Date: April 30, 2020

Season 5, Episodes 14 and 15

Musical Accompaniment: I still have a few hours left on my iTunes instrumental playlist.

Interstellar News: It rained almost all day and I spent all day inside because I have not been feeling well.

Favorite Quote from “Conundrum”:

Ro: The Counselor tells me that at times like that, we might do the things that we’ve always wanted to do.

Riker: She said that?

Troi: It’s psychologically valid.

The tenor and body language which Troi and Ro deliver their lines is absolute perfection.

Worf’s One-Two Punch: “Perhaps we should not jump to conclusions. I am decorated as well.”

“Conundrum” begins with the Enterprise investigating some subspace signals while Data loses to Troi in chess (so he has to make her a drink, per their agreement), Dr. Crusher attends to an injured young woman, and Riker and Ro bicker on the way to the bridge… a totally normal day. They encounter another vessel and, after being scanned, everyone on board completely loses their memory, kind of. No one remembers who they are but they all still know how to operate the ship and such, though the computer is thoroughly borked.

Worf assumes command and wants to be ready for battle, Data is thought to be the bartender, Troi realizes she’s empathic, and there’s some dude on the deck who has an awful lot of dialog for someone I’ve never seen before in my life. The computer comes through in dribs and drabs and it’s found out that Picard is the Captain and MacDuff, the guy NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN BEFORE, is the first officer. The computer also tells them that the Federation is at war and they are on a mission to destroy the enemy’s headquarters. Something doesn’t feel right to Picard and Troi, but they wind up destroying a small ship anyway. Things keep not adding up, however, and between outclassing their “mortal enemies” and how selective the memory’s have been wiped, they decide not to pull the trigger at the end. Turns out MacDuff was a Satarran, the race actually at war with the Lysians. Oh, and Riker sleeps with Ro, did I mention that?

Every so often you’ll see me have a Data quote with the preface “Data’s Not Really An Android”. It comes from the name of a nail polish color I like called “I’m Not Really A Waitress”. I used to wear a lot while moonlighting as a waitress during my undergraduate teaching assistant days. I like that Data’s not really a bartender, but at first he is thought to be. Now you know how my brain works and thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Worf is the consummate Slytherin on the deck, absolutely ambitious and loyal as hell, and it’s so much fun to see how he would be in charge and then realizing what an ass he was when it’s revealed their actual roles. I really wish they would have just kept everyone in the roles they assumed at the top of the episode, because it would have been stronger to have Worf make the call Picard did, rather than just put up a fight with MacDuff at the end. When I was writing up this section, I realize the girl in the bathing suit just disappears and I’m left wondering why she was even ever in the episode to begin with. It was easy to tell that the bridge member who we’ve never seen before who suddenly had a speaking role was going to be the bad guy, but I wonder why he didn’t make himself the captain. The dialog is a lot of fun in this episode and it’s interesting to see how it plays out. I really though Picard wouldn’t blow up the first ship, and I was a bit heartbroken for him at the end when he realized what he did. I also love how Riker is so totally confused at the end, it makes for just a run and interesting episode. 7 coats of polish for this episode, and don’t forget to tip!

Favorite Quote from “Power Play”:

Keiko: I would die to save the life of my child.

Worf: To die defending one’s ship is the hope of every Klingon.

Picard: If you each know the officers you inhabit, then you know they’re equally ready to give their lives for this ship. Free them now and I will return you to the moon’s surface.

The invaders realizing they have lost. No one messes with a mom, a Klingon, and a starship captain. Though that does sound like the start to a really bad joke…

Worf’s One-Two Punch: “I have no fear of death.”

“Power Play” has the Enterprise heading to a supposedly uninhabited moon that’s issuing a very weak distress signal. Data believes it might be coming from the missing Essex that was lost over 170 years ago. There’s too much disturbance to get the transporter really going, so Data, Riker, and Troi take a shuttle craft down, but crash land into the surface. O’Brien transports down, because the story needs him to, in order to boost the signal, but something knocks the four of them out. Three little beams of light enter the others, but Riker is spared because he wakes up first and puts everything in place to beam them back. They all wind up in sick bay and report back to duty after they recover.

