Star Trek: The Next Generation
A space ravioli attacks the ship, so Picard is forced to brutally murder it with his bare hands! Well… not quite, but something similar happens. Plus, Geordi gets to go full creeper as his holographic crush appears on board the Enterprise and is shockingly disinterested in his lecherous advances!
The Prime Directive is the guiding principle of Starfleet, but is it ethical? When a pre-warp alien civilization becomes aware of “aliens” on their planet, Picard must try to sort through the confusion and fear to come to a peaceful resolution. Plus, we get to meet the most ethical doctor in the galaxy!
Life is full of little mysteries, like that time our android friend lied to us and told us we’d been asleep for 30 seconds when in fact we were in a biostasis for about a day! Crazy times! I love episodes that explore the non-humanity of Data, and Clues is a creepy hour of deceit and blank stares. It’s a lot of fun.
In this episode, we meet the Klingon Devil and he has a huge mouth! When the Enterprise encounters a con woman posing as an immortal demon, it’s up to Picard to convince a planet that her powers are just an act. A light hearted episode that was originally a Phase II script!
Chief O’Brien just got married, so let’s probe the depths of his soul and examine the species that he hates with the burning passion of a thousand suns! The Wounded introduces the Cardassians, who would go on to be a major adversary for the Federation. When a rogue Starfleet captain begins attacking Cardassian vessels, the Enterprise must stop him before he starts a war! Trekabout’s Eric and Richard stop by to chat about replicated meals, space racism, and the tone of TNG!
A day in the life of Data! When our favorite android writes a letter to the man who tried to disassemble him in season two, he decides to talk about weddings and espionage! It’s a slice of life episode that introduces Keiko O’Brien and reminds you that Miles O’Brien is the most dashing man in Starfleet!
The producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation took a bold step in this episode: they decided to turn the useless character of Troi into a more shrill, and even more useless character! When the Enterprise gets caught up in a two dimensional sea of aliens, Troi loses her empathic abilities and starts shouting at everyone! Modi stops by to help me understand how things have gone so wrong for Troi, why 2D is better than 3D, and podcast scheduling!
Wesley Crusher, it is time to say good bye. We hardly knew you, but that didn’t stop you from being extremely obnoxious. When Wesley and Picard crash land on a desert planet, they’ll have to figure out how to deactivate alien technology to get a sip of water! Meanwhile, the Enterprise has to drag some nuclear waste into a nearby star! Fun times! It’s the final regular appearance of Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher!
When Riker wakes up 16 years in the future, he’s suddenly the captain of the Enterprise and has a bunch of grey streaks in his beard! What a disaster! Tana and Sean stop by to talk about the future, Riker’s choice of musical instrument, and Picard being late to a party. Podcast Perfect!
It’s time to talk Klingon realpolitik! When Worf’s lover, the feisty K’ehleyr, returns to the Enterprise, she brings along a tiny miracle (bear with me) named Alexander! In the meantime, Picard is forced to choose who should take the head seat at the Klingon High Council when K’empec is murdered. Worf! Duras! Gowron! Let’s get it on!
They’ve replaced the rape gangs with laser tag, but the late Tasha Yar’s home planet is still a thorn in the side of the Federation! Clay stops by to discuss Tasha’s sister Ishara, how much Yar is too much Yar, and how the writing for Data has either improved or plateaued. Also, is Ishara actually Linda Hamilton from the Terminator timeline?
Finally, an episode of Star Trek that was written by Sarah McLachlan! We’ve been waiting for so long! In this episode, Dr. Crusher starts to notice that members of the crew are slowly vanishing from the Enterprise, but it seems like she’s the only person who notices. The co-hosts of Trekabout join me to discuss the character of Dr. Crusher, the return of a season one character, and whether or not this is a mystery that can carry 45 minutes of screen time!
There’s a race of highly hostile aliens in our area? And they set booby traps and have killed members of the Federation before? And they’re ships are no match for ours? Why don’t we just blow them up? When the Enterprise discovers a human boy in the company of violent Talarians, Picard must decide to either bring him home or return him to his adoptive Talarian father, Captain Endar. What will he choose? And… why?
Data loses his mind! Data hijacks the Enterprise! Data meets… himself? When Dr. Noonian Soong summons his android creation to a distant planet, a small boy’s life hangs in the balance! The Soong family reunion is complete when the evil android Lore appears, and Dr. Soong reveals that he summoned Data to give him the gift of emotion. Tana and Clay are here to break down Data’s power level, old age make up, and excessive dinosaur props!
