Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episodes 177 & 178 (All Good Things…)

Every show comes to an end.  Some, like the original Star Trek, get cancelled abruptly.  In other cases, the show ends on its own terms, having told the story it wants to tell.  Star Trek: The Next Generation came to an end after seven seasons, despite being contracted for eight.  The final episode was a two-hour episode called “All Good Things…”.

The episode begins with Troi and Worf exiting a holodeck and walking back to her quarters.  Outside Troi’s door, Captain Picard approaches them and asks what the date is.  He claims that he was moving around in time, having been to both the past and the future.  The details are blurry, but he’s certain that he’s moving through time.  Dr. Crusher examines him; after our first on-screen glimpse of the time shifting, she examines him again to find that he has two days of new memories.  There’s something to it.

There are three distinct timeframes, including what we would call Picard’s present.  The other two take place seven years in the past and 25 year in the future.  Why seven years in the past?  That’s when Picard first took command of the Enterprise.  As for 25 years in the future, why not?

The past is exactly what you’d expect.  Tasha Yar is still chief of security.  Riker, La Forge and a few other crewmembers are still at the Farpoint station.  Data is still unbearably inquisitive.  Picard makes a few mistakes, like telling Worf to do Yar’s job, but he starts to get the hang of it.

The future is one where Picard is suffering from irumodic syndrome, a degenerative neurological disorder.  Picard is shown tending his vineyard when he’s approached by La Forge.  It appears that Picard has retired to his family estate.  However, his health is deteriorating.

In the past and present, an anomaly shows itself.  In both cases, the Enterprise is called to investigate.  It would appear that events in one timeline don’t affect events in the others, other than Picard remembering and acting on them.  He keeps the past crew in the dark, mostly because they’re still new.  However, he mentions it to the present and future crews.

There’s still no news in the future about the anomaly, which is strange.  Picard, La Forge and Data have to arrange passage to the system, which is in the Romulan Neutral Zone, as Picard can’t seem to persuade Admiral Riker to give them a cloaked ship.  Who do they turn to?  Captain Beverly Picard.

This still doesn’t answer the question of who’s behind all this, although we have seen clues.  Those that have been watching the entire series will recognize Q’s handiwork.  Q shows up, or rather pulls Picard back to the trial he and the bridge crew faced in “Encounter at Farpoint”.  This isn’t a new trial; the original one never really ended.  It’s now time for Q to pronounce his verdict:  Guilty.  Humanity will be destroyed and it will ultimately be done in by Picard’s hand.  Will Picard be able to save humanity once again?

I’ve often thought about the choice of time periods.  There were a lot of other things that the series could have done.  They could have gone back to Picard’s time on the Stargazer.  They could have gone back to just after Picard graduated from the academy, as per Tapestry.  Ultimately, that could have gotten too muddled.  Instead, we have a nice set of bookends.

The future does make for more humorous notes, like Data using a skunk for a toupee.  (Well, not really, but his housekeeper seems to think so.)  We also get to see one possible future where Riker and Worf aren’t talking to each other.  Most of the characters have aged, some better than others.

There are a few questions that I’ve had, such as the anomaly growing bigger in each timeframe, despite being bigger in the past.  I suppose this could be accounted for by the fact that each timeline is separate.  The big question people have asked is why there are three Enterprise-like beams in the anomaly when one of them should have been from the Pasteur.  While it’s true that Data never said they were all definitely from the Enterprise, we don’t actually see the Pasteur sending any energy beam into the anomaly.  When Picard and Co. make it to the Anomaly, it’s on the Enterprise.  I would think that it’s more probable that a beam would have emanated from that ship.

One thing I had to wonder is what the universe would have looked like had the anomaly run its course. Q stated that it was supposed to wipe out humanity, even going so far to show Picard early Earth and the goo that would have hosted the first proteins.  If humanity never existed, would the Federation or something like it still have formed?  (For that matter, the anomaly is pretty big way in the past.  How did it affect only Earth?)

You’d probably want to watch the rest of the series first.  (I mean, really.  Who watches the series finale first?)  This episode would probably be a little confusing without a good deal of knowledge.  Fans will probably pick up La Forge’s mention of Leah, a probable reference to Leah Brahms.  I have to wonder, though, as Leah Brahms was a little creeped out by Geordi’s behavior, and rightfully so.  Either she’s gotten over it or he has a thing for women named Leah.

I will say that of all the finales for the modern Star Trek series, this was probably my favorite.  I never really liked what they did with Deep Space Nine.  I felt that having everyone go in separate directions was somewhat forced.  Voyager was exactly what you’d expect.  They’d be some big push to get the ship home, which would just barely work.  It would only come down to details.  As for Star Trek: Enterprise, they never really got the finale they deserved.  (Also, can someone explain to me exactly what the heck happened?  Were they trying to imply that the entire series was Riker’s doing?  He must have been spending way too much time in the holodeck.)


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Star Trek The Next Generation - Episode 107 (Unification II)

Note:  I’m following production order with the reviews of individual episodes.  Since Part II started production before Part I, it has a lower episode number.


Star Trek:  The Next Generation had a few cliffhangers.  Most of the seasons ended with some major plot twist, leaving the viewers to wait three months to see what happened.  Here, we only had to wait a week.  Captain Picard and Lieutenant Commander Data travel to Romulus to find out what happened to Ambassador Spock.  You see, Spock mysteriously left Vulcan and showed up on Romulus.  This has everyone worried because Spock was a Starfleet officer and Vulcan Ambassador, meaning he had his share of secrets.

At the end of Part I, Picard and Data find Spock.  Picard and Spock speak privately, where Picard tells Spock of the death of Sarek.  Spock claims to be on a mission of peace, which doesn’t really satisfy Picard.  There are more official ways of doing that.  Spock references the events of Star Trek VI, which would be released the following month.  (It comes across more as a name drop than anything else.)

The reason Spock did it his way was that he was afraid of a repeat of the events of Star Trek VI, in which Spock helped tear down the barrier between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.  Because of a new proconsul, Spock feels that he can get Romulus to reunify with Vulcan.  While Romulans are still emotional and warlike, there is an element within the population that would like to know more.  There are elements within the senate, ostensibly like Pardek, that could work in Spock’s favor.  Yes, it’s possible that Spock is being played, but it’s worth the risk.  The payoff is too great.

Meanwhile, Riker, in charge of the Enterprise, discovers that an entire Vulcan ship has gone missing from a junkyard that doesn’t lose stuff.  What anyone would need with a Vulcan ship is anyone’s guess.  Riker is able to follow the trail, but it doesn’t turn up anything useful.  Things start to make sense when it’s revealed that Pardek is spying on Spock and the resistance.

It turns out that the Romulan government is sending not one but three Vulcan ships into Federation space, claiming to be a peace envoy from Romulus, compliments of Spock.  Things start to make sense.  Riker intercepts the Vulcan ships only to have a Romulan ship decloak and destroy all three ships.  The ships were actually an invasion force.   With the ruse busted, the Romulans cut their losses and go home.  Picard leaves Romulus with Spock staying behind, hoping to continue his work.  Yes, it’s idealistic, but it’s a worthwhile goal.

I remember wondering things when I first watched the episode.  I’ve seen it again recently and I have a few more.  First, how was Spock able to walk around Romulus?  Granted, he was being used for an invasion, but Vulcans and Romulans look dissimilar enough that someone would know that Spock isn’t a local.  Even if the government was telling security forces not to stop Spock, what would happen if someone didn’t get the memo?

