“MISTER PICKERD. I’ll be reminding you that it’s one o’clock.”
[Majel Barrett Computer Voice] Last time, on Blogging the Next Generation… I was working my way through the complete Star Trek: The Next Generation on blu-ray when the braintrust at CBS Home Video gummed up the works completely by delaying the release of the series’ sixth season by about half a year. Now, at last, they’ve got on with it (though no sign, yet, of a release date for Season Seven, so who knows when we’ll finally be given the opportunity to complete this trek through the stars) and our rewatch continues as we rejoin our heroes in mid-cliffhanger, lost in the 19th century…[/Majel Barrett Computer Voice]
So – let’s see if I still remember how to do this. What began as a thrilling and nostalgic trip back into just how sharp Star Trek: The Next Generation actually was in its early years, has long since become a process of caretaking a descent into blandness that overcame not just Next Gen, but all of Star Trek following (approximately) the start of TNG’s fifth season.
The sixth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation kicks off inauspiciously, with the conclusion of the “Time’s Arrow” cliffhanger. It was an appropriate spot for our little Blogging TNG project to run aground, actually, given that the crew of the Enterprise is also stuck in time. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for with this sort of thing: “Time’s Arrow” wasn’t much of an episode, and “Time’s Arrow, Part II,” isn’t either.
It’s a marginally better instalment than its predecessor, but it still suffers by the same basic problem: there’s not a lot going on, story-wise, and certainly nothing to justify the double-episode length. The early seasons of Next Gen would have clocked through this tale in about 40 minutes with time left over for a Worf joke, and the effort to lend “Time’s Arrow” some season-ending/beginning significance only shows up how threadbare it is. (The big action beat? Data showing up in a horse-drawn carriage to rescue the crew from the San Francisco police, who give chase – on foot – and whistle at them.)
The major points of interest are the origin of the Picard/Guinan relationship, which has a couple of tenderly-written scenes but not a lot of sizzle, story-wise; and the “Mark Twain in the future” bit, which is nice enough thanks to Jerry Hardin’s grandstanding performance, but doesn’t actually add anything to the overall plot. I do appreciate the fact, though, that the episode does not treat Clemens as an idiot, putting him ahead of the game instead of behind it – agreeing that he would be capable of quickly understanding the powers and pitfalls of time travel, and would act accordingly. And the momentarily giggle that Clemens/Twain/Hardin emits upon seeing a Bolian get out of a turbolift is the best part of the episode, by far.
Two Enterprises out of five.
Blogging The Next Generation runs every Tuesday as I work my way through the episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation on blu-ray. Season Six is finally in stores.