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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Shaun of the Dead (2004)

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

WARNING: I give out a lot of details about the movie in this review. If you’re not into finding out major details about the movie, don’t read this until you’ve seen it. You’ve been warned!

If you saw a zombie moving down the street, what would you do? Do you think you would even know what to do? Shaun is just your average guy. He has a job in retail that he hates, but does anyway. He has two roommates, Ed and Pete, that are extremes. (Ed sits around all day playing video games while Pete likes to think of himself as the responsible one.)

There’s a zombie outbreak, but Shaun doesn’t take notice of it. It’s all over the news, but he somehow manages to tune it out. Zombies are walking down his street, but he doesn’t see them. Perhaps this is because things in his life aren’t going so well. His girlfriend, Liz, wants to go someplace special, but dumps Shaun when he wants to take her to the Winchester, which is where they always go. He also has to visit his mother, which means visiting his stepfather, who he doesn’t like.

Eventually, Shaun pauses on a channel long enough to listen to what’s going on. That’s when Ed notices a woman in the back yard. They realize that the Zombie epidemic has reached their house. The newscaster on TV tells Ed and Shaun about the zombies. To become infected, one is bitten, dies and comes back to life as a zombie. The man on TV mentions some of the early symptoms, which Pete seemed to have had. He also says that to ‘kill’ a zombie, one has to either decapitate said zombie or to cause brain damage.

Shaun and Ed grab blunt objects and try to figure out what they’re going to do. They decide to get Liz first, then to get Shaun’s mother. Things don’t go entirely as planned; Ed manages to crash their car while he’s waiting for Shaun to come out of Liz’s place. Shaun’s stepfather has been bitten, but he’s not showing signs yet. They take the stepfather’s car to the Winchester, which is easier said than done. Hopefully, they’ll be able to wait out the night.

The movie works on a lot of different levels. Sure, the whole zombie thing is ridiculous, but it’s a comedy. Comedies can get away with that sort of stuff. It’s never explained where the outbreak originated from. There are brief phrases about experiments, but nothing specific. The real focus is on Shaun and Ed, who simply want to survive until help can get there.

Shaun is very frustrated, yet is constantly thrust into a position of responsibility. Since his boss is out sick, he’s left in charge of the store. He’s the one that has to convince Ed to do something. He has to make reservations at a good restaurant, but fails to do so. Still, Shaun is the one to step up and take charge of the group, hoping to save everyone. As one of Liz’s roommates points out, Liz and her two roommates might have been safer if they had been left in her apartment.

This is not a movie for children, and I mean that in the most extreme way. You might even want to skip this paragraph if you’re squeamish. There are several scenes where zombies are eating corpses. There’s also another scene where someone has internal organs pulled out while he’s alive. There aren’t a lot of gross scenes, but those that are gross are very intense.

There are some funny scenes, too. Shaun and Ed want to use records as weapons. While two zombies approach, they discuss which records to throw at them. Most of the records don’t hit the zombies and those that do don’t seem to have any effect on them. Also, at the end of the movie, there are several shows involving zombies. (For instance, there’s a talk show featuring a woman married to a zombie.)

I thought that there was more comedy that horror, but there was a lot of tragedy in it. I think that Liz and Shaun are the only two main characters to make it through unaffected. I came into the movie expecting something that made fun of living-dead movies. Even the title is presumably a play on “Dawn of the Dead”. However, there was more to it than that. I really think that a lot of people can enjoy it, depending mostly on how much gore they have a tolerance for. 

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The OA (Season 1)

I’ve always found flashbacks to be cliché.  Usually, it comes off as a way of padding a movie or TV episode.  You could just as easily show what happened.  Sometimes, it’s effective.  It can be used as a way to raise questions or cast doubt.  Such is the case with The OA.

It starts with a woman jumping off of a bridge.  She’s known as Prairie Johnson, but she wants to be addressed as The OA.  Her parents, who we soon learn are adoptive, have no idea what happened to her in the intervening seven years.  She simply ran off one day.  Oh, and it takes Prairie a moment to recognize her parents.  You see, seven years ago, she was blind.  Now she can see.

