The Next Generation 2x8 "A Matter of Honor"

rating: ****

Memory Alpha summary

via Mission Log Podcast
This is literally the point at which
Riker is extremely glad
he grew that beard.

Next Generation, for the first time, truly becomes something great.  And oddly enough, even though it's with a Klingon episode, it's not Worf who gets the spotlight but Riker.

"A Matter of Honor" is all about a clash of civilizations.  Riker serves as an exchange officer aboard a Klingon vessel, and it's the first time Klingon culture is really explored, not in the vague terms and in fact questionable presentation that had been typical for Worf previously (with the possible exception of "Heart of Glory;" later Deep Space Nine episodes featuring Klingons owe a huge debt to "Honor"), or the conniving villains featured in the original series and movies (with the obvious exception of the later Undiscovered Country).

It works extremely well for the Klingons, obviously, but also for Riker.  This is the first time he's really relevant as a character, and it helps set him further apart not only from Picard but Kirk, who was obviously used as a pattern (as was Decker from The Motion Picture).  And yes, I think having the beard helped give him the needed edge.

Less successful is the second series appearance of the Benzite species, visually unique but ultimately a failure given how alien they were (strange to say, right?).  The whole subplot is one big advertisement for how they ended up failing worse, more or less, than the original version of the Ferengi.  It's bad when Riker fits in better with the Klingons than the Benzite exchange officer does aboard the Enterprise.

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

Diana Muldaur

Colm Meaney

Brian Thompson

The Next Generation 2x7 "Unnatural Selection"

rating: **

Memory Alpha summary

via CBS
"Number One, we need to make Dr. Pulaski
even less likable.  Suggestions?"
"That's easy.  Make her even more old."
"Make it so."

Like "The Deadly Years" before it and other episodes later, all with clever excuses as to why the trope is being used again (such as an alien screwing with Dr. Bashir in the Deep Space Nine effort "Distant Voices," or simply having a look at what the characters look like in the future, most cleverly executed, because they actually recast him, with Jake Sisko in "The Visitor" from the aforementioned series), "Unnatural Selection" as a title translates to "premature aging."  

It is better than "Too Short a Season" from a season earlier (which features the rare but not unheard-of de-aging trick, also seen in the animated series entry "The Counter-Clock Incident"), so there's that.  (Next Generation loved old-age make-up so much it was actually featured twice more, "Man of the People" and "All Good Things...," and another that doesn't quite go that far, "Future Imperfect."  Yeah.  To its credit, after "Too Short," it really couldn't be done worse.)  

And the crux of the story is poor Dr. Pulaski being the only main character stuck rapid-aging.  It's somewhat sad, because this counts as her big shot at doing something medical-related, being her only spotlight episode, and it ends up not being particularly flattering, says nothing about her, and...wait, is this the reason no one talks about Dr. Pulaski?  Other than, y'know, as that attempt to duplicate McCoy?  Except she really wasn't.  She was a terrific shot in the arm for the series, and I'll always argue that it would have been better to acknowledge that she existed.  But her relationship with Data would always be problematic.  McCoy and Spock they weren't.  Pulaski just didn't get Data.  The fact that she was not prominently featured in "Measure of a Man" is telling.

Anyway, the character the episode does serve well is O'Brien.  This is actually the first time he really emerges as someone notable, rather than merely the guy who keeps showing up, which is to say when he stops being someone like Kyle from the original series and quite literally makes a name for himself (seriously, even though O'Brien debuted in the first episode of the series, "Encounter at Farpoint," "Unnatural Selection" is when he gets a name).  

Which is to say, if you want to watch this episode for any particular reason, it's probably for O'Brien's sake.

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

Diana Muldaur

Colm Meaney

The Next Generation 2x6 "The Schizoid Man"

rating: *

Memory Alpha summary

via Star Trek
This brief glimpse of Bearded Data
is probably more noteworthy
than the rest of the episode.

"The Schizoid Man" is essentially the best the season could do with Data until "The Measure of a Man," an instant all-time classic.  You can see the tiny connecting pieces from "Schizoid," derived from the earlier "Datalore," that lead to "Measure," but the best that can be said of "Schizoid" is that it's a gimmicky episode that's outclassed in much of what it attempts to be by the later "Inheritance" (in which we meet Data's "mother") and even "Silicon Avatar" (in which Data's ability to hold multiple memories comes is explored).

All of which is to say, it's somewhat painfully simplistic.  In the full context of Data's adventures, it's even ridiculous, given how reductive it is about his functioning, about exactly what the scientist in "Measure" thinks of him before Picard successfully argues otherwise.

