The Best and Worst of Trek: TNG Submitted Thursday, July 3, 2008 - 5:52:37 AM by Klaitu
Yep, I'm on a Star Trek kick. Turns out they're still airing them on the TV if you look hard enough. For me, I grew up with Trek. I liked trek because it was cool, and it had spaceships and phasers and whatnot.
Now I still like it because of the spaceships and phasers, but now Trek for me is a bit more nostalgic. I get pretty excited when I catch an obscure episode that I don't remember the ending to, which is becoming progressively harder to do.
So, you'll have to bear with me as I wax nostalgic about one of my favorite shows. So, without further fanfare I give you the 5 best, and 5 worst episodes in the entire 7 seasons of The Next Generation!
The Best:
5. The Pegasus
One of Riker's first postings was aboard the USS Pegasus. The Pegasus was part of a top secret project to build a Cloaking Device. The Cloaking device is basically advanced stealth technology that makes a starship invisible to detection. The Federation is not allowed to develop or operate cloaking devices due to a treaty it has signed.
The USS Pegasus mission was obviously in violation of all that. When the crew discovered their top secret mission, they splintered into two factions and eventually mutinied. The Captain of Pegasus was in favor of the cloaking device. Most of the crew were against.
When the mutineers entered the bridge, Riker defended the captain, and they were both able to escape in an escape pod. Meanwhile, the USS Pegasus exploded due to unknown reasons.
Riker was a young guy at the time, and upon reflection, decided if he had to do it over again, he would be part of the mutiny. The Cloaking Devide is, after all, a violation of interstellar law.
As it turns out the Pegasus wasn't destroyed, but crashed into an asteroid near the Romulan border. The Pegasus captain, now an Admiral, is sent in to retrieve the illegal cloaking device so that the Romulans don't discover the treaty violation.
As Riker already knows about the cloaking device, he is enlisted to help the Admiral.. who also orders him not to reveal the true nature of the mission to anyone.
Picard knows there's something fishy going on, but Riker won't tell him. Riker again has to choose between following orders, and following what he believes in.
The Pegsus is a pretty simple story that's played with a lot of style. I added this one to my list, because it's a good episode, and it's a good episode that isn't a Data or Picard episode (as most TNG episodes are).
4. First Contact
Riker is sent to meet with a group of undercover agents who are on a planet that has not yet discovered that there is life on other worlds. The people on the planet are about to invent their own Warp Drives.
When a civilization reaches warp drive-level technology, starfleet sende teams like this to contact the planet and "ease them in" to discovering that their planet is but one small part of a multitude of other planets.
This particular planet is very traditional in their beliefs. They believe that their race is special, and that their planet is the center of the universe.
Riker and the first contact team are separated when a Riot breaks out, and Riker is severely injured. He's been surgically altered to look like the aliens, but when he's whisked away to a hospital for treatment, his human heritage is quickly found out.
Meanwhile, Picard contacts the head of the space program, and the leader of the planet. Both of these people are progressive, and while suspicious, they are not afraid of Picard. However, the rest of the president's cabinet see Picard and crew as invaders, a problem blown out of proportion by Riker's covert efforts.
In the end, Riker is rescued from the medical facility after being beaten by extremists, and framed by the security minister for a murder.
The Progressive president is forced to shut down the space program, and keep his planet isolated until he can educate his frightened and ignorant populace. He denies contact with the Federation.
First Contact is one of those great Trek episodes that examines humans through a different kind of metaphor. What if Earth were the alien planet, and some other species were Captain Picard? How would Earth compare to the planet in the story? Delicious sci-fi food for thought!
3. The Offspring
The android Data creates an android daughter. This is a unique event in that the secrets of android-building died with Data's creator. Data's daughter, named Lal is the first known android to be created since Data.
Starfleet is very interested in androids, because it can use them for technically demanding tasks in dangerous enviornments, where you wouldn't put people in danger.
Data himself was the subject of this controversy, but it was rules later that Data counts as a person, and so he has all the rights of any other person. This ruling, however, does not apply to Lal.
