Picard Peaks: An Episode Rec List
Aug. 9th, 2018 02:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakGiven the news about a new Star Trek series featuring my favourite Captain, it occured to me it might be helpful to offer a select list of episodes to newbies who don‘t have the time to marathon all seven seasons of TNG yet are neutral, curious or even ready to be convinced that more Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard is a good thing.
Now, what follows is by no means a Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation list, or even a list of personal favourites; TNG was Trek‘s first ensemble show (TOS being centred on the Big Three), and I have favourite episodes in which Picard plays a small or no role. But it is a list of episodes featuring Picard prominently that I love rewatching, some serious drama, some entertaining fluff; Patrick Stewart is awesome in all of them. A lot of them also have other compelling reasons for the potential genre interested newbie to watch them, which I shall add.
So, in chronological broadcast order, my personal „Jiving with Jean-Luc“ marathon friendly hit list:
Season 2, episode 9: The Measure of a Man. This one makes the ST anals for being an unsolicited script written by a fan anyway - by writer Melinda Snodgrass, who went on to flourish in the business. It‘s also a classic Trek morality tale: is Data the android, who‘s been a member of the crew from the pilot onwards, a sentient being or simply sophisticated tech on legs and thus Starfleet property? Basically, ST does a court room drama, with Picard as Data‘s advocate. Now, a lesser script would have let either the judge (Philippa Louvois, who has backstory with Picard), or the Starfleet guy who caused the entire trail, Bruce Maddox, be villains and at some point revealed to act from lower motives, but no such thing happens, and what‘s more, Maddox doesn‘t represent the prosecution, another sympathetic regular, First Officer Riker does. To me, the key scene isn‘t so much Picard‘s concluding argument, though that‘s excellent, but the earlier conversation he has with Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), in which he realises that the actual issue here is: slavery, plain and simple.
Season 2, episode 16: Q Who.: watchable and important for so many reasons, among which the fact that it‘s the first decent Q (near omnipotent being with fondness for one liners and tests, showed up twice before in sadly none too good eps) episode is but one. (Though that definitely is one reason for me: John de Lancie and Patrick Stewart have scorching chemistry here. No wonder this became one of my earliest slash ´ships before I even knew the term existed.) It introduces the Borg (and you can see it once why they impressed the hell out of fans and became villains for the next few decades, long after the creepiness factor displayed here vanished by overuse), and it puts Picard in a position TOS never put Kirk in: where he can‘t win the day by outthinking or outfighting his opponents, and has to save his crew by swallowing his pride and asking an antagonist for help. Which is precisely why I warmed up to Picard over Kirk around that time. Also noteworthy: bits of backstory for Guinan, including a long term feud with Q.
Season 3, episode 19: Captain's Holiday: now this is an entertaining fluff episode, in which, as the title indicates, Picard is made to take a break by his crew. Which he does on the holiday planet Risa, essentially a big galactic Club Med, where he runs into female con artist and rogue archaelogist Vash and has a fun adventure. Now, I‘m the first to admit this isn‘t one of ST‘s great episodes. Why I love it anyway and put it on the list: Patrick Stewart is arguably the only male ST actor to look actually good in 24th century civilian gear, especially one that‘s as revealing as this holiday get up, and he had a great body to be displayed. (More of this in a far more serious episode.) PIcard trying to read a book and being bothered by a stream of other vacationers who assume no one can seriously want to read on holidays, and getting increasingly disgruntled by this, is one of those „Jean-Luc, I hear you, I so had the same experience!“ moments for me. And his holiday romance with bad girl Vash is an entertaining „usually rules-bound guy/ female criminal“ combination which don‘t end angstily on the guy‘s part or with the woman converted to a rules-bound life. Oh, and lastly: the episode was written by Ira Behr, who‘d later become one of the key writers on ST: DS9.
