Awe, man... I LOVE Starship Mine

[TroiFan4ever]

I actually watched this episode last night...
As much as I hate to admit this, I have to say that this was better than much of the Season 7 episodes that I'm so addicted to.

The BEST Season 6 episode, thus far.

Here's why I love this episode so much, the emergency evacuation part, where everybody gotta get out of the ship and the part with the lights going out and the Emergency Lights kicking in (as seen also in "Dark Page", "Masks", and "Genesis"). I LOVE the darkness of the corridors... when the ship goes on emergency lights like that.

* Wow, Picard! Very smart of you to run into the Jefferies Tube! The guy with the gun saw the doors were wide open so it's an obvious retreat place.
I would've went down the corridors then it would've been harder for Picard to find me/him.

* That Black guy who tried to attack Picard, isn't that Tuvock from VOY?

* Speaking of both cases, in all that, it did come as a handy weapon to use against "Tuvock" anyway but I find it a bit amusing that Picard would go back for a saddle.

* After Picard shot the long-haired guy in the leg with an arrow and took his gun, some other girl came up and threatened him with a gun, telling him to put his down. AND he did it. Why? I would've shot her real fast.

So what did others think of this awesome episode? What was your favorite episode from each season? I can't stress this enough but this was Season 6's best episode next to "Timescape"!

My favorite episodes from each season so far
Season 1: "Datalore"
Season 2: "Where Silence Has Leased"
Season 3: don't know, never watch S3
Season 4: "Remember Me?"
Season 5: don't know, never watch S5
Season 6: "Starship Mine"
Season 7: tie between "Dark Page" and "Masks"

 

[MHT1138]

Starship Mine is lot of fun to watch. It has been described as Star Trek does Die Hard. Yes that is Tim Russ or Tuvok from Voyager, he was also in Star Trek VI as Tuvok, and Invasive Procedures in DS9 as a Klingon i think.
I thought Picard went back for the saddle because he was trying to get out of the boring cocktail party. The scenes on the space station at the party are pretty good too. Picard definately kicks some ass in this episode.

 

[GNDN]

Tim Russ was never in ST VI, but the VOY episode Flashback does place him on the Excelsior as part of Capt. Sulu's crew during that time.

He did appear as a human bridge officer on the Enterprise-B in Generations.

The saddle bit was kinda funny. Always assumed he was BSing his way out of the party, but Picard had been established as a rider, and in the end it turns out he does have a saddle?!? Unless he quickly replicated one to maintain his image of truthiness

 

[MHT1138]

Generations, that makes sense. It was established in a second season episode, can't remember which one, that Picard is a horseback rider.

 

[Trek Survivor]

We first saw Picard's fondness for riding horses in "Pen Pals".

Funny, I've never liked "Starship Mine" that much. Maybe it was the complete indifference everyone had when they shot that poor talkative starbase commander. I love the "meh" reaction the main characters have whenever somebody not in the regular cast gets offed...

I think my faves from season six are "Schisms", "Rascals", "A Fistful of Datas", "Chain Of Command", "Tapestry", "Frame of Mind", "Second Chances" and "Descent". To me, it was not as good as seasons 2-4, but better on the whole than season 5.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

This one is very funny. Data's small talk subroutine is brilliant.

The only flaw was the fact that they needed the room in the cocktail lounge to be filled with people, extras mingling. Even the amount of extras that were used in any Deep Space Nine promenade scene would be better than what we got, really. Riker and his crew needed to plan their moves indiscreetly, but with them the only ones attending the part there was no way they could have pulled it off.

Inteesting too that Picard technically lost his physical fight with the girl at the end.

 

[indolover]

To me, it's an excellent episode. Some people dislike it since Picard is in an unusual role (Die Hard-esque action hero), but I think it shows more depth to Picard as a character and I guess it gave Sir Patrick Stewart a greater scope in playing Picard.

 

[Gary7]

Definitely one of the better episodes from Season 6.

However, I would have at least liked to see Captain Picard try to use his communicator earlier, to find out the status of the base and inform them of what he discovered. We never see him try to do this, instead waiting to use it at the very last possible moment in 10-forward. A pretty serious risk, as there may have been a communications jamming field active by the fake maintenance team.

Did anybody notice Patricia Tallman playing Kiros? She has been best known in the sci-fi world as playing Lyta Alexander in Babylon 5. She also made a few appearances in DS9 and one uncredited role in VOY.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

God, this is an awful show.

 

[Gary7]

God, this is an awful show.

What don't you like about it?

(or is that a loaded question? )

 

[TroiFan4ever]

God, this is an awful show.

Do you mean TNG as a series or just this particular episode?

To whoever posted about Tuvok also being on the B-Enterprise in Generations, I must say, wow, Tim Russ must be a well-liked actor on the Paramount sets.

