Star Trek:
The Original Series [TOS] ! The Next Generation [TNG] !Deep Space Nine [DS9] !Voyager [VGR] !Enterprise
Season 1
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 1]
Encounter at Farpoint: Part I
The Starship Enterprise, under the command of its new Captain, Jean-Luc Picard [Patrick Stewart - Life Force ], sets off to Farpoint Station. The crew is a hotch-potch of politically correct token characters, such as tough babe Security Chief Tasha Yar [ Denise Crosby ] and token African-American [???] Klingon Lieutenant Worf [Michael Dorn]. En route to Farpoint the Enterprise is stopped by a giant energy barrier, and boarded by a super-powerful alien who calls himself Q [John De Lancie], very reminiscent of a TOS character, the Squire of Gothos. Picard sends off the main section of the ship, and takes four other crewmen with him to draw off Q's attentions. Helmsman O'Brien [Colm Meany] is left aboard the battle bridge, while the four main cast members are beamed away by Q. They are put on trial for the crimes of humanity, even though Data [Brent Spiner] is an android and Troi [ Marina Sirtis ] is half Betazoid. This is blatantly a re-vamp of the pilot of the original series' pilot. The moral of that story was that human aggression would overcome any obstacle aliens put in our place. However, Next Generation has a different moral - the moral of pacifism and political correctness. Bleugh! Meanwhile, on Farpoint Station we are introduced to Commander William Riker [Jonathan Frakes], a square-jawed Kirk type. Also on the station are babelicious Dr Beverly Crusher [ Gates McFadden ], who has a past with Captain Picard, and her annoying teenage son Wesley [Wil Wheaton]. The inhabitants of the Station can mysteriously provide them with whatever they desire ... almost as if they have invented replicators!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 2]
Encounter at Farpoint: Part II
We get to meet Geordi LaForge, the token crippled [well, blind] African-American. Very 1980s Political-Correctness. Riker meets Wesley and Data on the Holodeck. Well-shot, but ultimately the holodeck never really lived up to its potential.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 3]
The Naked Now
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 4]
Code Of Honour
The Enterprise arrives at a planet of African-Americans. Tasha Yar is kidnapped by the ruler, and forced to duel his wife for the job of First Wife. Data mentions an obscure language known as French.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 5]
The Last Outpost
The Enterprise encounters a ship from that mysterious new race, the Ferengi. Both ships are trapped in a forcefield eminating from a planet, so they send Away Teams down to investigate. The Ferengi's team is led by Armin Shimmerman, although he is not playing Quark. Also, these Ferengi are obsessed with gold for some reason!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 6]
Where No One Has Gone Before
The Enterprise takes aboard a Starfleet Tech named Kozinsky, and his John Malkovich-looking sidekick, the Traveller. The Tech claims to have developed a way of drastically increasing the power of the ship's Warp engines. Something goes wrong, and the Enterprise ends up three Galaxies away from where it started. Apparently it will only take three centuries to get back home, compared to Voyager's seven decades for a fraction of the distance. The crew start to have visions and flashbacks. This is a bit crummy, but all in all is a nice character-building exercise.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 7]
Lonely Among Us
The ship's mission is to carry delegations of two warring species to a peace conference. Picard shows disdain for other religions and cultures, and is still confused that people take economic freedom seriously. The delegates take such things so seriously they try to kill each other. Riker declares that all weapons, no matter what their basic function, are to be confiscated. What, even blunt objects? Nice one, Commander. Luckily he has Colm Meany there as an unnamed Security Officer. The Enterprise passes through a strange cloud. Geordi and Worf are in the sensor room because Picard wants his junior officers to familiarise themselves with the ship's technology. In contrast with the junior ranks of the main characters, the Department Heads and Senior Officers are a bunch of red-shirts. Chief Engineer Argyle is mentioned only by name. The Assistant Chief Engineer is Mr Singh, who has a Sikh name but no turban. Obviously the victim of cultural vandalism by Starfleet. Worf is struck by a strange energy blast, which [unnoticed to the crew] passes from one person to another and possesses them. However, the crew do notice that something is affecting their computer. Picard introduces Data to the literary Private Investigator, specifically the Sherlock Holmes books, to help him track down the saboteur.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 8]
Justice
. . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 9]
The Battle
. . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 10]
Hide and Q
The crew find themselves on the soundstage nicknamed Planet Hell . . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 11]
Haven
. . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 12]
The Big Goodbye
Picard tries the Holodeck for the first time, although the technology is supposedly commonplace in the Federation. He seems addicted, and invites Data and the ship's historian [a redshirt] to join him in his adventure. Picard's adventure is [of course] based in the 20th century. He plays a Private Detective named Dixon Hill, in a pulp thriller set in the USA, 1934. His for is Crime Boss Lawrence Tierney [best known as Crime Boss Joe Cabot in Reservoir Dogs]. Meanwhile, an alien ship appears and scans the Enterprise. This predictably switches off the holodeck safeties. The Aliens won't speak with Riker, only Picard will do. However, Geordie states that they can't alert Picard - apparently if they switch off the holograms then the real humans will disappear too!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 13]
Datalore
The Enterprise visits the planet where Data was created. They discover the parts of an android identical to Data. When reassembled, the android introduces himself as Lore - Data's Brother. Lore tries to fit in among the crew, just like Data. However, something is not right about the newcomer. His motivations, like his past, are more complex than he will admit. This gives Brent Spiner a wonderful opportunity to play a new character. It also provides TNG with their best villain so far. Finally someone who can believably threaten the Enterprise!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 14]
Angel One
The Enterprise arrives at the Planet of the Amazon Women, in search of some Federation citizens who may have been shipwrecked there. Picard is under orders to play nice, because the Federation regards the planet as a potential member. This is despite the fact that the population is entirely human! Patricia McPherson from Knight Rider is quite recognisable. The population is socially developed to the 1950s - the women do all the work while the men are house-husbands. They call their leader the Elected One, although it is a strange kind of Democracy that will execute or exile anyone who does not conform! Meanwhile, the Enterprise is subject to a flu epidemic. Geordie LaForge is put in charge.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 15]
11001001
. . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 16]
Too Short A Season
A Federation Ambassador has been taken hostage, and the people responsible insist on a specific Starfleet Admiral as negotiator. The Enterprise transports him to the planet. He is suffering from a supposedly-incurable disease, despite the incredible medical technology of the Federation. Troi and Crusher both realise that he is hiding something.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 17]
When The Bough Breaks
. . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 18]
Home Soil
The Enterprise visits a planet where a member of a terraforming team led by Walter Gotell [ Octopussy ] has been killed in mysterious circumstances. Data and Geordi investigate, and discover an outside influence at work.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 19]
Coming of Age
. . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 20]
Heart of Glory
Enterprise detects a crippled freighter floating in the Neutral Zone, and goes in to investigate. Geordi fixes a transmitter to his visor before he beams over. We spend ten minutes watching Picard watching flashes of what Geordi sees. The episode's guest-stars are a group of Klingons led by Vaughn Armstrong . Worf starts to bond with them. However, there is something untrustworthy about them. The acting is excellent, and trivia fans will note the dialogue which includes a mention to the Traitors of Kling.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 21]
The Arsenal of Freedom
The Enterprise visits a world which specialises in the development of hi-tech weapons. Riker and the Away Team beam down, and find the people are gone and the weapons have taken over. Picard and Crusher beam down too, and get trapped together. However, the opportunity for character development is wasted.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 22]
Symbiosis
The Enterprise rescues four people from a doomed freighter. They argue over ownership of the cargo, a barrel of medicine. Two survivors [including Judson Scott - ST II: Wrath of Khan ] come from the planet which produced the cargo, the others from a planet that needs the medicine to heal a plague. However, Crusher discovers that the real problem may be addiction.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 23]
Skin of Evil
Troi is on a shuttle which crashes on a supposedly deserted planet. Riker and the Away Team beam down, and find that an intelligent oil slick has taken her hostage. The life form zaps one of the series regulars - but we all know that the reset button will be pushed. Right?
