Date: May 10, 2020

Season 6, Episodes 4 and 5

Musical Accompaniment: Mysterious Fantasy Music

Interstellar News: Today was not a great day. I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot lately.

Favorite Quote from “Relics”:

Picard: How are you feeling?

Scotty: I don’t know. How am I feeling?

Dr. Crusher: Other than a couple of bumps and bruises, I’d say you feel fine for a man of a hundred and forty seven.

Scotty: I don’t feel a day over a hundred and twenty.

Scotty with the sass, boy did I miss him.

“Relics” begins with the Enterprise is responding to a distress signal that turns out to be the Jenolan, a ship that went missing 75 years ago. It crash landed on a large mass that is very likely to be a Dyson sphere, so Riker, Worf, and La Forge go to investigate. The transporter on the Jenolan is rigged in such a way that there are two patterns still in the buffer and out pops none other than Captain Montgomery Scott from The Original Series. Scotty explains to La Forge how he got there and regales him with a few tales of the olden days, is cleared by Dr. Crusher, but then annoys La Forge who is wound a bit tight.

Scotty find Ten-Forward, Data, and some green drink (a shout out to “By Any Other Name“) and then makes his way to the holodeck to get “his Enterprise” to reappear. Picard joins him, they have a drink, and Picard asks La Forge to use Scotty to try and get information from the Jenolan. While those two are gathering data, the Enterprise is sucked into the clearly abandoned Dyson sphere and are hours away from getting blown up. Scotty does what he does best and concocts a crazy plan, which works just fine. We end the episode with La Forge regaling some tales of his time as Chief Engineer and the crew gifting Scotty with a shuttlecraft to go out an explore the universe some more.

Scotty is just like me: a geeky extrovert that loves telling stories, loves hanging out in engineering, and hates being alone. I’ll start with the bad, of which there is not much. I wish they had done more with Scotty and Worf, because that would have been SUCH A BIG DEAL. I mean the two scenes together were done well, Scotty was never one to jump to the phaser, but a quick line would have been so beneficial. I also feel like there should have been a scene with Troi, Scotty’s a man out of time and all that.

Now onto the good. I really, really loved this episode. Imagine meeting the person who occupied your position about 50 years ago. It would be super cool at first, but then you have to explain ALL THE THINGS, all the technological advances and such, and of course you still have work to do. La Forge plays it right, even if I didn’t like him for it in that moment. There’s a wonderful throwback to a few TOS episodes, and even a few past TNG episodes, just in case you forgot this was a franchise. The humor is excellent, the science is fascinating, and I could see if I had watched this episode as a kid wanting to be an engineer much earlier than 16. The scene with Picard and Scotty was heartwarming and I could watch this episode a bunch. It gets 9 engineering miracles for the few small things that would have made it awesome, but it does wind up on my list of favorite episodes.

Favorite Quote from “Schisms”:

Data: Did it evoke an emotional response?

La Forge: Well…

Data: Your hesitation suggests you are trying to protect my feelings. However, since I have none, I would prefer you to be honest. An artist’s growth depends upon accurate feedback.

Data making a very good point.

“Schisms” begins with Riker having trouble sleeping and La Forge tinkering in engineering to try and help them speed up the mapping of a new system. Data reads poetry he’s written, one is about his cat Spot, and Riker is falling asleep. Dr. Crusher doesn’t really see much wrong so she prescribes him a warm milk recipe from Aunt Adele. There are all sorts of crazy things happening in Cargo Bay 4 between faulty sensor readings and weird glowy things. Riker is still having trouble sleeping, La Forge’s visor keeps shorting out, and even Data’s chronometer is on the fritz.

Troi gathers Worf, Riker, La Forge, and some random woman who apparently all have the same kinds of feelings. They gather in the holodeck and recreate what looks like an alien abduction table, and sure enough that’s what it is. Turns out two crew members are currently missing and Riker’s arm was apparently amputated and surgically reattached… what is going on?! They attach a homing beacon to Riker and get him super high so he’ll be able to sense what is going on when he’s taken. The aliens abduct him right on schedule, he grabs Ensign Rager and jumps through the rift, right before the Enterprise is able to close it.

