It's like popping a balloon after the last episode. That's the thing about the second season that makes it so frustrating. But it's not the worst one of the season. It's kind of uneven and silly, but I've always found it amusing and I like to laugh.
It continues in its quest to intertwine character development with action. To have two things going on at once - partly because the individual stories are too small to fill and entire episode, and partly to make a well rounded show. They were slowly getting better at it. The captain is going on a secret journey. Secret to every one but the doctor and we find out about his artificial heart. I never liked it that he was so concerned about his image. Yes, Picard was always ultra dignified and didn't need to be brash to command respect. But this vanity didn't suit him. I don't think it's the kind of thing that would be done on a starship anyway, but leaving without explanation and the fact that Riker was still appearing so clingy was something that I'm glad they got away from.
He's traveling by shuttle craft and since Wesley is due to go to the same star base to take academy exams, they will be riding together which makes Wesley nervous. I'm starting to think that the main reason that people like me are so frustrated by the character of Wesley is because they had to devote a large space of every Wesley episode to dialogue regarding his every little angst. Is it valid? Probably, most of the time, but the constant running to different main characters and asking them what he should do, say, or think seemed whiny and boring. It's just painfully obvious looking back on it all that they had literally nothing for this character other than whatever "after school special" lessons that they could manage to teach within the frame of a science fiction television show instead of trying to further develop the dynamic between him and the Traveler.
Meanwhile you have these guys, the Pakleds This is the primary story and it really is funny most of the time. After the captain leaves the Enterprise answers a distress signal from a race of people who aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. They give the impression of being clinically retarded and they don't know how to fix their ship. This is similar to the people in Symbiosis only it makes more sense in the end.
They can tell that they are too stupid to know how to fix their own ship so Riker opts to send Geordi. I'm glad this episode happened for Worf. This is the first episode where his objections turned out to be justified and it needed to happen badly because he had hitherto been such an unjustly marginalized and stereotyped character. He objects sending the chief engineer over to fix their ship and rightfully so. As it turns out, this bunch is going about space pirating technology that is beyond their capability to understand so that they can feel powerful and gain respect through that power. But it's a little confusing.
If they were really of child-like intelligence which is how they're portrayed, why didn't Troi see right through their deception? Children are bad at shielding their intentions if questioned only a little. Also, they trick the Enterprise into keeping Geordi against his will, but at the end they are easily tricked into thinking that the Enterprise had disabled them with a technology that doesn't even exist (which is part of the humorous aspects that I can't help but like.) So they're somehow smart enough to catch the Enterprise with their pants down but not smart enough to know when they're being fooled as easily as small children. Like I said... just a touch uneven.
Back in the shuttle craft you have some awkward advice giving to the resident teenager, but then we get a special treat... a look into Picard's past and the story of how he was stabbed by a Nausicaan and ended up with his artificial heart. Of course it's surprising to Wesley to think that when Picard wasn't much older than he was that he got into that kind of trouble. And it's surprising to the audience as well. Of course, we all now have the hindsight to see how important this story would become later on in the making of one of the best episodes of the series. It's another example of how a pairing of Picard and Wesley could've made Wesley's character much better, much faster if they'd only thought it through a little better.
Anyway, after writing that Picard is uncomfortable with everyone knowing about his heart, then they twist the episode so that everyone finds out about it. Firstly with Wesley being told by Pulaski to make sure he actually goes. His surgeons are under-qualified to deal with complications so Pulaski is called in. They sure did build her up to be a super doctor... more so than Beverly... I guess it suited her though. I suppose they were trying to add a sense of urgency during the time they were dealing with the Pakleds, but it wasn't necessary. They were disturbing enough on their own without the added need to go save the captain. If it'd just been Wesley that knew before hand it may have been alright, but I almost felt sorry for Picard for having his privacy intruded upon with everyone knowing about it after they'd taken the trouble to show you that he wanted this to be private for whatever reason.. image.. whatever. Uneven.
But likeable and watchable. I can go three and a half stars on this. It was funny enough to overlook the lapses in writing and it had the seed of the all important backstory of Picard's heart.
This post won't mean much to anyone who hasn't been there or lives close enough to know about it. The company I work for gives us two free day passes every year to go to Silver Dollar City which is a theme park with an 1890-ish setting.
