Date: April 15, 2020

Season 4, Episodes 11 and 12

Musical Accompaniment: Coccolino Deep presents Eternal Sunshine

Interstellar News: It was very cold today, but all the blankets in the house are now clean and do not smell like dog or cat.

Favorite Quote from “Data’s Day”:

Data: Have you ever been an actual participant in a human wedding?

Worf: No.

Data: You would not consider it to be an honor?

Worf: An honor, perhaps. But human bonding rituals often involve a great deal of talking… and dancing… and… crying.

Data: Dancing.

You really have to listen to how Michael Dorn sells his lines, it’s fantastic.

“Data’s Day” begins with a log entry from Data to Commander Maddox who wants to know more about a typical day in the life of Data, especially his perceptions of friendship. Several things are happening aboard over the next few days namely O’Brien and Keiko plan to be married (Data standing in as the father of the bride), one of the crew is in labor, and a Vulcan Ambassador is beaming aboard for a secret mission.

Data tries to be helpful as Keiko wants to call off the wedding, but O’Brien does not react as he thought. Keiko also doesn’t react positively and poor Data is not only caught in the middle, but confused by pre-wedding jitters. Data is convinced that he should be able to help, he’s done the research and has even thought about maybe getting married one day himself. He even learns to dance, with the help of Dr. Crusher and the holodeck, and gets assistance from Worf to pick out the perfect wedding gift. The wedding eventually proceeds and Data doesn’t step on anyone’s feet.

The Vulcan Ambassador is all kinds of secretive and will speak only to Picard. They head into the Neutral Zone and meet up with a Romulan ship, apparently the Romulans are open to negotiating peace… nifty. No sooner does the transporter start there’s a malfunction and she dies in transit, a death that no one has ever heard of aboard a starship. The crew investigates and Data figures out the Romulans kidnapped the ambassador so they catch up with the Romluan vessel only to find out the Vulcan ambassador was really a Romulan spy. The Enterprise is allowed to escape and a new life is born to the ship.

I absolutely loved all of the parts of this episode except for those with the Vulcan ambassador in it. I will admit I did not see her being a spy until it was revealed, but everything else was just bland, boring, and stiff. It’s awesome that Data has a cat, that he tries to emulate human speech and just fails miserably, and that he did the damn research to see how to help build a successful marriage. Unfortunately people rarely follow logic when love is involved. I love the holodeck scene with Dr. Crusher, but Data needs to never smile like that again, reminds me of a certain Batman villain.

It’s quite sad that the main plot just doesn’t hold it’s weight (or maybe it’s the side plot) because nothing even happens… the Enterprise is free to leave and tell the rest of the Federation that they’ve been duped. I will note that I find it fascinating that Picard “hates” children but loves babies, or at least mystified by the miracle of life. I am totally the opposite where I start to like children around the age of 2. I’ll offer 6 Jokers for this episode: Romero, Ledger, Hamill, Nicholson, Phoenix, and Leto.

Favorite Quote from “The Wounded”:

Worf: The Cardassians have no honor. I do not trust them.

Troi: They’re our allies now, Mr. Worf. We have to trust them.

Worf: Trust is earned, not given away.

I laughed quite heartily at this line, it’s honestly the thing I would say if I were in a similar situation.

Picard’s Poetry: “If there is to be a lasting peace, Gul Macet, neither you nor I must allow any one man to undermine our efforts.”

“The Wounded” has the Enterprise interacting with some new allies, the Cardassians. They believe the terms of their truce has been broken as the Phoenix led an unprovoked attack and blew up a Cardassian research station, so a few Cardassians beam over as a gesture of good will so they can work together to find out just what is going on. They find the Phoenix as it annihilates a few more Cardassian ships and won’t reply to any hails. O’Brien has a frank conversation with one of the Cardassians and he and Keiko share comfort foods with each other. 

Maxwell, the captain of the Phoenix, is finally reached and he can’t answer any of Picard’s questions. The plan is for them both to return to star base 211… but the Phoenix rabbits in order to find another Cardassian vessel to prove that Maxwell was right and they are arming themselves for war. O’Brien beams over and helps talk Maxwell down, since he used to serve under him, and it’s clear Maxwell never dealt with the loss of his family from an attack by the Cardassians. Picard believes Maxwell was right and urges Gul Macet to keep the peace, or else.

