Date: March 22, 2020

Season 2, Episodes 15 and 16

Setting the Stage: I watched both episodes, via Netflix, yesterday with all the fur children, the husband, and our friend Will. We were able to practice social distancing very well and he helped us eat some of the marinara sauce I made. We also watched the introduction because he’s never watched any Star Trek either so Will could hear the words and theme music. It sparked several conversations and thoughts of other science-fiction we have seen and loved. It’s great that these can be stand alone episodes are you aren’t too lost without the context, but it is helpful if you’ve watched the previous two Q episodes. I am also shocked to report that both he and my husband have never seen 2001: A Space Odyssey but since we don’t own it and it’s not streaming, we decided on two TNG episodes instead. I’m wasn’t feeling the greatest mental-health wise today so I started listening to sad music, more specifically some random symphony I found on YouTube. I was then inspired by this version of the Mambo Italiano and started listening to whatever was on “play next” and my mood brightened considerably.

I also happen to know a guy who writes a ton of stuff based in the Star Trek universe (among many other universes). You should check out his ridiculously long list of books and such here. I hear he’s a big fan of Moonstruck and the Yankees.

Favorite Quote from “Pen Pals”:

Picard: Remembrance and regrets, they too are a part of friendship.

Picard dropping some deep knowledge.

“Pen Pals” has the Enterprise exploring new and uncharted space, as its continuing mission states. Riker puts Wesley in charge of the geological survey so that he can get a feel at command. Data is working on a pet project that I’m sure will be important later. Wesley puts together his team and is a ball of panic, but he does ask for advice from quite a few of the bridge crew. Data’s project yielded a communication back, but Picard orders communication to stop and an “all hands” meeting to figure out the geological and moral issues. The bridge crew has a discussion about the prime directive but Picard’s order stands until they hear the plea for help from the voice of what sounds like a little girl.

Wesley’s hunch was right and they now know the reason for the geological issue. Data cannot reach his friend due to atmospheric interference and wants to beam down in order to deliver the message where he meets Sarjenka. The child is abnormally attached to Data. Wesley’s plan works and quiets the planet’s issues. Picard wants Sarjenka’s memory wiped and Data delivers her back to her room and leaves her with the Elanin singing stone.

Overall I really liked this episode, I mean it has everything you could want in a show. First, Wesley is getting some hands on experience in leading a team. I would have liked to see him be part of a team before because you have to work on one before you can really lead effectively, but I’m sure it happened off camera. He asks advice and is nervous, but in the end trusts his gut and isn’t too cocky when the plan works. Next we have Data working on his pet project which obviously coincided with Wesley’s geological study – because why not? The discussion of the Prime Directive, the plea for help, and the kidnapping by Data are all so intriguing and integral to how the story plays out. Picard shows his crotchety old man side and Riker tries his best to keep everything on the down low. Ultimately Picard knows what needs to be done and Data is so grateful, but I wonder if Picard would have been so inclined if he had never heard the girl speak? I wonder if her family came back looking for her, or if she was still trapped on the planet alone? I have so many questions that makes me think this deserves an 8 bit byte.

Favorite Quote from “Q-Who?”:

Q: That was a difficult admission. Another man would have been humiliated to say those words. Another man would have rather died than ask for help.

Picard: I understand what you’ve done here, Q, but I think the lesson could have been learned without the loss of 18 members of my crew.

Q: If you can’t take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It’s not safe out here. It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross, but it’s not for the timid.

As snotty as Q can be, he’s not wrong.

“Q-Who?” starts with an awkward ensign and hot chocolate scene to open the episode, at least she’s nice to the food replicators. As Picard goes to change his uniform he runs into Q. On Ten Forward, Guinan has a feeling and calls the bridge and moments later everyone realizes Picard is no longer on the ship. Q returns him to the ship and Guinan apparently knows him from 200 years ago, she looks good for an old lady. Apparently due to his last encounter, Q is homeless and wants to join the crew of the Enterprise.

Q believes that Starfleet and Picard are arrogant and they aren’t ready for what is out there, so he transports them 7000 light years away. For reference that means the nearest Star Base is two years away at maximum warp – oh my! There is similar damage to what happened at and in “The Neutral Zone” and soon they encounter a cube-like ship with no known life signs that Guinan identifies as “The Borg”.

