ST: TNG Rewatch

[Cap'n Claus]

Well for the first time since the series ended, I am embarking on a full series rewatch. I saw them all first run, even taped them and removed commercials. But once it ended, I cherry picked episodes, skipping the lousy segments. Well, now I'm doing them all and maybe I'll finish. It's a lotta episodes....

I'm exactly halfway through season 1, and I'll keep my reviews brief.

Encounter at Farpoint: Expository isn't the word. There's a really solid episode in here, but the need to pad it with the whole Q plot makes this one a bit of a slog. The actors aren't comfortable yet - with exceptions I'll get to shortly. One good choice was making this Enterprise brand new and so we get to discover what she can do along with the characters. Picard is shouty and crabbier than I remembered. Troi is a little grating and Denise Crosby is really in over her head. "This court should get on it's KNEEEEEZ to what starfleet is!!!" I will say, Wesley is presently as a likeable young man here and I enjoyed his childlike wonder very much.

Everyone seems off and searching for their place, except Brent Spiner. He nails Data from the jump. Even though the character has a way to go, Spiner has a handle on him. The most confident performance, though, comes from Deforest Kelley in his cameo and he and Spiner are magical together.

I remember how exciting the saucer separation was in 1987 - after years of only reading about it being possible. The ending was very touching, more than I expected. The music and - I admit - Marina Sertis made me well up.

As much as I don't enjoy Q for the most part, John Delancie steals every scene. Roddenberry loved Trelane, so he stole him for TMP and tweaked him a bit. It becomes super obvious in his next episode. 2½ stars / 5

The Naked Now - awful. Bad idea to kick off the first regular episode in this manner. Patrick Stewart gives a horrible performance under the influence and only Frakes and Dorn survive with their dignity intact. Spiner is funny though. 1/5

Code of Honor - I hate a lot about this one. Even without the racism, Yar impulsively jumps in front of Hagon and throws him across the room before otherwise more calmly asking him to pause so she can inspect the gift. Troi outing Yar's attraction for Lutan is just Roddenberry sexing up the episode. Fred Steiner's score is right out of Amok Time and Elaan of Troyius. Just an overall shitty episode. 1/5

The Last Outpost - another TOS influenced episode as the Enterprise pursuit of the Ferengi vessel and their halting by a mystery race is right out of Arena. The Ferengi are famously bad here. Portal is butchly overdubbed. The finger puzzles are just stupid. Riker hasn't gotten the stick out of his ass yet. 2/5

Where No One Has Gone Before - the first genuinely good episode. Really fantastic story as the Enterprise passes warp 10 and nobody becomes a salamander. I actually felt happy for Wes here. He's abused by the adults in this show for no good reason, really. Everything about this episode clicks. The mystery, the Traveller and the wonderful far off dimensional space is beautifully realized. I have to say, the series is pulling out all the stops when it comes to effects. I just wish the lighting wasn't so bright and bland. 4/5

Lonely Among Us - the Enterprise is ferrying fighting dignitaries to a planet for negotiations. "Journey to Parliament" anyone? It's a B story that shouldn't be there. The cloud creature (sigh) and the possession story could have been better fleshed out. Not awful. The Sherlock Holmes schtick got only slightly old. 3/5

Justice - first half is dire. Why is the Planet of Black People made up of strutting posturing greedy schemers and the Planet of White People want to f'k everyone in sight and forbid crime? The casual racism in this series is surprising. So is the tone deaf writing. The Enterprise goes to this planet for rest and send down an away team to evaluate. They come back with a report stating that the people there make love at the drop of a hat. "Any hat." In the same breath, Picard says "Hey Wes, you go down and see if it's good for kids." WTF? And naturally, Wes is immediately uncomfortable. He is paired with some kids, plays ball and commits a stupid accidental crime. After that, though, the episode is actually pretty good and seems to be heading to a great confrontation with the Edo "god." Excpet that, nope, after a short few words from Picard, the damned thing just let's Picard take Wesley away. Episode ends. 45 minutes wasted.

