Revisiting ST-TNG...

[Warped9]

"Thine Own Self" **

Troi wants to be a bridge officer and Data loses his memory on a primitive planet.

Crusher stands a command watch? What, she doesn’t have enough on her plate as Chief Medical Officer overseeing the wellbeing of more than a thousand people aboard? And now Troi wants to be a bridge officer, too. Uh…yeah… Watching her trying to be a bridge officer was a riot…not. However, Troi's temper tantrum was right in character when things weren't going her way.

Snideness aside I really didn't care for this at all. I was just bored silly with something where everything was so obvious and predictable from the start.

 

[Anwar]

What did you think of the Data story?

 

[startrekwatcher]

Thine Own Self was a pretty decent little story. It was nice Troi getting her 3 pips--gave it a very "final season" vibe to it. The Data story was sweet and hit the right notes. Definitely a quintessential feel good comfortable TNG story. 3 stars before the slew of crap to come.

 

[BillJ]

Thine Own Self was a pretty decent little story. It was nice Troi getting her 3 pips--gave it a very "final season" vibe to it. The Data story was sweet and hit the right notes. Definitely a quintessential feel good comfortable TNG story. 3 stars before the slew of crap to come.

'***' for me. Loved the Data story, hated the Troi subplot.

How can you serve on a starship for seven years (having banged one guy who wants to be a starship captain plus being one of the captains top confidants) and not realize what the requirements of command are?

 

[Warped9]

What did you think of the Data story?

As I said it was all pretty much predictable. It wasn't horrible, but it was nothing wonderful either. That part of the episode was rather average. But the Troi stuff just bogged it down for me.

 

[TrekAlliance92]

Yeah, I found "Thine Own Self" deadly dull, and not interesting in the slightest. Didn't really care for "Lower Decks" either.

 

[Ubik]

What did you think of the Data story?

As I said it was all pretty much predictable. It wasn't horrible, but it was nothing wonderful either. That part of the episode was rather average. But the Troi stuff just bogged it down for me.

Maybe I'm a sucker for this sort of crap, but the moment where Data looks wistfully out the window and say, yes, he does believe in a place where everyone is happy, always moves me.

I actually really, really like the Data plot in this episode; it's one of my favorite Data outings of the whole series, actually. I find the Aristotelian science of these people fascinating. It would have been easy to make the natives a bunch of ignoramuses, but the episode doesn't - it treats most of them with respect, which I like.

 

[Warped9]

“Masks” *

An alien artifact possesses Data and begins to transform the Enterprise.

How nice that an alien technology is still functional after 87 million years and is compatible enough to overtake the Enterprise's systems. And this same alien tech was built by a society that seemed ridiculously primitive?

On top of a bunch of unaddressed questions I found this to be excruciatingly boring. The first two minutes alone made me want to run my head against the wall. And it was definately a WTF! moment seeing Data and Picard wearing those masks.

And then finally how nice that all Picard had to do was say just the right thing for this artifact to go to sleep and change everything back to normal. Of course it never occurred to him to put some distance between the ship and this thing when things started happening and to turn the sensor beams off when they detected a feedback signal?

 

[Trekker4747]

“Masks” *

 

[startrekwatcher]

I agree Masks is one lousy star. "Masks" is the kind of story you'd expect to see in a show where the writers were burnt out and have run out of ideas. With a few more passes it might have been a good TNG episode but as is it is just an unfocused mess with an anti-climatic ending.

One of TNG's worst. The only thing I got a kick out of was Brent's delivery of "Masaka is waking"--weeks after this episode originally aired in 94 I went around repeating that to the annoyance of everyone around me.

 

[SchwEnt]

"Masks" makes me long for "Shades of Grey"

 

[Warped9]

“Eye Of The Beholder” **

Troi investigates a crewman's suicide and becomes paranoid and begins hallucinating.

Yeesh! Another drab and plodding episode and made to dovetail with a budding romance between Worf and Troi. Yeah, Worf has been around humans too much if he can't do better than Troi.

I know it's not the first time Trek has played with idea of lingering empathic or telepathic imprints or whatever, but here it just seems weak. And the idea that Troi can't even hold onto what is really happening and tell what she's experiencing makes no sense just doesn't wash for me. Or maybe at heart she's just too emotionally unstable for this sort of experience.

