"Little Rascals" Riker puts on a horrifying display on ineptitude

[James T Kirk]

2 hundred year old little birds of prey take over the Enterprise because Riker sits there and has no clue how to fight.

If the ship has photon torpedos why not use them sometime? WTF

Unbelievable that they would just sit there and get their asses handed to them, possibly the most unrealistic and stupidest scene of all time.

The ship is being attacked and they just sit there and refuse to fight back. Yea ok.

Lame.

 

[BillJ]

Lazarus told Kirk he was going to take the Enterprise dilithium and successfully does it. Unfortunately, sometimes the plot call for characters to be idiots.

 

[Trekker4747]

It is hard to believe the Enterprise would so easily be overtaken and then hijacked by the Ferengi in this manner. I don't care how you want to justify it the Enterprise is just far too advanced with too bright of a crew, including Riker, for such a thing to happen. Sort of why I have such a problem with "Generations" and the Fall of the -D.

It's unbelievable Riker and the rest of the crew would be so inept as to let the bird-of-prey utterly ruin them in such a manner. Shields or no. All they had to was pretty much turn everything they had (A forward-facing torpedo launcher capable of launching a 10-torpedo slavo at once, several phaser banks with forward-capable firing arcs) on the BoP and end of fight, clean up the mess.

But they just sort of sit there and take the punishment and fire off one simple phaser blast.

If the E-D can so easily stand-up to a Borg Cube with shields down by "firing all weapons" a decades old Bird of Prey with known defects shouldn't have been a problem.

 

[BillJ]

I just try to steer clear of episodes that make the characters look objectively stupid to move the plot along. Probably why I haven't watched "Rascals" in, at least, a decade.

 

[Armored Saint]

Riker's brain capacities are back later in the episode when he "explains" how the computer works.

But we're unfair with this poor Willie...BECAUSE WORF TOTALLY SUCKED ON THAT TOO! And what the use of a security department if they can't do anithing against 24 ferengi pirates (not super-commando, pirates). I mean, the Ferengi have taken hostages or something like that, they would have had an excuse.

 

[RunawayStarShip]

In the case of "Rascals", I think that Riker's knowledge about Klingons backfired. He expected to be dealing with Klingons, so he seemed lackadaisical in fighting back so that they could "win" to satisfy their honor, or something like that. (Of course, it's still silly, because if it had turned out be the House of Duras looking for revenge, for example, it would have turned out really badly...)

As for Generations, the Duras simply caught the crew completely off guard. They got off multiple direct hits to the engineering hull before the crew even knew what was going on.

 

[BillJ]

As for Generations, the Duras simply caught the crew completely off guard. They got off multiple direct hits to the engineering hull before the crew even knew what was going on.

But in order for that to happen they had to let Geordi go about his business without thoroughly going over his visor which had been used by enemies before.

 

[Trekker4747]

Riker's brain capacities are back later in the episode when he "explains" how the computer works.

But we're unfair with this poor Willie...BECAUSE WORF TOTALLY SUCKED ON THAT TOO! And what the use of a security department if they can't do anithing against 24 ferengi pirates (not super-commando, pirates). I mean, the Ferengi have taken hostages or something like that, they would have had an excuse.

1000 people on board and NO ONE was capable of doing anything except for a handful of children. Granted, a handful of them had adult minds, but you'd think with so many people on board, so many weapons on board and such those Ferengi wouldn't have posed much of a threat, allowing for maybe some injuries and casualties.

 

[jimbotron]

While Rascals required the crew to be complete morons to make the plot happen, Generations was even worse. Riker and crew spent minutes talking about plasma coils and trying to "Brannon Braga" their way out of a problem using tech talk, instead of maybe .... FIRING ALL THEIR WEAPONS at the hoopty Bird of Prey. But no, the Enterprise had to be destroyed, because they needed something to make the third act remotely interesting.

 

[Armored Saint]

1000 people on board and NO ONE was capable of doing anything except for a handful of children. Granted, a handful of them had adult minds, but you'd think with so many people on board, so many weapons on board and such those Ferengi wouldn't have posed much of a threat, allowing for maybe some injuries and casualties.

Yup, in fact the presence of children would have been of good reason for the crew to be prudent...but they weren't even prudent, they were passive.

In TOS, where the Enteprise happened to be hijacked, it was by ruse or by a specific advantages, not because three dudes beamed up on the bridge with guns.

