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TNG Watchthrough: S1 E13 – Angel One

So like, as soon as the premise of the episode was revealed i wrote down "Oh no" in my notes. This is just. Sigh. Like, I'm not even mad about it, it was 1988, nobody had the range in 1988 to make a mainstream television episode with this kind of premise that was going to hold up in 2025. But. "Look, sexism is bad! You can tell because it would be bad if women did it!" is not a thing that's going to do anything but annoy me. Anyway, a liveblog:

Hey look, Wesley has an age-appropriate friend! That's nice.

The costuming department in 1988: "How do we show that these are strong female characters?" "I know! What if they had Really Big Shoulder Pads!"

Casting, weighing in: "And all the dudes will be short!"

Picard gets hit by a holodeck snowball and scolds Wesley about it: So like, they're doing this on purpose. I see that they're doing it on purpose. They've established Picard is Bad With Kids. But like. Why? I suppose they think making the otherwise admirable Picard bad with kids and then putting a wonderkid in his path is good drama, but the actual result is that I'm just annoyed at Picard every time he and Wesley are on screen together. And obviously lots of other people came away annoyed at Wesley all the time. I can't imagine either of those were the writers' intent

"Our library is far too sophisticated for a man to comprehend." 🙄

"This objection doesn't have anything to do with the fact that Beata is a woman, and an attractive one, does it?" I hate this.

"What do you think?" "Well, I got to say, it's kind of sexy." Haaaate this.

"Lieutenant La Forge, you have command until further notice." Yay! Geordi gets command, that's fun! He says, "Make it so!” Good for him!

Amused by the captions captioning Worf's sneeze as "(Klingon sneeze)"

"On my way." "With all respect, Lieutenant, there are people to do that job now." [...] "Worf, thanks for the advice." This is a nice little exchange between them. Like the reminder that Geordi's a little out of his depth and like to see Worf have a nice character moment with him.

“In the interests of diplomatic relations, I'll remain here with Mistress Beata while you conduct our search.” “Diplomatic relations?” Is that what we’re calling it now? 😏. Seriously though, why is Riker sleeping with this chick? I suppose it’s sort of unfair for me to object that Starfleet personnel shouldn’t be sleeping with the locals given, you know, Kirk. I think this is one of those things where tos and early tng are more similar than I expect them to be.

“You gave me your solemn word.” “I'm sorry, there's nothing else we can do.” Maybe if that was the case you shouldn’t have given your solemn word then! I mean, I’m not being reasonable here probably, but I love when fictional characters are bound by their word and so the oh well 🤷‍♀️ of it all bugs me. Especially given that this is not an particularly impossible to predict outcome. Like, you could have just answered “as long as they wish to go” or something.

I like that the culture they’ve set up here results in Will getting on his knees to try to negotiate. This is a nice treat for me.

“I'd rather face a court martial than live with the guilt of leaving these people to their deaths.” Good for you Riker!

“To be precise, Commander, you ordered me to reach the Neutral Zone before it is too late […]That leaves Doctor Crusher forty eight minutes to develop an inoculants to the virus.” “Thank you for following my orders so precisely, Data.” Data rules lawyering his orders.

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The layers

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TNG Watchthrough: S1 E12 – Datalore

Lore! I find myself surprised at how many recurring characters are established in this first half of the first season. We've had Q (twice!), the Traveler, Lwaxana Troi, the Ferangi, and now Lore. I would have guessed, if you had asked me to guess, that those introductions would have been more spread out over first few seasons, and that these early episodes would have had more one-shot monster of the week type aliens that we never see again. It's neat to see all of these foundations being laid.

More thoughts, and yet another rant about Wesley, below the cut.

I didn't know or had forgotten that data's origin was a mystery at first. I was like, what do you mean the mystery of data's origins, he was built by Dr. Soong, even I know that.

"Hold the memories of four hundred and eleven people." Oooh, this is kind of neat actually. Even if he doesn't have their day to day experiences it's a neat explanation for why he might know or understand some things and not others in a sort of patchwork way depending on what the colonists experiences were.

I'm wondering if this is one I actually saw once upon a time. This place where they found data with the secret door behind it is familiar.

"Data, we don't know that this can become alive." "It is very important for me to know that, sir.  I never dreamed it was possible I might find some link with some form like my own." Aww. 🥺

“Does it appear to have all your parts?” They're doing a great job selling the awkwardness here.