The second issue is how the Romulans got three Vulcan ships into their space.  They were using intermediaries, but there’s a neutral zone between Federation and Romulan space.  No military vessel is supposed to enter the Neutral Zone.  I don’t know if this applies to civilian ships, but it seems odd that the Romulans wouldn’t complain about three ships entering there space.

For that matter, there’s no mention of Spock going to Romulas with anyone else.  No one thought to ask how Spock piloted three ships by himself?  Into enemy territory, no less.  All this to carry what was supposed to be a peace force back to Vulcan.  I would also think that one ship would have been enough to carry a small delegation of diplomats.  Why not keep the troops on the cloaked ship that the Romulans sent with the Vulcan ships?

I was wondering why the Romulans wanted to invade just Vulcan, but I guess it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.  I don’t know how they planned to hold the planet, as I’m not sure how deep Vulcan is in Federation space.  The entire thing seemed very flimsy to me.

Unification is a somewhat continuity-dependant story.  Those that haven’t seen the previous two seasons will probably be lost.  Those that haven’t seen the original series will probably know some of the major details, but will still be missing out on stuff.

This wasn’t one of my favorite episodes.  It was entertaining, but it raised too many questions for me.  Some episodes became less confusing with subsequent viewings.  These became more confusing.  If you’re watching on Netlflix, you might as well watch these episodes.  If your DVR misses them, it’s won’t really make subsequent episodes harder to watch.

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Star Trek The Next Generation - Episode 101 (Redemption: Part 2)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

WARNING:  I’m going to give away major details about this episode, up to and including the ending.  I will also be discussing the previous episode.  If you have a problem with this, now’s the time to stop reading.



One of the disadvantages of a cliffhanger episode is that you have to wait several months to see how it concludes.  With the advent of VHS, DVD and now streaming, it’s possible to wait and simply see everything at once.  With a series like Star Trek: The Next Generation, you could conceivably watch the entire series over a few weeks.

In the last episode, Redemption, some major events unfolded.  Gowron was made Chancellor of the Klingon High Council, which led to a civil war.  Worf resigned his commission in Starfleet to support Gowron.  The opposition?  Toral, a puppet being used by the Romulans, including one that looks a lot like a former Enterprise crewmember.

In Redemption, Part II, some time has passed.  Captain Picard is trying to get the Federation involved, despite it being a Klingon civil war.  This would appear to be a Klingon matter, but the Romulans are involved.  Rather than get involved directly, Chief Engineer La Forge has a plan:  He can use a fleet of ships to create a tachyon net that will expose a cloaked Romulan ship.  The problem is that there aren’t that many ships available.

The shadowy Romulan woman, Commander Sela, takes notice of the plan.  Rather than try to go around the blockade, she uncloaks and reveals herself to a stunned Captain Picard, who realizes that she looks a lot like his former Chief of Security, Lt. Tasha Yar.  She beams over and tells how she’s the daughter of Tasha Yar.  This is difficult to believe, as Yar would have been a young girl when Sela was born.  (She’s the result of an alternate timeline’s Tasha Yar.)

Things aren’t going well for Gowron and his forces.  The Romulan influence is really tipping the scales against him.  Also, Worf is realizing that he’s not fitting in well with other Klingons.  Normally, a Klingon wouldn’t drink with his enemy.  However, his brother, Kurn, has no problem drinking with opposition forces.  Toral’s aunts, Lursa and B’Etor take notice and kidnap him, hoping to turn him.

It doesn’t really matter.  The blockade doesn‘t initially work.  Data, while in command of the Sutherland, is able to devise a plan to expose the ships.  It works and the Romulan fleet turns around, leaving Lursa and B’Etor on their own.  They manage to beam out, leaving Worf to take out the Romulan guards and take Toral to face charges of treason.  Realizing that he may not be cut out to live in the Empire, he returns to the Enterprise to resume his duties.

This is one of those follow-up episodes that didn’t really hold up that well.  We had this nice setup in Part I.  A civil war is starting.  We have this woman that looks a lot like a former Enterprise crewmember.  Worf is on a Klingon ship.  What we get is a kind of wimpy follow up.

First, there’s the issue of Sela.  She’s the daughter of Tasha Yar, a blond, and a Romulan.  Every Romulan I’ve seen has dark hair.  I doubt very much that Sela would be a blonde.  (Genetically, darker hair tends to be dominant.)  Yes, it’s possible that Sela bleached her hair in deference to her mother, but she states that everything human in her died after her mother made a failed escape attempt.  If anything, I think she’d dye her hair to look more Romulan.  Why stand out if you hate what makes you stand out?  Also, I’ve found the convention of using the same actor to play parent and child overused.  I know we’re supposed to recognize her as the daughter of Yar, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Speaking of Sela, how is it that the blockade works?  I’m not sure how big the blockade is that Sela can’t just go around it.  I’m not sure because it’s never mentioned.  This is a valid concern, as she’s already running late.  No one ever says, “It will take us an extra day to go around.  What are we going to do?”  Also, there’s a fleet of 23 ships, all of them making a net with the other ships.  Displays show it as being a net, meaning that there should be gaping holes.  The harder it is to go around the blockade, the easier it should be to go through one of those holes.

For that matter, how did they know exactly where to meet the Romulan ships?  You could probably get a pretty good guess, knowing where the Klingon home world is.  However, if I were a Romulan commander and I saw this fleet of ships going along the border, I’d change course immediately.  Cloaking devices may make them a bit arrogant, but wouldn’t it be better to not risk confrontation?

It is nice to see Data take command of a ship.  This is one of a few times in the series that he questions Captain Picard and gets what he wants.  One of the side stories is him having to deal with his first officer, Lt. Cmdr. Hobson, who doesn’t think that an android would make a good captain.  Data gets to put him in his place and eventually earn his respect.

This may not be the best episode to use to introduce someone to the series.  Those that have never seen Star Trek: The Next Generation before will be confused.  A lot of it depends on knowledge not only of the previous episode but of the previous four seasons.  At least the writers did a good job of incorporating previous story lines and building up to this one.


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Star Trek The Next Generation - Episode 100 (Redemption: Part 1)

Note: This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

WARNING:  This review gives away major details, up to and including the ending.  If you’re not in to that, you may want to stop reading.


The season cliffhangers tended to be problematic.  The first two seasons didn’t use them.  When the third season ended, we had a cliffhanger where Captain Picard had been assimilated by the Borg.  The last scene is Commander Riker giving the order to fire on the Borg cube containing the captain.  The forth season begins with it not working at all.  The resulting episode ended up not being that good.

Here, we have a similar situation.  This is the final episode of the fourth season.  Captain Picard is on his way to finish his role as arbiter of succession when he’s met by Gowron, the man he’s supposed to be installing as leader of the high council.  Gowron informs him that things aren’t going so well.  Before Gowron leaves, Worf makes a proposition:  My brother, Kurn, and  I will support you if you restore our family honor.  Gowron tells Worf that this is not how a Klingon gets his honor back.

Just before Picard is able to install Gowron, a challenger appears in the form of Toral.  Toral is the illegitimate son of Duras, the man who challenged Gowron for the position of chancellor.  With Toral are his two aunts, Lursa and B’Etor.  They ask Picard to consider Toral’s claim.  He does and, while the lineage is not in question, Toral hasn’t done anything to prove himself.  Toral can go take a flying leap for all Picard cares; Picard completes the ceremony.

This leads to Lursa and B’Etor to start a civil war with the Romulans backing them.  There’s also that shadowy female Romulan from a few episodes ago.   Gowron does end up needing help and Worf does help, leading Gowron to restore his family honor.  Gowron then uses this as leverage to get Worf to lean on Picard for Federation support.  When Picard doesn’t want to get involved in an internal Klingon matter, Worf resigns and joins Kurn on his ship.  In the final scene of the episode, we see the shadowy woman step out into the light…and it’s Denise Crosby playing a Romulan!