So I’ll start with the obvious… every damn time they mention the word “Cardassian” I totally heard “Kardashian” and I am ashamed, though I have never watched even one second of their programming. I also love that there’s a bit from the last episode where they show O’Brien and Keiko getting to know one another through food and it’s adorable. It’s also nice to know a bit more about O’Brien’s past and I’m sad that it’s note all sunshine and rainbows, but it rarely is. It’s also quite a compelling story we are told: a captain has gone rogue… clearly something is wrong! Said captain believes the brand new allies are gearing up for war again… those bastards! Clearly he’s all torn up about losing his family to them, that must be it. Oh wait, they were gearing up for war and Picard is having none of it! Picard understands not only his duty to Starfleet but his diplomacy shines through as well when he sternly warns Gul Macet that there will be no tomfoolery on his watch. A very interesting episode indeed, and it earns an 8 from me… which you get if you add the numbers 1, 3, and 4 together, which is the number of days the O.J. Simpson trial went on for in 1995.

TA Out!

Date: April 14, 2020

Season 4, Episodes 9 and 10

Musical Accompaniment: A complication of Melodic Techno

Interstellar News: It was another beautiful, but lonely, day.

Favorite Quote from “Final Mission”:

Picard: Oh, I envy you, Wesley Crusher. You’re just at the beginning of the adventure. Go on. Get the water. Stay alive. They’ll find you.

Wesley: I’ll be back soon.

Picard: Of course. You remember I was always proud of you.

Who is cutting onions?!?! Seriously!

“Final Mission” begins with Wesley Crusher finally getting “the call” to go to the Academy, so he’s going to help Picard on a diplomatic mission for one last hurrah. There’s a distress call at a nearby planet so Riker and the crew are going to help while Picard and Wesley head aboard a shuttle with a man named Dirgo who was sent by the miners to help settle the dispute. No sooner does the shuttle craft leave the Enterprise’s bay they run into issues and crash into a nearby moon that’s basically a desert. The plot diverges back and forth to what is happening on the moon and what is happening on the ship.

The Enterprise is trying to deal with the issue of the planet that’s in trouble so they delay a search for the shuttle craft once they receive word it didn’t reach its destination. There’s a leaky ship that someone left in space and wandered over to Gamelan V that’s dumping radiation into the planet and they need help. They try about 10 different things until the last one finally works, in the last 10 seconds before radiation is exposure is fatal of course, and the barge goes riding into the sun.

Picard, Wesley, and Dirgo make their way over to the mountains with very few supplies, but they need to get out of the heat. They find a water source but it’s protected by a force field and some guardian that looks like Barry Allen when he’s in the Speed Force, who is quite dangerous and Picard is hurt. Dirgo tries to outsmart it but he winds up looking like Frodo after Shelob tried to eat him. Picard is fading quickly and tells Wesley to make friends with the groundskeeper at the Academy and then sends Wesley on his way to find help. Wesley, however, fucks with the sentry and is able to get to the water. The Enterprise finds them and everyone is going to live to see the next episode… except for Wesley who’s finally, really, maybe leaving?

There was nothing in this episode that wasn’t expected. If it’s really Wesley’s final day on set, then he’s going to have to spend time in a situation that shows off his skills and leads to a well earned goodbye (and something that allows him to hug his mom without him being embarrassed by it). So a spot randomly opens up, but doesn’t he have to take all the tests and other random shit the Academy’s put him through the last three years first? Putting that aside, you know neither Picard or Wesley are going to die and Dirgo is never going to listen to “a kid” and Picard has to be out of the way somehow to allow Wesley to shine, so again it’s not unexpected that he’s hurt and gives Wesley the “atta boy” speech he’s wanted for so long. I also knew the Enterprise was going to be delayed until the very last second, and come riding to the rescue. Having said all that, even “knowing” what was going to happen, I still enjoyed the episode. It allows Wesley’s character to come back and doesn’t leave any more death to follow Dr. Crusher or Picard. Wesley’s solution to getting the water worked, though no one was there to see it, but it was so rushed at the end I’m left just whelmed at the episode. I’ll take “times I’ve been disappointed by Wesley Crusher episodes” for 5, Alex.

Favorite Quote from “The Loss”:

Troi: I really would rather be alone right now.

Riker: Too bad. (he pulls her towards him, and she cries in his arms)

Troi: Is this how you handle all of your personnel problems?

Riker: Sure. You’d be surprised how far a hug goes with Geordi, or Worf.

I laughed quite heartily at this line, it’s honestly the thing I would say if I were in a similar situation.