Troi asks to speak with Picard, O’Brien is at one of the consoles, and Data tries to talk Riker into moving the ship in a certain position. Almost all at once the trio tries to take over the bridge and then try to head to engineering once control is sent there. They are blocked so they head to Ten-Forward and take hostages. Crusher figures out what might be wrong with them and Picard exchanges himself for those that need medical attention. La Forge and Ro almost come through with a plan, but it doesn’t work. Troi introduces herself as the captain of the Essex, but Picard isn’t buying it though he plays along enough to try and get the hostages to safety. The trio decides to move to the cargo bay and each take a hostage… O’Brien takes Keiko, Troi takes Picard, and Data takes Worf. Troi finally explains who she is, she and her comrades are part of a penal colony, but Riker enacts the second plan and the prisoners are forced to get stuck back on the moon while the trio is returned to their usual selves.

I loved seeing sneering Data and evil Troi, but seeing O’Brien act that way was just cruel and unnerving. I also was not buying that they were the survivors of the Essex but I did not see a 500 year old penal colony… I mean, can’t someone leave a damn warning? Also, why does everything always seem to happen on the fourth planet? It’s fun to see everyone in the cast have something to do and nothing felt out of place or forgotten, it simply was a good invasion story with two good plans… which is why you should always have a backup plan for your backup plan, contingency is the word of the day. There was a lot more action in this episode than there normally is, but I liked it for a change of pace. There was a phaser fight on the bridge and a crying baby in a bar, what more could you want in a Trek episode? I mean it wasn’t perfect, but it was fun. I’ll go with a phaser setting of 8 for this episode.

TA Out!

Date: April 29, 2020

Season 5, Episode 13

Musical Accompaniment: More randomness from my iPod instrumental playlist

Interstellar News: Today is the tenth anniversary of buying my first home (I’m now on home #2) and my youngest cat’s sixth birthday… Happy Birthday Thor!

Favorite Quote:

La Forge: Why are you doing this?

Hannah: I was born to be one of the best scientific minds of my generation, and in the past five days I have encountered technology that I have barely imagined. And I’ve got to ask myself, If we’re so brilliant how come we didn’t invent any of these things?

La Forge: Well, maybe necessity really is the mother of invention. You never really look for something until you need it.

Truer words have never been spoken. Okay, they likely have but La Forge is damn spot on. It’s why, unfortunately, people treat accessibility as an afterthought.

The Enterprise is asked to investigate the Moab system that is about to be effected by a stellar core fragment when they encounter a genetically engineered society ensconced in a biosphere. La Forge, Riker, and Troi beam down to discuss the colony’s situation. Troi is taken with Conor, the leader, and the share a connection despite all of the reasons they shouldn’t. La Forge and Hannah, their engineer, work on a solution to both fortify their shields and to help move the trajectory of the fragment, a la “Deja Q“.

They move the fragment, the colony is saved, but the crew of the Enterprise has already done its damage as an unintended consequence to this closed society is that some people want to leave. Picard cannot turn people away but also understands there will then be holes in the society that need to be filled, it will still upset the balance. In the end 23 people decide to leave the colony.

I have a lot to say about this episode,most of it is not good. Let’s start with the good stuff. It’s adorable the reactions of the colonists when they see the transporter at work, I always love seeing the reaction of people being introduced to new technology. The conversation between Troi and Picard in the turbolift was super awkward for both of them, but absolutely the right things to do and they both handled it very professionally. There were also some interesting conversations had about disabilities, namely because of La Forge, and it opened the door to some interesting questions. I also totally understood La Forge when he took his visor off, as a glasses wearer sometimes you just need nothing on your face, it really helps you to think and to relax. That, however, is the end of my list of good. Now, onto the bad.

For the record I have seen Gattaca and I’ve read up on genetic engineering, a lot. Also, for those just joining, I also have a counseling degree. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way… WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK was this episode’s problem? There’s seriously no actual conundrum. Either the Enterprise helps or they all die, I’m not seeing the dilemma here, so that means for once I agree with Riker. I mean this gives the society a chance to live, although it’s not as intact as when they left but it’s not irreparable. Picard is also super snarky about genetic engineering, he’s not supposed to be judgemental, and why does no one mention Khan and the Eugenics Wars here?

