The Next Generation 3x9 "The Vengeance Factor"

*

This would be one of those generic Next Generation episodes that proves that although the third season was basically the start of the series as fans know it, it's not the best of all possible seasons.  It can sometimes be all but forgettable.

"The Vengeance Factor" is one of many, many episodes from the series where our crew is asked to mediate a conflict between warring factions.  There were so many of these, it's surprising that none of the movies were really about it, but perhaps not surprising that its only nominal spin-off, Deep Space Nine based a part of its premise on the concept.

Unfortunately, there's not a lot to distinguish this one from the rest of them.  There are even episodes from other series that are exactly like it but more memorable, "Battle Lines" from DS9 for instance, and that's just because it features the unexpected death of a recurring character.

Actually, if there's anything to talk about with this variation, it's that "Vengeance Factor" is one of Next Generation's periodic attempts to represent Riker as a Kirk kind of guy, who becomes involved with the female guest just because he's male and she's female.  Of course, most of Riker's such relationships turn out miserable, even worse than Tucker's in Enterprise (and that's saying something!), and this one is no exception.  But it's not even prominent enough to make too much of.  It does tie into the resolution, but it leaves no real lasting impression, just another part of the unhappy ending.

That may be what you can best take away from the episode, its ambiguity.  Star Trek can sometimes be stereotyped as fairly black-and-white.  Heroes are pretty obviously heroes and villains are pretty obviously villains.  DS9, again, was an exception to this rule, but Next Generation helped set that tone more than fans might sometimes admit.  If nothing else, "Vengeance Factor" is one such experience to prove such an assertion.

So there you have it.  You can probably skip this one, but it wouldn't hurt to have a look.

franchise * series * essential * character

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 3x8 "The Price"

***

Fans got an unexpected sequel to "The Price" in Voyager's "False Prophets," but the real common denominator is The Next Generation finally figuring out a better way to present the Ferengi after their all-but-disastrous debut in the first season, not quite to the nuanced portrayal in Deep Space Nine, but respectable.

The occasion (and reason why Voyager could revisit the Ferengi featured here) is discussions concerning an artificial wormhole, the appearance itself helping years in advance to set up another defining feature of DS9.  Representatives of various species gather aboard the Enterprise for the rights to the wormhole.

Interestingly, the episode apart from its enduring legacy is a fairly standard Next Generation affair, featuring the crew deep in negotiations as happens frequently elsewhere in the series (previously Kirk did a lot of his negotiations not with his mouth but fists).  Troi gets the nominal lead when one of the participants turns out to be part-Betazoid, but he's hidden this aspect of himself so he can exploit his empathic abilities.  Riker gets to step up as well during the course of the episode.

Yet it's the weaselly Ferengi, always in search of profit and willing to do anything to get it, that steal the episode.  They end up making the trip through the ultimately unstable wormhole, ending up in the Delta Quadrant where "False Prophets" later catches up with them.  Before that, although not particularly likable they're more memorable than even the Ferengi who was at one point considered Picard's mortal enemy.  This is exactly how you picture Ferengi in the field, twitchy and duplicitous but probably ineffective, because they work best in far better-defined financial territory.  Watching them flounder in "The Price" is enough to establish a firm new context for the species, and it's one that endures.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Colm Meaney

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 3x7 "The Enemy"

**

"The Enemy" is incredibly similar to a number of episodes in franchise lore, all of them basically inspired by the movie Enemy Mine.  One of ours ended up having to survive on a planet with one of theirs, a "good guy" and "bad guy" working together.  It has another subplot that's also been used multiple times, a medical dilemma concerning one character not willing to help as another is dying simply because their species are or have been blood enemies.  Also, it's basically "Balance of Terror" from the original series as well.

So there's a lot going on, and most of it ends up with Three Stooges Syndrome, stuck in the doorway because none of the three wants to give way to the others.

But what you may take as a unifying element is that it's a Romulan episode, and Next Generation is generally good for these.  This one's just disturbingly generic about it.  The franchise itself probably realized that when it kept trying to redo some of its elements in later series.  Sometimes it's because a story is good.  Sometimes it's because the story could be better.

The hero of the first element is La Forge, and this is mostly relevant because the Romulan he's trapped with ends up noting that his kind would have ended La Forge's life after it was discovered that he was blind.  Being blind tends to dominate La Forge's character, when necessary.  It's seen as a handicap, except when it isn't.  In this same episode his VISOR is an asset, a great piece of technology that allows innovative solutions to problems.