“The Loss” begins with Counselor Troi doing some actual counseling with a crew member who lost her husband some time ago, and she’s pretty damn good at her job. Worf and Data see some strange readings and Troi suddenly develops a headache and severe pain, and Dr. Crusher has reports coming in from all over the ship. At an all hands meeting, Troi realizes she’s lost her mojo. She spends the episode going through almost all of the stages of grief, looks like someone on the writing staff paid attention in their counseling theories class. As a matter of principle, there is no right or wrong way to grieve. Some people go through stages linearly, some regress, some are never reached or skipped over entirely. The models used in grief counseling are a mere guide to helping someone understand loss, but there is no “one size fits all”. Cry, box, do whatever you need – but you’ll need outside help.

Troi is first in shock and denial, of course she’ll be fine and her Betazoid brain will totally heal itself. She quickly jumps to anger and has it out with anyone in her path, though she never really enters the bargaining stage. She experiences depression and starts to lose hope, how can she do her job as a mere human. Despite Picard, Riker, Guinan, her patient, and Dr. Crusher all providing evidence to the contrary, Troi is convinced she must resign. It’s when she works with Data and comes up with a solution that she starts to accept that maybe she isn’t worthless, but then her skills some back and the crisis is averted. Oh, there’s also something about 2-dimensional beings dragging the Enterprise to their doom, but I never really feel the danger there and just know they’ll get out in time.

As the ship’s counselor we’ve seen Troi mostly advise Picard because all of the action is on the bridge. It’s nice to see Troi in her element, using her empathy to help those on board. What I don’t like is how she pulls a Q and gives up at the first sign of being a “mere mortal”. This episode suffers from having to wrap up everything in a 45 minute episode, so she races through all of the stages and doesn’t spend any time lingering as we’ve got to move onto the next stage, oh and the ship is probably going to be sucked into a vortex or some such. I did like, however, that Riker and Guinan both show their expertise in counseling in their own way. Guinan makes a very convincing argument that she’d make an excellent ship’s counselor, I mean I would totally hire her to deal with my “First Year Freds”. Troi also doesn’t want to be counseled and Dr. Crusher makes the poignant observation that next to doctors, counselors make the worst patients and I absolutely feel attacked because that’s unfortunately me. As a Trek episode, this was pretty meh and standard, a 5 at best. As a counseling episode, however, this gets high marks for all of the good theory work. In a modified view of the Kubler-Ross model of grief, we’ll label this as stage 7 – acceptance.

On a slightly funny note, the shots of the Enterprise being pulled sideways reminds me of my dog, Professor Zoom, when we put his walking harness on him. He has this funny habit of walking sideways, like the ridiculous pupper that he is, and if I can ever get a video of it I’ll post it here.

TA Out!

Date: April 13, 2020

Season 4, Episodes 7 and 8

Musical Accompaniment: Ambient Worlds presents: Moon of Endor

Interstellar News: Today did not feel like a Monday at all.

Favorite Quote from “Reunion”:

Picard: Lieutenant, please receive our guest.

Worf: Captain, I must request permission to send another officer.

Picard: May I know your reason?

Worf: My dishonor among Klingons may offend Ambassador K’Ehleyr.

Picard: Lieutenant, you are a member of this crew, and you will not go into hiding whenever a Klingon ship uncloaks.

Worf: I withdraw my request, sir.

Worf will not be called a coward, so there!

Worf’s One-Two Punch: “A Klingon would not use poison. His murder would have no honor.”

“Reunion” begins with the Enterprise investigating some radiation anomalies when a Kligon cruiser decloaks and hails them, they have K’Ehleyr on board and she beams over with a tiny Klingon boy named Alexander, who is totally Worf’s baby. K’mpec is dying and wants to meet with Picard to have him be the mediator between the two Klingon warriors vying over his seat, oh and one of them has poisoned him. Worf doesn’t want to hurt the boy with his dishonor, as much as he wants to take the oath with K’Ehleyr.

During the ceremony of “poking the dead guy with the pain sticks”, or Sonchi as the Klingons call it, there’s an explosion. Picard needs more time so he chooses to have Duras and Gowron prove themselves to him using the ancient, and ridiculously long ways. In the meantime they find out it was a Romulan bomb that was implanted in one of the Klingon’s arms, and it was one who was with Duras. At the same time, K’Ehleyr looks into Khitomer and finds out what happens, so Duras kills her. Worf takes his “big fucking blade”, also known as a bat’leth and goes hunting for a particular Klingon named Duras. Worf claims K’Ehleyr as his mate and Alexander as his son, who will grow up with Worf’s adoptive parents.

