loneliness Archive

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Remember Me”

– June 19, 2014 8:00 amPosted in: Featured, TNG Re-Watch

“Remember Me”
Written by Lee Sheldon
Directed by Cliff Bole

Season 3, Episode 5
Original air date: October 22, 1990
Star date: 44161.2

Mission summary

Dr. Dalen Quaice, an old friend and mentor of Dr. Crusher’s, arrives on Enterprise. Still mourning the recent death of his wife, the elderly man mulls over the worst part of growing old — losing the people you love. This cheery conversation drives Dr. Crusher to visit her son, Wesley, at work in Engineering. The young ensign is messing around with Dr. Kosinsky’s warp field equations. His attempt to create a new field fails, with an unexpected flash of light. On the upside, it seems like his mom didn’t stick around to watch, and all systems are back to normal.

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Tags: computers, dr. crusher has a crush, energy vortex, fun with warp bubbles, handwaving mumblemumble, illusions, logic, loneliness, mysteries, parallel universes, the traveler, warp drive, Wesley is a smartypants, wesley saves the day

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Hollow Pursuits”

Eugene Myers

– July 25, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Hollow Pursuits”
Written by Sally Caves
Directed by Cliff Bole

Season 3, Episode 21
Original air date: April 30, 1990
Star date: 43807.4

Mission summary

A lieutenant engineer we’ve never seen before, Barclay, is drinking in Ten Forward when La Forge reminds him that he’s on duty. Barclay blows off his superior, then wrestles even Commander Riker into submission and sends the two of them packing, while Counselor Troi looks on avidly. Just as she’s throwing herself at him, he’s ordered to report to one of the cargo bays. Guess they’ll have to pick this up later, which it turns out will be easy as easy as saying “Save program,” because he’s been playing out a fantasy on the holodeck.

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Tags: barclay surprises people, holodeck, holodreck, illusions, lack of holodeck privacy, loneliness, mysteries, not everyone loves riker, sexism, transporter malfunction, troi is useless, Wesley is a smartypants

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Tin Man”

Torie Atkinson

– July 18, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

Tin Man “Tin Man”
Written by Dennis Putman Bailey & David Bischoff
Directed by Robert Sheerer

Season 3, Episode 20
Original air date: April 23, 1990
Star date: 43779.3

Mission summary

The Enterprise has an unexpected run-in with Captain DeSoto, who interrupts a really boring charting mission with top secret, ix-nay on the Omulan-Ray implications. He sends over a passenger, a Betazed named Tam Elbrun–“of the Ghorusda disaster,” whatever that means–who is to be the mission specialist of the week. He and Troi have already met, however, back at Betazed University, where she was studying basic visual cues and he was a patient. The mission? Approach a star about to go supernova, currently orbited by what appears to be a living ship that Elbrun has dubbed the “tin man.” Not only that, but they have to get there before the Romulans do, or else.

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Tags: being different, belonging, emotion, first contact, living ship, loneliness, mindreading is awful, one day data will be a real boy, pain, romulans, troi is useful

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “The Offspring”

Torie Atkinson

– April 25, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“The Offspring”
Written by René Echevarria
Directed by Jonathan Frakes

Season 3, Episode 16
Original air date: March 12, 1990
Star date: 43657.0

Mission summary

Data summons Wesley, La Forge, and Troi to his lab for some Really Big News. After a drumroll, he unveils… a thing! They’re not really sure what it is–it seems to be a Soong-type android in beta–until it calls Data “father” and Data explains that this is his child, Lal.

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Tags: android rights, androids, breeding, civil rights, everyone loves riker, fascism, immortality sucks, loneliness, parenting, Starfleet is stupid

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Booby Trap”

Torie Atkinson

– February 7, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Booby Trap”
Teleplay by Ron Roman and Michael Piller & Richard Danus
Story by Michael Wagner & Ron Roman
Directed by Gabrielle Beaumont

Season 3, Episode 6
Original air date: October 30, 1989
Star date: 43205.6

Mission summary

La Forge is weirding out his first (and last) date by laying it on way too thick in a Margaritaville holoprogram (probably came with the machine, surely the designers didn’t expect anyone to use it), and soon his date can’t take another second and begs off. Just another day on the love boat…

At least Picard is having some fun, exploring a Promellian ship from a forgotten battle waged over 1000 years ago that’s still broadcasting its distress signal. After he beams down, there’s a slight energy blip on the Enterprise–clue #1. The dead ship is full of corpses who have died at their posts–clue #2. But what could possibly go wrong out here in space, isolated, and as lonely as Geordi on a Saturday night? And the law of television says you need three clues, so they’re probably fine, right?