Worf, who we will learn was raised on Earth, knows very little about Earth. He doesn't know what "Rome" is. 2/5

The Battle - marginally good. I liked the worldbuilding though. Ferengi were a little better. Riker can't stop kissing Picard's ass though. 2.5/5

Hide and Q - someone told Delancie to "do Trelane" in a few spots. But this entire episode is predicated on one line of dialog in Farpoint that made Riker somehow stand out. The testing of Riker in the last act is comical. Older Wesley make me laugh at out loud. Riker aged him ten years and didn't change his voice. What a pal. Half a point off for Yar's Penalty Box scene. 2.5/5

Haven - ummmm... I liked this episode. A lot. I remember hating it in 1987. Majel was amazing and, again, I hated her back then. Marina was mostly pretty great and I liked Wyatt. Even the finale was touching. The oddball talking box sets an odd note (Armin Shimerman as the box face guy!) and Nan Martin overacts shamelessly, but this is a really great episode. I am damned shocked. I feel like they're finding their feet. 4/5

The Big Goodbye - okay let's get this settled. Regardless of TAS, which at this point I believe Gene was considering apocryphal, the holodeck is brand new technology at this point. Everyone is freaking gobsmacked over every bit of the Dixon Hill program, marvelling over the realism, the characters within, all of it. Putting TAS back into canon makes this gooey. Otherwise, a really solid story and a great tribute to noir fiction. The actors are settling in. Spiner is a riot. They do comedy well here. Funny how lipstick can stay on Picard long after he leaves the holodeck, but Cyrus Redblock can't exist outside. I'm sure there's a reason, I'm just noting it. 4/5

Datalore - first, I am 100% convinced they only named Data's brother Lore so they could have this title. Second, this episode cribs from The Enemy Within: the duplicate of our main character has a face thing that the evil version covers on himself but puts on the other (Kirk had scratches). Wesley is 100% correct in every observation, right down to his being ignored because he's a kid. Lore does suspicious things that, judging by the expressions on the cast, everyone notices and yet just lets go. Otherwise, this is another solid and important episode. Spiner is great as always. Worf gets his ass handed to him. Bev's arm catches fire and the fight at the end is reasonably well done. The whole thing about contractions is BS though. Data used them before and uses them IN THIS EPISODE. After Lore is beamed into space, when he's asked if he's okay he says "I'm fine." This would have been worth it if they revealed in the next Lore appearance that Data was beamed into space. But they were dressed differently, so there was no confusion.

Anyway, solid episode and the series seems to be finding its way. 4/5

Still some duds ahead (like the very next episode IIRC), but the better episodes seem much better after suffering through some real dregs. I totally forgot how awkward this series was when it started. I guess I was just too excited to have new weekly Star Trek again to care.

 

[Cap'n Claus]

Overall impressions so far:

Everyone seems so wide-eyed and innocent. There's a Gee Whiz, Aw Shucks quality coming from a lot of the back ground actors.

Picard is fairly unlikeable for a lot of these episodes. He's also weirdly impatient and condescending towards some cultures. His "humans are superior" attitude, along with his short-lived French patriotism are a weird fit for him. Only in a few episodes - mentioned at the end of this post, do I feel he starts to become the man I later admired.

Riker is stiff and brusque pretty often. He stands ramrod straight, folds his arms and barks impatiently at Data for info or responds as if they're bothering him even though he asked for the report. So far, very little of Frakes' own charm is coming through. Riker also likes to watch holo videos of women in robes playing harps. Or was he watching a rerun of Plato's Stepchildren? Spends a lot of time brown nosing to Picard.

Geordi comes across as really young this season. Upbeat and super easy to hang with. He gets some weird dialog in The Last Outpost (whooo eeee!) but he seems like a fun dude. Something he'll lose with his promotion.

Worf is delightfully alien. That's all I got right now.

Yar - Christ, no wonder Crosby left. They give her nothing. But maybe because she's not really all that good. She over emotes constantly. Then again, most of them do at the start.

Troi - Haven was her best story thus far, otherwise, she's making little impact. She was missing from Hide and Q and Datalore and I didn't even notice.

Beverly - sometimes fun, sometimes cranky. She really shines in The Big Goodbye. Gates is great at lighter material, which they almost never gave her.

Wes - honestly, other than The Naked Now and Justice, he's been fine. Damn, Wil Weaton gets a bad rap. The writing isn't his fault.

Finally - Data...spot on from the start. Spiner runs away with every scene. Most of the rest will catch up, but man does he have a handle on Data from the get go.

Too much effort is spent trying to recreate "Star Trek" instead of letting themselves be their own thing. And this awkward fit is the reason why so many episodes have failed. Where No One Has Gone Before is the first episode that didn't feel like a TOS retread. It felt like a Next Generation episode. Haven and The Big Goodbye also fall into this category and that's why they succeed. Not coincidentally, Picard comes off the best in this installments.

