Every Sunday my Twitch subs and I watch Star Trek in my Discord. Here are my reviews and thoughts on each of the episodes as I see it. If you're curious about a nerd's views on Star Trek episodes, please read on, I go quite in depth with some of this episodes! I've watched some Star Trek before but not all of it!
The Enemy - TNG 10/10
This episode starts in a WILD way, this set they have for this stormy planet is wild. They don't do sets like this, it's grimy and dark and cool, it just feels like we don't see this very often.
Anyways, they find a Romulan on the planet, which is in the Federation side of space. Oops. I'm sure that was an accident, gee, the Rolumans sure break galactic law by accident a lot!!
Geordi falls down a hole, and then we get one of the most bad ass things I've ever seen a Federation member do. While injured, in a storm, and alone, he melts metal down to make ice picks and SCALES THE HOLE. I think they were trying to make up for Geordi looking so terrible in the last episode. Let's just pretend that episode didn't happen until we're forced to!
Anyways Geordi gets captured by a Romulan. And he's REALLY sassy about it, there's an amazing quote. "I never lie when I got sand in my boots". What a line.
Anyways he saves the Romulans life and doesn't even take the gun from him. Why. I guess cause he expects them to work together? Well uh, they don't!! And the Romulan keeps him at gun point.
At the same time, they have the captured Romulan who needs a transfusion. Worf is the only possible donor! Worf of course, refuses. "There's a time and place to hate Romulans, Worf!" says Crusher. "If they had killed your parents, you'd know its always the time and place for racism!" says Worf.
Well then, Worf.
It's tense. Picard won't let a Romulan warship cross the neutral zone to save the Romulans, one Romulan is dying, and the one with Geordi is injured and dying while Geordi tries to convince the other, Bochra, to join him and not give in to propaganda and misgivings. And then, finally when he succeeds, he goes blind.
Lots of good character moments, for a LOT of characters here. Riker and Worf, talking about the Klingon war and letting old hatred go so that more don't suffer. Geordi, with his blindness. Geordi has to fix a thing but can't because he's blind, what will he possibly do?! "I will be your eyes." says Bochra. Good line.
There's a good moment where Picard is like "we need this Romulan alive, Worf, you're the only one who can save him." "You can force me and I will sir." "This isn't the 2020s, Worf, we have a right to our bodies here. Will you reconsider?" "Nope." "...Alright, I don't force you." The Romulan dies (not before saying he's rather die than be infected with Klingon blood, fuck that guy).
In the end, giving some trust into those you hate to try and bread the cycle wins out. It's a really good episode.
The Price - TNG 6/10
Ironically, by the end of this episode, the price is in fact wrong.
Troi is trying to relax and Picard, who seems weirdly sloshed and excited, is like "TROI YOU HAVE TO COME MEET THE DELEGATES, WE'RE ABOUT TO SEE THE WORMHOLE!"
And we get the first great line from Troi
Anyways they get to see the first stable wormhole to ever be found! Clearly DS9 does not exist yet in any capacity.
The Ferengi show up and for the first time I'm happy to see them as they are here to actually trade and buy things, it's like the Ferengi are HERE AND THEY'RE ACTUALLY FERENGI. They do Ferengi things! Like shitty backhanded dealings!
At the same time, there's this weird guy who gives me massive red flags and is weirdly creepy. He's called a hired gun and acts really weird and overly flirty and sexy towards Troi and it makes me uncomfy. I have no idea what the deal is and any time they're on screen I'm like "GET BACK TO THE DEALINGS ABOUT THE WORMHOLE AND THE FERENGI PLEASE"
They make me look at Troi's feet and I hate it. The entire situation with this dude screams "If I'm without you, I cannot breath. I hate sand". It's so stilted and uncomfortable.
At least
There is no heterosexual explanation for this random yoga scene.
At least the stuff with the A plot is cool. Geordi and Data are exploring the wormhole with the Ferengi, and it doesn't appear as stable as they claim it is! And they TRY to get the Ferengi to leave but pfff the Ferengi know better than the dumb hoomans... oh whoops they're stranded in the Delta Quadrant and are TOTALLY fucked and dead ha ha oopsie doodles.