This year we decided to upgrade our tickets to a season pass since there was a special discount for our company on those too. We've been 6 times since September and you'd think it would get old, but it doesn't. There are tons of things to do and see there. Back on Monday we went for our last time for this year. And I already can't wait for next year. I love the water rides, the artisan's shops, the train tour, the cave tour, and the good food and hot chocolate when it's cold. But, the thing I find I miss most is the roller coasters.
Especially Wildfire. Until a few years ago when we went to Silver Dollar City on a whim (not as part of my work's promotion) we decided to try roller coasters. Up til this point I'd been terrified of them and my husband had never been on one with inversions so we were both nervous. But, I guess we've both reached our "life's too short" point and we ended up loving this one. This is Wildfire. It is elegant and smooth. Like flying on winged Pegasus. It is the best roller coaster in the world as per my limited experience. I love it and I miss it already knowing I can't just swing by next month, lol. If they give us a good deal on renewing the season passes we may do it before we get our free day passes in September of next year and go all spring and summer.
It took me several trips this year to become desensitized to the steep drops and sharp turns of roller coasters, but after a while I realized that we were sort of becoming adrenaline junkies. What really changed things for me and the way I feel about roller coasters was deciding to try the front seat. We'd been to the park several times and we now liked riding roller coasters, so we decided to brave the front seat on them all. I can't help but laugh when I say "brave" now... Getting on the front seat is what finally finished off any fear I ever had of roller coasters. I'm more comfortable in front than anywhere and I happily wait the extra few minutes to get the front seat now. The thing that used to scare me most of all was the steep drop at the beginnings of the coasters. This one above, Powder Keg, is nothing but drops. And I'm finally okay with that. For some reason, I'm more comfortable seeing the track directly in front of me than I am seeing other cars and people.
I had to get a POV view of this ride because it's very well hidden in the brush. Apart from Powder Keg and Wildfire, they actually hide these coasters pretty good which I think adds to the experience. You can't see what you're getting into so you have to try it to find out. Thunderation is more of a kid's ride. The only thing I can equate it to is the Mine ride at Six Flags. It's better than that, but it's pretty tame compared to all the other coasters in the park. It's still fun to get on it when you need a break. Lol. They're all fun.
I had to choose the POV angle on Outlaw Run as well, but the camera used takes away all the jumping of the picture so you can see what's going on. It took me the longest to get used to this one. It's very fast and very disorienting... until I got in the front seat, of course. Then it all made sense. Monday was the first day I wasn't a little scared by the first drop, which is extremely steep. This was a record breaking coaster for a short while... I'm pretty sure it was the first wooden coaster with inversions for a few months until it was done again somewhere else. I think that's pretty cool. It's not as majestic as Wildfire, but it's a lot of fun.
Now that I love roller coasters I want to go back to Six Flags and see why I used to be so terrified of the Ninja. I bet it's not even scary now. But Six Flags charges for parking, so we'll have to see if we want to put some money back for a day pass there.
They're building another coaster in 2017 for Silver Dollar City and I can't wait to see it. I miss my Wildfire terribly already, but I know it'll be there waiting for me next year.
Okay so, never say never, and I own myself a liar. We went to see Rogue one on Christmas Eve. We decided to forego refreshments and blow the whole gift certificate on the 3D matinee. Naturally we were still very wary after the abomination that was The Force Awakens last year, but I had reason to suspect this one would be better based on opinions from the type of people that liked that Abrams trash. Also, not having to spend money made it kind of a nothing-to-lose situation. So, anyway:
Rogue One, no spoilers.
Above expectations. I want this one to
keep. It connects dots, makes sense, brings a little faith back into the "force," and truly belongs with the six
Lucas movies, unlike last year's movie. I feel like my views of what
makes a good addition to a proven series are vindicated in this. It's like almost every point I was trying to make when I wrote my long rants on TFA last year was taken into consideration and I feel like I'm not the only one on the planet that thinks this way. I can give several examples and I will, but not until an appropriate amount of time has passed. I do believe in not spoiling the fun for people who haven't seen or read things because I love to be surprised myself. And I was pleasantly surprised with this. As a trivia aside that doesn't spoil the movie, the man that played Cassian Andor had previously played Button in the movie Open Range. I just think that's cool cuz the part of Button wasn't a big one and my husband totally picked him out when I didn't even recognize him since he'd lost the baby fat in his cheeks.
