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 High Ground - TNG 3/10
On this episode of Star Trek, the writers decide they want to make a comment on The Troubles! God fucking help us!
To be extremely fair to the writer, the original concept wasn't to make a commentary on Ireland, but instead on the American Revolution. She was told by some producer to change it to being about Ireland, which she did not want to do but the producers are ALWAYS right!!
Anyways, Crusher, a neutral medic who was helping one side of a conflict, is captured by the rebels. Now the Enterprise, who was just there supplying medical supplies for trade, are caught in a war on terrorism as they try to get Crusher back.
I think it kinda tried to both sides the issue but does it kinda poorly and really just puts all the blame on these political terrorists fighting for sovereignty. The police have a list of sympathizers and arrest anyone possibly dangerous, sure, but the terrorists use teenagers to blow up buses of kids.
Hey look, it's that thing! So many people got angry over this :)
Anyways all of this is completely thrown out the window of "gee which one is in the wrong" when the rebels teleport onto the Enterprise and try to blow it up and kill all of them, just cause "hey they're not on our side so maybe this will alert the Federation to the fact we need help" which is.... very stupid.
Also the rebels have a transporter that does "dimensional shifts", which can move through shields, but melts their DNA, and they want Crusher to fix the melting DNA. They're like "we're serious enough to use this stuff that's killing us!" which like, I get, and also, why the fuck did this never come back? Apparently it very rarely did but like... the Borg wouldn't use this? The Klingons wouldn't??? They don't care about the survival of their soldiers.
Anyways the terrorists' idea is "we will hurt the Federation, so that they'll come to the negotiation table to get you all back and stop us, and we will use that to have them get concessions from the fascist government". Which is not how the federation works but that's okay. It's not a TERRIBLE idea but it does a real shit job at humanizing the rebels. Crusher gets on their side, for... some reason. They tried to blow up her fucking son. And he's like "What? I've been NOTHING but polite to you! I just tried to kill your son, which I specifically told you I'd do". It's trying to make him look like a nice guy. He makes some art for her!
It fails SO hard at this. "I don't want you to fear me". Then don't BLOW UP NEUTRAL PEOPLE TO USE THEM AS A BARGAINING CHIP? And then tell those neutral people "why do you fear me???"
I won't lie, my sympathies will almost always lie with rebels of a large government. This could have worked as a good analogy. Like, an analogy for the US/Isreal relationship. A large powerful force ignoring the downtrodden minority of their servant state, offering aid and power to that servant state and ignoring the fascism. But no. The Enterprise just showed up to do trade once, and then found out about the situation. And they were like "Hey we're willing to help, just send people to negotiate" and the rebels go "Hmm how about instead we try to kill you so we have a bigger bargaining chip???"
They try to do a both sides argument and fucking fail so hard. Centrism failed. Except it's actually an AMAZING representation of centrism because centrism always tries to do a both sides argument but they ACTUALLY mean the leftist side. It's yet more liberal bullshit.
Anyways it ends with a wet fart as the lead rebel is killed, and nothing is resolved. It tries to make a statement, as a boy refuses to kill the police leader. "Maybe the cycle ends with the choice of one boy putting down his gun" but it... doesn't end. That may fit here for this one situation but not for like, terrorism? There's also no real history, or concept behind this rebellion to make it hit. It has big "very special episode" anti-drug episode energy, you know what I mean?
Deja Q - TNG 10/10
The Enterprise is trying to stop a moon from hitting a planet when Q shows up, completely naked, and we get to see John de Lancie's ass.
Nice bulge, Q.
Hey look, it's the facepalm that launched a million facepalms!
Anyways Q is immediately thrown in the brig and de Lancie is the best actor who isn't currently acting as Data, jesus. He's so good. He's chewing the scenery so much you can visibly see the bite marks.
It's fun to see Q learning what it means to be Human and absolutely hating it. He got kicked out of the Q Continuum and got turned into a human and he's like "OH GOD I FELT SO WEAK AND LOST CONSCIOUS-" "You... fell asleep."