Season 3, episode 24: Sarek. Written by none other than Peter S. Beagle, the very one we owe The Last Unicorn to, this episode featured, as the title indicates, Spock‘s father Sarek, played by the original actor Mark Lenard, who gives his last but one performance in the role, and as with Shakspeare and The Tempest, it should have been his farewell performance because it‘s that kind of story and episode. No offense to either Ben Cross, who plays Sarek in the ST Reboot movies, or James Frain, who plays him on Star Trek: Discovery, but this kind of thing is why Original Sarek is The Best Sarek for me. Speaking of Discovery, this episode could be a good introduction for you if you want to know more about the man who raised Michael and about Vulcan psychology and emotions. Why this episode is on a Picard list: it‘s the very one where Patrick Stewart‘s performance made me sit up and realise how truly great an actor he is. He was good before, but it‘s an acting tour de force as Picard, who for plot reasons has to mind meld with Sarek, channels all of Sarek‘s repressed emotions, regrets and memories in addition to his own repressed emotions. (Picard being the stoic type most of the time, which is what Sarek finds appealing about him.) Now Michael Burnham wasn‘t invented yet when this episode was broadcast, obviously, but given her own backstory with Sarek, this means Jean-Luc has a bit of Michael in his head from this point onwards.
Season 3, episode 26: Best of Both Worlds I: the third season finale and famously the cliffhanger episode seen as TNG‘s graduation in fandom; from this point onwards, the „TNG is Trek‘s embarrassing younger brother mentality was not the dominant one any longer, and it became the standard bearer, despite TOS movies being still a thing at this point. It‘s actually more Riker than Picard centric, but essential to understanding the next two eps, which is why it‘s here. Also, it‘s a great episode by itself, with the guest star, Commander Shelby, always making me wish she‘d come back later (yes, I know she‘s in the New Frontier novels, but that‘s not the same). It‘s basically impossible not to be spoiled for the big cliffhanger scene these days, or to feel the same visceral impact it had during the original broadcast. (Think of watching the „Luke, I am your father“ scene in Star Wars for the first time.) But it‘s still a doozie. (And Patrick Stewart sells it with a few lines.)
Season 4.1. Best of Both Worlds II and 4.2. Family: 4.1. is the solution to the previous cliffhanger, provides another Star Trek Captain from the next show, DS9, with a key trauma (Benjamin Sisko loses his wife in one of the battles here, which isn‘t a spoiler because it happens right at the start of the DS9 pilot), and Picard with an even bigger one. It‘s Family which makes that clear, though. Until this time, tragedies happening to Star Trek leads in one episode left no mark in the next; when Kirk loses Edith Keeler, he‘s fine and dandy in the subsequent episodes, etc. And the rest of genre tv (what there was at that point) usually followed suit. And then Family changed this, by showing us Picard in the aftermath of the two parter, trying to recover (though at first he denies he needs to) by visiting his brother‘s family back in France. It‘s a quiet character episode which thus was revolutionary in its day; now, this is of course not the case anymore, but it‘s still a a fine episode, and another great performance by Patrick Stewart as the cracks in Picard‘s demeanour become ever more visible until the catharthic scene with brother Robert where the horror of what has happened finally is faced. (Incidentally, the episode was written by Ron Moore, and if there‘s one thing I regret about it it‘s that he tried to copy the effect by letting Eddie Olmos do the crying and raging while getting drunk thing far too often in BSG‘s season 4. Not the same thing, Ron.)
Lastly: in a subplot, we meet Worf‘s human adoptive parents, Sergej and Helena Roshenko, who are the most endearing Russians in Trek since Pavel Chekov. Love them.