If I could go back and change something, I just wish that "Timescape" had the emergency lights on the ship. I can't emphasize enough how much I love the dark emergency lights on the ship. That's the main reason I love this episode so much, and because Picard was kicking serious butt in this episode.

Where was Worf? I know he didn't have to go to the banquet and he obviously wasn't on the Enterprise either. Did this episode ever show where he was or what he was doing?

Picard should've loaded two arrows so he can shoot that girl.

Another thing- maybe the writer wanted to make it more epic but Picard should've have to ask like three times for somebody to cancel the baryon sweep. Did anyone else shudder when this happened?

And my Season 7 vote is now going to "Masks", "Dark Page" was a sad episode.

 

[TheLobes]

I just watched it for the first time, and I wasnt that impressed. I wish the episode had spent more time on Picard, with more dialogue between him and the enemy woman, and not with the ridiculous 'hostage' situation.

Tip to anyone planning to take hostages: Dont let someone a foot taller than you are stand close enough to punch you in the face. Also, dont let everyone freely walk around hatching plans.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Again, the hostage thing would have worked better if the room was crowded with people.. It would have allowed more discretion with hatching plans

 

[Amaris]

"Starship Mine" is one of my top 20 favorite episodes from TNG. As stated before, Data's small talk subroutine was brilliant, and I felt bad for Hutch. All of the scenes on the darkened Ent-D were wonderful.

 

[Kirby]

It's Die Hard in space. Kind of a fun episode, but still a blatant rip-off.

 

[TheLobes]

I just felt there was too much action for Picard, as far as Im concerned Picard should be 90 percent dialogue at all times. Sometimes I think TNG had the cast most detrimental to the show.

 

[MHT1138]

I just felt there was too much action for Picard, as far as Im concerned Picard should be 90 percent dialogue at all times. Sometimes I think TNG had the cast most detrimental to the show.

Patrick Stewart probably wouldn't have agreed with that idea. And what do you mean that "TNG had the cast most detrimental to the show"?

 

[TheLobes]

I just felt there was too much action for Picard, as far as Im concerned Picard should be 90 percent dialogue at all times. Sometimes I think TNG had the cast most detrimental to the show.

Patrick Stewart probably wouldn't have agreed with that idea. And what do you mean that "TNG had the cast most detrimental to the show"?

I probably should have phrased it better. What I mean is I think that the effect of the actors on TNG was worse than that of other series. Its going to sound bad, but I always felt the only people on the main cast who really got trek were Burton, Frakes and Dorn.

Patrick Stewart pushed for more action, which gave us 'Captains Holiday' and 'First Contact', plus that stupid dune buggy fight in 'Nemesis'. Spiner and one of his friends cowrote 'Nemesis', and the use of the emotion chip in 'Generations' was, I have heard, because Spiner wanted to do more acting. Crosby kept coming back on the show when she didnt need to be there...

This sounds bad, yes. Im not saying they didnt also bring a lot of good stuff to the show, but they also had some negative effects.

 

[Gary7]

I like this episode for a number of reasons. But there's one thing about it that stands out like a sore thumb for me... maybe there's a reasonable explanation for it? Picard tries to get off the Enterprise and just as he starts operating the transporter controls, the computer informs him there are just 10 seconds. The materialization sequence is about to start when power is lost, so clearly this is not sufficient time to beam down (surprising Picard didn't know this). If the transporter shut off midstream in operation, who knows what would've happened to Picard. Given his determined decision to leave the Enterprise at this point, why wouldn't have Picard radioed Akaria base and asked to be beamed down? Orton and his cohort haven't taken over the Enterprise team yet and wouldn't have known that Picard took out Devor. Although power was down in the transporter room, Picard still had his comm badge on.

Also... Picard doesn't know how much the baryon sweep is affecting communications. You'd think he would at least try to communicate with someone on the surface, like Commander Riker, just to check on the status of things. He never does. So, not only is he clueless about what is going on at Akaria Base, he doesn't know if he can successfully communicate with them. Leaving it all to the very end was a serious risk. Even though Picard knows the ship and would have the element of surprise, it makes much better sense for him to get off the ship and use other means to prevent Kelsey's ship from leaving the system.

True, one could say that with the Enterprise shut down and no other offensive capable ships at Akaria Base, there wouldn't be any other way of stopping Kelsey's ship from leaving... except for a few phaser equipped shuttles that could be launched if the bay doors could be opened somehow.

Still, it seemed to me like Picard didn't try harder to avoid the greater risks, within reason. Maybe this was just a foreshadowing of things to come (First Contact).

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Not a huge fan, sorry. One thing in particular that always irks me (and I realize it's more of a television thing than anything) is how loudly it appears the trapped crew is discussing their escape plans while their captors are standing nearby.

The action sequences are good for the time, I suppose, but the whole thing was just... very mediocre.