Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 172 (Journey's End)

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

Way back in the first few seasons of The Next Generation, it seemed like Wesley Crusher was always there to save the day. It earned him a bad reputation because it seemed like this teenage kid knew more about the ship than all of the engineering personnel on the flagship of the Federation. Eventually, it came time for Wesley to go of to Starfleet Academy. It seemed like the natural progression of the character. However, things may not have been what they seemed.

In “Journey’s End,” Wesley returns to the Enterprise as the ship is about to go to the newly formed demilitarized zone, or DMZ. In a treaty with the Cardassians, the Federation handed over several colonies. The residents of those colonies have to be relocated before the Cardassians can properly claim their new property and start surveying it. The trouble is that the residents of one of the planets don’t want to leave. Even though they’ve been there for only 20 years, they feel an attachment to the land.

The Enterprise has been sent there to mediate things and see if he can get the colonists to leave. Picard is to use whatever means he sees fit to remove them. Wesley sees what’s going on and feels that it’s wrong. He openly defies the captain and makes things worse. Picard calls Starfleet Academy and finds out that this isn’t unusual; Wesley has been acting up in class lately. Upon being questioned about it, Wesley admits that he’s dreading his graduation from the Academy. He doesn’t want to be in Starfleet.

A solution is worked out that isn’t exactly what Starfleet expected, but is acceptable to everyone. I don’t want to give away how the episode ends. What I will say is that you have to have seen the rest of the series prior to this episode to fully understand it. I don’t think someone could fully understand Wesley’s history by being told. There are several aspects of the series that come into play in this episode. Also, this episode sets up episodes of Deep Space Nine and hints at the series Star Trek: Voyager. This episode is not for the casual viewer.

The writing for this episode is great. Captain Picard is given a difficult problem. Like Wesley, he also knows that what he’s been ordered to do is morally wrong and the admiral giving him the orders argued against it. However, Picard has too much invested in his career to risk it over this. Even if he did, Starfleet could simply find another captain to command the Enterprise.

I’d give this episode four stars. As I said, it’s not for everyone, but someone collecting the episodes on VHS should buy this one. I’d say that it’s not really essential, but has a high replay value.


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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 163 (Parallels)

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

Everyone’s been faced with a decision. Do you eat at McDonalds or Taco Bell? Do you take your umbrella with you or do you leave it at home? In theory, whenever someone is presented with such a choice, all possible outcomes exist. We simply decide which path we’re going to take.

After coming back from a competition, Worf walks into his quarters to find that a surprise birthday party has been thrown for him. That’s when things start to go strange. At first, it’s minor stuff. At first, Worf is told that Captain Picard can’t attend. Moments later, Picard is there. Also, the cake changes color and flavor.

At first, Worf thinks nothing of it, but the changes start to get more bizarre. While in engineering, Data and Chief Engineer La Forge switch places and Picard disappears. Later, a painting suddenly switches to a different wall and Counselor Troi’s clothing changes. Also, Worf had originally won first place in the competition. With each successive change, his rank in the competition gets lower; eventually, his log shows that he didn’t even compete. Something is going on and Worf knows it.

After some investigation, Data finds that Worf must have passed through an anomaly that intersects all possible realities. Whenever Worf came in contact with La Forge’s VISOR, he jumped realties. Data comes up with a plan to get Worf back to his home universe. However, a Bajoran ship attacks the Enterprise and causes the barrier between universes to collapse. Different Enterprises start entering Worf’s universe. Worf is immediately sent into the anomaly and told how to seal the anomaly permanently. With that, he’s sent back to the universe that he should be in.

This was a very interesting episode. Those that have watched the series regularly will recognize many of the turning points that created the various alternate universes. The one in which Riker is captain is the result of Picard being lost in “Best of Both Worlds”. Worf and Troi being married is the result of a different outcome in “Ethics”. Those that have never seen the series before should be able to follow it, but you’ll be missing out on a few things.

The only thing that really bothered me was that towards the end, it was just the various Enterprises that started popping into the universe. It seems odd to me that it would just be that one ship. Even if you were to say that it has to do with Worf serving on the Enterprise, there should be an infinite number of universes. In at least one of them, Worf should have served on a different ship.

I’d give this episode four stars. The acting was done well. Michael Dorn had an unusual job having to shift realities. All of the other actors did well having to adapt to slightly different roles. The story was also well written for the most part. Parallel universes and alternate realities are nothing new. However, the story handled it well and in a consistent manner.


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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 119 (The First Duty)

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

Wesley Crusher started out as a regular character during the first few seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He seemed to annoy most regular viewers mostly because he as this gifted kid that always did something really smart and saved the day, usually showing up several people that had professional training, such as the chief engineer. Eventually, he left the Enterprise to study at Starfleet Academy.

Here he is, a year or two later, part of the Academy’s flight squad. The Enterprise is arriving for the commencement ceremonies where the flight squad will be performing and Captain Picard will be giving the commencement speech. Before the Enterprise arrives, though, the flight squad is in an accident. Wesley and three others make it with only minor injuries, but one member of the five-person squad dies. The Enterprise arrives in time for the inquiry, which is led by the admiral in charge of the Academy a Vulcan captain.

It turns out that the leader of the flight squad is pushing the rest of the survivors to cover up the truth. They were actually going to perform a stunt that was prohibited by the Academy because it is so dangerous. (The last time it was attempted, no one survived.) Eventually, it comes to light what happened and Picard puts it together. He gives Wesley two choices: Either Wesley can tell the Admiral what happened or Picard will tell the Admiral what happened. Eventually, Wesley chooses to admit what happened. The leader of the squad takes most of the blame for what happened and is expelled; the other three members have the previous year’s credits revoked.

This was the first indication that Wesley Crusher is capable of making a big mistake. It can be hard to live up to the potential that Wesley has. A lot of responsibility and trust is placed on him, not only by the Academy, but also by Picard and the entire crew of the Enterprise. To boot, every person that age wants to fit in. The trouble is that he’s a little too eager to please the leader of the flight squad and is willing to cover up what happened rather than tell the truth and face the consequences. Had Picard not found out and called Wesley on it, the flight squad would have gotten away with it. (I have to wonder how they would have explained it had they gone through with it. Someone might have said something and brought charges against them anyway.)

Someone who hasn’t watched Star Trek: The Next Generation a lot before this episode probably won’t get all of the references. For instance, when Wesley was getting ready to leave for the Academy, he mentioned Boothy, the groundskeeper, who appears in this episode. (He reprises the role in Star Trek: Voyager, where Robert Duncan McNeill stared as Tom Paris, although I don’t recall if they had any scenes together.) It’s still possible to enjoy the episode, but I’d recommend starting at the beginning of the series if you’re planning on watching the entire thing. This is one of those episodes that you really shouldn’t watch out of order.

I give the episode four stars. If I was buying the series on VHS, I’d buy this one. However, if I do buy the series, I’ll probably buy it on DVD.


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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 106 (The Game)

Drugs, like many things, occupy a spectrum.  You have hard stuff, like opiates.  Then, you have softer stuff like caffeine.  We’ve all been lectured on it by parents, teachers or some other role model.  I remember in 7th grade, my homeroom teacher once telling us how some drugs were so addictive, users would kill someone without hesitating for their next fix.  There are some drugs you definitely want to stay away from.  You might wonder if they even have drugs in the 24th century.  They have the medicinal stuff, I’m sure.  But how do you get the entire crew of a starship addicted so that they’ll do your bidding?

Commander Riker, ever the playboy, is on Risa at the start of this episode.  He’s with the beautiful and playful Etana Jol.  She even throws Riker’s combadge out of a window.  That’s ok.  She has this game that he’ll just love.  You have to get a little disc into a moving cone.  You just relax, let it happen and get rewarded with a jolt of energy.  Meanwhile, Wesley Crusher has come back from Starfleet.  He even hits it off with a member of the Engineering team, Ensign Robin Lefler.