As you can imagine, there are certain continuity issues for people just coming in to the series.  Denise Crosby, for instance, played Chief of Security Tasha Yar for most of the show’s first season.  She returned for an episode called Yesterday’s Enterprise which will serve as the basis for her appearance here.  (More on that in the next episode.)  Also, the whole story of Worf’s discommendation took up much of this season and the last.  He took discommendation knowing that calling out Duras might split the empire.  Apparently, it delayed it rather than preventing it, although this is never mentioned in the episode.

I do have issues with the episode.  First, Toral doesn’t realize what a huge tool he is.  This is in addition to being your typical arrogant, self-important teenager.  Lursa and B’Etor have to handle him.  The Romulans want to deal with him as little as possible.  Everyone else seems to recognize him for what he is.  We get the impression that this is the Duras Sisters' last, desperate hope at not seeing Gowron as chancellor.  If it weren’t for the fact that Toral is such a twerp, I’d feel sorry for him.

By other big issue is when Denise Crosby comes out of the shadows.  It seems that this is played for effect.  When the episode first appeared, we had to wait three months for an explanation.  Who was this woman?  She has a Romulan haircut, but she’s a blonde.  How is she related to Tasha Yar?  This will be answered in the season-five premier.

This episode and the next one are probably the most continuity-dependent episodes so far in the series.  For this reason, I’d recommend not getting the VHS, but getting the DVD season sets instead.  Unfortunately, the two episodes will be split.  This will be on the last episode on fourth-season set while Part II will be the first episode on the fifth-season set.  (This shouldn’t be an issue for those that have Netflix streaming, though.) 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 63 (Yesterday's Enterprise)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Most of the first two seasons of The Next Generation weren’t that good.  You had episodes like “The Naked Now” that were rehashing episodes of the original series.  Then you had some like “Shades of Grey” that were just being used as filler.  The third season had its stinkers, too, but the quality seemed to be getting better.  One of the better episodes is “Yesterday’s Enterprise”.

The U.S.S. Enterprise is just minding its own business when a vortex opens up.  (It’s funny how vortexes seem to open up when the Enterprise is around.)  Out of the vortex comes another ship, the U.S.S. Enterprise.  The Enterprise from The Next Generation is the fifth to bear the call sign NCC-1701, making it NCC-1701-D.  The one coming out of the vortex is its immediate predecessor, NCC-1701-C.  As soon as it emerges, everything changes.  The Enterprise-D is now a battleship.  Star dates are now combat dates.  (I mean, really?)  Everything is darker and the bridge layout has Riker manning a station rather than sitting next to the captain.  Gone is the Klingon chief of security, Worf.  In his place is Tasha Yar, the former chief of security who had died late in the first season.

The Enterprise-C is badly beaten, which is understandable.  They were defending a Klingon outpost from a Romulan attack.  This explains why history has changed.  In the new history, the Enterprise-C was lost.  There’s no record of them defending the Klingons, who are now at war with the Federation.  Returning the Enterprise-C would surely result in its destruction, but that destruction would be viewed favorably (read: honorably) by the Klingons.  Add to this Guinan, who runs the ship’s lounge, Ten Forward.  Ten Forward exists on both ships, as does Guinan.  The alternate Guinan senses that it’s all wrong and urges Picard to do the right thing.  (It’s actually Guinan’s insistence that gets Picard to even consider it.)

So, the decision is made to send the Enterprise-C back to meet their fate.  At the last minute, Tasha Yar decides to go back with the Enterprise-C.  The reason for this is that Guinan suddenly senses that Tasha Yar isn’t supposed to exist.  All she knows is that the chief of security died a senseless death.  I’m not sure how many times the two met in the alternate timeline.  I find it odd that Guinan picks this moment to get the willies.  Either way, history is set right and the normal Enterprise-D barely picks up what appears to be a ship and go off on their merry way.

This is one of the few cases where I’m going to pick apart an episode I like.  Yes, I’m giving it more than three stars.  Yes, I’m recommending it.  This does not mean I don’t have issues with it.  First, I find it odd that both versions of the Enterprise-D happened to be near the vortex.  Generally, when you have alternate histories, the same characters exists.  If the histories diverged several generations prior to the events of the episode or movie, the odds of the same people being involved are low.  Do you realize the odds of all the parents and grandparents having the same set of kids?  The same sperm would have to hit the same egg billions of times.

Granted, we only have a 22-year divergence here and yes, we do have a character that ended up not dying when she should have, to say nothing of what happened to Worf.  (We’re left to assume that he’s somewhere safe in the Klingon Empire.)  Still, there are other time-travel episodes.  There’s even a two-part episode that sets up how Picard met Guinan.  It’s hinted that a very specific set of events need to occur.  I wonder if those events happen in the alternate time line.  The presence of Guinan was ultimately only necessary to send Tasha Yar back.  I’d imagine that the crew could have come to realize that they needed to send the ship back on their own.

Another thing that got my attention was that it was implied that the Enterprise-C defending the outpost was the cause of peace with the Klingons.  Star Trek VI would seem to indicate otherwise.  I think this was one of those cases where the episode aired before the movie came out.  It’s possible that something happened in the intervening years.

You really can’t watch this episode in isolation.  You really have to have seen the preceding episodes to understand this.  There was an emotional impact of losing Tasha Yar and a certain joy in seeing her return.  There is also a lasting impact on future episodes.  It’s one of those episodes where, if you’ve watched the entire series, your head will start spinning thinking of all the things that should have been and were necessary in the other timeline.

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Chaos on the Bridge (2014)

Before Epinions had stopped accepting new submissions, I was maybe a dozen reviews away from having covered all the episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  I had noted that a good number of the episodes from the first two seasons weren’t that good, and I don’t think I was alone in that assessment.  It took a while for the series to find it’s footing.  It turns out that there was a reason for that.  William Shatner directed and hosted this documentary on the show’s early years.

The Original Series ran from 1966-1969, having gone off the air after three seasons.  When Star Wars and other space-related movies came out, a planned revival of the series was turned into a movie franchise.  It wasn’t until almost 30 years later that Gene Roddenberry would get his chance to bring the Star Trek universe back to TV.  Roddenberry could be difficult to work with.

He had a vision of the future that he wanted to stick to, but there were other people that were vying for control.  Paramount, for instance, objected to casting Patrick Stewart; they didn’t want a bald captain.  Paramount was also the one that insisted on a two-hour pilot, despite Roddenberry insisting on a one-hour pilot.  This led to the writers having to come up with a lot more material in a short amount of time.

The documentary interviews several people involved in the original show and the early years of The Next Generation, such as  D.C. Fontana and Denise Crosby.  Each person shared their take on what happened.  For instance, Patrick Stewart threatened to walk out several times during the early part of the show.  He was so convinced that the show wouldn’t work that he didn’t unpack right away.

The documentary doesn’t give any major revelations, at least not for the hardcore fans.  I generally knew most of the stuff coming in.  For me, it was a matter of seeing the extent of everything.  I didn’t know how dissatisfied Stewart was with the show.   I also didn’t know many of the troubles involved in getting the show back on the air.  I was 11 when The Next Generation premiered.  I didn’t really think much of it at the time. I had seen The Original Series and had some idea of what was going on with the continuity, but I didn’t care that much for the stuff behind the scenes.

One thing I took notice of was that it only deals with the first two seasons.  It would be interesting to see how things progressed over the seasons.  Around the third season, things seemed to get better for the show.  I don’t know if the someone backed off entirely or if it was simply everyone learning to work together.