I have to
say, 3D has improved tremendously over the years years. Much better than the days of the paper,
red and blue glasses although I wish more stuff had been flying at the
camera. So, I can give a thumbs up to this one and recommend that it be seen. It's not a waste of time.
Pivotal, pivotal, pivotal episode! This is the one that changed everything for the series. One of the top 10 must see episodes, one of my all time favorite episodes, and very nearly Q's best episode.
It begins with more of Q's morbid fascination with humans, Picard in particular. From this point on he's more focused in on Picard in particular and it's one of the most irresistible relationships in the series. He wants to join the crew of the Enterprise and it starts out very funny as it always is with Q. He abducts Picard and toys with him a little. He brings him back and states his intentions - to allow them access to his vast knowledge and powers as one of their crew members.
Not much is ever said about Guinan's race or past, but here we get a hint that her race had been one of the many terrorized by Q. They started making Guinan's role a little more significant when she'd turn up on a show for the most part now. Still it's all fun and games. And while Picard was making valid objections, I think Riker actually was being a bit smug in turning Q's offer to help guide them through the galaxy. I'm sure that's how they intended it though, as things turn out.
They probably could've done very well with Q as a primary adversary for an
indefinite period of time. Although he was comical like the Ferengi, he
was also chaotic and very capable of being a serious threat. And he ends up being
the catalyst of this show's primary adversary. When he doesn't get his way he forces them light years out of their way into their first, premature encounter with the Borg.
I think we can all take another moment to be grateful that the Borg did not end up becoming the insect like race they'd first imagined that was infiltrating Starfleet from within as laid out in the episode "Conspiracy." Writer's strikes and budget issues forced the idea of the Borg onto the back burner. As it was, this episode was still well over budget, but it paid out like a slot machine. The Borg are terrifying as they were originally written (without a queen; that came later since they had trouble making Borg's central computer work without a tangible presence in First Contact.) Who could fail to be intrigued by a cyborg similar to a Terminator coming aboard the Enterprise, not to attack, but to start downloading all of their data banks as reconnaissance... in your face reconnaissance that required no sneaking or guile. They take Q's advice to kill it and then another one shows up... not to take revenge, but to continue the job stopping only to take the retrieve the memory from the fallen shipmate. Their emotionless behavior is mesmerizing. This is the fear they wanted to strike into people's hearts from the beginning with the Ferengi, but they were still thinking along the line of TOS... aggressive war-like races. I'm not sure which writer(s) hit on a cold, machine intelligence as the best way to go, but he, she, or they nailed it. It actually fit in perfectly with the dawning of the computer age here in real life.
To further the eerie tone of the episode, an away team can move among them on their own ship unnoticed. They're not considered a threat. Once again they use Riker's character to seem a little insulted by this. And then they find the nursery where you see that they start out as humans, or humanoids before they receive their implants. This is scarier than the monsters of "Conspiracy." It didn't have to be gross like a B grade horror movie to inspire the necessary awe and wonder of this collectivist mindset enemy. It's already ingrained in peoples minds when they think back to Nazi's or the Chinese.
All of this with relatively little action. Once the action starts, it's nearly over for the Enterprise. It slices out a section of the ship and, having learned how to take over from the information they gathered with the first two scouts, they prepare to assimilate the Enterprise.
Out-gunned, they run. And they can't outrun for long either. One of the most intense scenes ever is when they zoom in on the Borg Cube repairing it's damage while it's quickly catching up to them. I think this is another influence of Star Trek II. This is a no-win situation and there really is no doubt about it. The Enterprise is obviously outmatched and would most certainly be toast quickly and mercilessly. I think this influence is part of what makes this such a great episode. The hopelessness is palpable.
