BigJKO

A Dedicated Thread For Talking About Star Trek Episodes

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I liked the weird dynamic between Khan and the ancient earth specialist crew member. He completely domineers her from a position of pure arrogance and entitlement - Khan is basically the ultimate PUA.

 

Today I finished the first season. The City of the Edge of Forever is rightly a classic episode. And when the credits rolled I saw, to my surprise, that it was written by none other than Harlan Ellison. So, that figures. I look forward to the second season. Let's see if it ramps up the 'Star Trekkiness'. The first season took a while to find its footing and by gum it had its weird shit. (COUGH Squire of Gothos COUGH)

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No problem.  I should also mention the Season 1 episode Skin of Evil, which is important for plot reasons but otherwise I think it's one of the dumbest episodes in the whole series.

 

The series gets meaurably better after that episode.

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I watched Fistful of Datas on recommendation of my partner. I tweeted this, but it honestly feels like every other character on Next Generation has Aspergers. Worf is all "what are these human emotions" and Data is all "what are these human emotions" and Geordi is all "I exhibit no personality, but Captain, can we please please please run diagnostics? I love diagnostics."

 

I guess I see why nerds tend to like a Star Trek show where every character is a nerd, but they seem to be way more loose and fun on TOS.

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I watched Fistful of Datas on recommendation of my partner. I tweeted this, but it honestly feels like every other character on Next Generation has Aspergers. Worf is all "what are these human emotions" and Data is all "what are these human emotions" and Geordi is all "I exhibit no personality, but Captain, can we please please please run diagnostics? I love diagnostics."

 

I guess I see why nerds tend to like a Star Trek show where every character is a nerd, but they seem to be way more loose and fun on TOS.

 

The different shows have different balances of warmth and interaction. Having gone backward in time from Voyager, which was like a huge dysfunctional family, it was refreshing to have Deep Space 9's "band of brothers" feel and then Next Generation's academic conference feel. I don't even know what I'd call the wackiness of TOS.

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The different shows have different balances of warmth and interaction. Having gone backward in time from Voyager, which was like a huge dysfunctional family, it was refreshing to have Deep Space 9's "band of brothers" feel and then Next Generation's academic conference feel. I don't even know what I'd call the wackiness of TOS.

 

That's probably one of the best descriptions of Star Trek I've ever seen.

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TOS feels like a dorm.

 

Yeah, I was going to say an old boys' club, an office in the 1950s or whatever. A dorm's a great way to put it.

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Just watched that paradise one where spores make them all doped out. A few funny moments (plus the bit where Kirk has to piss Spock off is cool) but it's another silly one and pretty padded out. A lot of these episodes would do a lot better being 30mins, actually. Plus, to appreciate TOS it really has to be considered a family adventure show in line with Land Of The Giants or something, rather than a classic sci-fi show (at least with most of the episodes I've watched so far).

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I think you're right, most episodes would work better being half hour long. I tend to drift off at the midway point, going online for a bit with the show windowed next to the browser. And for the most part, it is family friendly, though there are exceptions, most of which have been named in this thread. TOS is weird and idiosyncratic.

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Well, I couldn't bring myself to watch any more TOS, so I've skipped forward to NG and am an hour in to the opening two-parter. SPOILERS FROM HERE: It's interesting that they immediately go with the "god-like alien dressing up in period clothing" trope so familiar from TOS. So far, it feels more considered and less goofy, but also quite stilted and not very fun. I like Picard's characterisation as a grumpy old bastard, though, and I guess that matches well. With all that, though, the crew still seems to be full of people who need to be told off every five seconds for emotional outbursts. Plus ça change... I like the way they've retroactively explained the awkwardly short skirts of the female uniforms in TOS by putting some female crewmembers in trousers and some male crewmembers in skirts. Very clever!

 

Favourite line is Data's: "I'm sorry sir, I appear to be commenting on everything." Also, cool to see a 137 year old Bones McCoy, though he seems to have gone a bit redneck in his extreme old age, boyyy.

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Oh man, I'm not there yet. I am taking it really slow with TOS, I've started the second season. It's become my palate cleanser for Breaking Bad. Taken in rare doses it is still really enjoyable, but I'd be loath to binge on it.

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It's difficult to find lists of best TNG eps in production order. Any trekkoids fancy listing around 10 to 20 must-watch episodes in prod order for me..?

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Obviously I can't speak for everyone but here are some of my favorites in production order.

 

Season 2

The Measure of a Man - 2x08

 

Season 3

Yesterday's Enterprise - 3x15

Sarek - 3x23 (Really great Picard scene towards the end)

The Best of Both Worlds - 3x26

 

Season 4

The Best of Both Worlds, Part II - 4x01

Family - 4x02 (I'm actually not a huge fan of this episode but it's pretty well liked I guess)

The Drumhead - 4x21

Redemption - 4x26

 

Season 5

Redemption, Part II - 5x01

Darmok - 5x02 (Temba, his arms wide)

Unification I - 5x07

Unification II - 5x08

Cause and Effect - 5x18

The Inner Light - 5x25 (My personal favorite episode of the entire series)

 

Season 6

Relics - 6x04

Chain of Command Part I - 6x10

Chain of Command Part II - 6x11

Face of the Enemy - 6x14

 

Season 7

Lower Decks - 7x15

All Good Things... - 7x25/7x26 (Series finale, originally aired as one 2 hour episode)

 

I can list a LOT more but that's 20 already.  Some of them may not be the "best" in terms of story/production but I still think they're fun for one reason or another.