For someone who watches Star Trek casually, the documentary will probably hold some interest.  It’s an entertaining way to spend an hour.  The interviews are held together by animation with narration explaining certain aspects of the show’s history.  The animation was a little off, but not so much that I was distracted by it.  I think most people will be able to enjoy the documentary.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 23 (Symbiosis)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinuions account.

The Enterprise is studying a solar storm when they receive a distress call. Things are tricky as the solar storm interferes with the ships equipment. They’re barely able to make the transporter work; the first transport turns out to be the cargo they’re carrying. Because of this, the Enterprise is only able to get 4 of the 6 crewmembers off before it explodes. Unfortunately, the payment for the cargo was left on the ship, which leads to a dispute.

The two races are the Brekkans and the Onarans. The Brekkans grow a medicine for a plague that the Onarans have suffered from for about 200 years. The cargo turns out to be a shipment of the medicine that can help several hundred people, thus making it understandably valuable. Since the payment was lost with the ship, the Brekkans claim that the medicine is still theirs while the Onarans claim that since they already gave the Brekkans payment, the medicine is theirs. The whole thing seems strange to Dr. Crusher. She and Capt. Picard do some investigating and find out that production of the medicine accounts for all of the Brekkans’ economy.

The Brekkans on board the Enterprise decide that they’re going to give the medicine as a one-time gift since so many people are suffering. However, it turns out that what seemed to be a symbiotic relationship is actually a parasitic one. Dr. Crusher realizes that the plague had been cured by the medicine a long time ago. The medicine is now nothing more than a narcotic; the Brekkans got over it out a long time ago, but the Onarans didn’t. They’ve been addicted ever since. (The drug is called Felicium, which sounds a lot like “fleecing” to me.)

The Onarans make convincing, yet stereotypical addicts. The withdrawal symptoms are very evident and the joy they get from the drug is equally as apparent. The Brekkans make convincing, yet stereotypical drug lords. All they care about is making as much money as they can off of the Onarans’ suffering. Wesley Crusher asks why anyone would stay addicted to a drug. Tasha Yar is there to answer him with what sounds like a commercial.

It’s interesting to note that Symbiosis was filmed after Skin of Evil, but was aired before it since they couldn’t have a dead character on the bridge. However, since the production numbers are what counted for the release of the videos, this does happen. I suspect that this may be the origin of the whole “Kenny’s dead” routine on South Park. While I can’t be certain, I’ve caught a few other Star Trek references.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 22 (Skin of Evil)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Warning: I’m about to give away major details about the plot. If you want to be surprised, don’t read this review.


The Enterprise is supposed to meet Counselor Troi, who’s coming back from a conference. The shuttle crashes on a near-by planet, but the Enterprise can’t make it in time since they’re working on the warp drive. When they do get there, the shuttle has already crashed. Troi is all right, but the pilot is badly injured.

A landing party beams down to attend to Troi. When they get there, they find this big puddle of some sort of black liquid. The puddle is able to move to block their access to the shuttle. When Data points out that it may be a life form, it addresses them. It reveals its name to be Armus and says that it won’t allow access to Troi. When Chief of Security Tasha Yar tries to go to the shuttlecraft anyway, Armus kills her with an energy blast. The landing party beams up, but Dr. Crusher can’t do anything for her; Yar dies.

The remaining members of the landing party return to negotiate with Armus, who has been tormenting Troi while they were away. He seems to take pleasure in hurting people, but grows bored quickly. He engulfs Riker and tortures him. He also uses Data to point a phaser at the other members of the landing party. Eventually, Picard beams down and is able to enrage Armus enough to let the Enterprise beam both him and Troi back to the Enterprise.

This episode is the epitome of everything that was wrong with the first season. First off, the effects were horrible. When Armus is seen moving, the effect is very cheesy. I can’t even describe to you how cheap it looks. It’s like it was airbrushed on or something. Also, after Yar is brought into sickbay, you can see what I assume is blood. It looks like Halloween makeup that someone found in a remainder bin at a dollar store. It not only looks fake, but it looks cheap. I guess they ran out of effects money.

The idea of pure evil is interesting, but they should have held this episode until they could write it better. Armus is what you might call a one-dimensional villain. His only purpose is to kill Yar. I understand that it was at her request, but if she had made that request just a little earlier, she could have been killed off in the previous episode. At least for a senseless death, it would have been at least believable. A lot of the first-season episodes missed the mark in terms of writing, but this one was way off. If I were to make an analogy to playing darts, this is the attempt that misses the board completely and hits someone where the sun doesn’t shine.

There’s also one major mistake that a lot of people have pointed out. After Armus engulfs Riker, Armus covers the shuttle. However, Armus remains very flat. There’s no lump that would be big enough to be Riker. What happened to Riker?

One thing of note is that this episode aired out of order. Episode 23 aired before this one did because the anti-drug message of “Symbiosis” appealed to Denise Crosby. She wanted to appear in that one, so the powers that be decided to hold off on airing this one. However, the episodes are numbered (and sold on VHS) according to production order. This is why the episode where she dies comes before another episode where she lives.

Other than the fact that Yar dies, this episode has nothing of any real interest. Not only can you skip this episode, but I also would have recommended that the series do the same. As I said, Yar’s death could have been put in another episode, making this one meaningless. Even if this episode comes on TV, you’re better off reading a book. 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 21 (The Arsenal of Freedom)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

The U.S.S. Enterprise is looking for another ship, the U.S.S. Drake. The come across a planet called Minos, where the ship is likely to have last been. As they're assessing the planet, which seems to be devoid of animal life, they receive a hail. The hail is from an automated holographic salesman trying to pitch a weapons system. When a landing party beams down, they come under attack from a drone. The drone’s easily destroyed, but the landing party is on edge.

To make things more interesting, Commander Riker meets Captain Rice, who commanded the Drake. Riker soon figures out that what appears to be Rice is nothing more than a holographic projection designed to pump Riker for information. Another drone appears and is more difficult to destroy. Shortly after beaming down, another drone attacks the ship. It’s now apparent what happened to the Drake.

Also, with the shields up, those on the surface can’t be brought back up. The shields would have to be dropped, which would leave the ship vulnerable to attack. Geordi La Forge, who was left in charge of the ship, decides to evacuate rather than get pummeled by the drone. Chief Engineer Logan, who technically outranks La Forge, wants to take command, but La Forge won’t relinquish it.

In the end, Picard has to say that he’ll buy the system in order to get the demonstration to stop. That still leaves La Forge to deal with the drone in space. He’s able to send most of the people on the ship to safety with Logan in charge of that task. He then figures out a way to destroy the drone and beam back the people on the surface.

There are several things that I don’t get about this episode. First, Logan is the Chief Engineer of the week. Until La Forge takes over, I don’t think that one person ever played the chief engineer more than once.

Speaking of the chief engineer, Troi technically outranks both La Forge and Logan. I believe that it was established in the pilot episode or shortly thereafter that Troi holds the rank of lieutenant commander. She could have assumed control and maintained order. It’s too bad that the writers didn’t think of this.

The entire episode was about defending against the automated system. Those drones could have really hurt someone. They were attacking the landing party and even encased Riker in force field. For some reason, the entire thing seemed like filler. It was all action, but no real substance or plot. It’s enjoyable, but I don’t think that it would have much replay value. Watch it if it comes on TV or if you get it as part of the first-season set, but I can’t recommend buying the VHS tape of the episode.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 20 (Heart of Glory)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Warning: I’m going to give away major details about this episode. If you’re not into reading everything about the plot, you might want to wait before reading this review.


