Epic Star Trek Re-Watch - The Next Generation - Movie Week 2!

[Jenuall]

Wrapping up last weeks episodes:

A Matter of Perspective

A good episode, "legal" shenanigans is usually a safe bet on TNG as it allows them to get to grips with the various cultural and policy differences between the people they meet, plus Picard usually gets to grandstand at some point.

Genuine tension in the episode as well since everyone is slightly on edge that Riker, lad that he is, could maybe be a bit rapey.

Yesterday's Enterprise

I love this episode, a nice "what if?" scenario of where the Federation might have ended up if earlier events had taken a different turn (and a hell of a lot better than the Confederation bullshit in Picard S2)

I would have loved it if this episode pushed a little harder on the toughened nature of the Federation at this point, Picard is just a bit too quick to turn back into the more "cuddly" version of him that we are familiar with - although I guess it speaks to the fact that the core of the man is a pacifist explorer and you can't change that regardless of how circumstances play out differently.

I do think the timeline stuff is a bit of a mess here in some respects though - the Enterprise C is supposed to have come from 20 years ago but the ship and uniforms look in line with the TOS movies which are more like 80 years ago.

The Offspring

Really like this one, like Moggy says it starts out in territory that could easily be gooseberry fool but ends up exploring some great themes in an interesting way.

Data gets a great double face plam out of Picard as well!

[Lagamorph]

Wrapping up last weeks episodes:

A Matter of Perspective

A good episode, "legal" shenanigans is usually a safe bet on TNG as it allows them to get to grips with the various cultural and policy differences between the people they meet, plus Picard usually gets to grandstand at some point.

Genuine tension in the episode as well since everyone is slightly on edge that Riker, lad that he is, could maybe be a bit rapey.

Yesterday's Enterprise

I love this episode, a nice "what if?" scenario of where the Federation might have ended up if earlier events had taken a different turn (and a hell of a lot better than the Confederation bullshit in Picard S2)

I would have loved it if this episode pushed a little harder on the toughened nature of the Federation at this point, Picard is just a bit too quick to turn back into the more "cuddly" version of him that we are familiar with - although I guess it speaks to the fact that the core of the man is a pacifist explorer and you can't change that regardless of how circumstances play out differently.

I do think the timeline stuff is a bit of a mess here in some respects though - the Enterprise C is supposed to have come from 20 years ago but the ship and uniforms look in line with the TOS movies which are more like 80 years ago.

The Offspring

Really like this one, like Moggy says it starts out in territory that could easily be gooseberry fool but ends up exploring some great themes in an interesting way.

Data gets a great double face plam out of Picard as well!

The red TOS movie uniforms were actually around for quite a long time in universe. They were the uniform on Picard's previous ship to the Enterprise as well. TNG uniforms were actually a very recent thing as of the start of TNG. It was only around the time of Star Trek Generations that Starfleet basically started going mad and changing the uniform every few years.

[Jenuall]

Wrapping up last weeks episodes:

A Matter of Perspective

A good episode, "legal" shenanigans is usually a safe bet on TNG as it allows them to get to grips with the various cultural and policy differences between the people they meet, plus Picard usually gets to grandstand at some point.

Genuine tension in the episode as well since everyone is slightly on edge that Riker, lad that he is, could maybe be a bit rapey.

Yesterday's Enterprise

I love this episode, a nice "what if?" scenario of where the Federation might have ended up if earlier events had taken a different turn (and a hell of a lot better than the Confederation bullshit in Picard S2)

I would have loved it if this episode pushed a little harder on the toughened nature of the Federation at this point, Picard is just a bit too quick to turn back into the more "cuddly" version of him that we are familiar with - although I guess it speaks to the fact that the core of the man is a pacifist explorer and you can't change that regardless of how circumstances play out differently.

I do think the timeline stuff is a bit of a mess here in some respects though - the Enterprise C is supposed to have come from 20 years ago but the ship and uniforms look in line with the TOS movies which are more like 80 years ago.

The Offspring

Really like this one, like Moggy says it starts out in territory that could easily be gooseberry fool but ends up exploring some great themes in an interesting way.

Data gets a great double face plam out of Picard as well!

