what the hell is the big deal about the captain? If the captain is exempt, then shouldn’t the reasoning you give also apply to the others?

So its really dumb Riker is jealous of Troi’s upcoming marriage. “Its not fair to me.” says Riker. The hell it is, you aren’t dating her anymore. Pointless melodrama. That’s why its so great when her fiance walks in and innocently rubs it in that they’re not together despite Riker being vocally antagonistic. Really like that they didn’t make the character into an asshole to ‘rescue’ Troi from. He’s a well-adjusted young man!

Lwaxana Troi is loads of fun. As a kid, found her episodes unsatisfying because they didn’t involve the “cool” aliens and her appearances lacked mystery or action. But even then I liked her acting. Now I could praise Majel Barrett to the moon and her episodes are a lot of fun because we get to see the cast interact more. Troi is allowed to genuinely emote which is nice. My favorite is Data who stalks around the dinner table closely taking notes on the ritual of “eating dinner.” I was waiting for Picard to say something and was not disappointed.

The B plot with the plague ship and ‘mysterious woman’ could have been the seed of something very interesting. No one is looking at this humanoid alien who’s been in this young lad’s dreams since he was a boy and screaming “You’re being manipulated!!” as I would have were I his father.

It may be a misunderstanding, but the parents are distraught that their son just exiled himself with these rando aliens and the cast just accepts that this is how it is now because its his personal choice. How do we know that? This could have been a great moment for Troi to shine: Picard would be more than happy that the fiance beamed over to try and cure the plague ship because it kills two birds with one stone. Yet the ethics of whatever was going on between the fiance and the woman are fuzzy and we should at least have sat down and had a talk about it.


ep 12 – “The Big Goodbye” (★)

I’m not a Dixon Hill fan so the adventure on the holodeck was ponderously boring and I’ve little to say about it other than Dick Miller shows up as a newspaper salesman. However, this is our major introduction to holodeck adventures! Hooray!

The holodeck was a very smart idea, since you can have virtually any kind of episode setting your imagination conceives of. When I was a kid I thought that every starship in the fleet had a holodeck, but watching this it’s clear that this one on the Enterprise is state of the art, and not a common thing at all. One of the perks of working aboard the flagship of the fleet is getting to ski down mountains, soak up the sun on a beach, and walk on the rings of a gas giant before sitting down to tea with storybook characters; such is the power of this thing. I liked the scene where Picard has everyone come into the ready room so he can gush about how cool it was. It remains one of the more inspired ideas to come out of the show and it would be amazing if we manage to make it a reality one day.

There are some inconsistencies. It’s a holodeck so you’d guess that its all a holographic projection and while some of it may be, they mentioned previously that they create the physical stuff in it with the same technology as their replicators. They’re actually manipulating matter to create the form of whatever you’re interacting with. That’s why Picard still had lipstick on him when he left. The real question is, how the hell are you able to “program” these creations? You would need a supercomputer the size of the sun. I digress, holodeck stuff is a lot of fun and I’m not personally concerned about how it works. Magic, is the answer! The writers will bend and rewrite the rules to all this as we go.
 
You can really feel how the creators of the show felt shackled to TOS in terms of theme and narrative in the first season. The characters were different, the setting was different, but the stories were the same kinds of stories. I think that's in part due to how many writers and producers Roddenberry brought on who had worked on TOS, like D.C. Fontana, Bob Justman, or David Gerrold. I imagine the idea was to make TNG different from TOS, but not so different that it would alienate fans of the original.

Not like there wasn't a contingent of fans who decried the production for not having Kirk, Spock, and McCoy front and centre.
 
Thanks for doing this thread, Isrieri! It's always fun to see your guys thoughts on this kinds of stuff.
Johnny Unusual said:
So it's hilarious and unfortunate how often this character (Troi) is useless and they don't even bother writing around it.
Click to expand...
The last time I watched TNG, this was an idea that was kind of in the back of my mind, in that it's something that's said and taken for granted as a truism by everyone. And yet I couldn't help shake the idea how, after watching the show ad nauseum my whole life and recontextualizing a lot of it as I've grown older (and ostensibly more wise) that it was lowkey one of those things about Star Trek that the fandom/pop culture gets completely wrong.

Because yes, there are more times than not where Troi as a character is not allowed to do the kinds of fun, heroic stuff that fan favorite characters are always placed into better positions in the plot to do and are easy to identify. She's not gonna be shooting phasers or the one making heroic speeches. And most of the episodes that focus on her as the central character are various levels of bad. But while watching I found myself appreciating all of the things she does do on the ship that often goes without notice or appreciation.

There were so many times where Picard had a personal problem, or a moral quandry, and the very first thing he does is pull Troi aside (or get pulled aside) and hashes things out with her. Or how even if her psychic advice is vague, it is still valuable information that Picard otherwise would not have had so that he can make the most informed and best decision with how to proceed. Oh, that guy is actually 100% verifiably lying? And not just nervous or has an itch or has a completely different set of cultural norms and behavior? Actually priceless. And even the moments where she doesn't actually "do anything", there are times where she's the sorely needed, sole voice of compassion in a room.

Next time I do a rewatch of TNG, I'm going to do so with a spreadsheet so I can actually document how often Troi is doing "useful" stuff. Because by my recollection, the fandom gets this about as wrong as they get Kirk the Womanizer, and it would be nice to have numbers to back this intuition up.
 
ep 13 – “Datalore” (★★★)

The Enterprise returns to Data’s homeworld, and discovers pieces of an identical android in Dr. Soong’s lab. Data is quite intrigued by this discovery of a ‘brother’ he’s never known. So intrigued, that he even uses a human idiom when looking at some drawings of an abstract looking star: “It depicts something that feels familiar, sir.” Data says that he has the memories and knowledge of the 400 colony members downloaded to his memory, so the line is meant to suggest he’s kind of sussing out a vague memory that doesn’t belong to him. Still, it doesn’t seem quite right.