When The Next Generation first appeared, there was this Klingon named Worf that served on the bridge. This was a bit unusual to those familiar with the original series because there was always a sense of hostility between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Now, we have a Klingon serving on a Federation ship. It’s since been firmly established that there was a peace between the two governments. This was the first episode to really deal with it in any form.

The Enterprise encounters a freighter in the Neutral Zone. (This presents a problem since entering the Neutral Zone is considered an act of war.) When a landing party beams over, they find three Klingons. The story that the Klingons give the landing party is that a Ferengi ship attacked the freighter. The Enterprise can’t tell much, but they do know that it wasn’t Ferengi weapons that damaged the freighter. When Picard calls them on their story, the Klingons say that the Ferengi were using Klingon weapons.

Not having reason to suspect the survivors, they are given quarters on the Enterprise. While there, they talk to Worf, who has lived most of his life among humans. (Worf was orphaned when the Romulans attacked a Klingon outpost.) His adoptive father was in Starfleet, so Worf joined Starfleet when he was able to. The two surviving Klingons question Worf’s loyalty to the Empire, but Worf insists that he is a Klingon.

Eventually, a Klingon ship finds the Enterprise and, when the Klingon captain finds out about the survivors, demands that the two Klingons be given over to him. It turns out that the two survivors are renegades. They apparently aren’t too happy with the peace treaty. They feel that it’s robbed them of their heritage. (Notice that this is the only time in The Next Generation that the Klingon home world is referred to as Kling. After this episode, it’s referred to as Qo’nos. I don’t recall what it was referred to in the original series.)

Worf has a choice to make. He’s loyal to the Enterprise, but he’s also a Klingon. He understands the Klingons’ reasons for not liking the treaty and pleads with the Klingon caption for consideration. Ultimately, it’s not up to him; his job is to simply escort the two renegades back to the home world. The two renegade Klingons know what’s up. They attempt to flee, but both are killed. With nothing left to do, the Klingon ship goes back to Klingon territory.

There are several interesting points in this episode. First, it’s established what Geordi La Forge sees. For those not familiar with the show, he’s the one wit the finny-looking eyewear. It’s a mechanism that allows him to see, but his vision isn’t really like normal vision. Instead, he sees all sorts of strange patterns. The device that transmits to the ships main viewer doesn’t last long and is never used again in the series. (A lot of technology is only seen once or twice in the series, but I won’t get into that here.)

Another thing I noticed is that one Klingon fell through a glass floor in Engineering. (The floor is supposed to be made of transparent aluminum or some other 24th-century stuff, but in reality is nothing more than modern-day conventional material.) I don’t think that I’d be willing to break that easily. Also, there were these skirt-like uniforms that appeared in the first few episodes of The Next Generation. Yes, they were ugly, but I think that the glass floors in Engineering were what really did them in.

The Klingons underwent a major redesign for the series. There was never any official explanation for it. (When prompted in a Deep Space Nine episode, Worf simply says that it’s not something that Klingons like to talk about.) The Romulans, who are mentioned in this episode, were also updated, although to a lesser extent. The truth is that it’s simply a matter of having enough of the right kind of makeup. It does provide for a few continuity problems, but I’ll save those for other episodes.

This one is three stars and recommended. 

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Star Trek The Next Generation - Episode 19 (Coming of Age)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

The Enterprise is orbiting Relva III, primarily to allow Wesley Crusher to take the entrance exam to Starfleet Academy. He’s very bright and expected to outperform against three other competitors for the same spot. Admiral Quinn happens to be on Relva III; he wants to beam up, but won’t say why. When he and his assistant, Lieutenant Commander Remmick, beam aboard, Quinn announces that he’s going to perform a thorough investigation of the Enterprise.

The admiral won’t explain what he’s looking for. This puts the crew on edge. To further make matters worse, someone steals a shuttlecraft and nearly crashes it on Relva III. The captain gets the pilot safely back to the Enterprise. However, Remmick is still persistent to find something out of the ordinary.

Meanwhile, Wesley is acing his tests. The only thing he has to worry about is the psychological evaluation. In it, he’s supposed to face his worst fear. He can’t prepare because even he doesn’t know what it is. In the end, he just barely misses the cut, which allows him to stay on the Enterprise for a few more seasons.

As for investigating the Enterprise crew, Remmick finds nothing wrong. I won’t go into the exact details, but this episode is a setup for a later episode. If you were to buy this episode on VHS, you’d have a complete story. However, I’d recommend renting this as part of the entire DVD set.

Partly, it’s so you can see the other episode, Conspiracy. Mostly, it’s because this one episode alone isn’t really worth the purchase price. The acting was pretty good, but you can make out the use of forced perspective in several scenes. (That’s when they paint a wall to make it look like an area extends further than it really does. In one scene, you can see where a wall was painted to make it look like a corridor continues on.)

The main problem that a lot of the first-season episodes suffered was that they weren’t that great. Even the good ones tended to be rather plain and, on occasion, were used to establish later episodes or themes. (Those that weren’t good simply served no purpose.)

I thought “Coming of Age” was only worth three stars. It was interesting to watch, but the replay value is very low.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 18 (When the Bough Breaks)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Throughout the original series, it was only ships that cloaked. During the first season of The Next Generation, we were shown a race that can make an entire planet invisible. The Enterprise is led to a location in space that seems empty until a planet appears. It turns out to be Aldea, a myth not unlike Atlantis. It’s the stuff of legends; it’s supposedly out there somewhere.

The Aldeans have a proposition for the Enterprise. They want the ship’s children and they’re willing to give up a considerable amount of information for it. They’ve become sterile over the millennia and they need the children to carry on their heritage. Picard won’t hear of it. He tells the Aldeans that the children are too valuable to their respective parents. Seeing that negotiation won’t work, the Aldeans simply take about a half dozen children and restate their offer.

When that doesn’t work, they push the Enterprise so far away that it takes them three days to get back. On the way back, the crew tries to find a way to get through the planet’s defenses. Once back, Captain Picard stalls long enough to allow Commander Riker and Lieutenant Commander Data to beam down and mess with the planet’s computers. Eventually, when the leader of the Aldeans realizes the game is up, he submits to Picard. By then, Dr. Crusher has had a chance to figure out what’s wrong with the Aldeans and has an idea for a cure. The children get to go home and the Aldeans have a cure, but can’t use the cloaking device or their shields any more.

The plot was seemed very weak. I don’t know if this was due to poor writing or simply time constraints. I think it has to due more with poor writing. The first thing I want to know is how the Aldeans can hurl a shop away, but never thought to look for a cure for sterility. Granted, they depended on a computer and its possible that whoever created the computer never foresaw the need for medical information. If this is so, why didn’t the Aldeans ask for the Enterprise’s help? It was obvious that Picard didn’t like the idea of giving up any children. (Picard could have insisted on helping to find a cure for the sterility.)

Also, why did the Aldeans kidnap so few children? You’d think that they’d want a bigger genetic base. It’s possible that there weren’t enough Aldeans left to care for a large population. (It was never stated how many were actually left, but there didn’t seem to be that many.) It’s also possible that the Enterprise didn’t have that many children onboard, but I doubt it. It’s been stated that there are about 1,000 people on the Enterprise. This isn’t all crew. There have to be more than six or seven children on the ship. The only thing that I can think of is that there were other groups of Aldeans and that other children were taken and sent to these groups and simply not talked about.

Speaking of which, why just the children? Why not just abduct everyone? The only thing I can think of is that it gives Wesley Crusher his first real ‘command’ situation. He is said to be something special and has great potential. However, I would still think that the writers could have done better.