So this is your classic alien abduction story, but way creepier. As much as I love Data, I have no idea what the purpose of his poetry reading was other than to show Riker nodding off. I will say the holodeck scene where everyone pitches in to the recreation of the table was well done, but did go on for a little too long. What went from something akin to “Night Terrors” went to weird and creepy super fast. It was an interesting mystery but hardly one I’d ever want to watch again. Also, why doesn’t the Enterprise set up a way for the computer to monitor when people have left the ship all the time? You’re hurtling the space, you don’t think it would be wise to check that no one is missing to head off some of these odd occurrences? 4 night of alien abductions for you, and Riker too.

TA Out!

Date: May 8, 2020

Season 6, Episodes 2 and 3

Musical Accompaniment: Essential Classical Music: 12 Concerti Grossi, Op.6

Interstellar News: Another cold and windy day here, but I made New York style egg creams for dessert.

Favorite Quote from “Realm of Fear”:

O’Brien: I thought you might like to meet Christina. Christina, Lieutenant Barclay.

Barclay: It’s your pet spider.

O’Brien: Lycosa tarantula. Don’t worry, she won’t bite.

Barclay: She’s very… large.

I have a feeling O’Brien completely lied about his irrational fear of spiders.

“Realm of Fear” has the Enterprise locate the Yosemite, a ship that went dark a few days ago. Worf, Riker, Crusher, La Forge, and Barclay join the away team but O’Brien has to send them in one at a time. When it’s Barclay’s turn he has a panic attack, apparently he has a fear of transporters. Troi shares a counseling tecnique with him and he is determined to beam over. O’Brien shares his fear about spiders to try to get Barclay over his fear and you’ve got to admit O’Brien is almost as good as Troi and Guinan sometimes, but in that likable every-man kind of way. Barclay heads over to the Yosemite and it’s cool to see what he sees through the transporter beam. The team finishes up and as Barclay beams back it looks like something was trying to eat him, so he shares this with La Forge.

Dr. Crusher is examining one of the crew who died and all of a sudden his heart starts beating and other systems start working, it’s super weird. Barclay notices something flickering in his arm and he thinks he has “transporter psychosis” because he listens to WebMD, I mean the computer. Barclay gets super nervous so Troi temporarily relieves him of duty, but he sees the same thing in the transporter beam and he asks O’Brien to wake the senior staff. The threat is real but no one knows what the hell is going on. The experiment explodes and Barclay faints, turns out there are microbes inside of Barclay. The plan is to suspend Barclay to try to filter things out but just as they are finishing, Barclay grabs the microbe… who is really one of the people from the Yosemite. Barclay saves the day and O’Brien gives him something else to fear… spiders.

Poor Barclay. If there’s a fear, that man has it, but to his credit he goes to counseling and puts in the work. It’s a perfectly normal irrational fear to have in the 24th century, even if it is the safest way to travel. We all have the things we fear no matter how others try to get us to not be so afraid, so it’s very relatable. He lets his anxiety get the best of him but sometimes he has a theory and it works. It was great to see him face his fear, have something totally go wrong, but then it all worked out in the end. It was a very good vehicle for Barclay and a good episode to let two semi-regulars shine in various ways. Everyone on the crew played their part and no one belittled Barclay for having a crisis, they were very supportive. The theory and counseling was right, the science fiction piece was interesting, and I’m totally glad the microbes didn’t eat Barclay. 6.5 bully sticks for this episode, woof.

Favorite Quote from “Man of the People”:

Troi: The skills are demanding. You’re very disciplined.

Alkar: I believe in a strong connection between body and mind. You obviously share the same convictions.

Troi: Yes, I do. Only sometimes my body has a problem conforming to my mind’s wishes.

Same, Troi. Same.

“Man of the People” has the Enterprise en route to aid a transport ship that’s under attack because of two people on board, so they are beamed over for protection. Ambassador Alkar and his mother are Lumericans who are also empathic, but only within their own species. His mother is quite old and yells at Troi a lot, stereotypical mother of boy things (“no woman is ever good enough for my son”, wags fingers). Alkar’s mother soon dies and he asks Troi to help with a meditation ceremony, but something happens to her during it. Soon after she starts acting strangely and she shows signs of aging as well as bad behavior… think of the “other Kirk” from “The Enemy Within”, the Kirk with only the “bad” feelings.

