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!

Date: April 25, 2020

Season 5 , Episodes 5 and 6

Musical Accompaniment: 6 Suites for Cello Solo played by Istvan Vardai, by J.S. Bach.

Interstellar News: Another hour of yard work and began Scrubs today. We finally finished Babylon 5, four of the five movies, and Crusade… so it was my turn to pick a TV series he’s never seen, for us to watch together.

Favorite Quotes from “Disaster”:

Worf: There will be a sharp pain as I set the bone. Prepare yourself. Good. Good, you bore that well.

…

Keiko: I’m going into labor.

Worf: You cannot. This this is not a good time, Keiko.

Keiko: It’s not open for debate. Like it or not, this baby is coming.

…

Worf: Congratulations. You are fully dilated to ten centimeters. You may now give birth.

Keiko: That’s what I’ve been doing.

Worf has very good bedside manner, but does not understand life doesn’t always go according to the simulation.

Picard’s Poetry: “All right. I’ll try. But I want you to know this is mutiny. “

“Disaster” begins like any other day on the Enterprise. Picard is going to give a tour to the three science fair winners, O’Brien is going to run a simulation, Dr. Crusher is trying to get La Forge to sing, and the rest of the bridge crew is on Ten-Forward… except for Troi. Everything’s normal until they hit a quantum filament, the ship begins to shake like they’re in a space-quake, and the power goes out in various areas of the ship. There are now five separate stories to follow:

Picard is with the three children in a turbolift: Marissa, the oldest, is promoted to First Officer, Jay Gordon is now the science officer, and Patterson, the youngest, is in charge of radishes. Picard’s ankle is broken so he wants to send the kids up the ladder because the turbolift emergency system is broken, but the crew decides to stay together. They all keep climbing to find an open door, a little while later the lift falls so they sing a climbing song. Picard finally finds an opening and he and the children make it up, broken ankle and all.

Troi is the highest ranking officer on the bridge and has O’Brien, Ro, and Mandel to help her. They try to follow procedure, well at least O’Brien does, and they have no idea where any other survivors are – they are cut off from the rest of the ship. Ro believes they need to separate the saucer, but Troi wants O’Brien to divert power so that someone in engineering, if they’re alive, can get things up and running.

La Forge and Crusher are in the cargo bay when a plasma fire starts. They have to move heavy barrels across to one end and also put out the fire… when La Forge has a crazy idea. He opens the cargo bay, sends the barrels they just spent time moving (twice apparently) out into space (guess they weren’t important?), and sucks enough oxygen out so the fires stops. He then has to re-pressurize the bay and they only have a few seconds before they pass out, but Dr. Crusher saves the day.

Riker, Worf, Data, and Keiko are in Ten-Forward. Riker and Data leave to get to engineering and Worf is left in control of the areas as it will be the makeshift sickbay. Keiko has her baby, a girl they name Molly, and Worf uses his emergency medical class knowledge. Data and Riker crawl through the tubes when stuff starts exploding. Data uses his body to set off the electric field and tells Riker to bring his head so it can be connected in engineering. Data, the floating head, and Riker get to engineering and fix the containment field… which is exactly what Troi was hoping for. All is now well in the world.

I will start with my favorite part in Ten-Forward. Worf took charge of the area, has wonderful bedside manner, and was cool under pressure. All the while he was able to make me laugh, because Michael Dorn is amazing and knows how to deliver a damn line. Next was the turbolift where I was horrified when I realized Picard was going to get stuck in the turbolift with CHILDREN, but he of course did a fantastic job once he realized he could treat them like mini-adults. Troi did an excellent job in a leadership role, trying to understand the things she doesn’t normally have to pay much attention to and O’Brien was very calm and patient with her. Ro made a good foil and I’m glad she was there to play the devil’s advocate. Riker and Data were ultimately the ones who restored power to the ship and fixed the containment field, but aside from Data’s head detachment, it was not as engaging as the other stories. La Forge and Crusher has my least favorite journey, it was stupid and ridiculous.

This may have been a stereotypical disaster episode, where everyone had to rise to the occasion because they were elsewhere than where they are best suited, but it was enjoyable as heck. I can seriously listen to Worf deliver one-liners forever and be quite happy. I really enjoyed this episode, which is why I may have given a more detailed summary than usual, so it’s a score of 8 on the Apgar.