Lore waking up is suitably creepy.

"Your referring to him as an it suggests that I, too, fit into the category of a thing." Love this. You tell him data.

"Which requires I now ask you a very serious question. Since the two of you are closely related to each other." "The answer, sir, is that my loyalty is to you and Starfleet. Completely." "Thank you, Commander. I was certain of that." Okay Picard, clearly you were not certain of that if you had to ask. And like, would you ask your human officers if they were going to betray you if they had family come aboard?

I like the gradual reveals of Lore’s trickery with the bit with Riker on the bridge and Data calling him on lying about who was built first. It sets up a nice sense of dread that Lore is clearly deceptive, but we don’t know yet to what extent that crosses the line to evil, and data so clearly wants him to be someone he can have a relationship with.

“Our computer has constructed the image of a great crystalline entity which feeds on life.” Oh! The crystalline entity! I’ve heard of that!

The crystalline entity is very pretty.

Ah, the famous “Shut up Wesley.” This is so irritating. You literally sent him explicitly for the purpose of finding out if Data was doing anything suspicious. If you weren’t going to believe what he told you you should have sent someone else. Picard is being a jerk, Wesley is right, again, I do not understand how people watched all these episodes and decided to hate on Wesley. There was one(1) moment in like, The Battle where he was kinda a smarmy know it all, but other than that it’s been Wesley is earnest and correct and the adults are dismissive jerks to him about it.

“Are you prepared for the kind of death you've earned, little man? […] I promise him exquisite pain unless you obey me too, brother.” Excellent. A+ threats Lore.

“Lore's gone, sir. Permanently.” Well….

“Ensign Crusher, are you able to return to duty?” Sure, fine, I guess this is nice, but like, would it kill you to apologize Picard?

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Violating Starfleet bridge protocol with Momma

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it's crazy how by writing q and picard tng perfectly predicted the relationship between a tumblrina and a blorbo. like yeah here is this emotionally constipated middle aged man and the omnipotent homosexual who wants nothing but to put this guy in fucking Predicaments. also the omnipotent homosexual is considered a weirdo by his peers. he is also unemployed. that's a big plotpoint actually

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Garak and Bashir play holodeck spy games with the safeties OFF so its hotter when Bashir forces Garak to suck off his loaded pistol

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TNG Watchthrough: S1 E11 – The Big Goodbye

Holodeck episode! I think when i was a kid i wasn't really into the holodeck episodes. Like, I'm here to watch a spaceship show! Why aren't they on the spaceship! But this time around I'm really digging putting the characters in Noir vibes. Perhaps it's all the fanfic i've read since then that makes me more inclined to AU setups. 😂

"The characters I meet are generated by the computer, of course, yet they feel real, they seem real in every way." In every way, huh? 😏

I'm not sure they've got the holodeck rules entirely nailed down yet. I don't feel like the lipstick should leave with him. I don't feel like the mobsters should be able to walk out of the holodeck and then only dissolve slowly after that. I don't feel like there should be a risk of destroying the real people if they turn the holodeck off wrong. But i suppose if your starting point is that it's the same technology as the transporter you could argue for any of those. I'm curious to what extent these choices remain consistent with the rules in future episodes and shows.

The things they have the crew know and not know about "the past" are somewhat mysterious to me. Like why don't you have the concept of city blocks in the future?

I'm not sure asking Beverly on an almost-date and talking about your fantasy make out session are entirely appropriate topics for a briefing meeting Picard.

I want to be able to absorb a large body of fictional content at the speed data consumes that Dixon Hill canon here. Not that i'm not enjoying the journey but I'd love to be able to speed watch all the Star Trek and already know everything.

Beverly's killing the femme fatal look. I wish I had a magic larp box where i could have the replicator make me a period perfect costume and i could go play.

“Why aren’t we all being interrogated?” They're all having so much fun here. I love that because this is the first holodeck episode they all get to be so entertained by the very novelty of the situation.

I continue to think that Picard and Beverly are cute together.

"It is you who are imaginary characters derived from a work of fiction." Our poor crew doesn't understand why the fictional characters won't believe them when they are told they are fictional characters. Sorry guys, that's a hard sell.

The red shirt survives!