So far, I hate most of the star system names - Delphi Argue (sp?); Zed Lapis; Beta Renner (sp?); the Strenab solar system; Zendi Sabu. Now, for all I know, these are legit in real life (I'm not interested enough to look) but they don't sound right to me. YMMV.

All of those growing pains make those episodes all the sweeter.

 

[suarezguy]

Agreed the show was uneven rather than completely bad, some really bad duds but also a lot that was at least OK and/or showed a lot of potential.

And agreed that Riker in and around this early period comes off pretty weird, probably a bit too trying to be Kirk-ish which doesn't really fit with the overall or the actor's own tendencies and OTOH at times also overly sternly brusque. I did think "Hide and Q" was decent episode and development for him.

"Lonely Among Us" and "Datalore" benefit from being early on in the series to where the characters are getting to know each other and understandably unsure of how to react to new and troubling inconsistencies, "Hide and Q" also benefiting from being early enough that people aren't completely sure of Riker, despite being in main cast, not being more persuaded and corruptible, corrupted by the power (though everyone completely turning down the gifts for basically same reasons and stating in so in same tone feels annoyingly forced). I do think Lwaxana is very annoying but when/if you get that that's intentional that's not really damaging.

 

[Q'OrnamentalDeqor]

Well for the first time since the series ended, I am embarking on a full series rewatch. I saw them all first run, even taped them and removed commercials. But once it ended, I cherry picked episodes, skipping the lousy segments. Well, now I'm doing them all and maybe I'll finish. It's a lotta episodes....

The wonderfulness of revisitations!

I'm exactly halfway through season 1, and I'll keep my reviews brief.

Encounter at Farpoint: Expository isn't the word. There's a really solid episode in here, but the need to pad it with the whole Q plot makes this one a bit of a slog. The actors aren't comfortable yet - with exceptions I'll get to shortly. One good choice was making this Enterprise brand new and so we get to discover what she can do along with the characters. Picard is shouty and crabbier than I remembered. Troi is a little grating and Denise Crosby is really in over her head. "This court should get on it's KNEEEEEZ to what starfleet is!!!" I will say, Wesley is presently as a likeable young man here and I enjoyed his childlike wonder very much.

Fair points, all.

I sorta liked, though, how Q bookending the episode gave a deeper framing to the jellyfish creatures that felt like something right out of 1967, as well as upping the stakes for the crew. Troi, despite being grating, is also the only one who could have figured out the jellyfish plot regardless of Q. So far, Wesley isn't as grating but I know that changes... and I love Crosby's style of acting. But I also enjoy Paul Darrow's increasingly as "Blake's 7" went on, so there's that...

Everyone seems off and searching for their place, except Brent Spiner. He nails Data from the jump. Even though the character has a way to go, Spiner has a handle on him. The most confident performance, though, comes from Deforest Kelley in his cameo and he and Spiner are magical together.

100% agreed.

If anything, I wish Data rattled off months, weeks, hours, minutes, nanoseconds, etc for McCoy to be double amazed by. Anyone could have said "137 years", but that's a script nitpick and Kelley and Spiner do indeed have on-screen chemistry that makes the scene work and the scene was more - for lack of better word - charming now than it was in 1987.

I remember how exciting the saucer separation was in 1987 - after years of only reading about it being possible.

It did look cool. I never looked up official schematics or blueprints, but decided that (what's the arboretum) was the saucer's warp drive with the glowing blue squares up top. Still no deflector dish on it, but I'd later read that the idea was to get families off the flagship in safety to the nearest safe haven, so it wouldn't need warp drive or anything big. Just hope that going back to an attacker doesn't have sensors that can pick it up.

The ending was very touching, more than I expected. The music and - I admit - Marina Sertis made me well up.

As much as I don't enjoy Q for the most part, John Delancie steals every scene. Roddenberry loved Trelane, so he stole him for TMP and tweaked him a bit. It becomes super obvious in his next episode. 2½ stars / 5

Q's dialogue could be hit or miss but, dang, DeLancie steals the show and Q is definitely more than the sum of his parts (Trelane influence being a biggie.)

Gropler Zorn was well-acted as well.

But Ferengi eating people as alluded to by Picard? There's a mouthful...

The Naked Now - awful. Bad idea to kick off the first regular episode in this manner. Patrick Stewart gives a horrible performance under the influence and only Frakes and Dorn survive with their dignity intact. Spiner is funny though. 1/5

^^this. A crappy remake, a few episodes too soon, that coasts on superficialities with little depth of the characters. Geordi has a decent moment, all things considered, and after reading up on survivors of assault and such, with Yar's background there's no consistency and I could link to some psychology articles but early-TNG is too all-over-the-map with characters to make me think they were trying to do anything except be "cool", if not indulging Roddenberry as a number of stories had ("Justice" being the biggie here). It's even sadder when this one gets basic air pressure science right when a season 5 story just takes an even lazier route despite a story with more potential... never mind that the rottening of Wesley really begins to stand out in this.

