The Ensigns of Command (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 2) Data plays MacGyver to save stubborn human colonists
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 persuade the colonists. The actress playing Ardrian gave off a kind of Marion Ravenwood vibe,…
Evolution (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 1) Wesley’s nanobots irk tweedy astrophysicist
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. The life’s work of an eminent astrophysicist is threatened when Wesley accidentally creates a civilization of microscopic beings. For a school project. The rumpled Dr. Stubbs is friendly enough to Wesley, but he lacks the devoted female companion that Star Trek often gives its male scientific geniuses, so his fatalistic tweediness seems to warn us of what Wesley might become in 30 years if…
Shades of Gray (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Two Episode 22) Forgettable low-budget clipshow
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. After routine establishing shots we open with grumpy Riker slouching in a puddle, reporting that something unseen jabbed him in the leg. That’s the most creative bit of storytelling in the episode, other than some decent camerawork as we linger on various not-all-that-impressive props. The script is budget-friendly tribble fodder, padded with clips from previous episodes representing the memories Riker relives as Pulaski stimulates…
Peak Performance (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Two, Episode 21) Riker and his misfit pals challenge Picard to the whackiest wargames ever!
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. As part of Starfleet’s response to the Borg threat, Riker refits an 8o-year-old derelict to face the Enterprise in a wargame. Overseeing the simulation is Kolrami, a waddling oddity who takes a disliking to Riker and crushes him in a social game. Pulaski goads Data into challenging Kolrami to a rematch, Wesley heists some antimatter from a school project, and consequences play out as…
The Emissary (ST:TNG Rewatch: Season Two, Episode 20) — Enjoyable Worf-centered Romance
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. Susie Paxton, who appeared as the Vulcan Dr. Selar in a Season One episode, shows off her comic timing as the half-human, half-Klingon K’Ehleyr, who turns out to have a history with Worf. K’Ehleyr was sent aboard the Enterprise to intercept the T’Ong, a Klingon sleeper ship. Everyone expects the T’Ong, not knowing about the recent alliance, will attack the nearest Federation colony as…