La Forge has an amazing point, where do you draw the line when it comes to who is allowed to be born? I’m not getting to a “pro-birth” vs. “pro-choice” discussion here, I’m talking about looking at a life that has already been “made” because it was selected from a per-determined set of characteristics. Life is not about making your avatar with available menu options… but it could be? I think it would be amazing to be able to get rid of congenital issues and diseases and maybe some other things, but again it comes down to where you draw the line. When one person decides the world is better off without blind people, without people who can’t hear, without someone who was born without a limb, a toe, or something else… we’ve gone down a very dark path. While La Forge gets all righteous about “it took a blind man’s technology to fix your problem”, he makes a very valid argument that we don’t invent things unless we need them. Everyone has a place in our society and we all don’t fit into one big happy box. The reason we work is because we have differences and it’s important to recognize that a disability does not mean that a person is “less than”.

Now, despite all of it’s flaws, I totally want to know what happened to the colony. I also want to know how their life worked before the Enterprise encountered them. Did they fall in love and go with it, because they were all comparable, or was there some sort of test to determine who you would find most attractive and enticing? Was it all done in a lab with test tube babies? Inquiring minds want to know! It’s a story that pulls me in for the tagline, but I wasn’t impressed with the execution so that’s 4 solar fragments aimed straight at this episode.

TA Out!

Date: April 28, 2020

Season 5, Episodes 11 and 12

Musical Accompaniment: Listening to Keith R. A. DeCandido give a panel at a Virtual Writing Conference, because I’m ridiculous and then setting my iTunes to random.

Interstellar News: Husband is liking Scrubs… who is your favorite character?

Favorite Quote from “Hero Worship”:

Data: I am designed to exceed human capacity, both mentally and physically.

Timothy: Androids are better than humans?

Data: Better is a highly subjective term. I do not, for example, possess the ability to experience emotion as humans do.

Timothy: No emotions? You mean you can’t be happy or sad?

Data: That is correct.

Some days I’m convinced I’m an android, other days I only wish I could.

“Hero Worship” has the Enterprise investigating a missing research ship named the Vico, which looks like it has sustained some damage. Riker, La Forge, and Data beam over to investigate what happened and they find a boy named Timothy who is the only survivor and who Data has to help rescue because O’Brien wasn’t at the transporter. Troi believes Data and Timothy should spend some time together to aid in recovery and Timothy starts to mimic Data, but in a sort of adorable way.

The Enterprise, meanwhile, explores the black cluster and Picard tries an experiment to see why the phasers and sensors do not work. It turns out the Vico could not have been attacked by another ship, curiouser and curiouser. Data explains why he wants to be human to Timothy. Timothy explains what he thinks happened to his ship and then the same things start to happen on the Enterprise and Data asks the Captain to drop the shields and everyone is saved, because it was the shields that caused the problem on the Vico.

This is now another time a child has latched onto Data, the first happening in “Pen Pals“, mostly because Data is often childlike in his understanding of humanity. I enjoyed this episode because it was a very real look into childhood trauma and how to deal with it. Timothy did a very good job impersonating Data and made the logical decision, at first, to choose to “become and android” so that he wouldn’t have to feel sad. I loved when they were painting together, because painting can be a wonderful therapeutic technique, especially in traumatic experiences with children, but it wasn’t really gone into. Timothy quickly realizes that staying an android means that he also can’t enjoy things or feel anything at all and once he realizes he wasn’t responsible for the death of his parents or the rest of the ship and he helps to save the Enterprise, he pulls a Pinocchio and “returns” to being a real boy.

While the counseling aspect was great, nothing really excelled this story past “just okay”. They mystery of what happened to the ship was interesting, but finding out what happened was a two second clip near the end and heartbreaking because that means they were the instruments of their own destruction. Also, why was Timothy left in his room all by himself? No ground breaking TV here folks, just something on channel 5.

Favorite Quote from “Violations”:

Picard: In the meantime, we must consider restricting them to their quarters, as a precautionary measure.

La Forge: If one of them is behind this, will keeping telepaths in their quarters prevent it from happening again?

Picard: What else can we do? Station a guard? Set up a force field? I don’t see that those would be any more effective.

La Forge asking the good questions and Picard coming up with even more.