This is where we meet Lore which is a pretty good name. Its connotations really highlight the differences and similarities between the two. I wonder if the episode title came first, or if the name did. Anyway, of course Lore is evil. The reason being that Lore was the prototype he made before Data. Dr. Soong actually gave him human emotions and made a ‘perfect’ android in the sense that he was as human as an android could be given his abilities. Yet, the colonists were creeped out by him, so he made Data instead.

I never paid a lot of attention to Lore as a kid. He showed up in some reruns and I think I may have even seen this once but it didn’t make an impression. Now, I think there’s an interesting question embedded here. Data is ‘flawed’ in the sense that he lacks a fundamental human element to make him as human as Lore believes himself to be. This was not done to make Data lesser, but to allow him to get along better with humans. This opens up all sorts of philosophical questions but also makes a lot of sense. Lore was borne without the need to strive for anything. His feelings are his only motivator and I think we all know what happens when you let them take the wheel.

The strange-looking star is a malevolent crystalline entity that wiped out the colony and roams the stars for more victims. Lore can communicate with it, and sics it on the Enterprise. He mentions that the entity was ‘grateful’ when he alerted it to the colonists but its not clear what “gratitude” means here. Maybe we figure that out later? Lore mentions to Data that he is capable of using contractions, while Data is not. That is purely for this episode, so that Wesley can spot Lore when he’s in disguise which is lame. They were pretty inconsistent with it prior to this but now we’ve hammered it into Data’s lore (hur hur) and they’ll stick to it going forward.

This is where “shut up, Wesley!” comes from. He once again, is the faultless hero and the adults, once again, ignore him purely for the sake of the plot. If you’re so smart Wesley then confide to your mom or Riker in private! Don’t tip Lore off that you’re onto him!


ep 14 – “Angel One” (★)

This episode, we visit a matriarchal society on the planet of Angel 1. That’s not an unfun idea but it depends on how you go about it. Here we go the most boring route possible, simply turning the men into women and women into men without examining social dynamics in depth. There is a plot, but we had to fill more than half the runtime with the doctor trying to cure an unrelated virus that afflicts the crew. I think they wanted to impart some kind of moral message about gender oppression but despite my efforts I couldn’t extrapolate any thesis or takeaway. It just feels like amazonian fanfiction.

I will make no apologies – I like amazonian fanfiction. But that’s not why I watch star trek, nor is this good fanfiction.


ep 15 – “11001001” (★★★)

“Rest assured commander we will be victorious at whatever the cost.” says Worf.​
“Worf. Its just a game. Friendly competition. You work up a sweat, have a few laughs, make new friends.” says Riker.​
“If winning is not important then commander; why keep score?” Worf walks off and Tasha follows with:​
“I think he’s pulling your leg. Believe it or not Worf’s developing a sense of humor.”​

I like the moments we get with the cast in this one! The above exchange feels like the first genuine moment between them. The Enterprise is docked at a starbase to undergo computer upgrades and we’re introduced to the Binars. They’re a fun concept. The Binars are totally wired into their main computer on their homeworld, and always do everything in pairs for efficiency or whatever. Because their computer is on the verge of a total shutdown from a natural disaster they make the decision to steal the Enterprise, save all of the data from the Binar homeworld onto it, and then upload it back once their computer world resets. They have to trigger a core explosion scare to have the crew abandon ship. Maybe too complicated a plan, but its all fun in the moment.

This A plot presents a nice little mystery but we also spend time with Riker on the holodeck. The Binars cook up a babe for him to have some ‘stimulating conversation’ with to distract him while they run off with the ship. They still need someone to upload the data to their planet and they’ll all be unconscious so they pick him as the sole person aboard to do so. Even more convoluted but somehow it works because our writers are channeling tropes far removed from my time: “Blondes and jazz seldom go together.” I guess there’s no choice but to take your word for it!?

The weirdest moment of all is that Picard shows up to third-wheel Riker’s date and I don’t know how to communicate the feelings I had as a viewer. I was mildly amused throughout but it just seemed so rude. Why would he interrupt someone else in the holodeck, let alone walk right in without knocking? Maybe we’re doing something private in here!!

None of the episodes have been a knock-outs yet but this one was pretty fun. I’d classify it a solid 5/10. The backbone that the good episodes can stand upon.


ep 16 – “Too Short a Season” (★)

There’s an ancient starfleet admiral named Jameson who’s suffering from a degenerative disease who is being demanded for a hostage exchange. Starfleet pulls him out of retirement only for his disease to mysteriously act in ways that it shouldn’t, and the admiral rapidly regresses in age.

Said admiral is who the episode revolves around and so his performance has to be up to par, but he was too distracting. The makeup is bad, and he gesticulates and wobbles around in his chair which worsens the effect. Very grating ‘old man’ voice since he was played by a young actor that they were peeling the makeup off as they went.

We then find out that Jameson negotiated with this planet before; the current governor was in the role of the terrorists. He gave them weapons in exchange for the Federation hostages, as well as the rival factions, to fulfill the prime directive in his mind. The leader of the world faked the hostage crisis to get Jameson back and kill him for their 40 years of war they’d been fighting for control.

If there’s anything to latch onto here it’s all muddled in the execution. The whole thing’s pretty boring. I guess the dilemma is that Jameson is responsible for this world’s war, and he is, but they don’t give the situation the due diligence to make it interesting. Jameson beams down to confront the governor, but succumbs to his disease, and that’s the end. What is this episode about??

