I recognised the voice, and checked...

It's clear that TNG takes the Prime Directive way more seriously than TOS did, and that makes for better storytelling. I think if Kirk is placed in that situation, he not only dashes in and impersonates a god to save his crew, but also impregnates a few of the locals along the way. Good episode, great performances by Stewart and the proto-Vulcans.

I watched The City on the edge of forever last night. It was very good. I plan on watching the best (or at least considered best) episodes of TOS in the near future.

Joan Collins 15 years before "Dynasty"

While watching the episode, my wife recognized Joan Collins. She then told me than in Ukraine there was a very popular tv show where Joan Collins is the main villain. She said everybody in Ukraine would recognize her. I don't know what show she meant, but it sounds like the show is "Dynasty".

After skimming through the thread I decided to watch the following episodes:
Trouble with Tribbles
Amok Time
Mirror Mirror
Naked Time
Balance of Terror
Corbomite maneuver
Plato's stepchildren

I started with Amok Time yesterday and it was superb. I had my hopes high immediately when I noticed it was written by Theodore Sturgeon, a sci fi legend. I was very surprised when I read that "live long and prosper" and the Vulcan salute were introduced here. The episode was fantastic. I am not sure it could have been written today. Given that Vulcans are supposed to be so logical, it seems strange to have them be so sexist. But the story was really good and well executed. The Vulcan female's logical argument at the end was great.

After this episode, I decided to add "Shore leave" to my queue, since that was also written by Sturgeon. Sturgeon wrote the short story "Microcosmic God" which is my favorite short story in the anthology "The Science Fiction Hall of Game 1929-1964 Vol. 1".

Don't forget "Space Seed"

On CBS in the UK, "Amok Time" was on last night. It's a great episode, which really gets the best out of Nimoy.

Contrasting that, was the Deep Space Nine episode that followed it "Our Man Bashir".... Jesus. A transporter/holdeck accident leads to all the weaker actors in the series being stranded in a 1960's "Men From Uncle/Bond" type story, plodding from one clichéd scene to the next, with pretty much every joke falling flat.

Meanwhile, the actors who could have possibly pulled off such a scenario, namely Quark, Odo and Rom are sidelined trying to fix the problem. I guess I'm just not a fan of DS9. The highs are good, but there are far too many weak one-dimensional characters for me to really get into the series.

I have seen Space Seed before (watched it a few years ago after rewatching Wrath of Khan). That's why it's not part of the list.

A+ ending. Love seeing Spock get outwitted.

I would consider adding Spectre of the Gun to the list. It's probably my all-time favorite.

TNG and Deep Space Nine are very entertaining. Movies also very solid imo. I especially enjoyed the new Star Trek movies created by JJ Abrams. It took Star Trek and turned it into something something totally different, something that people who don't even like Star Trek could watch and appreciate and enjoy.

What is the best episode in Star Trek trilogy history? Could be any show. Also what do you think is the best movie of the Franchise. I think JJ Abrams reboot may be the best, that is just my personal opinion.

Inner Light

The Inner Light, without question. One of the best episodes of any tv show, let alone Star Trek.

Movie is The Wrath of Khan, by some distance. I'm not sure there would have been any Star Trek post-1980 without that movie.

I personally liked "Family" best. If you can encompass that episode as part of The Best of Both Worlds part 1+2 then it wins hands down.

Interesting when episodes refer to previous episodes. That sense of continuity makes it way better.

After the Inner light love, I decided to watch it last night. Wow! It was a great episode. I was worried at first that it would be the classic "the life you think you have is a dream, this is real" episode that seems to be a staple of long running shows. Luckily, it wasn't. It was a wonderful episode. Great ending too.

"Its me!"

When he realizes he is the one the probe ends up finding.

Star Trek TNG S3E05 The Bonding

Plodding, overworthy episode about death and remembrance involving a kid losing his mother on an away mission - we have scenes of Picard monologuing about how stupid it is to bring families into space, and both Wesley and Worf sharing their feelings about losing a parent with the direction of hippy Troi.

I did actually like a short speech Wesley gives about how he was angry at Picard when he found out his own father had died, and a cool Klingon ritual scene (are these ever not good?)

But mostly, your standard kumbaya episode, in other words.


3/10

This was one of the last episodes that had its story changed to conform with the insane "Roddenberry Rules". This was originally written as the bereaved kid spending a lot of time in the holodeck after his mother died, running a simulation of his mother. Roddenberry comes along and says, no bros, in the 24th century we will have advanced sufficiently that death will just be a natural part of life, dealwithit.jpg. You know how the kid is just kind of flat and stoic throughout the whole episode? That wasn't bad acting, that was an actual choice that Roddenberry imposed on the episode.

So instead of the kid running to the holodeck, they had to interrupt his super advanced 24th century grieving process with a space ghost of his mother that just appeared. So the kid is all oh hey ma, good to have you back. I mean it was fine either way, but whatever, it is acceptable that you are back as well. Death is a natural part of life but so are space ghosts, so it evens out yo.

I mean this kid makes Spock look like a hysterical teenage girl. This kids mom dies, he's a legit space orphan with basically no family, and he's dealing with it like a champion.

There was a lot of good stuff in this episode, especially the Worf guilt and the Wes-Picard stuff, but the kid is just lol.

Oh and this was the first TNG episode written by the great Ron Moore, who later went on to create the Battlestar Galactica reboot. As well as writing some of the best TNG and DS9 episodes.

I watched Q who? last night. I loved it. It was sort of my first introduction to the Borg. I love Q, so I plan on going through all of the Q episodes in my path through best episodes of Star Trek. Guinan is a nice character too.

Star Trek TNG S3E06 Booby Trap

A decent mid-level episode where the Enterprise gets stuck in a minefield that converts any energy they expend into lethal radiation, slowly draining their energy as the clock ticks.

I liked this one. It had a decent script, and Levar Burton really delivered as LaForge both solving the problem and getting attracted to his hologram coworker... The opening scene is lol (LaForge trying to get jiggy with a date on a hologram beach and Hungarian violinist), but it's otherwise pretty solid.

** SPOILER IN PARAGRAPH **
And the near-final scene of Picard being a badass by steering the Enterprise out of the field with barely any power and using the gravity of the asteroids to slingshot to safety was...well...badass.
** END SPOILER **

Picard is a cool mother****er.



6/10

hahahahaha LaForge has zero game. ZERO

Go jerk it in the holodeck loser