It's also real funny to see a godlike being just not understand the limits and what humans are, really. "Oh I know how you fix it. Just change the gravitational constant of the universe, easy!"
I really like the dichotomy between Q and Data. Q was turned into a human as a punishment. Data wants to be one, but cannot earn it. They bond in a really fun way.
Guinan sees Q, and Data is like "we're not sure if he's telling the truth on if he's human" and she immediately fucking stabs him which is the best god damn thing in the world, I fucking love her.
Anyways a Space Ghost called the Calamarain shows up and attacks Q, cause apparently they hate him. I can't imagine why.
Turns out yeah the real reason Q became Human and came here is because Humans are basically the only people in the universe who would actually protect him from all the enemies he's made. All of this episode is peak writing, it's EXTREMELY entertaining, and there are a lot of really good character moments as characters bounce off each other.
Poor Data almost died trying to save Q's life and let me tell you, the entire crew is very, very happy about that. Q is miserable. He admits he's a shitty terrible human. He straight up admits to Data, "You're a better human than I", because if he had been in Data's shoes he wouldn't have even begun to try and save him. It's an extremely powerful moment, and Q straight up commits suicide so he stops being a problem for the crew. And when the Enterprise try to protect him, they can't cause they're stopped by another Q. A good line. Picard: "We need to teleport Q and the shuttle he's on back" everyone looks at him "It's a good shuttle craft." lmao.
Anyways he committed a selfless act so he learns his lesson and another Q lets him become a god again. And for his going away present, he gets rid of the moon that was falling, and also gives a going away present to Data, his "professor of the humanities", and it made me laugh so much to watch.
What a good episode.
A Matter of Perspective - TNG 3/10
This episode starts with the captain and some others doing some nude model painting (as in painting a model, not Picard posing nudely). Data compliments all the others and insults Picard's in a funny way.
Anyways, it's a good cold open, where Riker is sounding grumpy while beaming back onto the enterprise. And as soon as he gets there, though he almost doesn't make it, the space station explodes. Good setting up of the conflict!
Riker is charged with murder of the scientist who was on that vessel. The government of this alien race believes people are guilty until proven innocent (a terrible justice system, what is this, that one Ace Attorney game?), and demands they turn him over. Picard basically refuses, but suggests using the holodeck to recreate the events of the murder so they can try and figure out what happened. Not fully how the holodeck should work, not sure how it'd help really, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief cause the murder mystery is neat and I like murder mysteries.
As soon as we start watching what happened according to Riker, it's massively obvious who the murderer was. The doctor's wife is super horny and is climbing so hard into Riker's pants, and he is NOT into it. This is of course all his testimony and it's him against the wife's testemony. According to the aliens, they got readings that he shot off a phaser... which y'know, is dumb, cause it's been shown that the Enterprise can tell when a phaser is being fired.
They find a weird radiation, and some damage it did to the ship, as the testimonies continue. The scientist's wife gives her's now, and it's creepy as fuck. You can tell Frakes hates it too, in that same way whenever Troi's actress hates what they're making her do. Anyways so according to her, Riker came onto her and did some really uncomfortable sexual assault. I muted it. I couldn't watch it. Don't put sexual assault in your shows. The real Riker protests, and I do too. They even use the R word, like fucking Christ.
Yeah, me too Riker.
Anyways according to Troi, they're both telling the truth which like... I GUESS the idea is that people's memories are fallable? It's not melicious in the way they're trying to say it, and the episode IS called "a matter of perspective", but the way they handle it is gross and I don't like it. Cause she's wrong. That isn't how it went, and she's just portrayed as the horny lying bitch. It's done so poorly like what the fuck.
There's a third simulation where someone who wasn't even THERE gives another testimony and the government official is like "this is admissible according to our system of law", which seems to be written just to be the worst rule of law ever?