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Tags: geeks, geordi's a dork, handwaving mumblemumble, holograms, ladies can be cool too, loneliness, my girlfriend she lives in canada, nerds, Picard beams into certain danger, picard is a chuck norris joke, science!, taking over the ship from Engineering, tech the tech, the tao of picard

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “The Bonding”

Eugene Myers

– January 31, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“The Bonding”
Written by Ronald D. Moore
Directed by Winrich Kolbe

Season 3, Episode 5
Original air date: October 23, 1989
Star date: 43198.7

Mission summary

An Enterprise away team is rummaging through the remnants of yet another alien civilization that destroyed itself, the Koinonians, when it stumbles across a booby trap that explodes and instantly kills Lt. Marla Aster, the ship’s archaeologist. The sudden, violent death is all the more tragic because she leaves behind a 12-year-old son, Jeremy.

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Tags: aliens, batteries not included, civil war, dead civilizations, emotion, energy entities, evil doubles, horrible horrible children, illusions, klingons, loneliness, orphans, troi is useless

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “The Survivors”

Eugene Myers

– January 10, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“The Survivors”
Written by Michael Wagner
Directed by Les Landau

Season 3, Episode 3
Original air date: October 8, 1989
Star date: 43152.4

Mission summary

Enterprise responds to a distress call at planet Rana IV, which was reportedly under attack by an unknown ship. But by the time they get there, the enemy is gone—along with all life and buildings on the surface. Eleven thousand colonists have been wiped out. No wait, make that 10,998. Scans show that there are two survivors located in an improbably intact square of land that contains a house and plant life.

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Tags: doomed colonies, evil music boxes, godlike powers, illusions, immortality sucks, loneliness, love kills, mysteries, playing detective, space douches, troi is useless, twilight zone, worf is wrong, worf lacks social skills

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Pen Pals”

Eugene Myers

– September 27, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Pen Pals”
Written by Melinda M. Snodgrass, story by Hannah Louise Shearer
Directed by Winrich Kolbe

Season 2, Episode 15
Original air date: May 1, 1989
Star date: 42695.3

Mission summary

Enterprise enters the Selcundi Drema sector to investigate unusual geological instabilities that are destroying its planets, and Commander Riker decides this would make a great test of young Wesley Crusher’s ability to command a survey team to study the problem. Wesley is eager as always, but apprehensive about his performance and whether he’s qualified to give orders to officers who are older and more experienced than him. Meanwhile, Data is experimenting with enhancing the ship’s sensors and picks up a troubling transmission: “Is anybody out there?”

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Tags: big heads, curiosity about humans, Data is annoying, loneliness, rocks, science!, the prime directive: more like guidelines than actual rules, Wesley is a smartypants

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “The Royale”

Torie Atkinson

– September 6, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“The Royale”
Written by Keith Mills
Directed by Cliff Bole

Season 2, Episode 12
Original air date: March 27, 1989
Star date: 42625.4

Mission summary

A Klingon cruiser alerts Enterprise to some strange debris orbiting around Theta 8, an unmapped, poisonous ball of nitrogen and methane. They beam a chunk of the debris over and it’s a panel from a 21st-century spaceship, with the American flag and NASA’s logo emblazoned on it. But we’re too far from home! How can this be?

PICARD: We’ve got ourselves a puzzle, Number One.

Do we? Must we? Can’t we just tape the pieces together, pat ourselves on the back, then maybe dissolve it in acid over a live flame?

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Tags: bad dialogue, casinos, everyone loves riker, illusions, loneliness, mysteries, nothing, the gods must be crazy, 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 Dauphin”

Torie Atkinson

– August 23, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“The Dauphin”
Written by Scott Rubenstein & Leonard Mlodinow
Directed by Rob Bowman

Season 2, Episode 10
Original air date: February 20, 1989
Star date: 42568.8

Mission summary

The Enterprise picks up two mysterious otherworlders: a teenager and head of state named Salia, and her overbearing, somewhat slithery governess Anya. Troi thinks the two may not be what they seem, but can’t offer any more details or else it’ll ruin the twist. The two are headed to their home planet of Daled IV after a long period of exile. Salia’s parents were on opposite sides of a massive civil war that has engulfed the planet. They died shortly after her birth, and now it’s up to the dauphin to start the healing. Unfortunately she’s been in isolation her whole life and has built up a swell of hormones, so a chance encounter with Wesley and his superconductive magnet sparks a powerful attraction*.

*Believe it or not, I didn’t write this stuff.

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Tags: emotional women, Guinan has all the answers, lady-wrestling, loneliness, sexy ladies, true wuv, wesley has a crush, wesley is oblivious to girls