The Next Generation 5x11 "Hero Worship"

rating: *

the story: To deal with his pain, a boy starts pretending he's an android like Data.

what it's all about: This is one of those episodes that sounds really good in theory, and in fact is a fairly decent, warm-and-fuzzy one to watch, too, but conceptually is so much like "The Bonding" from a few seasons earlier, you kind of half to wonder why it even exists.

In fact, it's hard to think of the two as entirely separate episodes, and neither really wins in comparison.  "Bonding" features Worf taking a boy under his wing; "Hero Worship" features Data doing much the same.  There are certainly variations to be considered, but on the whole they're exactly the same.

If you have to give the edge to one of them, it'd be "Hero Worship."  The traumatized boy who loses himself in fantasy is just easier to root for, and on the whole.  While Worf's experiences reflect well on his interest in Klingon culture, there's more to say about Data when a human is trying to be like him ("Bonding" presents Worf's relationship as entirely his idea) is an ironic twist on Data's arc.

Still, this is another episode I don't particularly want to exaggerate in terms of its worth.  (When writing these reviews, I actually completely forgot to write this one up originally, which just goes to show that its duplicate nature made it seem like I'd already written it.)  You can enjoy "Hero Worship" at a very basic level, and that's it.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Move along!
• series  - The episode echoes are kind of interesting to observe.
• character - Interesting but not too interesting as a Data episode.
• essential -  You really don't have to worry about this one.

The Next Generation 5x26 "Time's Arrow, Part 1"

rating: ****

the story: Data's head is unexpectedly discovered in a cavern below San Francisco.

similar to: "Storm Front" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: Well.  Here we go: the secret origin of Guinan and Picard's relationship.  Was it worth the wait?  It's complicated...but yeah, it really is.  It just needs some special insight.

Remember Enterprise's Temporal Cold War?  That was an arc that lasted the span of the series, but ended on an incredibly ambiguous note in the fourth season two-part opener "Storm Front," in which we never find out who Future Guy is, one of the central riddles of the series.  Or do we?  I have my theories.  I believe that the alien who collaborates with the Nazis is Future Guy.  But without confirmation, it's just speculation.

"Time's Arrow" is a little like that.  Guinan is one of the trickiest characters in franchise lore.  Steeped heavily in mystery in her earliest appearances, the more we learn, the more we must decide if all that mystery was really worth it.  This is the central question of just how much was lost from the creative transition from the second to third seasons.  And it entirely hinges on "Time's Arrow."  Clearly the entire season had been leading toward it, just as Worf's in "Sins of the Father" inevitably led to "Redemption" (which itself served as a sequel to "Yesterday's Enterprise," which is what led to "Time's Arrow"...), so again, the question must be asked, Was it worth it?

Before we even get there, we have to examine what the bulk of the episode is actually about, which is an improved version of the previous "Next Phase," in which the crew once again deals with matters of mortality.  It's odd that the episode is so heavily centered on that (actually, two-part Star Trek episodes often work like that) without a lot of fan memory making much of it, but there you go, and as Data episodes go, it's a pretty good one, worthy of the finest tradition ("The Measure of a Man," for instance).

But in order to solve the mystery of what happened to him, and possibly prevent it (or cause and remedy it), the crew has to journey to the past, and at Guinan's insistence. 

...And in order to find out the answer to the question I keep posing, you will have to wait until the second part of this episode...(Hint: it's totally worth it.)

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)
Jerry Hardin
Marc Alaimo
Alexander Enberg

The Next Generation 5x25 "The Inner Light"

rating: ****

the story: Picard experiences the last days of a long-dead alien civilization.

similar to: "The City on the Edge of Forever" (original series), "The Visitor" (Deep Space Nine), "Twilight" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: You don't need me to tell you that "Inner Light" is a classic.  It's been considered one since it first aired, akin to "City on the Edge of Forever" as one of those defining, transcendent experiences in the franchise that kind of speaks for itself.

And yet, here I go.  I guess I'll choose to spotlight the cleverness of its internal logic.  Picard assumes the latter half of someone's life, at first being understandably flustered by the abrupt existential transition.  And this is exactly what's needed for that other person, something for him to build on, and the people around him, and even his daughter.  His confusion, and subsequent drive to figure things out, neatly dovetails with Picard's eventual acceptance that there's nothing nefarious going on here, just a beautiful experience, one that leads to the very probe that later gives Picard the experience in the first place...

