picard moralizing Archive

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

– June 20, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Allegiance”
Written by Richard Manning & Hans Beimler
Directed by Winrich Kolbe

Season 3, Episode 18
Original air date: March 26, 1990
Star date: 43714.1

Mission summary

Picard’s chillaxin’ in his quarters, reading a book (or rather, sleeping with one) when a probe enters his room, scans him, and beams him away. When Picard awakes, he finds himself in a locked room with two others: a Bolian Starfleet cadet named Mitena Haro, and a milquetoast Mizarian named Kova Tholl.

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Tags: alien probes, date night, drinking songs, existentialism, illusions, not everyone loves riker, Picard acts weird, picard moralizing, the tao of picard

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “The High Ground”

Torie Atkinson

– March 21, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

highground1 “The High Ground”
Written by Melinda M. Snodgrass
Directed by Gabrielle Beaumont

Season 3, Episode 12
Original air date: January 29, 1990
Star date: 43510.7

Mission summary

The Enterprise has decided to give some medical supplies to ~~Ireland~~ Rutia IV, but it turns out terrorists have been bombing places so shore leave got canceled. Bummer. Dr. Crusher, Worf, and Data are sipping some tea in a cafe (for…work?) when a bomb goes off injuring civilians. Worf says they have to get out of there, but Crusher starts bandaging the wounded and refuses to beam back to the ship until the local medics arrive. Suddenly one of the Ansata–the space IRA–appears out of nowhere, kills a policeman, and abducts Crusher to the void from whence he came.

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Tags: bad metaphors, dr. crusher is pushy, fully clothed man-wrestling, handwaving mumblemumble, man-wrestling, manfighting, picard gets in a punch, picard moralizing, science!, terrorism, the tao of picard, transparent allegories, unfortunate historical allusions, wesley saves the day

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Who Watches the Watchers”

Torie Atkinson

– January 24, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Who Watches the Watchers”
Written by Richard Manner & Hans Beimler
Directed by Robert Wierner

Season 3, Episode 4
Original air date: October 16, 1989
Star date: 43173.5

Mission summary

The Enterprise hurries to Mintaka III, where some Federation anthropologists secretly observing a proto-Vulcan race are in jeopardy. Their sooper sekrit compound blows up when the generator fails, exposing their little observation tower to the natives below–a girl named Oji and her father, Liko. The scientists and Liko are injured in the explosion, and Crusher decides to beam them onboard for medical treatment. Oji watches all this from a hiding place, wondering what the hell is going on…

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Tags: moral superiority, native americans, not everyone loves riker, picard moralizing, prime directive, religion, the picard, the prime directive: more like guidelines than actual rules, troi is useless

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

Torie Atkinson

– April 19, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Symbiosis”
Story by Robert Lewin
Teleplay by Robert Lewin, Richard Manning, and Hans Beimler
Directed by Win Phelps

Season 1, Episode 22
Original air date: April 18, 1988
Star date: Unknown

Mission summary

This week, on a Very Special Episode of ST: TNG…

The Enterprise is investigating some unusual solar flare activity in the Delos system when they receive a distress call from an Ornaran freighter. The freighter turns out to be the galactic equivalent of a Volkswagen minibus and the occupants onboard seem awfully mellow for people whose lives are in danger. The Enterprise‘s bridge crew is dumbfounded by the Ornarans’ lack of initiative to solve their crisis or expertise about the basic ship repairs necessary to save their vessel. The freighter is going to be destroyed as a result of sheer incompetence. The Enterprise beams them over to save their lives, but the Ornarans beam over their cargo first. By the time Yar can lock onto the passengers, only four of the six made it: two died because their cargo got priority. Harsh, dude.

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Tags: drugs are bad, incoherent morality play, just say no, picard moralizing, prime directive, science!, very special episode, wesley needs to get out more, winners don't use drugs, yar moralizing

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Too Short a Season”

Torie Atkinson

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

“Too Short a Season”
Story by Michael Michaelian
Teleplay by Michael Michaelian and D.C. Fontana
Directed by Rob Bowman

Season 1, Episode 16
Original air date: February 8, 1988
Star date: 41309.5

Mission summary

On Mordan IV terrorists have taken several hostages, including a Federation ambassador, and demand to negotiate with an elderly Admiral Mark Jameson. Despite (or perhaps because of) his advanced years, Jameson’s qualifications are self-evident: he negotiated a seemingly impossible hostage situation on that very planet forty-five years earlier that made him something of a diplomatic hero. Though Mordan IV eventually plunged into a bloody, forty-year civil war, the past five years have been peaceful. Picard wonders why the current governor, Karnas, can’t seem to handle the situation himself. (Obviously healing a rift as deep as a civil war has a difficulty rating of three, max.)

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