Troi cancels her appointments, touches herself during Klingon tai chi, jumps an ensign in a turbolift, and scratches Riker across the face after kissing him. Troi is unusually short with a patient during a session and slowly starts to exhibit signs of aging and acting just like Alkar’s mother. As Alkar is transporting to the planet to begin negotiations Troi shows up, knifes Picard, and is taken to sick bay. Alkar confesses to Picard mostly because he’s a supreme douche-nozzle, but also because Picard can’t really do anything about it. Dr. Crusher “kills” Troi so the connection is severed, Alkar tries to use another on his team to transfer his bad energy, but Troi is revived just in time for Alkar’s system to be overloaded and for him to die.

There was only one redeeming thing about this episode: that dress. That is literally the only thing I liked. The costume director for Troi’s outfits apparently heard the rumor that “there’s no underwear in space” during this episode and took it to heart. The pacing of the episode was slow and I spent most it confused. Was it his mother’s essence, did they swap bodies somehow, what the what was going on? It made more sense when Alkar confesses, but still. Picard felt kind of useless but did enact a successful plan in the end. Oh, and did you know Dr. Crusher needed to do an autopsy? I mean she only mentioned it at least five times, so you knew it was going to happen eventually. What a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad episode. It earns itself 1 tiny, small, mostly stale cookie that someone forgot to put the sugar in.

TA Out!

Date: May 7, 2020

Season 5, Episode 26 and Season 6, Episode 1

Musical Accompaniment: Halidon Music presents: 30 Classical Piano pieces

Interstellar News: As I’ve said before, or was it past, this is the standard when dealing with two part episodes that are one part season finale and second part season premiere combinations. Nothing new happened in the credits for Season 6.

Favorite Quotes:

Riker: It’s just that our mental pathways have become accustomed to your sensory input patterns.

Data: I understand. I am also fond of you, Commander. And you as well, Counselor.

Oh I absolutely love this line. Riker communicating to Data in a way he understands best and Data using one of my favorite ways to tell someone I love them. I am quite fond of, for example, the letter “K”.

Picard’s Poetry: “Then I’ll be irrational.”

Riker: I just want you to know that I have the utmost respect for the law.

Riker then proceeds to punch the police officer right in the face and they all scurry off.

Just an epic line, delivered perfectly.

Data’s Not Really An Android: remembering he wasn’t supposed to be able to lift the anvil one handed “I believe I have overexerted myself.”

Quick Summary:

Part 1: The Enterprise is recalled to Earth in order to investigate a potential alien visit dating 500 years ago. Data’s head is found in a cavern as is a cellular fossil from Devidia II, so we’re going on a road trip. A temporal disturbance identical to the one on Earth is found on Devidia II and I’m so glad we just had the episode about phasing, because that’s what is happening here; there’s something but it’s in a different phase. Data beams down and adjusts phase only to be taken through a portal and is back in 1800s San Fransisco. He swindles some men out of their money at the poker table and begins to build a machine that would make even Spock proud and finds out that Guinan is in town. He assumes she’s also from the future but realizes she’s just visiting and is good friends with Mark Twain. Picard (at the insistence of future-Guinan), Riker, Crusher, Troi, and La Forge phase and see just what Data was talking about before he disappeared and the life Troi sensed was the aliens depositing human life almost just like in the Matrix, they see the other aliens use the time snake and follow them into the void.

Part 2: The crew is in time appropriate clothes, complete with La Forge wearing glasses instead of his Visor in order to not hurt the sensibilities of the pre-technology folks, and Crusher reports her findings from the morgue. The aliens are going back during times of plague in order to murder humans for fuel and not arouse suspicion. Twain is all up in Data and past-Guinan’s business, he’s the epitome of curmudgeonly. The crew confronts the aliens at the hospital where the aliens disappear but our crew makes off with the cool snake cane and they meet up with Data who finally built his machine. Picard and Guinan finally meet and it’s adorable, soft music and everything. They make their way to the cave where everything happens at once: the two aliens beam in and try to grab the snake cane, Data attacks and his head is blown off, the male alien escapes, and everyone but Picard, Guinan, and the female alien head through the hole, including Twain and Data’s body.