When Starfleet learns of Data's success at creating an android, they want to get their hands on it so they can study it and make more of them.. and of course, Data (and the rest of the crew) are opposed to this.
Just when you're all geared up for a big drama episode with a fight over android parental rights, Lal's brain malfunctions and she dies.. rendering the entire argument pointless.
What a Twist!
The entire crew mourns the loss of Lal.. and even the grumpy starfleet admiral who wanted to steal her away for study is touched.. but Ironically, Data is the only person on the ship who can't feel emotion, and is unaffected by her loss.
The Offspring is just plain old good writing. It's got an effective misdirect, and an awesome human commentary on what exactly it means to be human.
2. The Best of Both Worlds / Family
This is actually 3 contiguous episodes, but it shares the same plot.
Picard, the Captain of the Enterprise, and pretty much the most stand-up guy alive during his generation is abducted by the Borg. The Borg are an alien race who are part machine, and part organic. They reproduce by stealing organic beings (like Humans) and attaching mechanical devices to them. This process is called Assimilation.
After his abduction, Picard is assimilated. He exclaims that he will fight the Borg with his last breath, but it does no good, because resistance really is futile.
His cohorts on the Enterprise are powerless to stop the Borg, and unable to rescue Picard. The Borg are headed straight for Earth
Picard becomes Locutus, the voice of the Borg. Since he's assimilated, the Borg know everything he knows.. and since he's a Starfleet bigwig, he knows a lot. He attacks the Enterprise, and later attacks and destroys an entire fleet of ships, killing thousands of people.
Of course, the crew of the Enterprise are later able to rescue Picard, narrowly defeat the borg, and de-assimilate their Captain.. but Picard was conscious of what was going on during his entire stint as Locutus.
As the Enterprise is damaged, it has to layover at Earth (since it's there anyway) for repairs, so Picard takes the time to visit his childhood home, and his family.
Picard's brother is a traditional guy, shunning the use of most technology, but by no means Amish. He's been somewhat jealous of Picard over the years, as Picard has pretty much been an overachieving paragon of virtue for his entire life.
While on Earth, Picard considers leaving Starfleet and joining the Atlantis Project, an effort to create a new continent from the sea floor.
Picard doesn't really know how to deal with having killed thousands of people, or having turned over every military secret he knows to the enemy. His brother knows that something is up, and beats the crap out of Picard until he finally spills the beans about what happened to him.
With his brother's help, Picard finally decides to stick with Starfleet, because no matter what he chooses, it doesn't change the past.
Best of Both Worlds and Family is Star Trek's first 3-part episode. It's also one of the few episodes where a plot element carries over into an episode with a different title.
1. The Inner Light
If there were any one episode that would show up in just about every "fan favorites" list, it's The Inner Light. I hate to go with the crowd, but I can't disagree.
Picard gets beamed by an alien probe while on the bridge of the Enterprise, it renders him unconscious for about 20 minutes.
During that 20 minutes Picard lives another man's lifetime. He finds himself on an alien planet, and married to a woman he has never met nefore. Of course, he believes that he has been captured and tries to escape, but there's nowhere to go.. the planet he is on doesn't have space travel technology.
Picard mellows out over the years. He embraces his marriage, has children, joins the planet's government council, and even has grandchildren. Over the 3 decades or so he is on the planet, he's always struggling to learn how to play the flute, a favorite instrument of the natives.
Picard discovers that the planet is quickly becoming barren, and fewer and fewer crops will grow in the soil. He traces it back to the sun, which is in it's last stages and will soon expand and envelop the planet. He knows the planet is doomed, and spends his later years saddened that his grandchildren won't grow up.
One day, his family drags him from his home to witness the launching of a rocket.. a rocket containing a probe that in several thousand years will encounter the Enterprise, and Picard.
Picard wakes up from his unconscious state, the probe shuts down.. and when it is brought on board, it contains the flute that he taught himself to play.
The Inner Light is not only an example of a great Star Trek episode, it's a downright perfect example of what Science Fiction can be.
Of course, TNG wasn't all hits.
