Star Trek The Next Generation appreciation thread (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Tonight's episode: "Time Squared", from Season 2.

This is one I sort of half remembered from repeats in the early nineties. There have been plenty of time travel stories in Trek, and even plenty of time loop stories. But this episode, coming out four years before Groundhog Day fixed the rules of time loops in the public imagination, is something stranger. It's not really a time loop story, because events don't repeat even a second time. And they don't really learn anything from the previous iteration, because both shuttle and passenger are too out of sorts to be useful.

It's also a story that is completely at odds with the rules of episodic storytelling, which demands that the characters take action and drive the plot forward. In this episode, they know that they're going to face their doom in six hours, and the only thing they can do is sit around and wait. Even the resolution is passive; Picard succeeds by preventing future Picard from taking action. And then his alternative is to steer into the skid, essentially.

At the end of the episode, they don't know what sent the other Picard back in time. They don't know what intelligence was within the vortex, and they don't know why heading right for the heart of the vortex saved them.

It's not an especially great episode, but it is a slightly unnerving one. It's always nice to be reminded that space is vast and full of the unknown.

Season	Episodes Revisited
1	3, 8-9, 14, 16-17, 25-26
2	2, 7, 11-13, 15
3	6, 11
4	3, 12, 14-16
5	2, 5, 7-9, 12-14, 22-26
6	1, 5-6, 13, 18-19
7	7, 12-13, 16, 18

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It's not an especially great episode, but it is a slightly unnerving one. It's always nice to be reminded that space is vast and full of the unknown.

This is one of my favorite episodes to rewatch and that’s exactly it - it’s unnerving. There’s a lot of stuff in season two that’s equally weird in sometimes similar and sometimes different ways, and not the kind of execution of storytelling we’ve seen before or after this season. I find when I want a random TNG episode as a one-off, more often than not I draw from this season.

Plus, it seems I only ever see it at 2am so I can never remember how it ends, so it’s fresh each time.

 

[benbess]

It's like a Star Trek/Twilight Zone mash-up. I like Time Squared a lot.

 

[Sam Favate]

This is one of my favorite episodes to rewatch and that’s exactly it - it’s unnerving. There’s a lot of stuff in season two that’s equally weird in sometimes similar and sometimes different ways, and not the kind of execution of storytelling we’ve seen before or after this season.

Yes, I was just thinking that the early seasons of TNG hit a vibe that they really didn't duplicate in the later years, nor did DS9 or Voyager. Famously, Q Who ends on a foreboding note that was never replicated.

 

[Nelson Au]

Interesting insights guys about Time Squared. The next time I am not sure what TNG episode to watch, I may play this. I never considered it was unnerving! I compared it to some of the more ponderous Outer Limits episodes or Space 1999 episodes where the science wasn’t working for me. I had read that Hurley intended this episode to have a proper explanation in an upcoming episode. It’s been documented that Gene Roddenberry nixed that idea, so this episode doesn’t make a lot of sense. I would have liked to have seen the episode that Hurley had envisioned where it’s explained that it was Q who was toying with them.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

"The Measure of a Man" is the only excellent episode in season 2, imo.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Tonight's episode: "Force of Nature", from Season 7.

This should have been a game changer: Warp travel is inherently destructive, with the effects accumulating over time. The Federation is so shaken by this that it immediately restricts travel to Warp 5, essentially turning back the clock to the "Enterprise" days. And over time, the warp corridors would get smaller and smaller, making interstellar travel far more fraught and complicated to navigate.

The timing of this episode was strategic: The only other Trek show was set on a stationary space station, and most travel happened via a wormhole rather than via warp. So it wouldn't have to box them in too much dramatically. And it could have even been a story engine: Perhaps Voyager could have found the technology from a non-destructive means of warp travel from a civilization in the distant reaches of the Delta Quadrant. Then there would have been mission-critical stakes in addition to the personal ones: They needed to get back not just for themselves, but to solve this huge problem the Federation has.

But aside from a couple references to the Warp 5 speed limit in later Season 7 episodes, as far as I know the danger was never addressed again. If you're going to make an environmental allegory about the need for short-term sacrifices in service of the long-term greater good, I think you have a responsibility to actually show those short-term sacrifices.

I think part of the problem is that the writers were so locked into the episodic format. Their instincts were not to carry forward consequences into subsequent stories, but to look at them as more or less a clean slate.

I also think there's way too much time spent on a pointless subplot about Data's cat.

Season	Episodes Revisited
1	3, 8-9, 14, 16-17, 25-26
2	2, 7, 11-13, 15
3	6, 11
4	3, 12, 14-16
5	2, 5, 7-9, 12-14, 22-26
6	1, 5-6, 13, 18-19
7	7, 9, 12-13, 16, 18

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think part of the problem is that the writers were so locked into the episodic format.

From what I've read, a great deal of that was the studio - that wanted their entirely syndicated show to be able to play in perpetuity in any order a local station might choose - along with Rick Berman, who felt it was his job after Roddenberry’s passing to honor Gene’s wishes about a lot of things, and serialization wasn’t something Gene was fond of - apparently.

You can see some of that playing out in DS9, which Berman apparently kept trying to shut down long term arcs until he finally let go of the reins. You can also see that with Voyager, a show whose premise screamed out for serialization. Even Enterprise resisted going that route at first. But by then, TV had changed with shows like The Sopranos, West Wing and 24 all coming around the same time and showing that was what audiences wanted.

I also think there's way too much time spent on a pointless subplot about Data's cat.

