Tag: TNG Season Five
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Time’s Arrow”
“It has occurred. It will occur.” We’ve arrived at the point in modern Trek where a year-end cliffhanger episode is a given, rather than a storytelling flourish arrived at organically. “Time’s Arrow” should be perfectly wired for me – it’s Next Gen’s Back to the Future III episode – but like most of post-Season Four…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The Inner Light”
“Tell them of us, my darling.” Here’s another canonized episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation about which I am highly conflicted. Even now, having watched the episode again for the first time in ten years or more, I can’t quite figure out where to land on it. It’s unarguably well-made and is as unique…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The Next Phase”
“Now I suppose I’ll never know what you were gonna say about me.” Finally, Season Five gives us an episode that actually feels like a Next Gen episode. And thankfully, it’s a grand old time to boot, an admittedly flyweight science fiction adventure romp in which Geordi and Ro get “phased,” rendering them invisible to…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “I Borg”
“We are Hugh.” I fucking hate the Hugh the Borg episode. I always have. Everyone else loves it; I absolutely loathe it. As you’ve probably realized by now, a) I was a huge fan of the Borg as they were originally conceived in “Q Who,” and b) I couldn’t stand watching them get thoroughly de-fanged…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Imaginary Friend”
“I think she’s real for you. And that’s real enough for me.” We’ve spent a lot of time with the children of the Enterprise in Season Five. This is largely Alexander’s fault, and it steers the complexion of Star Trek: The Next Generation into a disappointingly bland amalgam of family entertainment, with all of the…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The Perfect Mate”
“Who she is changes when the next man comes into the room. And I find myself hoping the next man won’t come in.” Space whore! The Next Generation! The oldest profession comes to Star Trek c/o a deeply skeevy premise wherein an alien empath naturally, willingly turns herself into the perfect woman for whatever male…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Cost of Living”
“Well that’s a conversation-stopper if I ever heard one.” This aimless little ditty appeals to me precisely because it’s so far off the beaten track. It’s the fifth season’s annual Lwaxana episode, and it’s about… the importance of having a good time? On paper it’s an absolutely awful idea for an episode, but against all…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The First Duty”
“At the time I thought you were a mean-spirited, vicious old man.” Hidden among the general mediocrity of Season Five are a few of the most memorable episodes Star Trek: The Next Generation ever produced, and right up on the top is “The First Duty,” if only because Picard’s line in the fourth act –…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Cause and Effect”
“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 reason, this seems like the episode of Next Gen that pretty much everyone, everywhere, has…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The Outcast”
“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 will. People hate this episode. It is very dated in its conception of the gay…