Huh. I actually don't think I've seen that one.

Been a while since I have seen that one, although I remember it for both the dumb martial arts, and some pretty good scenes between Riker's dad and Pulaski.

Pulaski is pretty good in those, the Dad not so much. Diane Muldaur acts him off the screen.

There's also some good scenes between Pulaski and Troi, and Troi and Riker.

It occurs to me that ST:TNG really shows how good actors elevate a scene and the performances of mediocre actors. Whenever there's a scene with Picard, Data, Pulaski or Guinan (and Worf too, maybe), the other actors look good. When it's between the other actors and not involving the above, it's not great.

ohhhhhh is this the one where Riker turns down a promotion? That whole storyline made me soooooooo angry. NO ONE DOES THIS

Really boring plot that revolves around Riker and his daddy issues. Also Worf gets all emo. The whole thing just drags along and the only fun bit is the American Gladiator-style combat scene that's so bad it's silly. Even Shatner had more convincing fighting moves.

I just knocked out TOS S2/E4, Mirror, Mirror.

This is the one the gang, minus Spock, get thrown onto an alternate enterprise in a barbarian/pirate universe (and those guys get sent to our normal enterprise).

Not bad at all. I found this one pretty well paced and sufficiently fun.

That's the one with the beardy Spock. Great episode.

Star Trek TNG S2E15 Pen Pals

The dialogue in this is VERY functional, and falls flat with the mediocre actors, but works fine for the good actors. It really shouldn't be a good episode involving saving a little alien girl from planet Earthquake (alon with a non-dramatic subplot involving Wesley's first command mission), but Spiner, Stewart and Muldair really sell it (Spiner in particular)

I really liked that episode. Love the scene where they're all hanging out in Picard's quarters to discuss the situation, very casual feel to it (as opposed to the observation lounge) and the only time they do it IIRC.

The goatee-wearing evil Spock is one of the classic iconic images from TOS.

Star Trek TNG S2E16 Q Who

Another episode of the supposedly awful season 2 that knocks it out of the park. I don't think there's a single bad episode in the Next Gen that involves the Borg, and this is the very first one of its type. Exceptional, riveting and fun.

I don't think anyone said season 2 was awful. Has some real stinkers like Okona, a lot of mediocre to good episodes, and then some classics like Measure of a Man and Q Who. Although Measure is much better than Q Who imo, it's a top 5 episode imo

My favorite part of that episode is when they see their first ever Borg drone (intruder in Engineering) and Picard commands Worf to deal with it... and Worf turns around and makes the Ensign do it (who of course gets injured) lol.

I normally hate the Wesley episodes, but here we see him not as a dork wonderkid but as an insecure junior officer learning to handle command responsibilities, and it's not bad at all. There's also a foray into the ethics of the Prime Directive that reminds me of some of TOS episodes, although the ending sort of lets them blow off the PD without any real consequence.

Also, there's a shot in Ten Forward where Wesley and Riker both do the Riker chair maneuver. Kid is learning from the best!

Q Who is easily the best TNG episode so far. The Borg are one of the great high-concept villains in all of sci-fi. Very dark tone for a TNG episode; the theme of humans being unprepared for the dangers of space exploration isn't something you expect from ST.

As a minor character note, this episode introduces the adorkable Ensign Gomez, who was clearly intended to be a recurring goofball character, but only shows up in one other episode.


Season 2 is definitely a huge improvement over S1. The storytelling is getting more ambitious, Wesley is no longer the focus of every other episode.

The good captain weighs in on the controversy in the Kentucky court system in episode S4E7 Reunion...

https://vine.co/v/et0lpilpQbE

I can kind of understand the Wesley focus of season 1. He was probably the only actor in the cast who people would have heard of, and the producers clearly wanted to exploit this and intended him to be a major character.

A combination of terrible storylines for him, and the emergence of other cast members (most notably Spiner), meant the focus drifted away.

WRT Q-Who, this was definitely the episode that made people sit up and take notice of TNG. It introduced a genuinely threatening villain (the Ferengi were definitely not a high-concept villain), who ratcheted up the tension and put you on the edge of your seat every time they appeared.

It's to the writers credit that they let this plot simmer for one and a half seasons before we see the Borg again....

The most well-known of the cast was Levar Burton - young Kunta Kinte in "Roots"

First time I have heard of "roots"; google'd it and still none the wiser.

Guess it might depends where you live. Stand By Me was a pretty big film in the UK.

Roots was slightly more culturally important in the US than stand by me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roots_(miniseries)

Not a big hubbub about the cultural impact of slavery in the UK, so I get why it's not on your radar. Even OJ was in Roots.

Though you did have to suspend disbelief to not be vexed by how Levar Burton morphed into John Amos as he aged.

Plus, my understanding is that the writers wanted to try to appeal to younger viewers. Which seems silly to me, bc young people loved the original series, which didn't have any kids on board.

Star Trek TNG S2E17 Samaritan Snare

This was pretty terrible. I had the sense they were trying to comment on society, and it felt like star trek was trying to do its own version of the movie Idiocracy, and it just didn't work. I kind of liked the story Picard told about being in a knife fight, but the whole Picard stuck in a shuttle with Wesley subplot was silly and pointless...but it was still better than the main plot.

The Pakled captain was played by the same actor who played the Klingon captain that Riker served under.