I like her too, and always look forward to her exchanges with Picard - regardless of how anyone else "voted".

Count me in the pro-Guinan crowd as well.

Interesting. I always thought she was universally hated like Wesley Crusher.
But now I am curious. I wonder if there are any people out there that actually like Wesley as well. I guess that it goes to show that you don't always know what you think you know. (Not sure if that makes sense)

Wesley is increasingly fine from this point on.

Yeah it's hard to really hate on Wesley S3 onwards. His episodes are probably better than most Troi ones, and he doesn't save the ship every other week. Even when he does, it's usually not a bad episode (e.g. the one with Ashley Judd in and "the game" Rikertard brings back from Risa).

I never hated Wesley, just thought the writers loved writing for him too much.

In retrospect, it looks like they almost had a long-term arc planned from the start, though what seems more likely is that they figured that out somewhere in s3.

Wil Wheaton, as you might remember, was once a member of Team PokerStars. Before BF, I was *KURN* on 'Stars, and at the PCA in '07 (I was down there by virtue of being in the final 27 of the Moneymaker Millionaire) I was planning to (probably) make a fool out of myself, by reprising one of my favorite Kurn lines ("How long has this bird been dead?" from "Sins of the Father") If I saw him near the carving station at the welcome reception.

Fortunately for me, he was not at the event, likely saving me from a lifetime of embarrassment.

Ah yes, I was told to prepare for that. I shall try some of your burned replicated bird meat

I've never killed anyone at the dinner table

Lol, Kurn!

It it just me, or have the visual effects and lighting have improved since S2? I think after running out of money at the end of S2, the producers were able to reload and up the production values a bit.

A kid's science project becoming self aware and taking over the ship is a premise goofy enough for a legit Red Dwarf episode, but the writers were able to make a pretty solid Roddenberry-style ST episode out of it. As others have mentioned, Wesley is far less annoying when he's goofing up and making mistakes.

It does look better, and all the actors seem much more settled and confident.

They could've expanded Wesley's character. Was it because Wheaton didn't want to be too involved with the show anymore?

Star Trek TNG S3E02 The Ensigns of Command

A decent episode centring on Data going down to a planet in order to persuade the human colony to leave. Meanwhile Picard has to deal with relentlessly official and superintelligent aliens who insist on sticking to a treaty.

Both strands are reasonably satisfying, even though the actors on the planet aren't great, and the script is a little lacksadasical.

I like the final exchange between Picard and the Shelliac when he cuts them off then waits several seconds before responding to their hail. For some reason I think it was Worf was made to appear as if he were panicking that the Capt wasn't responding.

Also, if I remember correctly, there is some epic cameltoe in this episode.

Yep, the scene where Picard makes the aliens wait is terrific. Didn't notice any cameltoe.

I thought the whole premise was flawed - stubborn space colonists didn't know they could be attacked from space until Data gave them an example by destroying something?

Same here.

Lwaxana Troi was my most hated character, even above S1-S2 Wesley. Too bad they couldn't have just limited her role in TNG to the computer voice.

Star Trek TNG S3E03 The Survivors

Weak episode, padding out a story that is effectively a mystery play. Why are only an old couple left on a devastated planet? Who is the enemy ship that seems all powerful, but won't destroy the Enterprise... and so on.

In the end, it's kind of taken a Q story and given this particular Q a conscience... but that's about it.

Not great.

Except he's not a Q. He's something else, and his conscience didn't stop him from annihilating an entire species.

Worf: "I admire gall."

Yeah, I didn't mean he was literally a Q, he's just the same time of being. I should have been clearer, my bad.

And that's being generous. Boy howdy, that is dodgy acting even by ST standards --though to be fair, they weren't given great material to work with. It's one of those so-bad-it's-good cheesy episodes that can be great fun.

I enjoyed this one, but the story winds up being a bit too convoluted for the time allowed. Very reminiscent in style to a TOS episode, and that's generally a good thing.

And as mentioned, Worf has some badass lines.

Worf's reaction to the tea is fun too.

Star Trek TNG S3E04 Who Watches The Watchers

Decent story about scientists observing a culture similar to early Vulcan being discovered by accident (a plot used in Star Trek: Insurrection) and accidently polluting the culture of the planet. It is a nice exploration of the ideas surrounding this and how to deal with it, and as such was a pretty pure Star Trek episode, executed decently, with some good acting. It was cool to see Ray Wise (more famous as Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks) as a proto-vulcan tormented and confused by what he thinks was a vision of a god (the 'Picard'!)


Very enjoyable and solid.

it's not quite a classic episode but it's a strong script, with a well-paced story and good supporting actors; it even manages to draw good performances from Riker and Troi.

Plenty to like, and absolutely nothing to dislike about this one.

That episode is one of my favorites. Never realized that was Ray Wise.