La Forge identifies an intruder in engineering but they cannot get its attention or shut it down until Picard allows “any means necessary”. Just as it does down, a second materializes but this one has a shield, takes some stuff of its dead friend, and de-materializes. Troi identifies that they have a hive mind and the Enterprise is about to be tractor beamed into the cube-ship. After several laser fires the tractor beam is off but there are 18 crew members now dead. Picard decides to send an away team of Riker, Worf, and Data. The Borg ship has compartments for their members, babies that have artificial implants, and is also repairing itself so Picard tries to get them the hell out of there but the Borg pursue and attack. Picard breaks down to Q, who gets them back where they started and departs with a warning.

As a non-Trekkie who has many Trekkie friends and loved ones, The Borg is an enemy I had heard of, much like the Klingons and the Romulans. It’s one of those pop culture things that transcends those that follow the universe. I sort of assumed they were cyborgs and I am so damn curious to see how they are made/born/work, etc. I also like finding out more about Guinan, she’s becoming a fun supporting character. Her voice is very calming, but I don’t understand why she gave them information piecemeal. Seriously, tell Picard everything right away woman!

The episode starts off with a goofy scene and you wonder where it’s headed until Q shows up and you know something is about to go down. There’s a bit of a panic when Picard is missing, but he’s gone for such a short time it’s not too much of a crisis until he shows up with Q and then again it’s a question of “what does he want this time?”. Q, of course, tolerates no arrogance or being told “no”, so he forces them to encounter something they weren’t ready for. Here’s the kicker though, it’s a damn good thing he does this as it gives the Enterprise and Starfleet a head start to prepare them for what they didn’t know before – at least if they’re smart. It’s like in the Avengers when Tony Stark is like “holy hell there ARE aliens” and realizes how under prepared Earth is from external attack. Picard goes from exasperated and annoyed at his newest crew member, to on alert and annoyed with Q, to arrogant, to worried, to desperate, and to relieved all in the span of 40 minutes. If that doesn’t show range of actor and captain, I don’t know what will. I’m sure we’ll see more of the Borg soon, but I won’t know just how important this episode is until I get there. For now, it’s a 9.3x74r which is apparently a type of rifle ammunition and is the topmost searched for thing when you put “9.” in the Google box… fascinating.

TA Out!

Date: March 20, 2020

Season 2, Episode 14

Setting the Stage: I watched this episode yesterday via Netflix. We had watched a bit more of All Saints Day while eating and then I watched “Time Squared” followed by this one. This morning we woke up early to drop off Professor Zoom to have his teeth cleaned but the person with the key hasn’t shown after 30 minutes we decided to get some breakfast and go home. Oh well, we’ll try again in April. After breakfast and a nap I’m feeling less annoyed and ready to tackle the day and finish this post. I am writing to the tunes of a meeting I am supposed to be participating in and the sounds of Professor Zoom snoring. Happy work-from-home day 1,426 (or really day 5 for me).

Favorite Quotes:

O’Brien: That is trouble. You choose your enemies, you choose your friends, but family? That’s in the stars.

The family I joined by my birth is wonderful and loud and Italian and sometimes gets on my last damned nerve, but so does the family I’ve chosen over the years.

Data: In solitude, there is nothing to trigger unusual behavior.

La Forge: Good point. Let’s not tamper with the status quo.

Data: But that would defeat the opportunity for our behavioral research. In all probability, he is simply lonely. We can relieve his anxiety through socialization.

La Forge: Be my guest.

Data: Excuse me, Lieutenant. You seem to have lost the will to communicate with others. You have friends here. We, we care about you. Why, just recently, Geordi, Wesley and I were saying…

Worf: With all due respect, be gone! Sir.

At least Worf always respects the chain of command.

This episode starts with a stop at Star base Montgomery to have an engineering check and, apparently, a promotion offer for Riker. A civilian advisor, who turns out to be Riker’s dad, is beamed aboard to brief Riker and it’s super awkward. Apparently everyone on the Enterprise has daddy issues. I mean take a look at Worf, who never knew his father, Wesley who has a dead father, Riker who is estranged from his father, Troi who had a human father, and I’m not sure if we know much about Picard or La Forge. Pulaski knows Riker’s dad (named Kyle) and that’s also super awkward. Meanwhile Wesley is super worried about Worf who has been a lot moodier than usual.

