Star Trek: TNG Reviews - From Start to Finish!

That was the one with the lesbian who got raped and the black guy who stole stuff?

Well it certainly wasn't the one with the retarded looking lizard suit guy fighting the captain on a planet or the line "Brain and brain, what is brain?!"

This has been a great thread till now . . . let's not derail it, please.

so... many... jokes... must... resist...

"Comfortable chair." Classic Worf dry wit.

She's gorgeous, and she's a doll. Had the pleasure of meeting with her and shooting the breez at a creation a few years ago. I'm in love.

Thing is, if you're serious about wargames, why do them with an adversary so old and decrepit that it has to be recovered from a boneyard and repaired, and with a crew unfamiliar with it?

Let's see how Red Flag goes if our F-22s are pitted against recently repaired F-84s with chunks missing and pilots who never saw an analog instrument panel. How does that prepare us to fight 5th generation Russian jet fighters with experienced pilots?

Another military plot dreamed up by someone who went to Berkley and never left California.

I wondered about this myself.

But I turned it around.

The exercise was supposed to prepare for a confrontation with the Borg.

In that sense, the broken down, very much inferior U.S.S. Hathaway would actually be representing Starfleet while the uber advanced U.S.S. Enterprise would represent the Borg.

The point being to develop tactics a greatly inferior starship would use against an overwhelmingly powerful foe.

In a sense then, Wesley using subterfuge to steal antimatter from the Enterprise is not that unlike Riker's strategy of stealing Locutus from the Borg ship.

Manhunt - Lwaxanna's back and all greased up for "the Picard Manuver," but Picard's having none of it: he's off to the holodeck. Picard's difficulties in getting a suitable Dixon Hill simulation are fairly amusing. Otherwise, pretty unremarkable. *1/2

The Emissary - Suzie Plakson is back, this time as K'ehleyr...I wish she could've become a regular 'cause she really makes her character likable. She and Worf get all worked up on the holodeck--and presumably do it targ-style--before Worf has to pretend to be captain of the Enterprise to ease a shipful of hibernating Klingons into the 24th Century. The overall plot is meh, but K'ehleyr is a worthy addition. **

Peak Performance - above average episode has Riker commanding a beat-up old starship against Picard's Big E in wargames. Wesley's actually put to good use sneaking some anti-matter off the Enterprise for Riker to make the fight a little more even (though, would ANYONE trust a teenager with even a microscopic amount of anti-matter?). Meanwhile, Data takes a beating in a game with an alien strategist and starts to doubt his own abilities. And the Ferengi show up, too! Both plots end in satisfying resolutions. **1/2

Shades Of Grey - clip show (built around Riker being injured by some alien plant), produced on the cheap. Not exactly ending season 2 on a high note. 1/2

Actually, according to the book "Mirror Matter" as far as we know, an antimatter "explosion" would be nothing like the huge super atomic bomb type of blast that people imagine.

When antimatter and matter annihilate each other, most of the results of the annihilation would be very high energy particles that were so energetic that they simply pass through surrounding matter without interacting with it.

As Robert L. Forward described it

"more POOF! than BANG!!!"

I think an actual matter/antimatter explosion would release most of its energy in the form of a burst of gamma rays. Not exactly healthy for anyone close by.

Still, if it rids the world of Wesley. . .

I don't think so...

Absolutely.

In much the same way, most of the output of an atomic bomb is X-Rays. You get enormous blast effects because those X-Rays are attenuated by the air, thus heating the air very, very quickly. Heated air expands and--voila!--you get buildings knocked down by overpressure waves.

When matter and anti-matter react, it would be much the same. Gamma rays would be attenuated by the atmosphere, people, buildings, etc. that they passed through. Same effect. Only with a LOT less material to get a comparable result.

I think if you compared anti-matter with a rest mass equivalent to a 20 kiloton atomic yield with a 20 kiloton fission bomb, the effects would be pretty similar. The ultimate blast might be smaller (gamma rays penetrate better than X-Rays), but the radiation emitted would be worse. Either way, an area the size of a small city gets wiped out.

It might be a while before I can get to season 3. Getting a little busy at the moment.

In the meantime, y'all feel free to discuss whatever the heck you want! Don't worry about derailing the thread... I'm just gonna keep putting up my reviews, regardless of any side discussions...

Nice to see that so many people are viewing the thread! I was actually thinking about doing this thread at TBBS, but I don't really give a fuck about that place, so I'm doing it here instead.

*** Removed by Lanz ***

Is the antimatter presented in the form of a conveyor belt? Because I think that might affect the radiation output.

That's the impression I got as well, though I sort of wondered why they were giving the first officer the "real" training assignment instead of the captain.

Riker had already been twice offered his own ship.

Only a year after "Peak Performance" he would be offered the U.S.S. Melbourne.

Clearly, Starfleet Command considered Riker a rising star who they really wanted to command a starship.

Perhaps they envisioned throwing their younger, newer ship commanders into battle with the Borg first. Allowing veteran captains like Picard to sit back and evaluate the effectiveness of weapons and tactics before being committed to battle.

Makes sense.


I suppose Picard might have already learned "underdog" tactics while commanding the Stargazer.

Tabbed forum browsing is dangerous to your health.

(wrong thread)

That's exactly what would happen.

Point of order: X-Rays are Gamma Rays.

In fact, technically, ALL types of energy passed by photons are "gamma rays" (The greek letter gamma being thee symbol for the photon).

X-Rays are photons with energies from 100 to around 100,000 electron-volts. Gamma rays are higher than 100,000 electron-volts. They're both electromagnetic waves, but they're not the same thing. X-Rays originate in the electron bands of an atom, while gamma rays can come from the nucleus.

