TNG: “First Contact” and “Galaxy’s Child”

Date: April 17, 2020

Season 4, Episodes 15 and 16

Musical Accompaniment: Old Stone Village presents Medieval Folk Music

Interstellar News: Today did not seem like a Friday, but it was a beautiful day out.

Favorite Quote from “First Contact”:

Picard: I think we shall find we have much in common.

Durken: And much that is not in common.

Picard: An opportunity to learn from one another.

Picard is truly a fine captain, negotiator, and now we get to add diplomat to that list.

“First Contact” starts in an alien hospital where the doctors are completely baffled by Riker who appears to be like them on the surface only. He explains away his appearance as genetic abnormalities. We see a bit of the alien society and its function, they have not yet achieved space travel and have been advancing slowly with social reforms. Picard and Troi beam down to talk to the one of the scientists for a first contact situation.

The medical facility doesn’t believe Riker and many of the staff feel hostile toward him. Riker receives an indecent proposal by one of the Malcorians and tries to escape, but it further injured and needs surgery. Picard meets with Chancellor Durken and Mirasta some more, explaining the Prime Directive and trying to get access to Riker. Their security minister, Krola, tries to be a martyr and it sort of works because the Chancellor knows the people are not ready to accept this new reality, but he will help them to get there… slowly. Mirasta asks to go with the Enterprise to which Picard says yes.

There are so many things in Malcorian culture that are identical to that of humans. There’s the conservative view of a nuclear family and eating dinner together, a Hippocratic Oath, their planet being the center of the universe, and people who don’t like change… I mean that sounds suuuuuper familiar, right? If this is an “alien first contact”, then show me some aliens. In the scene in Ten-Forward they showed at least one of the non-human species sitting at the bar to show how “diverse” the crew and Federation are, but you can’t have their ways be different at all? Maybe that was to make it easier for Picard to show they can be similar, but I’d like a little differences in my 24th century aliens thank you very much.

I did like to see a first contact situation and the history behind it. You can see the good, the bad, the flaws, almost all of it. Although the Malcorians didn’t join the Federation, you can see their Chancellor really did what he thought was best for his people. I was a little bummed that Mirasta wanted to peace out instead of helping lead her people to the stars, but some people were meant to explore. She reminds me of Moana, but this episode was just kind of meh with nothing that really made it stand out… except for the amazingly fun scene with Bebe Neuwirth, 6 Cheers!

Favorite Quote from “Galaxy’s Child”:

Guinan: You saw exactly what you wanted to see in the holodeck. Sure, the computer made it look like her, gave it personality, but when it came to the relationship, La Forge, you filled in the blanks. And you had a perfectly wonderful, marvelous little fantasy, until the real Leah showed up and ruined it. She’s probably done the most horrific thing one person can do to another, not live up to your expectations. So I’d take a good, hard, long look at her, La Forge. See her for who she is, not for what you want her to be.

Guinan with the Gibbs head slap, again. Tis a wonderful thing.

“Galaxy’s Child” has the Enterprise stopping to grab some supplies and Dr. Leah Brahms, the real one and not the simulation from “The Booby Trap“, and La Forge is all giddy to meet with her. Their first interaction doesn’t go well and La Forge is acting all weird, though it’s very much like watching a theoretical physicist and an experimental physicist go at it.

La Forge tries to start over and takes her through a tour of engineering while the Enterprise explores the Alpha Omicron system and discovers an anomaly, a living entity floating through space. The entity they encounter attacks them and they kill it by accident, which Picard takes very hard even though it was the correct thing to do, but then they find out it’s pregnant… fascinating. Dr. Crusher guides Worf to do a space C-section (which is totally how I was brought into this world too) and “Junior” is so thankful it attaches to the hull and starts sucking the energy out of the Enterprise, awww so sweet (again, waving hands in sarcasm).

La Forge sort of come cleans and tells Brahms he’s studied her work, she tells him she’s married, and then she finds the holodeck program and rightfully chews him out. They work together to try and solve the “Junior” problem, which they do, and end the episode as colleagues.

First I would like to say that all of the baby analogies were fucking terrible and I hated them the more they went on. Second, La Forge was super creepy and should have come clean right away and not tried to use his acquired knowledge to “woo” her and also not be so damn disappointed she was married and then be all “I only offer friendship”. Dude you were totally trying to get into her pants, you don’t fool me. I do like that they both came to a consensus at the end, but Brahms’s reaction to her husband calling was almost sorrowful. Honestly most of the scenes between them were awful, except for when they were in the engine (for like 2 lines) and at the end right before her husband calls. A plus of this episode is that Picard really sells his sadness at killing a life form and you can see how hopeful he is at the end. Also, the baby didn’t die and it got to go back with its peoples so that’s a good thing too. I’m giving this episode 4 pennies.

TA Out!