The one part I never liked about this episode is the part where Picard is made to beg. I mean, Q makes a valid point in his concession to Picard as well about not being able to handle the hard parts of space exploration - not only valid but prophetic since the hardest decisions and situations were yet to come throughout TNG and DS9 - so there's not much to actually complain about, but I still see inherent need of the writers to put humans in their place by Q praising Picard for having the humility to ask for help. I think it was trying to tie in with the opening scene with Ensign Gomez who idolizes the Enterprise as the very best of the best of the best in the Federation... then you see that they're not as great as she thinks they are in this failure with the Borg. Incidently, I liked Gomez. She got another episode before they dropped her, but I thought she could've been developed into a pretty good reoccurring character. Anyway, I just don't understand the need to keep harping on how arrogant humans are except of course that I'm pretty sure that it's a projection of arrogance on America in general. It's a theme that would continue throughout all of Star Trek, but here in these first two seasons it was just poorly hidden and too eagerly applied and I'll never be comfortable with it. I loved the episode, but I can only go as high as four and a half because of these matters. But, it's nearly a perfect five star episode.
Well, I don't know about every Tuesday... most likely it'll be just whenever I feel like it. But I was thinking about paying tribute to another one of my fandoms - Anime. I've always had a strange fascination with it. I only say strange because I never had too many friends that liked it too. But it attracted me by the colors and the teamwork that is common to most anime shows. The rigid teamwork of everyone in their place doing the same thing every time. But I also like the way it's changed over the years too. It's a little different than it was back in the day. I'm 41 years old, so in "the day" the first taste and first love for me was Voltron.
Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, and Black. It's simplicity was it's charm. They were robot lions. Lol.. they had their finger on the pulse of cat-love before it was cool! The lions would work individually and then transform and plug in together to form a champion defender who looked like a person... a person with roaring hands and feet. I loved the chambers they went into to take them to their lions that were hidden beneath a castle. And they'd emerge from different elemental environments... forest, water, desert, rocky surfaces, etc. Colors and elements... it's all a signature of anime production. Probably the Japanese sense of balance in nature. But it spoke so strongly to me. Not sure how they got out of their normal clothes into their uniforms in that quick drop, but stuff like that didn't and doesn't matter in these old simple cartoons.
I often wonder what he appeal is when they did the same thing every episode. The lions would fight individually and then they'd form Voltron who would unleash his Blazing Sword to finish off the ro-beast. It makes a person wonder why they even bothered to fight the lions solo in the first place. But it was just very satisfying to watch... not unlike modern fighting games where there is a signature "finishing move" as well as in wrestling and other combative or competitive arenas. Everyone likes the finishing move in a story. The final blow. The thing that finally strikes fear into the enemy. I loved to watch the blazing sword slice the beast in half every episode. It was always the same. But it was always cool.
I guess the appeal comes in the surprising complexities of the characters. I mean, yes, the bad guys always have the same motivation. And the evil prince is obsessed with the good princess. But when you see the whole series unfold, it was like a soap opera for children. Some characters changed and evolved. The best examples were Sven and the Princess, though I won't go into detail. I guess it appealed to my writer's heart. Flirting and male-female tensions are always attractive to young girls
while there's plenty of action for young boys and not too much of one or
the other. The repetitiveness of Voltron's wins and the minor character development held those two facets together and it worked brilliantly.
And then it was impaled on its own blazing sword. The next incarnation was the vehicles. Nobody liked the vehicles. Looking back on it now, I understand what they were doing, but I think it was a little ahead of its time. The idea was a little more complex than kids of my day would go for. The Voltron forces weren't just in one part of the universe and there were others, so the story moved over to another part of the galaxy where another Voltron force was fighting different enemies. There was the same sense of balance... a squadron that represented air, land and sea. But it had too many characters. And it seemed like... well, I guess technically it was... just a bad copy of the lions. We weren't ready for this kind of transition. And it didn't help that the vehicles didn't have anything original to speak of.
There was actually supposed to be a third incarnation as well. Alpha, Beta, and Gamma robots to form another Voltron force, but it never aired because of the mass unpopularity of the vehicle version of Voltron. I think I'd almost be interested to see what the concept for this one was like.
So that's my anime memory for this day. There will be others.
Very good episode. One of the best ones in this season.
There are problems with it. They're exploring a system of unstable planets, but nobody thinks to investigate whether or not they're inhabited first? It's a little sloppy, but it's okay because it plays out in a very appealing way. Data receives a transmission from a planet. It's not transmitted on purpose. Just a girl talking to anyone who will listen. And Data, motivated by curiosity answers the message. This is meant to be sweet and it is. Data is an "innocent" type of character, and the little girl is innocent as well. Not thinking that she's talking to aliens, she just talks trustingly to this voice that answered he call. And Data, not doing any real harm, listens and keeps her company.