Code of Honor - I hate a lot about this one. Even without the racism, Yar impulsively jumps in front of Hagon and throws him across the room before otherwise more calmly asking him to pause so she can inspect the gift. Troi outing Yar's attraction for Lutan is just Roddenberry sexing up the episode. Fred Steiner's score is right out of Amok Time and Elaan of Troyius. Just an overall shitty episode. 1/5

It's pretty bad and I've not even gotten to this one yet in my episode-hopping, but I sat through "Naked Now". Apart from basic idea of Picard freely ditching his rules of conduct to terrify the locals in an ironic plot twist, the whole thing has horrible and generic scripting and execution. The actors did a lot with the material, but the material was largely awful. Jessie Lawrence Ferguson and Karole Selmon standing out the best, IMHO.

The Last Outpost - another TOS influenced episode as the Enterprise pursuit of the Ferengi vessel and their halting by a mystery race is right out of Arena. The Ferengi are famously bad here. Portal is butchly overdubbed. The finger puzzles are just stupid. Riker hasn't gotten the stick out of his ass yet. 2/5

The Ferengi should have been a lot more than a penciled-in cliche. TOS tropes notwithstanding, the finger puzzle was beyond corny - as well as being a dumb rubbertamping of the trope used by the TOS tribble episode when beaming a bunch of the furry and thankfully pestilence-free rodents to the Klingon fginger-twiddlers to the Ferengi ship, where they'd do nothing with them anyway - and to think they could have two or three sequels with Bok playing with them on the viewer!

Early Riker was interesting... so was early Bev, who's grown a lot more on me compared to season 3-onward Bev (especially post season 4 where she could have been replaced by any random crewmember and it'd be no different, or even an anthropomorphic talking cauliflower floret...)

Where No One Has Gone Before - the first genuinely good episode. Really fantastic story as the Enterprise passes warp 10 and nobody becomes a salamander. I actually felt happy for Wes here. He's abused by the adults in this show for no good reason, really. Everything about this episode clicks. The mystery, the Traveller and the wonderful far off dimensional space is beautifully realized. I have to say, the series is pulling out all the stops when it comes to effects. I just wish the lighting wasn't so bright and bland. 4/5

^^this!

The second story with Wesley that feels authentic with his not being listened to, not contrived - or not dumbing down the adults with to claim how great the boy is. The story presents a universe of wonder and exploration that holds up really well, even the Traveler and the obvious jokes that youtube channels put out.

The best part is how the far-off space was meticulously animated and put on 35mm film, discovered and cleaned up and looks breathtaking.

Lonely Among Us - the Enterprise is ferrying fighting dignitaries to a planet for negotiations. "Journey to Parliament" anyone? It's a B story that shouldn't be there. The cloud creature (sigh) and the possession story could have been better fleshed out. Not awful. The Sherlock Holmes schtick got only slightly old. 3/5

Another summary well said.

Another TOS tropefest, it is oddly enjoyable despite moments of illogic.

Justice - first half is dire. Why is the Planet of Black People made up of strutting posturing greedy schemers and the Planet of White People want to f'k everyone in sight and forbid crime? The casual racism in this series is surprising. So is the tone deaf writing. The Enterprise goes to this planet for rest and send down an away team to evaluate. They come back with a report stating that the people there make love at the drop of a hat. "Any hat." In the same breath, Picard says "Hey Wes, you go down and see if it's good for kids." WTF? And naturally, Wes is immediately uncomfortable. He is paired with some kids, plays ball and commits a stupid accidental crime. After that, though, the episode is actually pretty good and seems to be heading to a great confrontation with the Edo "god." Excpet that, nope, after a short few words from Picard, the damned thing just let's Picard take Wesley away. Episode ends. 45 minutes wasted.

Worf, who we will learn was raised on Earth, knows very little about Earth. He doesn't know what "Rome" is. 2/5

0/5 for me. The sheer character assassinations of Yar and Riker for the sake of setting up the crux of the plot is beyond stupid and it's amazing that Frakes didn't want Armus to kill him off too!! Even the core idea, examining the rule of law vs the spirit, is so pointless given the contrived extremes... the script had some rewrites but nobody contested that opening WTFery scene indeed?! This one's so bad it's even hard to laugh at.

