"The Arsenal of Freedom" has always been a favorite of mine. It utilizes the entire cast very well, which was not often done. Especially in early TNG. Even Troi had a great scene with LaForge, and it was her doing her job really well.
I just finished watching it with my wife. She really enjoyed it, too. She pointed out one scene that she had to rewatch. (She NEVER asks to do that.) It was when Data throws Yar over the clearing into cover while being fired on. Now, I've always remembered it, but it never made me amused like now due to how she described him doing it.
"It's like Data just tossed a doll around."
In all my years, I never compared it to that before. And it just made me laugh. This is precisely why I love rewatching with her.
I just finished watching it with my wife. She really enjoyed it, too. She pointed out one scene that she had to rewatch. (She NEVER asks to do that.) It was when Data throws Yar over the clearing into cover while being fired on. Now, I've always remembered it, but it never made me amused like now due to how she described him doing it.
"It's like Data just tossed a doll around."
In all my years, I never compared it to that before. And it just made me laugh. This is precisely why I love rewatching with her.
I'll pick one from each pre-CBSAA series, a great or at least solid episode that doesn't AFAIK frequently make top-episode lists.
TOS "A Private Little War"
TAS "One of Our Planets Is Missing"
TNG "The Survivors"
DS9 "Battle Lines"
VOY "Remember"
ENT "Horizon"
TOS "A Private Little War"
TAS "One of Our Planets Is Missing"
TNG "The Survivors"
DS9 "Battle Lines"
VOY "Remember"
ENT "Horizon"
Too Short a Season is also something of a guilty pleasure for me. I just love the ending as Admiral Jameson dies, the planet's dictator saying "rest, Jameson. Your long night, and mine, are over.
These are the Voyages
( I jest)
( I jest)
An episode I have strange feelings about. While it's really not that good an episode, it's also not the complete disaster everyone says it is either.
The only things wrong with TATV could have been corrected by the following changes:
1. Set it in 2155.
2. Leave Trip standing.
3. Don't end the series on it.
Do all that, and it goes from a crapshow to a solid mid-season episode.
Field of Fire is one of the series worst IMO. The whole thing where Joran made the leap from “Smiley photos” to “VULCAN!” was embarrassing.
I agree If Wishes Were Horses is underrated. Plus Similitude was the first Ent episode I thought was truly good.
I also love Royale. One of the best comedy episodes.
I agree If Wishes Were Horses is underrated. Plus Similitude was the first Ent episode I thought was truly good.
I also love Royale. One of the best comedy episodes.
Two TNG episodes that haven't been mentioned yet...
"The Dauphin" - This may be a lightweight episode and a clichéd one too, but it's still a fun one to watch. Somehow Anya is believable as a formidable warrior and an adversary for Worf. Plus, I think it's probably the first time we see Wesley being a regular kind and not the annoying know-it-all.
"Identity Crisis" - Another one which wouldn't make a top ten list, but is a pleasant hour of television. The friendship between Geordi and Susanna is what really sells the episode to me, since the mystery of what happened to the rest of their away team is rather slight. This is also one of those episodes that can be nitpicked to death yet I still enjoy it for what it is.
"The Dauphin" - This may be a lightweight episode and a clichéd one too, but it's still a fun one to watch. Somehow Anya is believable as a formidable warrior and an adversary for Worf. Plus, I think it's probably the first time we see Wesley being a regular kind and not the annoying know-it-all.
"Identity Crisis" - Another one which wouldn't make a top ten list, but is a pleasant hour of television. The friendship between Geordi and Susanna is what really sells the episode to me, since the mystery of what happened to the rest of their away team is rather slight. This is also one of those episodes that can be nitpicked to death yet I still enjoy it for what it is.
Even if you just make it not be the series' last episode would be a huge improvement.
The other two points... it can be the same setting, but there should be some promotions. At least for Hoshi and Travis. 10 years as an ensign? Harry Kim is lucky he only got 7 years as one.
Trip... I completely agree. Definitely could have been done without him dying.
^I love that episode.
I'm especially curious as to how "weird" the universes he jumped to could have gotten, had he not succeeded in isolating and fixing the problem, as he seemed to jump to universes progressively more different from his own. Probably not TOO weird, because the absence of Geordi's VISOR would have stopped the jumps, too.
I'm especially curious as to how "weird" the universes he jumped to could have gotten, had he not succeeded in isolating and fixing the problem, as he seemed to jump to universes progressively more different from his own. Probably not TOO weird, because the absence of Geordi's VISOR would have stopped the jumps, too.
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It is interesting to note that SLIDERS premiered only about a year and a half after that episode first aired, and that show was co-created by Tracy Torme, who was on the writing staff of seasons 1 and 2 of TNG. (SLIDERS is another series I loved.)
My main beef with TATV was the pointless decision to set it during The Pegasus. Most notably because it was eleven years later and Frakes and Sirtis looked it. They should have had it post-Nemesis aboard the Titan.
TNG: "The Wounded." A great ep which tends to get overlooked when folks are listing the best TNG eps.
The first appearance of the Cardassians, a great showcase for O'Brien, some genuine emotional drama and conflict, and a nicely-ambiguous ending that doesn't tie things up in a neat little bow.
The first appearance of the Cardassians, a great showcase for O'Brien, some genuine emotional drama and conflict, and a nicely-ambiguous ending that doesn't tie things up in a neat little bow.
That was a great episode in a great season. I think TNG season 4 overall is not as praised as it should be.
Hrmmm.... "Freud: Her upper body ..... describe the "knife" you used to "cut" the Counselor ..."
I wonder whether the writers derived some twisted pleasure from associating Data (without emotion chip no less!) with this, out of all characters in the show ('even the emotionless android wants to do her!'), given that being a sex symbol was pretty much Troi's true reason for being in the show in the first place (even though she got to do a little more in later seasons). Really strong main female cast roles in Trek only started with DS9, I think. (Uhura wasn't bad, but she wasn't a main character).
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Do they? It's probably in my top 5 TNG episodes. I was always enamoured with the different details of all the different universes, especially the last one with Captain Riker, Commander Worf, militant Bajorans, subjugated Cardassians and the Cardassian version of Ensign Ro. I think it and The Pegasus are a great double bill together.
Absolutely! Love these ideas.
It was probably inevitable it would be a letdown compared to the episodes that proceeded it which were singular focused on telling their Terra Prime story rather than doing a TNG homage and a series finale all in one. Maybe if TATV came earlier and was more like "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars" from Babylon 5 people would look at as it's own thing. I liked it's closing scene with the montage of the three Enterprises.
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