Later comparable franchise experiences are equally elegiac in their own ways, reflective of the series in which they happen.  Deep Space Nine's "Visitor" features the intense bond between Sisko and his son, Enterprise's "Twilight" the significance of the bond between Archer and T'Pol.  "Inner Light" is, like Picard, an insular, singular moment.  While Picard accepts those around him, he always keeps a distance, a necessary one that drives everything around him.  Nowhere is that better explored than in this episode.

I've sometimes had trouble accepting "Inner Light" for what it is, because it's such a quiet episode, and attempts by others to explain what makes it great (that moment where Picard's alternate leaves his shoes out for the last time) overlook what makes it so special.  If Kirk's greatest romance is his most tragic ("City on the Edge"), then Picard's greatest experience is kind of completely in his head.  Which is completely appropriate.  The later "Tapestry" does its best to duplicate this experience, and while a triumph in its own right, can't really compare.

This is as good as this series gets.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Patti Yasutake (Ogawa)
Richard Riehle

The Next Generation 5x24 "The Next Phase"

rating: **

the story: Geordi and Ro are presumed dead after a transporter accident.

similar to: "The Tholian Web" (original series), "Whispers" (Deep Space Nine), "Vanishing Point" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: This is another appearance from Ro, who like Alexander quickly became a victim to fairly pointless guest-star status after a newsworthy introduction.  As a member of the supporting cast, Ro became a fairly bland presence though certainly a notable one, especially in appearances like "The Next Phase," where her role could literally have been filled by anyone.

The story itself also squanders the Romulans once again.  For whatever reason, the series continually shifted from meaningful to pointless with them, too.  Here they, too, could have been replaced by any other species.

It is interesting, though, as Geordi and Ro attempt to prove to their crewmen that they're still alive.  Like Enterprise's later "Vanishing Point," it's far more interesting to follow the desperation of the missing characters than to see the reaction of their crewmates.  Data evoked far more sympathy in his various existential crises than these two manage, but maybe that's simply because the audience is in on it the whole time (Hoshi has a somewhat different experience, akin to O'Brien's in the Deep Space Nine episode "Whispers;" both of them are wondering if it's everyone else who has the problem).  It's certainly not like Spock and McCoy battling over command in "The Tholian Web," alas.

Still, you end up rooting for their cleverness as they figure out how to communicate.  It's a minor triumph, next exactly worthy fifth season material, but you can forgive the show for something like this.  It fits with the lesser efforts from the season, at least.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Michelle Forbes (Ro Laren)
Susanna Thompson
Thomas Kopache

The Next Generation 5x22 "Imaginary Friend"

rating: *

the story: A little girl's imaginary friend becomes real.

similar to: "The Bonding" (Next Generation), "Alter Ego" (Voyager), "Exile" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: A great deal similar to "The Bonding," in which a little boy is manipulated by aliens, "Imaginary Friend" is another tangential Alexander story (there were a ton of these after he becomes a recurring character in "New Ground" during the fifth season...) proving that maybe the series didn't really know what to do him after all.  I mean, it's odd that they were still doing a "Bonding" episode with a recurring boy in the cast line-up and not have him in the lead.

Yet it's not a complete waste, because the kid in the lead is played by the precocious Noley Thornton, who would later appear in Deep Space Nine's "Shadowplay" in a much better story.

But as you can see above, this kind of story was a franchise trope, and a season that otherwise was packed with excellent episodes sometimes had to fall back on old standby material to pad itself out.  That's what "Imaginary Friend" basically is, padding.  Watch it if you're a season completest, but otherwise you can certainly consider skipping it...

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars
Brian Bonsall (Alexander)
Noley Thornton
Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)
Patti Yasutake (Ogawa)

The Next Generation 5x21 "The Perfect Mate"

rating: ****

the story: Picard inadvertently bonds with an intended bride.

similar to: "Precious Cargo" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: Most people familiar with Star Trek at all will know Captain Kirk and his legendary womanizing ways.  Now, fast-forward to Next Generation and the Kirk figure is Riker, so it would be logical for an episode like "The Perfect Mate" to center around him.  But it doesn't.  The focus, instead, is one Picard.