In a general way this reminded me of "Frame Of Mind" where Riker couldn't tell the difference between reality and hallucination...only that episode was distinctly more interesting.

Whatever I don't really care. It just wasn't interesting enough for me to care.

 

[startrekwatcher]

"Eye of the Beholder" is one of those mystery shows that is going to live or die by its climax--I enjoyed it for the first 45 minutes which had me wondering what in the world is going on with the bones, the creepy Starfleet officer, Troi's visions, her bizarre behavior. I really liked the touch by the writers of giving some creepy history to the Enterprise with the revelation there was a murder before it was launched and the skeletal remains had been in the nacelle all these many years.

It got more and more exciting then Troi shoots Worf with the phaser and runs off--I'm thinking how will they get out of this--then comes the biggest letdown--it all was a hallucination inside Troi's head and none of it happened. Cheap, weak, disappointing best describes it. So that ending just ruined the preceding 45 minutes of intriguing build-up. And I couldn't stand Worf/Troi.

I'd give this 1.5 stars. The sad thing was the show actually had an interesting idea and I'm confident in an earlier season when the writers weren't burnt out or attentions weren't divided it would have been as good as the other high concept mystery shows TNG did. Because I really liked the idea of something tragic happening literally leaving a psychic scar.

 

[BillJ]

“Masks” *

“Eye Of The Beholder” **

Not much good to say about either of these.

 

[Ubik]

“Masks” *

“Eye Of The Beholder” **

Not much good to say about either of these.

Meh. There are parts of Eye of the Beholder that are genuinely creepy. Sure, the episode doesn't work, but there are moments that do.

 

[Warped9]

“Masks” *

“Eye Of The Beholder” **

Not much good to say about either of these.

Meh. There are parts of Eye of the Beholder that are genuinely creepy. Sure, the episode doesn't work, but there are moments that do.

And that's why it got a 2 instead of a 1.

I'd also like to add that, of course, I'm keeping track of average rating as I progress. And at this point Season 7 is averaging a tick less than Season 1. That said Season 1 felt better overall because even though it struggled it generally felt more dynamic and energized...even when it stunk.

 

[Holdfast]

I never minded Eye of the Beholder; I thought it had a few good scenes that make it moderately watchable. Masks is just irritating to watch. The core concept is fine, but the execution with Spiner trying to demonstrate his acting breadth, is annoying.

Lower Decks is a good ep, though I enjoy it more for the Worf/Sito interaction than the story itself. Taurik is a good character too, and would have been good to see more of.

 

[Warped9]

“Genesis” ***

An inadvertent virus begins to devolve the crew.

Your first reaction is not surprisingly One of the things that's always been funny in sci-fi is how fast viruses and disease-of-the-weeks work...as well as how fast the antidotes and cures put everyone back to normal. In Trek we saw this as far back as "Miri" and "The Deadly Years." And it's no different here as the 1701D's crew devolves into dramatically different lifeforms within days yet Data's antidote reverses the effect in minutes.

The first eight minutes of this story are pretty much pointless and stupid until things start to get going. I had to try setting aside how ridiculous I thought this idea was and just focus on how the story is told. In that context it's watchable and with some decently creepy moments. Otherwise it wouldn't have rated even an inoffensive 3.

 

[startrekwatcher]

Finally "Genesis" came along at just the right moment to remind us TNG could still be interesting and fun. I give it 3 stars out of 4.

I know many hate the DNA inaccuracies and the term de-evolution, they point to it as why Brannon sucks as a writer but for me Genesis was a highlight of S7. It isn't his best work but I enjoyed it. I loved the shot of the ship adrift rotating, the eerie atmosphere as Data and Picard surveyed the ship. The make-up was great. When Worf sprayed Beverly and she grabbed her face screaming was a genuinely terrifying moment and the fact that Ogawa says she will have to undergo reconstructive surgery added to that. I liked the choice to drag out the tease of what Worf really looked like until the very end. I liked the solution Data came up with of curing the crew involving Ogawa--and as a side note an episode like this really reminded me how gret Brent Spiner was at delivering technical jargon and I love the way he holds his tricorder. I also liked the teaser where appropriately Barclay is the only one Spot doesn't terrorize.

 

[Warped9]

Yes, the Worf/Crusher scene is a genuine freak-out moment. Barclay's appearance just reminded me of what a doofus he is and always annoying. And what-the-fuck was up with his hair?