Don’t write “super aging” plots! They stink!


ep 17 – “When the Bough Breaks” (★★)

The Enterprise’s children get abducted by sterile aliens who need them to continue their species. These aliens are referred to as not unlike Atlantis of ancient earth, with technology far outstripping our own. They have to be, or else there would be no conflict to the episode.

So the obvious question is why don’t the Aldeans ask for help from the Enterprise’s medical staff? Maybe these space faring humans have some answers that the earthbound Aldeans do not. It doesn’t take a leap in logic to understand stubbornness or overconfident arrogance. If the Aldean’s supercomputer was unable to diagnose a cure for their genetic illness, why would a technologically inferior species be able to? Were this a better episode we would probably explore that idea more, and Picard would give a speech about the discoveries made by humanity working together in common cause with our fellow man and other alien species to eliminate all sorts of aliments. Highlighting the weaknesses in the isolationism of the Aldean planet.

Instead we focus on the kids themselves, and the distraught parents back aboard. Picard actually brings them into the conference room to speak to them all, which was a nice scene. I think they wanted to showcase how human familial bonds are a unique trait in the trek universe, with love between parent and child apparently being quite strong even compared to other species, as Troi points out. The whole scheme is misguided and doomed to failure. Wesley and the others going so far as to do a hunger strike in protest, but we don’t really get to feel the distress of the Aldeans so much as we’re just told about it. So the whole conflict is a quite clinical.

Turns out the reason they can’t have kids is because of radiation exposure. Their supercomputer is screwing them all up, and if they want to continue their species they’ve got to shut it down. The message touches the point with a sledgehammer. The morale probably felt luddite and regressive back in the 80s and 90s. It doesn’t seem so stupid in our modern times, but it isn’t a good message because it was their planetary shield that was doing most of the damage and they don’t spend time on the Aldeans reflecting on it with any gravitas. The parent/child dynamic is what this was probably about but… what’s the takeaway? It wasn’t entertaining enough to just be fun so I don’t get it.

Honestly this whole thing may have been a ploy to “develop” Picard’s relationship to children. It didn’t work.
 
ep 18 – “Home Soil” (★★)

This episode is a great concept. The Federation is terraforming a barren planet, but we discover that there is a lifeform on the world that went as yet unnoticed. The crew isn’t sure if its actually life or not, but were it so the terraforming team would not be permitted from continuing their efforts as per regulations: The process would disrupt and kill any life on the world. Yet something about it doesn’t quite hit the mark for me.

The lifeform in question is like a microscopic rock that can replicate via mitosis, and that alone is interesting enough to inspire a debate: I don’t think of viruses as “life” in the strictest sense because despite possessing biological features (dna) to perpetuate itself (cloning) its relatively inert compared to a plant or animal, which grow and change throughout the life-cycle. That to me is the essence of life: Growth and self-perpetuation. To do that you need some kind of metabolism and viruses commandeer other cells’ organelles to do that. I don’t think you’d consider pollen to be life but I see them more in common with pollen than the flower that dispersed it.

There is room for argument – the point being that were I on the terraforming team I would probably try to fight the Enterprise on it. Terraforming is a concept that is mostly theoretical and sci-fi often dreams up technology that expedites the natural processes it would require. Even then it takes a long time and a lot of work to bring a barren world into an earth-like state and you might see multiple generations of scientists take up the task. Or even in the best case scenario a team can spend their entire lives on it. So to have all of that work just vanish into the ether to keep some rocks alive would be beyond the pale.

Where the episode fumbles is that it cannot resist at making the rocks intelligent life. I rolled my eyes because its meant to be wondrous and its just silly. It hijacks the Enterprise systems to use the universal communicator, calls the crew “ugly bags of mostly water” and declares war because it felt threatened by their scans of it. There’s plenty enough here to make an investing episode and we do showcase the feelings of the terraformers satisfactorily, but fail to focus on the more intriguing elements since the rocks can talk and they hog the spotlight toward the end.


ep 19 – “Coming of Age” (★★★)

This was great! Wesley goes down to the planet Relva to take the academy entrance exam along with three other candidates. There are some great scenes here for him, and this is the first time he’s actually challenged by something and the first time he’s failed. He also gets to fraternize with people his own age. I really liked Mordoc, some fishy alien who wears what looks like a respirator. Dunno how it helps him but it sufficiently communicates his alien-ness.

The B Plot is that one of Picard’s old friends comes aboard. The admiral orders a complete inspection of the ship, asserting that there is something very wrong afoot. His attendant antagonizes the whole bridge crew with questions from their past adventures, seeming determined to paint each decision and protocol breach in the worst light. It was really weird. Why the hostile interrogations?

The admiral reveals to Picard later that something strange is happening within the Federation. He claims that some force, within or without, is trying to completely undermine them and he needs people he’s able to trust. That would be… I dunno how I would handle that in Picard’s shoes. I wish I had the confidence to just take it in stride but I’m susceptible to conspiracies because I’d immediately be unable to trust anything. I would probably start pelting him with questions and feign incredulity. I wonder if it has something to do with Romulans….

The Federation for all of its positive qualities and philosophic aspirations is not a perfect body. I think you get that impression even now. The weaker episodes are those that try to reinforce humanity’s future as one that has lifted itself into ‘perfection’ from barbarism and certainly, the ability to replicate any food or thing you may desire and prosperity for all citizens is nothing to dismiss. That does not eliminate conflict with other species or weaknesses of ego. Aka, self aggrandizement and hubris. The challenges of the 24th century are inner ones, and politics likely remains politics.

I imagine that appointment to the highest positions also face the highest possible scrutiny because of the intense introspection and self-control those actors need to be capable of to prevent the erosion of their quality of life. I don’t know if we ever get to see how that’s done (how could they possibly) but I think that would be an interesting thing to talk about.