Honestly, I love each and every moment with Spot. When TNG went off the air, kid me wrote a letter to Paramount volunteering to adopt him if he needed a home.

 

[Sam Favate]

wanted their entirely syndicated show to be able to play in perpetuity in any order a local station might choose -

I watched plenty of syndicated TV as a kid and I don’t recall stations ever showing episodes in random order. Maybe the New York stations were just more conscientious? Maybe stations in the middle of nowhere were just chaos?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I watched plenty of syndicated TV as a kid and I don’t recall stations ever showing episodes in random order. Maybe the New York stations were just more conscientious? Maybe stations in the middle of nowhere were just chaos?

Who knows!

I remember when I’d visit my grandmother in Florida for those school break weeks they had in grade school, TNG reruns were on several times a day, but each time slot seemed to be running on its own track. In other words, the 11am airing might have been showing season 3 episodes in order, the 6pm airing was showing season 1 episodes in order, and the 10pm airing was showing maybe season 5 episodes in order.

So nothing was out of order per se if you didn’t think of the different time slots as related to each other.

I feel with stuff like this it’s usually some studio guy not overly familiar with shows or fans who gets worried over nothing with some shows and not others - no one seemed worried about showing Law & Order episodes with different casts back to back for instance. I think it was just an era where there was always some bean counter that thought “this show is a product and each installment should be interchangeable with every other one” but I don’t think it really matters much in the end.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

"The Measure of a Man" is the only excellent episode in season 2, imo.

I would disagree.

That sets the bar too high for everything else to reach excellent.

Outstanding
The Measure of a Man


Excellent
Elementary, Dear Data
The Outrageous Okonna (starring actor who didn't get the role of Riker)
A Matter of Honor
Q Who
The Emissary
The Schizoid Man
Contagion (Ancient advanced extinct race technology)


Good
The Royale (yeah, I know, but the concept of the stranded astronaut was great)
The Icarus Factor (Riker backstory)
Peak Performance

Not touching the rest

 

[Jason_V]

I'd throw "Contagion" in there somewhere. It's action-y, it's fun and gets referenced later in DS9. I can find things to recommend in every other episode, but they're generally "meh" or worse.

 

[Josh Dial]

Peak Performance

"I busted him up."

 

[Bryan^H]

I would disagree.

That sets the bar too high for everything else to reach excellent.

Outstanding
The Measure of a Man


Excellent
Elementary, Dear Data
The Outrageous Okonna (starring actor who didn't get the role of Riker)
A Matter of Honor
Q Who
The Emissary
The Schizoid Man


Good
The Royale (yeah, I know, but the concept of the stranded astronaut was great)
The Icarus Factor (Riker backstory)
Peak Performance

Not touching the rest

The Royale was great imo (one of my favorites of the entire series). Stylistically It was such an TOS episode in a TNG compartment!

 

[Philip Verdieck]

I'd throw "Contagion" in there somewhere. It's action-y, it's fun and gets referenced later in DS9. I can find things to recommend in every other episode, but they're generally "meh" or worse.

Ack, I forgot to read more about Contagion. The title didn't ring a bell (unlike 95% of the rest of the episodes). Its one I didn't remember originally seeing, but on rewatch I love stories about ancient advanced extinct civilizations and dealing with their technology. "You just think you're advanced".

Added to list.

 

[Bryan^H]

And for those that hate season one...'Home Soil' is my happy place regarding TNG!!!

 

[Kevin Hewell]

"The Royale" is one of the worst eps in ST history.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

And for those that hate season one...'Home Soil' is my happy place regarding TNG!!!

Based on that recommendation:
Tonight's episode: "Home Soil", from Season 1.

It reminded me a lot of the movie Arrival, in that it involved two forms of life that are complete alien to one another trying to bridge the enormous gulf between them and come to an understanding. Once the Enterprise crew understood what they were dealing with, and what the stakes were, I was riveted. The context of their negotiations, with each side capable of exterminating the other, reminded me a lot of the Cold War doctrine of mutually assured destruction.

It also reminded me of something the first season did well: Not sending the captain on away missions. It's naval command 101, that the captain stays with his ship. If the captain's on the away mission and things go sideways, the ship didn't just fail in its mission, it's also lost its captain. He's the least expendable person on the ship, and so he's the last person who should be taking unnecessary risks. Over time, the series succumbed to the understandable dramatic desire of having its star drive the action. But I appreciate the effort early on to get right this aspect of what real starship standard operating procedures would require.

The only thing that didn't work for me was the mystery over what's going on down on the planet, and who killed the water engineer. By the end of the episode, the show wants us to think that the director of the terraforming operation wasn't such a bad guy, just too focused on his project to see the bigger picture. But I don't buy that; if he didn't know that the flashing lights involved some form of life, then why be so worried about the Enterprise's visit? It would have played better for me if he had known that they were a form of life, but wasn't willing to compromise his vision for what this seemingly sterile rock could become.

Season	Episodes Revisited
1	3, 8-9, 14, 16-18, 25-26
2	2, 7, 11-13, 15
3	6, 11
4	3, 12, 14-16
5	2, 5, 7-9, 12-14, 22-26
6	1, 5-6, 13, 18-19
7	7, 9, 12-13, 16, 18

 

[Sam Favate]

This one was enjoyable but was a bit too similar to The Devil in the Dark, one of the foundational episodes of Star Trek.

 

[Jason_V]

Ugly Bags of Mostly Water...

I mean, that's not wrong.