The red TOS movie uniforms were actually around for quite a long time in universe. They were the uniform on Picard's previous ship to the Enterprise as well. TNG uniforms were actually a very recent thing as of the start of TNG. It was only around the time of Star Trek Generations that Starfleet basically started going mad and changing the uniform every few years.

They do get a bit costume change heavy don't they!

I'm willing to roll with the reasoning, but it still feels like more of a budget issue than anything!

[Moggy]

Wrapping up last weeks episodes:

A Matter of Perspective

A good episode, "legal" shenanigans is usually a safe bet on TNG as it allows them to get to grips with the various cultural and policy differences between the people they meet, plus Picard usually gets to grandstand at some point.

Genuine tension in the episode as well since everyone is slightly on edge that Riker, lad that he is, could maybe be a bit rapey.

Yesterday's Enterprise

I love this episode, a nice "what if?" scenario of where the Federation might have ended up if earlier events had taken a different turn (and a hell of a lot better than the Confederation bullshit in Picard S2)

I would have loved it if this episode pushed a little harder on the toughened nature of the Federation at this point, Picard is just a bit too quick to turn back into the more "cuddly" version of him that we are familiar with - although I guess it speaks to the fact that the core of the man is a pacifist explorer and you can't change that regardless of how circumstances play out differently.

I do think the timeline stuff is a bit of a mess here in some respects though - the Enterprise C is supposed to have come from 20 years ago but the ship and uniforms look in line with the TOS movies which are more like 80 years ago.

The Offspring

Really like this one, like Moggy says it starts out in territory that could easily be gooseberry fool but ends up exploring some great themes in an interesting way.

Data gets a great double face plam out of Picard as well!

The red TOS movie uniforms were actually around for quite a long time in universe. They were the uniform on Picard's previous ship to the Enterprise as well. TNG uniforms were actually a very recent thing as of the start of TNG. It was only around the time of Star Trek Generations that Starfleet basically started going mad and changing the uniform every few years.

[Moggy]

twitter.com/morgan_c_ross/status/1533794177816965125

I had no idea Scotty was involved with D-Day or that he was shot!

[Jenuall]

Looking through the comments there are various suggestions that it was friendly fire apparently! And he lost a finger as a result which you can see in a few cases during TOS

[Moggy]

TNG TV finished.

Find out in 6 months time what I thought.

[Jenuall]

Something to look forward to on the long, cold winter nights!

[Cheeky Devlin]

TNG TV finished.

Find out in 6 months time what I thought.

Well done man.

Now you get to start on DS9. Easily my favourite Trek show and if you liked the Klingon stuff in TNG then I think you'll like it.
As we've said it starts slow (It's not bad, just slow to get going) but once it starts it's as good as TV Trek ever gets.

[Jenuall]

Just be prepared for how awful it looks compared to the remastered TNG, and don't let that put you off!

[Moggy]

TNG TV finished.

Find out in 6 months time what I thought.

Well done man.

Now you get to start on DS9. Easily my favourite Trek show and if you liked the Klingon stuff in TNG then I think you'll like it.
As we've said it starts slow (It's not bad, just slow to get going) but once it starts it's as good as TV Trek ever gets.

I'm doing the TNG movies first.

It's been a wild ride. When TNG is good, it's great. But when it's bad it's REALLY bad.

[Cheeky Devlin]

Forgot to do one for last week, so here's the final line-up for Season 3 of TNG!

[Jenuall]

Best of both worlds

[Moggy]

Best of both worlds

[Moggy]

Only joking, BoBW was good.


The Most Toys

I kept expecting the Guardians of the Galaxy to show up.

Decent if unspectacular episode, the most interesting part was at the very end when we saw that Data not only fired the weapon, but lied about it to Riker. And then denied feeling pleasure at the collectors discomfort. He might deny it, but Data is more emotionally human than most humans.

Sarek

"Do you know why you hit Wesley?

I can think of a million reasons....

It was great to see Sarek again, there have been mentions of TOS (and a Bones cameo in the first episode) but it was nice to see one of the old faces.

The episode was solid but unspectacular, I'm not convinced I'd have enjoyed it as much if it was an unknown Vulcan, rather than Spock's dad.