Back on the Enterprise, Troi takes Twain on a tour of the ship and La Forge puts Data’s head back on. It doesn’t quite works as expected because Picard encodes a message, but Data wakes up in time to stop Riker and Worf from blowing everyone up. Riker sends Twain to go on the rescue mission because only one person can make the return trip. Picard takes care of Guinan, leaves instructions for Twain, and returns to his present time where they get rid of the alien’s ability to time travel. Everything is nicely and neatly wrapped up and all is as it should be.

My Thoughts and Impressions: Oh yay, another time travel episode. I hope you heard the sarcasm and my eyes roll all at the same time. Data and La Forge have an interesting conversation about death and mortality, because all of a sudden we’re getting all deep and such on TNG. Clearly Worf could not travel back in time because, well, he’s a Klingon, but I do like what they did with La Forge to be able to include him. It’s not like Worf could have just worn a head covering or anything (rolls eyes and waves arms in sarcasm). I’m confused why they don’t think it’s a perfect replica of Data from somewhere in the future and I’m completely saddened that they didn’t keep up the “I’m from South America” gag. I also don’t understand why it’s protocol to send both the first and second officer’s on the away teams and why it’s also suddenly protocol that the captain not be on the away team, as it seemed like more of a Riker rule than a Starfleet one way back in “Encounter at Farpoint“.

I will say that I was interested in figuring out how Data’s head got there and seeing how Guinan was involved, but everything was too neat and tidy in the end. I’m also supposed to believe that no one had a problem with the color of Guinan or La Forge’s skin and that absolutely no one saw any sort of technology even though they were all flashing it all over the place? No one was worried about Twain blabbing about what he saw, in fact they took him on a tour of the ship? What became of the story the kid was writing for the paper? There are a lot more questions here and not enough answers.

There were some great moments, but just moments here and there. There’s just a whole lot of randomness like Data being awesome at making money and tipping generously while Picard and crew can’t scrape together one week’s rent and Picard tries to impress the landlady. La Forge “reading” the play upside down was hysterical and Data trying to remember he’s a “Frenchman” and not an android is also awesome. This is not the most suspenseful cliffhanger we’ve had on TNG, but it is one that I at least want to see the conclusion of, and not just because I’m determined to watch all the Trek. It didn’t have enough Worf in it, but he did indeed make an impact when he was on screen. When Riker is all like “we’ve got to save the captain” he makes a point that the proposed course of action isn’t what Picard would want and Riker is forced to see the error of his ways. It’s not the worst time travel episode, but if you’re going to do “The City on the Edge of Forever” you’ve got to do it right. I’ll give these two episodes a combined total of 5 temporal disturbances.

TA Out!

Date: May 6, 2020

Season 5, Episodes 24 and 25

Musical Accompaniment: Halidon Music presents peaceful, relaxing classical piano music

Interstellar News: I submitted 41 grades today and tomorrow I will have to plow through 327 more.

Favorite Quote from “The Next Phase”:

La Forge: Wait a minute. What are you saying, that we’re some sort of spirits?

Ro: Spirits, souls. My people used to call them borhyas. Whatever term you want to use, we’re it.

La Forge: But my uniform, my visor. Are you saying I’m some blind ghost with clothes?

Ro: I don’t have all the answers. I’ve never been dead before.

La Forge asking a good question and Ro giving a very honest answer.

“The Next Phase” has Ro, La Forge, Riker, and Worf beaming over to a Romulan ship that’s in distress. La Forge, Ro, and a piece of equipment need to get back to the Enterprise but are lost during transporter transmission. This prompts two questions: WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN WITH THE ROMULANS and why does this always happen when O’Brien isn’t working the transporter? Riker, Worf, and Data are able to help them eject the core and avoid the ship imploding.

As Picard heads to sick bay, Ro is waking up but she realizes no one can hear or see her. She finds La Forge in engineering and laments about being dead, while La Forge believes something else must have happened. They head over to the Romulan vessel as the crew of the Enterprise is still helping with repairs and La Forge figures out that the Romulans were testing phasing and royally messed up. They also overhear what the Romulans are up to and and that they, of course, are planning to be tricksy bastards, especially because one of them is phased too! All three head back to the Enterprise.