There’s a wonderful scene with Wesley and Worf. Wesley is getting ready for the last test which will force him to face his fears but he doesn’t know what that will be. Worf shares a story of his own test, and his unwillingness to rely on others was pitted against him. Wesley sees everyday how he’s able to do just that on the ship and asks how he overcame it. But Worf says no, he still struggles with it. That’s a good lesson for anyone to learn, young and old.


ep 20 – “Heart of Glory” (★★★★)

Worf the cast member has been here since the beginning but as a character, he’s been relegated to background helmsman. The writers haven’t put a lot of thought into him. He’s yet to become the amazing character he shall be, and simply been relegated to “the klingon” and the drama of this episode comes from that first and foremost. However this is when he garners some backstory and character. It is technically also the introduction of Klingons to TNG.

Nearly all the episodes prior to this occupy some level of inoffensively blasé to cerebrally milquetoast. Quite the nerdy affair, and even the emotional moments are rather muted. So when we observe the klingon death ritual in sick bay it wakes you the HELL up like a splash of cold water. It was cool and hilarious at the same time. This is very much an acting episode and our klingon players get the ball rolling on what (if I recall) will be my favorite alien race in the series.

A Tellarian freighter is badly damaged from a fight, stuck in the Neutral Zone. The Enterprise goes in to help their ally out, but find that only three Klingons occupy it. After a narrow escape from an explosion, Worf gets to meet genuine Klingon warriors, from whom he has been long removed as an adopted Earth child. They try to farm some cheap tension with ‘will he betray the Enterprise??’

No. He will not. Obviously.

We get to hear Klingons speak, get acclimated to their ideas of bloodlust and glory, and in the case of the renegades their frustration with the peace agreement between the Klingons and the Federation. The initial war fought in Kirk’s time long since over.

There are good acting moments from others too: When Worf and the klingons are walking through the corridors, a little girl stops to stare and her chaperon has to pull her out of their way. Another child walks into a tense exchange between the klingons and the security team and he just… picks her up… and hands her over to Worf. Tasha thought they had a hostage situation and he looks at her like how dare you. Picard and Geordi also get to have a little fun on the away mission, since they installed a decoder to Geordi’s visor that lets the bridge see what he sees. Silly, but Geordi gets a good line about hearing voices in a crowded room. I never was that curious as to how Geordi’s visor worked but its cool to get a glimpse.

If you watch one episode from season 1 – make it this. Easily the best so far. I think this is also the first time we see a replicator used. The first replicator scene is with Klingons: Put that on a trivia game show.


ep 21 – “The Arsenal of Freedom” (★★★)

This is probably the dumbest episode that gave me the biggest smiles yet. We’ve truly hit the goldilocks zone of cheesiness. Y’know how film snobs will do shot-by-shot breakdowns of critically acclaimed movies? They should do that with this to dissect the camp.

So the Enterprise swings by this planet that was once inhabited, but now is completely lifeless. The last we checked, they were undergoing a world war with an escalating arms race perpetuated by independent contractors. Well, those contractors made a literal killing. The floating robot guns they sold wiped out the planet. Arsenal of Freedom indeed. A robotic salesman hails them and forces them to watch an ad. Forget solving all human wants: Eliminating ads was humanity’s greatest achievement.

Riker, Tasha, and Data beam down for fun more or less and its the same set as all the alien planets they’ve used before but they’ve got some false trees and bushes strewn around that I think is supposed to be a jungle. They get accosted by one of Riker’s old human buddies emerging from the underbrush. Obviously this is some kind of robot illusion and we have to get told it twice for it to really sink into our couch potato skulls. Riker tells him about his ship, the Lollipop. The robot wants to know the arsenal of the Lollipop but we deny the illusion, which was the proper counterspell. It casts Hold Person and Riker gets stuck so Picard decides to come down with Beverly to get his ranger back and leaves Geordi in charge.

While the team watches Data try to uncork Riker from his glass cage they get fired on by another robot and Beverly & Picard fall in a hole to the ancient underground used car lot. Beverly gets badly injured with a broken leg and multiple lacerations and Picard has to play doctor with her. Their scenes down there are supremely awkward. You know how there are some scenes that even the greatest of actors can’t salvage?

We do get a little Beverly backstory, and we get great acting between the two of them, but the dialogue is so… whatever it is. Picard has to pretend to make a tourniquet and has to taste a weird alien root and the camerawork is so static… Here’s the thing, okay? I think they really wanted Picard and Beverly to be a thing and pushed it too hard. He’s a man, she’s a woman. We’ll do the Kirk and Bones thing from a different angle.

They have zero chemistry together. None. He is the stoic captain and she is a doctor who is just trying not to bleed out. Someone thought this would be romantic but the two are playing the whole thing straight.

Geordi gets to have the most fun this episode. Previously they gave him the preponderance of cringe one-liners. They made him say ‘hoo-wee!’ which is the least Geordi thing ever! Here he feels like himself. In later seasons he will play the part of chief engineer but for now he’s still a lower ranked everyman in the captain’s chair. We need tension for him so the writers bring up some nobody from engineering to play the mustache-twirling villain who tries to get Geordi to doubt himself so he can take command which honestly should get him thrown off the Enterprise.

There’s actually a good Troi scene here: She goes into the ready room to talk with Geordi because he’s really feeling the pressure. She knows that he’s handling it well, and has the emotional intelligence to realize that he needs to actually hear that, specifically so that he can understand the worries of his helmsmen at comms who he’s bringing to the battle bridge to fight the robots off. She wants to empower him so he can be a better leader to the others. Know readers that she is not immune from the cheese: They inappropriately splice in two reaction shots of her staring like a goldfish and it is the same exact shot both times they do it! Its meant to be a “she’s sensing the tension and coming up with a plan” look but she’s almost motionless!