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 24]
We'll Always Have Paris
The Enterprise experiences a 1-second time-loop, then detects a distress signal from a scientist who specialises in non-linear time. It turns out that the scientist's wife is Picard's ex-GF. Picard dumped her, but has always regretted it.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 25]
Conspiracy
Picard is summoned to a secret meeting. Apparently Starfleet High Command is making inexplicable decisions that may be a prelude to invasion of the Federation. Shall Picard trust his superiors, or join the Conspiracy against them? Well, the ending involves brain-leeches straight out of Heinlein's Puppet Masters .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 1, Episode 26]
The Neutral Zone
The Enterprise is on its way to the Neutral Zone to investigate an attack on a Federation colony. The colony was destroyed without a trace, and everyone thinks the Romulans were responsible. Of course, in later episodes we meet the Borg ... The Enterprise picks up a 1990s Space Rocket with 3 cryogenically frozen corpses aboard. Data beams them aboard, and Crusher defrosts and revives them. From Death! The three people are a banker, a housewife and a DJ [Leon Rippy - The Visitor ]. They have trouble fitting in and adjusting, because let's face it the 20th Century was logical but the future portrayed in Star Trek defies all logic! There is no television or entertainment, while the economy [or lack thereof] Finally we get a confrontation with the Romulans. They are both familiar SF actors - Marc Alaimo [Gul Dukat in DS9 ] and Anthony James [Guest Star villain in every SF TV show ever!]. |
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Season 2
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 1]
The Child
The Enterprise has two new crew-members. Dr Pulaski [ Diana Muldar ] temporarily replaces Dr Beverly Crusher. Guinan [ Whoopee Goldberg ] is now the bartender in Ten Forward. Commander Riker has not been promoted, but has grown a beard to make himself look older. Geordi has been promoted from the Con to Chief Engineer, while Wesley Crusher takes his old job as Con Ensign. Wes spends the episode wondering if he should join his mother on the station or stay aboard the Enterprise. Counsellor Troi is impregnated by a glowing light. The foetus grows at an astonishing rate, and she gives birth within a couple of days. All goes well, but eventually this interferes with the ship's mission - the transportation of deadly Plasma Plagues.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 2]
Where Silence Has Lease
The Enterprise is trapped in a subspace pocket, and tested by god-like aliens who pit it against replicas of other species' warships.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 3]
Elementary, Dear Data
Data tries out a Sherlock Holmes mystery on the Holodeck, but solves it with unsatisfactory ease. Geordi instructs the Holodeck to create an adversary capable of outsmarting Data, so it makes Professor Moriarty sentient!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 4]
The Outrageous Okona
The Enterprise encounters a Han Solo type named Captain Okona. While they help him with repairs on his ship's guidance system, ships from two rival planets turn up. One accuses Okona of getting their Princess pregnant, while the other accuses him of stealing their National treasure. It is odd that two apparently human cultures with interstellar capability are not part of the Federation! Also of note, they use lasers which apparently cannot penetrate the Enterprise's navigational shields. This has often been quoted in Enterprise vs Star Destroyer debates. Finally, Guinan tries to help Data in his quest to become more human. This time he is trying to master humour.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 5]
Loud As A Whisper
The Enterprise conveys Riva, a professional mediator, to oversee peace negotiations between two warring planets. Although the mediator has overseen treaty negotiations between the Federation and the Klingons, Picard is not given information on him. Riva is a deaf mute, so he has a chorus - a trio of interpreters. One signifies his intellect, one his lust and one his ... whatever. Yes, this is like Herman's Head without the laughs. Predictably, things go wrong. This involves weapons that create cool SPFX, disentigrating victims from the skin out, bones last. This is the differently-abled episode. Geordi LaForge is given the opportunity to have his blindness cured.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 6]
The Schizoid Man
The Enterprise sends an Away Team to look after a scientist, Dr Ira Graves [W. Morgan Shepherd - SeaQuest DSV ]. The Away Team are Troi, Worf, Data and guest-star Vulcan Dr Sela [ Suzie Plakson ]. Dr Graves was the tutor of Dr Noonian Sing, who built Data. He is dying, but secretly built a device to copy his personality to a computer ... Dr Graves dies, and Data starts to display many negative human emotions such as egotism, arrogance and jealousy. Troi tests his emotions - despite the fact he is a machine!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 7]
Unnatural Selection
The Enterprise encounters a Federation supply vessel. The entire crew has died, apparently of old age. The Enterprise investigates the last place the vessel visited, a research station where genetically-engineered humans are being bred. This episode centres around Dr Pulaski. She puts her own life in danger in an attempt to heal the sick. Luckily, Chief O'Brien invents a way to destroy any illness. Note - while O'Brien is still the transporter operator, this is the first episode where he is mentioned by name.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 8]
A Matter of Honour
The Enterprise becomes part of an interspecies exchange programme. They take aboard crew members of different species, and Riker becomes a temporary crewman aboard a Klingon ship.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 9]
The Measure Of A Man
. . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 10]
The Dauphin
The Enterprise is assigned to transport a beautiful teenage girl, The Dauphin, to the planet she is to rule. She and Wesley meet and get along very well indeed. Wesley asks for advice from Worf, Data and Riker. Riker and Guinan get a scene together ... The girl's bodyguard is an Alasomorph - a Shapeshifter! She turns into Madchen Amick !