I have SO MUCH TO SAY about this episode. First, I’m glad finally someone has to deal with the consequences on their actions, but why did it have to be Worf? But seriously, a reprimand on his record? I’m sure Worf is shaking in his boots over that (waves hands vigorously in sarcasm). Second, I love K’Ehleyr… a lot. Not only is she a bad ass Klingon and human, she’s now also a bad ass mom who totally embraced her human half when naming her son. I am soooo not here to discuss if she should have told Worf sooner, but we can now see the hierarchy of what’s more important – marrying your mate after you knocked her up or not claiming the kid so he’s not dishonored by your discommendation for made up reasons. I am so pissed at Duras because all of this is his fault on a million levels, and he’s a traitor just like his father. I am quite glad he is dead and Worf was able to avenge his mate, because normally the “good guys” don’t kill, even if it’s warranted.

The main story line is a murder mystery fused with a mediation that Picard has now become famous for. Picard uses his cunning and intellect to give himself time and still staying true to Klingon culture, and he speaks their language when appropriate to remind them he is in charge. I think I knew Duras was going to be the bad guy, but there was just enough that it could be Gowron and his big bulgy eyes. I am wholly satisfied with this episode, especially since I’ve not met Worf’s parents and “Grandma and Grandpa” will be a loving environment for Alexander. Sometimes being a parent means giving your child the best chance for a bright future. Another perfect 10, so damn good.

Favorite Quote from “Future Imperfect”:

Troi: So, what did you wish for, Will?

Riker: Music lessons.

Honestly, I had to pick something from a whole lot of nothing.

“Future Imperfect” has Riker celebrating his birthday, but of course the ship is being probed as they are near the Romulan border so Worf, La Forge, and Riker beam down. There’s a lot of interference and some gas and when Riker wakes up, he’s now captain of the Enterprise and 16 years have gone by. Dr. Crusher explains what happened when Admiral Picard, Troi, and Ambassador Tomalak arrive to finish negotiations between the Federation and the Romulans. There are other small differences too: La Forge doesn’t have his visor anymore, there’s a Ferengi at ops, Data is the first officer , and Riker apparently has a son named Jean-Luc.

Riker conjures up images of his dead wife and it’s Minuet, and then Riker begins to suspect that he’s in The Matrix, which Tomalak proves to be correct. Riker escapes with Ethan, the real name of the boy claiming to be Jean-Luc, who actually turns out to be the one responsible for creating the Matrix. Turns out his mom put him there to keep him safe but he’s been alone, and his really real name is Barash. Riker takes him up to the Enterprise and we are moving on to the next mission.

The entire episode I’m going “this is bullshit” every few minutes, and saying “this is exactly like Season 5 of Eureka, I know it.”, and I was right… kind of. There was too much exposition, too much “oh that explains it so perfectly”, that it made absolutely no sense and took Riker FOREVER to figure out. What kind of infection goes back to the memory point of its inception? On what planet do we live on that the whole gang would stay on the Enterprise for that long and not one person would move on? Okay so Picard and Troi left, but then they were there.

Also, Tomalak is only allowed to be an ambassador on Babylon 5! On Star Trek, he must be the bad ass Romulan who is out for blood! Here’s the thing though, I would have LOVED if it was the Romulans and Riker figured it out and was rescued or some such, but this sappy story about a lonely kid was just too much. I would have been fine with this as a trick by enemies, but how on Earth would this kid know exactly what to put in Riker’s head that would make it believable? This would have earned a 6, even though I knew what was happening from the get go, but because of the kid I give it a 4 string quartet, played by 4th graders who just received their instruments the day before.

TA Out!

Date: April 12, 2020

Season 4, Episodes 5 and 6

Musical Accompaniment: Ambient Worlds presents: Hufflepuff Common Room music

Interstellar News: Buona Pasqua, if you celebrate. 4 loads of laundry, 2 cleaned out closets, 2 family video chats, and 7 calls later we’re done talking to people and doing chores today.

Favorite Quote from “Remember Me”:

Dr. Crusher: I’d like Lieutenant Worf to program onboard sensors to monitor all personnel. If we can catch the exact moment someone disappears…

Picard: I’m sorry, whom did you say?

Dr. Crusher: Worf. (blank stare)

Chief of Security. (blank stare continues)

The big guy who never smiles? (blank stare continues for longer)

The Klingon!

McFadden’s delivery in this scene is fantastic. I mean it is hard to miss a Klingon on the bridge.