Worf wants to join Riker if he takes the assignment on the Aries because there might be the potential for conflict and then he can die a proper Klingon, in baaaaatle! Riker and his dad have a short and awkward chat and then Kyle meets with Troi, who does some fine Betazoid counseling and doesn’t take his shit. Pulaski sheds some light on Riker’s dad and how she was almost his step-mother, as I sit here and shudder at the thought. Wesley finds out it’s Worf’s 10th anniversary of his “age of ascension” and Data suggests using the holodeck as a place for the “party”. I had almost forgotten why they were at the star base to begin with until there was a scene in engineering and then we move to Troi and Riker having an awkward goodbye. WHAT IS WITH THE AWKWARDNESS IN THIS EPISODE?! Aaaaaaand Troi is crying.

Riker and his dad swing the testosterone around like it’s going out of style and have a yelling match as well as something that boils down to going to “take it outside”. Troi takes Worf to his surprise party where Wesley, La Forge, Data, O’Brien, and Pulaski wait. Worf moves through the gauntlet of holodeck Klingons and has some crazy impressive screams. The match between father and son reminds me of American Gladiators meets TRON and apparently the son has never beaten the father. Riker puts his dad on his ass and gets out some emotional baggage and then accuses his dad of cheating – which is totally true. Not sure how that piss poor scene led to them getting their “Hallmark moment” but they do and it’s still damn awkward. Riker decides to stay on the Enterprise, and I’m not surprised because there are 5 seasons left.

Well that was another waste of time. Father and son who hate each other, but I’m not really sure why and then they have a “Hallmark moment” and I have *NO IDEA* how they got there. After the cooking scene in Riker’s cabin the episode before, I was curious about his relationship with his father and I was so looking forward to knowing more about it. Pulaski sort of eludes to why Kyle Riker never remarried but it’s never discussed and I feel that would have helped explain things a lot. It also makes so much sense that Pulaski likes Riker senior and makes me hate her even more. The ending “fight” scene is so testosterone filled and ridiculous and I can’t not see American Gladiators when I watch it.

The ONLY thing that made this episode redeemable was the secondary plot of Worf’s Klingon madness. Wesley is a good friend and he rallies the troops in order to help Worf find his family. It’s just now occurring to me that this episode really centers around your born into family and your chosen family. It also highlights very well the family atmosphere of the Enterprise as it’s really hard to have work-life balance when you live where you work and you’re in outer freaking space! There was also the part about Picard being overly supportive of Riker, telling him “atta boy” for all of his hard work and that made him a good supervisor and mentor. However, was I really supposed to believe that “Number One” was going to leave part way through Season 2? No, absolutely not. That earns this episode a 2 piece and a biscuit.

TA Out!

Date: March 19, 2020

Season 2, Episode 13

Setting the Stage: I watched this episode today along with another, but I have to get up early to take Professor Zoom to get his teeth cleaned so I’ve only got time to write up one episode today. It was a fun day of working at home with my new furry coworkers and also husband’s first day working in his office (the bedroom across the hall from mine). He sees the advantages of working from home via way of having his own bathroom and being able to take nap when needed. He does, however, prefer the office environment. I miss the campus environment and seeing my students, but I’m super happy to have my fur babies with me all day. We had leftovers for lunch and went to support another local vendor this evening with prime rib sandwiches, now available for curbside delivery. I’m still listening to El Ten Eleven radio on Pandora, just like yesterday.

Favorite Quote:

Riker: Captain?

Picard: Yes, Number One.

Riker: Are you on the Bridge?

Picard: Where else would I be?

Riker: Well, right now I think you should be in Shuttle bay two.

Riker not believing his eyes and Picard being snark with his first officer.

This episode opens with Riker cooking eggs for Worf, Pulaski, La Forge, and Data. Worf shovels his food down while the others are not so impressed when they get the call that there is a shuttle craft without power. When it gets on board it’s shuttle craft 5 from the Enterprise, but that cannot be possible as 5 is still in the bay, whoa. They open the shuttle craft and an unconscious Picard clone is aboard, double whoa.

Troi explains to Picard that the clone is certainly Picard and boy is this going to get confusing. Pulaski goes to wake the clone and it has the opposite effect, maybe this is Picard from the mirror universe? La Forge and Data find out that the opposite remedies reinstate the power on the shuttle craft and now we have a 6 hour time travel mystery to solve. The log of the craft shows the Enterprise being destroyed as soon as the Picard clone left the ship, but it’s not going to happen until 3 hours from their current time.