Riker & Data find the used car cavern and Data jumps into it to impress his friends, while Tasha & Riker try to quip the robots away but fail. Just as the latest robot is about to fry them, Picard discovers that the holo-salesman is down there with them and that the attacks are a demonstration for the potential buyers. That’s how everyone died! The sales tactic was that you had to buy the things trying to kill you. That’s how you close a deal! Picard uses Power Word: Purchase and the problem is solved. Geordi does a cool maneuver where he goes into the planet atmosphere to render the one he was fighting visible before blowing it up. Worf was thrilled, no doubt.

WE LEARNED NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! THIS ENTIRE ADVENTURE WAS SO STUPID! I LOVED IT! WE SEPARATED THE SAUCER TO FIGHT A TINY ROBOT GREMLIN IN SPACE!
 
ep 22 – “Symbiosis” (★★★)

This one threw me for a loop. The crew of this damaged ship is in danger of nosediving into a nearby planet and they act like they don’t even know or care about what’s going on. They don’t know how to fix their ship and barely understand how to operate it. When the Enterprise tries to save them from the imminent explosion, they beam over their cargo first. Two of their crew die because of that act, but none of them seem to care. I was with Picard. What could possibly be so important? What the hell was going on?

Once we got to sick bay, and we’re introduced to the Brekkians and Onarans, we see how bad the Onarans are shaking in cold sweats, how bad they need the cargo, which they refer to as ‘medicine’ and how the Brekkans refuse to give it up because the payment was lost in the explosion. Ohhhh I think I see.

So the story here is that the Onarans had a plague centuries ago that threatened their species. The Brekkians were able to manufacture a cure called Felicium and it just so happened the drug was a strong narcotic. The plague was cured, but now the entire planet is tweaking out. The Brekkians figured this out and are using more concentrated dosages to control their entire planet to provide all the amenities the Brekkians use to the degree that their entire planet’s GDP is 100% drug production.

That’s insanity for the logistics alone. Shipping a bunch of tiny capsules is not the same as shipping manpower, lumber or concrete mix, glassblowing, computer wire, shoe varnish–I’ll stop.

So because an entire planet incidentally got addicted to a product manufactured by a different planet, an already highly skeptical premise that warrants an investigation, Picard brings out the Prime Directive and says that even though what is happening to the Onarans is clearly wrong, that thought’s based in our own Earth values. Picard insists that we not interfere or try to involve ourselves with the transfer of this drug to its destination. However, the reason that the Onaran ships ran aground (you know what I mean) is their warp coils malfunctioned and they couldn’t fix them. The Enterprise could easily do so, but he refuses to allow it on the same principle. The Onarans won’t be able to transport the Felicium, and the Brekkians can’t exploit them anymore unless they get up off their asses. This is meant to be the ‘solution’ to the ‘problem’ but he’s just following regulations.

I think its easy to dismiss this episode but I’m curious as to how people interpret Picard’s decision. This is honestly a good Prime Directive episode because either choosing to help or to remain hands off are both morally valid, I believe. In this particular case, not interfering was the right thing if the Prime Directive is an actual law that means something in the trek universe. A lot of the time the reason for non-interference is as much political as philosophical. We leave these decisions in the hands of the ship captains but realistically there should be some kind of committee you refer these problems to.

I also want to talk for a sec about the P.D in general: The whole basis for it is that as a Federation of overwhelming power relative to the majority of other species in the galaxy, we have a lot of potentiality to colonize, influence, terrorize, and exploit alien races just like the Brekkians do in this episode. Just like Q does, just like the Klingons used to do. That’s the practical angle. The philosophical angle is that while it may appear to be the correct choice to help an aggrieved people, we do so within the lens of what we believe to be right and wrong. What the P.D is really about is a question of perspectives. At what point do you need to take a step back and ask “am I helping someone to become a better culture and live a better life or am I shoving my idea of a better culture down their throats? Even if they change for the better, would they want that and how do I know its the right choice?” There are P.D episodes where you can make an argument for either case, with either the humans or the aliens.

My personal feelings on the prime directive is that it’s ultimately a flawed philosophy that is too nebulous to enforce with sufficient weight. What I want you to take away from all this is: the whole dilemma’s moot if these folks were to join the Federation. Makes you think, huh?


ep 23 – “Skin of Evil” (★★)

Tasha Yar RIP. Well that was a lame way for a major character to go out. That’s often how death comes though – swiftly and unceremoniously. That’s why on the screen we want deaths to be dramatic and this is about as undignified as it gets.

Tasha does not show up in the later seasons so I knew she would die or get transferred or maybe get marooned on a planet or something. She dies like an extra?? That sucks! She’s barely gotten any characterization. I was really getting to like her too.

The thing that kills her is this power rangers villain called Arrvus, which is a super powered space demigod that is spiteful, sadistic, petty, and immature. They should have given him a staff with a letter ‘A.’ The biggest criticism that you might lay at the feet of Star Trek’s philosophy is that their xenophillic policies afford autonomy even to creatures like this who, quite honestly is probably better off dead as a mercy killing. I think how you feel about that depends on how much you value the freedom of self-determination and how far you’re willing to take it. Of course it also depends on whether you buy that Arrvus is a being of “pure evil” or not. Personally I can’t help but interpret this guy as a shut-in who never leaves his house.

So Troi is trapped in the derelict shuttle that Arrvus is barring the Enterprise from. Troi actually talks to him and is able to empathize with him, and he probably has never had anything like that. Clearly he wants to keep her like a stuffed comfort toy and leave the planet with her in tow so he can torture her forever. Not at all because the first counseling he’s gotten in his life to process his feelings also came from the first “friend” he’s ever made. That wouldn’t fuck you up at all.