The greek letter gamma is used to represent a photon, but it does not mean that any photon is a gamma ray. It's a coincidence.

The division between x-ray and gamma ray based on energy alone is not actually used anymore. The electron vs. nucleus distinction is the commonly accepted distinction. Fact is there are actually some "x-rays" that have higher energy than the lowest energy "gamma rays". Nowadays many scientists and nuclear energy workers tend to treat x-rays as if they were a subset of the gamma ray band.

(I find it weird to be lectured on my own former "expert" subject matter! I'm just not used to it. )

In any case, I think we'll all agree that season 3 is far better than the 1st and 2nd.

^^^ Yes.

Yeah. That has been the conventional wisdom, but I wonder how true that really is. Well, I shall find out soon!

I'll try to slip in more reviews sometime this weekend.

Well, Picard had already long since proven himself. 22 years as Stargazer captain, inventor of the Picard Maneuver (both of them!), and then captain of the flagship.

Riker was an unknown quantity they were trying to entice into the captain's chair. What better way than a command of his own for training purposes, to put him in the center seat, give him a 'taste', and see what he's made of when pitted against his own CO?

And yet he still pussied out and showed a fundamental lack of ambition and a reliance on an underage cabin boy.

Three elements you just don't want in a CO.

No argument, but Riker was arguably the manliest character in that series aside from Worf, who wasn't a man at all.

I will carry the torch for RM until he gets on with Season 3...

Evolution - Wesley Crusher--heretofore just an annoying nuisance of a Mary Sue--nearly destroys the ship by letting nanites loose. I say we label him an enemy combatant. Anyhoo, a wonderkind scientist--maybe a grown-up version of Wesley--is aboard to do an experiment, the nanites get loose, form a collective consicousness, and threaten the ship. Riker: "Captain, we either destroy these microscopic machines that Wesley built or the Enterprise will be destroyed!" Picard: "I'm thinking, I'm thinking..." Yech. Somehow a happy ending ensues and Wesley shows up in Ten Forward with a girl, making him even MORE unbelievable. Still, not altogether awful. **

The Ensigns of Command - Data must convince a planet full of reluctant colonists to leave their world before an alien armada shows up to take possession of the planet. Meanwhile, Picard negotiates with the aliens to get more time for the evacuation. Data finally demonstrates to the colonists what they're up against by fucking their shit up with a phaser. Righteous. A good Data-centric ep and above average TNG. **1/2

The Survivors - TNG's second great episode, IMHO (after 'The Measure of a Man'). The Enterprise finds a Federation colony world destroyed except for one house---and the old couple that resides within. The mystery intensifies as Picard slowly unravels the truth about what happened. When the old man is revealed to be a powerful (but pacifist) alien and admits to Picard that he took revenge on the species that attacked the planet, the episode gets its best and most shocking line: "No, no, no, no, you don't understand the scope of my crime. I didn't kill just one Husnock, or a hundred, or a thousand. I killed them all. All Husnock, everywhere." Guest star John Anderson really sells the torment felt by someone for whom peace is the highest ideal---but who let his powerful rage loose in a weak moment. Excellent. ***1/2

Who Watches the Watchers - when a Federation anthropological study of a primitive Vulcan-like people is exposed, Picard must try to undo the cultural damage: the people worship Picard as a god! Entertaining episode that benefits from being 100% Wesley-free. **1/2

The Bonding - aw, look, Worf's got a kid. When a crewmember is killed on an away mission, Worf looks after her son. Aliens--intent on making up for their part in the mother's death--assume the dead woman's form and try to lure the boy back to the planet, until Picard and co. convince them that the boy is in good hands. Yawn. *1/2

Booby Trap - the Enterprise gets ensnared in an asteroid field by an ancient ship. Looking for a solution, blind loser Geordi creates a holodeck simulation of tasty scientist Leah Brahms to work with and then promptly falls in love with her. Pity the ensign who has to mop the holodeck. Anyhoo, Picard saves the day by flying the Enterprise out with thrusters. Other than the presence of hotties Susan Dibney (Brahms) and Julie Warner (Christy), average. **

The Enemy - Geordi and a Romulan play 'Hell in the Pacific'/'Enemy Mine', enemies working together in a hostile environment and gradually coming to a friendship. Yay. On a positive note, a Romulan aboard the Enterprise needs a transplant from Worf or he will die; Worf lets him die. Tomalak (Andreas Katsulas) appears! Still, **

The Price - an auction for the rights of a wormhole is held on the Enterprise and one of the participants, a half-Betazoid, uses the time wisely: banging Counselor Troi. Wonder if she'll report that 'feeling' to the Captain... Some subterfuge involving the Ferengi is kinda fun. **

The Vengeance Factor - when the Enterprise intervenes to reconcile a conflict between the Acamarians and a splinter group called 'The Gatherers,' a slave girl to whom Riker is attracted turns out to be the instrument of an ancient vendetta. She may have been hot, but Riker still torches her ass with a phaser at the end. Better than average. **1/2

The Defector - a Romulan admiral defects and alerts Picard and company to a secret Romulan base about to become operative. When the Enterprise goes to investigate, it's trapped by a couple of Romulan warbirds, commanded by Tomalak. It is revealed that the admiral has been caught in a Romulan mole hunt and has defected fruitlessly. Fortunately, Picard brought some Klingons with him and the situation is defused without undue special effects. The Romulan defector offs himself. Boo-hoo. Not too bad. **1/2