Season 4, episode 20 QPid: another Ira Behr comedy tale of the entertaining fluff category. You can keep all Robin Hood movies in the last three decades, this is my favourite outing. Q‘s idea of doing something nice for Picard involves sticking him and Vash (the rogue archaelogist Picard had had his holiday fling with) in a Robin Hood scenario. Vash‘s idea of being Maid Marian, however, isn‘t being rescued by Robin but marry Sir Guy of Gisborne instead, Worf, as he protests, is not a Merry Man, and Jean-Luc Picard is not from Nottingham. But a great fencer anyway (cue Patrick Stewart‘s stage training being put to good use). It‘s great swashbuckling fun, the cast has a blast in traditional Robin Hood costumes, and if you ship Picard/Q, you get treated to such statements as „If I‘d known sooner, Jean-Luc, I‘d have shown up as a woman“ by Q (re: Vash and how she affects Picard), and PIcard essentially admitting Q and Vash are cut from the same cloth. Beverly Crusher having breakfast with Vash and showing her the ship instead of displaying jealousy isn‘t half bad, either, going against sexist expectations very much the norm in tv back then.
Season 4, episode 21: The Drumhead. Originally intended as a budget saving bottle show (it takes entirely place on the Enterprise), this turned out to become another morality tale/ court trial episode in the spirit of Measure of a Man. Also, possibly and sadly, with contemporary relevance it didn‘t have at first broadcast, when most people watching were reminded of MacCarthyism, not their present. An investigation into an actualterrorist attack act of sabotage on board the Enterprise increasingly turns into a climate of persecution. When a crew member who has Romulan ancestry he didn‘t disclose before is outed and suspected of being a spy, it‘s Picard for the defense again, and a speech I had occasion to rewatch from the Bush years onwards. Several elements which elevate the episode from good to great (imo, as always): there was an act of sabotage at the start, it wasn‘t invented, which gives Picard stating there are some lines in terms of civil rights you don‘t cross more weight than if there wasn‘t actual reason for concern; the „safety first, to hell with civil rights!“ party isn‘t just represented by guest star Jean Simmons, but for a time counts series regular Worf among them, and this is important, because again, it means Picard‘s later observation that no one is immune from temptation to give into this mentality is far more founded than if it had been only the usual „outsider Starfleet official makes trouble for our good crew“ cliché; and Picard (and the audience) doesn‘t really know whether Simon, the crew member with a Roman granddad, is guilty or innocent in general, which would be the case of the crew member had been a TNG regular. He makes his stand on rights regardless of this calming knowledge.
(Trivia: the episode was written by Jeri Taylor, who would go on to become a headwriter in ST: Voyager, and directed by Jonathan Frakes, aka Riker, who started a second career as director on TNG and remains busy in this capacity to this day; he directed several Discovery episodes last season.)
Season 5, episode 02: Darmok: Possibly the most TNG episode of TNG. Our heroes have to struggle through first contact with a species whose language defies the universal translator. Picard ends up on the planet with the other Captain and at first thinks this is a ritual challenge sort of situation, but it‘s no such thing. This episode is a hymn to stories, myths, metaphors and avoiding fights via communication, no matter how difficult. (Picard being a well read geek comes in very handy for him here.) Also, Patrick Stewart gets to narrate the Sumerian myth of Gilgamesh. And fandom gains a few neat phrases. Shaka, when the walls fell. Temba, his arms wide open. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!
Season 6, episodes 10 and 11: Chain of Command I and II: A two parter with a premise that doesn‘t bear much thinking about (there‘s no way Picard and Crusher, of all the people, are the people most qualified for a Star Trek spy mission), but the results are worth it. The non-Picard related reason why this two parter is memorable is that while the Captain who temporarily steps in for Picard, commanding the Enterprise, Jellico, is a jerk, he‘s not an incompetent jerk, and the way his storyline goes is a direct contrast to all the TOS and onwards episodes which go like this: Starfleet, for whatever reason, sends higher ranking officer to relieve Kirk of command. (Or they don‘t send him for that purpose, but he takes it anyway.) Inevitably, alternate commander screws up and fails at commanding the Enterprise, and Kirk steps in to save the day. It got to the point where you had to wonder whether the sole competent Starfleet officers were the ones serving under Kirk‘s command. But this story goes differently. Jellico pretty much alienates the entire crew with his manners, but since they as well as he are competent professionals, they do their job anyway, and the day is saved by mutual effort. However, this isn‘t the reason why this two parter is on my rec list.