Menage a Troi

Hilarious acting from Picard couldn't save this one for me. I can't stand Troi's mother or the Ferengi. And then they made me hope we would be getting rid of Wesley, before promoting the smug little banana split

Transfigurations

After a run of good episodes, this was another disappointing one for me. It wasn't bad just very meh. I didn't really care about John Doe and found the resolution boring.

The episode was saved by Worf and Jordi though, some hilarious chat between them.

Best of Both Worlds: Part 1

Far higher budget of course, but the Borg and inside the Borg ship really do remind me of something that could be in Red Dwarf.

Cracking episode! It had everything you'd want from an end of season show. Excitement, tension, mystery and some great performances. And to end on a cliffhanger is unusual for late 80s/early 90s TV. I'd have been strawberry floating furious if I had seen that at the time and then had to wait months for the conclusion.

[Jenuall]

Sins of the Father
Classic episode, it's something of a stuck record with me but I have to keep saying it - the Klingon/Worf stories are by far some of the strongest strands of the show, and this one is no exception. I think this is the period of the show where they really start to play to the strengths of both the format of the show and the cast of characters and species that they have at their disposal. DS9 rightly gets the credit for doing a fantastic job at "long form storytelling", but I love this era of TNG where we are still getting "story of the week" stuff, but it's all against an ever evolving backdrop of characters and relationships that underpin things and make these individual stories something greater than the sum of their parts. I love the Klingon arc that plays out across the show in a low key fashion, if you watched all of it then it's a really well done long running story, but if you just dipped in and out you would still enjoy any of the episodes individually.

Allegiance
This is a fun episode, fake Picard is always good value for money. "I find it hard to believe you're that good a singer!" and JLP's reaction is a classic moment!

Captain Holiday
Another fun knockabout episode, it's nice when they dip into things like Picard's interest in archaeology.

Nice little insight into what Riker gets up to on his time off as well

Tin Man
I like the overall story of this one - the last of its kind sadness of Tin Man is quite poignant, but I can't stand the Betazoid guy in this episode, he's incredibly annoying and it kind of spoils the whole thing for me!

Hollow Pursuits
Oh Barclay, what a legend!

I do wonder how many other members of the crew are running similar holodeck programs to Barclay's (or even worse!) I bet "Program Nine" is a fun one!

The Most Toys
It's low key but I really like this episode because of how well it explores the character of Data. The setup is a bit botched, I get that they are desperate to take the material they just acquired to the crisis, but it still feels a bit weak how little resistance/investigation they show regarding the shuttle explosion.

[Moggy]

Nice little insight into what Riker gets up to on his time off as well

He's a dirty dirty man.

[Cheeky Devlin]

Season 4 begins!

We're almost halfway through TNG now (Apart from Moggy )!

How're you getting on Moggy? Moved onto DS9 yet?

[Moggy]

Best of Both Worlds: Part 2

Luckily for me, I didn't have to wait months. The joys of the 21st century way of watching TV.

Part 2 was just as good. If I had to have any criticism it'd be that the resolution was a little rushed, a common complaint I have with Star Trek! I guess I'm used to modern TV where stories span multiple seasons. Still, it's a very minor complaint, this was a great 2 parter.

Family

Worf's family Picard suddenly seems much more comfortable with kids, I guess they retconned his dislike/discomfort of them?

Decent enough character building episode, even Wesley managed to make me have some sympathy for him.

With faster than light travel and colonies across the galaxy, I struggle to see the point of creating another continent on Earth though!

Brothers

More background for Data is always welcome but it's not the best of episodes. The latex mask that to age up Data's "father" looked awful, they'd be better off employing an old person rather than trying to pass off the same actor as being old!

Not gooseberry fool, just mid tier.

Suddenly Human

The kids screaming was creepy as strawberry float. And then very quickly became massively annoying.

Not a big fan of this one. It was sort of interesting to see another alien culture, but it didn't really go anywhere. Meh.

[Moggy]

How're you getting on Moggy? Moved onto DS9 yet?

Finished the TNG movies and I've started DS9.

You'll find out my thoughts in a few months....