TNG Re-Watch Archive

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

– 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: “The Arsenal of Freedom”

Eugene Myers

– April 12, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“The Arsenal of Freedom”
Written by Richard Manning and Hans Beimler
Story by Maurice Hurley and Robert Lewin
Directed by Les Landau

Season 1, Episode 21
Original air date: April 11, 1988
Star date: 41798.2

Mission summary

Enterprise reaches the Lorenze Cluster in search of the U.S.S. Drake, which vanished while investigating the sudden disappearance of all intelligent life on Minos, a planet of arms merchants. As soon as they arrive, Enterprise is hailed with a targeted advertisement from the self-proclaimed “Arsenal of Freedom.” Annoyed that he had to sit through a commercial, Picard sends a small away team to shut everything down.

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Tags: automatic systems, cloaking devices, computers, everyone loves riker, fancy weapons, handwaving mumblemumble, holograms, illusions, mysteries, saucer separation, self-annihilation, stock footage, tactical combat

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Heart of Glory”

Torie Atkinson

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

“Heart of Glory”
Teleplay by Maurice Hurley
Story by Maurice Hurley and Herbert Wright & D.C. Fontana
Directed by Rob Bowman

Season 1, Episode 20
Original air date: March 21, 1988
Star date: 41503.7

Mission summary

The Enterprise is called out to the Neutral Zone to investigate a recent battle involving a Talarian freighter. Some life signs are aboard, so Riker, Data, and Geordi beam over to the ship, with Geordi transmitting VISOR-cam back to the Enterprise. The away team pokes through the damaged vessel until eventually they stumble upon the survivors, but they’re not Talarian or Romulan: they’re Klingon.

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Tags: angry klingons, attempts at continuity, caught between two worlds, civil war, enemies of the klingon empire, exile, identity crisis, klingons, superfluous technology, talarians, worf has baggage

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Coming of Age”

Eugene Myers

– March 29, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Coming of Age”
Written by Sandy Fries (uncredited rewrite by Hannah Louise Shearer)
Directed by Mike Vejar

Season 1, Episode 19
Original air date: March 14, 1988
Star date: 41461.2

Mission summary

Enterprise delivers acting ensign Wesley Crusher to Relva VII to participate in the planet’s annual Hunger Games Starfleet Academy entrance examination. He meets the other candidates: a girl named Oliana, a Vulcan girl named T’Shanik, and a Benzite named Mordock. They are all incredibly bright, but apparently only one of them will be offered a coveted spot at the Academy.

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Tags: after school special, annoying bureaucrats, conspiracies, lack of holodeck privacy, no-win scenario, psych test, starfleet academy, Wesley is a smartypants, wesley is oblivious to girls, wesley makes a friend

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Home Soil”

Torie Atkinson

– March 22, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Home Soil”
Teleplay by Robert Sabaroff
Story by Karl Guers, Ralph Sanchez, and Robert Sabaroff
Directed by Corey Allen

Season 1, Episode 18
Original air date: February 22, 1988
Star date: 41463.9

Mission summary

The Enterprise pays a visit to Velara III, a Tattooine-like planet chosen by the Federation for terraforming. The leader of the terraforming team, Mandl, looks nervous and tries to discourage the Enterprise from stopping by. Picard knows something’s up (who wouldn’t want a hello from the inspectors?) and sends Riker, Yar, Data, and La Forge down to check things out. The rest of the terraforming team–Malencon, the hydraulics specialist; Luisa Kim, the biosphere designer; and chief engineer Bjorn Bensen–don’t seem to have any secrets. But when Mandl tells Malencon to get back to work, the specialist disappears into a room only to start screaming moments later. The crew finds him too late, badly burned by a ceiling-mounted laser drill. Though they beam him to sickbay, he’s dead, Jean-Luc.

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Tags: chemistry is too complicated for television writers, inorganic life, new life form, riker sexes ladies, terraforming, this misunderstanding will make a funny story later oh wait no it won't, ugly bags of mostly water

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “When the Bough Breaks”

Eugene Myers

– March 15, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“When the Bough Breaks”
Written by Hannah Louise Shearer
Directed by Kim Manners

Season 1, Episode 17
Original air date: February 15, 1988
Star date: 41509.1

Mission summary

Enterprise follows a trail of energy readings to the Epsilon Mynos system, the legendary location of the hidden world Aldea, which turns out to be more than a myth. The planet drops its sophisticated cloaking shield and they are welcomed by a young woman, Rashella, who soon transports to the ship’s bridge with a much older man, Radue, First Appointee to Aldea. They have an intriguing, but ambiguous deal to offer the Federation crew.

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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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Tags: bad makeup, diplomacy fail, emotional women, fake moral dilemmas, letting the terrorists win, picard moralizing, really old people, things that are absolutely not funny, transparent allegories, troi is useless

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “11001001”

Eugene Myers

– March 1, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“11001001”
Written by Maurice Hurley and Robert Lewin
Directed by Paul Lynch

Season 1, Episode 15
Original air date: February 1, 1988
Star date: 41365.9

Mission summary

Enterprise reports to Starbase 74 for its 30,000 light year service inspection and upgrades, to be performed by Bynars, aliens who work in linked pairs and are connected to a central computer on their homeworld. Commander Riker doesn’t completely trust them, but he’s content to leave Wesley to keep an eye on them after the alien computer whizzes modify the holodeck and program up his dream girl: a woman named Minuet who tells him exactly what he wants to hear.

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Tags: aliens take over the ship, big heads, bynars, child-like aliens, computers, everyone loves riker, holodeck, painting, sexy ladies, wesley endangers the ship

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Angel One”

Torie Atkinson

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

“Angel One”
Written by Patrick Barry
Directed by Michael Rhodes

Season 1, Episode 14
Original air date: January 25, 1988
Star date: 41636.9

Mission summary

The Enterprise stumbles upon the remains of the Odin, a small freighter that collided with an asteroid seven years previous. While there are no life signs onboard, three escape pods are missing. The nearest class M planet where any survivors may have landed is Angel I, a matriarchal constitutional oligarchy with whom the Federation last had contact sixty-two years ago.

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Tags: everyone loves riker, half-naked man-chests, matriarchy, oh look what I found on the Paramount lot, oh the sexism it burns, patriarchy, romulans, sexism, sexy doom, sexy ladies, snoo-snoo, stop using sex as a weapon, troi is useless, very special episode, weird sexual politics, wesley endangers the ship

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

Eugene Myers

– February 16, 2012 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Datalore”
Written by Robert Lewin and Gene Roddenberry, Story by Robert Lewin and Maurice Hurley
Directed by Rob Bowman

Season 1, Episode 13
Original air date: January 18, 1988
Star date: 41242.4

Mission summary

Enterprise is passing near the planet where the android Lt. Commander Data was found, so Picard decides to make a short detour in the hopes of unearthing fresh clues to the fate of the colonists who disappeared twenty-six years before.

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