“Remember Me” begins with a log entry from Dr. Crusher who is welcoming her mentor aboard, Dr. Quaice. Quaice just lost his wife and is retiring, and laments to Beverly about how everyone he knows is dead or dying. She goes to check on Wesley in engineering, who is doing something with La Forge, and something strange happens.

Dr. Crusher goes to check on her friend, who isn’t there. In fact, no one remembers him getting on board and there’s no record of him at all ever existing. In MedLab she calls for several of her staff, who apparently do not exist either and the mystery deepens. I start to suspect that something happened to Dr. Crusher when she was down in engineering, since she seems to be the only one to remember the ship as it was, and everyone is acting just a little funny. As the number of people on the ship decreases, Dr. Crusher tries to figure her way out and does so (with a Wizard of Oz reference) just as Wesley and the Traveler also come at it from their end. All is right in the world and no one has actually disappeared.

I love that we finally have a Beverly Crusher centered episode. She knows something is wrong and is right on it, and everyone is backing her the entire way. She doubts herself several times, but then knows there is a problem and shrugs it off. She doesn’t melt into a puddle when her only son disappears because she is a bad ass mom who knows that she’ll fix whatever is happening. She also takes a literal leap of faith into the unknown hoping that her son and the rest of the crew were fixing exactly what she thought they were, and she was right. But there were no consequences for Wesley, as apparently everything is shrugged off because Dr. Crusher wasn’t really dead or in danger anymore. I was stoked about having a Crusher episode, but there were a few things I wish had been different. 7 bubble vortexes for me, please.

Favorite Quote from “Legacy”:

Riker: In all trust, there is the possibility of betrayal. I’m not sure you were prepared for that.

Data: Were you prepared, sir?

Riker: I don’t think anybody ever is.

Data: Then it is better not to trust.

Riker: Without trust, there’s no friendship, no closeness. None of the emotional bonds that make us what we are.

Data: And yet you put yourself at risk.

Riker: Every single time.

Riker with the hard truths. Curse your sudden, but inevitable, betrayal.

Worf’s One-Two Punch: “Pah!”

“Legacy” starts out with poker night that quickly turns into magic trick night where Riker gets schooled by Data. There’s a distress call that the Enterprise doesn’t get to in time. Two of the crew managed to escape in a pod, however they wind up in hostile territory which also happens to be where Tasha Yar was born. There’s “The Coalition” vs. “The Alliance” and Yar’s sister happens to be a part of the Coalition, so she beams up to the Enterprise to help them find the escape pod which is in Alliance territory.

Ishara Yar thought her sister was cowardly, but spends the next few hours learning about Tasha from her crew mates, especially Data. They try to enact one plan, but Ishara is hurt and they don’t make as much progress as they wanted. Ishara comes up with another plan and says she wants to leave the life she’s a part of, so they remove the proximity sensor in her chest. The away team beams down to enact the plan, but Ishara just wants to ruin the Alliance and is caught in the act. Although the crew members are saved, Data is as devastated as an android with no emotions can be. Ishara is beamed back and the ship leaves the area.

I was impressed by Riker’s discussion with Data and thought it very insightful of him. I will admit I got sucked into the fantasy that Ishara wanted to help and audibly gasped a little when she talked to the leader of her faction saying it was all going according to plan. Looking back at the episode, however, I’m also kind of mad at the crew of the Enterprise. They admit to themselves it might be a con job, let their emotions get the best of them, and then are all shocked that it’s a con job. I’m especially critical of Data, who supposedly doesn’t have emotions, but let his emotions for Tasha outweigh his good sense until he was hit over the head with evidence of Ishara’s betrayal. I mean it’s okay that I got sucked in, I don’t belong to Starfleet and haven’t served on the crew. Hell, I’ve only been watching TNG for two months. That earns this episode “Pah”, said 4 times in a row.

TA Out!

Date: April 11, 2020

Season 4, Episodes 3 and 4

Musical Accompaniment: Ambient Worlds presents: Slytherin Common Room music

Interstellar News: Today was hard and I apologize in advance if my writing is “off”.

Favorite Quote from “Brothers”:

Data: Do you believe that we are in some ways alike, sir?

Soong: Yes, in many ways, I’d like to believe.

Data: Then it is alright for you to die, because I will remain alive. You know that I cannot grieve for you, sir.

Soong: You will, in your own way. Goodbye. Goodbye, Data.

Data: Goodbye, Father.