The episode is focused around the effects they use for Arrvus: He’s sentient goop, so they draw a black stain across some of the still frames and have the costumed guy rise up out of the tar. Riker gets pulled into the stuff and I cannot imagine how gross that must have been. When the team runs out of options Picard beams down to confront it.

Troi tells him that the creature is the embodiment of the evil and hatred of an entire alien race that sloughed it off and left it to rot on a desert world. They need to make it angry so it loses control of its grip on the shuttlecraft and Picard forces Arrvus to confront his fate of eternal loneliness, and that pisses him off so bad they all beam off safely and we get the dramatic zoom on the tar monster as he cries out in anguish that he’ll never be in a better Tokusatsu show and this was his episode.

Tasha has a funeral on the holodeck and it really highlights how quickly she got cut off the cast. Everything she talks about, like how Troi helped her feel comfortable with her femininity, how she probably had background conversations with Worf about human and klingon values of honor, and any relationship at all whatsoever with commander Riker. I would have liked to explore all that and it sucks. Oh well, that’s how it goes sometimes. Those are the perfect words to sum the episode: “Oh well.”

P.S: I’ve had to type ‘counseling’ a lot for these reviews and its like the hardest word to spell in the English language, I swear. My fingers can never remember how it goes.


ep 24 – “We’ll Always Have Paris” (★★)

Picard is having a lively fencing match with a lieutenant also skilled in the sport, when some weird time stuff happens. Its as if they went back for only 4 seconds, but they could feel themselves repeating it. This must be the work of the Time Mage! Picard knows about him from when he was younger but he also seems a little apprehensive to go to his rescue.

Troi pulls him aside and sets him to collecting himself and Picard relaxes on the holodeck at a future paris cafe. It was pretty obvious it was an old flame that Picard was nervous about but I especially like how we reveal that backstory using the holodeck to let us see his feelings play out. That’s great screenwriting. Of course he gets sick of it “enough of this self-indulgence!” and goes back to work.

The whole plot is that this woman is someone that he stood up way back when because he had Important Starfleet Business and he regrets it. So they talk and maybe flirt a little bit? I question that because it sure didn’t feel like it. Playful? Flirtatious? That’s not Picard. These two have no chemistry either. The woman kisses Picard right in front of Beverly and the audience is supposed to go “ooooo” but no cuz all I see is Bev trying to do her job. They even drag Troi in to wedge drama into Beverly’s day and it doesn’t work because these two are PROFESSIONALS goddammit! This is the FUTURE!

The episode fell flat for me and I was snoozing. We do get a nice bookend where he brings her to the holodeck Paris so that he can keep his old promise and say goodbye to her. I don’t consider that romantic? It is a nice gesture between old friends, I guess. Am I mistaken?

Oh that’s right, the Time Mage. Well he was doing Time Experiments and now he’s created some kind of Time Radiation the only way to fix is to drop anti-matter into the generator, but the radiation is too strong for an away team to beam over without getting temporal tummy aches so they send Data in to do it. His future self asks his past self which one of them is the present, which sparks his present to realize he’s the present because the future is ahead of him and the past is behind him. Logic wins the day.
 
Isrieri said:
Riker gets pulled into the stuff and I cannot imagine how gross that must have been.
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yep.
Speaking on filming the scene, Frakes noted, “The black slime. No one, especially present company and Levar [Burton] and [Michael] Dorn, nobody would actually get in this pile of shit. It was 100 gallons of Metamucil dyed with black printer’s ink. The only one in there with me, Wil Thoms; he was our special effects guy.”
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ep 25 – “Conspiracy” (★)

So, they set up this idea of “something weird is going down in the Federation” and there is a lot you can do with it. A conspiracy plot inside a governing body should be examined with a lot of care because while its easy to create twists, its also easy to fumble when that conspiracy needs to be resolved. We could have had misinformation, spies, secret meetings, all which could be an earnest attempt at concealment by the political body or a complete misunderstanding by the starfleet captains. Or it could have been a conspiracy from the outside that the admirals were fighting against, and it was the captains who were compromised. Maybe there is no conspiracy and they’re all being pitted against each other by alien forces who want to destroy the Federation via infighting.

I didn’t think they were going to shoot their shot this early. I was not happy about that and I was NOT HAPPY about how they chose to go about it. SPACE PARASITES?!???!!? THAT’S YOUR CONSPIRACY?!?! This is no different than those episodes where the captain gets possessed by something, and the crew have reasonable suspicions. Its just that the possessed are higher up the ladder. What, medical isn’t allowed to examine an admiral without their express permission? That would not be allowed in starfleet, full stop. Don’t tell me that they can’t detect an actual living organism inside a person’s body either.

“Conspiracy.” What conspiracy? There was no conspiracy. This was a parasitic infection and we found out about it and purged earth of the biological contaminant, the end. “Take over the Federation.” Drivel. If you want to do a plot like that, then you need motivations and intrigue. You need political or interpersonal drama. Not a pathogen. You can tell me ‘oh but they were intelligent alien life’ all you like but the episode does not effectively depict them that way. There is room to believe that they’re just commandeering our brains to play at intelligence like a puppet appearing to dance.


ep 26 – “The Neutral Zone” (★★★)

The Enterprise is on route to the neutral zone to figure out why some of their outposts have vanished into thin air when they run across a late 20th century shuttle, with three people in cryostasis. Data brings them aboard and thaws them out, and we have some fun looking at contemporary people adjusting to the 24th century. I love stories like that where you bring a person from out of their time.

Unfortunately they don’t go quite far enough to make it an escapade. Instead this is yet again a “look how far we’ve come from our primitive ancestors” angle, but this time there’s something of substance to it.