No, it‘s all about the torture and the mindgames, all those scenes between Picard and his Cardassian interrogator, played by David Warner. Patrick Stewart being a member of Amnesty International, he took advice on the torture scenes, while the script very blatantly took their inspiration from George Orwell‘s 1984, down to „how manyfingers, Winston lights, Picard?“ The result could not be further from the cliché of yore (and sadly also of many a movie and show in the present day) where good guys manfully resist torture while villains fold as soon as you let them dangle over a building, or break their fingers, depending on the brutality level. It‘s intensely played and does not need gore to be brutal. Now, at one point shortly before the end I thought they were chickening out of the ultimate consequence of torture and going back to the „unbroken hero“ cliché after all, but then came Picard‘s post rescue scene with Deanna Troi, which completet the 1984 homage after all, and brings the story to its right end.
(Lighthearted trivia: at a convention I attended, Jonathan Frakes told the story of how when they filmed this the producers originally wanted to use a body double for the scenes where PIcard hangs naked from a ceiling, whereupon Patrick Stewart indignantly asked: „And what is wrong with my body?“, which settled that.)
Season 7, episodes 25 and 26: All Good Things...: still for my money the best Trek finale and one of the best show finales all around. It manages to use the entire ensemble well, not least due to the three time periods it‘s set in (one around the pilot of the series, one in the series present day, one in the future), highlights both the changes among the crew and what remained the same, and wraps things up while not cutting off the possiblity for future adventures. Holding all this together is Patrick Stewart‘s performance as PIcard, the only character who experiences all three time periods simultanously. Well, him and Q, who is the plot macguffin justifying all the time travelling, and we get treated to more chemistry and one liners while the plot mixes the funny with the poignant. In conclusion: the perfect way to wrap up your Picard marathon!
Now, what follows is by no means a Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation list, or even a list of personal favourites; TNG was Trek‘s first ensemble show (TOS being centred on the Big Three), and I have favourite episodes in which Picard plays a small or no role. But it is a list of episodes featuring Picard prominently that I love rewatching, some serious drama, some entertaining fluff; Patrick Stewart is awesome in all of them. A lot of them also have other compelling reasons for the potential genre interested newbie to watch them, which I shall add.
So, in chronological broadcast order, my personal „Jiving with Jean-Luc“ marathon friendly hit list:
Season 2, episode 9: The Measure of a Man. This one makes the ST anals for being an unsolicited script written by a fan anyway - by writer Melinda Snodgrass, who went on to flourish in the business. It‘s also a classic Trek morality tale: is Data the android, who‘s been a member of the crew from the pilot onwards, a sentient being or simply sophisticated tech on legs and thus Starfleet property? Basically, ST does a court room drama, with Picard as Data‘s advocate. Now, a lesser script would have let either the judge (Philippa Louvois, who has backstory with Picard), or the Starfleet guy who caused the entire trail, Bruce Maddox, be villains and at some point revealed to act from lower motives, but no such thing happens, and what‘s more, Maddox doesn‘t represent the prosecution, another sympathetic regular, First Officer Riker does. To me, the key scene isn‘t so much Picard‘s concluding argument, though that‘s excellent, but the earlier conversation he has with Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), in which he realises that the actual issue here is: slavery, plain and simple.
Season 2, episode 16: Q Who.: watchable and important for so many reasons, among which the fact that it‘s the first decent Q (near omnipotent being with fondness for one liners and tests, showed up twice before in sadly none too good eps) episode is but one. (Though that definitely is one reason for me: John de Lancie and Patrick Stewart have scorching chemistry here. No wonder this became one of my earliest slash ´ships before I even knew the term existed.) It introduces the Borg (and you can see it once why they impressed the hell out of fans and became villains for the next few decades, long after the creepiness factor displayed here vanished by overuse), and it puts Picard in a position TOS never put Kirk in: where he can‘t win the day by outthinking or outfighting his opponents, and has to save his crew by swallowing his pride and asking an antagonist for help. Which is precisely why I warmed up to Picard over Kirk around that time. Also noteworthy: bits of backstory for Guinan, including a long term feud with Q.