The episode isn’t worth more than two stars. The acting is great and the set-up for Wesley’s development is there, but the plot seems too artificial and basic. It just doesn’t seem right. 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 17 (Home Soil)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

In the 24th century, there’s a government called the United Federation of Planets, of which Earth is a member. It covers a wide area and would seem to include a lot of uninhabited but habitable planets. Still, the Federation has decided to teraform a planet. This involves the Federation first sending a ship to investigate candidates to make sure that they meet the right conditions. One of these conditions is that there be no possibility of life existing or developing on said planet.

The Enterprise is sent to check up on an operation that’s teraforming a planet that met all of the criteria. When speaking to the director, Counselor Troi (the ship’s resident empath) knows that he’s hiding something, and its something major. Of course, you wouldn’t need an empath to know that. The director is hostile towards Captain Picard, who insists on sending an away team unless the director outright refuses.

When the away team beams down, everyone is friendly and the director even apologizes for his earlier behavior. Everything seems to be in order until one of the teraformers is wounded by a laser drill. (He makes it back to the Enterprise, but doesn’t live very long.) When Data has the laser drill reactivated, the drill goes after him. He’s able to save himself, but only by destroying the laser drill.

Data and Geordi La Forge discover that the drill has been reprogrammed with a very complex set of instructions that allows the drill to adapt to someone’s movements. The remaining three teraformers are Picard’s first suspects, but Data and La Forge soon find a blinking light down a shaft that was being drilled. It turns out that the planet does have life. It was simply silicon based and thus not detectable by any known test or scan.

One of the silicon-based life forms is brought back to the Enterprise where the life form accesses the ships computers and declares war on the “big ugly bags of mostly water” that attacked it. Eventually, the crew of the Enterprise is able to appease the life form and it allows itself to be transported back to the surface. Picard agrees that there will be no contact by the Federation for 300 years.

The story for this episode was weak. It took elements from “Devil in the Dark” from the original series and the second Star Trek movie. Given that Kirk’s Enterprise encountered silicon-based life in “Devil in the Dark,” how could a ship looking for life not think to check for some sort of silicon-based life? There is at least some reference point. Also, all four of the teraformers saw signs, but couldn’t bring themselves to think that the Starfleet vessel was wrong about the planet being lifeless.

My biggest concern was that the life form was able to reproduce on the Enterprise with no apparent access to additional materials other than the inferred energy emitted by the lights in sickbay. Granted, one could argue that since it had access to the ships computers that it had access to the replicators, but it seems like a long shot.

One minor point was when Picard first contacted the teraforming operation. Picard wanted to talk to Troi without the director hearing what Picard was saying. The computer said, “Channel closed” when it was really muted in one direction. (The director said something that came through to the Enterprise.) I’ll admit that this could simply be a misinterpretation on my part. It caught my attention, though.

I think this might be the only episode where a restroom is mentioned. (Someone actually mentioned a programmers’ restroom, I think.) Also, it’s the only time that I can recall a translation request being announced. Usually, the translator either works or it doesn’t work.

It would be interesting to see what happens in 300 years. There were very few episodes that dealt with a timeframe that far into the show’s future and there was usually some ban on mentioning future events to people of the 24th century.

The episode is a two-star episode. The story was interesting, but wasn’t developed too well. I think it could have been done a lot better. 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 16 (11001001)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

The Enterprise is docked for repairs. It’s a fairly simple procedure, so most of the people onboard have taken the opportunity to go to said starbase and relax, taking advantage of things that a starship can’t provide. Four Bynars, an alien race who are short and work in pairs, are taking care of the upgrades, starting with the holodeck. (The holodeck is capable of creating any three-dimensional representation that the user can think up.) Two of the Bynars decide to show it off to Commander Riker, who calls up a New Orleans jazz club. The only fictional people he conjures up are a band and a woman named Minuet. After a while, Captain Picard joins them. Minuet insists that he stays and Riker doesn’t seem to mind.

Meanwhile, everyone else is going about their business. The other two Bynars are working on the bridge, chattering in a high-speed chatter that is their native language. (When talking in English, they alternate every few words, which shows how dependent they are on each other.) When the space station observes a warp core breach, the ship is evacuated. Everyone except Picard, Riker and the Bynars get off the ship. Picard and Riker don’t seem to hear the sirens and the Bynars are the ones creating the diversion. It causes Data and La Forge to program to ship to go as far away from any inhabited planet as possible. (As soon as the ship is about to clear the station, the problem goes away.)

The Bynars program the ship to go to their home planet, Bynus, and to allow for all of the information in the Bynar’s central computer to be transferred into the Enterprise’s computers. The reason is that their sun is about to go nova and that will wipe out their memory banks. When Picard and Riker realize what’s going on, they leave the holodeck. When they figure out that no one is left on the ship, they try to make it to the bridge, but they find themselves locked out. They have to beam onto the bridge, where they find the four Bynars lying on the floor unconscious. Two of them manage to wake up just long enough to ask for the help of Riker and Picard. (Without their computer, they cannot function on their own.) The Captain and First Officer are able to figure out what to do and save the Bynars. When Commander Riker goes back to find Minuet, she’s gone.

This episode had potential. The Bynars weren’t really that well developed and never appeared in another Next Generation episode. (There was a reference in Star Trek: Enterprise, but that was about it.) I would have liked to learn more about this race. All we know is that they work in pairs and only think in terms of yes or no.

There’s also Minuet. I don’t see why she had to not be there when Riker came back. I think that she would have made for a nice recurring character. I suppose that since she was no longer necessary, the Bynars saw no point in keeping her around. (She did come back for another episode, Future Imperfect, but that’s another story.)

Also, the Bynars got really lucky when Picard decided to stop by the holodeck. Otherwise, Riker would have been the only one that could have saved the Bynars, and they needed two people to work the computers. (Minuet couldn’t leave the holodeck; being a computer-generated image, she had to stay within the holodeck’s confines.)

In terms of the characters, the only weak point was the Bynars. I think most of the problem was that they were supposed to be emotionless characters. What little emotion came through wasn’t enough to really like them. They were acted well, but stood out too much to make the episode truly seamless.

Overall, I give this episode three stars. (Or 11 stars, if you prefer binary.) 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 15 (Angel One)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Just when you thought that the first season couldn’t get any worse, “Angel One” comes along. You’re going to see me make a lot of complaints that you’ll find elsewhere, including other reviews on this site. If you’ve seen this episode, you’ll realize that all of the complaints are valid. You’d make them, too, if you wrote a review.

The Enterprise is looking for survivors from a freighter that was destroyed many years ago. They find several male survivors on a female-dominated planet called Angel One. If you read my review of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you’ll recall me complaining how uninspired “The Chosen One” was. The leader of the planet has the title of Elected One. (How pathetic is that?)

Commander Riker, Chief of Security Yar, Counselor Troi and Lieutenant Commander Data beam down to the planet to negotiate for the return of those survivors. Those in power aren’t willing to give much up at first, but reveal that the survivors are, indeed, somewhere on the planet. They’re considered renegades and the government of Angel One is more than willing to be rid of them, assuming that the Enterprise can find them. The trouble is that the survivors have a life on the planet and don’t want to leave. Things change when The Elected One announces that they’re to be put to death.

Simply beaming them up isn’t an option since this mystery virus simply appears. Wesley Crusher and a friend of his are the first to come down with it. It quickly spreads, infecting about 300 people on the Enterprise. No one dies from it and the symptoms seem to be confined to the cold-like variety, such as sneezing and coughing, but there’s no point in deliberately infecting anyone. To make matters worse, the Enterprise is supposed to deal with a problem in the Neutral Zone, which gives them a deadline. Dr. Crusher is able to find a cure in time and everything works out.