"With your permission, sir?" "Permission granted" I appreciate the respect for the chain of command when punching the bad guys.

"Tell me something, Dixon. When you've gone. will this world still exist? Will my wife and kids still be waiting for me at home?" Love a holodeck character having an existential crisis. And Picard not giving him the reassuring lie.

"Step on it!"

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TNG Watchthrough: S1 E10 – Haven

The first appearance of Lwaxana Troi!

This message thing looks like Han Solo in carbonite

Looking forward to having some more Will and Deanna backstory. They had that romantic psychic connection Imzadi moment in the pilot, followed by Will being particularly concerned for Deanna in that episode, and then other than one (1) jealous glance in Justice it felt the show just dropped it.

"More than anything else in the world, anything, you want to be a starship captain. True?" "That's not all I want, Deanna." You know, looking at this exchange, I'm kinda torn. Because, like, it feels like shorthand for "you care about your job more than me," which is a fair thing to not want to sign up for! But also, Deanna also has a starfleet career and Will's ambitions are more compatible with that than Wyatt's.

I like the mood ring flower. I wish we got more explicit details about what it means that it turned white when she took it, or that it came back later to reveal people's emotions and cause problems.

"I believe we could read each other eventually." "Can I take that as a compliment?" "Absolutely. I only ever felt this, well, with someone who's on this ship." So, i get that we're all adult and enlightened here and whatnot, but i'm still not convinced it's a good sign that your very first conversation with your would-be fiancé revolves around your ex.

I like this guy. It's nice that he's not secretly evil or anything. He's a nice enough guy and he and Deanna would have had a nice enough marriage. It's not that he's a bad guy, it's that they didn't choose each other.

I don't remember Lwaxana being this abrasive. I wonder if that's me remembering wrong or if she's toned down somewhat in future appearances.

Will is being kinda a jerk in this, but i'm still enjoying his whole thing anyway. He refuses to drink the toast. Apparently drinking with Q is fine and dandy but he draws the line at toasting his ex's friend's wedding.

“I declare all disagreements resolved” Do you? Do you find that works for you Picard? I would like the power to declare disagreements resolved without having to actually come to a resolution.

Deanna storming out of the betrothal dinner or whatever gives petulant teenager vibes, even though she's 100% valid to be pissed. I guess it's that thing that being around your parents makes you revert to your teenage self.

I like this conversation that Deanna and Will have about loving more than one person and Platonic vs. Physical love, but i wish the conversation had a little more time to go deeper before being interrupted.

"I want to." I don't know how to feel about this. On one hand I like that they're establishing that she's not fully being railroaded into things. But also. Really? Really Deanna? He seems like a good guy but you just met him and marrying him means being pulled away from your whole life.

The end of this is predictable, but not unsatisfying. Of course the drawing girl is on the plague ship and equally of course Wyatt sneaks off to be with his dream girl and a medical mystery.

Does Deanna know he's leaving? I've got to believe she does.

Picard's here again with an episode wrap-up line (“Our destiny is elsewhere. But I'm happy that yours is here with us, Counsellor.”) and I know i keep complaining about this, but this one really needed more emotional closure. I feel like Will and Deanna need another talk at the end of this. I know they can't change anything, but still, things feel so unsettled and it's not like they're going to pick up this thread in the next episode like they would in a modern show.

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TNG Watchthrough: S1 E9 – Hide and Q

This one was fun. I didn't expect to see Q back so soon. I suppose they did leave it fairly open at the end of Farpoint with Q threatening to return, but i expected it to be a later seasons thing. Many more thoughts below the cut!

Having them run into Q's very distinctive force field before Q himself shows up is a nice touch.

Q in an Admiral uniform. It's funny because Q... kinda looks like a dork here. Like part of it is that the costume is maybe not great but i don't think i appreciated as a child the "just some guy" vibes that John De Lancie gives off. Yes he's dangerous and all powerful but there's an element of trying too hard that works well here against Picard's whole thing.

"Where are we?" You're on A Star Trek Planet™️!

I like the contrast of Will drinking the lemonade vs. Worf refusing. At first i was like "don't do it!" at Riker, but like, if Q wanted to kill you he wouldn't have to poison the lemonade. But I still like Worf pouring it out. I kinda wish they hadn't made it a Klingon Thing though. Like, just let Worf be petty on his own, it doesn't have to be a Cultural Difference.

