Author: robert

Farewell Wesley, we hardly knew thee. Good riddance, many would say. Actually, the horrible Wesley Crusher who always saves the day is another myth that just hasn’t stood up to re-watching (or, in many cases, watching) these episodes afresh. He doesn’t save the day that often (in fact, if you counted ‘net’ saves of the…

I enjoy a good ‘nothing is as it seems episode’. Although it is a well you need to be careful not to use too frequently, lest the audience get burnt out on it. And I think that the show has been skirting very close to that burn out. But not today. The secret of a…

OK, that’s it. My suspicion about the writer’s doing the deliberately bad opening to good episodes is pretty much confirmed, as an excellent Klingon episode is started with Worf’s son showing up. (And that’s certainly a justified view – most of the Alexander episodes are, from memory, pretty bad). The only thing I didn’t like…

This was a dull episode with little in the way of redeeming qualities. Oh yay, Tasha’s sister (who we’ve never heard of before) turns up. Then there’s an interminably long sequence where she builds trust and a relationship with Data, and then she betrays everything. I think the idea was doomed from the start -…

Rather than the whole ship, this time Wesley tries to kill his mother. I don’t think he was paying enough attention during his study of Greek Myth. This was a really well done bait-and-switch. It takes a while before the episode even clearly establishes that there’s something really weird going on. But seriously – sure…

After a wrong of some pretty strong episodes, this one was black to ‘bleh’ – Picard learns how to be a parent. It really, really bugged me throughout the episode that no one was even considering the option that maybe it be best for the child to stay with the family that has raised him…

So: Data has shown he has a security vulnerability that allows someone to remotely give him orders, and he *also* has the ability to single handedly take control of the Enterprise against the will of everyone else on board. Surely at least a minor security review is called for. Rather than just letting him back…

This episode is pure soap opera, but in a good way. It’s testament to the strength of the characters that have been built up over the course of the series that this episode is even possible, without even a hint of anything beyond pure character reactions to drive the plot forward. Another sign of the…

It is a real and genuine problem of two-part episodes like this hat the second part is a bit of a let down. The first episode gets to set up incredible situations, like that guy in the meeting with the incredible ideas. The second episode has to be the guy in the meeting who has…

What a difference a year makes. Season 1 of Next Generation was overall pretty bad. Season 2 was better, but not without significant problems. Season 3 finally pulled it all together, and is the best season of Star Trek that I’ve watched so far. The margin over the second season of Original Star Trek is…