A Man. And His Blog.

It was a good episode, and it was clever that the writers laid a false trail first, before revealing that this whole episode was about Data, Lore and Noonien Soong (Brent Spiner kept himself busy in this episode). First I was thinking that the two little brothers on the Enterprise managed to hack Data and do with the Enterprise what they want, and even though I would have liked this story better, it was a nice surprise that it wasn’t nearly about that.

But even though it was nice to have a Data-centric episode, which actually was intriguing for once, I was confused at the ending. How did Lore get to what he got from Noonien? How did he manage to get the new chip into his body, with the doctor thinking at first that he was updating Data. Or to put it more simply: How did Data become Lore at the end, what happened with Data, and what happened with Lore? Somehow the whole last act was very confusing for me, and it looked like a big black plot hole (or one of you can actually explain to me what happened at the end).

Moreover, though the story was intriguing, it was lame that Noonien only got his two “sons” back, because he wanted to update Data. I wonder why he activated Lore – just to let him see how Data becomes him? And how were the writers not having the idea at the end, that the supposedly Data was Lore, killing Noonien – for what reason soever. When Data was having his last words with Noonien, I was waiting for the twist, Data being Lore, to come, but nothing was coming. And one scene later, the episode was over. Again, somewhat confusing.

The story on the Enterprise (Patrick Stewart) was lame though. The story with the little child in danger was practically imminent, and the fear of Picard losing the Enterprise to Data could have been played out better. Only the first ten minutes were thrilling and exciting, figuring that Data was doing something to the ship, and nobody knew what he was up to. But the rest was rather unexciting.

It was a good episode, but confusing at the end. Was it all a plot hole, or is there a bigger meaning behind it, which I wasn’t able to see? 6.5/10

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Data feels, and the world suddenly sucks balls

Wow. It was a good episode, but I call this one the first perfect example for classic overacting in 80s (and early 90s) TV shows. I know that STAR TREK had some overacting before, but either I have forgotten all of it, or this episode really was the first one, where I noticed that. Sometimes, it was unintentionally funny and made the episode even more watchable than expected.

Minus the overacting and the funny because of it, it was a fine episode. For once, the series is going completely out of the science fiction genre, without having to deal with a hologram story, and for the first time, the series seemed to have a real drama story, And I liked the brother conflict between Jean-Luc (Patrick Stewart) and Robert (Jeremy Kemp). The only wish would have been that the whole episode would have focused on that, without bringing Worf’s (Michael Dorn) family on board the Enterprise, and without the pretty useless message Wesley (Wil Wheaton) got from his father Jack (Doug Wert).

There were some great issues lying underneath Jean-Luc’s surface, and such a family-storyline was good enough to release all of those issues. Colliding with his family and his jealous brother, after he got assimilated, was a nice way to show Jean-Luc from his personal side, instead of the same procedure in every episode. But maybe the episode would have been good to bring even more family drama between Jean-Luc and Robert, especially since they haven’t seen each other for 20 years. Only Worf’s storyline stole the necessary screentime, and the whole thing about Worf not wanting to have his (Russian?) parents on board was not really my cup of tea. Furthermore, I didn’t like how Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) was “involved” in the situation, and why the two parents were even better overactors than Patrick Stewart and his on-screen brother. I seriously had to laugh out loud, when they were talking to Guinan, or how their faces changed to a more happier mode, when Worf acknowledged that he was happy about their visit – hilarious.

Not really a milestone episode in THE NEXT GENERATION, but it was good to say goodbye to the science fiction for an hour – it was a welcomed change. 7.5/10

Proud of their Klingon son: Worf's Russian parents

From dirt to brotherly love: Jean-Luc and Robert

Well, considering the “fire!”-cliffhanger from the last episode, the conclusion to that was lame – which was alright I guess, the Enterprise and the Borg couldn’t have been in a face-to-face battle for the rest of this episode (though it would have been great). But the rest of the episode was actually a bit lame. I expected a bit more action, but what I got was way too much talking; a strategy, where I asked myself why the Borg paid no attention to the saucer; and why it was so easy for the Enterprise crew to kidnap Locutus (Patrick Stewart); and why the Borg didn’t react to that, but became “concerned”, when they realized that the Enterprise was about to strike near the Earth orbit. Are these typical 80s plot holes, or is there something I don’t understand about the Borg?

Other than that the lame parts of the episode were alright. Of course Data (Brent Spiner) was the only one who could connect with Locutus, and it was predictable that Picard would win the upper hand of his body, and eventually deliver a message to Data. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) made a good figure as a captain, though I was expecting a bit less kickass-mode from him. He didn’t even show feelings for his new position; and the only scene where he had the opportunity to question everything, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) stole his worries out of his mouth, and she made all of it disappear. Argh, how I hate that woman already – she is the killer of every emotional scene. At least Picard got a “thinkabout”-moment at the end, which I count as the only one in this episode – where the emotional fight of losing a captain and friend could have ruled the episode. But no…

The background story was kinda lame too. A fleet gets destroyed, and except eyes wide open of the Enterprise crew there was nothing. And the fleet was destroyed really fast. It showed that the Borg are über-villains, but it lets the end of the episode, and Data saving the day (and eventually Earth too), look like a simple cop-out (though the reason was simply simple). I just didn’t like one fact: That Picard was back on his feet and could talk again, after the Borg cubic was destroyed. It would have been logical (yes, I know it’s a sci-fi-show) when Picard would have been unconscious after the Bord subconscious vanished from him.