The Battle - marginally good. I liked the worldbuilding though. Ferengi were a little better. Riker can't stop kissing Picard's ass though. 2.5/5

Pretty much. It's a decent tale, with some issues ignored (e.g. how did Bok manage to reverse engineer the ship's systems to do all that work involved? and beaming with shields up, you'd think the Ferengi would use that trick more often, even if his changing the ship's systems did or didn't include the shield generators.)

Hide and Q - someone told Delancie to "do Trelane" in a few spots. But this entire episode is predicated on one line of dialog in Farpoint that made Riker somehow stand out. The testing of Riker in the last act is comical. Older Wesley make me laugh at out loud. Riker aged him ten years and didn't change his voice. What a pal. Half a point off for Yar's Penalty Box scene. 2.5/5

Yeah, the tests were a little corny and a gift of removing 10 years from a person's life is cringeworthy no matter what... At least Riker and Q get to homage Gary Mitchell from WNMHGB (TOS's second pilot) before changing plot course to a new take on the concept, and Geordi compliments the shiny new Wes bod... but Picard saying "So now you're going after Riker" felt a bit sophomoric too. But it's early season 1, where far worse episodes exist.

Haven - ummmm... I liked this episode. A lot. I remember hating it in 1987. Majel was amazing and, again, I hated her back then. Marina was mostly pretty great and I liked Wyatt. Even the finale was touching. The oddball talking box sets an odd note (Armin Shimerman as the box face guy!) and Nan Martin overacts shamelessly, but this is a really great episode. I am damned shocked. I feel like they're finding their feet. 4/5

Ditto. Lwaxana is a joy to behold in presence and dialogue, and the "petty bickering" is more amusing than I'd recalled. A few nitpicks don't take away from the story, even if there's some typical season 1 dialogue if anything, the arranged marriage subplot is corny and there was more plot potential for the Tarellians and their plight, which is surprisingly grizzly. But being open-ended, it makes for any number of allegories, now imagine the bubonic plague...

The Big Goodbye - okay let's get this settled. Regardless of TAS, which at this point I believe Gene was considering apocryphal, the holodeck is brand new technology at this point. Everyone is freaking gobsmacked over every bit of the Dixon Hill program, marvelling over the realism, the characters within, all of it. Putting TAS back into canon makes this gooey. Otherwise, a really solid story and a great tribute to noir fiction. The actors are settling in. Spiner is a riot. They do comedy well here. Funny how lipstick can stay on Picard long after he leaves the holodeck, but Cyrus Redblock can't exist outside. I'm sure there's a reason, I'm just noting it. 4/5

Spiner is a riot, the holo-characters reacting to Picard's Halloween costume was sharp and piquant, but the speech with the Jarada bugged me and even Patrick Stewart couldn't pull it off.

Datalore - first, I am 100% convinced they only named Data's brother Lore so they could have this title. Second, this episode cribs from The Enemy Within: the duplicate of our main character has a face thing that the evil version covers on himself but puts on the other (Kirk had scratches). Wesley is 100% correct in every observation, right down to his being ignored because he's a kid. Lore does suspicious things that, judging by the expressions on the cast, everyone notices and yet just lets go. Otherwise, this is another solid and important episode. Spiner is great as always. Worf gets his ass handed to him. Bev's arm catches fire and the fight at the end is reasonably well done. The whole thing about contractions is BS though. Data used them before and uses them IN THIS EPISODE. After Lore is beamed into space, when he's asked if he's okay he says "I'm fine." This would have been worth it if they revealed in the next Lore appearance that Data was beamed into space. But they were dressed differently, so there was no confusion.

Anyway, solid episode and the series seems to be finding its way. 4/5

That storyline is so cliche and hokum-filled, never mind the lazy contractions issue that was on display too many times already (albeit by accident), showcasing the worst of Wesley, but (a) Lore is cool, (b) Ron Jones excels, (c) Rob Bowman's directing excels, and (d) Brent Spiner acting excels that I'm rolling with it all. Once Worf is dealt with, we know nobody else could stand up to Lore (though that's a given, given his mechanical structure.)

Still some duds ahead (like the very next episode IIRC), but the better episodes seem much better after suffering through some real dregs. I totally forgot how awkward this series was when it started. I guess I was just too excited to have new weekly Star Trek again to care.