This episode is a good idea. I like the idea of a whodunnit murder mystery that's solved using the holodeck but that's not actually what this is, it's instead a commentary on how people's perspectives are all filled with both correct and incorrect parts. Any actual whodunnit was done in the background offscreen in the b plot. Anyways it all doesn't matter cause it turns out the wife didn't actually do it and lied for no fucking reason, it was actually the doctor who killed himself while TRYING to kill Riker. You could have done this without portraying Commander Riker as a rapist or a sex pest at best.
Didn't like this. Good enough setup but the general idea behind it is rotten. Bad episode.
Yesterday's Enterprise - TNG 10/10
This episode starts with a great scene where Worf declares that prune juice is a warrior's drink, and when Guinan tells him he should get laid, he says he's afraid he'd rip the human women on the Enterprise apart as they are too squishy. She calls him a coward. He is.
Reality shifts as a weird radiation effect washes over them, and things move to a darker reality. Oh look, Tasha Yar is back! And I legit went "WOAH!" and all the people watching with me went "that's the exact reaction we wanted thank you Liz". It surprised me! I knew Yar would come back but like, not this fast, I thought she'd still want nothing to do with Trek.
Anyways, things are... very different now. It's not a captain's log, it's a Battle Log. It's all very military coded, and we're still at war with the Klingons. That also means there's no signs of Worf! No one seems to notice anything's shifted... except Guinan, who warns Picard of this. VERY good setup like omg.
Anyways, there's another Enterprise here. The Enterprise C. Turns out 22 years ago, the Enterprise C saved a Klingon outpost from some Romulans, which would have helped the Klingons move closer to an alliance with the Federation. But then the Enterprice C is sent into the future, and that timeline never happened. They could send the Enterprice C back to its own time, and fix the timeline... but it would be a death sentence for the ship and all its crew. Is it right to do that?
Good concept, very good concept. The captain of the Enterprise C is cool, she's a lady! Imagine that. I guess our world of Starship Captains DOES have room for women!
Guinan over in the corner staring at Yar getting her mack on with some guy and is like "THIS ISN'T RIGHT THIS ISN'T RIGHT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE GAY. ALSO DEAD I GUESS, BUT MOSTLY GAY."
In the end, though everyone hates the idea, Picard decides to go along with Guinan's idea and send these people to their deaths. The Enterprise C's captain actually ends up agreeing, alongside all the other members of her crew. They want to give the Romulans a good fight.
Why did Gene Roddenberry look at a lesbian and go "I want that", and then they spent the entire rest of the series trying to go "SHE'S TOTALLY NOT GAY, GUYS".
Something else on my mind. Worf isn't here. The idea is yeah they're still at war with the Klingons but uh, this changing moment was 22 years ago. Worf is way older than 22 years old, he's like in his early 30s. He would have been adopted by Humans in this timeline too. I guess maybe cause of the war he's not allowed to be in star fleet? Okay that makes sense. (Neli looked it up after, apparently the Kitomer Massacre was 2 years after this, so nevermind!)
Anyways Yar knows she's dead in the "correct" timeline. Guinan tells her. There's some good scenes with that, where Yar is... fucked up cause she doesn't belong there. "Guinan said I died a senseless death... I want my death to count for something". Imagine making an episode in an entire attempt to turn Yar's death, which was bad and terrible, into something much better.
"Let's make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise." Good line.
We get one of the only battle scenes in early TNG, as the Enterprise D tries to defend the C as it re-enters the rift. With disastrous results.
Thank god this timeline never happened. Apparently originally, Data was going to be electrocuted, and Wesley Crusher was going to be fucking DECAPITATED. But they only showed Riker's death. Fucking hell. Can you imagine...
The episode ends with them about to be blown up by Klingons, but then it all becomes better, and we get one last sweet send off to Tasha Yar. For now. Gosh, good episode.
The Offspring - TNG 11/10
In this episode, Data creates a daughter! Oh boy!! It just STARTS with that. That's the cold open. Jesus!
This is apparently Frakes' first directing gig. Damn Frakes, you're starting off strong, huh?