So, some ornery old dude downloads his consciousness into Data, and the crew has to figure this out.  Actually, it's very much "Datalore" all over again, with a guy claiming to be Data's "grandfather."  And so the episode is a light walk through who and what Data is supposed to be like.  If it had been done later in the series, when there was a much more firm grasp of everything, perhaps this is a story that could have worked.  But as it is, it doesn't.  Best to pretty much forget it.  As a touchstone to where the series and Data were at this point, it's indicative of all the wrong things, but it's still somewhat fascinating to consider, that things that seem so obvious now could be so badly misread.  So you can watch this one, I won't say you shouldn't, but you should be aware that this is hardly Next Generation at its best.  Not its worst, because there are plenty of episodes from the preceding season that amply demonstrate that (and later ones that are certainly head-scratchers).  Just, approach with caution.

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

Suzie Plakson

Diana Muldaur

W. Morgan Sheppard

The Next Generation 2x5 "Loud as a Whisper"

rating: **

Memory Alpha summary

via Trekcore
I really should ask Sarek if mind melds
can distribute hair follicles, too...

"Loud as a Whisper" is both hugely important and an artifact from the developing Next Generation as it was in its second season.

So let's explain that.  "Whisper" is basically the first time the series embraces what would later become one of its defining characteristics, the idea of Picard and his mission being more of diplomacy than action.  Yet the lead character is a guest character, making it a somewhat awkward note to start on.  That the character is deaf is almost the whole thrust of the story, but he needs the same kind of support Picard later amply demonstrates in the much more memorable "Sarek."

Technically, it's Troi who helps the guy, and in a general sense, you can think of "Whisper" as a Troi episode, but I don't think anyone would hold it against you if you didn't.  The third cast member with something notable to speak of is La Forge, who's informed by Dr. Pulaski that he can exchange his VISOR for ocular implants.  In that sense, "Whisper" is for La Forge in the movies what "Descent" is for Data in the movies, the seed of an idea later executed somewhat belatedly, the answer to a character feature that remained static in the series despite the occasional nod to how things could just as easily be different.  And this is actually a somewhat throwaway moment in the episode!

I hesitate to recommend the episode too strongly because although it's certainly notable for any number of reasons, what you feel about it ultimately depends on whether or not you sympathize with the guest character or end up annoyed with him.  Both are possible.  And the story, really, would have been so much more notable had it been the first time Picard dips his toes in diplomacy.

But this is very much a series in transition.

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

Colm Meaney

Diana Muldaur

The Next Generation 2x4 "The Outrageous Okona"

rating: **

Memory Alpha summary

via The Movie Blog;
the scary part of this image is that it makes Okona look
like adult Wil Wheaton

Okona could have become Next Generation's Harry Mudd.  (He could also have been the show's Han Solo.)  But then the series became known for things from the second season such as introducing the Borg ("Q Who?") and "The Measure of a Man," and then the third season convinced everyone that the series was good after all, and so the collective memory of the first two seasons became very hazy at best, and that's all you need to know about Okona.

Because in execution, Okona, a charming rogue, is about as brilliantly executed as the rest of Next Generation's attempts to be "edgy."  (Best execution: Ro Laren.  But then, she was once de-aged.  And then Kira became the better Bajoran.  Which is all kinds of ironic.)  That is to say, Okona is kind of the symbol of what Next Generation is when you take away every other possible definition: kind of soft shoe.  Kind of...soft in general.  (Come see Worf!  The easiest-to-defeat tough guy ever!)

None of which is to say you shouldn't watch "The Outrageous Okona."  It's an episode that could have had far greater significance if the series had developed any other way than it did.  But in the end, Okona has about as much impact out of the episode as he does in it: Data steals the show trying to be funny.

So yeah.  What ends up being memorable in an episode that tries to do something very, very different for the series is a competing element, one that explores part of what was Data's original premise: an android that wishes to be more human.  Because really, as much as this is said about Data, the most that was ever really done with this gimmick was in the later movies.  That's kind of weird, right?

Sounds like an episode to rediscover, right?  

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

Billy Campbell

Joe Piscopo

Whoopi Goldberg
Teri Hatcher

The Next Generation 2x3 "Elementary, Dear Data"

rating: ***

Memory Alpha summary

via Star Trek; and no one in this picture looks odd at all!

Not the essential Moriarty episode (that would be the later "Ship in a Bottle"), but his debut is certainly noteworthy, too.

"Elementary, Dear Data" could have been one in a series of franchise experiences randomly name-checking famous historical and/or fictional things, and it could have been one in a series of franchise experiences randomly featuring a transporter and/or holodeck malfunction, but...

