Author: tederick
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Allegiance”
“An ale for me, and for my officers… in fact, ales for everyone!” I guess there’s nothing particularly wrong with “Allegiance,” except I don’t like it much. It has the feel of an old-style Star Trek science fiction story, and it splits its action between two perfectly worthwhile threads – the four-hander play taking place…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Sins of the Father”
“jIlajneS. ghIj qet jaghmeyjaj.” “The Sins of the Father” is so good that it nearly deserves to be a two-parter – one episode just focused on Commander Kurn being an asshole to the Enterprise crew and screwing with his (secret) brother Worf’s mind; and a second for the business at the Klingon council, involving Mogh,…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The Offspring”
“His hands… were moving faster than I could see.” Yeah yeah yeah, the one where Data has a kid. I was merciless to this episode when I was younger, for reasons that I, at 36, can only attribute to my (hopefully elapsed) status as a useless, coldhearted bastard. No, “The Offspring” still isn’t my favourite…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Yesterday’s Enterprise”
“Geordi… tell me about Tasha Yar.” Well, here we are – the episode that many would argue is not just the best of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but possibly the best of Star Trek, period. I don’t rank it quite that highly – it’s my third-favourite Next Gen episode, after “All Good Things” and…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “A Matter of Perspective”
“You’re a dead man, Apgar! A dead man!” Sooner or later, everyone does their Rashomon – and so we have “A Matter of Perspective,” a fucking terrible episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s third season, in which Picard programs the holodeck to help recreate three different personal recollections of the events leading up to…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Deja Q”
“Red alert.” This period of the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation is quite likely its longest (nearly) unbroken string of best-in-class episodes. The run stretches from “The Defector” to “Sins of the Father,” fully a third of the season as a whole, and with only a couple of exceptions is a ceaseless…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The High Ground”
“Jean-Luc, there are some things I want to tell you…” The best outcome of Gates McFadden’s return to Star Trek: The Next Generation was the emergence of proper Beverly episodes, which (strangely enough) never happened in Season One. With them, we have the arrival of what I’d call the True Beverly, and it begins here:…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The Hunted”
“We cannot interfere in the natural course of your society’s development. And I’d say it’s going to develop significantly in the next few minutes.” An intense and focused thriller, “The Hunted” is another highlight of a season full of highlights. The presumed allegory – Vietnam vets weren’t treated well by America upon their return home,…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The Defector”
“These are not my stars. Even the heavens are denied me here.” A favourite of mine, not just of the third season but of the entire run of Star Trek: The Next Generation, “The Defector” brings epic badassery to the long-simmering Romulan conflict on Next Gen, delivering a stunning first act and equally stunning climax,…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The Vengeance Factor”
“Parthus à la Yuta!” Strongly into the gooey middle of the endless run of “The _______” episode titles in the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, we find “The Vengeance Factor,” which I’ve never really liked much. I guess it’s an attempt at a Riker romance-of-the-week type episode of the sort that Kirk…