When Riker gets back to the ship, Riker shares it with a few of the other bridge officers.  Soon, nearly the entire adult population of the Enterprise is having little orgasms after beating each level.  It seems that only Robin and Welsey have yet to try it.  Oh, and Lieutenant Commander Data.   Being an android, he’d be the only one immune to the psychotropic effects of the game.  Thus, Dr. Crusher lures him to sickbay to deactivate him.  She then lies about what happened and has Chief Engineer La Forge look at Date, even though La Forge hasn’t been given a game to try yet.

It doesn’t take long for Wesley to figure out what’s going on and what really happened to Data.  He fixes Data so that he can quickly find a cure for the addiction and save the crew just before Etana Jol jas the crew spread the game to the rest of Starfleet.

Ok.  The most obvious thing about the episode is the anti-drug message.  The episode focuses entirely on the addiction and how quickly everyone became to Etana.  It was never really explained in detail specifically what made everyone fall in line so quickly.  I’m assuming that she indoctrinated Riker, who then told everyone else to follow their new leader.  Still, the message I got from this is that that if you try drugs, you’ll be at the mercy of your dealer.  So, just say no kids, because peer pressure is bad.

It’s also odd that it was so versatile in the number of people it affected.  Most of the crew are human.  Even Counselor Troi is half human.  Why would it work the same way on Worf?  This is to say nothing of any Vulcan officers, who would probably be more resistant to trying the game.  I have to wonder how it was adapted to work with La Forge, who is blind.  I’m assuming that they found some way around that, since they didn’t lure him to sickbay and hit him over the head.

For that matter, since they were able to get Geordi hooked on the thing, why not wait a little while before turning Data off?  The crew seemed to be able to carry out normal duty functions while not playing.  In fact, the only clue that the crew was addicted was the near-constant use of the game.  It would have made sense to turn Data off and just leave him once they knew no one would turn him back on.  The only reason to damage his neural net is to make Wesley have to buy Data time.

I didn’t really pick up on the sexual nature of the game at first.  I did find it odd that Dr. Crusher was so eager to get her son addicted to the game.  She seemed very pushy about it.  That alone, even not considering the orgasmic aspect of the game, seemed a bit much.

The one big question I have is why Etana would start with the Enterprise.  Wouldn’t it make more sense to do a test run with a smaller ship and work up to a starbase or something?  I could totally see the ship being docked at a starbase to pick Wesley up.  The ship is picking up several scientific teams as it is, so why not have one of them introduce the game?  I guess in this regard, the game could be seen as an STD.  (Riker finally picked something up and passed it on to the crew.)

This was definitely one of the stranger episodes of The Next Generation.  It comes across as one of those awkward talks your parents might have with you about not doing drugs or not having sex.  All of the horrible things that might happen to you are just too horrible, so be careful.  In that regard, I would have liked to have seen a one-off character that had been used and left to rot in a similar scheme.  There were so many other angles that were left off of this.

I have to say that it was a pretty bold plan.  Had it worked, Etana would have had all of Starfleet at her beck and call.  Had she pulled it off, it would have been pretty impressive.


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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 83 (Final Mission)

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

When Star Trek: The Next Generation first aired, I remember liking Wesley Crusher.  I realize this is a dangerous thing to admit, but it makes sense.  As a teenager, you feel like you know everything and that no one listens to you.  You can identify with a teenager that does know everything and isn’t usually take seriously.  It wasn’t until I got older that I realized why Wesley Crusher was so annoying.  Most adults don’t like being shown up by some know-it-all kid, even if he does know it all.

In the middle of the fourth season, an opening became available at Starfleet Academy.  (One suspects that a bridge officer or two may have forced an accident upon some unfortunate Starfleet Academy cadet, but it’s never explicitly stated.)  Picard delivers the good news and informs Ensign Crusher that he’s going to go with Picard on one final mission.  There’s some sort of dispute on Pentarus V.  (This sounds a bit redundant to me, as penta- usually indicates five, but whatever.)  Wesley has been studying about some sort of labor-related legal system or something.

They’re being picked up by a Captain Dirgo in his modified mining shuttle.  Geordi certifies that it’s safe enough, but it nevertheless manages to fail, forcing a crash landing on a nearby moon.  Picard takes charge and leads the trio to the safety of some mountains off in the distance.  For some reason, he fashions an arrow out of some material to indicate where they are going.  It turns out that they don’t have many provisions save for some ‘medicinal’ alcohol that Dirgo is hiding.  As luck would have it, they find water.  It’s protected by a force field and there’s no explanation of why it’s there in the first place, but it’s something they need.

Meanwhile, The Enterprise is called away to aide a defenseless planet being bombarded with excessive amounts of radiation.  Since the ship won’t respond, the planet’s government can only assume that it’s an act of war.  When the Enterprise gets there, they discover that it’s an automated garbage scow that was used to send off all of someone else’s radioactive waste.  The Enterprise has to manually tow the scow past an asteroid belt.  They’d do more, but they’ve received word about Picard, Wesley and Dirgo going down.  They’ll have to find a permanent solution later.

Back on the planet, Dirgo has tried to get at the water, but only caused an avalanche that  nearly killed Wesley and seriously hurt Picard.  There’s some sort of automated defense system that attacks anyone who tries to get at the water too aggressively and Dirgo, being a drunk idiot, tried too aggressively.  He hatches a plan to try again.  Wesley, being Mr. Know-it-all, warns Dirgo not to try it.  Dirgo, being a bit of a know-it-all himself, doesn’t listen to Wesley and gets himself mummified.  Wesley does eventually get at the water, thus saving the day one last time.

The one thing I remember about this episode was the water.  It was so odd that this fountain, which looks artificial, happens to be there.  This is why we have these somewhat obvious explanations, like someone may have been mining there.  At least we could have had a lame joke about how this could have been someone’s winter home or something.  Why would someone put water on a planet and put in a defense system?  I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but there’s no apparent reason.

It’s kind of a fitting end to Wesley’s stay on the Enterprise.  Those that haven’t watched the series may not get the full impact of what’s going on.  There is a strange relationship between Picard and Wesley.  Picard has never been comfortable around children, but he did lead the away team where Wesley’s father died.  There is a sense of responsibility.  There’s also a sense of being a surrogate father.  A lot of things have led up to this episode.

I can see recommending this episode to people.  Granted, I’m reviewing it on VHS, so there is the issue of not recommending the format.  Still, if you’re watching the series and wondering if it gets better, it does.  The quality of the episodes improves and you’re not going to have to put up with Wesley Crusher for the entire seven-year run. 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 81 (Reunion)

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

I’ve always liked a show that uses continuity.  Some shows go all out and establish a mythology while others simply have an overarching story line.  The problem with this is that it’s hard to pick up in the middle of a show.  If you miss one episode of 24, for instance, it throws everything off.  Shows like Law & Order, on the other hand, are easy to pick up.  You could actually shuffle the episodes and continuity would barely be an issue.  With the fourth season of Star Trek:  The Next Generation, we were beginning to see that continuity.  “Reunion” is a perfect example.

The episode starts with The Enterprise being surprised by a decloaking Klingon ship.  K’Ehleyr, Worf’s half-Klingon girlfriend from “The Emissary”,  greets them.  She wants to beam over.  Worf is sent to greet her…and her son.  And yes, the child is his.  Worf isn’t comfortable with this, as he was recently dishonored.  Before we can get to that, K’Mpec is dying.  He’s the leader of the Klingon High Council.  K’Mpec knows all about this.  He and Worf agreed to cover it up to protect Duras, as Duras being dishonored might fracture the Council and with it, the Empire.

K’Mpec wants Picard to oversee the Rite of Succession.  Most of the work is done for him.  There are two contenders remaining.  All Picard has to do is figure out which one of them poisoned the guy they might be replacing.  K’Mpec doesn’t want someone so cowardly that they’d use poison leading the Empire.  Oh, and by the way…one of the contenders is Duras.  (The other is named Gowron.)