Data’s Not Really An Android: “It would seem there is no predictable pattern to human memory”

“Violations” begins with a race called the Ullians who demonstrate helping Keiko remember a long-forgotten memory as they are being ferried by the Enterprise to Kaldra IV. Troi’s Betazoid telepathy cannot work on the Ullians but she is still able to read between the lines as Jev is put down by his father Tarmin at dinner. In Troi’s quarters she is brushing her hair and starts to remember a memory of her and Riker, but it’s suddenly Jev in the memory and it turns violent, very reminiscent of rape. The next morning Troi is found to be in a coma.

Riker begins the investigation and is next on Jev’s hit list and winds up in a coma himself after reliving a memory about losing a crew member. Dr. Crusher is the third victim on the chopping block, though she is able to rule out certain conditions, after a run in with Jev. Her memory is especially painful as it is about seeing her husband dead, but neither memory is as violent as Troi’s was. Worf is skeptical, as always, and Picard is trying to be diplomatic, so he has La Forge and Data check on the other planets where the Ullians have recently visited. Once Troi wakes up Jev suggests a mind probe on her and as she is recalling the memory, he implants his father as the aggressor. La Forge and Data realize it was Jev and not Tarmin, just as we see Jev is in Troi’s quarters. Troi is able to fight back enough for security to intervene and Worf takes Jev away. Tarmin sends his physicians, is clearly subdued, and explains it is a mind rape and thought it was all 300 years behind his people.

Another therapy heavy episode, but only where we see the trauma and none of the work that will go into the healing process. Jev was all but wearing a sign that he was the bad guy and you don’t at all feel bad for him in any way. Lock him up and throw away the key, I say. There was no build up for who it could be, no mystery, and you know that the father being implanted in Troi’s memory was all a ruse by Jev. La Forge gets a gold star for figuring out that not all doctor’s are as careful as Dr. Crusher, but that’s only to prove what the viewer already knew. Worf also has a line about “the aliens” that makes me realize that Worf might be a touch racist, or just really paranoid about everyone. I have no kind words to say about this episode, except for the first part with Keiko – because that was fun. Picard also has some wise words at the end, but not his finest speechy moment. That earns this episode a limit of 1 roll of toilet paper at the grocery store this weekend.

TA Out!

Date: April 27, 2020

Season 5, Episodes 9 and 10

Musical Accompaniment: A random assortment of instrumental songs on my iTunes, complete with various movie soundtracks, The Allman Brothers, Billy Joel, Daft Punk, and El Ten Eleven.

Interstellar News: The weather was beautiful again today, but my energy has been very limited. I was still able to complete five loads of laundry, however.

Favorite Quote from “A Matter of Time”:

Worf: Phasers.

Rasmussen: I beg your pardon?

Worf: There were no phasers in the 22nd century.

Rasmussen: Ah, you see, Doctor? Our Klingon friend is a perfect example of what I was trying to tell you. He views history through the eyes of a hunter, a warrior. His passion lies in the perfection of the tools of violence. How delightfully primitive.

Matt Frewer is delightful, even when he’s the bad guy.

Data’s Not Really An Android: “I assume your hand print will open the door whether you are conscious or not.”

“A Matter of Time” begins with the Enterprise en route to Penthara IV because an asteroid has hit their surface and is already causing some less-than-ideal weather, and it’s just going to get worse. There’s suddenly a temporal distortion and a Professor Berlinghoff Rasmussen beams aboard to the bridge, introducing himself as a 26th century historian just there to be a witness and to gather some reports.

On Penthara IV winter has set in early and La Forge believes they can poke some holes in the surface of the planet to allow for carbon dioxide to escape and help the planet heal itself. It works, for a bit, until things are too hot and there are earthquakes and volcanic eruptions abound. La Forge and Data come up with a new plan, but it’s got a high risk. A La Forge requests to stay on the planet while it’s enacted, you know it’s going to work… and it does.

Rasmussen begins handing out his “homework” but pockets something in engineering and again in Data’s room, as well as asking Data for schematics. He flirts with Dr. Crusher, tries to get Troi to like him, and is the talk of the ship. Picard delivers an epic speech to try to get Rasmussen to divulge the future, but he will not be swayed. Rasmussen, who has been checking the time every time we see him, packs up to leave but is stopped by the bridge crew… Picard notices something is missing and of course everyone is just a bit skeptical at this point. Rasmussen only allows Data in and explains the ship is set to leave automatically, he’s really from the past and needed stuff to “invent” every year or so. Unfortunately for him everything on his ship was disabled and it leaves without him while he is detained in the future.