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 11]
Contagion
The USS Yamato is destroyed in the Neutral Zone. A Romulan ship nearby is suspected. Picard has to cope with a face-off with the Romulans, then deal with a computer virus.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 12]
The Royale
The Enterprise discovers some wreckage - the last of NASA's deep space probes. They search the nearby planet for a Buck Rogers type survivor. Riker, Worf and Data beam down, and discover they are in a casino called the Hotel Royale. Apparently it is a holodeck created by god-like aliens, and there is no way for them to leave. The casino setting brings up the question about the senior officers' traditional off-duty poker game.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 13]
Time Squared
. . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 14]
The Icarus Factor
Riker is offered a promotion, the command of his own ship. Will he take it, or spend the next five years serving Picard? He has 12 hours to decide. A civilian Starfleet advisor is taken aboard. He is Riker's father, and an old flame of Dr Pulaski. The two Rikers have unfinished business ... Worf is preoccupied for some reason. Wesley does some research, and discovers he is due for a Klingon ritual. There is no sign of Guinan this episode, so everyone confides in Chief O'Brien instead.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 15]
Pen Pals
The Enterprise arrives in an area where the planets are geographically unstable. Wesley Crusher is assigned his first mission - he is put in charge of a science team to discover the reason for the geographical instability. He has to learn about command. Data has been corresponding by subspace CB with Sarjenka [ Nikki Cox ], a young girl on a local planet. Her society is pre-space travel, so Data broke the Prime Directive. The emotionless android is now emotive over the girl! Will he be punished? Will Crusher be able to save the world?
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 16]
Q Who
. . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 2, Episode 17]
Samaritan Snare
Picard and Wesley take a shuttle to the nearby Starbase. Wesley has his Starfleet exams, while Picard needs his artificial heart repaired by Daniel Benzali [Murder One]. The Enterprise encounters a vessel with damaged systems. Geordi beams aboard to help the slow-witted crew, but they decide to kidnap him and use his knowledge of weapons systems.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 3, Episode 18]
Allegience
Picard is kidnapped and imprisoned with 3 aliens. And a mis-matched gang of cliches they are too. There's a Bolian woman who has hair. There's a know-it-all who won't help the others escape - even though he'll be eaten if they don't! Meanwhile, a doppelganger takes Picard's place on the Enterprise. He's totally unconvincing, but the crew take their time realising it. |
Season 4
Star Trek: TNG [Season 4, Episode 11]
Data's Day
A day in the life of Data the Android, as he tries to understand human emotion. It's not just an average day for O'Brien and Keiko, however. They're planning for their forthcoming wedding. Meanwhile, the Enterprise has to help a Vulcan ambassador deal with the tricksey Romulans in the Forbidden Zone. Neutral Zone. Whatever. But only Data's Sherlock Holmesian logic can outsmart them!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 4, Episode 12]
The Wounded
A renegade Starfleet captain has invaded Cardassian territory, on a self-proclaimed mission to reveal Cardie breaches of the treaty with the Feds. Yes, we get a good foretaste of all the Fed defections to the Maquis in DS9. O'Brien is a former member of the renegade Captain's crew, so Picard wheels him out to talk sense into his old boss. Yet more work for Colm Meany, being groomed for bigger and better things. The Cardie sent to help track the renegade down isn't Gul Dukat, but he still gets played by Marc Alaimo!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 4, Episode 13]
Devil's Due
Picard makes Data act the part of Scrooge in a Holodeck play, to better help him understand human emotions. Or imitate them, anyway. The Enterprise is summoned to save Feddie scientists at an outpost on a lo-tech world. When they get there, The crew discover that the planet's Devil [ Marta Dubois ] has arrived and wants control or the world ... and everything in orbit [including the Enterprise]! Picard has to help. He doesn't have much choice - the sexy alien Goddess wants to enjoy him body and mind - morning, noon and night. He objects, of course. He's seen god-like Aliens in every other episode, but he convinces everyone that this one is a fake ... So he stalls her by conducting an arbitration, with Data as impartial adjudicator. And what about the lo-tech world? Apparently they abandoned space-faring tech a thousand years ago [what calendar or lifespan?], so they probably aren't in the Federation. However, since they know of the existence of such tech, the presence of a Fed science outpost isn't a breach of the Prime Directive. Nice way to slip through the red tape. But the bottom line? Is it convincingly-presented as a lo-tech agrarian society? Would that be a paradise better than any industrialised society [eg the Federation]? Trek loves showing us these impossible utopias, and this one is no more realistic than the Federation itself.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 4, Episode 14]
Clues
Last ep started with Data and Christmans Carol - this one starts with Dixon Hill. Yes, the holodeck is being used for an apparently benign purpose - to underline the story's theme. This time, we understand Picard's love of Mysteries. Also, Whoopie Goldberg looks great in stockings and suspenders [though her legs apppear significantly paler than her face]! The Enterprise goes to have a look at an interesting phenomenon. However, all the crew are knocked temporarily unconscious. When they wake up, only 30 seconds has passed. That's what Data says, and he can't lie. Can he? As the day wears on, it seems more and more likely that Data is being untruthful ...