Things aren’t easy.  K’Ehleyr, not being too big on Klingon culture, is the only adult of Klingon descent comfortable around Worf.  Duras and Gowron throw a hissy fit whenever Worf is around.  At one point, Picard has to tell Worf to deal with it.  Picard understands that Worf doesn’t want to be around other Klingons and that the feeling is mutual.  Picard will do his best to accommodate this, but Worf is still a Starfleet officer under Picard’s command, so tough luck.

If you’ve seen any of the previous episodes, it will seem strange that anyone is seriously wondering who poisoned K’Mpec.  (At one point, K’Ehleyr says something to the effect of, “Well, Gowron did try to bribe me…”)  We don’t know who this Gowron guy is just yet, but Duras’s father collaborated with the Romulans and set up Worf’s father to take the blame.  Yes, K’Mpec and the rest of the High Council knew about it.  They tried to frame Worf’s family because they figured Worf wouldn’t say anything.  Still, is it any surprise that this would come back to bite them where it hurts?  When it’s discovered that the detonator is distinctly Romulan in design, it’s just a matter of getting the proof before fingers start pointing in Duras’s directon.  (Doctor Crusher finds that one of his men had the bomb implanted in his arm, giving them the smoking gun.)

If you’ve seen later episodes of the show or have watched Deep Space Nine, you know that Gowron goes on to lead the High Council.  He even takes care of Worf’s little discommendation problem at one point.  Things don’t end well for Duras.  At least Worf sees to it that things end relatively quickly, though.  (The Klingon Empire considers the matter closed, but Picard puts a reprimand on Worf’s record.)

I think of all the episodes in The Next Generation, this one requires the most knowledge of Trek history.  Aside from “The Emissary” and “Sins of the Father”, there is some connection to “Heart of Glory” and “Family”.  Add to this that the episode introduces Gowron, who will play an important role later on.

My one and only complaint was that no one seemed to think it was Duras.  I understand that they need proof to do anything, but no one says tells anyone to keep an eye on him.  This leads to K’Ehleyr getting killed, leaving Worf to send Alexander (his son) to live with his adoptive parents on Earth.  Plus, as I mentioned, Worf takes care of the problem, effectively negating the need for said proof.  (And, for all intents and purposes, Worf gets away with it.)

Nobody saw this coming?  It’s not even that having him onboard the ship is an issue.  Seriously, no one thought that he might poison K’Mpec?  No one thought that he might be in league with the Romulans?  I understand that the truth was hidden, but no one on the High Council though to secretly monitor him?  You’d think that at some point, Worf or Picard would have said, “Yup.  Told you so.”

Looking back, I can see why a lot of things in this episode had to happen.  I wasn’t too thrilled that K’Ehleyr had to die or that Worf basically passed his son off on his adoptive parents, but at least Alexander would return, even if played by a different actor.  Being that I’m technically reviewing the episode on VHS, I can’t recommend buying the VHS tape, as I’m not even sure where you’d get it.  I do like the episode and I recommend watching it, but I’d recommend watching the previous episodes first. 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 80 (Legacy)

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

When Star Trek: The Next Generation first aired, I didn’t really start watching it regularly until the second or third season.  As a result, I missed out on certain things.  For instance, I didn’t see much of Tasha Yar, who died in the first season.  When the fourth-season episode “Legacy” aired, I was a little lost.  I knew who the character was, as I had seen some of the first-season episodes in reruns and whatnot, but there was a certain element that was lost to me.  On more-recent viewing, I’ve been able to pick up on more.

The story goes that a freighter is badly damaged while in orbit of Turkana IV, a former Federation colony that broke off relations over a decade ago.  This happens to be where Tasha Yar grew up.  Yar didn’t describe it as a happy place.  She was eager to get out of there.  She didn’t talk much about it except to say that it was horrible.  According to what information the Enterprise has, any Federation trespassers will be killed on site.  The Enterprise arrives just in time to see the freighter blow up, but there are two ion trails, indicating escape pods.

An away team is sent down to the surface, where they find that things aren’t that bad.  It doesn’t look like a vacation resort, but no one seems to pay them much attention until an alarm goes off.  They follow the group that happens to have set up the alarm back to Coalition territory to meet Hayne.  He explains that they sent a team into Alliance territory to steal some artificial alcohol.  Each side has a chip that prevents either side from doing serious damage, so it’s come down to minor skirmishes.

When Riker tells Hayne about the freighter crew, Hayne offers his help…for a price.  Riker doesn’t like the idea of giving weapons to Hayne, but Hayne claims that he’s just keeping the peace.  (The Alliance just found a stash of weapons.)  Before leaving, Riker mentions something about a former crewmember growing up in Turkana IV.  As it turns out, Hayne manages to find Tasha’s sister, Ishara, despite the fact that they shouldn’t have access to Starfleet records.

Hayne dangles Ishara in front of the crew and says that he’s decided to help them out of the goodness of his heart.  After all, he wouldn’t want the Enterprise giving his enemies even more weapons.  Everyone knows that Hayne is likely trying to pull one over on them, but they agree to go along with it.  It’s not like they have much of a choice.  Well, Ishara plays the crew.  It turns out that she wants to gain access to a reactor so that she can blow it up and allow thousands of Coalition troops in.  In the end, she’s left on Turkana IV, her plan having failed.

Several things bother me.  First, why can’t we have an episode where someone is genuinely trying to get out of a bad situation rather than trying to play someone?  Tasha got out.  Is it so hard to believe that Ishara might want to?  Also, I remember wondering why they’d send her back down having taken out the implant that alerts the other side to her presence.  Sure, she might not be able to get to the same reactor, but it does present an advantage.  (I always assumed that another would be put in when she returned or that perhaps the Enterprise did it without anyone saying anything.)

It does strike me as odd that the crew was so easily fooled, especially considering that their empathic crewmember points out that they’re lying, even if she’s not sure what about.  Then again, Ishara spends most of her time with Data, who, as an android struggling to understand human emotion, is the easiest to fool.  Data even visits Commander Riker at the end of the episode to discuss why people bother trusting at all.  Yes, you can get hurt, but there are good things about trusting.

Also, this is the sister of a dead crewmember.  Most of the crew mention that Tasha said nothing of having a sister.  I suspect that this was nothing more than a plot device to get a Coalition operative on the ship.  Beth Toussaint (Ishara) looks enough like Denise Crosby (Tasha) that you wouldn’t question that Tasha and Ishara are sisters.  It’s natural that people wouldn’t question her.  I’d think that the entire point of using Ishara is to play on that bond.   I’m not sure I’d act any differently in that situation.

On a side note, it’s funny how the two factions are The Alliance and The Coalition.  I’ve found it odd that shows so often use generic names like that.  I guess if you don’t plan on revisiting the planet, there’s no point in coming up with anything complicated.  After all, how many charitable organizations are little more than “Alliance for Something” or “Coalition to End Specific Disease”?  Still, I’d expect some modifier, like Northern Alliance and Southern Coalition.

Overall, it’s a passable episode.  I’m kind of on the border as to whether or not to recommend the episode.  Technically, I’m reviewing the episode on VHS tape.  In this case, I’ll have to recommend against buying the actual tape, but it’s worth watching if you get the DVD set or have streaming through Netflix. 

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Star Trek The Next Generation - Episode 79 (Remember Me)

It was odd how many things failed on the Enterprise.  If it wasn’t the holodeck trapping someone inside and possibly killing them, the ship’s main computer was on the fritz threatening to blow up the entire ship.  Sometimes, that wasn’t enough.  Sometimes, you needed a problem so big that a particular boy genius had to create them.  Enter Wesley Crusher.  Here’s a teenager that’s allowed to run an experiment on the warp drive of Starfleet’s flagship.  Said flagship is about to leave a starbase, so it would be nice to have the engines back.