Anyways woah turns out the dude I could tell was a creepy dickhead is a creepy dickhead! He plays everyone in the proceedings, as well as Troi. He's an empath, and there's a lot of interesting discussion about ethics around being an empath and using psychic powers to get an upperhand in dealings. It's actually kinda neat, and while it doesn't SAVE this half of the episode, it helps.
Riker ripping him down to size helps too. God bless Riker.
In the end, the wormhole means nothing, and Dickhead trying to do backyard dealings with the Ferengi to gain control does nothing. And he forcefully kisses Troi and I hate it. A plot good. B plot bad. But still MOSTLY good.
The Vengeance Factor - TNG 9/10
In this episode, our heroes land on a world with Xbox branding
Anyways the main story is that there's an alien race who are peaceful, but some people who have become violent pirates and haven't given up their old violent ways. Apparently there were some Clan Wars, and they're far over. There's some good action scenes when they try to come and negotiate.
At the same time, hey look, a sexy lady Riker can flirt with! She's demure and quiet but very sweet.
Turns out she's Evil, which is fun. She murders a dude which turns it into a bit of a murder mystery. Cool!
There's also this dude.
Remember a few seasons ago, there was a Dashing Rogue character that I hated? This is that but like, fun. And way better. He doesn't sexually harass women. He's goofy and over the top. He's a pirate sure, but he's not evil, he wants to be better, it's just what he's had to do. He has good report with Wesley, who doesn't quite like him. It's a good twist on Wes, we've never gotten to really see him in these situations!
There's some actually good scenes with Riker and this girl! Usually I don't like the obviously forced riker horniness. But here it works well. She's a servant, and is used to being a servant. She basically can't NOT be a servant. Riker tells her very clearly, while also flirting with her, that she's his EQUAL. She basically can't comprehend it. And when she goes to his bedroom to fuck later, she does it only to serve him. He is VERY not into that. When Riker fucks, it is NOT one sided.
The performances are really good, ESPECIALLY in the political dealings where they're trying to get the pirates to join society. And then ESPECIALLY when it gets to the end, where she doesn't think she can do ANYTHING but be an assassin, and she basically makes Riker kill her. It's quite powerful.
The wars are over. And Riker is never allowed to be happy.
The Defector - TNG 10/10
This episode starts with Data doing a performance of Henry V on the Holodeck as Picard watches on excitedly, it's very adorable. At the same time, Sir Patrick Stewart is flexing and ALSO playing one of the other characters. Picard implores Data to consider what Shakespeare is saying about what makes a man, so he's better understand what it is to be human. This is what modern Trek is missing. Copious Shakespeare.
The episode then begins. A Roluman Warbird attacks a scout, as a defector begs to be saved. Turns out, according to him, the Romulans are going to attack, and have a base in the Neutral Zone ready to attack. He could easily be lying to get them to break treaty, but he claims he just wants to stop a war.
I love his interactions with Worf. He insults him in Klingon then laughs as Worf leaves, and is like "I LIKE HIM!"
He also blows up his own vessel cause he ain't no traitor, he just wants to stop a war. Anyways basically no one believes this dude. I don't believe this dude. There's some good character moments with Picard here, anxious that he's going to fucking ruin everything by choosing one choice or the other. Hey, good call backs to Henry V, too!
Great line: "What a fool I've been. To come looking for courage in a lair of cowards."
In the end, after Data kinda befriends the Romulan, he admits he's actually Admiral Jarok. Who kinda did a massacre, so no one really likes him, oops. I kinda like him tbh. He's fun. Romulans are fun, I love how they're portrayed and I'm so happy we're seeing them more, and in GOOD episodes!!
I love the conversation between Picard and Jarok. "You are not a man of peace, Jarok! You did a massacre!" "What you call a massacre, we call a campaign. One world's butcher is another hero's butcher." The writing in this is VERY good, there's lots of great moments. Wow they knew how to write Romulans. And you still don't know. You can't tell if he's true, if he ACTUALLY wants to stop war, or if he's just suuuuch a good actor.