Favorite Quote from “The Game”:

Wesley: I wonder how it works?

Robin: Why don’t you try it and find out?

Wesley: I’d like to know a little bit more about it before I try it.

Robin: I bet if we worked together we could figure it out.

The responsible thing to do before trying something out. Teenagers, just what will the do next

“The Game” begins with Riker down on Risa with a woman who throws away his communicator and then puts something on his head and calls it a game and it’s utterly horrifying what happens when he wins. Back aboard the Enterprise, Riker encounters Troi in Ten-Forward with a chocolate sundae and the scene is super suggestive, WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THIS EPISODE… isn’t this a PG show? Wesley Crusher arrives and they have a little surprise party for him, and he gets to meet Robin from engineering.

Riker starts to tell everyone about “the game” and it slowly spreads around to everyone on the ship. Riker, Troi, and Dr. Crusher deactivate Data. Robin is the OG Gibbs with 102 laws and she starts sharing them with Wesley. They investigate “the game” and find out the game is like a drug but when Wesley tells the Captain, it’s too late the captain’s already played it. They try to fake everyone out and say they’ve played it just as the woman from Risa arrives and orders them to expand to several star bases and such. Unfortunately Robin is turned and Wesley is the only one on board now not addicted, until he is forced into it. Right then Data arrives and pulls a strobe light out to save the day, as Wesley was causing a diversion after reactivating Data.

I have but one question: how did ANYONE convince Worf and Picard to play the game? Do either of them look like they play games? Okay, maybe more than one question. How did it work on La Forge? Why didn’t Robin and Wesley just wear the sets and pretend? If it’s so addicting, why isn’t everyone just playing it 24/7? WHAT ABOUT THE YOUNGLINGS (didn’t think I’d be able to make a Star Wars reference, eh?)??? I don’t even want to imagine a 5 year old getting addicted to that game, ick. It doesn’t make sense that they can act so normally at all other times or even stop playing at all.

This was a terrible, horrible, no good, and very bad episode with very little to redeem it. I was impressed that someone came up with such good mind control technology, and knew that Riker would be the best security risk because he can’t keep it in his pants. This is now the second A Clockwork Orange type episode, the first in “The Mind’s Eye” just at the end of last season, though this time someone was smart enough to program in deactivating Data first. I will say I was so happy to see Data and he got to save the day in a very action hero kind of way… even though it was with a strobe light. That one bit and the cute relationship of Wesley and Robin allows for a rating of 2 raw onions.

TA Out!

Date: April 24, 2020

Season 5, Episodes 3 and 4

Musical Accompaniment: A musical journey through the 2Cellos YouTube channel.

Interstellar News: I got to play with a pruning lopper and a wood chipper today after work, life is good but I’m exhausted.

Two things that have been helping me these past few weeks are Death by Improv and KRAD Covid Readings, so you should subscribe to their YouTube channels.

Favorite Quote from “Ensign Ro”:

Guinan: I told you. I’m Guinan. I tend bar, and I listen.

Ro: You’re not like any bartender I ever met before.

Ro is correct, though we could all use a Guinan in our lives.

“Ensign Ro” begins with an emergency signal near the Cardassian border and then it’s gone and the Bajoran rebels take responsibility. Ensign Ro is assigned to the Enterprise by Admiral Kennelly because she’s Bajoran, but apparently she’s got a record and an attitude. She suggests Keeve Falor as the man to talk to and he gets Picard in touch with the rebels. Picard, Data, Troi, and Worf beam down and not only find Ro, but the rebels too who insist they were not responsible.

Ro is confined to quarters but Guinan helps her to trust Picard and Ro explains what the Admiral told her, so Picard sets a trap. The Admiral orders them to withdraw and the Cardassians blow up the Bajoran ship, but SURPRISE… no one was on board, and the Admiral is now in serious trouble. Picard requests Ro to stay in the Starfleet and she agrees, as long as she can put her earring back on.