Season 1 was a veritable roller coaster, but after the halfway mark it definitely starts to feel a little more confident, which is impressive given "you can't remake Star Trek!" was a common phrase, Star Trek was HUGE at the time thanks to the Kirk movies, and this show was more a sequel trying to find itself while relying on some cozy familiarity, and thankfully had enough time on air to find the perfect production team as well as episodes per season to find and hone things when possible... Season 2 just about perfects it, with some stumbles. Season 3 = boom, an iconic style solidified that could have lasted more than... two seasons... before making more big changes, of which most are forgettable - save for Ensign Ro...

 

[Cap'n Claus]

Quick comment as I run out: I agree about the guest actors in Code of Honor. As poorly conceived as that episode was, they really were incredibly good. I would have appreciated more time getting to know Yareena instead of spending time on Troi making Yar admit her sexual feelings. Amazing cast wasted on subpar material.

 

[Cap'n Claus]

Angel One:

I was going to wait until I had a few more episodes under my belt, like my starting post, but I really need to wrap my head around this one.

Okay so a Federation freighter was wrecked and the survivors made it in escape pods to Angel One, a planet ruled by women. A Federation vessel had last visited the planet over 60 years prior and so the inhabitants know all about starships and the like. They don’t may or may not have warp capability, but they know all about it. I just wanted to get all that out of the way before I get into this.

This concept of female dominated worlds goes back way before Star Trek, but Roddenberry loved it. And he never once got it right. This episode, like his TV movie/pilot Planet Earth, takes the idea to an over the top extreme and presents the women as overlords to the obsequious males. In this case, they cast short men to make the generally average heights of the guest women seem larger. The women insult and disrespect men at every turn, much like other TV stories of this type. Wouldn’t it have been more effective, or at least more subtle and adult, to merely have women have a majority position in the government, get paid more, hold more important jobs and the like? Have sexism apparent and a few snide but easy to pass off as "a joke"? “A man’s place is in the home” sort of thing rather than this “do as you are bidden” borderline slavery track that these stories tend to take. A counsel of 13 with only 3 men would still put the women in charge but give the men a voice, which would eventually lead to unrest and fights for equality…. However, okay, this is what it is: a 1960’s episode filmed in 1987, with Roddenberry's fetishes on display.

Here's the main story problem they have to solve: these freighter survivors are disrupting the status quo with their wild ideas of male equality and are fugitives. Picard mentioned that Starfleet (not the Federation?) wants to preserve the diplomatic relationship with this planet. Okay. Beata, The Elected One, says “find these people and take them away with you.” Riker agrees. They find the survivors and the leader says “nah, we wanna stay.”

What does Data say?

DATA: The Odin was not a starship, which means her crew is not bound by the Prime Directive. If he and the others wish to stay here, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

Come again???

Further…

DATA: Excuse me, Commander, but removing any of these people against their will would be a violation of several Starfleet regulations, not the least of which would be the Prime Directive.

How??? The legal government is asking – actually demanding – a Starfleet vessel to take trespassers off their planet or the freighter crew will be executed. How does this in any way shape or form violate the PD? They’re not interfering in a society if that society is asking them to take the crew of a Federation freighter, one who is interfering with the society, off a planet they are not welcome on.

Make this make sense. There is no reason why they can’t just be beamed off the planet other than they have 45 minutes of air time to fill.

Moving on:

The crew of the Enterprise is felled by a brand new virus created by….the holodeck? Crusher mentions in a throwaway line “the Quazulu Eight field trip” Wes was on, but it comes and goes so quickly, and nobody brings it up again, it truly sounds like Wesley and his pal frolicking in the holo-snow caused it. This should be jeopardy enough for a B story but nope…

There’s trouble in the Romulan Neutral Zone. So much that another ship is sent ahead to deal with it. This doesn’t sound like anything strange. It's as if Romulans have been pissing around the outposts since the original series. Oddly, all of this is totally forgotten by the time we get to their “reintroduction” in the final episode of the season – where they do make a big deal out of being gone for decades and are suddenly back. The whole thing is just yet another layer of false jeopardy and an artificial ticking clock. The episode ends with the Enterprise heading to assist and we never hear about it again. Did the USS Berlin call up and say “hey never mind, they’re just having a block party” or something?

So Riker resolves the Angel One situation with a pretty speech but wouldn’t Troi have been a better choice? She takes the lead on the mission, does all of the initial talking, and then it’s handed over to Riker, and his hairy chest turns the tide.

