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Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Lonely Among Us”

– January 5, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Lonely Among Us”
Written by D.C. Fontana
Story by Mike Halperin
Directed by Cliff Bole

Season 1, Episode 7
Original air date: November 2, 1987
Star date: 41249.3

Mission summary

Enterprise picks up delegates from warring planets in the Beta Renner system, the animal-like Anticans and snake-like Selay, unlikely new candidates for Federation membership. En route to planet Parliament, where their guests can hopefully work out their issues peacefully, perhaps over a nice home-cooked meal, they happen across an unusual energy cloud. They swing by for a closer look, and a powerful electrical discharge from a sensor panel envelops Worf, knocking him out.

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Tags: alien possession, amnesia, computers, diplomacy, energy cloud, loneliness, mysteries, pedantic psychobabble, Picard acts weird, Sherlock Holmes, someone gets zapped, taxi service, transporter magic, Wesley is a smartypants

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Where No One Has Gone Before”

Torie Atkinson

– December 29, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Where No One Has Gone Before”
Written by Diane Duane and Michael Reaves
Directed by Rob Bowman

Season 1, Episode 6
Original air date: October 26, 1987
Star date: 41263.1

Mission summary

The Enterprise accepts the assistance of a Mr. Kosinski, a propulsion specialist who claims he (along with his nameless alien assistant) can improve the efficiency of the ship’s engines. Data and Riker are not convinced–they’ve run the models, and the models indicate no improvement in speed or performance. Moreover, Kosinski is an arrogant, self-satisfied schmuck (and yet strangely not a commodore!), and both Riker and one of the chief engineers, Argyle, hesitate to allow Kosinski access to their engines at all. They eventually decide that if his calculations are gibberish no harm can come to the ship anyway, and allow Kosinski to go through with his experiment.

Beginning at warp 1.5, the Enterprise steadily accelerates–but something goes wrong. Suddenly the ship is zipping past galaxies at incalculable speeds. Picard orders an emergency reverse of the engines, and when the ship comes to a full stop they realize they are (improbably) in the galaxy M33: 2.7 million light years from home. It will take over 300 years for them to return their own galaxy.

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Tags: curiosity, godlike powers, not a space douche, parallel universes, picard is french, sufficiently advanced technology indistinguishable from magic, the boy, the traveler, wesley saves the day

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “The Last Outpost”

Eugene Myers

– December 22, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“The Last Outpost”
Written by Herbert Wright
Story by Richard Krzemian
Directed by Richard Colla

Season 1, Episode 5
Original air date: October 19, 1987
Star date: 41386.4

Mission summary

Enterprise pursues a Ferengi starship to recover a stolen T9 energy converter, with the hope that they will also be able to establish first contact with the mysterious race of space traders. Things are off to a rocky start when they face off in the unexplored Delphi Ardu system and the Ferengi open fire on them.

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Tags: abandoned civilization, bluffing, diplomacy, everyone loves riker, ferengi, forcefields, fully clothed man-wrestling, geordi's a dork, godlike powers, hew-mans, it's a trap, life support, losing power, merchants in space, picard is french, portal, rip van winkle

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Code of Honor”

Torie Atkinson

– December 15, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Code of Honor”
Written by Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron
Directed by Russ Mayberry; Les Landau (uncredited)

Season 1, Episode 4
Original air date: October 12, 1987
Star date: 41235.25

Mission summary

A devastating plague threatens millions of Federation lives and only one planet seems to have abundant supplies of the vaccine: Ligon II. The Ligonians, who are all black, are described as “proud,” “structured,” “ritualistic,” and “honor-based,” because I guess positive adjectives are supposed to make their African tribal vibe seem less racist.

Picard greets the leader, Lutan, and his first officer equivalent, Hagon, aboard the Enterprise. Lutan is immediately taken by Lt. Yar because on their planet “it is the duty of women only to own the land, and the duty of men to protect and rule it.” Picard gifts them some pottery and they get a tour of the Enterprise, then Yar gives them an aikido demonstration as a way to show off both the holodeck and her own physical skills. All seems to be going well, as Lutan appears both pleased by Picard and willing to negotiate for the vaccine. He politely says his goodbyes, but just as he’s beaming out he abruptly snatches Lt. Yar and transports her with them to the surface.

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Tags: 80s bodysuits, catfight, death matches, distinct lack of half-naked man-wrestling, emotional women, fully clothed woman-wrestling, planet of the hats, poledancing, racism, sexism, sexual harassment, were they drunk when they threw this one together?, why did this have to happen to our beloved legacy

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “The Naked Now”

Eugene Myers

– December 8, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“The Naked Now”
Written by J. Michael Bingham (D.C. Fontana), story by John D.F. Black (“The Naked Time”) and J. Michael Bingham
Directed by Paul Lynch

Season 1, Episode 3
Original air date: October 5, 1987
Star date: 41209.2

Mission summary

After receiving bizarre messages from the S.S. Tsiolkovsky, a science ship studying a collapsing star, Enterprise races at warp 7 to investigate. They make brief contact with what sounds like the Tsiolkovsky’s phone sex operator just before someone blows an emergency hatch on the ship, killing everyone on board.