Worf is the subject of the next element.  His parents were murdered by Romulans.  He refuses to donate blood that would save one in the present.  It's Worf being controversial, much as he would be in the Deep Space Nine episode "Change of Heart," making a decision that could adversely affect his career.  This time he gets off much easier.  Next time he's told he will never advance in rank again.  Half of this is Worf being Worf, but you can't help feeling that it's because he's Klingon and the writers think it's easier for an alien to get away with this and not seem like a monster (although in DS9 he's saving his wife Jadzia), regardless of Klingon honor.  I don't know.  It's an odd episode to reconcile on that score alone.

"The Enemy" also features the debut of Tomalak, a faintly recurring Romulan played by Andreas Katsulas, later to become famous as G'Kar in Babylon 5.  Part of me wishes that the episode had downplayed the other elements and played more like an updated "Balance of Terror," a duel between Tomalak and Picard.  Would fans have been upset?  I doubt it.  Well, probably.  Star Trek fans are rabid.  (Though I personally don't bite.)

All of this means that "The Enemy" is an episode well worth watching, but how much you care to remember it depends on how much you care about these particular characters having these moments that happen again to others.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Andreas Katsulas
Colm Meaney

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 3x6 "Booby Trap"

**

Geordi La Forge had the unfortunate task of following in the footsteps of a miracle-worker.  When he finally became chief engineer of the Enterprise, La Forge could only be compared to Scotty, who made keeping starships together seem like the biggest emergencies that could only be solved by his quick wits and dedication.  What could La Forge possibly offer in response?

Well, for starters he would always be one of the most visually unique characters in Star Trek.  For some reason Next Generation was full of that.  The bald captain.  The gold android.  The dude with the ridged forehead.  And then there was Geordi, who wore a banana clip over his eyes, giving the blind man the ability to see.  It wasn't until the last three movies that he finally lost his distinctive VISOR, but moreso than being chief engineer, it was this element that made La Forge stand out.

Eventually he formed a tight friendship with Data, but La Forge was better known for his unusual alienation.  It's not that he was a loner, but that his physical handicap, no matter how expertly it was eventually corrected, made La Forge less comfortable with other people than is usual for Star Trek.  The area where this was most obvious, and the episode that makes it stand out the most, was Geordi's relationship with women, as defined by "Booby Trap."

Unlike Scotty, La Forge was a more hands-on engineer.  He helped make it seem more down-to-earth.  Yet he couldn't work miracles.  He needed help.  So he turns to a holographic representation of a brilliant Starfleet engineer, and falls in love with it.  He certainly believes that it's the engineer herself, but it's really the version of her that he's helped create.  It's not quite Reg Barclay, but it's Geordi La Forge in a nutshell.  He's the guy who loves people and technology, but perhaps best when they're in the same form.  He and Data were the original platonic bromance, after all.

Most of the story is pretty generic Star Trek, coming across a derelict ship with a problem our crew must figure out.  It's how the characters, especially La Forge, are brought to their best instincts around it that distinguishes "Booby Trap."  It's another way of acknowledging that Next Generation is more cerebral than its predecessor, and that its characters have more depth.  On this occasion the beneficiary is La Forge.  Also worth noting are some key character tidbits for supporting characters Guinan and O'Brien.  It's funny, because each of these three characters have the elements of this episode revisited in some form or another.  Guinan talks about being saved by a "bald man" (referring to Picard, and to "Time's Arrow"), while O'Brien building ships in bottles is referenced amusingly in the final episode.  This whole episode is revisited for La Forge in "Galaxy's Child."  Little bits of continuity, probably, but still lightyears ahead of what the original series used to do.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Susan Gibney
Colm Meaney
Whoopi Goldberg

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 3x5 "The Bonding"

*

"The Bonding" has a somewhat awkward legacy constantly working against it.  It's not the only time a Next Generation main character bonds with a young boy who's just experienced the loss of his family. Here I'm not even thinking of Alexander.  I thinking, rather of "Hero Worship" from the fifth season, in which another boy bonds with (and imitates) Data.  In this instance, you can absolutely not compete with Data.  Sorry, Worf.

Actually, there's a nice redemptive element, regardless of whether or not you end up unfavorably comparing it to another episode.  Various members of the main cast get to reflect on losses they themselves have experienced.  Wesley is one of them.  Sometimes it can be easy to forget that his father Jack plays an important part of Next Generation mythology, because he's dead by the start of the series, and Wesley himself is usually defined by just about every other element of his character.  Tasha Yar is brought up, perhaps in anticipation of her unexpected return later in the season.  And of course Worf, who lost his parents when he, too, was a boy.  That's what the episode ultimately pivots around, Picard asking Worf to watch over the boy, which Worf takes to mean basically inducting him into Klingon culture and his own family.  Worf's relationship with all things Klingon (it being alien to Starfleet, and him being alien to his own people, even though like Spock before him he became an iconic representation of the people who rejected him) could sometimes seem a little forced, and "The Bonding" is one such example.  It didn't have to have anything to do with being Klingon, but then, it's also an episode that fans can point to in the development of Klingon culture (not surprising, because this is Ronald D. Moore's breakthrough, and his work in Star Trek became known for his Klingon material), so if you like that and don't necessarily care how it happens, you'll probably enjoy "The Bonding" for that alone.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Colm Meaney

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 3x4 "Who Watches the Watchers?"

