“ALL HANDS, ABANDON SHIP! REPEAT! ALL HANDS, ABAN—“ Here’s the episode of Star Trek that taught a generation about a key trope in time travel fiction: the recursive time loop. (Remember, this was a year before Groundhog Day.) For some…

“For humans, the sexual act brings a closeness, an intimacy. It can be a very pleasurable experience. Inseminating a husk…” “The Outcast” is Star Trek: The Next Generation’s LGBTQ episode, and it has aged well by aging badly, if you…

“You take shortcuts. Right through living tissue.” After a fairly amazing year in Season Four (“Remember Me” and “The Host” being the highlights), Dr. Crusher gets the hell shafted out of her in Season Five. She’s basically been a day…

I’m glad for rare opportunities like these: the episodes I don’t really remember. It took me a while to suss out that “Conundrum” was the one where Riker sleeps with Ensign Ro, and then backtrack that to its status as…

“What about the rights of the ones who will stay behind?” In which we once again spin the age-old science fiction trope of the eugenics society. The Enterprise comes upon a colony under threat by a passing stellar fragment –…

“It’s Obachan! My grandmother! We arrive at the notorious “mind rape” episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Credit where it’s due, at least Next Gen was willing to do an episode about rape, which (in 1991) was still relatively…

“I would gladly risk feeling bad at times if it also meant I could taste my desert.” And speaking of episodes built around kids (“Disaster” and “New Ground” down, “Imaginary Friend” to come), the unofficial running theme of Season Five…