I loved this episode and I’ll tell you why. The episode starts off with a standard mission but the twist is Ensign Ro who even Picard thinks is a hopeless case. Picard who thinks Barclay shouldn’t be someone else’s problem draws his line at ex-convicts. Riker doesn’t like her attitude and it makes me wonder what the uniform regulations are, it seems to be okay for Worf to wear his family sash but not okay for Ro to wear an earring? Sounds like the uniform regulations at Cracker Barrel to me. Anyway, I loved the scenes between Ro and Guinan because Guinan is incredibly good at her job and delivers her words in such a way that you are compelled to listen. Ro realizes she’s with the one person in Starfleet she could truly trust and Picard is ready to test her theory, which everyone but the Cardassians totally saw coming.

The dialog was great, I didn’t care that I could tell what was coming ahead at certain times because it was still a good story, and there was also some good rapport between the crew and the guest stars of the week. Picard realizing the Bajorans had to have their base needs on Maslow’s hierarchy filled before they could even think about anything else was so powerful that even Picard knew he needed to give them whatever he could. I will say, however, that as much as I liked this episode I’m not sure that it’s perfect – just something I personally enjoyed and would likely re-watch again. A litter of 8 kittens, all named Dara.

Favorite Quote from “Silicon Avatar”:

Dr. Marr: A girlfriend? I never knew about that. Of course, the last person he would tell would be his mother. What was she like?

Data: He enjoyed her kindness, her gentleness, her… (eyes shifting a bit) physical attributes.

Data may have a lot to learn about humans, but he knows enough to not tell the mother of a 16 years old boy anything indiscreet.

“Silicon Avatar” begins with Riker down on the surface of the Melona IV colony and flirting hardcore with Carmen when the silicon entity from “Datalore” returns and kills Carmen and an older man while everyone else hides in the cave until the Enterprise can come save them. Dr. Marr, an expert on the entity, beams aboard and instead of wanting to be shown to her quarters, she wants to get down to business.

Dr. Marr is at first hostile against Data because of Lore and she thinks Data is in league with the entity and it’s later revealed her son died on Omicron Theta. Marr thinks they’re on a mission to destroy the entity and Picard explains their role is to first make contact, see if they can be peaceful toward each other. Marr makes nice with Data and they talk about her son, when there’s a distress call from another ship… but the Enterprise arrives too late and the crew is lost. They intercept the entity and are making progress in figuring out how to communicate with it, but Dr. Marr decides to blow it up.

When they exit the cave and see the devastation left behind, it’s incredibly sad and sobering… much like this mishegoss of an episode. There’s a little bit of “The Devil in the Dark” and a lot of “One Of Our Planets Is Missing”, but none of what made those episodes good. In each of those episodes, Spock connected with the entity and made it understand what it was doing was wrong and each side came to an agreement on how to proceed. Here, Dr. Marr took that chance away from Picard and that ended the episode on such a sour note… I mean Picard totally looked like you killed his puppy (no one tell John Wick for the love of all that is holy) because he’s all about communication and understanding, the whole point of the Enterprise is.

Why does no one stop Marr? How come Data never figured out how to communicate with it, or Troi for that matter? Why doesn’t Troi sense the grief and rage that has to be within Marr to do this, her spidey senses weren’t working that episode? The transition Marr goes through with first being openly hostile to all of a sudden being Data’s best friend, and then thinking Data is her son is all too quick of a mental breakdown for me. No one can tell what she’s doing and no one really moves to stop her until it’s too late. Also, the first five minutes with the Carmen and Riker show was just a whole lot of ick for me and really only there so when Riker says “maybe we should think about killing it” does make me think Picard was asking the right questions no matter how perturbed Riker looked. What member of the Enterprise doesn’t know what their ultimate mission is? I’m not even sure what to rate this, because there were some okay bits – maybe a 4 of clubs?

TA Out!

Date: April 23, 2020

Season 5, Episode 2

Musical Accompaniment: A YouTube mix of The Piano Guys

Interstellar News: I made a rice ball casserole, enough to feed 12 people in our house of 2, and it was delicious. I also made a run to BJ’s for 2 pounds of minced garlic, the important things in life during this crisis.

Favorite Quotes:

Troi: All our technology and experience, our universal translator, our years in space, contacts with more alien cultures than I can even remember.

Data: I have encountered one thousand, seven hundred fifty four non-human races during my tenure with Starfleet.

Troi: And we still can’t even say hello to these people.

Data: Correct.

Troi: A single word can lead to tragedy. One word misspoken or misunderstood. And that could happen here, Data, if we fail.