Rasmussen is played by Matt Frewer, whom I absolutely adore from Eureka and a Dr. Seuss special many moons ago. He gives New Jerseyans a bad name, however, so I am not so pleased with his character at the moment. This episode had great promise until I saw the con man poke through. There was no way he was a klepto historian and no way he was from the future with the things he was asking for. I hate that Picard’s speech was wasted on a man who was recycling something from a Back to the Future plot point. The look of complete and utter shock on his face as the ship leaves without him, however, and his fate in a future he doesn’t belong in is sealed, is… well it’s damn fine acting. You can really feel his pain and start to feel just a bit sad for him, especially because Worf is right behind him. It would have been a fun story if it was an actual historian, or if La Forge wasn’t on the planet and maybe Picard would have destroyed a whole planet, but I saw everything coming and it was very blah. With a plus one factored in for Frewer, this episode earns 5 egg bagels with vegetable cream cheese.

Favorite Quote from “New Ground”:

La Forge: Data! Data, isn’t this exciting? We are going to witness a moment in history.

Data: Every nanosecond in this continuum is a moment in history, once it has elapsed.

La Forge: No, no, no, no. I mean, we’re going to see something that people will talk about for years. I mean, think about it. No more bulky warp engines or nacelles. A ship just generates a Soliton wave and then rides it through space like a surfboard. This is going to be like being there to watch Chuck Yeager break the sound barrier, or Zephram Cochrane engage the first warp drive.

Data: It should be interesting.

Worf: Very exciting.

La Forge: I’m talking to the wrong crowd. Donaldson! Donaldson, you’re an engineer.

Data being literal, Worf being Klingon, and La Forge realizing two of his best friends have the emotional range of a teaspoon… poor Geordi.

Worf’s One-Two Punch: “He is a child. I informed him of my decision.”

“New Ground” is going to have the Enterprise test some new technology and Worf’s mom and son are also going to beam aboard, what an exciting time to be alive! Helena explains to Worf that her and his father can’t keep up with Alexander and that Worf’s going to have to figure out the whole dad thing, and off she goes. The wave test begins and it appears to be a success at first, but that is short-lived as the test ship blows up but the wave continues on, so they need to figure out how to stop it before it collides with the planet near it’s destination. La Forge comes up with a risky plan, I’m sensing a theme, and they (no pun intended) forge ahead.

Worf attempts to be a responsible parent and enrolls his child in school, but during a meeting with Picard he gets interrupted by all of the other things that happen when you become a parent, and Picard is very understanding. Troi insists that Worf attend the father/son field trip where Alexander is caught lying and Worf admits he would rather face a slew of enemies than his own child. They have “the talk”, you know… the one about honor, get your head out of the gutter! Alexander is caught lying again and training in the holodeck with Worf’s weapons, so of course Worf wants to send him to military school, I mean ummm… to Klingon school, is there a difference? I’m not sure.

They enact La Forge’s plan and the ship has some damage after going through the wave. They also need to evacuate some decks in order to prevent casualties. Of course Alexander runs off to the biolab, where there winds up being a fire, and Riker and Worf have only minutes to save him, and the gilvos. Worf pulls a “granny lifting a car” moment out of his ass and Riker saves the gilvos, even though there “wasn’t time”. Worf challenges Alexander to stay with him on the Enterprise as it will be much harder than Klingon school, to which Alexander accepts.

Worf may not be “father of the year” but he sure as hell tries throughout this whole episode. I do, however, have some beef with this episode. Why, for the love of all that is good in this world, is there a father-son field trip in the 24th century? Just have it be a parent-child trip and be done with it. Didn’t we see how, in “The Bonding“, there was a male child with only a mother, or you know every damn episode Wesley Crusher was in. What about children that came from a home with two moms? Did you think about that in the 1990’s, no of course not /end rant/. All I’m saying is TNG could have done better, I promise I’m done… for now. Worf believes that “being Klingon” is always the answer, but by the end of the episode realizes that it might not be.