It’s been a rough couple weeks! The Federation was decimated by the Borg, Picard was kidnapped and forced to indirectly kill 11,000 people, and Riker’s beard trimmer broke! So while the Enterprise is docked at Earth undergoing repairs, the crew get to have some valuable family time. Picard goes home, Worf’s adoptive parents visit the ship, and Wesley gets a gift from his late father!
The newly-minted Captain Riker must save the Federation from utter destruction at the hands of the Borg.
We’ve reached the end of season three! And what a journey it’s been. The most surprising thing about the third season of The Next Generation is, well… the quality! After a poor second season, the third season found a new writing team pushed to the limits to meet their production schedule. Along the way, a bunch of classic episodes materialized out of the ether, and TNG was well on its way to becoming the show we all thought it could be! This episode of the show recaps the third season, hands out some awards, and lists the 5 best and 5 worst episodes of the year!
The Borg have invaded Federation space, and they’ve taken a unique interest in Captain Picard.
Any time you can have a Blu-Ray resolution DVD expose the cheap, form fitting spandex suit of an alien, you’ve gotta do it. John Doe makes his appearance, wearing a wonderfully white onesie, and Beverly sorta falls in love with him. And Geordi gets laid. And stuff.
The Ferengi and Lwaxana Troi in the same episode? Are you crazy? Well, call me crazy but it’s actually not that bad an episode. It’s no Shakespeare, but it’s a fairly tight little comedy episode that calls Riker and Troi’s “friends with benefits” relationship into question!
Illogical! When the famous and highly respected Ambassador Sarek boards the Enterprise for his final mission, Picard will be forced to risk his own mind to save the day! This underrated episode is one of season three’s finest, and Modi Operandus joins us to discuss.
When an obsessive collector sets his sights on Data, he stages a shuttlecraft accident to kidnap our favorite android! Data is then forced to choose between a life of servitude as the centerpiece to a one of a kind museum, or to go totally bonkers and start wrecking house! Clay and Sean join me to debate collections and blind rage!
An episode that seems loaded with insight into the real future (at least the future of 2015), “Hollow Pursuits” is the introduction for Lt. Reginald Barclay! When Barclay’s anti-social behavior and holodeck adventures interfere with his work, Geordi attempts to lend a helping hand. Plus, the ship goes really fast at the end and it’s scary!
In this episode, the Enterprise visits the magical land of Oz in order to get their own personal tin man, Data, a heart! Or maybe they just find a living space ship and an obnoxious telepath and decide to leave them in each others company? Clay stops by to discuss the “Tin Man” episode of The Next Generation!
You could really use a vacation! When the crew starts hassling Picard into taking some shore leave, he ends up on Risa, the “pleasure planet”. After meeting a sexy stranger, Picard embarks on an Indiana Jones style adventure, complete with unnecessary time travel! Plus, this one’s got comedy!
A kidnapped Picard must try to solve a locked room mystery while his evil doppleganger, Fauxcard, commands the Enterprise and begins issuing strange orders to the crew! Will the crew be able to solve the mystery before Fauxcard drives the ship into a pulsar?
Worf learned to be a Klingon by reading a bunch of books, right? He might be of the opinion that the Klingon Empire is built on honor, but he’s in for a rude awakening when his long lost brother shows up and demands that Worf defend their family honor on the Klingon home world!
When Data builds his very own android daughter, he learns a valuable lesson about love, friendship and double checking your system subroutines. Clay joins me to discuss an emotionally heavy episode that brings Data (remember him?) back into the TNG fold!
A huge event in Trek lore! Wesley is capable and completely normal for an entire episode! Actually, this episode features the return of a beloved… uh… respected… uh… original cast member! When the Enterprise 1701-C enters the present from 22 years in the past, the entire timeline shifts so that the Federation is embroiled in a bloody war with the Klingon Empire. New sets, new uniforms, new starts!
It’s the classic “he said, she said” story, where a couple can’t decide if one person is a loose woman or if the other is a pervert who can’t keep his hands to himself! When Riker is accused of murder, the holodeck is used to give the viewers a “Rashomon” type experience where it’s impossible to tell the truth from the fiction. Or is it? This episode also shows you what will happen if you frequently stand next to a microwave.