By the way: The whole “planting a mission in the Borg’s subconscious” reminded me of INCEPTION. And when Data repeatedly said “Proceed” while having contact with the Borg subconscious, I wanted him to say “Download information”. The episode was alright, I guess. 6.5/10

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This is not an inception in the Matrix

The third season aired in syndication between 1989 and 1990.

Star Trek: The Next Generation’s third year was an important development in syndicated television. After two shaky years, Paramount nonetheless decided the franchise still had plenty to do. Their confidence was bolstered by two significant factors. First, cast uncertainties were finally settled: Gates McFadden was back for good; Denise Crosby regretted her first-year departure; and Whoopi Goldberg happily continued her actor’s-scale contributions.
The third season is marked by a string of abductions, with six people being kidnapped, and Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) being abducted no less than three times. He is abducted by aliens, takes a vacation which eventually gets him caught up in the search for a weapon from the future, mind melds with the legendary Vulcan Sarek (Mark Lenard), and is mistaken for a god by a primitive culture. He was again kidnapped with Doctor Crusher by Ansata terrorists. Data (Brent Spiner) was abducted by Kivas Fajo (Saul Rubinek), a collector of rare objects. He also continued to learn about Humanity, and constructed his own daughter, Lal (Hallie Todd). Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis), and her mother Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett) are all abducted by the Ferengi. Additionally, Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) comes on board the USS Enterprise-D and slowly begins to learn how to become a better officer, and Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) is promoted to the rank of full ensign by Captain Picard after successfully discovering the key to rescuing Commander Riker, Counselor Troi and her mother Lwaxana, at the expense of his own entry into Starfleet Academy.

Episode 01: Evolution
What the hell… a total boring episode. The story is interesting, the beginning was good, but the rest was totally forgettable. I already forgot what problems the Enterprise had. My god, this was the season premiere and the authors are pulling off such a lame episode??!?!?!? What the hell?!?!?!??? 3/10

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Click here for season one.
Space – the final frontier. These are the voyages of the star ship Enterprise. It’s continuing mission: to explore strange, new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilization; to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Episode 01: The Child
Hm, for a season opener lame, but for a simple, alone standing episode it was good in some kind. I didn’t find it very believable that Deanna (Marina Sirtis) was so lovely to her son, despite she had the knowledge, that something bad can happen. It seems like she was brainwashed by her son. But the scene where she decided to have the baby and the interactions with Riker (Jonathan Frakes) were strong. On the other hand the sub story with the viruses was dumb. It wasn’t interesting, it wasn’t thrilling, it was nothing. Just the jokes at the end due to Wesley’s (Wil Wheaton) staying on the ship were hilarious (“And who will tuck him in at night?”). 6,5/10

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So, I finished the first season of the second Star Trek series. After I watched the first season of the original series, some episodes of the second season and the first six movies I decided to start watching The Next Generation. Why? Because I stopped during the second season of TOS and never went back. And for my year in Canada I only took the whole TNG series with me. But I will watch the rest of TOS eventually sometimes next year.
Hopefully.
Now, here my very little recap of the first season. Every episode short commented with points from 1 (very bad) to 10 (genius episode). I will do that for the other six seasons, too (and maybe for other series soon, who knows).
The first season ran on syndicated networks between September 26, 1987 and May 14, 1988.

Episode 01/02: Encounter at Farpoint Well, I have to say the pilot was boring as hell. Nothing much happened and like the opener of TOS I was right into the whole story. Maybe it would be better to start like the first movie – but we will never find out. The first encounter with Q was kind of trivial; it didn’t interest me that much. Maybe it would be better, if the two parter was only one episode.
Oh yeah… Why the appearance of McCoy? To have at least one remnant from TOS? 5/10

Episode 03: The Naked Now I remember the “prequel” from TOS. Back then it was a boring episode. And now this was boring, too. The crew behaved like drunk people, and Wesley as Captain? I laughed my ass off, that was some funny shit (negatively speaking). By the way, this episode was another remnant from TOS; maybe the authors couldn’t find their own stories :/ 5,5/10

Episode 04: Code of Honor Boring planet of the week episode with a guest actor who reminded me of one of the season enemies of 24.
My favorite quote: Riker: I’ll see that (Wesley) leaves immediately.
Picard: No.
Riker: No?
Picard: Why don’t you sit down at Ops next to Lt. LaForge?
Wesley: Sir?
Geordi: Sir?
Picard: Is the whole ship deaf? Sit down over there, young man. 6/10

Episode 05: The Last Outpost Yeah… I don’t know. The Ferengis are crappy and annoying aliens, but it had some thrilling moments. The end was lame. 6,5/10

Episode 06: Where No One Has Gone Before Finally a good episode. I liked the Traveler character, but I didn’t like that the story was moving that fast. This would be excellent for a two parter. 8/10

Episode 07: Lonely Among Us What a crappy story with an even crappier ending. What was this? How was it possible that Picard was still living? And what is it with the death of the peace delegate? Picard, Riker and Troi are laughing about it? But a few moments were good. 3,5/10

Episode 08: Justice I heard this was one of the worst episodes. I did find it very amusing… somehow. Okay, the whole Prime Directive thing was confusing for me, but the planet itself? Very nice – looooove all over the place. Basically you can have sex on the sidewalk, this is absolutely… ROFL.
Am I a real Trekkie, when I am giving this episode 7/10?