The WORST of Star Trek TNG:
5. Remember Me
Doctor Crusher is inadventantly caught in a static warp shell.
You nerds instantly know this episode. Lemme spell it out for you non-trekkers.
Doctor Crusher's son is boy genius Wesley Crusher, who is doing some fancy experiments with the engines which accidentally sends his mom into an alternate reality.. an artifcial alternate reality that will collapse and destroy her when his experiment ends.
The episod sucks because.. 1. Nobody cares about anyone named Crusher and 2. The plot makes absolutely no sense.
It's like if you fell overboard on a boat and landed in an exact replica of that boat, except that all the water was evaporating, and everyone on the boat kept disappearing. does that make any sense?
I rest my case.
4. Sub Rosa
It's a Star Trek episode based off an Anne Rice novel. If you don't know who Anne Rice is, you'll find her classified under "Horror/Erotica".
I don't think I really need to say more about it, but I will anyway. Dr. Crusher's relative has died, and she has inherited all her junk. Among that junk is a candle. A candle that a predatory seductive 19th-century-dressed studmuffin lives in.
You know, like a genie.. except the only wish he grants is fulfullment of tepid, uninteresting sexual advances!
Ooh, ooh, can Beverly Crusher muster up the willpower to smash the candle and destroy the studly-looking alien who is feeding off her biochemistry? Does anyone really care?
Turns out she can't. Not until that studmuffin attacks Picard! Love triangle to the rescue!
In the end, the episode is neither scary like horror, nor is it steamy.. like erotica. You'll find my classification of this story under "Horrible/Barftastica"
3. Man of the People
This one is about an ambassador who seduces women into grabbing his rocks.
No joke! He has these rocks in a special case. He sits at a table with the woman, and they touch the rocks together.
Why is this a big deal? It turns out that the rocks transfer his "darker thoughts" into the other person. For some reason, this causes the women to.. get old really fast. The effect remains until the target dies of old age, at which point the ambassador has to seduce another woman to grab his rocks and put his dark thought into...
This one sucks because it has the triple whammy:
- Troi episodes suck - The plot makes no sense. How do "dark thoughts" make anyone old? - There is no drama in Troi's "oh no, I am crying because I may never be young again" dilemma.
2. The Outrageous Okona
You know how I'm a Star Trek nerd? Well, I have a confession to make.
I have never made it through the entire episode of The outrageous Okona. I can't tell you the details of the plot, but what I can tell you is this:
Data tries to explore humor. Data has no emotions, so he will never understand humor. Data needs a comedian to help him understand humor..
Data programs a replica of JOE PISCOPO to help him tell jokes.. and let me tell you.. the holographic Joe Piscopo? SPOT ON representation of the actual Joe Piecopo.
There's more to the episode than that, but I just can't watch the whole thing. It's too horrible. It's the only episode of Star Trek that I haven't seen.
1. The Schzoid Man
A mad scientist has developed a way to digitize his thought patterns and store them in a computer. The mad scientist has a disease. The mad scientist encounters Data. He puts his digitzed brain patterns in Data, and steals his body.
This episode is horrible. It's horrible not only because it's a sci-fi staple, but also because it is acted poorly, produced poorly, and is generally lousy in every sense of the word.
But if you didn't like this one, don't worry, because Data gets taken over by just about everything. Here's a few things off the top of my head:
- nanites - the psi 2000 virus - An Iconian Probe - The whacked out tribal computer of a long-dead race - A homing beacon sent by his creator - The loss of several of his memory engrams - Emotions being beamed into him by Lore - The slug creature that killed Tasha Yar - The sand-brain thing from that terraforming episode - The consciousness of a dead criminal stored an electomagnetic cloud
Ironically, Data was never taken over by the Borg.. in fact, he is one of the few things that are immune to assimiliation. Go figure.
I do want to mention the episode "Shades of Grey" which is a bad episode, but it's not horrible in the sense that it was poorly written like the other examples. It's bad because it's a clip episode. It's Star Trek's only clip episode, brought about by the writer's strike of 1988.
I didn't include it in my worst list because.. hey, what are you gonna do when you don't have any writers?
|