Season 3, episode 19: Captain's Holiday: now this is an entertaining fluff episode, in which, as the title indicates, Picard is made to take a break by his crew. Which he does on the holiday planet Risa, essentially a big galactic Club Med, where he runs into female con artist and rogue archaelogist Vash and has a fun adventure. Now, I‘m the first to admit this isn‘t one of ST‘s great episodes. Why I love it anyway and put it on the list: Patrick Stewart is arguably the only male ST actor to look actually good in 24th century civilian gear, especially one that‘s as revealing as this holiday get up, and he had a great body to be displayed. (More of this in a far more serious episode.) PIcard trying to read a book and being bothered by a stream of other vacationers who assume no one can seriously want to read on holidays, and getting increasingly disgruntled by this, is one of those „Jean-Luc, I hear you, I so had the same experience!“ moments for me. And his holiday romance with bad girl Vash is an entertaining „usually rules-bound guy/ female criminal“ combination which don‘t end angstily on the guy‘s part or with the woman converted to a rules-bound life. Oh, and lastly: the episode was written by Ira Behr, who‘d later become one of the key writers on ST: DS9.
Season 3, episode 24: Sarek. Written by none other than Peter S. Beagle, the very one we owe The Last Unicorn to, this episode featured, as the title indicates, Spock‘s father Sarek, played by the original actor Mark Lenard, who gives his last but one performance in the role, and as with Shakspeare and The Tempest, it should have been his farewell performance because it‘s that kind of story and episode. No offense to either Ben Cross, who plays Sarek in the ST Reboot movies, or James Frain, who plays him on Star Trek: Discovery, but this kind of thing is why Original Sarek is The Best Sarek for me. Speaking of Discovery, this episode could be a good introduction for you if you want to know more about the man who raised Michael and about Vulcan psychology and emotions. Why this episode is on a Picard list: it‘s the very one where Patrick Stewart‘s performance made me sit up and realise how truly great an actor he is. He was good before, but it‘s an acting tour de force as Picard, who for plot reasons has to mind meld with Sarek, channels all of Sarek‘s repressed emotions, regrets and memories in addition to his own repressed emotions. (Picard being the stoic type most of the time, which is what Sarek finds appealing about him.) Now Michael Burnham wasn‘t invented yet when this episode was broadcast, obviously, but given her own backstory with Sarek, this means Jean-Luc has a bit of Michael in his head from this point onwards.
Season 3, episode 26: Best of Both Worlds I: the third season finale and famously the cliffhanger episode seen as TNG‘s graduation in fandom; from this point onwards, the „TNG is Trek‘s embarrassing younger brother mentality was not the dominant one any longer, and it became the standard bearer, despite TOS movies being still a thing at this point. It‘s actually more Riker than Picard centric, but essential to understanding the next two eps, which is why it‘s here. Also, it‘s a great episode by itself, with the guest star, Commander Shelby, always making me wish she‘d come back later (yes, I know she‘s in the New Frontier novels, but that‘s not the same). It‘s basically impossible not to be spoiled for the big cliffhanger scene these days, or to feel the same visceral impact it had during the original broadcast. (Think of watching the „Luke, I am your father“ scene in Star Wars for the first time.) But it‘s still a doozie. (And Patrick Stewart sells it with a few lines.)