Prairie gathers five people in an uncompleted house to hear her story.  One is a teacher; the rest are students.  (They are all from the same school.)  She was born in Russia as Nina Azarov.  Her father was a rich man, but became a target.  As such, Nina was in danger.  She was injured in an attack, resulting in a near-death experience and blindness.  Her father eventually sent her away to a boarding school until his death.

She is eventually adopted by an American couple, the Johnsons, and renamed Prairie.  She’s brought to the United States and raised until she runs away.  It’s approaching her 21st birthday and she has a dream that her father will meet her at the Statue of Liberty.  Of course, he’s not there, but she meets Hap, a guy who has a plane and a plan to help her.  Of course, by help, he means abduct.

The narrative alternates between Prairie telling her group of five about her ordeal and their respective lives in the present.  Prairie is seeing a counselor from the FBI while her five protégés/disciples have lives of their own.  Prairie and her parents try to get her back to normal.  The problem is that her story is anything but normal.  Hap is doing research into near-death experiences.  All of the other captives that she tells the group about had similar experiences.  In fact, that’s what she needs help with.  Her plan is to teach the others to open a portal so that she can go back and save the others.

If you think that this sounds a little weird, it is.  Prairie’s story comes off as what you might expect from someone who escaped captivity.  It sounds very much like a coping mechanism.  She desperately tried to find a way to save herself while in captivity and is having a hard time coming down from it.  How much of it is real, though?  Were there really others or were they figments of her imagination to help her cope?  Was she really having near-death experiences or was she just hallucinating from being held captive for so long?

There’s the issue of her regaining her sight.  I’m sure such things happen.  However, is it possible that she was conditioned to play blind so that she would be adopted?  She was able to fool Hap for a while.  Could she have been playing her adoptive parents for sympathy?  If this is the case, what really happened during those seven years?

Even if we take her story at face value, there are questions.  Each of the captives are shown wearing the same clothes the entire time.  There’s no mention of their clothing being washed or changed, nor do the clothes seem to get dirty.  Also, Hap seems to be able to record the captives’ experiences while they’re on The Other Side.  How is this possible?  Speaking of seemingly impossible, Prairie and another captive, Homer, are able to write the movements, in code, on their backs.  How did they do this, given that they were separated?  The markings are on their backs in an area that’s difficult to reach and there are no signs of any sort of tool.  Also, why split the markings between two captives?  Why not write all the movements on all of the prisoners?

The big issue is that there doesn’t seem to be much proof of her ordeal.  The prisoners managed to get a bill with Hap’s P.O. Box number on it.  It seems like such a simple thing to remember.   Yet, when Prairie returns, she can’t seem to tell which city she was being held in.  You’d think that if they could encode movements on their backs, they could have memorized or encoded a simple address.

As much as I enjoyed the series, I had a sense of being let down at the end.  It looks like there’s going to be a second season.  However, we’re not left with a cliffhanger, per se.  We’re also not left with much of a resolution.  There’s not that decisive moment were it either all comes together or forces that one unresolved issue upon us that will leave us hanging until next season.  Instead, you get all of these uneasy feelings that only become questions later on. 

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To Love, Honor and Deceive (1996)

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

WARNING:  I’m going to pretty much give away everything.  If you’ve never seen this movie and have any interest in doing so, now would be a good time to do so.  If you want to know why you should skip it, then please read on.


I’ve often wondered why people would star in a made-for-TV movie.  Some are good, but many tend to fall flat.  I don’t know if the scripts aren’t good enough to make it to the big screen or if the people involved just don’t care.  To Love, Honor and Deceive is the perfect example of this

The movie starts with a happy family doing things that a happy family does.  Sydney is a mother thinking about going back to work, but really likes being there for her son, Adam.  Husband and Father Matthew works in the import/export business.  Matthew can’t spend that much time with Adam because he has to be in other countries for long spans of time.

Matthew decides to take Adam out on the boat, which seems innocent enough.  Problem is that, because of a bad storm, Matthew and Adam don’t make it back.  Police find the boat and enough stuff floating around that Matthew and Adam are presumed dead.