I will say Troi really is excellent at her job and whoever wrote her lines likely had some counseling training because it’s spot on. I also hated that this cool, awesome new technology was only there to cause a problem so that Alexander could get stuck and Worf had to save him, sigh. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t really like it either. Worf’s mom wasn’t in it enough to save it, so this only gets 3 gilvos.

TA Out!

Date: April 26, 2020

Season 5 , Episodes 7 and 8

Musical Accompaniment: Jordi Savall: Lachrimae Caravaggio

Interstellar News: Another day of yard work but my war on weeds and plant sex has come to an end… for now. Also, there was a dedication to Gene Roddenberry at the top of both episodes as he had passed before they aired.

Favorite Quotes:

Data: I suggest we piggy-back our signal on Romulan subspace transmissions.

K’vada: Piggy-back?

Data: A human metaphor, pardon me.

This exchange was quite funny to me, in fact I really liked how entertaining K’vada was throughout the whole episode.

Spock: I will not read this or any other statement.

Sela: If you do not, you will die. All of you will die.

Spock: Since it is logical to conclude that you will kill us in any event, I choose not to cooperate.

Sela: I hate Vulcans. I hate the logic. I hate the arrogance. 

Spock using logic and Sela hating him for it.

The Enterprise‘s latest mission is cancelled and they are recalled to Starbase 234 to have a mystery meeting with an Admiral… this never ends well. Apparently Ambassador Spock is missing but was spotted on Romulus, so Picard is tasked with finding out why. They first head to Vulcan to speak with Perrin and Sarek who believe he did so intentionally to meet with a Romluan senator named Pardek. The next stop is to the Klingon home world as a cloaked ship is necessary for entry into Romulan space without detection. Here, the story splits in two parts: Data and Spock head out to Romulus and Riker and the rest of the crew head to Qualon II.

Data and Spock are fitted for Romulan dress and find out that Sarek has died. They beam down to the planet and are intercepted by Pardek and Spock. Spock is on a personal mission of peace and believe that Pardek and some of his people are ready for reunification between the Vulcan and Romulan people. Spock meets with Neral, the proconsul, but we see he is in league with Sela. In fact, the foursome of Picard, Data, Spock, and Pardek are caught by Sela and it turns out that Pardek was in on it the whole time. Spock and Data hack into the computers and escape, though Picard allows Spock to mind meld with him in order to share his connection with Sarek one last time.

Riker and the rest of the Enterprise head to Qualon II to figure out why a Vulcan ship is in pieces in their cargo bay. They meet with Dokachin who is, at first, uncooperative but then is suddenly very helpful when he realizes TWO ships are missing from his junkyard. Riker lays a trap but accidentally blows up the renegade vessel so they have to head to a bar for some information, which they get from a rather obese Ferengi. They head to the location and are given orders by Picard, but Riker doesn’t really believe them. As three Vulcan ships enter Federation space, they see a message from Spock and go to intercept the ships. A Romulan warbird decloaks and destroys all three vessels instead of having them be caught in the act.

I wanted to like these episodes more. I knew there was no way that Spock would defect and that he was ever the pacifist. I did not see the betrayal of Pardek coming, that was a low blow, but Spock was unsurprised. Sela makes the “bad guy speech” where she tells her whole plan without killing the “good guys”, rookie mistake. She’s not really a very competent villain, how did she rise to the ranks at such a young age? She reminds me of all of the villains on Scooby Doo, but instead she’s thwarted by Picard and crew instead of “some meddling kids”. Her Trojan Horse plan did not account for Riker knowing his captain too well and for so many other variables, but it did display the harshness of the Romulans that we saw from the Klingons in the early episodes of The Original Series. Some of my favorite moments were Worf singing Klingon opera, Data issuing the Vulcan nerve pinch on Sela, and Spock’s facial expressions. Captain K’vada was an interesting Klingon and I enjoyed his no-nonsense attitude as well as his delight over Data being able to access the Romulan computers. Aside from these moments, and the cool undercover work, this was just another two-part episode that showed the incompetence of Sela. I’m giving both episodes 5 sets of pointed ears and one rendition of Aktuh and Maylota.

TA Out!