They put that joking sequence from the end of the first episode of the season about Riker being in charge of Wesley's education to use in this one. They decide to have Wesley head up the mineral survey of the area to find out why all the planets are geologically unstable. There's good and bad in this. There's more good than bad as far as lessons go about being in command, but I just bang my head against the wall when I see that this is the best that they could do with Wesley. Mineral surveys? Really? He was supposed to be a prodigy to the Traveler and presumably do the things he can do (and at the very end he does.) But the writers just made him an overachieving boy who gets to do adult projects because he's extra smart with the purpose of giving advice to young people in the "family show" type of format. I just wanted something different from Wesley. So, they tell him to get a team together. Nautrally, since they're all qualified in their fields, they're older than he is, making his leadership awkward. A lot of people can identify with this, not just kids. Anyone who's ever had to be in charge of a group of people that just have more experience in general knows the intimidation and doubt that Wesley is put through in this show. The advice he gets is solid and the courage to make decisions in spite of doubt is believable. So, altogether, it's a pretty good angle to fill in the gaps and doesn't weaken the episode in the least.
Picard galloping around a country side in the holodeck seems much more appropriate than him trying to be a prohibition era detective. This is where Picard is when Data reveals that he's broken the prime directive since the people on the planet the girl is from aren't aware of interstellar travel. She's begun to ask for help because of the volcanic activity on her planet. It touches off a relevant discussion of the prime directive.
Pardon the poor sound quality. Not only a discussion of the prime directive but of whether or not there is a grand purpose in the universe and if they were meant to interfere as such. Liberals would rather play God than believe in God. However, the points made in this debate are relevant. Ultimately when they hear the child's voice they cave in to their natural desires to help out. This is the heart of the episode and and added amazing complexity to the second season. Surely the feedback on episodes like this are what drove the direction the show would move in in the future.
They made the effort of a convincing planet scape for this one. For once, the holodeck doesn't look better than the planet. And Wesley's team comes up with a solution for the problem of the planet the little girl is on, since they're studying it anyway. Too convenient? Maybe, but it's too good of an episode to complain.
Data keeps getting more and more leeway to communicate their plan to Sarjenka and he ends up bringing her aboard the Enterprise for safety sake. It's very cute and for once Picard's crabbiness about children on the bridge doesn't seem forced or out of place. Children are trusting and the fact that Sarjenka would trust Data even though he is alien to her and looks very different without being afraid is not out of the realm of possibility especially since they'd built a relationship with their radio communications. It's just more of that innocence that is very appealing about this episode.They show her her planet as it is healed and then wipe her memory so that she won't remember anything that happened, thereby fixing their prime directive problem. Again... convenient? Yeah. Why were they even worked up about the prime directive if they could've just done this the whole time? But, it's a lovable episode and the drama within really did serve a purpose this time as far as sparking discussion and thought. This is a pretty great episode for season two.
I think it deserves four and a half stars. That extra half star may just be out of my personal bias, but it was a good Data episode. Sometimes all it takes is for the episode to be a good showing of a great character, even if it's flawed.
This is the first episode devoted entirely to character development. Like many other firsts, it's kind of hit and miss, but that can be said for any character development episode depending on which characters you like and if you think they're being handled properly.
They have Mitchell Ryan in to play Will's father, Kyle Riker. Without digressing too much I just want to lavish some attention on this man. I think he's one of the best character actors ever. Most would remember him from Lethal Weapon. But he was also in High Plains Drifter, the mini series North and South (which Jonathan Frakes was also in, although I don't think their characters had much interaction,) and he was the first Burke Devlin on Dark Shadows once upon a time. I'll definitely have to do a Dark Shadow's character profile on him soon. He's mostly cast as a bad guy, but he's actually a wonderful actor and he gets to wear all hats in various scenes of this episode and as an added bit of trivia, he was originally a top studio choice to play Captain Picard.