Wesley’s mother, Dr. Beverly Crusher stops by after showing mentor and good friend Dr. Dalen Quaice to his quarters.  He’s so busy with his experiment and so distracted by La Forge’s requests to end the experiment that Wesley barely notices that his mother disappears in a flash of light.  Wesley takes that as his cue to get lost.

The next morning, Dr. Crusher decides to visit Dr. Quaice only to find that he’s not there.  When she reports him missing, Worf doesn’t recall hearing of him.  Since Worf is the chief of security, it would have been nice if someone had told him about a passenger.  Funny thing, though.  Captain Picard doesn’t recall approving the request that Dr. Crusher sent in weeks ago.  Not only that, but there’s no record of anyone with a similar sounding name anywhere in Starfleet’s database.  (Yes, it’s an unusual name, but really?  Isn‘t the Federation’s population in the trillions or something?)

Slowly, the rest of the ship disappears.  It starts with her staff.  Eventually, even Captain Picard disappears, leaving her alone on a ship that she’s unqualified to operate by herself.  It doesn’t stop there.  The entire universe is reduced to a sphere several hundred meters in diameter.  She eventually realizes that she’s not broken.  Maybe the universe is.  She eventually realizes that she’s trapped in Wesley’s experiment and is able to get out.

This was one of those episodes that never sat well with me.  You know when someone tells you a story that makes no sense and as you think about it, the story makes less sense than it did before?  This is one of those stories.  First, consider that Wesley Crusher notices a flash of light, despite being distracted by his experiment.  What would this have looked like to Dr. Crusher?  She makes no mention of being surrounded by a ball of light.

Not only that, it takes her almost the entire episode to realize that it’s her that was affected by the experiment.  She and everyone else in her pocket universe blame the experiment early on.  At first, she thinks it was Dr. Quaice.  As more people disappear, it becomes less likely that it’s the warp bubble picking people off one by one.  That would have been a great moment for Dr. Crusher to realize what was going on.  Instead, we get this realization that seemed forced.  I know it’s not an easy thing to pull off, but it could have been handled much better.

Eventually she does figure it out and decides to run back to Engineering, thinking that being where she was when the experiment went haywire will help.  At this point, two apertures have opened up near her.  There’s no reason to think that engineering is special, but there’s an aperture waiting for her when she gets there.  She makes it out just as her pocket universe collapses in on itself.

Another thing:  If the entire universe has collapsed in on itself and there’s just a blue energy field several hundred meters in diameter, where did Dr. Crusher and The Enterprise come from?  There should have been no place to build the ship.  Both of Dr. Crusher’s parents would have disappeared.  Everything is gone except for her?  I know it’s supposed to be a metaphor for losing everything, but that’s something I keep getting hung up on whenever I watch the episode.

There’s also something I’d have to go back and check on.  The warp field equations Wesley was using for his experiment were based on Kosinski’s work.  You may remember him from the first-season episode, Where No One Has Gone Before.  At first, he seemed like a genius until it was discovered that his companion was doing all the heavy lifting.  If so, why would the equations be of any value.  For that matter, how would they create a pocket universe based on what Dr. Crusher was thinking?  It wasn’t until the ship got to the edge of the universe that thought mattered.  It seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

The entire episode seemed forced.  If you’re watching the episodes straight through, either on Netflix or DVD, it’s at least somewhat entertaining on the first view.  It’s also easy to skip.  You’re not missing much in terms of continuity if you don’t watch it.  The only thing that was memorable about the episode was how bad it was.



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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 78 (Family)

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

I tend to like continuity in a TV series.  I like that I can watch something that builds on previous episodes.  Star Trek: The Next Generation was good at that.  The episode Family was the perfect example.  All three stories draw on previous stories.  One story has Captain Picard visiting his brother and sister-in law in France.  On board, Worf’s adoptive parents visit him.  A third story, which is kind of minor, has Doctor Crusher debating whether or not to show her son a recording that his late father made for him when he was young.

The production number, as you can tell, was number 78, but aired right after episode 75, Best of Both Worlds II.  (If you’re watching the series, you may want to watch it in order they aired.  If you’re watching through Netflix, you don’t have to worry.)  In Best of Both Worlds, Captain Picard is assimilated by a race called the Borg and forced to help them attack the Federation.  He comes back and basically gets in a fight with his brother, who was always a little jealous of him.  Picard has to decide if he wants to leave Starfleet and return to Earth.

Worf is worried that his parents won’t understand a recent discommendation from the Klingon Empire, which happened in last season’s Sins of the Father.  Worf feels that no human could understand this aspect of Klingon heritage, but they’re his parents, even if they’re his adoptive parents.  This does lead to some humorous moments, though, since Worf’s father was a chief petty officer on the Intrepid.  (He has all the specs for the Galaxy-Class starships at home.)

Wesley gets to see his father.  It’s not a well-developed aspect of the episode, but it does draw on a lot of others.  Wesley’s father died when he was young.  He’s had to come to terms with this, which is not easy for anyone.  Now, Doctor Crusher has one of what was supposed to be many recordings for Wesley.  Does she show it to him knowing the effect it may have on him?  She comes to realize that he’s old enough.

As you might imagine, you’ll probably be a little lost if you haven’t seen the series.  You could probably follow it and would get most of it, but if you started with this episode, then went back and watched the previous episodes, you’d look at this one differently.

One thing that I’ve always found odd was that the show never deals with aftermath.  The Enterprise often leaves a planet and we have to imagine what might happen.  Here, we get to see the effects of several decisions.  We get to see Picard as being more human rather than this distant captain, mostly because of his assimilation.  Worf wants to deal with the aftermath of his discommendation alone, but realizes that he doesn’t have to.

I do find it odd that TV series will often have theme episodes like this, where all three stories have the same theme.  It works here because if you’re visiting Earth and the ship is being repaired, you’d think that people would want to visit family.  The only one that seemed maybe a little forced was Wesley’s story.  The recording was among items that Dr. Crusher had in storage.  Having the items sent up reminded her that she had the recording.

It’s episodes like this that make watching a series worth it.  I do remember much of the episode and I do recall thinking of it fondly.  It’s something that helped the show (and the characters) progress.  I know it seems that there are a few Trek episodes I didn’t like, especially with Voyager, but the shows did have their moments. 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 77 (Brothers)

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

In Family, there was a conspicuous absence of Data.  In Brothers, we get to see a lot of Brent Spiner.  The story begins with a child eating the fruit that contains a lot of parasites, putting his life at risk.  I’m not entirely sure how the child was allowed into an area where this fruit was growing, but I don’t want to get into that just yet.  The point is that the Enterprise has to rush to get to a nearby starbase, which happens to have the equipment and personnel to deal with the infection.

Data is escorting the patient’s brother down to see him when Data goes silent and starts acting all twitchy.  Data immediately goes to the bridge and, without saying a word, commandeers the ship.  When the bridge crew starts asking questions, Data makes the environmental controls fail, forcing everyone else to evacuate.  Data pretends to evacuate, but stays on the bridge.  By the time everyone else regroups in engineering, Data has locked everyone out by impersonating Captain Picard.

When the ship arrives at Data’s destination, he discovers that the transporters’ site-to-site function has been disabled.  In order to override, he just walks there, using cascading shields to stop anyone from interfering.  On the planet, he finds an old man that turns out to be his father, Dr. Noonian Soong, who was presumed dead.  Data gets to ask his father why he was created.  Soong goes through this whole elaborate series of questions to tell Data that it’s as a way of continuing his existence.

This is when Lore walks in.  As you may have noticed by now, you do need to have seen previous episodes to understand this one.  Like Brothers, this isn’t for the casual viewer.  For those that haven’t seen the episodes in question, Lore is Data’s evil brother.   Well, not evil, per se.  Just misunderstood.  Soong created Lore first, but Soong’s fellow colonists protested, as Lore was kind of a jerk.  So, Soong disassembled Lore and created Data without emotion.  Despite Data’s protests, Soong reactivates Lore, who goes right on being a jerk.