3 hours later, a vortex opens below the Enterprise without warning. Picard starts to overthink his actions because he’s trying to not make the same mistake twice. No matter what he chooses nothing is working and Picard and his clone keep getting hit by a strange lightning from the vortex. Picard prime orders Pulaski to release the Picard clone who moves to shuttle bay 2 under the direction of Picard prime. Picard prime talks to the Picard clone about the decision and trying to figure out what the other choice was, then he phasers the clone to death. Picard prime decides to dive in to the vortex and O’Brien reports the clone and cloned craft have disappeared. The Enterprise lives and the vortex disappears and I’m sitting here like the Grandfather in Moonstruck.

So I’m not sure if I’ve ever explained my process to you but here’s what I do when I watch a Trek episode at home. I pull up Netflix on our smart TV and have my laptop out to take notes on Google Drive. Later I move to my office (where I have two monitors) and have WordPress up on one monitor, with several tabs to reference, and the other monitor has Google (for images), Trek Transcripts, and some other tabs for music and YouTube and such. I reference my short hand notes to write the post, publish it, and link to my Twitter and Facebook.

I go through all of that to explain that the only thing I had in my notes was the following:

“What even was the point of that episode?”

I don’t understand what the scene in Riker’s quarters had to do with anything, I don’t understand why Picard’s clone (as I’m calling it because I couldn’t think of another way to reference him) was thrown through time, why Picard prime and the Enterprise got a second shot at making the decision, and where the vortex came from and what its purpose was. There was nothing in the episode of value aside from seeing how Picard reacts under pressure. I’m even a little peeved that counselors in the 24th century still don’t get much professional courtesy and it’s those with an MD always sneering at those with a PhD or lower. I cannot give anything higher than 1 push up and 1 pull up to this episode.

TA Out!

Date: March 18, 2020

Season 2, Episodes 11 and 12

Setting the Stage: I watched both episodes, via Netflix, today with all the fur children and the husband. We are continuing our marathon as yesterday we watched Boondock Saints, an Irish movie with an Italian man, while eating Mexican food and today we watched Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, an Irish movie with a Hispanic man, while eating Chinese food. I’m pretty sure I’m doing this “American” thing right while also supporting local businesses that might be affected by local bans on eating in and such. I felt productive today, although time seems to be slipping away rather quickly as I swore it was just 10:00 pm and now it’s totally 11:00 pm. While I write tonight I decided to hop on Pandora and listed to my El Ten Eleven radio station, so far it’s just as awesome as I remember. Not sure if the link to it will work, but I’m always happy to share my writing jams with others.

Update: last night my internet went out so I went to bed hoping the sun setting and rising would help, and it did. Sorry again for the late post.

Favorite Quotes from “Contagion”:

Wesley: It’s the Yamato, Captain. I can’t stop thinking about her. All those people dead. I don’t know how you and Commander Riker and Geordi, how you handle it so easily.

Picard: Easily? Oh no, not easily. We handle it because we’re trained to, as you will be. But if the time ever comes when the death of a single individual fails to move us…

Picard trying to help Wesley understand how to grieve and getting sidetracked by the potted plant that appears instead of his tea…

Picard: Mr. La Forge, time is the one thing which we do not have in abundance.

While this is not a long quote, it’s one that hits home. I always tell students when advising them on their schedules “time is not something we can make more of”. In these uncertain times, I’m trying to remember happy thoughts and not focus on time I will not get back with those I love. I know I will not take any time I may get in the future for granted ever again.

“Contagion” has the Enterprise heading to the aid of the Yamato as it is in trouble with serious technical difficulties, though that means Picard has enter the Neutral Zone. While talking with the captain, the transmission begins to deteriorate and then the Yamato spontaneously combusts killing everyone on board and, to add insult to injury, a Romulan vessel approaches. Picard wants answers and they will not leave TNZ until he has answers. La Forge explains what happened to the Yamato and thinks it may just be a design flaw. Picard accesses the personal files of the Yamato’s captain and decides to head to where the Yamato was last scanned.

Similar technological issues begin happening on the Enterprise and Picard is concerned. As a probe is launched Picard goes to capture it. La Forge tries to stop him but has to run like a mad man as he figured out what the probe was. Things start breaking down, but slowly, and Picard decides to lead the away team of him, Worf, and Data. No sooner do they beam down the Romulan vessel appears and tries to blow up the Enterprise, but stops at the last minute. Both ships are being fucked with and now the away team is stuck on the planet – oh this is going to be fun. Troi suggests giving everyone on the ship something to do as the tension on the ship is rising, so Riker plans an evacuation.