Come on, if you can't protect the Enterprise-D against Ferengi pirates, good luck to fight a Romulan Warbird...wait Romulans had been fooled by Pakleds...they're maybe not a serious threat.

 

[Trekker4747]

While Rascals required the crew to be complete morons to make the plot happen, Generations was even worse. Riker and crew spent minutes talking about plasma coils and trying to "Brannon Braga" their way out of a problem using tech talk, instead of maybe .... FIRING ALL THEIR WEAPONS at the hoopty Bird of Prey. But no, the Enterprise had to be destroyed, because they needed something to make the third act remotely interesting.

The reason for it was worse than that, the movie's makers didn't respect the -D as a beloved ship that was as much a character as everyone else. Sure, there's the arguments that the model and design was clunky and hard to get good angles of for shooting, but they got rid of a character on the show in the movie just to make their jobs a little easier/better in the following movies by having a more filming-friendly design of a ship.

Bullshit, there's plenty of beautiful angles of the ship in the series and even in the movie, and it's not like ship-shots are greatly common in the movies anyway. Man, I hated the destruction of the -D. I never grew to like the -E it just was pretty, elegant and it felt far more like a cold, sterile, military vessel rather than a warm, elegant home of exploration everyone was supposed to be serving a couple of decades on.

 

[jimbotron]

This episode was also an enormous waste of Michelle Forbes. She was either too busy to appear in the last two seasons, or the producers weren't interested in her anymore (for refusing DS9), so she was in about a minute of one episode in the entire season. I'm surprised she agreed to appear at all.

 

[Melakon]

In that "Little Rascals" episode, I kept waiting for Spanky and Alfalfa to show up.

 

[Armored Saint]

Alexander was Buckwheat? (Of course, as I'm born the day of Heart of Glory's first brodcast, I only saw the 1994 movie).

 

[Kevman7987]

You know, every time the ship had boarders, why didn't they just put out some sort of shipwide emergency code that meant they were going to space the section of ship the boarders were in?

"Intruder alert! Deck 6, sections 8 through 16!"

After a minute, vent or open the airlocks in that section.

Just space those damned Ferengi; They won't be a problem when they're suffocating in vacuum.

 

[SoM]

You know, every time the ship had boarders, why didn't they just put out some sort of shipwide emergency code that meant they were going to space the section of ship the boarders were in?

"Intruder alert! Deck 6, sections 8 through 16!"

After a minute, vent or open the airlocks in that section.

Just space those damned Ferengi; They won't be a problem when they're suffocating in vacuum.

Nah, that would just ensure that (a) you'd be killing your own people and (b) possibly more importantly, the intruders would have grav-boots and environment suits.

Easier to just have panic buttons to instantly beam anyone unauthorised (NOT relying on commbadges!) in critical areas like the bridge, main engineering and the transporter rooms to the brig (or a forcefield-secured area of cargo bay, if there's too many for the brig).

 

[F. King Daniel]

Rusty old Klingon Bird of Prey > Enterprise-D. Proven three times, in two timelines.

 

[Armored Saint]

You know, every time the ship had boarders, why didn't they just put out some sort of shipwide emergency code that meant they were going to space the section of ship the boarders were in?

"Intruder alert! Deck 6, sections 8 through 16!"

After a minute, vent or open the airlocks in that section.

Just space those damned Ferengi; They won't be a problem when they're suffocating in vacuum.

Nah, that would just ensure that (a) you'd be killing your own people and (b) possibly more importantly, the intruders would have grav-boots and environment suits.

Yup, too radical to be efficient. Eliminating yourself the hostages isn't the good way to resolve the problem especially when the intruders target places like the bridge or the engineering section.

 

[urbandefault]

You know, every time the ship had boarders, why didn't they just put out some sort of shipwide emergency code that meant they were going to space the section of ship the boarders were in? <snip>

"PINEAPPLE!"

 

[Salinga]

What I learned from this episode:

- The Enterprise can be taken by pirates within seconds, even if they are idiot Ferengi.
- Picard has no problems to order under age children into dealing with psychopaths face to face.
- The transporter is the actual fountain of youth.
- The transporter automatically refits clothing if you lose body mass during transport.
- Riker needs to read the technobabble from off screen cue cards.
- Keiko has no problem if her husband is physically attracted to an under age girl.

I think, this is an episode that only works if you watch it as a child. With adult eyes it is pretty ridiculous (and even uncomfortable regarding Keiko).