Okay, so one at a time. Riker has been promoted to a command of his own ship and has 12 hours to think it over. This is the second time since the beginning that they've been nudging at Riker to be promoted. In a way it's a good thing because adds a realistic feel to the series - that people are promoted and come and go and it's not like the first series where you never have to worry about your favorite characters even considering leaving the Enterprise as part of the job. But focusing on Riker's potential future career was becoming a habit in the writing and it was a little stale to me already, although the Picard moments were improving greatly. Stewart was finally getting control of that character. This, along with the arrival of Riker's father is the primary focus of the show.
Secondarily, Wesley notices that Worf is... edgy... so he is determined find out why.
I thought that was awkward and inappropriate and, if it had been real life, that kind of nosy behavior should've been discouraged in a teenager. However, I guess his curiosity comes from the fact that he is a teenager, although I feel it was just more wasting of his character. This is why people didn't like Wesley. However, I can look past it because when he started asking for help in his endeavor, he was told that he was on his own, which is another correct response if the nosiness can't be discouraged. Geordi's motivation for leaving Wesley to his own devices was another minor character development point - he was feeling slighted by another ship's analysis of some of his engineering functions which is used to fill in the gaps throughout the episode.
Kyle and Pulaski are old friends and had a romantic interest in one another at one time. I liked this idea and I often thought it would've been nice if they'd mentioned in passing later on that these two decided to marry, making her Will's mother-in-law. This angle was good for showing Will that he didn't know his dad as well as he thought; that he had other sides and dimensions. It was good for the situation.
But the tension between Will and his father never made sense to me. His mother dies before he's really even aware of her and that's part of his problem which seems weak. His father wasn't the hugging, touchy-feely type and that's another part. It all seems pretty thin. They have Will behaving very childishly again... too childish for a man who is second in command of the flagship of Starfleet. It has Pulaski and Troi trying to explain to Kyle why he's at fault although I gotta say, I'm not seeing it. It seems like something taken from a bad book on men's psychology. As the episode wears on, it seems to turn into a commentary on men in general, and naturally, it's not favorable.
Men are brutes. Men are savages. When Kyle's had enough of Will plugging his ears he challenges him to an anbo-jytsu match claiming it's all they have left between them *eye roll at the melodrama.* I wanted to like this sport. I liked the idea of fighting blind. But good grief, they had so much body armor on that it made Pulaski's concerns about "violence" seem pretty stupid really. The stunt actors had to be in Hell trying to move in all that gear. Consequently, the action was sluggish. And those American Gladiator type of pugil sticks looked like they couldn't do anymore damage than knock someone over, especially as heavily padded as they were. It was anticlimactic at best. They make up after Will realizes that his dad had been cheating to win all time when he was a kid. Man hug. Whatever. The whole thing was just very vague and unsatisfactory.
Worf's problem was more interesting, however. Wesley finds out that it's the 10 year anniversary of his Right of Ascension ceremony and it's celebrated by recreating it with family present. It's a little simplistic, but it's another stab at developing Klingon culture that is actually really cool. I guess they didn't realize the audience would like this kind of thing because we have more whining about barbarism and violence out of Pulaski. It was not only hypocritical but another way of stunting the growth of Klingon culture at the same time. She specifically states that humans are past this kind of barbarism while finding Will and Kyle's anbo-jytsu thing to be somewhat charming by comparison. So... we have to learn how inferior humans are in every other episode - except when it comes to Klingons. Even though we're all friends now, they're still the savages from TOS. Talk about stereotyping and racism. Just saying. I think this Right of Ascension thing must have gotten rave reviews from the fans because it wasn't too long before they stopped all of the characters from being so disgusted and smug about Klingon rituals after this, and rightfully so.
I thought the Riker angle in this episode was not as good as it could've been. Too much melodrama. He and Troi even have a tearful goodbye although he decides to stay on the Enterprise which, of course, we all knew that he would. So everyone gets a happy ending.
I'm not sure how to score this one. Although I wasn't impressed with the Riker story and thought that Worf's was impeded by Wesley and Pulaski, I like it that they made an effort to do serious character development. That alone deserves quite a bit of merit. It was a first time for this sort of thing, so obviously, there were bugs to be worked out. it mostly didn't work for me, but others may disagree. I think I can give it three stars.
This is a pretty good second season episode. I've always liked it. It isn't the most perfect use of a time anomaly, but it's not bad. And Patrick Stewart was improving Picard more and more with each episode. You can tell at this point that it wouldn't be long before the show would really break out and start excelling in almost every episode.