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Nice, thanks! I want to watch the one where Darth Vader kills Yar as well, so I'll stick that one in too, plus any Q eps I spot.

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Nice, thanks! I want to watch the one where Darth Vader kills Yar as well, so I'll stick that one in too, plus any Q eps I spot.

 

That would be Skin of Evil, which I previously mentioned as one of the dumbest episodes of the whole series.

 

I like most of the Q episodes too, with the exception of Qpid (Q makes the crew reenact Robin Hood with one of Picard's previous love interests as Marian).  Tapestry also has Q in it despite not having Q in the title, although Picard is the focus and Q is only there as a plot device.

 

I also like most of the Barclay episodes (The Nth Degree, Realm of Fear, Ship in a Bottle, Genesis) because I think he's a more interesting character than some of the regulars.

 

Other silly but fun episodes include:

Who Watches the Watchers - 3x04 (A primitive civilization think Picard is God)

Menage a Troi - 3x24 (Includes the scene where Picard reads love poetry to Troi's mom/the voice of the Enterprise computer/Gene Roddenberry's wife)

lwax4.jpg

Rascals - 6x07 (Some of the crew are transformed into children and have to take back the ship from the Ferengi)

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I love Lower Decks.

 

I've got to disagree with S.A.M. about Menage. All the Troi's Mom episodes are kind of painful, AND they carried them into DS9. Also, we can't forget she was Nurse Chapel in TOS! I think the she is one of the very few people to appear on all Treks. 

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I love Lower Decks.

 

I've got to disagree with S.A.M. about Menage. All the Troi's Mom episodes are kind of painful, AND they carried them into DS9. Also, we can't forget she was Nurse Chapel in TOS! I think the she is one of the very few people to appear on all Treks. 

 

I actually agree with you about Troi's mom.  I don't really like her either, but the end of Menage is hilarious enough I felt I had to mention it.

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So, I finally made it through the entire first season of TNG. Man, that was a pretty, damn horrible. I realize this was a bit of a waste of time, but it still entertain me most of the time. I admit to falling asleep to a lot of the episodes, but there were a few that stood out.

 

In the end, it had a three episode run that didn't feel completely throw-away.

 

SPOILERS from here on, also from the first two episodes of Season 2..

 

'We'll always have Paris' wasn't particularly good, but kept me interested all the way through with the weird time inconsistencies. As always, Patrick Stuart sells the crap out of Picard's inner struggles and he finally gets a love interest that doesn't look like she'd rather be on a different ship, in a different series (I'm looking at you, Dr. Crusher)

 

'Conspiracy' was fun and sort of what, I guess, I was hoping for in this series. Unknown parasites taking over, with fun, little puppet alien things and paranoid Federation stuff. And it picked up from a previous episode plot, which I thought was intriguing but was sure would never appear again (the whole conspiracy within plot) and the old side characters from that were brought in again. Fun times!

 

'Neutral Zone', again this wasn't quality TV on display, but it had its moments and hey! Romulans! The 21st century humans and all the 'how unsophisticated we used to be, bah hah!' preaching was very corny but provided some fun (and a stupidly stereotypical redneck musician.. Ugh..)

 

Picard is definitely the best character, as he remains hilariously grumpy ("Shut up, Wesley") and some of the characters have grown on me (specifically Worf and Data.) D'anna Troy and LaForge are still my least favorite characters and for me, they just didn't get any better. Troy, especially, has a knack for being useless and providing the most obvious readings of every single threat. "I sense immense anger from them." THANK YOU, USELESS BETAZOID.

 

Doctor Crushes isn't a favorite, but not because she's an awful character, but because the actor looks like she couldn't give less of a shit about being on the set.

 

'Skin of Evil' was the most hilariously awful, cringe-inducing episode ever. And killed of the worst character of the show. Yarr! :tup: :tup:

 

Those last three episodes actually got me kind of excited to watch Season 2, which I've started on already. First impressions: I guess Whoopi Goldberg has always just been on board? The camera now moves!! And they've replaced the doctor with an almost identical, yet even more dry and bored-looking one.

 

One and a half episode in... I might just skip some episodes this time. The first two episodes feature Troy having a space-beacon baby and a god damn Sherlock Data and his trusty sidekick Dr. WatForge... Way to start off with the strong stuff, Mr. Star Trek Man. :(

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What was the TNG episode where a bunch of starfleet admirals got taken over by some little alien scorpion looking things? I just remember watching it as a kid and it freaking me the hell out when they crawled into one of the dudes mouths.

 

Man, I probably haven't seen most of the episodes of TNG since when it was on the air. Reading through this thread is making me want to go back and check them out again...

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What was the TNG episode where a bunch of starfleet admirals got taken over by some little alien scorpion looking things? I just remember watching it as a kid and it freaking me the hell out when they crawled into one of the dudes mouths.

 

Man, I probably haven't seen most of the episodes of TNG since when it was on the air. Reading through this thread is making me want to go back and check them out again...

 

That's the Conspiracy episode BigJKO was talking about above.  Sadly it never received a follow up episode, although apparently the origin of the parasites was revealed in the books.

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That's the Conspiracy episode BigJKO was talking about above.  Sadly it never received a follow up episode, although apparently the origin of the parasites was revealed in the books.

 

Awww.... That's a damn shame. They even telegraph their impending second invasion at the end, don't they? Damnit, Star Trek Dude. Why couldn't you skip that god damn Sherlock Holmes episode and put another body snatcher one in instead?!

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