Episode 09: The Battle The Ferengis again. Down with these crappy and annoying aliens. Picard’s past was nice, but the manipulating device reminded me of old trash stories from The Adventures of Lois and Clark.
So, there are no headaches anymore? Great future 6/10

Episode 10: Hide and Q The next episode with Q. So he wants to get Riker to join the Q. Yeah, that is the episode i wanted to see (not). But it was funny while it lasted.
And what did I read? Riker maybe still has the power of the Q? The fans are really thinking about that stuff. It is like Lost 6,5/10

Episode 11: Haven I don’t remember much of the episode. Just Deanna, a Calvin Kline model and some planned wedding. It had to be boring. I will give it 4/10

Episode 12: The Big Goodbye So, that is the first holodeck episode. Interesting story, but bad characteristics from the crew. The action of Picard and Beverly was really dumb. They have to follow the rules of that time… No wonder a redshird died. 7/10

Episode 13: Datalore The episode was interesting, but the intro was running and running and running and running and running… It was clear all the time that Lore was a bad android, that he would do something. An episode without any thrill, but still good. Somehow.
btw: I had to watch that episode twice. I fell asleep during the first run. 6,5/10

Episode 14: Angel One Another planet of the week episode. I found it very amusing. A planet ruled by women? Holy shit, this can’t be true. One of the actresses (I don’t know her name) strongly reminded me of Mira Furlan. The semblance was intriguing. 6,5/10

Episode 15: 11001001 The best episode so far. But still with a problem: Why do the authors have to write an actual threat every time, even if it isn’t a threat for the crew? The whole Bynars thing was dissolved in a crappy way. And the girl in the holodeck was ugly. How can Riker find her hot? 8,5/10

Episode 16: Too Short a Season I didn’t like that admiral. And the story was crappy, too. The acting was too theatrical and the ending too pointless. I couldn’t like this episode, but somehow it had some good moments. 4,5/10

Episode 17: When the Bough Breaks Another planet of the week with nice habitants, who kidnap children. Hm, it wasn’t boring, but it wasn’t good either. 5,5/10

Episode 18: Home Soil I don’t know about that either. It has a great story, a great alien, but the episode wasn’t that great. The guest characters were written too crappy and the alien too nice at the end. Could somebody do a little bit damage on the ship? 6,5/10

Episode 19: Coming of Age Why does everybody hate the character of Wesley? I found his story very charming. The on ship story was great, too. And I knew this would be a prelude to episode 25. Actually a good episode. 7,5/10

Episode 20: Heart of Glory Worf’s first story: boring. I don’t like the Klingons whysoever, so I really didn’t care much about the story. But the escape of Worf’s two buddies was pretty lame. And how did they manage to bring a whole weapon into the brig? What is up with the Enterprise’s security? 5,5/10

Episode 21: The Arsenal of Freedom Interesting episode with an interesting new weapon. And finally some serious danger for the crew. And LaForge did well as commanding officer. So shall it be.
My favorite quote: Deanna: What happened to all the people?
Worf: War?
Data: Disease?
Geordi: A dissatisfied customer? 8/10

Episode 22: Symbiosis Baah, that was a shitty episode. With its drug related theme it reminded me of one of those 7th Heaven “upholder of moral standard” episodes. OMG, gruesome. 2/10

Episode 23: Skin of Evil I had some memories about that episode. Just another planet of the week, but I had some images about it the whole years after I watched that probably as a kid on television. This was real nostalgia. Oh, and a good episode, too. And finally Tasha is dead, she was a really boring character. 6,5/10

Episode 24: We’ll Always Have Paris I love that “new dimension” stuff, but that was crap. That was nothing. The time loop story was not logical enough to amuse me and I didn’t understand Data’s conflict in the finale: Why was the middle one in the right time, when we always saw the first one? And the romance could be more cut. 4,5/10

Episode 25: Conspiracy It was a good episode, but I was hoping for more. So it was just an unknown alien (how boring). But the ending was really nice. And I read, no other Star Trek episode or series concluded that theme. Interesting. 8/10

Episode 26: The Neutral Zone WTF? People from the 20th century, are you frakking serious? This story was just awful and terrible. And the conflict with the Romulans… Joar, what conflict? They just said: “We are back.” Great, what a gimmick. This wasn’t seriously the season finale?
It was bad. 3/10

Season average is 5,88. I will start the second season next month. First I have to finish some other seasons of other TV shows. See you then.