Wert's Star Trek: The Next Generation rewatch (now in added HD!)

[Derfel Cadarn]

Alice krige played a third Borg queen; the one from The voyage vibale. Susannah thompson had played earlier borg queens on voyager

[Rhom]

Ah... apparently today is Jonathan Frakes. Happy birthday Commander Riker!

[Lightning Lord]

And Roddenberry. It's a Trek Birthday Bonanza

[Maltaran]

Hertzler also played the Vulcan captain of the USS Saratoga in the opening episode of Deep Space Nine. I think after Locutus, he's the first character to have a line on the whole series. He was also the changeling Laas in DS9's final season. Actually, Hertzler has played five different Klingons: Martok on DS9, Kolos on Enterprise, a Klingon warship commander on Enterprise, Ler'at on Star Trek: Klingdon (a CD-ROM interactive experience thing) and Lurok in Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force II (a FPS game).

He also played a Hirogen in an episode of Voyager (Jeffrey Combs was in the same episode, as was The Rock)

[Independent George]

On the downside, it seems odd that the Enterprise crew can't find Riker some other way (other episodes have established they can maintain a transporter lock on someone even if they lose their communicator badge) and it's never explained why Riker, who isn't a specialist in anything, needs to be on the planet and why his surgical alterations are so half-arsed (leaving his hands and feet fully human). It's also not established why the Enterprise is carrying out this task rather than a dedicated team. The episode suggests it's something that the Enterprise crew do regularly, but they never do it again on screen and haven't done it previously. There's also a bit of awkwardness in that Riker is effectively raped and the thing is played for laughs (backed up by casting Cheers and Frasier actress Bebe Neuwirth as the nurse) rather than being dealt with more seriously.

It's standard Trek Writing Syndrome. Why are they sending an O-5 down to the surface on a solo mission which he has absolutely no background or expertise on? And why are they devoting an entire Galaxy-Class starship (with a crew of thousands) to this mission? Does that mean they've got a scientific vessel on Borg-Patrol duties while the Enterprise is playing anthropologist?

It's because he's a main character, period. Even BSG wasn't immune despite being somewhat justified in-show (thus, Anders becoming a pilot instead of a Marine). Stargate was the only show to really treat these kinds of issues in a somewhat reasonable manner.

[Jaxom 1974]

It's standard Trek Writing Syndrome. Why are they sending an O-5 down to the surface on a solo mission which he has absolutely no background or expertise on? And why are they devoting an entire Galaxy-Class starship (with a crew of thousands) to this mission? Does that mean they've got a scientific vessel on Borg-Patrol duties while the Enterprise is playing anthropologist?

If one wants to nit-pick, it should be pointed out that the entire compliment of the Enterprise-D was about 1000 total, and as there were a lot of families and civilians on board, the crew compliment was a little less... :P

[Rhom]

If one wants to nit-pick, it should be pointed out that the entire compliment of the Enterprise-D was about 1000 total, and as there were a lot of families and civilians on board, the crew compliment was a little less... :P

And that's the point... The Galaxy Class is for exploration, its not a battleship.

[Independent George]

If one wants to nit-pick, it should be pointed out that the entire compliment of the Enterprise-D was about 1000 total, and as there were a lot of families and civilians on board, the crew compliment was a little less... :P

If that's true, then no wonder the Enterprise gets taken over so easily. Iowa-class battleships had crews of around 2,500 men. The fact that the Enterprise is not a warship should require an even bigger crew, as it requires a crazy complement of specialists to operate and maintain the various systems on board. The Iowa mostly just has to worry about (a) floating and (B) shooting its guns.

[Werthead]

416: Galaxy's Child

The real Dr. Leah Brahms arrives on the Enterprise and is unhappy to discover that LaForge has been tinkering with 'her' engines. She's even less happy to discover that he's been using a holographic simulation of her to help solve problems, but without her permission (Season 3's Booby Trap). When the Enterprise inadvertently kills a space-going lifeform and its 'child' latches onto the ship to drain its power, they have to work together to save the vessel.

This should have been a stronger episode, with Susan Gibney doing a great performance as Leah Brahms (LaForge's future wife in just about every single spin-off from the show and the alterno-future of All Good Things) and calling LaForge on his questionable use of her holographic image. Unfortunately, the episode doesn't quite work. The Enterprise could easily have evaded the space alien creature by going to warp, but Picard doesn't because drama and stuff. In addition, and controversial even at the time, Brahms is right to criticise LaForge, but he ends up turning it back on her in a very flawed fashion and she ends up apologising, which sends out a bit of a weird message. On top of that, the CG alien creature was crap back in 1991 and given they had to redo all of the CG for the episode for the Blu-Ray anyway they should have improved it, but instead settled for replicating the crappy original one in higher definition, so the effects still look pretty rubbish.