Long identified as Kirk's opposite number, Picard became so identified with Next Generation, and the later adventures of Star Trek, that he achieved the impossible, which was to hold equal footing with Kirk in the eyes of fans and the greater culture in general.  His more cerebral approach often meant there was little room for love, so when there was room, it was sure to be notable, as it had been in "Captain's Holiday"/"Qpid" before "Perfect Mate."  In fact, a Picard romance seems to be an instant recipe for a Star Trek classic, because that's exactly what "The Perfect Mate" is.

As a character study, the episode neatly sums up why it's so difficult for Picard to find love, because there are so many boxes to tick in potential candidates.  It's not surprising that the most enduring relationship Picard ends up having is with Crusher, whom he's know for most of his life, because short of that, it's a near-impossible task.  Yet "Perfect Mate" finds one all the same, an empathy (makes you wonder what Picard really thought of Troi all those years) who is capable of adapting herself to any companion, because she's spent all her life training to meet the needs of her eventual suitor.

The situation is a pretty complicated one, a franchise trope where two warring factions will finally bury the hatchet, but under a tricky agreement.  Historically, this kind of war bride is as much of a tradition as it is horrible for modern minds to contemplate.  Yet the loss of love is one of the main themes of the episode, and its ending is heartbreaking for it, not just because of what is once again denied Picard, but his potential partner, too.

I don't often talk about the actors in these commentaries, but it's worth noting that "Perfect Mate" features Famke Janssen, who would later co-star with Patrick Stewart in the X-Men movies, and is one of a handful of Star Trek guest-stars who went on to much greater fame later (most of them seem to be women: Teri Hatcher and Kirsten Dunst, from Next Generation alone, for example).

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Famke Janssen
Max Grodenchik

The Next Generation 5x20 "Cost of Living"

rating: **

the story: Lwaxana Troi is engaged to be married,  but that hardly prevents her from continuing to be a pest, this time enrolling Alexander into her shenanigans.

similar to: "The Muse" (Deep Space Nine)

my thoughts: Building on "Half a Life" the previous season, "Cost of Living" makes Lwaxana Troi to be something other than a constant irritant, but to a lesser degree.  It kind of does the same for Alexander, at last as far as his progress from "New Ground" goes.

For whatever reason, Next Generation loved recurring characters who were sources of conflict.  From Q to Ro Laren to Barclay, most of them were pretty much more trouble than they were worth, at least as far as the regular crew was concerned.  Two characters who absolutely epitomized this were Lwaxana and Alexander, so it was only natural that they converged into a single story.  The result was supposed to better represent both of them.  The flipside to these recurring characters was that it was as much a challenge to the crew as to the audience to find redemption for them.  (Redemption was a big thing for Star Trek creators at this point.  Deep Space Nine and Voyager both predicated on it.)

Which is to say, "Cost of Living" is all about trying to find sympathy for outcasts.  Lwaxana constantly makes bad choices romantically, and Alexander chafes at his father Worf's ideas about parenting.  Both would be better off in a colony such as the one Lwaxana conjures on the holodeck, full of free thinkers.  Yet because Star Trek itself craves orders, the episode ends with reluctance more than resolution, Lwaxana's engagement broken off and Worf at least agreeing to sample the maverick program that has so distracted his son.

The whole thing is part of how Worf ends up with Lwaxana's daughter, Deanna, at the end of the series, both of them equally exasperated by their unwieldy family members.  "Cost of Living" is important, in part, because of that, but it succeeds only so far as it talks about these things but doesn't at all attempt to resolve them.  You don't expect a single episode, years before the series is ready to be over, to attempt resolution, but for a series perpetually gun-shy about character development, when an episode comes along that make a bold statement but instead makes a mild one, you kind of have to find fault with said episode.

Still, there are some really great moments in it, from Alexander laughing at dinnertime to that poor guy who eats his planets, and the phrase, "The higher the fewer" (said two times with equally ridiculous profundity).

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Majel Roddenberry (Lwaxana Troi)
Brian Bonsall (Alexander)
Carel Struycken (Mr. Homn)
Tony Jay

The Next Generation 5x19 "The First Duty"

rating: ****

the story: Wesley becomes embroiled in a quagmire at Starfleet Academy.

similar to: "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost" (Deep Space Nine)

my thoughts: This is the best Wesley Crusher episode.  It has nothing to do with the Traveler, nothing to do with potential love interests, nothing to do with his mother, Picard, or even Wesley saving the day.  And it couldn't have been done with anyone else.