**

This is a definite Prime Directive episode.  Like Insurrection, "Who Watches the Watchers?" features a Federation survey team that goofs and the exposure of its existence causes a huge problem.

Although visually perhaps the most notable thing about the episode is that it features primitive Vulcans (although the forehead ridges makes them seem like primitive Romulans, which is pretty much the same thing, but still).  Although nothing relevant is made of this fact, it's still nice to see a little bit of continuity, the wider shadow of one of Star Trek's best known alien races once again being cast.

This is the one where Picard is mistaken for a god (it happens!) and to prove otherwise he allows himself to be shot by an arrow, an event that still stands as one of the more memorable pieces of action from the series.  Yes, it's incredibly simple, but that's just the kind of show Next Generation was.  For his efforts, Picard receives a tapestry that remains draped on the back of the chair in his ready room for the rest of the series.

Although not a true standout otherwise, "Who Watches" remains for me a signature episode from the early part of the third season.  It can be a little annoying, because any time Star Trek features primitive aliens it tends to overdo it, especially when attempting to deal with matters like gods and advanced technology.  The primitive aliens tend to cower, or react violently.  It's always the same.  Maybe that's how people really are.  Maybe Star Trek just likes to simplify it.  Still, fun to watch.  The Vulcan (or Romulan) haircut is maintained by these guys, as if it somehow grows that way, although it's not neatly trimmed (because they're primitive!).

In this instance, no matter what you think of Insurrection (which is also similar to the seventh season episode "Homeward"), it's the better of the two to be considered here.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Ray Wise

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 3x3 "The Survivors"

**

To my mind, this is where the third season really begins.  On the surface it doesn't have much more creative worth than its two predecessors.  I would never argue that it's a classic per say, but it's just more fun to watch, and Next Generation simply became more fan to watch once it finally figured itself out, which is what the third season is all about.

Like an episode of the original series, our crew encounters a situation that isn't what it seems, a couple of odd individuals who don't much care for visitors, and yet the more our crew pushes them, the closer they get to the startling truth.  It's a formula that works so well plenty of other episodes from across the franchise liberally borrow from it in the years to come.

"The Survivors" also features (if you don't particularly mind a spoiler) another original series staple, a god-like being with its own ideas of morality, which turns an good story into an interesting one.  As is usual, Next Generation does an established franchise trope with more nuance.

If you click the "Star Trek A-to-Z" link above, you'll also see that I've got a tiny obsession with the character Kevin Uxbridge's wardrobe, with is another reason why the episode remains memorable for me despite not having any particular relevance to the series or its cast (which are usually the ways to my heart).

On the one hand, I'm trying to be subjective about "The Survivors" and on the other, I know this is a personal favorite.  I'll give the theoretically uninitiated the benefit of the doubt and assume that you won't necessarily share the exact interests I have.  It's still a good one to at least sample for existing and budding fans of the series.

franchise * series * essential * character

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 3x2 "The Ensigns of Command"

*

To my mind, this is the most anonymous episode of Next Generation's third season.  Maybe it's because I didn't see it (or don't remember seeing it) when I originally saw the rest of the episodes (in second run syndication) or because the the title "The Ensigns of Command" is basically hugely confusing, because you'd assume it'd have something to do with ensigns in Starfleet...and it doesn't.

(Apparently it comes from a poem, "The Wants of Man."  Just so you know.)

It's a patented Next Generation version of a typical original series episode, in which inhabitants of a world have to deal with a huge transition.  "Patented Next Generation" means that it's our crew doing a little more diplomacy than Kirk would have, because Kirk was a man of action whereas Picard's crew was more cerebral, more willing to look at the nuances of a situation (although admittedly Kirk faced nuance in a big way at least in "Balance of Terror").  Otherwise you could skip this episode and not really notice.

The part that brings you back is that this is still early in the series when it finally started feeling like itself.  Structurally it's built around Data, figuring out some small ways to grow in his journey to become more human.  Here it's about his violin playing, which remains a lingering focus of his character for the remainder of the series.  The teaser, which became an artform for Next Generation, is perhaps one notable aspect of the episode, kicking off the violin thing, which is brought back at the conclusion (something later teasers didn't need to be effective).