89. 4-15 189 18 Feb 91 First Contact 90. 4-16 190 11 Mar 91 Galaxy's Child 91. 4-17 191 18 Mar 91 Night Terrors 92. 4-18 192 25 Mar 91 Identity Crisis 93. 4-19 193 1 Apr 91 Nth Degree 94. 4-20 194 22 Apr 91 Qpid 95. 4-21 195 29 Apr 91 The Drumhead 96. 4-22 196 6 May 91 Half A Life 97. 4-23 198 13 May 91 The Host 98. 4-24 198 27 May 91 The Mind's Eye 99. 4-25 199 3 Jun 91 In Theory 100. 4-26 200 17 Jun 91 Redemption (1)
Star Trek: TNG [Season 4, Episode 1
]
. . . |
Season 5101. 5- 1 201 23 Sep 91 Redemption (2) 102. 5- 2 202 30 Sep 91 Darmok 103. 5- 3 203 7 Oct 91 Ensign Ro 104. 5- 4 204 14 Oct 91 Silicon Avatar 105. 5- 5 205 21 Oct 91 Disaster 106. 5- 6 206 28 Oct 91 The Game 107. 5- 7 208 4 Nov 91 Unification (1) 108. 5- 8 207 11 Nov 91 Unification (2) 109. 5- 9 209 18 Nov 91 A Matter Of Time 110. 5-10 210 6 Jan 92 New Ground
Star Trek: TNG [Season 5, Episode 11]
Hero Worship
. . . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 5, Episode 12]
Violations
Star Trek: TNG [Season 5, Episode 13]
The Masterpiece Society
The Enterprise is following a fragment from an exploded Neutron star. It goes dangerously close to a remote colony of humans. They are in hiding from the Federation, from before the era of the matter transporters. Their society is founded on specialised genetics through breeding ... Are they descended from Augments? Troi starts to get emotionally involved with the genetics' leader. No accounting for her friendship with Riker, then. Picard criticises the concept of a genetically controlled society. He hypocritically ignores the fact that the Federation is a controlled, planned society that only uses different means towards the same ends. The genetics' society would have aborted Geordie as a blind foetus. Does this mean that the Feds have a huge underclass of genetically damaged people? That explains why only the elite get to work in Starfleet! The real problem isn't the neutron fragment. The locals' delicately-balanced society is disrupted by Starfleet's presence. And the Prime Directive is never mentioned!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 5, Episode 14]
Conundrum
115. 5-15 215 24 Feb 92 Power Play 116. 5-16 216 2 Mar 92 Ethics 117. 5-17 217 16 Mar 92 The Outcast 118. 5-18 218 23 Mar 92 Cause And Effect
Star Trek: TNG [Season 5, Episode 19]
The First Duty
This episode introduced Tom Paris to us. Well, the character that was originally going to be used before they changed his name to Paris. It is the same actor, though. .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 5, Episode 20]
Cost of Living
This was a Troi episode - but otherwise instantly forgettable. . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 5, Episode 21]
The Perfect Mate
The Enterprise plays host to Ambassador Tim O'Connor [
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
] who is transporting a mysterious package.
The ship saves a couple of Ferengi - one of them Quark's brother from DS9!!!
The package is revealed to be an empath played by
Famke Janssen
, who is due to appear as Xenia Onatop in
Goldeneye this month!