Sydney doesn’t buy it.  At first, it seems like she’s just grieving and can’t accept the loss of her family.  The FBI tells her to drop it.  Things get suspicious when she goes to visit Matthew’s parents.  She finds that they don’t exist, nor has anyone ever heard of Matthew.  (I find it odd that she never got suspicious when they weren’t at their own son’s wedding, nor did they have any contact with their soon-to-be-5-year-old grandson.)

After a little digging, she comes to realize that her husband had led another life and had essentially done the same thing to another woman.  Sydney pretty much writes off her husband, but wants her son back.  The FBI still denies everything.  No one will give her any information.  So, she sets off to find her son and eventually does.

There are a lot of questions that I have.  First, as I mentioned, it seems odd to me that she never met her in-laws.  From the sound of it, she never even got a phone call from them.  Since her son is turning 5, we can assume that they’ve been married at least that long.  They were probably dating for a while before that.  I would think that if you were going to marry someone, or at least have that kind of intent, you’d be better off saying that your parents had died.

Also, why is it that the FBI is always made out to be the bad guys?  They’re always the one withholding information and telling the local police what to do.  I always imagine some FBI agent sitting at home watching movies like this and yelling at the TV, “Oh, we’re not like that at all!!!”  The FBI really seems to get a bad reputation.

More importantly, Sydney has a best friend that apparently slept with her husband, but the best friend doesn’t even get a name.  You’d think that someone like that would at least be called by name at least once.  I will say that I wasn’t complaining that Rosalind Chao played the friend.  I’ve always liked her.

While watching the movie, I thought Sydney looked familiar.  It took me a while to realize that she had been on the TV series Las Vegas.  She and Chao were two of only a handful of actors that I realized from other things.  Many of the other actors were new to me.  While there was some good acting, I felt like the overall acting wasn’t that good.  The husband seemed a little flat at times.  Even in the one scene where he gets angry, it doesn’t seem like he’s really getting that emotional.

In fact, I’d say that the entire movie wasn’t that good.  I understand that her husband lied to her, but Sydney showed no interest whatsoever in getting him back, even if it was for a divorce.  I felt like it just happened.  There was no explanation over why she lost interest in him so quickly.

There’s no back story to the couple, which would have been nice, especially considering that the husband’s story wasn’t real.  (There should have been a lot of clues aside from missing parents.)  The movie was fairly disappointing and seemed to alternate between dragging out and being rushed.  I’d recommend avoiding this movie if you have a choice. 

IMDb page

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. 

IMDb page

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. 

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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.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 67 (Captain's Holiday)

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

The episode starts with two aliens looking for Captain Picard in a hotel on some distant planet. He’s not staying there, nor does he have reservations. The two aliens are certain that he’ll arrive.

Captain Picard never was the kind of character that was willing to show signs of wear. After a difficult negotiation process, the crew is beginning to pick up on the fact that he’s had a difficult time. His responses are short and he doesn’t seem to be in the mood to be with others. Commander Riker and Counselor Troi decide to get him to take a vacation on a planet called Risa.

Risa, which has made other appearances throughout the series, is a resort planet; the entire economy is based on tourism. It doesn’t take long for Picard to realize that the planet is more suited for Riker. Beautiful women are everywhere and many keep coming up to Picard, even though all he wants to do is read a book. On his way back to his room, Picard meets Vash, a woman who’s on the run from a Ferengi named Sovak. (Sovak is played by Max Grodenchik, who plays Quark’s brother on Deep Space Nine.)

They’re both after something called the Tox Uhtat, which is a device so powerful that it can stop the nuclear reactions inside of a star. To make matters more complicated, the two aliens from the beginning of the episode, who call themselves Vorgons, are also after the Tox Uhtat. They are from the future and believe that Picard will lead them to it.

The way that the story plays out, the Vorgons say that history has unfolded as it was supposed to. The end of the story was a bit of a disappointment. It almost seemed too easy. It seemed like it just ended. However, we get to see Patrick Stewart shine in this episode as Captain Picard. Picard is often described as a very private man, and that’s made clear in this episode

Grodenchik was also great as Sovak. The Ferengi of the first season weren’t that well developed and it was difficult to see them as anything other than comic relief. Sovak was the first real threat to anyone. The Vorgons were never seen or heard from again, so far as I can recall. The two characters seemed to be there just to further the story line and came across as being two-dimensional. (I think it had to more with bad writing than bad acting, though.)