Season 4.1. Best of Both Worlds II and 4.2. Family: 4.1. is the solution to the previous cliffhanger, provides another Star Trek Captain from the next show, DS9, with a key trauma (Benjamin Sisko loses his wife in one of the battles here, which isn‘t a spoiler because it happens right at the start of the DS9 pilot), and Picard with an even bigger one. It‘s Family which makes that clear, though. Until this time, tragedies happening to Star Trek leads in one episode left no mark in the next; when Kirk loses Edith Keeler, he‘s fine and dandy in the subsequent episodes, etc. And the rest of genre tv (what there was at that point) usually followed suit. And then Family changed this, by showing us Picard in the aftermath of the two parter, trying to recover (though at first he denies he needs to) by visiting his brother‘s family back in France. It‘s a quiet character episode which thus was revolutionary in its day; now, this is of course not the case anymore, but it‘s still a a fine episode, and another great performance by Patrick Stewart as the cracks in Picard‘s demeanour become ever more visible until the catharthic scene with brother Robert where the horror of what has happened finally is faced. (Incidentally, the episode was written by Ron Moore, and if there‘s one thing I regret about it it‘s that he tried to copy the effect by letting Eddie Olmos do the crying and raging while getting drunk thing far too often in BSG‘s season 4. Not the same thing, Ron.)
Lastly: in a subplot, we meet Worf‘s human adoptive parents, Sergej and Helena Roshenko, who are the most endearing Russians in Trek since Pavel Chekov. Love them.
Season 4, episode 20 QPid: another Ira Behr comedy tale of the entertaining fluff category. You can keep all Robin Hood movies in the last three decades, this is my favourite outing. Q‘s idea of doing something nice for Picard involves sticking him and Vash (the rogue archaelogist Picard had had his holiday fling with) in a Robin Hood scenario. Vash‘s idea of being Maid Marian, however, isn‘t being rescued by Robin but marry Sir Guy of Gisborne instead, Worf, as he protests, is not a Merry Man, and Jean-Luc Picard is not from Nottingham. But a great fencer anyway (cue Patrick Stewart‘s stage training being put to good use). It‘s great swashbuckling fun, the cast has a blast in traditional Robin Hood costumes, and if you ship Picard/Q, you get treated to such statements as „If I‘d known sooner, Jean-Luc, I‘d have shown up as a woman“ by Q (re: Vash and how she affects Picard), and PIcard essentially admitting Q and Vash are cut from the same cloth. Beverly Crusher having breakfast with Vash and showing her the ship instead of displaying jealousy isn‘t half bad, either, going against sexist expectations very much the norm in tv back then.
Season 4, episode 21: The Drumhead. Originally intended as a budget saving bottle show (it takes entirely place on the Enterprise), this turned out to become another morality tale/ court trial episode in the spirit of Measure of a Man. Also, possibly and sadly, with contemporary relevance it didn‘t have at first broadcast, when most people watching were reminded of MacCarthyism, not their present. An investigation into an actual
(Trivia: the episode was written by Jeri Taylor, who would go on to become a headwriter in ST: Voyager, and directed by Jonathan Frakes, aka Riker, who started a second career as director on TNG and remains busy in this capacity to this day; he directed several Discovery episodes last season.)
Season 5, episode 02: Darmok: Possibly the most TNG episode of TNG. Our heroes have to struggle through first contact with a species whose language defies the universal translator. Picard ends up on the planet with the other Captain and at first thinks this is a ritual challenge sort of situation, but it‘s no such thing. This episode is a hymn to stories, myths, metaphors and avoiding fights via communication, no matter how difficult. (Picard being a well read geek comes in very handy for him here.) Also, Patrick Stewart gets to narrate the Sumerian myth of Gilgamesh. And fandom gains a few neat phrases. Shaka, when the walls fell. Temba, his arms wide open. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!
