Author: tederick
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Imaginary Friend”
“I think she’s real for you. And that’s real enough for me.” We’ve spent a lot of time with the children of the Enterprise in Season Five. This is largely Alexander’s fault, and it steers the complexion of Star Trek: The Next Generation into a disappointingly bland amalgam of family entertainment, with all of the…
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Tat 2
On March 2nd, about exactly a year after I took off for New Zealand, I hitched a streetcar over to Kensington and got some Dwarven runes carved into my leg. They mean “decide,” or something close enough to it; I fooled around on the internet with various rune generators for about ten minutes a year…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The Perfect Mate”
“Who she is changes when the next man comes into the room. And I find myself hoping the next man won’t come in.” Space whore! The Next Generation! The oldest profession comes to Star Trek c/o a deeply skeevy premise wherein an alien empath naturally, willingly turns herself into the perfect woman for whatever male…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Cost of Living”
“Well that’s a conversation-stopper if I ever heard one.” This aimless little ditty appeals to me precisely because it’s so far off the beaten track. It’s the fifth season’s annual Lwaxana episode, and it’s about… the importance of having a good time? On paper it’s an absolutely awful idea for an episode, but against all…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The First Duty”
“At the time I thought you were a mean-spirited, vicious old man.” Hidden among the general mediocrity of Season Five are a few of the most memorable episodes Star Trek: The Next Generation ever produced, and right up on the top is “The First Duty,” if only because Picard’s line in the fourth act –…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Cause and Effect”
“ALL HANDS, ABANDON SHIP! REPEAT! ALL HANDS, ABAN—“ Here’s the episode of Star Trek that taught a generation about a key trope in time travel fiction: the recursive time loop. (Remember, this was a year before Groundhog Day.) For some reason, this seems like the episode of Next Gen that pretty much everyone, everywhere, has…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The Outcast”
“For humans, the sexual act brings a closeness, an intimacy. It can be a very pleasurable experience. Inseminating a husk…” “The Outcast” is Star Trek: The Next Generation’s LGBTQ episode, and it has aged well by aging badly, if you will. People hate this episode. It is very dated in its conception of the gay…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Ethics”
“You take shortcuts. Right through living tissue.” After a fairly amazing year in Season Four (“Remember Me” and “The Host” being the highlights), Dr. Crusher gets the hell shafted out of her in Season Five. She’s basically been a day player in every single episode up to now, with the partial exception of “Disaster.” Now,…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Power Play”
“Lunchtime, Miles!” Once a year or so, Star Trek: The Next Generation gets it into its head to do a ghost story of one kind or another, of which “Power Play” qualifies – though thankfully, it moves away from any attempt to frighten us, settling instead for a hostage negotiation drama. O’Brien, Troi and Data…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Conundrum”
I’m glad for rare opportunities like these: the episodes I don’t really remember. It took me a while to suss out that “Conundrum” was the one where Riker sleeps with Ensign Ro, and then backtrack that to its status as Star Trek: The Next Generation’s amnesia story – so maybe I could remember it, but…