If you missed this episode, I think you could get through the rest of the series and not be too confused. Even with the episodes where Vash appears, you could still follow those story lines without being confused. (If this episode had never aired, the other episodes would require very little rewriting.) I’m in between recommending it and not recommending it. (It’s because of things like this that I’d be in favor of doing away with mandating the recommendation.) I’ll recommend it only because I really can’t find any real reason to not recommend it.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 66 (Allegiance)

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

I started watching Fringe on Netflix.  After watching a few episodes, it occurred to me that I may be able to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation.  As it so happens, they have all seven seasons available.  My next thought was to check to see if there were any episodes that hadn’t been

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reviewed.  I found one unreviewed episode: Allegiance.

The episode is from the third season.  The Enterprise has just completed a mission and is on their way to their next assignment.  Captain Picard is in his quarters when he nods off.  We then see some sort of domino-shaped thing hovering above him.  Picard is transported off the ship.  Ship’s sensors pick something up, but when a security detail gets down there, Picard answers his door.  Everything seems to be fine.

The truth is that Picard has been transported to a holding area and replaced with a double.  I’d say, “Let’s see if the crew notices,”, but the double makes it increasingly obvious.  He starts by diverting the ship to a star that has already been studied to death.  He asks the ships counselor, Troi, how far the crew’s trust for him goes.  He also wants the ship’s efficiency to be raised a few percentage points.  He later walks into Ten-Forward, the ships bar/lounge, and toasts the crew.  He sings a song, which further worries the bridge crew.

Meanwhile, the real Picard is trying to figure out why he and several other people have been abducted and held.  He meets a Starfleet cadet and a member of a race that’s submissive to any attacker.  A fourth person, who happens to be an anarchist, arrives later.  They’re given some sort of gelatinous disc that’s supposed to be food, but the anarchist can’t eat it, which poses a potential threat.

When the ship arrives at the star, the fake Picard orders the ship in way to close to be safe.  This is when the bridge crew finally calls him on the act.  Around this time, the real Picard calls his captors on what’s going on.  The real Picard is returned to the ship and the aliens explain that they come from a society that has no real authority.  They want to study people of different societies.  Picard then shows them what it’s like to be held in captivity and tells them to get lost.

I remember watching this episode when it first aired.  I didn’t like it because of how obvious the doppelganger was.  Upon rewatching the episode, my original opinion stands.   The fake Picard goes into sickbay to have a physical to establish that he’s really Picard.  This is, itself, odd since Picard usually needs wild horses to drag him in.  What’s more odd is that his results match the last results perfectly.  From there, he just continues to do things that Picard wouldn’t normally do, which is odd because he has all of Picard’s memories.  If I was going to go through the effort of replacing the captain of a ship, I think it would be easier to have the fake hold off and test this ‘authority’ thing gradually.

Even better, since the aliens can apparently access Picard’s memories and create a replica , why not just interview the replica?  For that matter, couldn’t they access the memories to start with, then decide if a replica is necessary?  It occurred to me that they had to know that the experiment would have to end eventually.  At that pace, it would have to end sooner rather than later.  It’s the same thing with the real Picard.  Eventually, that anarchist was going to get hungry and start eating the other captives.

This is one of those episodes that the more I think about it, the more my head hurts.  Technically, I’m reviewing the episode on VHS.  Since VHS is no longer available new, I doubt anyone will be paying retail for this.  Instead, you’ll probably be buying it as part of the third-season DVD set or watching it through a streaming service like I did.  Those are the only conditions under which I’d recommend watching the episode.  Don’t waste your time or money getting just this episode.