It becomes something else entirely.  The holodeck is challenged to give Data a worthy rival.  Since he is playing the part of Sherlock Holmes at the time, the creation takes the form of Holmes' arch-rival Professor Moriarty.  But then this Moriarty literally takes on a life of his own.

Predating the historic "Measure of a Man," which discussed the substance of Data's own artificial life, as well as the matter of a different remarkable hologram entirely, Voyager's Doctor, the creation and predicament of Moriarty, a self-aware construct, "Elementary" marks a considerable development in the season's efforts to find the heart of Next Generation, exploring not only the show's characters, but finding something entirely unique for the series as a whole.

What could easily have been a gimmick episode easily forgotten not only becomes something special very quickly, but is later followed up with an even better episode.  What more do you want me to say about it?  Best of all it not only serves Data extremely well, but is perhaps the best example of Dr. Pulaski's true legacy.  Without her, Moriarty would not exist.

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

Diana Muldaur
Daniel Davis

The Next Generation 2x2 "Where Silence Has Lease"

rating: *

Memory Alpha summary

via IO9; oh, don't be so surprised;
you're wearing a red shirt, aren't you?

"Where Silence Has Lease" is one of those episodes that has such a thoroughly convoluted title, that's practically all you need to know about it, one of the rare instances outside of the original series and Deep Space Nine where they were trying to be all poetic about it...and failed miserably.

As for the episode itself, it's about as remarkable as its title, a general excursion with one of Star Trek's favorite tropes, an alien being who has no idea what it's like to be human, and so sets about trying to figure that out.  Except the whole episode is more or less the crew being screwed around with in exactly the way Q would do it, without Q, and by the end such a poor replacement that you can't help but feel ripped off.  And that's how most fans tend to think about the episode, and as such it's thoroughly a member of the first-and-second season club of Next Generation.  It's not terrible (except the underwhelming way the alien in question is eventually presented visually), and in fact has a few character moments that try to be insightful (one of Riker's funniest moments occurs here, in which he overenthusiastically confirms that he wants to end the ship's self-destruct sequence; Worf, meanwhile, has far less convincing material more or less thrown his way, as in with the majority of his material from this point in the series), and so I offer a tepid recommendation.  Just know that this is hardly the series at its best.

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

Colm Meaney

Diana Muldaur

The Next Generation 2x1 "The Child"

rating: ***

Memory Alpha summary

via Star Trek; looks a lot like my nephew Julian, actually

After a sometimes abysmal first season, Next Generation was determined to switch things up.  The series became a wide success after the changes made for the third season, but the second season deserves far more credit than it usually gets for everything it did, and "The Child" introduces all of them.

Riker's beard, by the way, is by far the least significant one, even if it became a signature of the character.

Introduced, for instance, are Whoopi Goldberg's mysterious bartender Guinan and Diana Mulder's Dr. Pulaski.  Replacing Dr. Crusher for the duration of the season, Pulaski became known by the fans as "the female Bones," but she represented a new and more mature dynamic, something that to that point in the series Picard had failed to accomplish.  Of the two, Pulaski receives more attention, and right away starts in on one of her signatures, a contentious relationship with Data that led all the way to "The Measure of a Man," the episode that defined the nature of his android existence, something Pulaski routinely questioned.

With the departure of Dr. Crusher, her son Wesley took on new significance as well, making official his as-yet unofficial status as Starfleet prodigy-in-residence, dialing down the more annoying aspects of the character in favor of a more directed approach at what was to become his yearning path to adulthood.  In the absence of his mother, the whole ship adopts Wesley, and in turn he helps symbolize the turning of the crew into more of a family.

Speaking of which..."The Child" as a title refers to none of these aspects but rather an offspring Troi unexpectedly has, an accelerated pregnancy and life that was later echoed-of-a-sort in Deep Space Nine's "The Abandoned" and Enterprise's "Similitude" as well as, basically, the whole concept of the Ocampa (as in Kes) in Voyager.  The experience helps Troi and Riker revisit their relationship, gives Troi the most work she's had since "Skin of Evil" (actually the first time in the whole series where she's had a positive experience despite the obvious complications), and does some fancy footwork over an old franchise trope, so that you don't even have to care too much that the trope even exists in the episode (alien species wants to know what it's like to be human).

It's the rare episode that spends most of its time visiting with the characters and giving token nods to the more traditional storytelling style of Star Trek.  In a lot of ways, it presages how Deep Space Nine would eventually operate on a near-full time basis, sets up modern Star Trek as a whole, and helps begin the process of making Next Generation, you know, actually watchable.  I don't want to say it's a classic, but "The Child" is certainly a step in the right direction for the series, and in that sense its worth is immeasurable.

four quarter analysis

franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars:

Diana Mulder

Whoopi Goldberg

Colm Meaney