122. 5-22 222 4 May 92 Imaginary Friend 123. 5-23 223 11 May 92 I, Borg 124. 5-24 224 18 May 92 The Next Phase 125. 5-25 225 1 Jun 92 The Inner Light 126. 5-26 226 15 Jun 92 Time's Arrow (1) |
Season 6127. 6- 1 227 21 Sep 92 Time's Arrow (2) 128. 6- 2 228 28 Sep 92 Realm Of Fear 129. 6- 3 229 5 Oct 92 Man Of The People
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 4]
Relics
In search of a Federation starship missing for 75 years, the Newbies discover a body so large it can block out an entire sun. Not only that, it was trapped in the transporter buffers of a ship that had crashed into a Dyson Sphere! Yes, this is the one where Scotty makes a comeback! :)
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 5]
Schisms
The show solved the mystery of Alien Abduction Syndrome by having the crew of the Enterprise kidnapped by creatures from another dimension. . 132. 6- 6 232 26 Oct 92 True Q 133. 6- 7 233 2 Nov 92 Rascals 134. 6- 8 234 9 Nov 92 A Fistful Of Datas 135. 6- 9 235 16 Nov 92 The Quality Of Life
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 10-11]
Chain of Command
This is a double-episode linked together to form a 90-minute TV movie. Picard is replaced as Captain of the Enterprise by Ronny Cox [ Robocop, Total Recall ] and sent on a secret mission against a new putty-faced species called Cardassians. Despite his cool camouflage uniform [never seen again in Away Missions!!!] Picard gets captured, and tortured by David Warner. This is quite a step up for old Pic compared to the usual company he keeps; Warner played the Human ambassador in Star Trek 5 and the Klingon ambassador in Star Trek 6. He was also up for the part of Soran in Generations, but because he was busy he suggested they use his good friend Malcolm McDowell instead. What really scares this reviewer about this episode is not the story, which is merely a 1984 rip-off. No, the source of my horror is the fact that in 7 years, TNG only had nudity in one episode. And who do you think we got to see? You've got it - we don't get Tasha Yar [who posed in Playboy], Troi [topless in Death Wish 3], or any of the many female Guest-Stars [including Goldeneye's Famke Janssen ]. No, the only flesh in 7 years of lukewarm Drek is baldy Picard's wrinkled old ass!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 12]
Ship In A Bottle
This episode has the return of 2 of the series' more interesting characters. Lieutenant Barclay [Dwight Schultz] inadvertently releases Dr Moriarty, last seen trapped in the Holodeck in Season One. What is the deal with this holodeck? The thing poses a serious threat to the ship at least once a year, and nobody's bothered to disconnect it! Picard, Data and Barclay investigate strange goings-on in the Holodeck. Professor Moriarty has reappeared, this time with a girlfriend [ Stephanie Beecham ], and they want to be transformed into flesh-and-blood humans. Apparently if they try to venture outside the holodeck they will be destroyed forever. In other words, the holodeck computer doesn't have backup copies! This is slightly better than the other Holodeck-gone-crazy tales, but has a number of flaws in its logic. To start with, Data has lost his holodeck perception from the pilot episode. Secondly, Moriarty relies on pattern enhancers - but he forgets that they're holograms. Some criminal genius! Of course, fans of ST: VGR will realise that the EMH has technology that Moriarty would love to use!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 13]
Aquiel
The Enterprise drops by a deep space communications relay station. The two lieutenants that crew the station are missing, and only the dog is still there. Most people would think of the movie The Thing , but the Feds are culturally illiterate. Geordie is assigned to look through the computerised logs of the station and discover what happened. He watches the video-diary of Aquiel, a near-human negro girl, and begins to fall for her. Aquiel's companion aboard the station is believed to have been murdered. Did she kill him, or did he die at the hands of the local Klingon warlord?
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 14]
Face of the Enemy
Counsellor Troi wakes up as a Romulan. She has to pass herself off as a Major in the Tal Shiar, the Romulan Secret Police, in charge of a secret cargo aboard a Warbird. Somehow she speaks fluent Romulan without a translator. At least the irritating Bajoran accent is gone. Meanwhile, the Enterprise takes on-board a former Starfleet Ensign who defected to Romulus. The defector bears a message from Ambassador Spock - they are to retrieve a secret cargo ...
