The Loss (#ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 10) Troi’s Empathic Sense Flatlines

Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. After losing her Betazed empathic sense, Counsellor Troi dramatically ignores her own advice about grieving. As the scriptwriters hustle her through shock, denial, anger, bargaining and depression, a Space Thing of the Week threatens the Enterprise. Scenes where Troi counsels a recently widowed ensign offer an intimate view of life (and death) in Starfleet. Oddly, the grieving officer appears to have a standing daily…

Final Mission (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 9) Picard and Wesley bond on a Desert Planet

Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. The plot, such as it is, quickly gets Picard and Wesley separated from the Enterprise and in the company of a mining shuttle pilot who challenges Picard’s authority. After a few on-location scenes in a bleak desert, the story shifts to the standard generic cave set, where some falling chunks of foam and an avalanche sound effect puts Picard out of commission, setting up…

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Reunion (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 7) Picard Arbitrates Klingon Leadership Struggle

Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. The Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire requests Picard’s help about an urgent matter.  Chancellor K’empec names Picard arbiter over the power struggle that will follow his impending death. He suspects that one of the two rival faction leaders has been slowly poisoning him. The scenery-chewing Ambassador K’Eyhlar gets a lot of screen time. She and Worf had shared a skin-biting “fade to black”…

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Legacy (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 6) Visiting Yar’s Lawless Colony

Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. The Enterprise tracks a distress call to the lawless colony where the late Lt. Tasha Yar was born. One of the two main factions holds Federation hostages, prompting Picard to editorialize that he “certainly won’t trade weapons for crewmen” — an apparent reference to the Iran-Contra affair. The teaser had established Data’s growing skill at poker, but just how good is he at calling…

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Remember Me (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 5) Dr. Crusher vs The Universe

Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. When people start disappearing from the Enterprise without a trace, only Dr. Crusher remembers them. Some cringeworthy lines (e.g. “If there’s nothing wrong with me, maybe there’s something wrong with the universe”) still earn a facepalm, but I really enjoyed Gates McFadden as she Shatners her way through increasingly larger-than-life speeches, filling the screen as the big ship empties out. Apart from a dimension-vortex…