"And where does she go?" "Into nothingness." This is sufficiently creepy, I wish they had done more with it. Might have been nice to have a moment where the planetside characters have to make a choice based on knowing that if they choose wrong they risk destroying Tasha.

" Damn it. I can't even make a log entry." Poor Picard! A fate worse than death!

Most of the TNG i saw when it aired is from later seasons, so as a result i don't have much of a preexisting connection with Tasha Yar. This is a nice scene with her and Picard, but like... I don't want to get attached.

"Shall we wager on that, Captain? Your starship command against?" "Against your keeping out of humanity's path for ever. Done?" This is so rash of Picard. Like, he doesn't even know what Riker's up against, Q controls time and space, and like, while he does have one data point from farpoint that Q will keep the bargain i personally would not be as confident that that's a given. But this is why we love Picard.

I enjoy the Shakespearean sparring.

Data as Q is very creepy. Neat to see how much they're doing with the makeup and contacts and whatever.

"You're beginning to sound like your Captain." "Now that's a compliment, Q." Aww.

“You have my word” Yessss. Love this. Love that he feels sufficiently bound by it to not save the girl. Good stuff.

"The Q has muddled your mind." I want to know to what extent this is literal. I was excited to get a Riker focused episode and then disappointed that Will just served as an object lesson rather than resisting Q himself through his own strength of character. I assume Picard just means here that access to the power is corrupting Will's perspective, but i'm going to headcannon that Q actually messed with his mind too, and that's why he kinda sucked here.

"Wesley I may know best of all. Our friendship, our long talks." You've been having long talks with Wesley? Huh. Better not catch you calling him "the boy" going forward.

That's not what adult Wil Wheaton looks like!

Love the look of fear Data has when Will offers to turn him human. It really drives home how creepy this whole thing is.

"You're as beautiful as I imagined, and more." Is this based on anything? Am i supposed to think Geordi and Tasha have a thing going on? I realize we're early in the season, but between this and the will and wesley's "long talks" i'm feeling a little jerked around by the show trying to lean on relationships that there's been no evidence of on screen.

"Make me the way I was. Please!" Oof. The pleading.

He made Worf a girlfriend. Who is this chick? Did she get teleported from somewhere or did he make her up out of whole cloth?

"I feel like such an idiot." "Quite right. So you should." Ouch.

"Perhaps someday we will discover that space and time are simpler than the human equation." Again, i wish we could have some more emotional character resolution at the end of the episode in place of Picard proclaiming the moral of the story. But that's just me being greedy, lots of good stuff in this one.

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TNG Watchthrough: S1 E8 – The Battle

The Ferangi are back! And behaving much more like reasonable characters this time around. This one’s very Picard focused, and Picard definitely feels like the part of this somewhat uneven season that’s working best for me at this point. Part of that is just that Sir Patrick Stewart is particularly good at his job, but also he’s being given the best writing/character development so far compared to the rest of the ensemble. Anyway, I enjoyed this one:

“Doctor, all I've got is–” “Is an order to report to Sickbay. From the one person aboard this ship who can give you an order.” Where was this assertiveness two episodes ago? If she has standing to order him to sick bay for tests, that feels like it could have moved things along by forcing the issue in Lonely Among Us.

Hey Wesley’s got his rainbow shirt now!

I like the Ferangi’s swirly transporter effect.

“At a price.” “No price!” “No price?” I wrote down “Maybe tell your friends your plan?” at this point, and of course it is later revealed that the whole thing is unsanctioned. But I still maintain this would have gone better for Bok if he had at least not surprised his officers with it in public.

I should endeavor to stop reading the episode descriptions before watching these. This one helpfully told me that there was “A thought altering device controlled by a Ferangi captain seeking revenge on Picard for his son’s death.” Which is more information than would be ideal for me to already know at this point.

“The rest of the ship is clear of surprises, Lieutenant Yar.” Is it though? I feel like they should be significantly more suspicious than they are. Even if this didn’t already have huge Trojan horse vibes Troi told them that Bok is deceiving them. They should be looking for traps! They shouldn’t be just downloading the computers Willy-nilly!

I’m glad that no one believes the fake logs.