Before this is all over, too many will die. Do not forget them and do not let anyone tell you there is a “right” way to grieve.

“Brothers” begins with a prank gone wrong by one of the children on the ship and his brother now desperately needs to get to the nearest star base for medical treatment. Unfortunately, Data begins to act strangely and hijacks the Enterprise only to beam down to find that his creator, Dr. Soong, is alive but not well. Turns out Soong implanted a homing beacon and activated it because he’s now dying and wanted to give Data emotions before he passed. Lore, however, interrupts as the beacon summoned him as well. Lore displays anger, jealously, fear, and a plethora of other emotions and eventually deceives Soong, who implants the chip meant for Data into Lore (thinking it was Data).

The bridge crew eventually gets control back of the Enterprise and Worf, Riker, and La Forge beam down only to find that Lore is gone, Data was turned off, and Soong is greatly hurt. They make their way back to the ship, get to the star base just in the nick of time, and the two human brothers have now forgiven each other and all is well in the world.

I absolutely loved all of Brent Spiner’s bits of acting in this. There is Data who uses every bit of his positronic brain to lock out the rest of the crew from his one mission, Data who is reactivated and whose first thought is of Starfleet and his duty, and Data who is losing his creator and brother, again. Then there is that of Dr. Soong who is old, inquisitive, and trying to right the wrongs of his past. Finally we have Lore who displays every emotion on the “feelings wheel” and proves he really does have a screw loose or wire crossed somewhere. The rest of the crew tries to deal with the fallout of Data’s takeover and it’s a good team effort, I sense their urgency at fixing the problem and Picard’s annoyance is palpable.

There’s a good callback to “Measure of a Man” as Riker knows how to turn Data back on, too. However there are no consequences for Data and no one seems to talk about the real security issue of Data being able to be hijacked. There’s also no real reason why Soong should have believed Lore-dressed-as-Data to be Data, as he should have made sure they were both in the room first. I mean, give one of them a different eye color or something. It was mostly a typical “evil twin” story with a sad beginning, a meh middle, and a somewhat happy ending because the kid didn’t die. For all of Spiner’s wonderful acting, the rest of the story didn’t do much for me, and it’s the “eye roll” emoji, the 6th on my list of frequently used emojis.

Favorite Quote from “Suddenly Human”:

Jono: Why do you take orders from a female?

Worf: Doctor Crusher. She is my superior officer.

Jono: Among my people, a female can never outrank a man.

Worf: You are human, and among humans, females can achieve anything the males can.

Worf has just cemented himself as my favorite Klingon feminist.

“Suddenly Human” has the Enterprise answering the distress call of a Talarian vessel with four Talarian teenage boys and one human boy aboard, all who have been hurt. The human, eventually found out to be named Jono, only responds to Picard as the Talarians are very patriarchal. Turns out “Jono” was named Jeremiah at birth, is the grandson of Starfleet’s Admiral Rossa, and was taken by Captain Endar of the Talarians after his parents were killed. The “abuse” Dr. Crusher thinks happened to Jono is explained away by Endar’s “boys will be boys” comment and Endar insists he loves the child as his own and Jono should be returned to him immediately. Jono, however, is at the age where he can choose his own path… so we all wait.

Jono begins to remember things from his childhood and eventually opens up to Picard and others on the crew. He remembers his parents, listens to his grandmother, plays racquetball with Picard, and even shares a banana split with Wesley. Jono, however, wakes up in the middle of the night and stabs Picard. Jono thought he was betraying his adoptive father and was ready to die, but Picard understands that Jono is old enough to choose and sends him back to the only home he’s every known.

I wanted this episode to be SO GOOD, and it wasn’t. They got the adoptive parent thing down, someone who cares for a child that was not born of them as if they were… check. They completely missed the opportunity for Troi to counsel Picard in the ways of parenting, she just pushed and didn’t really offer any advice. They did get it right in the end, however, that it’s really up to the boy who is at the age where he can choose. So often people think they know what is best for someone else and they never ask what said person really wants. The same goes for children, but they’re usually pretty good about making up their minds. If they had presented it as “we’re going to show you what our society is like and that way you can make an informed decision” that would have been much better than what actually happened. Seeing Wesley get ice cream in his face and Picard laughing out loud was totally worth it, but the wailing really killed this episode for me. I also wish that Endar would have invited Admiral Rossa to come out to meet her grandson, or that Jono would have expressed interest in meeting his bad ass grandmother. So many missed chances at greatness here, so only 5 scoops of ice cream for Wesley.

TA Out!