Troi and Data understanding the scope of their mission and Troi further pointing out how damn important communication is. For the two people that I know read every one of my posts, please note that I believe communication is one of the most important things in any relationship.

Picard’s Poetry: Riker: “New friends, Captain?” Picard: “I can’t say, Number One. But at least they’re not new enemies.”

The Enterprise is in the El-Adrel system to try and communicate with the Tamarians, which has never had a successful attempt in over 100 years because they are “incomprehensible”. They keep repeating the same set of phrases, similar to “Samaritan Snare“, but they seem much more intelligent. The other captain, Dathon, has a fight with his first officer but eventually wins and suddenly he and Picard are beamed down to the planet.

Riker, of course, does everything he can to get Picard back, but none of it works. He gets Troi and Data to start working on decoding the language and he has La Forge work on a way to get the transporter working. Meanwhile, on the planet, Picard and Dathon try to communicate and make a little headway. Suddenly there’s a dangerous, mostly invisible, beast headed their way and they fight it together. Dathon is hurt but he and Picard make a lot of progress understanding each other as the Tamarians speak in metaphors and examples. Dathon dies and Picard is beamed back, just in time to speak to the Tamarians and explain what happened. Both ships depart with a little better understanding of each other. Temba at rest.

I’m going to start off by saying a dear friend told me this episode is one that is usually either loved or hated, and I can see why. I am firmly in the “loved” category, so let me tell you why. I’m not sure why but I do like Picard’s new fancy jacket and shirt, they suit him well. Picard makes such an effort to understand his fellow captain and is brilliant at figuring it out, it was so impressive to hear him speak at the end to the new captain. Picard also understands how important it is to share stories with Dathon and doesn’t even find out his name until the end of the episode. I was also blown away by Picard’s reverence in the last scene before the credits, what a tribute to a fallen comrade!

Riker, even though he’s more like Worf in thinking everyone is a threat and not working on figuring out how to communicate with the Tamarians, does a very good job at problem solving his way through each thing. Let’s try a shuttle, let me set Data and Troi on the language aspect, let me put La Forge and O’Brien at the transport, let me consult Worf on my battle strategy… he puts all the people exactly where they need to be, which wasn’t always the case in TOS and I’m glad TNG makes better use of the whole cast. I also saw a bit of Kirk peek out when Riker demands La Forge have something done more quickly, and it was a good homage. Of course it’s ridiculous that it’s always the main cast on a ship so large, but whatevs, and also ASHLEY JUDD made an appearance as an engineer… and one who gives good side eye too!

There are a few things that don’t make sense, or didn’t quite work, but they are all very minor. Troi and Data only listen to the first few of the 47 entries on darmok, and then only the first three on tanagra and decide there’s got to be a connection… when I’m sure there could have been a lot more crossover between the two lists if they kept listening and comparing. The Tamarian language is a great use of abstraction (a concept I teach in one of my classes), but you have to understand the example in order to use it as Dr. Crusher points out. So how to Tamarians first learn what the phrases mean? Are the children taught in one language similar to ours and then as adults they move to the abstract, or do perhaps they learn by others acting out the scenes? If there are new stories do new phrases come into existence, or do thee just keep repeating on a loop? Maybe there’s a planet bard who sings the songs of yore and everyone else just speaks in metaphor? I’m so interesting in this topic, but you know how I get when there are too many questions and not enough answers. I like this episode enough for it to go on my “Rankings” page, but I can only assign it a litter of 9 puppies.

What they really needed, in my opinion, was a translation line:

TA Out!

Date: April 22, 2020

Season 4, Episode 26 and Season 5, Episode 1

Musical Accompaniment: Some Classy Covers by Lindsey Stirling

Interstellar News: I’m going to treat this as one big episode, resistance to this change is still futile and will now be the new standard when dealing with two part episodes. Nothing new happened in the credits for Season 5.

Favorite Quotes:

Picard: You have manipulated the circumstances with the skill of a Romulan. My decision will be announced at high sun tomorrow. Excellent tea. Good day, ladies.

Of course he said “excellent tea”.

Worf’s One-Two Punch: “I have been told that patience is sometimes a more effective weapon than the sword.” and “We cannot regain honor by acting dishonorably.”