“I never made that log entry, of course, but it still leaves you with a duty to perform.” “I know, sir, I must report it to Starfleet.” They are again waving Starfleet at me like a threat. I do like this dynamic where they both know that Will has to report it even though no one believes it, but can you imagine being whoever’s on the other side of these reports? Last episode they reported that they had violated the Prime Directive. The episode before that Picard sent them his resignation so he could go wander the stars as an energy being. (And presumably sent a follow up “whoops just kidding!” afterwards?)

Checksum to the rescue!

“Under protest, sir.” This, and then the orders to Riker to release the tractor beam, is very similar to the vibes from Lonely Among Us. I’m not complaining exactly, like: Yeah! Let’s mind control Picard! But we did just do this two episodes ago.

“Die well Captain”. Earlier Bok had said “You will injure yourself as you once injured me.” and so at first I thought Bok was going for making Picard kill his friends and having to mourn and live with knowing he was responsible for their deaths. But it looks like he’s just trying to get him killed. I guess my way was never going to work given how much more powerful the Enterprise is. I just feel like if he only wanted Picard dead there are maybe less convoluted ways? On the other hand Bok did get to torment Picard and make him question his sanity a bit first, so that’s nice for him.

“It is not seemly to question one's own DaiMon, Riker. I am not prepared to do that.” I like this guy. You can’t expect him to take Riker’s side, or at least admit that he’s doing so, until he’s sure. And he wishes Riker luck later.

“Seems there was no profit in it.” “In revenge, there never is. Let the dead rest. And the past remain the past.” I realize we’ve only got 45 minutes, but i wish there was space for a little more denouement in these than a line or two of speechifying. It feels like Picard should be just a smidge too traumatized for this line delivery just now.

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i hated on him before but i kinda like how chakotay will get indoctrinated into anything. federation ship? he's starfleet again. borg planet? he's linking. guerilla warfare brainwashing planet? he's brainwashing and you know it. he's down for anything and i respect that

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TNG Watchthrough: S1 E7 – Justice

So I talked a big game on the last post about not caring when things are bad, and have thereby tempted the gods to bring me the Edo. The scene where they first land on the planet and hug everybody and offer to “play love” in particular is painfully cheesy in a way that definitely pushed my secondhand embarrassment buttons. Like on one hand I don’t believe in calling things cringe, but on the other hand I’m literally cringing so…

Other thoughts:

When they find the shadow of the god ship or whatever I assumed this was going to be a cloaking device thing. I wonder why that’s not at least floated as a possibility. I suppose it looks different than a cloaked ship to them. 🤷‍♀️

“Counsellor?” “Healthy sensuality, sir.” It’s really weird that they keep asking Troi to psychoanalyze people while they’re standing right there.

This invading alien bubble has Glinda the good witch vibes.

“Some games I don’t quite know yet.” Yikes, this is extremely awkward.

They really do like to call Wesley “the boy,” huh? I noticed it a lot in this episode. Everyone kept being like “where is the boy?” “Is the boy safe?” I can’t really imagine a scenario where I call my friend or colleague’s 15 year old kid, whose name I know and whom I’ve spoken to many times, “the boy.”

Before watching this i saw the episode summary in the app, which described it as “Wesley is sentenced to death for innocently violating an alien planet’s customs.” I cannot tell you how relieved i was that the custom in question was disturbing plants. Given that the main character trait we got of the Edo was “like sex a lot” I watched the early parts of this episode in some dread of the nature of the misunderstanding that was going to arise. I will admit I did not trust this show to handle something like that at this point.

One of the Edo call him “The Wesley Boy.” It’s like the very concept of a young person with a name is strange and foreign. 😂

“If he were your son you’d be as frightened–” “But I am.” Okay, here we go, here’s the good stuff. Always on board with Picard caring about his people.

I’m not sure they’re selling me on the ethical dilemma with the prime directive. In Code of Honor they set it up that they couldn’t just steal Tasha back because they also needed the vaccines to save a bunch of lives, and stealing the vaccines would be clearly crossing the line. I’m not sure I really buy that anyone involved actually thinks that letting them kill a 15 year old for stepping on the flowers is a moral imperative to avoid undue influence.

