mysteries 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: “Transfigurations”

Eugene Myers

– August 22, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Transfigurations”
Written by René Echevarria
Directed by Tom Benko

Season 3, Episode 25
Original air date: June 4, 1990
Star date: 43957.2

Mission summary

Worf encourages La Forge to hit on a woman in Ten Forward, in the only way a Klingon can, but the awkward engineer crashes and burns. And he’s not the only one: In the course of a routine charting assignment, Enterprise has detected a crashed vessel on a planet. They investigate and discover a lone survivor in the wreckage of an escape pod. He’s in pretty bad shape, too unstable to transport, so Dr. Crusher whips out a thingey that links La Forge’s nervous system to help regulate the patient’s heart. The interface delivers a weird little shock to La Forge, but he seems fine, and it works. They bring the injured man aboard.

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Tags: amnesia, dating advice, diplomacy, dr. crusher has a crush, energy beings, evolution, geordi's a dork, godlike powers, handwaving mumblemumble, mysteries, science!, technobabble, the prime directive is really more of a guideline

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “The Most Toys”

Torie Atkinson

– August 1, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“The Most Toys”
Written by Shari Goodhartz
Directed by Timothy Bond

Season 3, Episode 22
Original air date: May 7, 1990
Star date: 43872.2

Mission summary

There’s a tricyanate contamination on Beta Agni II, and the only cure is ~~more cowbell~~ hytritium, a rare and volatile element that only one man in the universe seems to have: Kivas Fajo, a space trader. On the last transport to the Enterprise, Data uses his thumbprint to confirm the transaction and the datapad zaps him. Fajo’s men (and woman) plant fake Data elements on the transport, launch it out of the shuttle bay, and blow it up. Stunned, the Enterprise crew believe that Data’s been destroyed, but have to high-tail it to Beta Agni II if they want to decontaminate that water supply in time to save the planet.

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Tags: androids, emotional women, geordi has a really bad day, handwaving mumblemumble, mysteries, shakespeare, slavery, space shylock, transporter malfunction, 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: “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: “A Matter of Perspective”

Torie Atkinson

– April 4, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“A Matter of Perspective”
Written by Ed Zuckerman
Directed by Cliff Bole

Season 3, Episode 14
Original air date: February 12, 1990
Star date: 43610.4

Mission summary

Data interrupts Picard’s art class to tell him that they’ve arrived at Tenuga IV and also that Picard couldn’t paint his way out of a Rothko. It seems Riker and La Forge conducted a survey of Dr. Apgar’s work on Krieger waves, which they hope will become a new energy source. La Forge says in so many words that Riker surveyed someone just a little too intimately and is in a rush to return. But as he beams back, Dr. Apgar’s science station explodes, and Riker barely makes it home intact.

But his luck isn’t meant to last, because an Inspector Krag beams aboard and arrests Riker… for murder.

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Tags: emotional women, fully clothed man-wrestling, handwaving mumblemumble, holodeck, holodreck, mysteries, not everyone loves riker, science!, troi is useless

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

Torie Atkinson

– March 7, 2013 9:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“The Defector”
Written by Ronald D. Moore
Directed by Robert Sheerer

Season 3, Episode 10
Original air date: January 1, 1990
Star date: 43462.5

Mission summary

Picard is giving Data lessons in humanity by way of Henry V on the holodeck, but their epiphanies are interrupted by a Romulan scout ship asking for help. Suddenly a warbird decloaks, fires some shots at the scout ship, and turns away as the Enterprise extends its deflector shields around the scout ship to protect it. As life support there fails, Picard has the ship’s only occupant beamed over: Romulan Sublieutenant Setal, bearing warnings that the Romulans are planning to start a war, beginning at Nelvana III.

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Tags: diplomacy, emotion, loyalty, mysteries, romulans, troi is useless, war

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “The Vengeance Factor”

Eugene Myers

– February 28, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

thevengeancefactor191 “The Vengeance Factor”
Written by Sam Rolfe
Directed by Timothy Bond

Season 3, Episode 9
Original air date: November 20, 1989
Star date: 43421.9

Mission summary

After discovering a ransacked Starfleet research facility–evidence of encroaching raids from a group of Acamarians called the Gatherers–Picard decides to do something about this problem once and for all. Enterprise sets out for Acamar III, where he meets with the leader of the ruling group of Acamarians, Sovereign Marouk.

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Tags: diplomacy, emotional women, everyone loves riker, handwaving mumblemumble, immortality, loyalty, mysteries, planetary conflict, set phasers to kill, sexy ladies, slavery, were they drunk when they threw this one together?

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: “Q Who”

Torie Atkinson

– October 4, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Q Who”
Written by Maurice Hurley
Directed by Rob Bowman

Season 2, Episode 16
Original air date: May 8, 1989
Star date: 42761.3

Mission summary

The Enterprise has a new arrival: manic pixie dream girl Ensign Sonya Gomez, who tries to charm us by being polite to replicators, babbling on incoherently, and spilling hot chocolate (so much cuter than coffee) on an unsuspecting Captain Picard. The captain heads to Officers’ Quarters (really? They have their own district away from the riff-raff?) but the turbolift dumps him instead onto a familiar-looking shuttlecraft out in the deepness of space… with Q.

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Tags: awful attempts at humor, borg, emotional women, finally something good has happened to our beloved legacy, geordi's a dork, godlike powers, men being arrogant douchebags, mysteries, q, space douches, stupid women

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Time Squared”

Eugene Myers

– September 13, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Time Squared”
Written by Maurice Hurley, story by Kurt Michael Bensmiller
Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan

Season 2, Episode 13
Original air date: April 3, 1989
Star date: 42679.2

Mission summary

Riker decides to cook scrambled Owon eggs the old-fashioned way for his friends, but it turns out that while food prepared by the computer might lack “flair or individuality,” the resulting “artistry” is not necessarily palatable. Only Worf is disappointed when their meal is interrupted by an urgent call to the Bridge: sensors have picked up a signal from a Federation shuttlecraft out in the middle of nowhere, with one human aboard.

They intercept and pull the unidentified craft into their shuttle bay, only to discover that it’s one of their own—the El-Baz, shuttlecraft 5. What! Impossible! They already have one of those. When they open her up, they summon Captain Picard to take a look, because there’s another Picard inside. Inconceivable!

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Tags: daddy issues, double your pleasure, energy vortex, handwaving mumblemumble, it was all a dream, mysteries, reverse the polarity, stuff is backwards, time travel