Tuesday, May 28, 2013

TNG S01E18, S01E19, S01E20, S01E21, S01E22, S01E23, S01E24, S01E25



In this installment:
(viewed May 26th-28th, 2013)
Star Trek: The Next Generation, S01E18 - "Coming of Age"
Star Trek: The Next Generation, S01E19 - "Heart of Glory"
Star Trek: The Next Generation, S01E20 - "The Arsenal of Freedom"
Star Trek: The Next Generation, S01E21 - "Symbiosis"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S01E22 - "Skin of Evil"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S01E23 - "We'll Always Have Paris"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S01E24 - "Conspiracy"
Star Trek:  The Next Generation, S01E25 - "The Neutral Zone"
"Coming of Age"
  • No running the corridors, Wesley.
  • This episode features the characters of Admiral Quinn and Lt. Commander Remmick, who we'll see again in the episode "Conspiracy".
  • The rigorous entrance examination undergone by Wesley Crusher and other hopefuls makes Starfleet Academy seem much more exclusive than it could reasonably be, given that it has to produce officers to serve aboard what must be a minimum of a few hundred Starfleet vessels (not to mention planetary installations and starbases, etc.).  I suppose it's possible that Wesley's circumstances are out of the ordinary (perhaps he's applying for early entrance?), or perhaps the exam depicted is for more than just mere entrance to the academy.  Perhaps its for entrance into an accelerated program, or a program for especially gifted prospective cadets.
  • It seems like it's pretty much impossible to promote people off the Enterprise.  Riker's forever turning down commands, and Picard won't go run the Academy.
  • How is it possible that I'm just now noticing that Wesley's infamous sweater-jumpsuit-thingie has three colored stripes, with each stripe being the same color as one of Starfleet's service divisions (e.g. command red, operations gold, science blue)?


  • The early TNG dress uniforms are the worst dress uniforms.
"Heart of Glory"
  • The freighter Batris, said in this episode to be a Talarian vessel, will become one of the most redressed studio models in Trek history.
  • Lt. La Forge's visual acuity transmitter is a piece of technology that we'll never see again, but it does teach us one important fact:  Geordi pretty much sees the world just like the Predator.
  • This isn't the first time we see them, but I was reminded how much I hate the Type I phaser.  They were stupid in TOS, and the little "cricket" variety in TNG is just as silly-looking.
  • Korris and Konmel are the first Klingons we see on TNG (aside from Worf, of course).  Aesthetically, the Klingons are largely unchanged from the TOS-era movies.  They still have the pronounced cranial ridges, and their uniforms are of the same armored-looking "should pad" type seen in the movies.
  • When I heard them mention "merculite rockets" I was all like "What the frak is a 'merculite rocket'?  That's some nonsense that they made up and we'll never hear of them again."  And then I remembered that we totally do hear of them again, also on board Talarian ships in the fourth-season episode "Suddenly Human".
  • When Kunivas dies, we get to see the Klingon death ritual for the first time--the fallen warrior is surrounded by their comrades, who hold their eyes open and stare into them until the moment of death.  Then they scream/howl into the air, as a warning to those in the afterlife that a (presumably dangerous) Klingon warrior is on their way.
  • We see our first Klingon warship in this episode as well, which is a re-use of the K't'inga-class from the TOS-era movies.  The more-familiar (to TNG viewers) Vor'cha-class wouldn't be introduced until fourth-season episode "Reunion".
  • It's aboard this K't'inga-class ship that we see an odd sight.  Behind K'Nera, who commands the ship, are two emblems--the emblem of the Klingon Empire, and the emblem of the United Federation of Planets.  Is it a diplomatic courtesy, to display the banner of your ally alongside your own when you meet them?  More likely, this was a one-off inclusion in the set that was intended to remind the viewers that the Federation and the Klingons are allies. 

    Combined with a similar one-off line in the second-season episode "The Samaritan Snare", it has caused a very, very minor controversy with Trekkies as to whether or not the Klingons were merely allies of the Federation, or if they actually belonged to the Federation briefly.  Most fans--myself included--tend to dismiss the rather scant evidence for a brief Klingon membership in the Federation and go with the comparative mountains of evidence for them being allies up through and including during the Dominion War (not counting their brief withdrawal from the Khitomer Accords in 2372).

    Bernd Schneider has a good little piece about this "controversy" over at Ex Astris Scientia.
  • "Cowards take hostages.  Klingons do not."  Someone must not have told Worf about Kruge.
  • The belt-buckle disruptor/phaser thingie is among the dumbest weapons ever.  I guess their transporters can pick up germs and whatnot, but not "Hey, these two Klingons have all of the parts to make a weapon in their clothes."
  • Korris refers to adherrents of the peace treaty with the Federation as "traitors of Kling"--at the time of the writing of this episode, the name of the Klingon homeword (Kronos, or "Qo'noS") hadn't yet been settled upon.
"The Arsenal of Freedom"
  • "Wow.  All of the people may be gone, but if this automated transmission is still working then some other systems might also be working on the planet--including deadly and unknown weapons systems."