[Does some googling] Ooh, apparently Prodigy has given us official text for the Prime Directive. I suppose the relevant piece is: “If engaged with diplomatic relations with said culture, will stay within the confines of said culture's restrictions.” I’m still not sold that that at all implies you have to leave starfleet personnel (including children!) to whatever justice the culture cares to impose.

“You should know that whatever the cost, I will not allow them to execute your son.” Damn straight.

“I saw you share the sky with God. You must be Gods.” Okay, hold up, forget about Wesley for a second, should you guys even be here? Interacting at all with a planet that thinks orbiting the planet in a space ship makes you a god seems like a bigger violation of the Prime Directive than anything else going on here. Not to mention bringing her to your ship.

“What of justice to Wesley? Does he deserve to die?” Thank you Tasha for using Wesley’s name like a reasonable person 😂 (also you are correct)

“We are all sworn not to interfere with other lives in the galaxy. If I save this boy, I break that law.” “And you should be executed if you do so!” “I may suffer almost as much. Starfleet takes the Prime Directive very seriously.” Does it though?

The problem here is that the stakes feel fake. They don’t really have any reason to believe the god cares about the prime directive and will smite them for violating it. That’s a pretty hypothetical concern given the evidence. And in fact it doesn’t seem to take much convincing to let them go. And despite Picard’s big talk i am not left with any impression that he’s in danger of being In Trouble with starfleet when he files his report.

This post is coming off more negative than I really intend! In general this a good setup! Balancing the life of one innocent person against the safety of the ship! Picard struggling with the conflict between his values and the life of one of his crew! It’s because this is so close to being something I would eat up with a spoon that the places where it misses its potential are more frustrating.

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The ages of the principal DS9 cast when the show started in 1993 (give or take a year, depending on birthdays):

Avery Brooks, 45

René Auberjonois, 53

Terry Ferrell, 30

Nana Visitor, 36

Colm Meaney, 40

Alexander Siddig, 28

Armin Shimerman, 44

Max Grodénchik, 41

Andrew Robinson, 51

Marc Alaimo, 51

Cirroc Lofton, 15

Aron Eisenberg, 24

No, I don't know why I did this or why anyone needs this but that has never stopped me before.

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TNG Watchthrough: S1 E6 - Lonely Among Us

A fact about your intrepid blogger is that I am generally pretty easy to please. I often find myself being the one saying “I dunno, that didn’t bother me, I kind of liked it” as people bemoan the plot holes or clunky dialog or whatever in some otherwise entertaining book or piece of media or whatever. It’s a thing.

As I’ve been watching through these episodes, I’ve also been reading about them, looking for little tidbits I might have missed (i did not, for example, notice on my own that Dukat was in this one) and seeing what the general consensus is. Generally I’ve sort of agreed. Where No One Has Gone Before is generally considered significantly better than the handful that came before it, and yeah, for sure, totally on board. This one though. I was surprised to discover that people apparently kinda think it sucks? Like, I don’t think we’ve got the pinnacle of television or anything, but like, I’m sufficiently entertained? Sure, the delegations are kind of pointless and aren’t really adding anything, but we’ve got a mysterious energy being, a chance for Sir Patrick Stewart to act all over my screen, a discussion of possible mutiny, I dunno, I’m good.

All of which is to say if you’re looking for the kind of blog that tears apart the things that suck? I’m probably not your girl.

Anyway, thoughts!

Ooh, fancy dress uniforms

"Why am I...?" "Doctor, are you all right?" "Yes. Yes. I'll do my work in my office." Come on Bev, tell them you got bit by the zombie that something weird happened to you

(Off topic, I’m going to have to buy the stupid more expensive Paramount+. The nostalgia I was looking for was not long commercial breaks in my show, thanks. This does not feel like “limited ads” or whatever it was you claimed.)

"Have you spoken with Chief Engineer Argyle about this problem?" Is that the same chief engineer we had last week? Internet says yes!

"If the Ferengi could have bought or bribed even one of them, that's all that they'd need." It’s funny to me that they’re suspecting the Ferangi as the go to bad guys who could have infiltrated the delegations. I realize they originally intended for the Ferangi to be serious TNG adversaries, but still, given that didn’t happen, and even given The Last Outpost, I’m going to continue to be amused by that until they drop it.

"I just found Mr. Singh. He's dead." Is this the first “red shirt” type death we’ve had on TNG? Seems like yes!