Since "Ensign Ro" early in the season, the series had made a concerted effort to present a more nuanced look at life in Starfleet.  The idea of visiting Starfleet Academy had been kicking around for a long time.  At one point Star Trek VI was supposed to be a reboot, with Kirk at the Academy (hello Star Trek 2009!), and that was about as recent in franchise history as was possible at that point.  I'm sure no one thought that when we finally saw Wesley at the Academy, after his early seasons hyping just how brilliant an officer he was destined to become, that he would be in any kind of trouble, let alone moral trouble.

I mean, Wesley was about as emblematic of Next Generation's early years as you could get, young and idealistic, one of the closest to the Roddenberry ideal any of these characters ever got.  I mean, he was Gene Roddenberry, for all intents and purposes.

His situation is a little complicated.  He's joined an elite squad of cadets.  He's not even its leader, but clearly he's one of the most important members.  The leader is the one who causes the problem.  Well, eventually, because the whole squad had to agree to screw up in the first place.  So "The First Duty" becomes a study of hubris, of, more or less, the kind of conceit that allowed Roddenberry to envision his perfect future in the first place, eventually settling on a hothead maverick in James Kirk to represent it, Kirk the contradiction at its center.  Next Generation went out of its way to present itself as different from Kirk as possible.  His surrogate, Riker, was the first officer, not the captain, drawn from Kirk's rival in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Decker, the man who totally disagrees with Kirk's mindset and resents him at every turn. 

Got all that?  "The First Duty" is a kind of mission statement, then, five seasons in, two seasons after the series found its voice, and deep into the season where it was confident enough to express exactly what it thought.  Kind of like how Wesley needs to find the confidence to do the right thing.  Usually Star Trek is all about doing the right thing without considering the consequences at all, flying in the face of the vaunted Prime Directive, the rule that the franchise is always the exception to.  Because life can be tough.  But being able to face that fact is usually a problem for the other guy.  Except this time.

"The First Duty" was clearly a watershed moment for the franchise.  We meet the gardener Boothby for the first time.  He shows up in two Voyager episodes ("In the Flesh" and "The Fight").  Actually, "The First Duty" is a kind of origin for Voyager in general, in that Robert Duncan McNeill, who later plays rogue officer Tom Paris, appears as the similar Nick Locarno here.  Fans tends to complain that Voyager squandered its potential by becoming a clone of Next Generation instead of following its own premise.  The producers never made any bones about setting Voyager on a ship instead of a station like Deep Space Nine because it wanted the franchise to get back to its exploring roots.  The premise wasn't a ship being lost in space.  It was about second chances.  Like what Tom Paris embodied.  Voyager was a second chance for a generation of Star Trek creators, who got to lead with their own voices.

Anyway, there's also the Bajoran cadet Sito Jaxa, who shows up again in the episode "Lower Decks," following her own thread from "The First Duty."  Out of everything else worth taking away from the episode, her journey is worth following, too.

It's an episode that's worth thinking about in even more ways than I've already presented.  It's compelling.  It's a classic.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher)
Robert Duncan McNeill
Ray Walston (Boothby)
Shannon Fill (Sito Jaxa)

The Next Generation 5x18 "Cause and Effect"

rating: ****

the story: Time keeps repeating itself as the ship is destroyed, until the crew figures out how to prevent it from happening.

similar to: "Year of Hell" (Voyager), "Future Tense" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: Star Trek is many things.  One of them is a receptacle of classic science fiction tropes, sometimes so thoroughly embraced that they not only become Star Trek tropes as well, but fodder for some truly classic material.  Such is the case with "Cause and Effect."

The idea of the repeating day is old hat in modern movie culture, whether you think of Groundhog Day, Source Code, or Edge of Tomorrow (all excellent films, by the way; see also: the TV series Day Break).  At its heart it's a time travel story, which is definitely a Star Trek trope, well-worn.  But "Cause and Effect" takes its basic plot from the kind of storytelling the franchise, and Next Generation itself, loves equally, which is a crisis that forces the crew to mobilize its best minds to figure out what the heck is happening.

