Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. Still recovering from his ordeal with the Borg, Picard visits his brother at the Picard family vineyard. In the village of his boyhood, Picard’s roadside encounter with his nephew Rene is just perfect, as are the domestic scenes with his warm sister-in-law Marie and his brittle, jealous older brother…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break After a tight recap of Part 1, we pick up where we left off. The jerry-rigged deflector dish weapon unleashes all its sparkly-glowy MacGuffinality at the vessel containing the Borgified Picard, and — nothing. “Your resistance is hopeless, Number One,” Locutus intones, borrowing Picard’s nickname for Riker. Chills! On…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break The Enterprise-D finds a crater where a colony used to be, then apparently does nothing for a few days until a team from Starfleet Tactical arrives. Because it will soon be dark at the site, and tricorders apparently don’t work at night, Riker says they’ll wait until morning, and…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. A low-key story that revisits the “corporeal species evolving into a higher form” trope, this time from the perspective of Dr. Crusher, who observes the physical process, as an injured humanoid with lumpy face bumps gradually starts to glow. Not a great episode, but new to me, so a…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. The Enterprise-D ferries Spock’s father to a diplomatic meeting that will define his career — but the 202-year-old Sarek is not well. The Vulcan’s entourage includes his human wife Perrin and two aides, all of whom get decent story arcs. Wesley gets some good scenes with LaForge and his…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. In the comic first act, the crew conspires to send a grumpy Picard on shore leave. Crusher: You told me your four days on Zylchin Three were wonderful. Picard: I lied. Later on the resort Planet Risa, Picard tries to relax, but he’s interrupted by a meet-cute with a…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. Data builds an android derived from his own positronic neural pathways, and intends to raise it as his child — a prospect that invokes Picard’s iconic facepalm. Picard (to admiral conjured up by writers who needed an antagonist): “There are times, sir, when men of good conscience cannot blindly…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. A space anomaly activates an alternate timeline in which the Enterprise-D is a bustling battleship, Picard is a hard-edged militant facing defeat after decades of war against the Klingon Empire, and somehow only Guinan realizes something’s wrong. This version of Picard struggles with ethical complexities that “our” Picard could…
(Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break) The meddlesome entity Q, stripped of his powers, throws himself at the mercy of Captain Picard: “in all the universe you’re the closest thing I have to a friend, Jean-Luc.” Lots of well-done banter and self-absorbed patter from actor John De Lancie. While Worf and Crusher have memorable reactions to…
(Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break) Crusher finds herself sympathizing with the charming terrorist who kidnapped her. After last week’s “The Hunted” and the week before’s “The Defector,” it seems the writers are very interested in humanizing perceived enemies. An unusually exposition-heavy captain’s log establishes the Enterprise is visiting a non-aligned world shaken by terrorists.…
(Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break.) A great Trek morality drama, most obviously inspired by the challenges faced by US troops returning from Vietnam, but light on preachiness and heavy on action. Impressed by the cultured and intellectual Angosians, Picard offers to help them recapture a violent prisoner who escaped a penal colony. The prisoner’s…
(Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break.) A Romulan defector exposes a planned incursion against the Federation, in a slow but gripping character study that comments on the Cold War. As I kid, I remember being transfixed by the 1983 TV movie The Day After, which depicts a nuclear attack on America. I doodled mushroom clouds…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. As Picard mediates a reconciliation between a recently enlightened civilization and its barbarian outcasts, Riker pursues a humble servant girl. After a brief visit to a raided Federation outpost, we get a well-done infodump from the stately Marouk, ruler of the Acamarian civilization. She lets Picard talk her into offering…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. As the Enterprise hosts negotiations for access to a wormhole shortcut to the Gamma Quadrant, Troi becomes intimately involved with one of the delegates. A budget-friendly “bottle” episode that doesn’t feel cramped. We get to see Deanna’s routine, as she spends time decompressing in her quarters, working in her…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. LaForge is stranded on a hostile planet with a nervous, injured Romulan. The “mutual enemies must learn to cooperate” storyline is by-the-numbers, but I still enjoyed it. I don’t remember ever seeing this episode before, but seeing the frequently reused “planet hell” set (featuring a distinctively stair-stepped sloping wall)…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. To escape a thousand-year-old booby trap, LaForge interacts with a holodeck simulation of the designer of the Enterprise’s engines… and gets waaay too attached. The teaser shows LaForge on a date — a failure that he later talks over with Guinan. Meanwhile, Picard, thrilled to explore an old warship, is…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. After a member of a landing party dies an accidental, senseless death, Picard must break the news to her young son. “Jeremy, on the starship Enterprise, no one is alone,” says Picard. “No one.” Numerous times on my rewatch, I’ve wished episodes would devote less time to scanning and probing…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. After the Federation colony on Raina IV is obliterated, the Enterprise discovers a perfectly preserved house with two elderly survivors. The standoffish Uxbridge impresses Worf by confronting strangers with a non-functional hand phaser, and the hospitable Rishon tells a charming story of how the two fell in love on Earth.…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. Data must convince stubborn humans to evacuate an unauthorized colony in Sheliak territory. Meanwhile, Picard must bargain with the legalistic Sheliaks for more time. After a teaser shows Data second-guessing his creative abilities, the main plot follows him as he first tries reason, then rhetoric, then a phaser to…