The away team figures out how to open a gateway but Data is then hit with electricity and the Iconion program tries to rewrite his software. Worf goes through the portal with Data (to get back to the Enterprise) and Picard is going to try to blow everything up. Data reads as dead, but since there are 5 more seasons, I know that’s not going to be permanent. No sooner do I finish that last thought, he pops back up because there was a complete shutdown and a wipe of his affected memory. Picard sets the destruct and jumps over to the Romulan ship so as not to be blown up and O’Brien locks onto Picard to beam him over like a good transporter chief. Riker decides to be a good not-enemy to the Romulans and tells them the fix and we warp away to our next adventure.

First thing I have to get off my chest is… ARE YOU SERIOUS? The solution is to turn it off and back on again, really? Okay so maybe watching this in 2020 it’s the obvious solution and it’s more obvious when Data fixes himself, but you’re telling me that’s the best we can do in the 24th century and not the absolute first thing that comes to mind when dealing with a software issue? Has La Forge never played a video game and just returned to the last save spot? Have we really advanced technology so much that there’s no need to reboot our systems every so often and return to the last backup? The second thing is that this episode reminds me a bit of the TOS episode “All Our Yesterdays“. While there may not be a crazy librarian, nor does Data get amnesia and decide to marry anyone after he gets struck by computer lightning, this portal can take anyone to any of the places that flash by because, reasons. It’s never explained why this one random thing survived, if the Romulans actually knew about it, or a lot of other things I really wanted to know. One thing I really liked about this episode though was La Forge running through the ship trying to get to the bridge, Picard immediately trusting his Chief Engineer’s assessment, and then finding the time to be a little snarky in welcoming La Forge to the bridge. For those reasons this episode has been Chopped after round 3.

Favorite Quote from “The Royale”:

The Man from Texas: How’d you? Shut my mouth. Hey, you’re not one of them card counting fellas, are you?

Data: The number of the cards and their values remain quite constant. What would be the purpose in counting them?

Something going over Data’s head but, as usual, he’s not wrong.

“The Royale” starts with the Enterprise investigating debris near an uncharted planet and it’s part of an old NASA vessel with the current United States flag and everything. The ship fragment is from the 20th century but looks like it was blown up with 24th century technology, curiouser and curiouser. Data, Worf, and Riker beam down to the only livable spot on the planet in order to see what is going on where they find an antique revolving door. This takes them to the The Royale, a hotel and casino, but they lose communication with the Enterprise. They decide to take a look around and are given rooms and some casino chips where they also find out they’re on Earth. Data’s tricorder reads the folks in the casino are not emitting life signs and the plot thickens. Data plays blackjack with a man from Texas, but Riker decides it’s time to leave – only to be stopped by the revolving door… gasp!

As they try to interact with the people in the casino they are ignored and Worf can’t even break through a wall with his phaser, poor Klingon cannot smash. They take the elevator to the nearest life reading that takes them to a room with a skeleton. The book found on the nightstand looks to be the reality of the structure. Turns out aliens infected the NASA ship and created the area for this one lone survivor out of guilt, but that doesn’t answer “why can’t the away team leave”? All of a sudden the eponymous “Micky Dee” arrives and shoots the bell boy in the back, which happens in the book, so that gives Riker the idea to gamble in order to raise the funds in order to buy the hotel and end the novel so they can leave. Data “repairs” the dice in order to play and win at Craps, Riker really gets into his role as the flamboyant and generous investor, and it works because they are able to leave and beam back. 

When I read the title of this episode I immediately thought of the above scene from Pulp Fiction. It gets better when they main character is called “Mickey Dee” as some people refer to McDonald’s as that. Anyway, I immediately fawn over Sam Anderson as the assistant manager as he’s been in a TON of stuff I love including Shonda-land TV, NCIS, Lost, The West Wing, and The Golden Girls. Back to the episode, until they find the skeleton I completely forgot about the NASA debris and was sucked into the weird casino world. The music, and plot, are cheesy as hell but it works perfectly. Like when Picard goes back to the 20th century in “The Big Goodbye” or when the perfect world was created for Kirk in “The Cage“, the world of The Royale hotel is something created by a being that doesn’t understand what it’s like to live that life. To be honest neither does the away team as it’s all just living out history to them. I can’t put my finger on why I like this episode, but I just do. I’ll have a number 6 with cheese and hold the onions, please.

TA Out!