So in the end, it boils down to whether you listen to Riker, or listen to Data.  The answer is one of the pleasant surprises of the episode.  Everything and everyone fires on all cylinders to pull it off, and because, in the fine recent tradition of "Conundrum," the story trusts itself enough to avoid unnecessary shenanigans (many an episode is spoiled by such things), we avoid one of the worst Star Trek tropes, other Starfleet ships as cannon fodder, and end up with the best surprise of all when we meet the captain of the other ship caught in the same dilemma, who turns out to be Kelsey Grammer, in one of the better franchise cameos ever.

That's a classic.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Kelsey Grammer
Michelle Forbes (Ro Laren)
Patti Yasutake (Ogawa)

The Next Generation 5x17 "The Outcast"

rating: **

the story: Riker inadvertently ends up in a romance with a member of an androgynous species.

similar to: "The Host" (Next Generation), "Rules of Acquisition" (Deep Space Nine), "Distant Origin" (Voyager), "Cogenitor" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: Star Trek has a concerted history of exploring gender issues.  There's an equally concerted history of claiming it never went far enough, in that it never featured outright gay or lesbian characters, although it could be argued that it certainly explored bisexual and transgender individuals on a number of occasions.  However, in the mix of episodes I recommend to watch in relation to "The Outcast" is "Distant Origin" from Voyager, in which a society forcibly rejects the ideas of one of its own, whose viewpoint has been bolstered by one of our own.  "Distant Origin" is a classic.  "Cogenitor" (Enterprise), in which a third gender's rights are examined, is a classic.  "The Host," from earlier in Next Generation itself, is a classic.  "Rules of Acquisition" (Deep Space Nine), in which the equally routine fight for the rights of women is in the spotlight, is probably worthy of being considered a classic.

But "The Outcast" isn't.  At its heart, it takes for granted that Riker, in the classic Kirk tradition, is so irresistible that the episode doesn't even have to explain why so much as let the controversy that ensues play out.  It's a dull exploration of character for Riker, if it can be called that, and the gender-free individual who reveals they've always identified as female has no compelling reason to change her mind now, except, Riker: hot! 

It's an episode that will no doubt speak strongly to the LGBT community, as it was intended to (except at the time, it was simply meant to sidestep the homosexual issue itself, which has subsequently expanded), the way every such Star Trek episode does.  Yet the more of them there are to consider, the more one must question the merits of individual episodes.  The franchise built a large part of its reputation on fearlessly tackling social issues, and yet never addressed this one directly, except in roundabout ways like "The Host" and "Rejoined" (Deep Space Nine).

So I think of "The Outcast" more in how it presents an individual confronting a repressive society rather than on the issue that seems to be at hand.  Because in the end, that's what it's most passionate about.  It may be convenient to have a backdrop where you can visit a planet and then leave it, and leave whatever matters came up behind as well, but when you stretch it too far, sometimes it snaps back.  It rings hollow, the whole Riker arc.  Because it is.

But it's still worth remembering that on the whole, "The Outcast" remains significant, in its own way.

EDIT: An anonymous commentator observed that for Riker, this is the first time he exhibits heartbreak.  Take that for what you will.  As always, take my thoughts with a grain of salt.  I tend to overanalyze, not in the way you normally see on the Internet, with every little scene broken down so that you completely lose sight of the whole...Actually, if you wanted to take this only from Riker's perspective, you might find, for instance, an analogy for what happened between Riker and Troi, all those years ago, on Betazed, a sort of untold story that is, if anything, more fascinating than what "The Outcast" actually accomplishes on its surface.  I like to provide, if anything, starting points for fans to consider further, a deeper study of the franchise than I've seen elsewhere.  There's a lot to think about.  So thanks, anonymous commentator...

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

The Next Generation 5x16 "Ethics"

rating: ****

the story: Worf becomes paralyzed, despondent, suicidal...and the recipient of a controversial medical miracle.

similar to: "The Host" (Next Generation)

my thoughts: Only Crusher could have pulled off something like this.  Actually, I guess Crusher and Riker.  Such an odd pair, these two.  Riker, early on, was cast in the mold of Captain Kirk, the fallback character in case Picard didn't work out (bald, older, cerebral).  Yet the more Picard caught on, the more Riker regressed (Voyager haters, please continue to pay attention: the more confident Janeway grew, the less she relied on Chakotay).  So what exactly was there to do with him?  Like Decker before him, Riker became more cynical, despite offering every protest that he didn't (see: "Second Chances").  By "Ethics" he's openly being ethnocentric concerning Worf's cultural plight, the overt struggle Crusher carries against a medical rival and proving how different she is from, say, Dr. McCoy.