Still, there are far more notable episodes later in the season, and better interpretations of this same basic plot.  Watch because it's watchable, but otherwise don't worry too much about it.  Data, the series and the season have much more interesting things elsewhere.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Colm Meaney

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 3x1 "Evolution"

**

The third season of Next Generation kicks off with an episode that anyone from this moment forward would find very familiar, in some ways a template of what the franchise and not just the series would be like from this moment forward.  It's also the start of the series finally looking like the one you remember, and as it would look for the remaining five seasons (including this one).

Aside from uniforms and characters now falling into sync with history, "Evolution" is a classic ship-malfunctioning episode, which engages the whole crew (in the original series it would simply have been Scotty trying to work a miracle, or Tribbles turning up in inappropriate places), which in some ways is very similar to what the previous two seasons had featured, but as with everything else it seems completely fresh, like seeing it for the first time.  We've also got a patented Federation scientist acting as a kind of foil to our cast of regulars, not being nearly as philosophically ideal as Picard and company, although he does wonder for one of two Crushers in the spotlight.

The one I'm thinking about is Wesley, the resident boy wonder, who is thrust into the spotlight right from the start of the episode, which takes a casual approach to the bold new era about to begin.  He's asleep, pushing himself hard to achieve the results he and everyone else expects from him.  This in itself is a marked contrast to the Wesley from the first season, who never seemed to have to work at anything (except the curious interlude featured in "Coming of Age").  He's starting to feel like a real boy!  But his temporary friend cautions him that the bright future he indeed has in front of him has a great deal more complications than he might expect.

It's not hard to see the writers treating the whole episode as an acknowledgment that they know as well as the rest of us that a momentous occasion has come, but that this is no time to rest on laurels.

The other Crusher, naturally, is Beverly, the resident doctor in six of seven seasons.  It's still odd to think that she was absent during the second season, but "Evolution" marks her return, and even briefly acknowledges the lapse in continuity that would never happen again in franchise lore (once a cast member always a cast member, unless you leave, and then you're pretty much gone for good).  It's another bit of continuity that would never have happened in the original series.  In fact, a lot of "Evolution" is about the Crusher family.  It's everything that the first season never really did, so is another sign that the third season is all but a reboot of the whole series, which in some ways it might as well be.  Beverly spends a lot of time reflecting on Wesley's future, about his life in general.  It's a rare family moment for the two, but then, the whole season breathes new life into the greater Next Generation family.

Lest you think the Borg are not already on the mind of the series that by the end of the season would make history with "The Best of Both Worlds," know that your friendly neighborhood Collective is indeed referenced at the start of it.

The most appropriate aspect of the episode, however, is the fact that "Evolution" is in many ways a redo of one of the show's own previous episodes, "Home Soil" from the first season, featuring artificial intelligence arising and taking everyone by surprise.  As I indicated in my review of that episode, "Evolution" is better, more subtle.  Although Picard comfortably assumes the moral high ground in the matter, it's really Wesley who has the most significance in the matter.  Curiously enough Data, the android whose very existence was challenged in the second season classic "The Measure of a Man," doesn't play much of a role here.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Ken Jenkins
Whoopi Goldberg

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x26 "The Neutral Zone"

**

Like "Space Seed" and "The 37s," "The Neutral Zone" features humans awakened from cryonic sleep being completely outmatched by the greater story around them.  In this instance, it's the return of the Romulans and the first tangible evidence of the Borg.

It is a little odd that Star Trek kept doing the cryonic sleep trope, but there you are.  I guess the batch in this episode are interesting enough, how they try to reconcile their memories with what they find in the future, but it's a first season episode of Next Generation, and as such it's always at the back of your mind that the series probably would have done this better and more memorably later.

The real story is the Romulans.  Slightly less so than the Klingons, they were a featured element of the original series, and not just because they were basically the evil cousins of the Vulcans.  Unlike the Klingons, however, Romulans were never a significant part of the first six films (or seven or eight or nine, but they totally dominate the tenth and eleventh!).  Their appearance in "The Neutral Zone" is the first of many subsequent appearances in the franchise after this point.  They would become a signature species of Next Generation, actually.

Unfortunately, this appearance isn't much more notable than being that first appearance.  Most of the story is dominated by those cryonic folk.  The Romulans don't have much more of a role than the suggestion of the Borg, who have been skirting Federation space along the way toward the conquest of assimilation memorably featured in "The Best of Both Worlds."  It's basically, as one of the Romulans actually says, that they're back.  It's a calling card.

