3 didnt necessarily mean rank. It could be an allusion to the crazed inventor Tesla.

ST TNG S5E19: The First Duty

Episode where Wesley lies about why someone died until forced to tell the truth by Picard, where he comes clean, gets his superior expelled and gets a free cushy year through the Academy, where he's already done the work.

I kid... a bit... this is a pretty good one. We have Ray Walston and Ed Lauter doing guest spots, and it's about Wesley and his crew being the centre of an investigation where one of the crew died. I like the individual scenes and it was reasonably written (though the procedural parts of it could have been tightened), but it suffered from Wesley not being the boy scout we all know Wesley is, leading to an air of inauthenticity. Walston and Lauter were also very underused, but it was still good to see them.

The problem with the episode really was Wesley only confessed because he'd been caught, not because his ethical compass made him do it, which means the cathartic resolution that would have served the episode - Wesley's inner compass making him do the right thing - wasn't delivered.

Still, I liked it a lot despite it rather fatal shortcomings.

7/10

I think your conclusion is slightly off on this one. They make is clear in the dénouement that "suspicion is not proof" (iirc) and so unless Westley confesses, they get off.

I really like this episode. I think it gets better with repeat viewings. The Walston/Stewart scenes are excellent, and it's nice to see Westley humanized somewhat.

I also like the pivotal role the episode plays in the ST universe. Sito Jaxa features heavily in HoF episode "lower decks" and Robert Duncan McNeill was supposed to reprise Nicholas Locarno in ST:Voyager until the producers realised they would have to pay the writers of The First Duty a royalty in every episode he appeared in, and so they changed his name and sufficient backstory to circumvent this.


I'd go 8/10....possibly even 9.

But Picard said he'd tell the court everything. That's new evidence, right? But you may be right. Whatever, the drama didn't feel like Wesley was confessing from ethical impetus but fear of relevation


It definitely is a charming episode. I think I'll bump it to an 8.

I think it really needed Locarno actually delivering his speech where he takes responsibility, instead of Picard telling us (via Wesley) about it. That would have helped in the dramatic resolution a lot.

Absolutely. That was never going to happen though given we were presumably never going to see this character again, so I'm kind of okay with Westley taking the high ground from a character development perspective.

Wow, this was the first Wesley episode I thoroughly enjoyed. Seeing Wes as a young man caught up in a moral quandary he can't technobabble his way out of and struggling with adult responsibilities makes the character so much more relatable than the usual wunderkid Wesley storyline. Solid A in my book.

I actually rather liked it that Wesley doesn't do the right thing straight away and that the episode doesn't solve everything neatly. It's a more interesting story with characters who **** up in understandable ways and have to face real consequences. Also gives Picard the opportunity to dish out some tough love moral guidance and set the kid on the right path.

It's not 100% clear imo, in the story Locarno points out that Picard doesn't really have enough hard proof to nail them all, although it's hard to believe the admirals wouldn't take his input very seriously.

Yeah, it does sort of retcon Wesley's firmly-established goody-two-shoes character. No way the Wesley we know would go along with some dangerous stunt. On the other hand, the boy scout Wesley is a sucky character and I don't mind seeing him made more human.

FYI--

"The Royale" episode on H&I antenna tv channel right now in the mountain time zone (America).

FYI - It (along with every other episode) can be watched/streamed at any time if you have Netflix.

lol, I that episode way too much. When the Riker train comes in, everybody rides.

Worf being completely unimpressed makes it so much better.

I know. They're also all on Hulu. But the joy of the random episode showing up on network tv is valuable.

Just for funsies, here's a holiday themed Star Trek quiz thing:

https://www.handitv.com/quiz/how-wel...-trek-universe

Missed the first one. I don't know TOS episodes as well as the other shows and movies.

ST TNG S5E20: The Cost of Living

Really rotten episode with several weak plotlines and little dramatic tension. Even the precredit sequence can't raise enough energy to leave to waiting for the rest. Lwaxana Troi is getting married to some geezer she doesn't really care about and he doesnt care about her, little Alexander and Worf are getting stroppy with each other, and some metal-eating goo is having a go at the Enterprise, but no one seems to care much.

Some particular low-points: Lwaxana taking the kid Alexander to a pleasure world where they strip off and have a mud bath with the holopeople, Worf and the kid being made to sign a contract with each other by Troi in true non-Klingon fashion, and Lwaxana turning up naked at her own wedding, then winking at the little kid as she sashays up the isle.

2/10

Lwaxana trolling both Worf and Troi is mildly entertaining, but the character is mostly annoying and we're not invested in her. Majel Barrett deserved a better role. No one much seems to care about young Alexander hanging out at bars or watching erotic dancers or nude women, I guess the future is different.

Only interesting thing about this episode was that it seemed to anticipate online dating: Lwaxana mentions that she and the geezer had never met, but would be a good match because they had similar "profiles." Or maybe online dating was already a thing back then, I'm too lazy to look it up.

Probably she was a mail-order bride.

Oh I forgot to mention there was a basically a nude bodypainted woman dancer for entertaining those in the mud bath - including the little kid!

Lwaxana's previous episode was so much better than this.


Her calling Worf 'Mr Wolf' was fun tho

ST TNG S5E21: Perfect Mate

ST:TNG has a go at the Tristan and Isolde story, with partial success. It's helped by Famke Janssen's empath character as one side of the love pairing and Picard at the other, but let down by slight, weak writing and flat direction. This could have been a corker, but it never really flies, and I can't blame either actor for that.

Good final moment for Picard though, where we see Picard's face set when asked how he resisted the empath. Stewart is a great actor.

5/10

Looks like the Tarantino script is currently taking priority over the previously announced "Kirk meets daddy" story they were going with.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/b...Z0g7VE_na_f8SU

Wasn't it completely canned because the director (S. J. Clarkson) decided he'd rather direct the upcoming Game of Thrones Series?

The implication seems to be that instead of working on finding a new director and settling the issues with Pine's and Hemworth's contracts so they can move forward with that story, they are scrapping it entirely to go with the Tarantino story (which may or may not use the Kelvin cast).

Jonathan Frakes also revealed an interesting tidbit about the upcoming Picard series: Picard is not in starfleet anymore.

https://trekmovie.com/2019/01/26/jon...emesis-regret/

This one just dragged, and had a weird male sex fantasy vibe that seemed a bit creepy. One of the weakest episodes in quite a while I think.

ST TNG S5E22: Imaginary Friend

ST:TNG is getting punchy towards the end of season 5, with another clunker about some alien life form interpreting how children are treated as hostile (I think?). It's odd seeing the girl who became Tommy's girlfriend in Third Rock as an aggressively pushy child, but she is a marginally better actress than the other little girl - though she was quite sweet as Clara.

There was a nice touch with Worf finding the girls somewhere they shouldn't be, and instead of getting all strict, let's them go on their way with a 'let's say no more about it'.



3/10

Fortunately the remaining episodes of season 5 are above average, including what many argue is the best one of the series.