Turns out he's telling the truth... kind of. The Romulan high command lied to him. To test his resolve. He failed the test, AND brought fake information to the Enterprise. Whoops. Hey look who's back!
Same dude who went not only into the neutral zone but into Alliance territory earlier tonight, in The Enemy! See, when he did that, we were like "okay we get it we'll let you go". When WE do it, after they intentionally force us to, they go "okay time to die :)"
That's Romulans!!
This works out SO well. Basically, through the entire episode, Picard gives orders to Worf. He's like "Worf, join me in my quarters", then we don't see what he wants to talk about. I was like "did... did they forget?" "Oh maybe it was a cut scene...?" Then they do it again. And THEN, at the end, OH SHIT THEY HAVE AN ENTOURAGE OF KLINGON WARBIRDS! Goddd good shit. Picard outsmarts the Romulans! Oh and Jarok unalives himself, as he sacrificed everything for nothing, and his family will only ever see him as a traitor. Tragic. But VERY good episode.
The Hunted - TNG 8/10
As the episode starts, we have an alien civilization who wants to join the Federation! They ask the Enterprise to get a dangerous prisoner who's escaped! The prisoner is very clever, doing everything possible to elude capture, but is FINALLY beamed on board. We actually get to see security guards to security guarding! Usually you don't have violent prisoners running around on the Enterprise!
Troi episode time! She senses he's in pain, and that he's not inherently one with a "criminal personality" whatever the fuck that means. Cause you know, being a criminal is just a type of person. Also he's a military man. Y'know, totally nonviolent and would never do illegal acts.
Basically they made him a super soldier and traumatized him. And it's shown as TERRIBLE. He's nonviolent but he's been PROGRAMMED to fight when he has to. Gee when did Star Trek get so woke. And the Angosians just exiled the traumatized PTSD veterans to a space colony without even trying to help them, cause why bother.
This goes... WEIRDLY hard. "Why captain, he's lying! It's a prison TECHNICALLY but they're treated very well, they just can't leave! They are seperate! But equal!!!"
Jesus.
Good character moments too. God bless Data. He starts to resonate with the prisoner in a good way.
Anyways this episode goes from interesting to fucking dumb because this super soldier just RESISTS THE TRANSPORTER and escapes. WHY? HOW? That's NOT how transporters work. Why? Why??? It's so stupid and has no reason and no explanation.
And then he just breaks his way through the Enterprise and cannot be stopped. I like the concept of a Movie Action Hero just Die Harding through the Enterprise, but it's really kinda stupid. This dude reprograms the computers by slotting chips around. I don't give a fuck if he's Solid Fucking Snake, there's no reason this alien should know how to reprogram and work with Alliance computers and technology. It drags me out of the story HARD and I can't focus on the fun escape sequence ):
Anyway he gets out, Worf is useless as always (though is able to see through deception), and breaks out everyone else in the penal colony. And they make their way directly to the capital. YEAH, LET'S RIOT! FUCK THOSE FASCISTS, GRAB YOUR GUILLOTINES, SUPPORT OUR VETERANS YOU'VE PROGRAMMED INTO WAR MACHINES!
When the episode goes back to a huge metaphor about how American society handles war, soldiers, and their lives that they ruin, it goes back to being real strong. In the end when the prime minister goes "HELP US, I DON'T WANT TO SUPPORT THE VETERANS" Picard straight up goes "No. Also we reject your proposal to join the Federation. Try again when you do better". Like hot damn.
In the end, I like the message and how it approached it. It just got a bit too silly in the middle there. It's not subtle! At all!!!! But it's good.
THOUGHTS
...I legit was like "should I really be giving this many 10s? Should I readjust my scale?"
And people tell me the later seasons are even better. I am not prepared.
Do y'all think I should adjust my scale or will season 4 and 5 just be all 10s lmfao