But these twin calling cards are still enough to overshadow the main story.  In fact, the title doesn't even refer to the main story, and that's pretty rare, but it's also one of the first times modern Star Trek doesn't attempt to use the same naming scheme as the original series, so there's that as well.

Just like that, however, the first season is finally over.  Ending it on this kind of note is a sign of encouragement.  While most of it is like the rest of the season, there's also the conscious effort to do something greater and more lasting, which like Data's brother Lore sticks in the later developments of the series, and while much of the season tried to establish a separate identity for this generation, returning to the Romulans and especially how the episode does it is a very good idea indeed.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Marc Alaimo

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x25 "Conspiracy"

****

If there's one episode that absolutely stands out and will forever stand out from the first season pack of Next Generation, it's "Conspiracy."  "The Big Goodbye" can keep its Dixon Hill.  "Conspiracy" has possessed Starfleet officers whose grub is actually grub, and a dude's head being blown up.  That last part really doesn't happen too often in Star Trek.

Playing off "Coming of Age" (and featuring several of the same characters), Picard and Riker make the journey to Earth in order to finally get to the bottom of things.  In a lot of ways, this is Next Generation's best ever example of an original series episode, yet it also pushes forth the serialized nature of the franchise that began in the movies and would be best featured in Deep Space Nine.  The sad part is that we never get to find out what the alien parasites are actually up to, left unresolved at the end of "Conspiracy" and never revisited.

Yet visually and conceptually it remains fascinating.  The wiggly worms that appear on the back of the neck for anyone initiated into the plot (after swallowing space beetles, naturally) are memorable enough, but the grub Riker gets to fake eating s right up there as well, as is the resolution of the problem (i.e. the exploding head).  Maybe it was because I was young when I first saw "Conspiracy," but it remains the grossest hour of Star Trek I have ever seen, and one of the true horror stories in franchise lore.

If you were wondering, all of this is still carefully nestled in the instincts of the first season.  If you're looking for Next Generation to have suddenly changed, it doesn't here.  "Conspiracy" is infinitely memorable, but it's still the series before it really got to know itself.

It's a new Star Trek classic all the same!

franchise * series * essential * character

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x24 "We'll Always Have Paris"

*

People are always remarking (at least, fans of Deep Space Nine are always remarking) that it seemed to take several seasons before Benjamin Sisko actually became a functioning character.  Well, one of the reasons that the first season of Next Generation can be so painful is that Jean-Luc Picard had the same problem.

Sure, he had backstory.  He had a previous command, lost it in battle to the then-mysterious Ferengi.  Conceptually, he was obviously supposed to be completely different from Kirk.  He was older, more cerebral, and definitely could not be mistaken for American.  (William Shatner, it might bear repeating, is actually Canadian, and so is definitely not from Iowa.)  Though Patrick Stewart is very much British, Picard was meant to be French.  It there in his name.  In initial episodes, Picard even tries to be the French equivalent of Chekov's Super Russian.  (It's not until Star Trek Nemesis were Picard technically being French is at all relevant again, besides his family interest in wine.)

"We'll Always Have Paris" is the first sign that Picard was maybe more like Kirk when he was younger than viewer might originally have suspected.  (And actually, later developments all but prove that when he was younger he was actually worse than Kirk, but we'll cross that bridge when we reach it.)  It's also an episode that again would have had a great deal more significance if the show hadn't changed or lasted quite so long.  What I'm saying is that, like Kirk in Wrath of Khan, Picard runs into an old flame, and complications ensue.

So few romantic stories were ever developed for Picard that on that score alone "Paris" will forever been in some way memorable.  It's a cheap knockoff of Casablanca (the Deep Space Nine episode "Profit and Loss" has a similar claim and is more memorable), and not very convincing as far as the Picard we know to this point, or really at any other point.

The problem is that this old flame has since very much moved on, in quite a different way than Picard. She's gotten married, and is here because of one of those Federation science projects that in a very typical way for this series goes horribly awry (the only thing that's memorable about it is when there's a bunch of Datas standing around in the same room, but "A Fistful of Datas" make a more memorable image of even that).

In the end it comes off as another attempt to pass the obviously British Picard off as French.  His brother Robert is the closest we ever come to finding out how Picard ended up the way he did.  "We'll Always Have Paris" becomes a novelty before long, an experiment that does not quite succeed.  You think you know Picard?  Well, not yet.

franchise * series * essential * character

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x23 "Skin of Evil"

****

I'm not giving this episode my full recommendation just because it's the first time since the second pilot that Star Trek saw a series regular leave (of course, famously, Spock is the only holdover from "The Cage," whereas Tasha Yar is the only regular to leave via death until Jadzia Dax), but that's certainly a good place to start.