La Forge keeps trying to get Data’s attention and Ro runs into the Romulan. There’s a fun scene that reminds me of the Juggernaut from X-Men 3 and Ro eventually kicks the Romulan out into space. The Romulans are up and running and head out, so everyone goes to the memorial service where Ro and La Forge do their best to make as much disturbance as possible so hopefully someone will see them, Ro even shoots a phaser through Riker’s head. Their plan works and the celebration of life now gets to be a welcome back from the dead party. La Forge chows down while Ro laments about the afterlife, and it makes me think of the end of The Avengers.

Ro and La Forge make a great team once Ro realizes they’re not dead and it was an accident. The best scenes, however, belong to Data and Worf. Worf has a great exchange with Riker about the security of Federation computers and you can tell Riker is just humoring Worf, but it’s so refreshing to see someone so committed to their job as Worf is. Data does his “I have android strength” thing at the beginning and then he is super adorable when he calls La Forge his best friend. When he is planning the memorial service he does very thorough research, as always, and a celebration of life is almost always a good call.

My favorite scene was when Data and Worf are discussing the service and Worf explains how happy he is for La Forge, to die in battle and to go beyond. Riker had a few good lines as well, especially when he made sure no one forgot Ro was also lost to them. I genuinely liked this episode, it had a lot of good parts to it. I will say one downside is a technical question. How come they can walk through walls but don’t fall down the floor? How is it that the Romulan was able to sit in a chair, but they can easily move through a chair or a person? Oh yes it’s likely because the script called for it, but it’s a piece that’s gnawed on me since I watched the episode. 8 phasers to Riker’s head, only in another phase or dimension of course!

Favorite Quote from “The Inner Light”:

Dr. Crusher: If somebody gets stabbed, you don’t necessarily pull the knife out right away. It might do more harm than leaving it there.

Worf: The Captain is under attack. We must act.

Riker: I’m inclined to agree. Doctor, monitor him closely. Mr. Data, prepare to disrupt the beam. We’re going to try to cut this cord.

Crusher being cautious, Worf being Worf, and Riker taking command like a good first officer.

“The Inner Light” begins with the Enterprise encountering a probe that latches onto Picard and he passes out on the bridge only to wake up to a woman calling him “Kamin” and being super excited he’s not sick anymore. He leaves the house and heads into town where he encounters Batai, his friend, who fills in some of Kamin’s memory gaps. After several hours he heads back to Eline, his wife, who feeds him soup, fills in some more gaps, and has a necklace that looks exactly like the probe – curiouser and curiouser.

Back on the Enterprise, Dr. Crusher is evaluating Picard’s body and explaining to the rest of the bridge what she thinks is happening. Back in Picard’s head, it’s now five years later and he’s still Kamin. Eline wants to know when they’ll start a family as he plays the flute and agrees to build a nursery, it’s been long enough that he longs for his other life. There are a few more flash forwards where we see that they have two children, a happy life, but a dying planet. Each time Sir Patrick Stewart is made to look older and older, as are the others in his vision. Eventually the whole town gathers to send a missile to outer space and it’s revealed that it’s the probe and its whole purpose was for someone to remember the people of Ressik on Kataan. Data fills the bridge in that Kataan’s sun exploded almost 1000 years ago. The probe deactivates, Picard comes to, and Riker tells him he’s only been passed out for 25 minutes. The episode ends with Picard reacquainting himself with his room and Riker bringing him his flute, which was the only other thing on the probe.

At first, I thought it was another “Future Imperfect” scenario or maybe one of the many alien species who were trying to see how long it would take for a prisoner to accept their new reality. I was very pleased with how it ended, as all of the little clues finally made sense. It gave me more feels than “The Paradise Syndrome” because Picard remembered everything about his former life and eventually chose to live out the life he was presented with. He also got to have a lot more time with Eline and see the birth of his children, but she was never really alive so it truly wasn’t as heartbreaking as when Kirk has his wife die.

As a Picard-centric episode, it was quite good. We get to see what kind of husband and father he would be, what life was like for a society that was no longer able to speak for itself, and what happens when people don’t listen to scientists (I’m totally looking at you, Krypton and Earth). There were some good choices to not play music at certain times. I would have liked to see a little more of Picard after he came out of his vision, to see what he told the rest of the crew about his experience. The ending was quite somber, similar to the season opener of “Darmok“, so I think it was an appropriate way to end the last regular season episode. 9 lives for Kamin and Eline.

I will end season 5 and begin season 6 tomorrow with the two-parter of “Time’s Arrow”.

TA Out!