Since Lore was presumed to be disassembled by Soong and presumed to be floating in space by Data, neither one was expecting him.  Anyway, the reason that Soong called Data was to give him an emotion chip.  You see, Data’s gone his entire existence without emotion.  Lore points out that with the chip, he might come to understand his evil twin.  Well, Soong is all worn out from having two of his sons show up so close to each other.  It’s a simple task that he’ll have to take care of after a short rest.  In the meantime, Lore gets one of those evil grins, leaving us to wonder how he’ll screw over his brother.

The crew of the Enterprise manages to get the transporters to work.  They beam down while Soong implants the chip in Data, except that it’s really Lore, who wants the emotion chip for himself.  (I always wondered why Lore, who already has emotions, would want an emotion chip.  It took me 20 years to realize that he’s probably hoping that the new programming will overwrite his own.  However, it still strikes me as redundant.)  An away team misses Lore, but does manage to see Soong nearly dead.  Chief Engineer La Forge instantly realizes that the place must been Soong’s, even though it took Data a few minutes to realize who his own father was.

Commander Riker offers to beam Soong up to the Enterprise to be treated, but Soong refuses.  Data takes a minute to say good bye to his dying father before going back up and fixing everything so that the sick child can get to the starbase and be cured.  The two brothers, who had been at odds, are back to playing with each other.

When I first watched the episode, the big thing that bothered me was that they just left Dr. Soong.  You’d think that Data would want so badly to know more about his father that he’d insist that they beam back up.  Soong says that he wants to die on the planet.  That can still happen, but at a much later date.  This isn’t even considering the fact that Soong caused Data to divert the Enterprise from an important mission.

This brings me to two other points.  It’s bad enough that Data has to take the entire Enterprise for this.  Soong says that Data’s ship will be back for him, leading me to believe that Soong didn’t know that Data would take the Enterprise, which begs the question:  Why wouldn’t a shuttlecraft have done?  Isn’t it a little cliché to risk the life of a child when we know full well that the child will make it?  Also, shouldn’t they take Soong in for questioning?  It seems a little irresponsible to make two androids that will just drop everything and come to a planet.  Soong said that he had been following Data.  He had to know this might happen.  Why not wait for Data to take a vacation?  (Speaking of which, what would have happened if he hadn’t had access to a ship?)

Rewatching the episodes so close together, I noticed something else.  Soong says that he would have liked Data to become a scientist.  Maybe even got into cybernetics.  It’s worth pointing out that not more than a season ago, Data created Lal, another android.  I’m sure this is something that Soong would have liked to know.

The only other concern was the aftermath.  First, Lore is let go.  Granted, he was probably long gone by the time that the away team beamed down, but you think someone would put out a BOLO now that they know he’s out there.  Second, it was pretty easy for Data to fool the ship into thinking he was Picard.  You’d think the ship would know that one person can’t be giving commands from two different places.  There isn’t any mention of improving the security on the ship.

It’s one of those episodes that’s easy to like on the surface, but has too many issues.  There were a few that I forgot about while writing the ones that I did include.  I know I’ll remember a few more just before I fall asleep tonight.  There are too many clichés for me to get over.  It was one of those things I didn’t pick up on so much when I first watched it, but I’ve been noticing more of now that I’m older. 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 76 (Suddenly Human)

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


There were a lot of less-than-memorable episodes from the various Star Trek series.  There were even a few from Star Trek Voyager that, despite having watched them all when the aired, I had no meaningful recollection of.  I remembered The Next Generation’s “Suddenly Human” for a few scenes, but mostly for the title.

The episode centers around a boy that’s rescued from a damaged Talarian ship.  What’s so special about this boy?  As you might imagine, he’s human.  He was raised by Talarians when the outpost where he and his parents lived was attacked.  His parents were killed, so the captain of the Talarian ship took the boy in as his own and started calling him Jono.

Jono comes off as kind of abrasive.  He doesn’t understand human culture, as he was taken at a young age.  Since Talarians have a male-dominated society, he doesn’t respond to the female crewmembers.  He does, however, respect the ship’s male captain, Picard.  It’s up to Picard to try to understand Jono and what happened to him.  Picard doesn’t seem to deal well with children, which has been an issue in the past.

When Jono’s adoptive father, Captain Endar, shows up, Endar takes custody of the four Talarian children.  When he doesn’t get Jono, he demands his immediate return.  Complicating matters is the fact that the child is actually the grandson of an admiral.  Both of her children are dead, making Jono her only grandchild.  (Yes, female.  It confuses Jono that Picard has to take orders from a woman.)

Since the Federation doesn’t have a great relationship with the Talarians, Picard’s only real hope is to persuade Jono to stay.  He doesn’t want to have to force the issue and I doubt official channels would do anything.  In the end, Picard realizes that what’s best for Jono may not be what Picard thinks or hopes is best for Jono and allows him to go back with Endar.

I seem to remember the series more fondly, especially from the fourth season on.  This may have to do with the fact that I was in middle school and high school when the series first aired, so I was viewing it with a different perspective.  I do recall not particularly liking this episode, probably because I didn’t like Jono that much.  I don’t know that I would have been much different if I were in that situation.  Still, there was a lot of unexplored potential with the episode

For instance, Worf is the opposite of Jono.  Worf was a non-human raised by humans.  I’m not sure what was done to see if Worf had any family in the Klingon Empire, so it may be a little different, but you’d think Worf would at least talk to the kid and try to bond with him a little more.  We also don’t see much of the kid’s grandmother.  You’d think she’d be leaning on Picard to do something.  At the very least, I’d expect something either at the end of the episode or later in the series about how Picard dropped the ball getting her grandson back.  At the very least, you’d think Picard would mention to Endar that the kid has a hopeful (and important) relative back on Earth.

One of the advantages of having Netflix’s streaming services is that you can watch the entire series without worrying about wasting a DVD on a series of bad episodes.  If you don’t want to watch it, you can easily skip it.  I could see someone liking the episode, but I didn’t particularly like it.  (I’d avoid getting it on VHS if you’re into that sort of stuff.)  Overall, there’s very little impact on later episodes, so you wouldn’t lose anything if you missed this episode. 

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Star Trek The Next Generation - Episode 75 (Best of Both Worlds: Part 2)

Best of Both Worlds was The Next Generation’s first attempt at a season cliffhanger.   Episode 74 ended the third season with Captain Picard having been assimilated by The Borg, a ‘race’ of cyborgs.  They’re intent on assimilating The United Federation of Planets and, to do this, decide to use the captain of Starfleet’s flagship as a voice to get everyone to surrender.  No such luck.  A specialist is even brought on board.  Part I ends with Riker giving the order to destroy the ship that Picard is on rather than let it get to Earth.  They have one weapon that might work and they may not get another chance to use it.

Part II begins exactly where Part I ended; the weapon charges and fires, but nothing happens.  Picard was briefed on the weapon.  Since the Borg know what Picard knows, they know what the weapon does and how to stop it.  The Borg leave the Enterprise stranded.  While the Enterprise is being repaired, approximately 40 ships engage the Borg cube at Wolf 359 and are promptly destroyed.  Fortunately, Riker is able to get Picard back, albeit as a drone.  The crew is able to find a way to use this to stop the cube and cause it to destroy itself.

The big problem with episodic television is that you can’t usually have the main protagonist (or agency that the protagonists work for) fall that easily.  It’s the first episode of the fourth season.  You’re going to tell me that the rest of the season is going to be about the Federation being beaten?  Of course, the problem with answering no to that question is that the pendulum has to swing the other way.

The Borg are this awesome antagonist.   They’re so sure that their plan will work that they send one ship to take one swing at their enemy.  They come on to the Enterprise and assimilate one person.  If I were them, I would have taken as much of the crew as possible.  For that matter, why go for the heart of The Federation?  Why not start with the outer planets?  Why send one cube?  Why not send dozens and attack every planet at once?