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 15]
Tapestry
An away-team beams into med-bay. Riker brings in a wounded Picard, whose heart has been blasted out of his chest. Silly to put both command officers on the one Away team, but that's a moot point. Picard finds himself in a white room, and approaches a white-robed figure ... Q! Picard dies when his cybernetic heart fuses, and is met on the other side by Q! In a Capra-esque turn Mr deLancie takes baldy back to the day he had his heart replaced, and allows him to avoid the fight that damaged it. As a result Picard realises that Kirk was right when he said "our pain defines us, it makes us what we are". Q takes Picard through his past life, all Picard's regrets and mistakes. The incident that gave Picard his artificial heart, first mentioned to Wesley several Seasons previously, is the key. Q gives Picard the chance to re-live that event. He is twenty again, an Ensign waiting for his first deep-space assignment. This is a great episode - wonderful characterisation of Picard, and Q's one-liners are as humourous as ever.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 16]
Birthright Part 1
James Cromwell [ First Contact ] appears under a pile of make-up as an information broker who offers data about Worf's father. Worf prefers to believe that NO Klingon would let himself be captured alive, ignoring the existence of stun-beams! There he finds babe-of-the-week Jennifer Gatti and SF veteran Richard Herd, famous as John in V. More next week!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 17]
Birthright Part II
Worf finds himself trapped in a colony of Klingon pacifists. Unhappy with their peaceful co-existence with the Romulans, he decides to teach the Klingons their culture - brutality and mindless violence! If only he would similarly proselyte the feeble Federation!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 18]
Starship Mine
Picard is trapped in the John MacLane role from Die Hard when the Enterprise is invaded by a group of refugees from other SF shows. More precisely, a group of actors who went on to bigger and better things. The token Vulcan is played by Tim Russ, who became Tuvok on Star Trek: VGR . Yes, THIS is the first appearance of a Negro Vulcan! The token Bajoran is played by Patricia Tallman, better known as Lyta Alexander in Babylon 5 . The band's leader will also be well-known to Babylon 5 fans as Dodger the GROPO!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 19]
Lessons
Picard gets a new love-interest - and how long do you think she will last, eh? Picard falls for a new female crew member. She looks like a slightly younger version of Beverly Crusher [ Gates McFadden ]. There is a slight piece of continuity in this episode; Picard refers to a previous episode when he was taken over by an alien probe and lived out a full lifetime on the alien world [destroyed 100,000 years previously] in the space of 25 minutes. However, we all know the reset button is going to get pushed at the end of the story!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 20]
The Chase
This episode features guest roles from British talent - Maurice Roeves [ Dr Who ] as a Romulan and Linda Thorsen [ The Avengers ] as a Cardassian. Picard's old Archaeology lecturer, Professor Galen, turns up with a secret discovery and asks for help. This episode introduces the idea that information could be encoded in DNA sequences, seeded by an ancient and unknown civilisation. Also, we learn that SEVENTEEN Enterprise crew members are from non-Federation worlds!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 21]
Frame Of Mind
This episode starts with Riker stuck in a lunatic asylum. Or is he?
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 22]
Suspicions
This episode sees Crusher at work with both Klingon and Ferengi scientists.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 23]
Rightful Heir
This episode sees Worf continue his character development from the double-episode on the Romulan colony.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 24]
Second Chances
This episode starts with the appearance of a second Riker. The explanation is that in a transportation 8 years ago the transporter-operator used 2 transporter locks on him - and created 2 versions of him, one on the planet and one on the ship. Finally someone has realised the basic flaw in the idea of the transporter; it kills the original person and creates an exact duplicate of them elsewhere. Since it uses force-field technology [Field Tech] like the replicators and holodecks, it would be possible to replicate one person almost to infinity. The Rikers are ranked Commander and Lieutenant so we can tell them apart. They have a lot in common - they both want Troi, and they resent each other. The Enterprise is on a Dangerous Recovery Mission, so the new Riker is blatantly doomed.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 25]
Timescape
Paramount churns out another cliched story about temporal rifts. It is brightened only by another star turn by the babelicious Patricia Tallman.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 6, Episode 26]
Descent: Part I
The episode starts with Data on the holodeck with history's great thinkers. Dr Stephen Hawking has a cameo as himself. Data is working on developing emotions. The Enterprise goes up against an old enemy - the Borg. Yes, we get to see the result of Hugh getting his individuality. |
Season 7
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 1]
Descent: Part II
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 2]
Liaisons
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Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 3]
Interface
. . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 4]
Gambit, Part I
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Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 5]
Gambit, Part II
. . .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 6]
Phantasms
Data starts to have nightmares. Then he has waking dreams, which drive him to physical violence. Yes, we get a slasher-movie psycho-drama!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 7]
Dark Page
Luxwana Troi comes aboard the Enterprise as translator for a family from a telepathic species. However, when she is around the family's young girl [ Kirsten Dunst ] she becomes depressed. Counsellor Troi must discover the secret in her mother's past.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 8]
Attached
The Enterprise visits a planet called Kess-Pritt, which is split into the countries of Kess and Pritt. The democratic Kess want to join the Federation, while the Pritt are isolationists. Picard and Beverly are kidnapped by the Pritt. They manage to escape, but not before being implanted with telepathic links that allow them to read each others' minds. Since the two characters have a history together, this just brings them closer. However, since they never got together over the last six Seasons [and Trek has the Reset Button] there is no real point to this. Riker decides that the planet is not ready to join the Federation. He states that the Kess are too paranoid, although since their neighbours are xenophobic it's no surprise.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 9]
Force Of Nature
The Enterprise tries to save a Starfleet ship that is trapped in a subspace rift. However, a pair of scientists claim that the ship's Warp engines caused the rift - and that ALL Warp engines damage the fabric of space. Therefore, the Enterprise's engines will enlarge the rift ...