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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 65 (Sins of the Father)

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

Star Trek:  The Next Generation had a few of what the Starburst ads would call contradictions.  There was a android trying to be more human.  You had a blind man piloting a starship, even though that didn’t last very long.  (He was eventually promoted to chief engineer.)  Another notable contradiction was a Klingon serving in Starfleet.  Worf was believed to be the only survivor of an attack on Khitomer by the Romulans.  There are no other Klingons in Starfleet, but there is an exchange program which Commander Riker participated.  Now, it’s Commander Kurn’s turn to serve aboard the Enterprise.

Things aren’t that good for the crew.  Kurn has a surprise inspection of engineering while they’re doing maintenance.   Young Wesley Crusher can’t seem to do anything right.  The only one that has it easy is Worf.  In fact, Kurn is being condescending towards Worf.  Well, Worf has enough and confronts his new commander only to find out that Kurn is actually his younger brother.  Worf had believed he was an only child.  Kurn was left with a family friend, who raised him upon news of his parents’ death.  Much later, he found out the truth.

Why the ruse?  Partly, it was to see what kind of Klingon Worf was.  There’s also some news that was probably better delivered in person:  Mogh, their father, is posthumously being accused of aiding and abetting the enemy.  Specifically, Mogh is being accused of supplying access codes to the Romulans so that they could attack Khitomer.  As the oldest (and presumed only) child of Mogh, it’s Worf’s right and responsibility to challenge the accusation.  Funny that no one on the Klingon High Council mentioned it to him.

When Worf and Kurn go to the Klingon home world, Worf has Kurn say nothing of their relationship, but allows Kurn to be his second.  (Worf won’t be allowed to actually fight.)  After the initial announcement of Worf’s intent to challenge the accusation, Chancellor K’mpec calls a recess and pulls Worf aside.  He tells Worf that everyone knows that Mogh didn’t do it.  They need a fall guy and they figured that Worf, being comfortable in Starfleet, wouldn’t challenge.  He can walk away and they’ll forget all about it.

Worf insists that he’s still a Klingon and still cares about honor.  He’ll challenge, even if it means that he’ll be executed.  Kurn is called away and attacked and nearly killed with a ceremonial blade.  He lives only to tell Worf that he’s as good as dead anyway, being the son of Mogh.  It’s curious, though.  Someone supplied the access codes and there’s supposedly proof supplied by a captured Romulan ship, but it doesn’t add up.  So, Captain Picard, now Worf’s new second, finds another survivor of the Khitomer attack:  Khalest, Worf’s nurse.  She’s hesitant at first, but agrees to accompany Picard back to the hearing after he fends off some Klingons.

Once back, we find out that it was actually Duras’s father that was the traitor.  Duras is too powerful and well connected.  If it came out that his father was the traitor, it would divide the Empire.  So, Worf agrees to be the fall guy, accepting discommendation and insisting that Kurn keep his identity hidden.  One day, it may be necessary to have an inside guy.

When I first watched the episode, it was just an episode where Worf is kicked out of Klingon society.  He has to do the wrong thing for the right reason, even though everyone knows what’s going on.  After rewatching the episode and reading about it, people pointed out how several Klingons (including the Chancellor) acted dishonorably.  Not only did they knowingly place blame on the wrong guy, but they weren’t even going to say anything about it.  They were going to quietly place blame on Mogh and assume that Worf was going to sit there and take it.

At first, it seemed kind of ironic.  Then, I realized that even Klingons have political motives.  Just as we assume that all Vulcans are motivated by logic and that all Ferengi are motivated by profit, we assume that all Klingons are motivated by honor.  This adds a certain depth to the race.  It kind of makes sense, too.  The Chancellor has to make a decision for the good of the Empire.  Does he tell the truth and act honorably or does he try to cover it up and protect the greater good?  His only mistake was underestimating Worf.  It takes a while, but Worf eventually comes to realize that protecting the Empire may mean living a lie.

Star Trek: The Next Generation was very episodic.  (It wasn’t until Deep Space Nine’s final season that we’d have something that was heavily serialized.)  This is one of a few episodes that you’d have to view in order.  Those coming into the series with this episode will probably understand what’s going on, but may wonder what becomes of Worf’s honor.  This is something he’s going to have to live with for the rest of this and all of the next season. 

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