Also, this is a cube that destroys 39 ships (including at least one that Riker was offered) and they manage to be outdone by one subroutine that no one thought to protect.  Yes, the crew uses a back door to make the ship destroy itself.  It’s never clearly stated why it works, but it does.  It turns out there may have been a reason for that.

This was one of those episodes where time changed my opinion of it.  On its face, the episode doesn’t stand up that well.  It’s kind of a letdown.  I recently found out that there were issues behind the scenes that affected how the episode was written.  Most notably, Patrick Stewart had yet to renew his contract when the first part was written.  Had he not come back, the Borg cube would have been destroyed and Riker would have become the new captain.

Speaking of which, Michael Pillar had written Part I expecting that he wouldn’t be returning, either.  He wrote this epic setup thinking that someone else would have to resolve it.  When he was asked back for the fourth season, he found himself having to sleep in the bed he made.

There had also been talk of making this a three-part episode.  Had that been done, we would have seen the battle at Wolf 359.  It would also explain why The Enterprise’s endgame worked.  There may have been more to it that was cut out for time’s sake.  It’s interesting to think of what else would have happened.  (Also, would the fourth season had 27 episodes or would another episode not have been produced?)

Even in retrospect, the episode seems a little weak to me.  The Borg were designed to be a replacement for the Ferengi.  We went from having an adversary that was too weak to having one that was too strong.  I’m not sure that I could have done better.  Still, it seems like were dealing with too extremes.  It’s too bad the Borg couldn’t have assimilated the Ferengi and found some middle ground.


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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 74 (The Best of Both Worlds: Part 1)

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

 

For those that don’t know, the Borg are cybernetic organisms that assimilate entire worlds to make more drones and add to their technology. In the Best of Both Worlds, the Borg come after the Federation. The plan is to abduct Picard and use his knowledge (and face) to assimilate the Federation. Here’s the plot in a nutshell:

The Borg were encountered in a previous episode and are pretty much unbeatable. They have an incredible ability to adapt and since they have assimilated so many other cultures, their technology is already very advanced. The Federation has had time to try and develop some sort of defense, but it’s not anywhere near where they’d need it.

Lt. Cmdr. Shelby comes on board the Enterprise as a Borg Tactical Specialist. (But she really wants Riker’s job.) She and Data work together to develop a weapon. There’s no guarantee that it will be ready or that it will work.

Picard knows that there’s a dark cloud hanging over him and it’s in the shape of a Borg cube. The Borg assimilate several colonies and destroy several ships during the episode, but when they encounter the Enterprise, they are only interested in assimilating Picard. The theory is that the Enterprise can escort the cube back to Earth; the sight of this should scare the Federation into surrendering. They finally succeed in capturing and assimilating him. Riker has to make a choice and he decides to destroy the Borg cube knowing full well that it will kill Picard. The last scene is of Riker giving the order.

Now, here are the problems that I had with the episode:

First, why would the Borg send only one ship to assimilate the Federation? Are they really so arrogant that they think that one ship is enough? Even if they do succeed, they’ll probably want a few more ships to help assimilate everyone unless they plan on building a few here.

Secondly, why do the Borg really stop at Picard? Given the chance, why not grab as many officers as possible? Wouldn’t that have had a more dramatic effect on the Federation? I’d think it would be more of a blow to the Federation to flat out lose its flagship.

Ok. Enough of the complaining. I’ll admit that I haven’t thought of a better way to handle it, but those things bugged me. We get to see the main characters deal with a crisis and fans were left with the first of many season-ending cliffhangers. If you do rent or buy this, you’ll have to make sure you get the next episode as well.)

I’ll be reviewing the second part separately, so be on the lookout for that. 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 73 (Transfigurations)

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

I’m sure many of us had to write a ten-page paper for school.  One of the advantages of using a computer is that you could play with margins so that I could make the report seem longer than it was.  I never actually used this in the final draft, at least that I’ll admit to.  Occasionally, though, I would make the margins so big that you’d get maybe a few words to a page just to see what it would look like.  With the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Transfigurations, I think maybe the writers tried to do something like that.

The Enterprise finds a wrecked escape pod with one former occupant, barely clinging to life.  They’re able to beam him back to the Enterprise by hooking his nervous system up to Chief Engineer La Forge’s brain.  He gets a momentary surge, but there’s no apparent effect.  Both are beamed back to the Enterprise safely.

Since they don’t know this man’s name, he’s dubbed John Doe.  They’ve never seen him or his race before, but they do find some sort of container that they can’t make heads or tails of.  John Doe makes an astounding recovery, but can’t remember who he is or where he came from.  In time, though, it’s discovered that the container is a star map and Doe’s home planet isn’t too far off the Enterprise’s course.  Doe is less than thrilled, but he can’t explain why.

Everyone gets to know Doe better.  Dr. Crusher even seems to develop a thing for him, but admits that it’s probably because she’s been working so closely with him.  Also, La Forge seems to be more confident.  You may remember that woman he asked out (and failed miserably with) a few episodes back.  La Forge asks her out again and it seems to go pretty well.

Well, the Enterprise meets up with Doe’s race.  Doe is some sort of threat to his people.  He and several others escaped from a prison transport.  They were sentenced to death for being such a terrible threat.  It turns out that John’s people, the Zalkonians, are about to go through this major change.  John is one of the first.

Usually, those affected by the changes are killed before the changes are completed.  Since John is outside of Zalkonian influence, he’s able to develop amazing powers, like teleportation and the ability to heal and even resurrect people.  John tells the captain of the Zalkonian ship that the government can no longer keep the people in the dark.  He says goodbye to the crew of the Enterprise and presumably goes back to his home world to teach his people the truth.

The reason that it feels like someone was playing with the margins was that the first 85% of the episode is John’s recovery.  It isn’t until the last 5 or 10 minutes that we get to find out about all of this political subterfuge stuff.  Ok.  I get the whole “don’t fear change” angle, but it seems like it’s all buildup with a quick letdown.  I think we could have done this in fifteen minutes max.  It’s almost like the writers were in desperate need of a script.  Instead of writing a good episode, they pulled this off a pile of ideas that weren’t going anywhere and added as much filler as they could.

I definitely think the episode could have been done better.  We could have seen more of the two sides.  Instead, we have just one guy that can’t remember why he doesn’t want to go home.  We don’t even get the sense that he is or isn’t a threat.  Yes, he kills Worf and brings him back, but what little evidence we have either way is brief.  Mostly, we get the impression that the government is repressive.  We don’t even find out what happened to John or his race.  I’m not saying we need another episode.  It’s just that it would have been nice to have a mention.  “Oh, I heard from John Doe the other day…”

This comes across as filler.  Most of it is a waste and it gets kind of convenient at times.  (Notice how easily Doe is able to help everyone, especially at the end.)  If you’re just getting around to watching the series, this is one of the episodes you can skip. 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 72 (Ménage à Troi)

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

The Ferengi were written into Star Trek: The Next Generation as a potential adversary, but came off as comic relief.  They were just too odd and funny to be taken seriously.  Still, they managed to come back throughout the series.  Then, there was Lwaxana Troi, mother of ship’s counselor Deanna Troi.  When I first watched The Next Generation, Lwaxana Troi came off as somewhat annoying.  I wondered if the character was being played for comic effect.  It wasn’t until years later (actually, during the run of Deep Space Nine) that I began to realize that there was more to the character.  Going back through some of the episodes, I’m beginning to see them in a different light.

One of those episodes was Ménage à Troi.  The Enterprise is orbiting Betazed, home to both Deanna and Lwaxana Troi, where a conference is wrapping up.  Lwaxana is on board, prodding her only child into thinking about giving her grandchildren one day.  Deanna and Commander William Riker had a thing once.  They’re able to work together, but that doesn’t stop Lwaxana from trying to drop a few hints.

