Welcome to the 30th anniversary of 1994! (And get OFF my LAWN!)
It occurred to me that we're in the run up to the 30th anniversary of All Good Things and Generations. So then I started thinking "Hey, I had kind of fallen out of Star Trek watching back then. Why not do it again (for the first time) now?" (I've seen all the episodes. Just not week to week.)
I meant to start this a week or two ago, so I've missed the DS9 episodes Rivals and The Alternate. And The Pegasus aired on January 10th.
If I remember right TNG and DS9 were syndicated so depending on your market these episodes all aired sometime during that week, right?
Anyway, 30ish years ago people who were watching Star Trek watched Homeward.
Next up, for those that feel like joining in on this shindig:
30 January: DS9 Armageddon Game
31 January: TNG (shudder) Sub Rosa
Wow. I'm not a 24th century guy. Not my favorite era, not my favorite characters, not my favorite ships or design. But this was where the bulk of Star Trek has taken place. And my goodness by this time TNG was looking GOOD. Watching that teaser and the opening credits feels a bit like coming home.
I'll go look up all the details on Memory Alpha later. But how the heck did they get Paul freaking Sorvino to be on this show? (Edit: MA is unrevealing on this point.)
Like I said, I wasn't watching TNG much when this was on. Was this the season where everyone got a family member? (Oh no! I didn't wait until after Sub Rosa to start this!)
Hey! Penny Johnson! How long before she shows up on DS9?
Oh, this was when I finally figured out that the Prime Directive (as implemented in TNG) was totally evil! And then Into Darkness doubled down on it! I suppose Pen Pals (was that the one?) had done this kind of dance before as well.
Because the Culture of the Week doesn't have warp drive they are beyond saving? But if they only had that level of tech then the Federation would do something? Yikes. And if I recall it's not even once a civilization explores and finds the Federation on its own. It's the moment they invent FTL. Bam! Welcome to our club!
I get that this isn't really about if the Prime Directive is good or bad. It's the TNG writers finding an impossible morale conundrum for our heroes.
Picard's reaction to Nikolai is that it's like Nikolai used the wrong fork. And Picard is really mad about it. And then Picard is all "What do you expect us to do now?" Um... Airlock? "That would be so... Icky!" (Didn't Picard have pretty much the same reaction to the 20th century space popsicles back in The Neutral Zone in season 1?)
I don't understand the stakes. Worst case scenario in Nikolai's plan: They find out that they were moved by aliens. Gods. Whatever. It becomes part of their culture. Not the first civ to have alien benefactors in its past. Including (according to Star Trek) ours.
But the worst case scenario in Picard's plan: They all die and are never heard from again. How is this a debate?
I can't even see Our Heroes as people in this episode. The only person I actually believed was the guy from the planet that killed himself. And then Picard (the writers) has the audacity to say "I wished I had known him better."
Hey, Deana's not wearing the space suit?
It occurred to me that we're in the run up to the 30th anniversary of All Good Things and Generations. So then I started thinking "Hey, I had kind of fallen out of Star Trek watching back then. Why not do it again (for the first time) now?" (I've seen all the episodes. Just not week to week.)
I meant to start this a week or two ago, so I've missed the DS9 episodes Rivals and The Alternate. And The Pegasus aired on January 10th.
If I remember right TNG and DS9 were syndicated so depending on your market these episodes all aired sometime during that week, right?
Anyway, 30ish years ago people who were watching Star Trek watched Homeward.
Next up, for those that feel like joining in on this shindig:
30 January: DS9 Armageddon Game
31 January: TNG (shudder) Sub Rosa
Wow. I'm not a 24th century guy. Not my favorite era, not my favorite characters, not my favorite ships or design. But this was where the bulk of Star Trek has taken place. And my goodness by this time TNG was looking GOOD. Watching that teaser and the opening credits feels a bit like coming home.
I'll go look up all the details on Memory Alpha later. But how the heck did they get Paul freaking Sorvino to be on this show? (Edit: MA is unrevealing on this point.)
Like I said, I wasn't watching TNG much when this was on. Was this the season where everyone got a family member? (Oh no! I didn't wait until after Sub Rosa to start this!)
Hey! Penny Johnson! How long before she shows up on DS9?
Oh, this was when I finally figured out that the Prime Directive (as implemented in TNG) was totally evil! And then Into Darkness doubled down on it! I suppose Pen Pals (was that the one?) had done this kind of dance before as well.
Because the Culture of the Week doesn't have warp drive they are beyond saving? But if they only had that level of tech then the Federation would do something? Yikes. And if I recall it's not even once a civilization explores and finds the Federation on its own. It's the moment they invent FTL. Bam! Welcome to our club!
I get that this isn't really about if the Prime Directive is good or bad. It's the TNG writers finding an impossible morale conundrum for our heroes.
Picard's reaction to Nikolai is that it's like Nikolai used the wrong fork. And Picard is really mad about it. And then Picard is all "What do you expect us to do now?" Um... Airlock? "That would be so... Icky!" (Didn't Picard have pretty much the same reaction to the 20th century space popsicles back in The Neutral Zone in season 1?)
I don't understand the stakes. Worst case scenario in Nikolai's plan: They find out that they were moved by aliens. Gods. Whatever. It becomes part of their culture. Not the first civ to have alien benefactors in its past. Including (according to Star Trek) ours.
But the worst case scenario in Picard's plan: They all die and are never heard from again. How is this a debate?
I can't even see Our Heroes as people in this episode. The only person I actually believed was the guy from the planet that killed himself. And then Picard (the writers) has the audacity to say "I wished I had known him better."
Hey, Deana's not wearing the space suit?
"Sign of LaForge."