417: Night Terrors

The Enterprise finds a Federation Starship, the Brittain, with its entire crew dead, apparently the result of madness. The crew find they cannot leave the system and soon symptoms of the madness also appear on the Enterprise.

This is one of those episodes which they could have done as a Season 1 episode where it would have been terrible. Here, it's pretty by-the-numbers but the cast's greater familiarity with one another and greater confidence means it's reasonably watchable. Guinan gets to fire a ridiculously large gun, which is entertaining, and Data ends up assuming command and turns out to be very good at it. John Vickery - Babylon 5's Mr. Wells and Neroon - has a small but well-played guest role as the only survivor of the Brittain. The episode even involves predictability: Vickery's character being a Betazed means that it'd have been easy to have made him responsible for everything but they don't. However, I'm still hazy on why the Enterprise couldn't have used a matter/antimatter reaction to escape the rift, or even just blowing up the Brittain. They abandon it at the end of the episode anyway, so it was clearly expendable. There's also an amusing logic failure when we see the Enterprise morgue adjacent to sickbay and it's about four times the size of sickbay itself, which seems a bit odd.

The biggest improvement for the episode is in the effects. Troi's dream sequence (where she flies through a sinister dark cloudscape) looked completely shit in the original episode, and Jonathan Frakes has said it's one of his most hated effects of the entire series. However, for the Blu-Ray release it's been totally redone and looks vastly superior. Hell, it'd be impressive on a modern contemporary show. It does make the decision not to upgrade the CG for Galaxy's Child more effectively all the more baffling.

418: Identity Crisis

A bunch of Starfleet personnel from an expedition to a planet five years ago are going missing, with only two remaining, one of whom is Commander LaForge. The Enterprise investigates, shenanigans ensue and LaForge turns into a semi-invisible humanoid lifeform.

A reasonable mystery storyline, one that continues Season 4's welcome focus on LaForge (earlier and later seasons would be lucky to have one or two LaForge episodes per season, but he's in quite a lot this year). There's some excellently creepy moments, including a genuinely tense one on the holodeck when LaForge tries to work out the origin of a mysterious shadow on the wall that has no apparent source. It's not developed far enough as an investigative technique, but it's good stuff. The end is a bit corny, but it's helped by LaForge's make-up as the creature, which is one of the most impressive bits of prosthetic work in TNG's history.

419: The Nth Degree

Lt. Barclay is scanned by an alien probe and becomes superhumanly intelligent. After initially using his new intelligence for 'good', he merges with the computer core, takes over the ship and transports the Enterprise to the Galactic Core because, hey, why not? He gets better.

A corny premise is livened up by Dwight Shultz's performance as Barclay and an amusing brief appearance by Jim Norton (Father Ted's Bishop Brennan, he of the 'being kicked up the arse' fame) as Albert Einstein. This episode can also be interpreted as a piss-take of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, what with the trip to the Galactic Core and the encounter with an alien being which is a giant floating head (a rather friendly one this time). Seen through this lens, this becomes a much more entertaining episode than watching it straight.

420: Qpid

Vash and Q both appear on the Enterprise, leading to crazy shit going down. Worf is not a merry man. LaForge can't play the lute.

The funniest episode of the season, though it's played so broad that it goes over-the-top. It's not as funny as Deja Q (which mixed the humour with drama much more effectively), but as a batshit crazy romp it's fun. Michael Dorn gets the best lines, Patrick Stewart gets to play Errol Flynn and John deLancie does well playing Q as someone who is totally befuddled by Vash's selfishness. Lightweight entertainment.

[drawkcabi]

420: Qpid

Vash and Q both appear on the Enterprise, leading to crazy shit going down. Worf is not a merry man. LaForge can't play the lute.

The funniest episode of the season, though it's played so broad that it goes over-the-top. It's not as funny as Deja Q (which mixed the humour with drama much more effectively), but as a batshit crazy romp it's fun. Michael Dorn gets the best lines, Patrick Stewart gets to play Errol Flynn and John deLancie does well playing Q as someone who is totally befuddled by Vash's selfishness. Lightweight entertainment.

So much good stuff in this episode even if it is over the top. Worf steals the episode by not being a merry man, and taking a cue ( ;) ) from Bluto Blutarsky smashing LaForge's lute and apologizing for it. :lol:

[DaveSumm]

I always loved the scene where Geordi uses the holodeck to find that shadow. And the preceding one talking to the computer. No idea why people conversing with the computer entertains me so much, but it does. That's all I'd do if I lived in the 24th century.

I'm still reeling from this revelation that Riker was raped, which I appear to have repressed.

[Jaxom 1974]

I never really took the Barclay episode to be a dig at Trek V, but I can totally see that now when described that way...

[Rhom]

I always loved the scene where Geordi uses the holodeck to find that shadow. And the preceding one talking to the computer. No idea why people conversing with the computer entertains me so much, but it does. That's all I'd do if I lived in the 24th century.