The teaser scenes at the beginning were getting better. Sometimes they would telegraph the plot of the episode or sometimes not. In this case, there was a little forward thinking going on when Riker mentions his father. I don't know if they'd planned to make the episode with his father at this point... most likely they did because it's the next one - it was probably even filmed first - but it was an example of how these throw away scenes could be used for later episode fodder, especially in the area of character development. It's a funny scene and a nice lighthearted start to the otherwise exciting and eerie episode.
They come across a drifting shuttle craft that turns out to be one of their own shuttle crafts with Picard inside. This makes for some good mind-bending which makes the episode appealing. It's a genuinely good reason for the crew to be freaked out and for Picard to be incensed. It's still on the simple side. The shuttle craft is from six hours in the future and a lot of time is spent wondering and worrying about it. Then you find out that the Enterprise was destroyed and Picard was the lone survivor in this shuttle craft. And again, we spend a lot of time pondering and speculating. I'm not complaining too much this time. I'm just pointing out that the full potential of an episode hadn't been reached yet. As the series goes on, they'll manage to pack more and more detail into episodes even when the plot is simple. This concept of time distortion and a coming disaster is tweaked and improved upon later on with more detail and intensity than just that of the characters looking freaked out and worried with a lot of dramatic pauses. But this is a very good first try.
This is one of the first really great Picard episodes. The Measure of a Man was the best of Picard so far, but you only got a small dose of that in the trial scene. But this episode is obviously focused on him from beginning to end. Up till now, for the most part, whenever Picard was offended or irritated, it seemed overdone considering the situations. I felt like he was wound up too tight and a little on the snobby side. But in this episode, his discomfort and anger are justified. He's a proper captain that wouldn't abandon his crew to a disaster so that he might survive and you see how the thought of that embarrasses him and strengthens his determination to find out what really happened. Although, the audience knows he would never save himself first and you have to wonder why you see doubt in the rest of the crews' eyes as they spend all that time worrying and speculating. That never seemed right.
Patrick Stewart gets to stretch his acting legs a little. His confused and disoriented future Picard is truly shocking. It's the first time you see Picard really lose control (I absolutely do not count The Naked Now; it was an abomination) and it's almost heartbreaking to see his present self have to look at it. I was a little uncomfortable with the way he badgered his helpless doppelganger for information, but I think that was by design as well... this effect on the viewer supported the drama displayed by Pulaski and Troi. It made it appropriately terrifying. Nicely done, over all. As the episode progresses, it turns out that as time goes forward towards the catalyst event, the future Picard becomes more and more aware of his surroundings and is able to function.
The space effects were so beautiful. I guess it must have been easier than setting up nice looking planet scapes in the first two seasons. And I'm glad they went to the trouble of the CGI animation for the strange phenomenon that touches off the sequence of events that leads the future Picard back into the past. It gives the episode a good flow
Then all of a sudden towards the end of the episode it all starts to go together. The disturbance in space starts sucking the Enterprise inescapably inward and firing energy bursts at Picard specifically... for no reason. That's one of those first two season type of cop outs that are so very annoying to me. However, it's forgivable to a certain degree because Stewart makes the rest of the story so entertaining. This is obviously why the other Picard decided to abandon ship so as to save the crew. He decides to allow his future self to start playing out the sequence of events as they'd already happened since, although he could function now, he apparently wasn't aware of the fact that he was in the past. The purpose was to find out if there was ever another option on his mind. And it turns out there was.
His other idea would've been to go through the disturbance instead of trying to escape it. So he kills his future self and decides to go with this other option which works. Then the future shuttle and Picard disappear. Like I said, it's not perfect. This Star Trek series was usually more careful when dealing with time travel, because it's so easy to blow holes in it. In this case everyone remembers what happened even though that would probably not be the case if it'd really happened. But, no matter. It's one of the better episodes in season two.
I'm torn on how to score it. I like it enough to award four stars, but the typical irritants that litter the first and second seasons (time wasting, things happening for no real reason, wrapping up without much preamble in the last 10 minutes or so) are a little more prominent than I'd like them in what could've been a really great episode. I'll go three and a half on this one, but with a note that this one could've easily been four starts as well.