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Tags: android sex, awkward attraction, blindness, handwaving mumblemumble, inhibitions (and how to shed them), intoxication, loneliness, mysterious infection, sexual harassment, snootful, things you'll probably regret in the morning, were they drunk when they threw this one together?, wesley endangers the ship, wesley saves the day, why did this have to happen to our beloved legacy

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Encounter at Farpoint”

Torie Atkinson

– December 1, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Encounter at Farpoint”
Written by D.C. Fontana and Gene Roddenberry
Directed by Corey Allen

Season 1, Episodes 1 & 2
Original air date: September 28, 1987
Star date: 41153.7

Mission summary

Captain Jean-Luc Picard has been assigned command of the USS Enterprise-D. Headed to Deneb IV to round up the rest of his shiny new crew, the Enterprise thumps right into a supernatural barrier. The space net won’t budge and Picard and his bridge officers are visited by Q, a seemingly omnipotent being who accuses the human race of being a violent, savage race of puppy-drowning kitten-snatchers. He demands that they turn tail and run back to Earth or he will kill them all.

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Tags: advanced aliens, aliens, androids, beardless riker, distinct lack of half-naked man-wrestling, freaky aliens, godlike powers, shakespeare, space douches, troi is useless

Ten Forward Now Open For Business!

Torie Atkinson

– November 23, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Uncategorized

Some of you have stumbled upon it already, but I’d like to announce officially that Ten Forward–our previously discussed forums area–is up and running in beta.*

We’ve started an introduction thread, so drop in and say hello!

* I’m still working out some kinks, so if you have any issues let me know.

The Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: Introductory Post

Torie Atkinson

– November 17, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

I am a Trekkie because of TNG.

I missed it first run but caught it on syndication and for a long time it was my only Star Trek. I couldn’t get into DS9 and Voyager hadn’t aired yet, so I used to wait for 7pm to roll around and tune in for the adventures of Captain Picard and his crew on the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D. No one else in my family cared for it so it was my special show that I didn’t have to share with anyone. To some extent I still feel that way, because I am so rarely able to geek out about it with people. Most of the Trekkies I know are hardcore TOSsers or, interestingly, DS9 fans (I find this to be generational), so I’m really looking forward to the chance to talk about TNG with you guys.

TNG happens to be Eugene’s and my favorite Trek, so you may wonder why we didn’t just re-watch it to begin with. Well, when we embarked on the Star Trek Re-Watch two and a half years ago, the fact that the original series was only three seasons and 79 episodes definitely played a factor in our decision to go forward. TNG, on the other hand, has seven seasons and 176 episodes.

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Tags: a new era, introductory post, star trek: the next generation

Deck 10, Section 1: A Room With A View

Torie Atkinson

– November 15, 2011 12:00 pmPosted in: Uncategorized

From the get-go, our goal with this project was to create a fun space where people could have intelligent, interesting conversations (mostly about Star Trek). I like to think of us more as party hosts than exhibitors, and to that end we had always contemplated creating some way for you to chat easily with or without us, on- or off-topic.

We’ve been blessed with a group of ridiculously smart and entertaining folks that I’d be happy to talk to any time of day. To that end, I’m thinking of creating a mailing list or forum space for people to talk Star Trek and beyond: from sharing info on upcoming Star Trek events to crowdsourcing the worthiness of the latest Tintin movie. It could also be a good way for those not interested in TNG to stay in touch while we continue the re-watch. Mostly I imagine it as a chance to just be friendly and chat about life, the universe, and everything, like the usenet days of yore when the internet didn’t have any 2.0s after it.

I don’t want to talk to myself so I figured I’d toss the idea out to the general crowd. Any interest in this whatsoever? And do people prefer a mailing list (pro: more private and convenient to check; con: potentially voluminous e-mail, possibly unwelcoming to newbies) to a web-based forum (pro: you can easily ignore uninteresting threads; con: publicly available* and requires checking an obviously non-work-related website).

* In the interest of privacy I could, however, make it a registered users/members-only forum.

Tags: website feedback

Re-Watching Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– November 10, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Movies

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Screenplay by: Nicholas Meyer & Denny Martin Flinn
Story by: Leonard Nimoy and Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal
Produced by: Steven-Charles Jaffe & Ralph Winter
Directed by: Nicholas Meyer

Release date: December 6, 1991
Stardate: 9521.6

Mission Summary

A mining accident destroys Praxis, a Klingon moon where energy for the entire Klingon Empire is produced. With only 50 years of life left to the Empire as a result, the Klingons open a dialog with Vulcan ambassador Sarek about ending hostilities with the Federation and dismantling all bases around the Neutral Zone. Spock has recommended Kirk for the diplomatic honor of escorting the Klingon High Chancellor Gorkon to a peace summit. This enrages Kirk, who has come to despise the Klingons for killing his son David.

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