Amph Engage! The Star Trek: TNG General Discussion

You can't name 5 worse episodes? Really?

 

Sounds like a plan.

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"Ohhh, I lovvvvvvve trashhhhh...!"

 

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TNG 721: Firstborn
-Premise: A mysterious family friend encourages Worf's son Alexander to become a warrior.

-T2Q Comments: Interesting that, with this viewing order having me watch DS9: Blood Oath just prior to this, you get two Klingon-centric episodes back to back. Duras Sisters' name arises again, with a connection/reference back to the DS9 episode they appeared in- crossovertime! ...with Quark? Oddly amusing misdirection in that you assume by being patched through to DS9 it'd be going to Sisko or one of the command staff.

Interesting that Geordi would be less inclined to alert the Pakleids of something...

Duras sisters appear in person. Somewhat interesting visual concept to note we're looking at a Bird of Prey commanded by the Duras Sisters staring down the Enterprise-D, given what will take place in Generations.

Luras pregnant? dunt-dunt-dah!

So,wait, this episode takes place on stardate 47779.4 while Generations takes place on stardate 48650.1, which means Generations is something like only 7 or 8 months after this episode- was she pregnant when she died in Generations? or is there now an unnamed Duras heir still floating about?

Unexpected timetravel element- and a grandfather paradox of sorts at that. They sort of gloss over how Future-Alexander manages to get back seeing how he claims this man only allowed him to come back to change the past.

This continues the Duas presence and evolves the Alexander/Worf subplot as well as essentially giving TNG closure to Alexander. Add in minor connctions to the DS9 episode and I'll go with Definitely Essential.

Trivia: last appearance of Alexander, Luras and B'Etor on TNG. Same actor who playd Doctor Mora Pol on DS9 plays Future Alexander here- they wre originally hesitant to hire him for the role so soon after that DS9 episode, but were convinced the Klingon makeup would hide the similarities.



Up next: TNG 722: Bloodlines & TNG 723: Emergence.



Time Travel Log:

-TOS: All Our Yesterdays (2700 BC, Sarpedion Ice Age; NCC-1701 crew; from 2268)
-TOS: All Our Yesterdays (Undefined 17th Century-esque Sarpeidon; NCC-1701 crew; from 2268)
-TNG: Time's Arrow, part I (1893; NCC-1701-D crew; from 2368)
-TOS: The City on the Edge of Forever (1930: NCC-1701 crew; from 2267)
-TOS: Assignment Earth (1968: NCC-1701; from 2268)
-TOS: Tommorow is Yesterday (1969: NCC-1701; from 2267)
-ST4: The Voyage Home (1986: The Bounty crew, formerly of NCC-1701; from 2286)
-TOS: The Tholian Web (2154 (Mirror Universe): NCC-1764 Defiant; from 2268)
-TOS: The Naked Time (2266: NCC-1701 goes back in time 3 days; from 2266)
-TNG: Time Squared (2365: Picard goes 6 hours into the past; from 2365)
-TNG: Yesterday's Enterprise (2366 (Standard & FKW Universes); NCC-1701-C goes forward through a temporal rift; from 2344)
-TNG: Captain's Holiday (2366; Vorgons; from 27th Century, approx. 2666)
-TNG: Future Imperfect (False-2383; Will Riker. NCC-1701-D; from 2367)
-TNG: A Matter of Time (2368; Berlinghoff Rasmussen; from 22nd Century, using 26th Century technology)
-TNG: Cause and Effect (2368; NCC-1701-D ends up 17 days in the future after timeloop; from 2368)
-TNG: Time's Arrow, part II (2368; Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens; from 1893)
-TNG: Firstborn (2371; Alexander; from 2410)

 

Yeah, the festival was a neat little scene- I forgot to comment on that part. I had expected Alexander "taking it too seriously" becoming an issue in the plot, what with the one performer's reaction to Alexander injuring/cutting him.

The "no contact" performance with the blades was an interesting touch- i took it to represent a notion that a Klingon wouldn't fake-swing to full contact with a Batleth- they'd either go all in or not at all (kinda like the Narn sword on B5 not being placed back in it's sheath until it's drawn blood). I don't know if it's a supported notion or not, but it seems like a Klingon thing to do .

 

True- but it's odd for it to be "family friendly by non-Klingon standards". I don't think "family friendly by Klingon standards" would avoid actual combat.

 

While I'm only starting to see some of that, I think there was a definite shift- but it made them a much more fleshed out race.

I was actually dwelling on that the other day after having watched those two Klingon eps back-to-back and how it seems each successful Trek series took a particular race and sort of developed in the background throughout their run.

TNG radically developed the Klingons. DS9 took strides to make the Ferengi semi-relatable. I suppose one could say TOS primarily developed Vulcans (Amok, Babel, etc, through the TOS films).

Voyager "kinda" developed the Borg, but that was more enemy-elaboration than developed culture, but it was largely absent (at least from what I recall, not having seen large chinks of the series). Enterprise also seemed to lack this (though one might make an argument for the Andorians, I suppose, it doesn't feel as prominent as the other examples).

 

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TNG 722: Bloodlines
-Premise: DaiMon Bok threatens the life of a son Picard never knew he had.

-T2Q Comments: Bok returns here, making this a semi-sequel to The Battle from Season 1.

"If I'm not your son, is this person still going to want to kill me?"
"I doubt it."
"In that case, you won't mind my saying that I hope you're not my father."