The biggest complaint I have is with the writing. (Actually, I have two complaints with the writing; this is just one of them.) Angel One’s female-dominated society seems to be like a male-dominated society found on Earth, only with the genders reversed. Women are bigger and stronger. They hold the positions of power and are aggressive. The men are smaller and are considered inferior by the women, who constantly comment on their lesser abilities. It’s very stereotypical and not well written.

The other complaint I had with the writing was the whole virus thing. No one mentioned where it came from or exactly what it was. In fact, I don’t get the impression that it was any worse than the common cold. For all anyone knows, it would have eventually gone away. Of course, the thing with the Neutral Zone did make finding a cure a priority, as did the fact that any good doctor wouldn’t just wait to find out. However, I don’t think it was mentioned if Dr. Crusher did any research. So far as I can tell, the virus just popped into existence.

This episode gets one star. Neither plot is really that good. The female-dominated society is a thinly veiled attempt to show how ridiculous sexism is by showing the reverse. It comes across as a caricature. The virus plot is nothing more than a crisis-of-the-week type thing. A little more detail would have made this a lot better. With no real story, everything else falls flat. I’d recommend avoiding this episode.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 14 (Datalore)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

How many times have you seen one of those evil-twin stories? There are a lot of them, and they’re usually not that good. “Datalore” is no exception. The Enterprise is going to Omicron Theta, which is where Data was ‘born’ 26 years ago. He’s an android created by Dr. Noonian Soong. He now serves as the chief science officer on the Enterprise. It was believed that he was the only one until that fateful day during the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation

Some mysterious force destroyed all life on the planet, but the landing party finds a secret entrance that leads them to Dr. Soong’s lab. They find several drawings on the wall, all of which depict some sort of alien force hovering above the city. In a storage area, the landing party finds another android; this one has been disassembled and is not active. The landing party takes the pieces back up to the ship, where the chief engineer reassembles the newly discovered android.

When they turn him on, they have to wait before he becomes conscious. His name is Lore and he apparently is the opposite of Data in terms of personality and programming. Lore can lie, use contractions and show emotion. Data is compelled to tell the truth, can’t use contractions at all and has no emotion at all.

It turns out that Lore was behind the destruction of the colony. He had led what was called the Crystalline Entity to the colony; the Entity drained the planet of all life. Now, Lore wants to give the Enterprise over to the Crystalline Entity. Lore even tricks Data, deactivates him and assumes his identity.

Wesley Crusher, the boy genius, is the only one that seems to notice, despite the fact that there are several clues. When Wesley points out that Data might not be Data, the adult crew members are dismissive of him. It doesn’t come off well at all. In the end, Wesley is able to reactivate Data; the two of them save the day together. Data throws Lore onto a transporter pad and Wesley beams him off into space.

I have some major problems with this episode. First off, the shields were up. Lore was going to transport something out as a pretense to get the shields down, thus allowing the Crystalline Entity in. Since the Entity was unable to affect the ship, I have to assume that the shields weren’t dropped. If the shields weren’t dropped, where was Lore seno? It would have had to have been somewhere within the boundary set by the shields. On top of that, they just leave Lore so that he can just drift in space or be dragged along until the shields are dropped.

Speaking of Lore, why didn’t anyone wonder why Lore had been disassembled in the first place? I also have to wonder how Lore met the Crystalline Entity in the first place. Plus, how did anyone have time to draw pictures of the entity? It seemed as though the Crystalline Entity was more than ready to get down to business.

Also, as Data is leaving the cargo bay after the fight, Captain Picard asks Data if he’s all right. Data says, “I’m fine.” They made this big deal about Data not being able to use contractions and here he goes and uses one. At first, I thought I was imagining it, but it’s even listed on TV Tome and other people have noticed it, too.

I also don’t get the episode’s title, “Datalore”. At first, I assumed that it meant something. However, I can’t find datalore in any dictionary. So far as I can tell, it’s just a combination of Data and Lore. If there is some meaning, I don’t know what it is.

This episode is worth two stars. It sets up several others, but this one is poorly written. The effects and acting are good, though. Ultimately, I can’t recommend it.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 13 (The Big Goodbye)

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It seemed that during the run of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the technology not only failed quite often, but it failed at the worst possible moment. In this case, the Enterprise is on its way to negotiate with a race that has very strict adherence to protocol. Captain Picard is to deliver a greeting in their language at a precise moment. Another captain’s failure once led to a 20-year rift, so the pressure’s on. With less than a day to go, Counselor Troi advises Picard to relax. Picard decides to take advantage of the ship’s holodeck, which is capable of creating anything that the user wants.

Picard chooses a 1940’s-era detective program, taking on the character of Dixon Hill. After trying it for a few minutes, he has to leave, but he invites Dr. Crusher, Lieutenant Commander Data and the ship’s historian, Mr. Whalen. (I don’t recall if his rank was ever mentioned.) While they’re in the holodeck, the alien race scans the Enterprise, causing the holodeck to malfunction. All four people are effectively trapped. The pressure is now on an engineering team to figure out where the malfunction is and to fix it in time for Picard to deliver the greeting.

This is one of those episodes where young Wesley Crusher saves the day. A lot of people hated this character because he was this teenager who seemed to know everything. (In a prior episode, Picard was told that Wesley was to engineering and science what Beethoven was to music.) Here, he is able to work alongside trained professionals and identify what’s wrong with the computers. I don’t think it was that he was so good. It was probably that he very often made the engineering department look bad with little or no effort.

On that note, Wesley tells Commander Riker that if they make one mistake, the people in the holodeck could disappear with the program. I’m not that clear on how a holodeck works, but I’m pretty sure that any matter that enters the holodeck can’t be affected. Most of what is seen in the holodeck is projected light. The use of force fields can give the impression of substance and matter can be replicated as necessary. However, I don’t think that matter, let alone living people, could be affected like that. There have been several other instances in this series and in Deep Space Nine and Voyager where I’ve had reason to question this belief. I still don’t think that accidental death by holodeck should be that easy.

I also have a few other questions. For instance, why does a starship have a historian? I realize that history is important, but is a historian so important that he has to accompany a ship? Engineers I could understand since their services could be necessary at any moment. However, a historian could probably effectively render services from anywhere.

Also, Picard seemed like a kid with a new toy. However, I have to wonder if he’d ever seen a holodeck before. I don’t know how new the technology is. Picard makes a log entry explaining it, which would lead me to believe that it might be a relatively new technology. (That would help explain why a malfunction is caused so easily.) However, I’d like to think that if Starfleet is going to put them on ships that the technology would at least be commonplace. The truth about the malfunction was that this episode was set to air right after 11001001, in which upgrades were made to the holodeck. Upgrades are actually mentioned in the episode, presumably referring to the ones in the other episode. However, many of the first-season episodes aired out of order.

Another interesting note about the holodeck is that Picard goes through a lot of trouble to set up the Dixon Hill program. He tells the computer that he wants Earth around the 1940s, then says that he wants the Dixon Hill program by name. Shouldn’t he just be able to say, “Run Dixon Hill program” and have the computer figure out the rest?

The only other problem with the holodeck is that two of the Dixon Hill characters are able to walk out of the holodeck. As I mentioned, most of what someone sees in the holodeck is supposed to be nothing more than projections. The instant that they leave the holodeck, they should have disappeared. However, they were both able to make it out into the hallway. Another character, after having been told what he is, asks Picard if he’ll have a wife to go home to. This is a bit metaphysical for a holodeck character.

