Category: Features
Want more posts like these, straight to your inbox?
-
Blogging the Next Generation: “Chain of Command, Part II”
“THERE! – ARE! – FOUR!! – LIGHTS!!!” The history of Cardassia, some of it anyway, is laid out in miniature over the course of Gul Madred’s torture sessions with Captain Picard in Part II of “Chain of Command.” We learn that it was a civilization of deep history and art, that fell to poverty and…
-
Blogging the Next Generation: “Chain of Command, Part I”
“A challenge. You should prove an interesting challenge.” We have arrived at, arguably, the apex of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s pop cultural power: the week it gave birth to a spin-off. I can’t recall if “Chain of Command” coincided with, or immediately preceded, the launch of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but it was…
-
Blogging the Next Generation: “The Quality of Life”
“Commander – is it your intention to continue to grow your beard?” Time for your annual reminder that Data is a person – by proxy this time, but the principle is the same. Data determines that a group of industrial mining robots called Exocomps have developed some of the criteria for life, and the usual…
-
Blogging the Next Generation: “A Fistful of Datas”
“Felis catus, is your taxonomic nomenclature an endothermic quadroped, carnivorous by nature?” We’re going to be called upon to ask what was in the water at the Star Trek: The Next Generation writers’ offices this month. Last week, the crew got turned into kids, and this week it’s a spaghetti western on the holodeck –…
-
Blogging the Next Generation: “Rascals”
“I assure you, I am Captain Picard.” Well here it is, the got-dang silliest premise in the history of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the one that should have been this series’ “Spock’s Brain;” an idea so stupid you’re amazed any credible professional actually said it aloud in a story meeting. The one where the…
-
Blogging the Next Generation: “True Q”
“The jury’s still out on that, Picard. Make no mistake.” Imagine the following delivered by a heavily bearded man in a thick, west country accent: “YOU’RE A Q, HARRY!” It wasn’t till this time through “True Q” that I cottoned to the fact that it’s essentially the Harry Potter story, on the Enterprise – with…
-
Blogging the Next Generation: “Schisms”
“Felis catus, is your taxonomic nomenclature an endothermic quadroped, carnivorous by nature?” Between this and “Man of the People,” we’re now deep into episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation whose existence had mercifully been deleted from my memory banks. I used to know this shit like the back of my hand – my brother…
-
Blogging the Next Generation: “Relics”
“NCC-1701. No bloody A, B, C, or D.” Ironically, the (arguably) least consequential of the Original Series / Next Gen crossover episodes, “Relics,” is probably the best of the lot. As befits its guest star, it’s a wild and sloppy affair, but wonderfully entertaining and warmhearted. Scotty has, since about the third Star Trek movie,…
-
Blogging the Next Generation: “Man of the People”
“I don’t know who that woman was, but she was definitely not his mother.” This flatly ridiculous episode casts Deanna in a bizarre reimagining of The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which Deanna herself is the picture. (In case you miss any of the obviousness, the alien race that delivers Ambassador Alcar to the Enterprise…
-
Blogging the Next Generation: “Realm of Fear”
“There’s a nerve cluster just behind the carotid artery. It stimulates the part of the brain that releases natural endorphins.” It’s back to business as usual on the Enterprise, which brings us the annual Barclay episode (though, I realize, there was no annual episode last year; and there’s two this year, actually). Having previously featured…