I don't know what it is, but having Jason pick up that tricorder in medbay, it suddenly strikes me how bulky they look all of a suddrn- I must have been around too many iPhones lately.

Interesting that, perhaps as a result of the humanizing of the Ferengi on DS9 and the later TNG seasons, that some of the behaviors of the Ferengi from Season 1 (at least this one) is written off as "unstable" by the Ferengi.

Slightly amusing how Data and Geordi can have a conversation at the rear bridge terminals and Picard can turn around to the helmsman to order them to plot a course without relaying that info- making it assumed the helmsman heard it, yet so often the background extras at those terminals so often seem unaware of the comversations happening even closer to them between the helmsman chair and them.

The actor playing Bok, for all the occasional Ferengi acting exaggerations, he's actually is creepy several times in that psycho way...heh, "unstable".

"One thing is clear- you'll never look at your hairline in the same way"

"15 years ago you took my son away from me". I thought it was 6?

They say it'll take them 20 mins at warp 9 to get there, but instead suggest the faster method of subspace beaming- so they're able to modify the transporter system to use a technology that was abandoned in R&D by the Federation in less time? It'd probably take me at least 10 min just to hook up my desktop system with all it's perephrials and stuff.

Even though this follows-up The Battle, it doesn't strike me as particularly necessary to watch that episode to enjoy this one- only the one "6 years" reference and "mind control" reference really connect it and avoid it from otherwise being "a newly introduced villain from Picard's past" perception, especially since Bok is played by a different actor here.

Good Episode, But Not Necessarily Essential.

Trivia: the development of this issue stemmed from a conversation with Stewart on any aspects of his character he felt were unexplored, he commented, "It's always fascinated me that there is this creature running around the universe even now who despises me.".

I find myself agreeing more with the first half of Moore's comments, who said "I wondered if the world knew or cared if DaiMon Bok came back again. I wasn't a big fan of that or 'The Battle' and I didn't see the point of repeating "Suddenly Human" where we really nailed an interesting arc with Picard having a sort of father/son relationship."


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TNG 723: Emergence
-Premise: A series of puzzling events on and off the holodeck lead the crew of the Enterprise to a surprising conclusion: The ship is creating its own offspring. The crew has to assist with this arduous process to ensure the survival of the emerging lifeform ? and their own.

-T2Q Comments: I wonder if any other show since TNG has so often gone into literary analysis as they have with their various Shakespeare plays and such. I can't help but think Picard's musings on Prospero's character are meant to reflect the coming end of TNG, with the comments of "an end of an era" and "a final act of creation before the end" (which makes me wonder if this was meant to originally be t

 

Bloodlines I felt came across a pretty good episode, though- both Stewart and the actor playing Jason give good performances and generally avoid the soap opera cliche possibilities of the scenario (except for maybe one scene), and the actor playing Bok comes across, as I noted, rather creepy at times. I think the connections to The Battle, a far weaker episode, are the only things dragging it down.

Emergence was difficult to classify- my general rule of thumb for distinguishing between "Good" and "Average" usually starts off with "would I want to watch this again?" before I analyze specifics. And I wouldn't mind rewatching Emergence again at some point- and it's certainly more watchable than most of the other episodes I've labeled Average, and I don't even have any problems with the camp of the episode since it's a holodeck episode, but at the same time that somewhat empty ending really holds it back, IMO.

 

I think it'd be interesting if they did try to "TNG it again" by jumping ahead into a new era to (mostly) establish, though I think a few decades would be sufficient since it wouldn't distance it entirely from the TNG era. Also, if you jump too far ahead, you start getting into the era of timeships which would have to be handled delicately.


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TNG 724: Preemptive Strike
-Premise: Lieutenant Ro is sent undercover to root out a Maquis cell.

-T2Q Comments: Ro returns- I still greatly wish we had her on DS9 and not Kira. Gul Evek returns as well as the Admiral of All Things Cardassian.

I wonder if this shield weakness thing is legit or something Ro made up?

The whole celebration recollection discussion is quite effective and makes me greatly wish we had her on DS9 and not Kira.

Even though you kinda expect it, Ro's goodbye is emotionally effective.

Really great episode- though I know the Maquis story is continued in DS9, and I know I was just praising the interwoven storytelling in a previous post, but I do feel disappointed that the Ro/Picard stuff doesn't get another episode (or movie!). Last appearance of Ro.

Definitely Essential.

Trivia: Originally titled "The Good Fight" but changed due to similarity to "All Good Things...". Directed by Patrick Stewart- only episode to have been done so without Data as a significant character.

The use of Klingons, Vulcans and Native Americans as village extras was setup for the cast of Voyager. The instructor of Ro's who defected to the Maquii that she mentions here was intended by the producers to be Chakotay, something that was included in her bio on startrek.com. This was later contradicted by a Voyager episode where a date for his resignation as being 2 years before this episode occurs.



And now "it's time to put an end to your trek through the stars..."

Up next: TNG 725/725: All Good Things....

 

She reveals the trap set by the Federation for the Maquis so that they can flee back into hiding, and leaves Riker behind for the Enterprise to pick up as she leaves to join the Maquis.

I wasn't arguing Bloodlines as being one of Stewart's finest performances- merely that it was good .

But, yeah, he's excellent here. Halibut posted this screencap in the Amp thread that sums it up:
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And I promise I won't be comparing Kira and Ro every chance I get- not fair to the actress, who does have her own moments. And, after this point, somewhat pointless.