Overall, I can’t see giving it more than two stars. Even if you’re willing to overlook the mistakes, it’s a relatively weak story. The entire episode revolves around Picard having to perform this difficult and important task. Even the holodeck malfunction might have been able to if it hadn’t been for the importance of the mission. In fact, had it not been for the mission, there wouldn’t have been a need for the use of the holodeck and the malfunction wouldn’t have even occurred. I can’t recommend buying this episode on VHS. Even if you get the DVD set, I would recommend skipping this episode.


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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 12 (Too Short a Season)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Even in the 24th century, not everything is perfect. Time still takes its toll on the human body. Admiral Mark Jameson is in his 80s or 90s and showing his age. He’s got a terminal illness and is bound to the equivalent of a wheelchair. The Enterprise is to take Jameson to a planet where he once negotiated a treaty. A governor there, Karnas, requested him by name saying that hostages have been taken on his planet and that Jameson is the only one that he trusts to get the hostages back.

En route, strange things start happening to the admiral. At first, it’s simply bizarre. (He is able to walk when he shouldn’t be able to.) Then, he starts actually looking younger. He’s also experiencing pain. Eventually, he reveals that after conducting negotiations for a planet, he acquired two treatments of an anti-aging substance. (One was for him and the other was to be for his wife.) Rather than wait for it to take its full course, he took both of them. However, the effect was too much for one person to withstand.

By the time the Enterprise reaches its destination, Jameson is a young man again. It also turns out that Governor Karnas was lying. Karnas is the one that actually has the hostages and is trying to lure Jameson to the planet to exact revenge. Jameson ‘negotiated’ with Karnas by giving into Karnas’s demands for weapons. Jameson then gave weapons to the other sides, thus plunging the planet into 40 years of civil war. Karnas doesn’t get his revenge, though. Jameson dies as a result of the treatment; his body simply can’t take the strain of two treatments.

The episode comes across as a little too preachy, trying to tell the audience how a second chance at youth comes at too great a price. Simply put, taking both treatments was selfish and stupid. It was Jameson’s own shortsightedness that killed him. What did Jameson expect would happen? I’d also like to point out that the medicine was never followed up on. There was nothing ever said about the planet being quarantined or other people trying to get the drug.

Also, the older version of Jameson didn’t quite work well. The makeup looked just short of realistic and Clayton Rohner, who played Jameson, sounded like he was trying to impersonate Yoda. He didn’t quite pull it off.

The only real concern I had was when Picard insisted on beaming down with an away team. In the pilot episode, it was specifically said that Riker got the job of first officer because he wasn’t afraid to tell the Captain to stay on the Enterprise when an away mission might be dangerous and it definitely looked like Picard was walking into a dangerous situation.

Overall, it wasn’t a great episode. If you’re buying the VHS tapes, skip this one. In fact, if you’re watching the episodes on DVD, you might want to consider saving this episode for a slow night on TV. It was good, but not great. I give it three stars. 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 11 (Hide and Q)

Once again, the Enterprise is on its way somewhere. In this case, it’s a relief mission to a planet in dire need of aid. On their way there, Q decides to drop in. Q is that omnipotent being from the pilot that used members of the Enterprise bridge crew to hold humanity on trial for being a barbaric race. This time, Q is only interested in Commander Riker. During that encounter, the Q found Riker to be interesting and different.

Q decides to take most of the bridge crew (including Riker) to a mysterious planet. (Picard is left on the bridge to discover that nothing works.) On the planet, Q tells Riker that they’re going to play a little game. The purpose of this game is to study how everyone behaves. It seems simple enough, especially considering that their opponents seem to be these beasts with rifles. Riker thinks it’s too easy; he even tests his phaser out on a rock to make sure that they still work. When the beasts approach, the rifles shoot phaser blasts. They even kill two people

That’s when Q’s real motives become evident; he gives Riker all of the powers of the Q. Riker is able to send everyone back to the bridge and heal the wounded. Q and Riker discuss the possibilities. However, when Riker returns to the Enterprise, Captain Picard has him promise not to use his powers. This proves more difficult that Riker initially thought. In the end, Riker comes to realize what the price of omnipotence is. No one likes the man that Riker has become.

It’s a good story, even if it is a bit predictable. Q stories tended to be a little better; Q was one of the many Trek characters that I looked forward to seeing. It shows how power can corrupt and Riker was given absolute power. This is also the first reference to others like Q. There’s an entire continuum, where the Q exist. (I think that there were two other Q shown on The Next Generation, but it was better developed on Voyager.) This is also the first time that Q has to deal with responsibility. Q, having been defeated, was to leave humanity alone. Other Q step in and remove him forcibly.

Part of the problem with the episode was that Riker’s change from first officer to god-like being was very quick. I suppose that there are limitations imposed by the 48-minute timeframe imposed by television. The only other problem I found was a goof. Chief of Security Tasha Yar was sent back to the Enterprise to be put in a penalty box. After sending her there, Q explains to everyone else what happened to her. When Yar gets up there, she explains it to the captain. How can she be so certain what happened to her? Did Q explain it on the way up?

I’d say that this episode is worthy of three stars. You don’t really need to be a fan of the show to understand it, but I would say that only regular viewers would be interested. I could see a lot of non-fans not liking this episode. I’d recommend it, but it would depend on who I’m talking to.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 10 (The Battle)

Before taking command of the U.S.S. Enterprise, Captain Jean-Luc Picard was captain of the U.S.S. Stargazer. He had commanded it for 22 years until a fight with an unidentified ship. Picard destroyed the other ship, but the Stargazer was so badly damaged that the ship was abandonded. Now, the Ferengi are trying to contact Captain Picard, but they won’t give details on why. On the way to meet them, Picard starts getting headaches, which is apparently a pretty rare thing in the 24th century.

When the Enterprise finally meets up with the Ferengi ship, the Ferengi Daimon (roughly equivalent to a captain) presents Picard with the Stargazer. They found it adrift and wish to present it to Picard – at no cost. This shocks his subordinate officers, but Daimon Bok is insistent that it be presented as a gift. The shock is warranted, considering that the Ferengi are motivated solely by profit.

The headaches worsen, but an explanation becomes evident to the audience: there’s some sort of device that glows whenever Picard gets one of his headaches. Bok seems to be controlling it. It turns out that the ship that Picard destroyed was a Ferengi ship and Bok’s son was on it. Bok wants to exact revenge by putting Picard through what Bok went through all those years ago.

It’s an interesting episode, even if it is just a little odd. This is the second appearance of the Ferengi and they’re not as ridiculous as their last appearance. The Ferengi are still a one-dimensional race, motivated by profit in the extreme to the point that when it’s revealed what Bok has done, he’s relieved of command; there’s no profit in revenge.

We also get to learn what Picard had done before commanding the Enterprise, but many other people have pointed out that there hasn’t been anything said about what Picard did during the nine years between abandoning the Stargazer and taking command of the Enterprise. (Actually, come to think of it, Commander Riker is the only one who has had his previous career explored. Other than Picard and Riker, I don’t think that it was ever mentioned where many characters had served prior to coming on the Enterprise.)

The Stargazer would be mentioned again in the series. In fact, this episode would serve as the basis for a seventh-season episode. The Picard Maneuver is also established in this episode. If you ever want to know what it is, this is the episode you’ll want to watch.

I’d give this episode three stars. It’s interesting, but nothing spectacular. Other than that one seventh-season episode, you could probably skip it and not miss it. In fact, you don’t entirely need to have seen this episode to understand the other. I’d still recommend it, though.

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