LaForge: "Sometimes it's the result that counts, you know?" Here we have Wesley being absolutely correct again and the adults ignoring him. Perhaps this is the key to the Wesley problem. When he's around the adults are suddenly written dumber. I don't believe for a second Geordi would not want to find the root cause for why they lost control of the warp drive!

Data as Sherlock Holmes: I'm not sure I'm entirely into this, but Brent Spiner seems like he's having a great time, so i'll allow it.

“Everything is fine now.” I find Sir Patrick Stewart’s performance of the entirety/Picard combo pleasantly creepy. It’s enough off to feel wrong, but enough Picard to sell the uncertainty of the rest of the crew and leave the watcher unsettled about how much of Picard is really in there. The sort of switching back and forth in the scenes with Riker and Crusher between Picard’s mannerisms and the entity is neat, I think.

Hey, O’Brien’s here again, working security today! Hello again!

I appreciate this meeting about relieving Picard of command. Like yeah! He hasn’t actually done anything dangerous yet! He’s still sort of generally Picard-ish. The crew hasn’t been together that long. That said, I feel like they could lean a little more heavily on the fact that they have two other people who have had the experience of being possessed and make the call that letting an unknown entity have possible command of the ship is a Bad Plan and worth whatever risk to their careers if they’re wrong.

“Please, are you Jean Luc?” I thought Beverly was sneaking up on him with a hypo spray to subdue him here.

I expected them to solve this before they actually beamed to the cloud!

“It’s time to set a course for Parliament.” I like the “we’re going to have to leave him behind” thing, but they pull the punch immediately by having Troi sense him at exactly that moment. Not of course that they were going to convince the audience that they were actually going to leave him behind, but I wouldn’t have minded stewing in that a bit more.

Indubitably!

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TNG Watchthrough: S1 E5 - Where No One Has Gone Before

This one feels much more like what I think of as TNG episode, in comparison to the last three which felt more like they on various levels had more TOS vibes. It also probably helps that this just feels like a better episode overall.

I am again having fun with my spotty TNG knowledge, as I knew broadly about the Traveler (I think I’ve probably seen at least one of the later Traveler episodes, and I know that he eventually takes Wesley), but I didn’t know that he was going to show up here. I wasn’t familiar enough to immediately recognize him when he first came on screen, but i knew enough to have a fun moment of realization when I made the connection.

We’ve got some kind of proto O’Brien here as chief of engineering

“I calculate that at maximum warp, sir it would take over three hundred years to get home.” Whoops, we stole voyager’s plot.

Kosinski’s sure got a lot of swagger for someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing and got everybody lost.

“Space and time and thought aren't the separate things they appear to be?”[…]“Don’t ever say that again especially at your age in a world that’s not ready for such… dangerous nonsense.” This is the conversation that made me go: Oh! This is the Traveler, isn’t it?

I suspect part of the reason I like Wesley is because when I watched tng the first time around I was, like him, a child. And part of it is definitely that Wil Wheaton seems like a good guy who didn’t deserve the shit he got. And perhaps my opinion will shift as time goes on. But also. Come on. How am I not going to be team Wesley when he clearly has key information and Riker’s blowing him off?

Aww, Warf’s childhood pet wart hog!

My first reaction to Tasha’s cat was that perhaps it was Spot? But it was not. And then I had to pause it to go find out where data even got spot anyway, and apparently there’s not really an answer to that, alas.

I do appreciate Riker owning up to not listening to Wesley when he should have.

Kosinski: “That's just so much nonsense. You're asking us to believe in magic.” Says he of the nonsense equations. Why are you even still here dude? Shouldn’t they have sent you back to your quarters or something for, you know, being a fraud?

I’m pretty sure I didn’t know that Picard had the inside scoop from a magic alien that Wesley was objectively a wonder kid who should be encouraged. That does make things make somewhat more sense going forward, as despite my determination to be team Wesley I’ve definitely already been asking myself “okay, but why is this kid even here right now” more than ideal. But on a Watsonian level this gives his special treatment something to hang off of. Doylistically I’m sure exactly exactly why they wanted such a young teenager as a member of the key cast in the first place, but here we are.

I do think this scene at the end with Wesley all happy to be allowed on the bridge is pretty cute.

[trekkingthroughtrek]

It's spring in his step Saturday!