Season 6, episodes 10 and 11: Chain of Command I and II: A two parter with a premise that doesn‘t bear much thinking about (there‘s no way Picard and Crusher, of all the people, are the people most qualified for a Star Trek spy mission), but the results are worth it. The non-Picard related reason why this two parter is memorable is that while the Captain who temporarily steps in for Picard, commanding the Enterprise, Jellico, is a jerk, he‘s not an incompetent jerk, and the way his storyline goes is a direct contrast to all the TOS and onwards episodes which go like this: Starfleet, for whatever reason, sends higher ranking officer to relieve Kirk of command. (Or they don‘t send him for that purpose, but he takes it anyway.) Inevitably, alternate commander screws up and fails at commanding the Enterprise, and Kirk steps in to save the day. It got to the point where you had to wonder whether the sole competent Starfleet officers were the ones serving under Kirk‘s command. But this story goes differently. Jellico pretty much alienates the entire crew with his manners, but since they as well as he are competent professionals, they do their job anyway, and the day is saved by mutual effort. However, this isn‘t the reason why this two parter is on my rec list.
No, it‘s all about the torture and the mindgames, all those scenes between Picard and his Cardassian interrogator, played by David Warner. Patrick Stewart being a member of Amnesty International, he took advice on the torture scenes, while the script very blatantly took their inspiration from George Orwell‘s 1984, down to „how many
(Lighthearted trivia: at a convention I attended, Jonathan Frakes told the story of how when they filmed this the producers originally wanted to use a body double for the scenes where PIcard hangs naked from a ceiling, whereupon Patrick Stewart indignantly asked: „And what is wrong with my body?“, which settled that.)
Season 7, episodes 25 and 26: All Good Things...: still for my money the best Trek finale and one of the best show finales all around. It manages to use the entire ensemble well, not least due to the three time periods it‘s set in (one around the pilot of the series, one in the series present day, one in the future), highlights both the changes among the crew and what remained the same, and wraps things up while not cutting off the possiblity for future adventures. Holding all this together is Patrick Stewart‘s performance as PIcard, the only character who experiences all three time periods simultanously. Well, him and Q, who is the plot macguffin justifying all the time travelling, and we get treated to more chemistry and one liners while the plot mixes the funny with the poignant. In conclusion: the perfect way to wrap up your Picard marathon!
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no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 12:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 06:18 pm (UTC)I have not seen all of TNG, but I have seen all of the episodes you review here except for this one and this one sounds great. Thank you!
no subject
Date: 2018-08-11 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-11 02:12 pm (UTC)BTW: Considering Moore and Braga wrote such a perfect finale, my theory on why Generations is so mediocre has always been it was pure writerly exhaustion, since they had to write both right after another.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 07:31 pm (UTC)Inner Light, though!
no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 08:15 pm (UTC)And speaking of nostalgia, yes, indeed, I don't think anyone, at this late date can truly understand just what it was like at the time to be hit with that cliffhanger at the end of "Best of Both Worlds, pt 1." I think that was the single longest summer of my life!
(And, oh, man, why do I not have a Picard icon? I guess Spock will have to do again.)
no subject
Date: 2018-08-12 10:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-12 06:09 pm (UTC)Mind you, I'm pretty sure that I never for a moment really thought that Stewart might be leaving and this was how they were going to write him out of the show. I didn't have a whole lot of doubt, underneath the cliffhangery tension, that they were going to get him back somehow. But I had no idea how, or what was going to happen next, or how anybody was going to get out of that situation intact, and it was maddening and thrilling.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 08:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-12 10:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 10:38 pm (UTC)And I've been waiting months for someone to write that fic.
This is such a good list, though! Picard's not my favourite captain, but he was still extremely formative, and I'm delighted that we're getting him back.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-11 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-09 11:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-10 01:40 pm (UTC)One reason I occasionally bemoan all the great new shows, is that it leaves me no time to go back and rewatch the excellent old ones.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-11 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-11 02:17 am (UTC)I've seen most of these and have to agree, but I want to tell you that this list finally inspired me to watch "The Measure of a Man," which I had never seen despite it being a classic and much referenced. It was quite enjoyable, and a reminder of how well TNG could do complexity with minor characters. So thank you for that!
no subject
Date: 2018-08-11 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-12 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-11 03:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-11 01:34 pm (UTC)(Which is where my dislike of "The Inner Light" comes in - it might be a big Picard episode, but damn, I really really don't like the story and how the show handled it and what it wanted me to think about it. But as I can see from the comments, that continues to be a bit of an outlier opinion apparently. "Darmok" on the other hand is just wonderful in my eyes.)