Also on board is a Ferengi Daimon Tog, who is interested in Lwaxana and is none too shy about approaching her.  There’s also the whole telepathic angle.  Tog realizes that having a telepath around provide a nice advantage.  Lwaxana bluntly tells Tog that she’s not interested.  He eventually leaves.

Deanna and Riker are granted shore leave on Betazed, as they won’t be needed for their immediate mission.  Lwaxana manages to ‘run into’ them with a picnic.  As if that weren’t enough, Tog returns, rather insistent that Lwaxana come with him, and he won’t take no for an answer.  Really.  He has both Trois and Riker beamed to his ship and held in a cell.

His aide, Dr. Farek, wants to experiment directly, but Tog is so taken with Lwaxana that he holds off.  It isn’t until she tries to get access codes that he agrees to let Farek do his experiments.  Fortunately, Commander Riker is able to get a message out and Wesley Crusher manages to save the day.  The Enterprise is able to find Tog’s ship.  Lwaxana offers to submit if Tog releases Deanna and Riker, which to agrees to.  With Lwaxana being the only one still captive, it’s up to Captain Picard to save her, which he reluctantly agrees to do.

This is one of those episodes where the casual viewer will be lost.  You’d know all the major players and would probably catch a few of the jokes, but you’d need to know about the Ferengi and Lwaxana Troi to get a lot of it.  (For instance, you probably wouldn’t understand why Picard would be reluctant to help Lwaxana.)  In fact, there are a lot of things that I caught having seen the rest of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.  I’m not sure if any of this was planned or if it just worked out that way.

I have to admit that the title is a bit much.  I’m not sure I’d want to have to explain the meaning to a small child.  I’m also not sure that I want to think of Troi’s mother that way.  This was one of those odd titles where I’m not sure how it slipped past everyone.  You’d think that between the staff of the show, the network and everybody else, someone would have requested a new title.

Oddly, though, both Lwaxana and the Ferengi have been toned down.  I think that the writers realized that maybe the audience couldn’t handle both full throttle.  I also think that after a few years, someone figured that they may try to make Lwaxana a sympathetic character.  We begin to learn here that Lwaxana does want her daughter to be happy.  (It isn’t until much later that we find out why.)

I don’t recall particularly liking this episode.  The only thing that stood out over the years was the name.  I still can’t figure out why they named it that or, as I said, how they got away with it.  For those that follow Internet memes, I believe that this is the episode where the Picard WTF meme comes from.  It’s towards the end of the episode where Picard is trying to get Lwaxana back.  I don’t know if everyone will want to sit through the episode to watch it, but it is worth noting. 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 71 (Sarek)

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

There was a duality about Star Trek:  The Next Generation.  On the one hand, Gene Roddenberry didn’t want to use any of the alien races from the original series, hoping not to rely on the original series too much.  Yes, we had Leonard McCoy as a passenger on the first episode and the second episode was essentially a recycled episode from the original series, but I think the hope was to have a show that looked new.  We had all new characters and a new ship going out to see new worlds and meet new civilizations.

Then again, you had this entire universe to draw upon.  The show was set 70 years after the original series, but it wasn’t unusual for a human to live to be 100 there were some long-lived species.  In “Sarek“, Mark Lenard reprises his role as Spock’s father, Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan.  He has one last mission as ambassador before retiring.  He’s to negotiate with Legarans.  The Legarans are sticklers for details.  It took three months just to set a schedule for this conference.  They insist that it’s Sarek conducting the negotiations or no one.  You’d hope that nothing would go wrong.

Sarek is 202 years old.  Vulcans do have emotions, but are normally in very tight control of them.  This is why it’s unusual to see Sarek cry at a concert.  Add to this the random fights breaking out around the ship.  At first, it’s just two people having an argument.  It quickly escalates to a bar fight in Ten Forward.  This all started roughly the time that Sarek came on board.  It’s possible that he has Bendii syndrome.  At first, his aides, Mendrossen and Sakkath, deny that anything is wrong.  The reason that he doesn’t come out of his quarters much is that he’s an old man that needs his rest for one last, great diplomatic mission.

Sakkath eventually admits that he’s bolstering Sarek’s mental state telepathically.  The conference is causing Sarek so much stress that Sakkath can’t handle it all; the overflow is causing the fights.  What saves the day is Sarek performing a mind meld with Captain Picard.  This gets Sarek through the meeting and everything goes back to normal.

When I first saw the episode, I was a little confused.  I actually still have a few questions.  The most obvious is why the anger.  Everyone’s fighting.  It’s said that Vulcans have the same emotions that other species do.  Why don’t you see someone laugh uncontrollably?  There might be some random officer sobbing about something trivial.   Maybe two people would be overcome with lust and be caught making out behind some barrels or something.  (Okay…Maybe that last one wouldn’t make it past the censors.)

I also wonder why Picard was used for the mind meld.  It’s something that’s very intimate and maybe even too powerful for a human to withstand.  I could see Sarek not wanting to risk his wife’s life and he may not want to be that intimate with one of his two aides.  I’d think that there would be at least one Vulcan on the ship that could fill in.

Don’t get me wrong.  Patrick Stewart does a great job conveying the range of emotions that Sarek feels for those around him and past events.  I’m just wondering why a Vulcan wasn’t used.  On that note, Mark Lenard does a great job showing a Vulcan robbed of the one thing he values most:  emotional control.  This would be difficult enough for a human.  It was a little scary the first time watching Picard serve as an anchor for Sarek.  (When the episode first aired, I was a little confused as to exactly what was going on.)

This is an excellent episode.  I’m not sure it will have the same emotional impact for those that haven’t seen the original series.  This was one of the better Next Generation episodes.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 70 (The Most Toys)

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

One of the episodes I have a better memory of is “The Most Toys”.  In this episode, Data is transporting some material to the Enterprise to fix some contaminated water.  The material is unstable and hard to come by, so Data is transporting the material.  Data’s an android and less likely to make a mistake.  He’s also one of a kind.  This makes him attractive to Kivas Fajo, who just happens to have the material that the Enterprise needs to fix the water supply.  On Data’s last trip, it appears that the shuttle has blown up with him on it.  The truth is that he’s been replaced with just enough material to make it look like he was lost.  He’s been added to Kivas Fajo’s collection of rare and unique items.

Data resists at first, not realizing that he’s presumed dead.  Even when he’s told of what happened, he still resists.  Fajo wants Data to change out of his uniform.  It takes a splash of acid to get Data to agree.  Then, Fajo wants Data to sit in a chair.  Fajo has to threaten his assistant’s life to get Data to comply.  Data finds new ways to annoy Fajo.  When Fajo has a rival collector over, Data stays perfectly still, even when pushed.  This infuriates Fajo.

Fajo has made several mistakes at this point.  The first was in assuming that no one would notice Data was gone.  The crew of the Enterprise eventually realizes that they have just enough material to fix a problem that was probably set up. When they realize what Fajo’s hobby is, they go looking for him.  The second was in assuming Data wouldn’t resist.  We’ve already seen how that played out.  The third mistake was in assuming that his assistant wouldn’t turn on him.  When she sees how casually Fajo treats her life, she agrees to help Data escape, provided she can come along.

When Fajo realizes what she’s done, he kills her and tries to make Data feel guilty about it.  He tells Data that he’ll kill again.  Data has to stop him.  Data agrees and points a disruptor at him.  (The disruptor in question has been shown to have only one setting:  horrible, agonizing death.)  At the last moment, Data is beamed away by the Enterprise.  During beaming, it’s discovered that the weapon has been fired.  It’s disabled, but the implication is that Data fired at Fajo.  When questioned about it, Data states that something must have happened during transport.