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 10]
Inheritance
Commander Data meet his mother [ Fionula Flanagan ]. This episode was crass, typical and shows just how far SFTV has advanced in the last 10 years!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 11]
Parallels
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Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 12]
The Pegasus
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Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 13]
Homeward
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Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 14]
Sub Rosa
Bev Crusher goes home to bury her granny.She falls for Granny's boyfriend, Duncan Regehr [ V: The Series ].
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 15]
Lower Decks
We finally get to see the workings of the ship from a different perspective: the junior officers. .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 16]
Thine Own Self
Data is on an Away Mission collecting radioactive fragments when an accident causes him to lose his memory. He is found by people from a medieval society, and sells the fragments so the blacksmith can make them into jewelry.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 17]
Masks
The Enterprise encounters an alien library concealed inside a comet. The library takes over Data's mind, giving him multiple personalities, and starts converting the ship's interior into alien artefacts. The resolution comes when Picard seduces the female persona that possesses Data ... How reminiscent of the worst part of Patrick Stewart's film Life Force !
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 18]
Eye of the Beholder
A telepathic engineer comits suicide while examining a warp nacelle. Counsellor Troi, also psychic, investigates. Something about the death is very odd, and the main suspect is a creepy-looking Lieutenant ... As the story unfolds, Troi's relationship with Worf develops. However, she becomes jealous of his relationship with another woman.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 19]
Genesis
Lieutenant Barclay [Dwight Schultz] is suffering from hypochondria, so Dr Crusher injects him with a synthetic T-Cell. However, this spreads to all life-forms on the ship and regresses them to an earlier stage in their evolution. Picard and Data arrive back on a shuttlecraft and try to save the day. Picard is infected with the T-Cells, and menaced by the Beast-creature that Worf has become.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 20]
Journey's End
Wesley Crusher is back aboard the Enterprise, and as unlikely as this sounds he is even more annoying than usual. He also halucinates visions of his father, who tells him what to do. The ship's mission this week is to move some Native American settlers from a planet claimed by the Cardassians.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 21]
Firstborn
A Gowron-looking Klingon arrives aboard the ship, and urges Worf to increase the warrior training of his son Alexander. However, the boy does not want to be a warrior. The Enterprise is sent to track down and arrest the Duros sisters, who are implicated in an attempt on Worf's life. It is mentioned that one of them will have a son, who for some reason isn't mentioned in the later film Star Trek: Generations .
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 22]
Bloodlines
Picard gets a message from his Season One nemesis, the disgraced Ferengi Daimon Bok. Picard killed Bok's son, so Bok plans to kill Picard's. Yes, like Kirk it appears that Picard unknowingly has an illegitimate son. The boy is now aged 24, and is quite unruly. Nice to see someone who's not a Starfleet Yes-man. However, since he's not a regular cast member there's a serious risk that he might not make it to the end of the episode.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 23]
Emergence
Data and Picard are on the holodeck, practising The Tempest, when they are almost run down by the Orient Express. Yes, yet again the ship's entertainment system goes haywire and puts the lives of the entire crew in jeopardy. The ship is developing its own brain - a positronic network completely seperate from the central computer. The only hint as to what the ship is up to is the strange series of events being acted out on the holodeck.
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 24]
Preemptive Strike
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Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 25]
All Good Things, Part I
Picard finds himself flipping back and forth between 3 different time periods; past [just before the events of Encounter at Farpoint], present [7 years after past] and future [25 years from present. In the past scenes Picard meets Tasha Yar [ Denise Crosby ] and soon-to-be-Chief O'Brien [Colm Meany]. In the present scenes, Worf is having a relationship with Troi, much to the chagrin of Riker. As fans of ST: DS9 will know, Worf ends up married to Jadzia Dax instead of Troi. The other relationship highlighted is that between Picard and Beverly Crusher [ Gates McFadden ]. It is notable that she wears quite a lot of cosmetic makeup in the Present scenes - this is certainly more obvious in the big-screen motion-pictures that followed the series. But what is notable is that to look 25 years older she merely takes off her makeup!
Star Trek: TNG [Season 7, Episode 26]
All Good Things, Part II
In the present we see lots of references to the past 7 years; Q has a couple of good lines: in Part I he mentions a little Trek through the Stars and in Part II he tells Picard that All good things must come to an end, Jean-Luc! The future makes a few interesting predictions. |
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