ST TNG S3E19: Captain's Holiday



Fun midlevel entry with Picard getting overworked and grouchy, but he's not a holiday kind of guy. Only the threat of a visit from Troi's mother tips the balance, and he goes on vacation. However, he gets caught up in an Indiana Jones' type adventure, getting a little love-action on the way, and meets a cute lady adventuress.

Favourite parts: Picard punching a Ferengi in the face, Troi pointing out that Rapey Riker keeps going on about the women on planet Risa a bit too much, Picard realising that memento Riker asks him to pick up is a symbol of being sexually available after leaving it on his table for an entire morning whilst reading by the pool after being approached by several women.

6/10

Socially awkward Picard is hilarious. Plus, some fine trolling at the very end by Riker. Not a terribly original premise, but the cast makes it work.

The writers have hinted at the possibility of a Picard/Crusher romance since the very first episode and many times after that, but somehow they never really followed through.

Riker has really upped his troll game in Season 3. He's almost reached Chekov-level trolling, plus he's got the trollface smile down pat. This wasn't an outstanding episode, but it was different enough from the usual fare to make it interesting.

I personally love Captain's Holiday. Part of the charm of ToS was the fun and humour injected into the series, and there certainly wasn't enough fun in season 1 and 2 episodes of TNG. Plus this episode further showcases Stewart's range as an actor, with some great comedy timing. Jennifer Hetrick was also excellent as Vash and had great chemistry with Stewart - the follow-up episode where she shows up on the Enterprise is also a very funny episode (although they had worn the joke a bit thin by the time she popped up on DS9....).

Think I lol'd at least half-a-dozen times during the episode, which is more than I manage during the average modern Hollywood comedy.

9/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaVWIVOdUSQ

They just released the a teaser for the new series. It was mostly generic shots of space and music but at the end the line is "New Crews. New Villains. New Heroes. New Worlds"

I wonder if this means the show will focus on multiple crews? Otherwise, seems like they're going back to a TOS/TNG-style adventure series.

I give it 3 seasons.....

idk, I think the built in audience for Star Trek is huge and a show doesn't have to attract all that many viewers these days to be profitable. If it is any good at all it should do fine.

They should steal my idea for a Star Trek show, a young Miles O'Brien gets PTSD from serving in the Cardassian War with Captain Maxwell on the Rutledge.

The problem is that it's only going to be on CBS's streaming service. Give it 2 seasons, tops.


Netflix should do a show about the adventures of Harvey Mudd, complete with retro costumes and sets.

Harry, not Harvey.

In fact, if you're familiar with the character and the episode(s), how could you not remember his full name?! I can still hear that woman screeching his name over and over 50 years later!

I think everyone gave TNG no more than a couple of seasons when that run started, and the success of that show completely re-booted the franchise.

However, TV is just so much more competitive these days. People won't watch it "just because it's Star Trek" as Star Trek:Enterprise showed, and if it's just on CBS, no one will watch it at all.

I mean, what kind of TV numbers does "Agents of SHIELD" bring in? and that has the weight of the huge Marvel franchise to prop it up.

I just don't see it being a success, although I hope I'm wrong.

Right, but Enterprise averaged like 8 million viewers its first season and wasn't very good. So people DID watch it just because it is Star Trek. They're obviously not going to keep watching it when it sucks, but that's fine.

Which was too bad, because S4 was great (finale aside).

ST TNG S3E20: Tin Man

And we're back into hippy territory, with some guy who can feel everything hating everyone's presence and wanting to be alone, and bonding with a mystical alien thing. I liked some scenes with Data, but it felt like a typical season 1 episode otherwise.

4/10

Yeah, I really hated that episode - almost "so bad it's good territory".

Almost.

Nah, I think the series has a good chance of being successful. This is the golden era of TV. There is a culture of TV shows being well made and supported by the networks and suits. Unless ratings and critical opinion of it is REALLY low, they will give it as much support as they can, IMO.

Highlight is him calling Riker "Billy Boy"

the newest Star Trek Movie trailer looks good after seeing the initial teaser looked terrible... makes a little more sense.

I wouldn't go as far as to call it good. It is better than the previous trailer.

The story seems somewhat original and the trailer makes it look more character-driven, so it's a definite improvement.

ST TNG S3E21: Hollow Pursuits

A self-reviewing title! And the run of turgid limpers continues with this, probably the most boring episode I can remember in a while, looking at the loser Barclay (Dwight Schultz badly used) and his lack of confidence as the main storyline... great premise, eh?

I did like the use of the word holoddiction and the midget muskateer Riker.

1/10

Wow, I usually agree with (or closely approximate) your feelings about TNG episodes, but not this time. In fact, I think that you'll find yourself in a distinct minority with a rating that low for this episode. While not one of my all-time favorites, I still believe that this was a very good episode, highlighted by Dwight Schultz's acting, and was the reason that Barkley became a semi-regular (occasional?) featured member of the crew. Ironically, I was never a big fan of the Barkley character or the subsequent episodes and wish that this had been a one-off.

^ I agree.

As with Captain's Holiday this is a nice, fun, light hearted episode and I really enjoyed Schultz's portrayal of the character and the way he interacted with the cast.

Pretty solid 7/10 for me.

Yeah, good episode imo

I really didn't like it, I thought it was slight in the extreme. Dwight Schultz is solid in everything he does, and he played it well as written, but the whole premise felt like it should have been no more than a minor subplot in another episode imo.

Remember that episode The Bonding, where the kid lost his mother? In that one the kid was supposed to run to the holodeck and take comfort in a holodeck simulation of his mother. But Roddenberry nixed that plot because "in the 24th century people won't be bothered by death". Wat??? Kids aren't sad when they get orphaned in the 24th century??? That's what resulted in the weird alien presence simulates the mom unbidden plot and the kid's insane and extreme stoicism. Once Roddenberry got kicked off the show they repurposed that plot in this episode.

Heh, just a typo. No one forgets the name Harcourt Fenton Mudd.

The Tin Man alien thing seems like a clear callback to The Doomsday Machine from TOS. I think they missed an opportunity to make an explicit reference to that episode.

The whole Betazoid telepathy thing is an angle that TOS never really fleshed out in a convincing way. This one tries, but I just couldn't get into it.

I thought this was an interesting premise that in some ways anticipates internet addiction, but the Barclay character was just so ham-fisted and overdone. This is cheesy even by William Shatner standards. I did enjoy the swashbuckling scene, though. You can see it in their faces, Stewart and Spiner had a blast hamming it up.

Lt. Barclay will become a lovable recurring character in TNG, Voyager and the First Contact movie.