    "Yep, we'd definitely better send some people down there instead of just sending a probe or something."
  • Ensign T'Su is played by Julia Nickson, who I know better as "Co", the Vietnamese guide from Rambo:  First Blood Part II.
  • "What's the armament on the Lollipop?"
  • Hey, look at this!  It's the first of many attempts to trap Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher someplace and see what happens.  These two are like pandas--it doesn't matter how much time and privacy you give them, they just won't get with makin' the love.
  • Chief Engineer Douchebag.
  • Most of this episode is silly, but I do like Geordi's brush with the burden of command in the second act.
  • The saucer separation sequence is a re-use of the footage from "Encounter at Farpoint".
  • The miniature for the Echo Papa 607's attack drone was created from old pantyhose and shampoo containers.  Also, apparently the inhabitants of Minos adopted the NATO phonetic alphabet.
  • "I can do it, Commander."

    "How?"

    "Because I'm a freaking android, sir."
  • I had a memory of this being one of my least-favorite episodes of the first season, but really I was pleasantly surprised by parts of it.
 "Symbiosis"
"Skin of Evil"
  • Ah, here we are at last--the fateful last appearance of Lt. Natasha Yar (Denise Crosby).  What a way to go out--killed by an oil slick so you can go make movies and get famous.  FOR SHAME.
  • All engineers before Geordi took over were obnoxious toolbags.  Witness Leland T. Lynch.
  • Armus is...one of the more pants-on-head monsters in all of Trek.
  • To add insult to injury, we not only have Yar being killed in a completely idiotic fashion but then we have to endure Counselor Troi's therapy session with Armus.  Blech.
  • {insert tacked on, ridiculous "funeral" for arbitrarily killed character}
"We'll Always Have Paris"
  • There's a glitch in the Matrix...err, cargo-bay-fencing-dojo-place. 
  • Something something non-linear time experiments.
  • Something something Picard on the holodeck in Paris, etc.
  • I love it when Picard's all like "Oh for f**k's sake" and exits the holodeck.
  • Woops.  Dr. Crusher is jealous of the new blonde.
  • Antimatter, closing a time thing, the old scientist is fine after all.  Yay!
  • "It's called the Blue Parrot Cafe.  And you're buying."
"Conspiracy"
  • "I see.  So the difficulty in attaining such complex positioning in a zero-gravity environment, coupled with the adverse psychological effects it would have on the average human male is what makes this anecdote so amusing.  Yes, very humorous indeed.  Hysterical, in fact.  Heh heh heh heh heh."
  • A Code 47 is serious, but not nearly as serious as Code 46.  I mean, seriously.  The latter was a completely unmitigated disaster.
  • Three vessels meet the Enterprise at Dytallix B:  two "frigates" (USS Renegade and USS Thomas Paine), and the Ambassador-class USS Horatio.  Although the Enterprise-C will be the first Ambassador-class starship that we see on screen in the third season episode "Yesterday's Enterprise", this episode is the first mention of the class--the "missing link" between the Excelsior and Galaxy classes.
  • This episode gives us the return of Admiral Quinn and Lt. Commander Remmick, who we first saw in "Coming of Age".
  • Even if the rest of this episode wasn't pretty decent (not great, but decent), it would be worth watching just to see Riker get his butt kicked by an old man.
  • Mmm...mealworms!
  • The conclusion of this episode makes it clear that the alien parasites have the Federation in their sites...but all the way through TNG, DS9 and VOY they were never seen or heard from again.  Some fans theorize that they were intended to be the primary "threat" to Starfleet for TNG, but this was later changed to the Borg.
"The Neutral Zone"
  • Worf bumping into the door and going "Ugh" is easily one of the funniest moments of TNG's first season.
  • Wow, sleeper ship huh?  That can go pretty badly, lemme tell ya.  You'll wanna be careful with that thing.
  • "...occupation, 'homemaker'--must be some kind of construction."
  • According to this episode, we've only got about 27 years left before the television fad dies out.
  • The Enterprise heads to the Romulan Neutral Zone to investigate Federation outposts that have gone silent, worrying about a possible confrontation with a Romulan Empire that hasn't been heard from in decades.  Sounds familiar.
  • "He's comparing the Enterprise to a cruise ship?"

    No man, we're all doing that.  Your ship has a bar, dude.  A bar.
  • This is our first look at the D'deridex class warbird, although it's not named as such in this episode.  Interestingly, this is one of the few occasions when the visual effects back-up the documented size of the warbird (twice as long as the Galaxy-class Enterprise).  In most effects shots in TNG and elsewhere, the D'deridex class appears to be roughly comparable in size.
  • Romulan Commander Tebok is played by Marc Alaimo, who will go on to be most famous in his role as Gul Dukat on DS9.
  • The Neutral Zone outposts, both Federation and Romulan, are often assumed to have been destroyed by the Borg.
  • "We are back."
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