Lots of arguments about whether Lal is his kid, and Picard is NOT happy. Lots of it pronouns, but Data very clearly goes "I will let Lal choose their own pronouns and appearance" which, damn. When did Star Trek get so woke???
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME, DATA" "...No one else on the ship informs you of their procreation, captain?" lmfao
THE DOUBLE FACEPALM!
"Gender male. Gender female. I am gender neuter. That is inadequate." No, Lal. It is the 2400s. Nonbinary people are normal!
Lal uses the Holodeck to see what form they'd like to take, and goes for one of four. You have all these options, and your choices are an Andorian (The ONLY ONE we see in TNG), two humans, and a Klingon.
And then the Enterprise explodes in a giant pink explosion. Gender reveal parties were immediately outlawed.
Data tries to teach Lal all about society, and the world. And it's honestly ADORABLE. "PAINTING" "Yes, it's a beautiful painting!" "PAINTING!" "No, that's a flower, also beautiful."
"Why do I exist?" "It is very complex. But my best way to explain is that our goals in this world is to improve it and make it better." That's beautiful. And that's how I view the meaning for life, too.
Hey look, it's my experience with school!
"I do not with to be different". Oh honey. This is breaking my heart.
Anyways there's an Admiral who is not happy with this, and wants to take Lal away from her parent, and force her to be at the Daystrom institute so they can both study her and gudie her. And he's like "I'M ON MY WAY TO STUDY HER, IF I FIND I DON'T LIKE WHAT I SEE I CAN TAKE HER AWAY." Uh. We had an episode that was all about this. You can't do that. She has rights. She literally has rights there was a fucking court case about it. It's only the best episode of Star Trek ever, dude.
"He does not trust my ability as a parent. Is the Admiral a parent?" "Yes, why?" "I wonder how much experience he had with his first child."
This series LOVES to give Data hard wham lines. This episode is very emotional. And VERY funny.
Hey look, Riker is finally here! He was mostly absent the entire time, on shore leave!
Gosh Riker, you horndog, always macking on the first woman you see.
I don't blame Lal btw if I had a chance to kiss Riker it'd be hard for me to resist, too.
Asshole Admiral is here. He's an asshole. I fucking HATE this trope it always feels forced. It's a different admiral each time, why are there so many fucking many of them. He's angry about them not letting him research her. And they're like "uhhh that's against the law." "Look, Starfleet research are very big fans of Eugenics for the sake of controlling variables for study." Fuck this guy. I hate him. He's in the wrong. "YOU'RE HAVING HER WORK AS A WAITRESS IN A COCKTAIL BAR?!" First of all, dude, that song sucks, also fuck you. This isn't a BAD thing mind you. You're supposed to hate him. The episode calls him out very clearly. I just have a deep hate for this trope.
"As my last argument, it's dangerous to have you here. There's only two Soong Androids, and a rogue romulan shot will kill you both." Uh, that would have happened already. This changes nothing. You were okay with it before?
He scares her. He scares her so much she feels EMOTION. "THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO FEEL." This episode is.... really fucking good. It overwhelms her, and her brain starts to collapse. This Admiral practically kills Lal. He gave her a panic attack and she dies of a mental breakdown. He has a change of heart to see how Data tries to save her, but fuck this dude.
She feels emotion for one brief moment before dying. In one final moment, she says she loves her father. There was one, single thing they could do to make me cry. And it did. I cried. And then they double down. "I will feel it for the both of us. Thank you for my life."
Fucking christ on the cross.
WHY ARE BOTH OF MY 11/10 EPISODES DATA EPISODES. DATA. STOP BEING PERFECT IN EVERY WAY. YOU'RE CARRYING THE SHOW TOO HARD, YOU'LL THROW OUT YOUR BACK LIKE Q DID EARLIER.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I can't believe I gave three 10/10s today. Well, two 10/10s, and a fucking 11/10. One of only three I've ever given for Trek (Lal's episode, Measure of a Man, and Movie 6). They're all worth it.
This is a really good season I'm sad I never got to watching it before, jesus christ.