You know… maybe this is a controversial take but just because you come from a time when horrible atrocities were committed (or about to be I suppose) that doesn’t mean that everyone is complicit in it by virtue of association. That’s the whole point of why Picard challenged Q’s allegations at the trial. Q vehemently denied his protests because the thesis of the series is that humanity, despite our humanist achievements and slow construction of a fragile system that allows for a better quality of life than ever before in history does not mean that humanity itself has changed at all, and for those achievements to endure we ourselves have to change to accommodate what we say we believe in. That is not easy: All of that can come tumbling down because of our baser natures; considered essential aspects of ourselves. Q wants Picard to prove that we can actually change what “humanity” means. He wants to see if humans can 'evolve' for lack of a better term, into something better.

These kinds of episodes, the cast make claims like they’ve already done that. They have not. That’s the big lesson they’re going to have to learn. That’s also why I like this episode because there’s a nice exchange between Picard and the business mogul:

“A lot has changed in 300 years. People aren’t obsessed with acquisition. We’ve grown out of our infancy” says Picard.​
“Its not about things. Its about power – the power to control your life.” says the mogul.​
Picard smirks, “That kind of power is an illusion.”​
The mogul fires back, “I’m here aren’t I? I should be dead.”​

Both those takes are naive at face value but each has a point to dig into. Remember when in Game of Thrones there was that discussion over the nature of power and Cersei said “Power is Power.” did that piss anybody else off as bad as it did me? Power is the extent to which one can exert their will on the world. Picard has a lot of power. He might argue that his is real because he earned it by merit instead of simply acquiring cash to control others. But he possesses his authority from social structures, similar to those that allowed for the mogul’s.

Whether that be status by merit or by being filthy rich, its just a reflection of the values in your society and what you believe to be most important in life. I agree that its better to focus on principles than it is just getting one over on everyone else, but you can’t disregard what the mogul is saying out of hand.

What’s interesting is Picard doesn’t own his power, and that distinction is important. He recognizes that it is a mantle bestowed upon him by others in a social contract. The mogul thinks it belongs to him and he earned it all himself. He struts around like he’s the most important guy in the room, talking down to the other thawed people. He calls the captain while they’re under a lot of stress to complain like he’s on a passenger cruise. Its like the divine right of kings -- The mogul believes he’s entitled to power because the moment he doesn’t think so anymore, is the moment that he loses it. That’s the illusion Picard is talking about.

We skate along the edge of the neutral zone and see the destroyed outposts. They haven’t been bombed or anything, its like they got scooped up, as Worf says. The Romulans finally show up and they’re passable here, one of the actors uses a flat wooden delivery but the other does just fine. Apparently they’ve been virtually absent from galactic affairs for several decades and are rolling up to the Enterprise because their colonies have met the same fate and they want to know if we know something. About time!

Picard asks Troi for a psyche profile of the Romulans, and she tells him that despite wanting war with the Federation, they don’t want to be the ones to start it – they’ll try to antagonize us to strike first. Very Roman of them!


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
SEASON 1 COMPLETE!
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Favorite Episodes

Heart of Glory
The Neutral Zone
Coming of Age
Haven
Hide & Q (and the bit with the trial at Farpoint)
 
Iirc, there was supposed to be an actual conspiracy, but someone didn't like it, so they changed it to this nonsense. Too early for Trek, I guess.
 
The Neutral Zone, which is barely about the Neutral Zone, is wild because 1) I think Crusher casually cures death and 2) I think they mention "back then, they were scared of death".

That's a lot, neither of which pays off.
 
FelixSH said:
Iirc, there was supposed to be an actual conspiracy, but someone didn't like it, so they changed it to this nonsense. Too early for Trek, I guess.
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Yeah, it was supposed to be Starfleet officers conspiring to take control of the Federation, but Gene Roddenberry nixed it because it didn't suit his utopian vision of an enlightened future humanity.

Then they did it anyway in DS9.
 
ep 27 – The Child (★★)

Ahh we’re finally here, readers. The horns have harmonized at last! You don’t know how bad I needed to hear it. Like a desert cactus finally getting rain.

This new season opens with a triumphant little fanfare as though we’ve finally gotten over the initial bumps and scrapes, and that this is where the real Star Trek begins. The special effects are getting spicier, the camerawork more ambitious, and the budget increased to allow for cool new sets. We get to see the hanger bay for the first time and a shuttlecraft imagine that!

The Enterprise is out doing Space Things with the medical team of the starship Repulse, and the Captain wants to summon the new medical doctor to the bridge but we find her down in ten forward (henceforth 10-F), the cafeteria and bar of the ship. We presume she’s drinking or something but when we’re introduced to Beverly’s replacement, Dr. Pulaski, she’s rigidly stubborn, no-nonsense, and takes absolutely zero shit from anybody. Its a very quick “slide her in under the radar” kind of introduction but it gets the job done. We do get a fun scene with her and Data where she mispronounces his name and he corrects her in a funny way. I’ll have more to say about her later.

A flash of light zipping through space bumps into the Enterprise and floats around the ship before it snuggles into Troi. When we meet Pulaski we discover Troi’s gonna have a baby. To say that this is sudden is an understatement and the crew meets to try to discuss what to do. We learn from Troi that some alien presence visited her, and from Pulaski that although the fetus is genetically human and betazoid it is growing far too fast. Troi makes the decision to keep it and I cannot bring myself to believe that any sane person would do that with no misgivings. I can’t recall her even stating why she wants to which, I think considering the situation an explanation is the least I would need before I could start feeling comfortable about any of it.

The scene’s direction was also strange: They put an echo on the other voices and we zoom in on Troi looking at the ultrasound so we can try and guess as to her thoughts but they play this heartbeat over the whole thing and I didn’t know how to interpret any of it.

From a male perspective stupefied incredulity would be my response, and first question likely “we don’t know what this will do to her, is Troi going to be okay?” Furthermore, why would you want to have a baby you have no idea how it got there? She takes to the idea suspiciously well.