This is disturbing for two reasons.  The first is that Data lied.  There was no “perhaps” about it.  Data knows darned well that he fired it.  Yes, it’s lie of omission.  This will prove important in later episodes and isn’t that disturbing.  What’s really disturbing is that it’s implied that Data made the decision to kill.  It was supposed to be ambiguous, but Data doesn’t make mistakes.  This has been established in the episode.  It’s possible that he intended to fire a warning shot, but he had no way of knowing if he could get away.  What was to stop Fajo from following Data?

This is really the only thing that bothers me.  For years after first seeing the episode, it bothered me that Data might kill.  The lying, not so much.  There are cases where lying is important for the greater good.  Data even has to do it to save the lives of the crew.  In the end, it’s still a good episode.  You’re left wondering if Data really would have done it. 

IMDb page

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 69 (Hollow Pursuits)

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

 

It seems like everything in the 24th century is perfect.  Everyone is happy and well-fed.  Things seem good for everyone.  Then again, the show primarily takes place on the flagship of the Federation.  There is a pretty high standard.  This is why it’s so confusing when Lt. Reginald Barclay is transferred into the Enterprise’s engineering section from another ship.  He’s usually late.  His work is barely passable.  It seems as though someone was padding his performance reviews to pass him off on someone else.  Captain Picard decides that instead of doing the same, Lt. Cmdr. La Forge is going to become Barclay’s new best friend and make him into an officer worthy of being on the Enterprise.

La Forge is resistant at first.  Nobody likes the guy.  He knows his stuff, but he’s socially awkward.  He can’t seem to get a sentence out without someone interrupting him.  Add to that the fact that he runs to the holodeck and escapes into fantasy when the going gets tough.  The Enterprise is actually having a series of problems that La Forge needs people working on.  (The only serious problem is a transporter malfunctioning.)

When La Forge visits Ten Forward, the ship’s lounge, Guinan points out that maybe he’s looking at this backwards.  Instead of having to deal the guy that’s so strange, realize that maybe the reason he’s so strange is that no one wants to deal with him.  If someone takes the time to be his friend, maybe Barclay will come out of his shell.

Of course, it’s not that simple. Whenever someone gives him grief, Barclay goes back to the holodeck.  His fantasy world becomes more strange.  The attractive Counselor Troi becomes the Goddess of Empathy.  When Commander Riker becomes too threatening, Barclay creates a shorter version of him.  When the crew discovers this, no one is amused by their counterpart.  It isn’t until a crisis hits that La Forge is able to pull Barclay out of the holodeck long enough to do anything and it is Barclay that comes up with the winning idea.

I think part of the difficulty in writing a flawed character like Barclay onto the Enterprise is that, as I said, this is the flagship.  It’s only because someone was doctoring performance reviews that Barclay even made it.  However, the episode handles it well.  We get to see a Starfleet officer who can’t make it on a day-to-day basis.  The truth is that we all have moments when we’d like to run home and hide from the world, but we don’t.  We have ways of coping.  (Who hasn’t been nervous about going to a party?)

Barclay is a little overdone.  He seems to be a little too nervous at first.  It does get toned down in later appearances, but it almost comes across as comical.  I have to wonder how he was put in engineering.  I understand that it’s sometimes difficult to fire someone and it’s possible that Starfleet Academy didn’t have the same pressures.  I just don’t know I want this guy around critical systems.

It seems like the series is finding a good balance in the episodes.  Even if it’s silly, it’s not overdone.  The stories are more believable and the actors seem to have a good handle on the characters.  We have a more coherent episode here.  Barclay will come back in later episodes.  He’ll still be awkward, but he’ll have his moments. 

IMDb page

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 68 (Tin Man)

I remember a lot of the episodes from Star Trek:  The Next Generation as being pretty good.  Upon rewatching them, maybe not so much.  One of the episodes I don’t particularly remember liking was Tin Man.  I think mostly it was the lack of a real story coupled with an annoying guest character.

The episode starts with the Enterprise being intercepted by another Starfleet ship.  They have new orders and a passenger.  The passenger will fill the crew of the Enterprise in on the mission, which is too important to risk communicating over normal communication lines.  The passenger is Tam Elbrun, a Betazoid that both Commander Riker and Counselor Troi know.  Riker recognizes the name from a botched first-contact mission.  (Elbrun supposedly missed an important detail, but Elbrun says the captain of the mission that ignored his advice.)  Troi recognizes the name as a former patient.

Elbrun is a special kind of Betazoid.  Betazoids are empathic, but develop this ability in their teens.  Elbrun had his empathic abilities turned on at birth.  As a result, he never really learned the coping mechanisms necessary to deal with the onslaught of emotions and thoughts that come with living in a society.  However, he’s a specialist in first contact and first contact is what this mission is about.

The Enterprise is to go to a remote location where a life form has been spotted near a star that’s about to explode.  It’s a big life form capable of serving as a ship.  The idea is to make contact to persuade this life form, dubbed Tin Man, to come back to the Federation.  The Romulans have a similar plan.  They want to bring back Tin Man to Romulan space.  In fact, they send two ships, overtaxing one just so they can get there first.

Well, Tin Man will have none of that.  He’s suicidal.  Tam Elbrun makes contact impossibly early, even by Betazoid standards.  He senses that Tin Man (actual name: Gomtuu) had a crew, but lost said crew to a radiation burst.  So, Tin Man decided to find the nearest soon-to-explode star and wait for the end to come.  He tells all this to Troi, but neither one decides to tell the captain.

Instead, they wait for the Romulans to arrive.  When the Romulans decide to kill Tin Man rather than let the Federation have him, Elbrun warns Tin Man, who promptly destroys the Romulan ship and damages the Enterprise.  Captain Picard is talked into letting Elbrun beam over with Data.  When the other Romulan ship gets there, they seek vengeance, which Elbrun and Tin Man won’t allow.  Instead of destroying a second Romulan ship, Tin Man sends both ships in different directions, far enough away that the exploding star can be seen without any harm coming to them.  Data is beamed back to the Enterprise to tell the crew that Elbrun won’t be joining them.

When I first watched the episode years ago, I remember being happy that Elbrun found a home.  He was someone that was tortured by thousands of voices bombarding him at once.  Now, he had one voice to focus on and it wasn’t so bad.  I do remember him being a little annoying.  Upon rewatching the episode, I realized that he was very annoying.  I think this is one of those cases where I became less sympathetic to the character.

Elbrun often completes other people’s sentences or responds to them without letting them speak.  We get a lot of quick, one-sided conversations.  Most of those conversations are about other peoples’ doubts about or criticisms of Elbrun.  This is someone who comes across as very tortured.  In fact, he takes a liking to Data simply because he can’t read the android.  It’s nice for him to have to actually talk to someone.  He comes across as overly childish, which may have been the point, but it’s annoying.

Data does get the chance to grow.  By dealing with Elbrun and seeing him go to Tin Man and find his place, Data realizes that his place is on the Enterprise.  He seems to understand what Elbrun is going through on some level.  I had forgotten about this, but it was a nice touch.

I remember wondering what happened to Elbrun and Tin Man.  We never find out, as the characters are never mentioned again.  I don’t know if I would have wanted a second episode, but it might have been nice to have a mention.  Maybe Elbrun could have sent Data a message or something.  The episode is unsatisfying, mostly for that reason.

Most of the episode is buildup.  We see the Enterprise racing against the Romulans.  When they get there, Elbrun serves mostly as a mouthpiece, telling us what pain Tin Man is in.  In the end, Tin Man and Elbrun just send everyone away.  We don’t get any idea of what happens next.  There’s no sighting by other ships or long range probes.  They don’t visit or send a long-range message that all is well.  Tin Man hasn’t seen another of his race in millennia.  It would have been nice to find out that Tin Man was reunited with his race.

If you’re looking for an episode to introduce you to the show, this isn’t it.  If you’re watching from the beginning, you might be able to tolerate it.  However, I wouldn’t make this the first episode you watch.  You could easily skip it without worrying about it.