Let's just sit with that thought for a moment.  The cast of Next Generation seemed pretty fixed by the time it reached the movies, but in truth as the final episode helped fans recall there was at the very least the notable absence of Yar, who was a huge part of the growing pains from the first season.  Denise Crosby grew dissatisfied with the lack of challenging material, although she might have recognized before anyone that the series had already outgrown her.  As certain characters (La Forge, Worf) struggled to find their useful functions, Yar was already slipping out of hers, well before her departure via Giant Oil Creature of Doom.

She's the star of one of the season's worst episodes, after all, "Code of Honor," which may have given her the unfair distinction of having been one of the reasons for its failure, although it really has nothing to do with Yar.  If it had been Riker or Picard or Crusher (a character so nebulous throughout the season that she was removed for the entire second season), maybe it would be a different story, but Riker couldn't salvage "Angel One," either, although he shined in "11001001" and got to play god in "Hide and Q."  Yar's lasting impact was a fairly throwaway moment in "The Naked Now" that became much more significant when she dies in "Skin of Evil" as Data remembers her unique contribution to his development.

Her role in this episode is just as negligible as throughout most of the rest of the season.  Though she wears yellow, Yar is all but a classic red shirt.  The episode, surprisingly, belongs to Troi.

That's the real surprise, if you haven't watched "Skin of Evil" in a while.  The title refers directly to the Giant Oil Creature of Doom, the castoff remains of all the negative elements of a long ago civilization.  Not a hugely dignified murderer of Tasha Yar, but it's Troi's interactions with it that bring true significance to this aspect of the episode.

Troi in many ways was the reverse Tasha (in fact, Marina Sirtis and Crosby were originally cast in the opposite roles).  Although she had "Haven" as a spotlight, Troi was all but absent and virtually insignificant throughout the season, even though she was the other half of Gene Roddenberry's surrogates from The Motion Picture along with Riker.  She's pegged as the most obvious element of 1980s mentality in Next Generation, the counselor on the bridge of the Enterprise, but at the start had very little to do, and her empathic abilities might be said to be pretty pathetic.

Except, finally, in "Skin of Evil" Troi pretty much gets her "Devil in the Dark" moment, very much reminiscent of the moment in the original series where Spock's Vulcan mind meld became important for the first time.  She engages in an extended conversation with the creature and is responsible for disabling it, thereby rescuing not only herself (she's trapped in a shuttlecraft the whole time) but the rest of the away team.  It's the start of the possible realization that Troi is a hidden treasure of the series, which perhaps only Voyager really appreciates later on, bringing her back in a few of the Barclay episodes.  (She's also one of the Next Generation alumni to appear in the infamous final episode of Enterprise).

There you have it, then, my explanation for how "Skin of Evil" is a new Star Trek classic.

franchise * series * essential * character

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x22 "Symbiosis"

*

I will make no bones that the basis of my recommendation for "Symbiosis" is that it features Merritt Butrick.

Who is Merritt Butrick and why should you care?  He played Kirk's son David Marcus in The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock, and as such is one of the more notable actors in the original series movies.  Part of the reason I like that he also appeared in Next Generation (though in a totally unrelated role) is that it still seems to me that the fact that Kirk had a son is still pretty unappreciated by Star Trek fans.  Butrick himself was not hugely featured in either of his movie appearances, playing at most second fiddle both times, even though he was a capable enough actor.  "Symbiosis" then becomes that much more significant, a spotlight of a different kind, not nearly as important, but featuring more breathing space for the actor, who died in 1989 from AIDS.

Otherwise this was the series at one of its early attempts at a "message" episode, something the original series helped form its reputation around and in fact became a tradition throughout the franchise.  The message in "Symbiosis" is that drugs are bad.  I tend to agree, but the message is delivered with about as much subtlety as painting an alien half white and half black, and his persecutor the same way but in reverse (that happened in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield").  Although it does give Yar a rare chance to be memorable as she discusses the subject with Wesley (and thus all young viewers).

Speaking of Yar, this is her last appearance, technically.  It was shot after the episode that follows, "Skin of Evil," which features her death.  Denise Crosby appears in the background waving goodbye at one point!

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Merritt Butrick
Judson Scott

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x21 "The Arsenal of Freedom"

*

"Arsenal of Freedom" is like a lot of Star Trek episodes, completely episodic in nature, with our crew stumbling into a problem on an alien planet and subsequently trying to figure out how to make things right.  In this instance, as the title suggests, it's all about a defense system that ran horribly awry, killing the original inhabitants of the planet and imperiling the unwitting Starfleet officers who reactivate it.  Like a lot of stories in the franchise, the episode in essence demonstrates a deep ambivalence to weapons of war.