I'm still reeling from this revelation that Riker was raped, which I appear to have repressed.

Hey, people sit around talking to Siri now. No sense waiting for the 24th century!

[Aemon Stark]

I've always found Geordi's behaviour in Galaxy's Child absolutely cringe-inducing. He's almost creepy in how strong he comes onto Brahms, making the scene of his planned dinner date (and his preparations for it) unbearable to watch. Sometimes I think he's the forebear of Harry Kim.

I always loved the scene where Geordi uses the holodeck to find that shadow. And the preceding one talking to the computer. No idea why people conversing with the computer entertains me so much, but it does. That's all I'd do if I lived in the 24th century.

As I think I mentioned in another thread, this is one of those scenes that I found absolutely creepy and scary when I was 8. It's effectively done.

Concerning Night Terrors, I'm pretty sure the large morgue depicted was a cargo bay repurposed for that use. The scene with Crusher imagining that all the bodies are suddenly sitting up is a classic horror motif perfectly executed. Creepy!

Hey, people sit around talking to Siri now. No sense waiting for the 24th century!

If only Majel Barrett was still around to record a Trek version of Siri :(

[Rhom]

If only Majel Barrett was still around to record a Trek version of Siri :(

That would be an app that would sell millions.

[Jaxom 1974]

That would be an app that would sell millions.

It's the kind of thing that would get me to switch to an iPhone...

[DaarioKnowsBest]

I've always been curios about episode 1 of TNG.

Troi is still wearing the female dress starfleet uniform. Early in the episode where they are showing the crowd of people walking the halls of the ship. There is a guy that walks by in what appears to be the female uniform. Is that to show that the future is totally cool with cross dressing?

[Werthead]

I've always been curios about episode 1 of TNG.

Troi is still wearing the female dress starfleet uniform. Early in the episode where they are showing the crowd of people walking the halls of the ship. There is a guy that walks by in what appears to be the female uniform. Is that to show that the future is totally cool with cross dressing?

Pretty much. This is one of Gene Roddenberry's ideas that they phased out over the course of the first few episodes and put everyone into the trouser uniforms.

[Aemon Stark]

I know it was a misspelling, but I would enjoy discussing that and other assorted curios of early TNG.

[Werthead]

I know it was a misspelling, but I would enjoy discussing that and other assorted curios of early TNG.

Let's see:

There's strong indications that Roddenberry's original idea was that Picard was Wesley's father. They seem to have backed away from this pretty quickly, fortunately.

David Gerrold wrote an episode for Season 1 - Blood and Fire - that featured an openly gay couple serving on the Enterprise. Despite Gene Roddenberry's backing, Paramount killed the episode at an unusually late period of development, fearing it was 'controversial'. The rest of the episode could be considered an AIDS allegory, which got Paramount skittish.

The Borg were originally an insectoid species with a hive mind. The Neutral Zone and the first two episodes of Season 2 were planned to form an arc where the Federation and Romulans would join forces to destroy them. The 1988 Writer's Strike killed this plan and delayed the Borg's introduction until late Season 2. Budgetary concerns saw the Borg revamped as humanoid cyborgs. Doctor Who fans have occasionally accused STTNG of ripping off the Cybermen with the Borg, citing an Easter Egg on a Season 1 monitor (which listed all seven names - at that time - of the actors playing the Doctor) as evidence that the production team were aware of the other show.

The Enterprise was supposed invoke saucer separation more often, but the introduction of a new, easier-to-use filming model (which couldn't separate) in Season 3 prevented that. Because all of the effects budgets were based around using the cheaper, smaller model they couldn't do it any more. When they did, in Best of Both Worlds, it wrecked their effects budget for the episode (hence the over-the-top re-use of shots from Part 1 in Part 2).

The aliens in Conspiracy were supposed to return but they never got round to it. A later, non-canon novel retcons the alien parasites as an evil off-shoot of the Trill race.

Code of Honour put off later Trek writer Brannon Braga from watching ST:TNG for two years as he felt it was extremely racist. According to Ron Moore, the writer's room shorthand for this episode was 'the racist episode'.

The episode 11001001 saw the Enterprise-D arrive at a spacedock of the same design as the one seen orbiting Earth in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. However, given that the much smaller Constitution-class Enterprise wasn't much smaller than the doors, this created a potential continuity problem. The effects department came up with a plan which saw the Enterprise-D dock on the exterior of the station instead which they were very proud of. The producers balked at the cost and told them just to map the Enterprise-D over the original Enterprise in the film footage. Their official explanation was that the starbase just happened to be bigger than the original in the exact same proportion as the size difference between the Enterprise and Enterprise-D without a single other change in design. The general fan reaction to this over the years has been, "bullshit."