Hobson: Frankly, sir, I don’t believe in your ability to command this ship. You’re a fellow officer and I respect that, but no one would suggest that a Klingon would make a good ship’s counselor or that a Berellian could be an engineer. They’re just not suited for those positions. By the same token, I don’t think an android is a good choice to be captain.

Data: I understand your concerns. Request denied.

Hobson thinking he’s making good points (he’s not) and Data not taking any shit from this bigot.

Quick Summary:

Part 1: The Enterprise is heading to Klingon home world for Gowron’s installation and maybe to clear Worf’s name when they are intercepted by Gowron’s ship because he wants to avoid a Klingon civil war. Worf comes clean to Gowron about his discommendation, but Gowron is of no help so Worf requests a leave of absence and meets up with his brother. Just as Gowron is about to become the grand poo-bah of the Council, the son of Duras magically appears, along with his two sisters, who are in league with the Romulans and the shadowy Romulan lady from “The Mind’s Eye“.

The weird sisters try to manipulate Picard, with Earl Grey tea of all things, but he will not be so challenged. Worf enacts his plan but Gowron wants the Federation to intervene and the their ship is attacked. The Enterprise leaves, Kurn comes to aid Gowron, and family honor is restored. Picard denies Federation assistance and orders Worf back to duty, so Worf resigns from Starfleet. Worf gets the full senior staff send off and he heads to the Bortas. The shadowy woman reveals herself to be none other than Tasha Yar and my jaw is on the floor.

Part 2: Worf is serving on Kurn’s ship, who despite being the younger brother is a bad ass captain, and he is still trying to figure out what it means to be Klingon. Picard is trying to help even though he said he couldn’t, and proposes a blockade that Starfleet agrees to. Picard assigns Riker (as captain) and La Forge (as first officer) to one ship and Data to another, also as captain. The first officer on Data’s new ship is a bigot and poor O’Brien is back on tactical, based on what he shared in “The Wounded“.

La Forge sets up his net and Yar’s lookalike introduces herself to Picard as Commander Sela, Tasha Yar’s daughter. No one knows about the alternative timeline until Guinan uses her way to explain to Picard. The weird sisters get Worf alone and want him to mate with B’Etor, but he refuses their advances and offer. Sela tries to get one past the Federation but Data knows what he’s doing and his first officer finally acknowledges him as Captain. The Romulans retreat so they don’t get caught which leads to a victory by Gowran. Worf isn’t impressed with how the Klingons were acting, bedsides to spare the life of Toral, and returns to Starfleet.

My Thoughts and Impressions: There was very little Riker, La Forge, Dr. Crusher, and Troi over these two episodes, which I was sort of okay with. I barely realized they were missing because the story was so compelling and also, if I admit to my bias, I totally love Worf and Data and they really shined. Picard is growing on me too, but he’s the captain and he’s supposed to be awesome. Also, what’s up with female Klingons now being able to serve on the Council? Why did they have to be so misogynistic? The story could have been exactly the same with one of the sisters fighting for Duras’s place… ugh! Though I did think that the Romulans had done something to fake the DNA scan on Toral when they first showed up.

Picard has to walk a fine line but no where does he indicate that he’s chatted with Starfleet about this. Worf may have taken it better if he explained he needed to wait for orders, I mean Picard is a captain but no admiral. Also, I don’t understand why Picard was in charge of the blockade and just willy-nilly made people temporary captains? Worf also was put into a place where he had to choose, and he eventually did what he set out to do – restore order to the Empire. Data is great at solving problems but not so great at communicating all the time, which is funny because that’s totally a human problem too.

Some of the Klingons work with the Romulans, boring! We’ve seen it in several episodes past. I was expecting more if this was to be what it was all headed toward. Instead the Romulans give up the minute they get caught, blah! I will admit I wanted to watch “Part 2” to find out where the hell Sela came from and was saddened by Yar’s second death and third goodbye, but was satisfied with how they explained Sela’s existence. I missed the suspense that “The Best of Both Worlds” had, as that’s the best vehicle to compare these episodes to. While these episodes were not bad, they weren’t great either. They wrapped up some loose ends from earlier episodes and left a little so things could come back into play later. Data gets to command a ship, La Forge engineers a way to track the Romulans, and Worf gets his honor restored and figures out where he belongs. Rating them both as one big episode, because they were kind of super close, I’ll give this 6 Birds of Prey.

TA Out!