Thankfully, it's an episode that you can easily enjoy, just so long as you know exactly that it still represents the first season of Next Generation, generally inferior to the rest of the series (and franchise).  "Arsenal" is generally enjoyable, so it's not hard to recommend, at least at a basic level.

The selling points beyond this general interest involve a few of the budding leads.  La Forge has a non-character specific spotlight when he's forced to take command when every superior officer is trapped in the quagmire on the planet's surface.  LeVar Burton, who was one of the few known commodities at the start of the series thanks to Roots, takes full advantage of the opportunity, and it's a treat to watch him dominate for a change.

Otherwise it's the abortive relationship between Picard and Crusher that helps distinguish the episode.  Always a vague element of their backstory as well as their present (they previously served together, until Crusher's husband was killed on an away mission, which strangely never really gave Picard a definitive sense of responsibility over Wesley Crusher) is the romance that never quite happened.  In fact, "Arsenal" was pegged to address this more directly, but apparently Gene Roddenberry nixed that idea in the bud.  But they still have that shared history, something that already gave Next Generation more continuity than its predecessor, which preferred to keep most personal details strictly private for its characters.  To varying levels, this new series featured characters incredibly rich with pasts, especially its captain, notably older than Kirk at the start of our acquaintance with him.

Of course, the entire second season completely ignores Picard and Crusher's relationship, because Crusher has been temporarily replaced, and this can't help but feel like Roddenberry's further attempt to distance Next Generation from what it was already becoming, and what further incarnations enthusiastically embraced.  Then again, even having an entirely new set of characters in the Star Trek universe already gave the budding franchise something it didn't have before, a defined history.  "Next generation," after all, wasn't just a title, but an indication that Picard followed Kirk and therefore they definitely exist in the same universe.

Anyway, that's what "Arsenal of Freedom" both does and doesn't do.  It also features another of this Enterprise's random chief engineers, which makes it pretty ironic that La Forge has one of his most prominent moments to this point in the series, because he would soon enough assume that title.  It's still strange to think that he was ever anything but Scotty's successor.

Also of note is Riker's famous quip when he realizes he's talking to a doppelganger, about serving aboard what he calls the USS Lollipop: "It's a good ship."  Such sly humor from Number One...

franchise * series * essential * character

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x20 "Heart of Glory"

*

This is another classic bit of the Next Generation first season producing what could have been a lasting standout, if the series hadn't drastically improved.

Even though a Klingon (Worf) had been standing on the bridge since the first episode, "Heart of Glory" is the first time the show heavily features this famous Star Trek species.  It's also the first episode to use Klingons and allow them to be, act, and end up like Klingons (unlike the two original series appearances where a forced peace occurred at the end, and the one where their mortal enemy turned out to be Tribbles).  In short, it's probably the first true franchise episode of the series, and in a roundabout way is the genesis of Deep Space Nine, the only series to rely almost exclusively on details the audience already knows (with the notable exception of the Dominion).

This is no doubt a legacy of the movies.  The movies gave a lot more to the franchise than fans sometimes realize.  Not only did the Klingons gain their distinctive forehead ridges (thereby giving birth to all the forehead aliens in Star Trek), but they became recurring elements with lasting consequences, including the reason Kirk got his happy demotion back to captain.

Worf's backstory is the real lasting achievement from the episode.  It's still surprising that Yar didn't receive something similar at some point (perhaps it would have happened had Denise Crosby not left, perhaps with far more dignity than the later "Legacy").  Sure, it was probably part of the series bible, and so "Heart of Glory" or not would have eventually been brought up, and that's part of the reason I give only minimal support to the episode.

It's still memorable.  The Klingon death howl is introduced, and for the moment is a hugely significant feature of the society that is just being built around these aliens who are slowly becoming more than just a constant thorn in the side of the Federation.  There are more memorable Klingon episodes later in the series, and Enterprise would later feature this kind of kid gloves approach to the Empire (heck, the Bajorans in DS9 are very similar to the Klingons here).  At the time this was a very big moment.  And it remains one, but its impact has been muted over the years.

Certainly watch it, either as a fan of Worf or Klingons in general.  Just know there's better material on the horizon, as with the rest of the season.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Vaughn Armstrong
Dennis Madalone

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x19 "Coming of Age"

**

"Coming of Age" is definitely another artifact from the first season of Next Generation, but it's one of the first signs that this era of Star Trek would ultimately be definitively different from the original series.