Borg (and you can see it once why they impressed the hell out of fans and became villains for the next few decades, long after the creepiness factor displayed here vanished by overuse)
Ain't that the truth. Although I'm not sure if it's overuse so much as the kind of stories they chose to tell with them, especially once we reach "Descent" and Lore gets thrown into the mix. That was a low point, whereas I thought that "I Borg" was still pretty great.
Patrick Stewart is arguably the only male ST actor to look actually good in 24th century civilian gear
Ahahaha. Picard looks good in everything - be it the Bruce Willis action undershirt in "First Contact" or the Victorian costume in "Elementary, Dear Data". (And I'd never heard the "Chain of Command" anecdote before, but I totally read the line in Patrick Stewart's voice.)
I agree with the commenter above who'd take "Tapestry" over "QPid" but that might be because I'm not a big fan of Robin Rood pastiches or of Vash. (Although I agree with your observation re: Beverly and Vash in that episode, it's one of the things I noted myself back then.)
I also agree with you about the finale being the best Trek finale and one of the best show finales in general. While I love most of DS9's finale as well, it does have the whole prophets thing and that just leaves a permanent black mark on it for me. Whereas I recently rewatched "All Good Things..." and enjoyed it all over again - it's very clearly an ending to the series but still leaves you with this feeling that there's a wide open space of possibilities and that the future isn't fix.
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Date: 2018-08-12 07:00 am (UTC)Re: DS9 - yes ,the Pagh Wraith and Prophet storyline keeps me from loving the DS9 finale as much as I do the TNG finale. That, and it shares with Generations the idea that two or three middle aged men beating each other up mano a mano makes for a good climax. I mean, obviously since Sisko is the lead they wanted to let hm do something key to saving the day - which otherwise is saved mostly by Odo and Kira -, but well, it should have been something else. Now if he‘d given his physical existence so that NEITHER prophets nor pagh wraiths could mess with linear folk ever again, it would have been something, and could have been tied to the reveal of what the prophets did to his biological mother. (No, not ever letting that go.)
ETA: was inspired to write an entire post about my own Inner Light mixed feelings.
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Date: 2018-08-12 11:22 am (UTC)I did like the general idea behind the probe as a way of a long dead civilization to be remembered and to have people share their life for a while. BUT. The way it was done seemed incredibly callous to me. There is no consent, no knowledge, the person is lied to the whole time and has to live there for what feels like years and years. I wonder what would have happened if Picard hadn't been okay with making his life there in the end? If he had fought for his own identity, his name even, instead of accepting that he was someone else now? (Which he wasn't.) Would there have been an out for him earlier? Or would he have had to live out this life in desolation? (And speaking of, returning to his life on the enterprise and being able to resume his duty as if he hadn't just spent decades elsewhere?) To make someone go through that without consent, just so you can be remembered in a thousand years time strikes me as egotistic and awful. And of course, it's the simple, idyllic family life in a small, rural community -- or rather, its complete idealization. Between these two main gripes, the "Picard Character Episode" part didn't really make a dent. I never felt like it told me something incredibly important about him either. Ultimately, I might have come down on the "okay, not particularly remarkable" side of things myself if I hadn't been told so many times that it's the best episode of the show.
it shares with Generations the idea that two or three middle aged men beating each other up mano a mano makes for a good climax
That's very true. And on top of that, Dukat, a character which I appreciated very much during the first half of the show's life, had thoroughly overstayed his welcome at that point. From what I've read of your opinions on the prophets, we do seem to be very much in agreement on them.
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Date: 2018-08-15 04:06 am (UTC)