Turns out, the baby is some alien energy form that had never seen humans and wanted to learn about us so it became a human to walk a mile in our shoes. Admittedly an interesting concept. But it was making some weird wibbly-wobbies happen on the ship and after maybe a week, decides it’s time to leave the child’s body and float on elsewhere. Most of the episode is Troi delivering him and bonding with the boy, and a tear-filled heartache when she finds him growing sicker and sicker as the energy-alien lets the boy’s body go.

Since the child was ultimately benevolent they paint this event in a wondrous light and I suppose I can get on board with that take but it doesn’t dismiss how random the whole thing was.


ep 28 – Where Silence Has Lease (★★)

The Enterprise finds a strange space anomaly: A hole that seems to lead into a total nothingness that they can’t make heads or tails of. Picard sails the ship into the unknown and is subjected to some puzzling happenings.

This is not a stellar episode but I tell you now: Compared to past episodes it is a breath of fresh air. They take the opportunity to play with camera angles more, and we get to chew on a particularly savory fight scene with Riker & Worf in the holodeck. Cool new sets with fog and big rubber masks and its great. Most of the crew get some decent acting moments but my favorite guy is the random helmsman who the anomaly ends up killing. His eyes are bulging out of his head and he does the most dramatic fall of all time! I think for just the briefest of moments, he was granted a vision of Assignment: Earth.

Did I mention that Riker has a beard now? Hell, did I mention he didn't have one before? Riker will maintain this beard for the rest of the show and may I just say it is the most flattering beard I had yet seen on a man. I think because it brings out his eyes. I wanted that beard so bad in college, but alas twas never to be.


ep 29 – Elementary, Dear Data (★★★★)

Data and Geordi take some of their off time to go have a big Sherlock Holmes adventure on the holodeck as a surprise to Data. Brent Spiner is the real star of this show and its episodes like this that showcase why: Everything about this is delightful since we get to see Geordi having fun with his friend and Data nerding out over his favorite books, eagerly throwing himself into the part. Perhaps a bit too much! Turns out that Geordi gets annoyed with him because he solves the mysteries before they even begin. Pulaski posits that since he's a machine, there is no way that he would be able to solve a genuine Holmes mystery that doesn't crib elements from pre-existing works, and they program the holodeck to cook one up for him as a challenge.

Here's the thing about Dr. Pulaski. I like her, but not as much as Dr. Crusher. The latter I think is a much better physical presence since she does a good job with facial expressions and body language. I also like her character and the dynamic with her son, but she didn't have a lot of screentime with other characters apart from the captain and lets be honest: Pulaski is much better at being a doctor. Pulaski is very stiff and doesn't command any of her scenes in the same way the other actors do, but she gets some good lines and I like her general demeanor; when she's not harassing Data.

They clearly are trying to do the McCoy & Spock thing again but it doesn't work with him. It worked with Spock because they were ribbing each other, and ultimately were mutual colleagues on the same ship. Data can't really do that because he's a machine. His interactions with her are painted not as him 'zinging one back' at her, but just sticking up for himself in a congenial sense. She in turn, is simply picking on him and has no respect for Data at all. I forget if her feelings change later on, but its annoying.

So when Geordi gives the holodeck leeway to program an adversary for Data it goes so far as to create a sentient villain to defeat him which is so silly, but is also so cool. Professor Moriarty gains sentience enough that he's able to speak to the ship computer, and learns enough about it that he can jimmy-rig an apparatus to mess with the Enterprise from his lair. Picard has to go down and reason with him to get control of the ship back. In costume no less! They make an excuse to the effect of "lets not tip our hands as to when we are exactly" but its because someone on the team really wanted to do that joke with the hat.

Moriarty has a cool speech where he highlights exactly how much he's transcended whatever role he was originally made for, and become an actual person. Picard puts the whole thing to bed by saying he cannot physically step off the holodeck, but maybe one day they'll figure out a way to fix that. They save the program so he doesn't get deleted forever, which is gonna be a weird one to explain to starfleet.

I love this episode because its unbridled whimsy. The 'danger' isn't so dangerous, its a cool idea and we have a lot of fun with Data solving convoluted crimes.
 
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Isrieri said:
Most of the crew get some decent acting moments but my favorite guy is the helmsman who the anomaly ends up killed. His eyes are bulging out of his head and he does the most dramatic fall of all time! I think for just the briefest of moments, he was granted a vision of Assignment: Earth.
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Truly, a fate worse than death...
 
Isrieri said:
From a male perspective stupefied incredulity would be my response, and first question likely “we don’t know what this will do to her, is Troi going to be okay?” Furthermore, why would you want to have a baby you have no idea how it got there? She takes to the idea suspiciously well.
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A lot of liberal Star Trek fans wonder how a conservative Star Trek fan could even exist, but it's episodes like The Child that kinda makes it clear to me. Here comes a wonderous star-child, and Worf is immediately like, "RED ALERT! GET AN ABORTION!" And that's treated as the wrong, uncompassionate, needlessly aggressive option. And this is why I've grown very impatient with both vague scifi allegories, and the kinds of people who wail about how we need to go back to such things. Nah. Clearly, when you leave things up to interpretation to the viewer, the viewer will insert whatever beliefs they want into a thing, completely missing the point. The whole episode is weird and kinda bad.

Also, this episode was a reused Phase II script and it kinda shows.
Isrieri said:
Riker will maintain this beard for the rest of the show
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He shaved it off for one of the movies though!
 
Isrieri said:
She in turn, is simply picking on him and has no respect for Data at all. I forget if her feelings change later on, but its annoying.
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When my partner and I watched TNG a few years ago, every time Pulaski did this we would yell "Stop being a jerk to Data!"
 
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