Troi and Yar titter and tee-hee over his outfit which is embarrassing. I admit the clothing is right out of Buck Rogers – which also did a female dominated planet story (RIP Gil Gerard). Wil Wheaton lets the home team down with his constant grinning. Worf’s sneezes are gross which is kinda funny. "Maintenance, report to conn with Windex and a mop." Geordi gets the center seat but it doesn’t amount to much. His time will come soon.

And finally: who named this planet Angel One? That implies at least an Angel Two. Which means the star is named “Angel?” Which just happens to be populated by mostly beautiful women? And if it is the name of the planet, did the inhabitants – a race of strong woman – vote to go with Angel? I really miss Kellam de Forest.

One bright side: Frakes finally gets to shine. After some early ‘tude about being dismissed as a man – even though he was warned ahead of time – the script lets him haul out the old Frakes charm. He’s excellent, it’s just a shame it had to be in this story.

This episode is a dumpster fire. An overstuffed mis-mosh of SF and Star Trek cliches, with too many different plots and none of them standing up to any scrutiny. While some episodes may be more insulting, more cheesy or more boring, this one is easily the most poorly written and thought out thus far. Anyone with self-respect would have Alan Smithee’d themselves all over the credits.

Once again, TNG sucks at being TOS. Please, make it stop.

1/5

 

[Starflight]

DATA: The Odin was not a starship, which means her crew is not bound by the Prime Directive. If he and the others wish to stay here, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

As much as it obliterates the entirety of TNG's setting, I always loved this line. It feels like it suddenly opens up an entire universe outside Starfleet, and transforms Picard's POV from being the defining view of the show to something far smaller and more subjective.

How??? The legal government is asking – actually demanding – a Starfleet vessel to take trespassers off their planet or the freighter crew will be executed. How does this in any way shape or form violate the PD? They’re not interfering in a society if that society is asking them to take the crew of a Federation freighter, one who is interfering with the society, off a planet they are not welcome on.

You're right, but if I wanted to try and mount a defence (or at least, an alternate reading) of this fairly crappy episode for the sake of it:
24th century Starfleet, and Picard especially, are often more concerned with being seen to be enlightened than with anything else. It comes up a lot through the show, albeit often unintentional on the part of the writers.

The ultra-non-interventionist version of the PD that takes form in "Pen Pals" arguably would mean that they can't remove Federation citizens from the planet - doing so would be changing the course of Angel One's development, which now includes the arrival of the freighter ship, and thus constitute "playing god" (to use Pen Pals' phrase).

To the 24th century PD mindset, if they take a side in the conflict, even the one Beata specifically tells them to take, they're "getting involved", which is unacceptable and will lead to a round-robin discussion in the conference room in which Picard makes grandiose statements about colonialism and military adventurism. To Beata and the viewers it's maddening and baffling, but to Starfleet/Picard it's business as usual, performatively pursuing whichever course of action lets them appear the most aloof and restrained.

 

[Mojochi]

As much as it obliterates the entirety of TNG's setting, I always loved this line. It feels like it suddenly opens up an entire universe outside Starfleet, and transforms Picard's POV from being the defining view of the show to something far smaller and more subjective.

You're right, but if I wanted to try and mount a defence (or at least, an alternate reading) of this fairly crappy episode for the sake of it:
24th century Starfleet, and Picard especially, are often more concerned with being seen to be enlightened than with anything else. It comes up a lot through the show, albeit often unintentional on the part of the writers.

The ultra-non-interventionist version of the PD that takes form in "Pen Pals" arguably would mean that they can't remove Federation citizens from the planet - doing so would be changing the course of Angel One's development, which now includes the arrival of the freighter ship, and thus constitute "playing god" (to use Pen Pals' phrase).

To the 24th century PD mindset, if they take a side in the conflict, even the one Beata specifically tells them to take, they're "getting involved", which is unacceptable and will lead to a round-robin discussion in the conference room in which Picard makes grandiose statements about colonialism and military adventurism. To Beata and the viewers it's maddening and baffling, but to Starfleet/Picard it's business as usual, performatively pursuing whichever course of action lets them appear the most aloof and restrained.

Picard has been heard saying that the PD exists just as much to protect Starfleet/UFP, as it does to prevent disturbing alien cultures. It's just as important that they aren't left holding a bag of sh*t, or getting neck deep in BS, that'll bog down the whole outfit, because of their intervention, as it is WTF ever cultural pollution they might also inflict.

 

[Cap'n Claus]

11001001:

Now that’s more like it! Another example of how much more comfortable this series is when it stops trying to be what it’s not and embraces its “Next Generation-ness.”