It's also a pretty odd one. There are two halves of this episode to consider.  I'm making this statement about one of them.  The lead story concerns Wesley taking the Starfleet Academy entrance exam.  When I say "odd," I mean that Wesley has to worry about competing against other potential cadets, which is "odd" because he's been presented as the boy wonder since the start of the series, an uncommonly brilliant mind that has often upstaged veteran officers.  Why should this kid, other than to keep him around a while longer, have to sweat an exam, let alone worry about competition from others?  We're meant to understand this dilemma better when Picard admits he failed his first attempt, too, but this is juggling apples and oranges.  Regardless of what you feel about Picard at this point in the series, Wesley has already been demonstrated to be nothing like him.

Maybe some of this is an early indication, along with the Traveler from "Where No One Has Gone Before," that Wesley will not ultimately find his destiny in Starfleet.  Although, again, the presentation of this character is easily the most botched aspect of the entire series (with all due apologies to Denise Crosby, who probably still thinks Yar was), and "Coming of Age," although it can be interpreted otherwise, is both one of the worst depictions and perhaps one of the best.  It's "odd."

It does, however, allow us one of our best looks at the Benzites, who were clearly intended to be a signature alien species in this series, although they quickly disappear and never resurface, even in any of the other series.  Their blue awesomeness was clearly stolen by the Bolians.  And then back from the originals, the Andorians.

(Why so many awesome blue aliens, Star Trek?  And why do none of yours sing cosmic opera?)

The other half of this episode is a prequel to "Conspiracy," which is unarguably one of the best episodes of the first season.  That alone pulls "Coming of Age" above the stock of the first season, makes it notable viewing no matter where you stand on the general quality of the series to this point.  "Conspiracy" doesn't ultimately lead to anything else, so the developments seen here might be seen retroactively as perhaps the most fascinating development of the storyline, in which paranoid Starfleet officers (or rather, members of the conspiracy we'll explain later) start harassing each other.  A few of the characters in this episode actually reappear in "Conspiracy," making this whole episode far more serialized than just about the whole of the original series.  In short, it suddenly pays to be watching Next Generation on a regular basis, both so you care about Wesley's future and why those visiting Starfleet officers matter so much.

It's not a great episode by any means, but it's another sign that the series is really figuring itself out.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Daniel Riordan

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x18 "Home Soil"

The good news is that this is the last episode from the season that you can skip if you're so inclined.  The better news is that it's another skippable episode that is not horrible.

That's quite an accomplishment for the season, actually.  When it was bad, it was horrendous.  Mostly "Home Soil" is not essential to any particular interest because it's still very much a first season episode, and because the series changed so much later on, you always have that option, and this particular episode is so obliging it's almost a joke.

"Home Soil" concerns one of those Federation scientist teams that Next Generation featured more often than the original series (where such activity is best represented in "Devil in the Dark") stumbling into the emergence of artificial intelligence.  This happened more often than you'd think in the series, and its zenith is "Evolution" from the third season (everything's better in the third season).

Like Voyager's obsession with holograms (because of its holographic doctor, whose name is Doctor), Next Generation had an obsession with artificial intelligence, because of course Data was an android.  This is the first time the series indulges that instinct, so if you want to watch it for that alone, you certainly can.  I say you don't have to watch this one, but again it's all about prerogative.  I'm merely stating that there is no truly compelling reason to watch.  But it is also an episode that indicates the series is figuring itself out, and that's a pretty good distinction if you ask me.

franchise * series * essential * character

Memory Alpha summary.

The Next Generation 1x17 "When the Bough Breaks"

This is the kind of episode that gets lost in the shuffle when a series vastly improves.  It's another first season offering that isn't terrible but also doesn't have much to recommend itself to anyone watching Next Generation past, say, the first season.  It's also another of those vaguely original series episodes, a society that is trying to steal kids to replace their inability to conceive.

If you read that last line accurately, you may now have an idea what episode we're talking about today. It's got what was no doubt and in fact remains a very memorable title, but it's also dangerously generic, one of those phrases that probably sounded suitably poetic at a time when the series was still trying to do that, because the original series did it all the time.  But now "When the Bough Breaks" is about as noteworthy a title as it is an episode.

Anyway, the thing to take away from that closing line in the first paragraph is that it telegraphs this being a Wesley episode.  Now, this one is not a bad Wesley episode, like "Justice," but it is nonetheless a first season Wesley episode.  The boy genius is once again truncated to just the boy, and is the primary reason why anyone cares that this crazy society is doing its particular craziness.  It's also a reminder that Wesley is aboard the Enterprise because he's part of the considerable family contingent, a concept that some people still have a hard time figuring out, because they still assume that Starfleet must be a military organization just because it can and will get into scraps and sometimes outright wars.

Anyway, you can move along now.  Nothing much to see here.

franchise * series * essential * character

Notable guest-stars:
Jerry Hardin

Memory Alpha summary.