The budget is finally starting to buckle with all of the huge effects we’ve been getting, so out comes the first reuse of the amazing Star Trek III space dock. However, in the remastered HD form, damn it looks lovely. The Binars are a wonderfully original race for Star Trek (but “Binars” because they are “binary” is also too on the nose but whatever). The extended sequences where they cause the evac and take the Enterprise are extremely well done. The music is on point and everyone is great.

Wes is shown as a responsible acting Ensign. Amazing.

Worf will maim his opponents in Parisi Squares in the quest for victory. Laugh out loud funny (I quote his keeping score line to this day).

Riker and Picard take the time to hang out together which is soooo earned by this time. It’s truly wonderful to see. Stewart is finally lightening up a bit and relaxing, and I guess we can also say Picard is as well. Frakes gets to show off his ‘bone skills and pour on that charm again.

It’s lovely to see Gene Dynarski on Trek again in a solid role and we get to follow up “Bonnie from Knight Rider” with “Rita Fiore from Spenser For Hire” this week, our first Spenser alumni to grace the franchise. I will say, I found Carolyn McCormick weirdly stilted in a number of scenes. She may have been directed this way, but I’m not sold on it. Minuet is great in concept, but I feel the actual performance falls slightly short. Riker also falls for her knowing she’s not real but – well – if it’s good enough for Kirk… And realistically, they’re still very new to the holodeck and her program was enhanced, so I can see it.

Finally, the whole idea of just needing Riker to essentially reboot the Binars planet and not anything belligerent really fits this series like a glove. The only thing is, they didn’t plan on Picard staying and yet they needed two people to complete the data transfer.

Also odd is that Wes is an acting officer and he’s one of the first to leave during the evac – with only 5 kids on the platform. Oops.

Super episode, which only feels slightly unbalanced as it rushes to the climax.

4/5



Too Short a Season

Okay, this episode is never listed on anyone’s top 10 but goddamn this was fabulous. Granted, the makeup wasn’t convincing and Clayton Rohner overdoes the Old Man schtick, but this is a smartly written, extremely well paced and beautifully performed story.

The main cast is kind of pushed into the background a bit (something they actually complained about at the time) in favor of Jameson’s story. It is Rohner’s episode but in the hands of Dorothy Fontana and Michael Michaelian, it’s an engrossing tale of one man’s drive to fix the horrible mistakes of the past – it’s almost like a follow up to “A Private Little War” as Jameson did what Kirk decided to do back then. In this case, to devastating results. The story is unflinching and there’s no comedy, no Data antics, no Wesley grinning (no Wesley period), just a straight line with one main story propelling us through a speedy 45 minutes. Everyone is on point. Stewart is now the Picard we had grown to get used to all these years. Frakes is more relaxed; Gates gets a lot to do and she’s wonderful. She and Stewart have tremendous chemistry in their scenes. Marina is good and even Denise Crosby fulfills her obligations as an actor and as security chief when they had the phaser battle on the planet. I love the unspoken but sweet friendship between Data and Geordi shown in their brief interactions. When Geordi moves behind Data during the phaser fight, Geordi grabs Data’s shoulder and Data touches his hand in returned camaraderie. At the end, they nod to each other when executing their orders. I love these guys.

The cast has now started to form that core group that I fell in love with and followed every week for 7 years and 4 movies. Now I’m starting to re-enjoy these episodes on a secondary level…the fun of simply spending time with them. Knowing how close that cast was and still is really translates to the screen. I don’t think people realize just how important these episodes are in that evolution because they’re not making a big thing out of it. It. Like the Picard/Riker hanging of out last week, all of this is earned. They’ve turned a corner as a cast and as characters. Quietly. Almost beneath notice.

As for the guest cast, Michael Pataki returns to Trek, the second alumni in a row, and he gives a powerful and layered performance. Marsha Hunt has a largely thankless role as Ann but damn it, she nearly made me cry when she told Mark she loved him one final time before he died. She was outstanding. Once Jameson aged down a bit, Rohner was excellent.

So, look, unpopular take – this is the best episode of the season so far. I always liked it, even with the poor old age makeup, the kind of off-putting score in spots and the weirdly misplaced scene of a shadowy Jameson talking to Karnas with the old man voice with easy to see earlier makeup. But today, it was off the charts great. It’s a wonderful story about regret, living with our choices, and the pursuit of youth. By casting an actor who guest starred in the original series and putting movie era phasers on the wall behind him reinforces just how much these men were living in the past.

5/5 – and I’ll die on this hill.