Like Kirk, McCoy was known as a maverick, and a genius.  In fact, Kirk's was a crew of geniuses.  Picard's was always more subdued.  Even the android who for all intents and purposes was a born savant filled the role of an average crewman, generally speaking.  La Forge didn't even start out as chief engineer.  Whatever Worf was before his ascension to chief of security has never really been examined.  Crusher's competence was her knowledge, not her practice.  That's why her absence during the second season, and her departure in Nemesis, was in an office capacity.  McCoy would have been the one performing daring medical fetes, not condemning them.

The moral stances taken in "Ethics" are bold.  They can't be ignored.  They serve as a statement for the whole series.  Maybe you tend to think about one over the other, Worf's emotional journey versus Crusher's intellectual one.  Granted, "Ethics" gives Alexander one of his better uses.  But it's just a tough, tough episode.  I call it a classic insofar as it's easily one of the franchise's most challenging stories, one that can't be ignored, and one that stands to be continually examined.  What else is there to do with it?

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Brian Bonsall (Alexander)
Patti Yasutake (Ogawa)

The Next Generation 5x15 "Power Play"

rating: **

the story: Alien assume control of Troi, Data, and O'Brien, and attempt to free the rest of their colleagues from their prison on a remote planet.

similar to: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

my thoughts: The best thing to be taken away from this episode, I think, is Marina Sirtis's commanding performance as the possessed Troi, a far more confident poise than she been allowed to take previously.  It's later built on by "Face of the Enemy" and Captain Jellico's famous edict that she dress like everyone else, which finally breaks the sexual overtones that dominated her for years thanks to her ever-present cleavage and reliance on emotions (regardless of her role as ship's councilor).

Other than that, it's a pretty standard possession episode, a franchise trope to be sure, from Kirk's experiences in "Turnabout Intruder" to Enterprise's "Observer Effect."  More interesting is the penal colony the crew turns out to have discovered, aping The Final Frontier's revelation that "God" is there on Sybok's world for similar reasons.

(I hate the name "Bryce Shumar," by the way.  Just hate it.  It's the name of the Starfleet captain the lead villain claims to be.  The last name is already unusual enough.  But pairing it with an equally unusual first name just makes the whole thing sound horribly artificial, and terrible.  But it doesn't ruin the episode for me.  Probably should.  But it doesn't.)

Anyway, aside from all that, there's Ensign Ro being used in a fairly routine capacity again.  I guess it's fine, because that was kind of the point of "Ensign Ro" to begin with, and the majority of her appearances are Ro being, basically, just another member of the crew (again, Voyager haters, Ro is a far more flagrant offender of character integrity than anyone in Janeway's crew).  Well, besides her, there's O'Brien being a part of the possessed party, just so he can menace Keiko.  I mean, literally, that's all he's there to do.  Data, meanwhile, is there to add muscle.  There's an inconsistency to how easy it is to do this sort of thing to him.  One minute ("The Schizoid Man") it's incredibly easy, the next ("Silicon Avatar") it's incredibly hard, because his positronic net can easily handle multiple personalities...Add in "Masks" and...

So this is an episode you can enjoy much more if you don't think about some of its limitations, because on the whole it's really not that bad.  In a very strong season otherwise, it's obviously filler, but it could be worse.

(Glowing endorsement: "It could be worse!")

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Michelle Forbes (Ro Laren)
Colm Meaney (O'Brien)
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)

The Next Generation 5x14 "Conundrum"

rating: ****

the story: The crew's memory is wiped, and there's an additional officer in the mix as they try to figure out what happened.

similar to: "Distant Voices" (Deep Space Nine)

my thoughts: I love this episode.  I love how it explores the crew without any of them knowing who they are.  I love how the answer to their mystery is sitting right in front of the viewer all along, "Commander MacDuff."  And I love how it manages to take a plot that has nothing to do with Ensign Ro and still make into one of her best episodes.

It's a classic mystery.  You could see an echo of the series' own "Clues," in which Data alone remembers what happened during a trip through a wormhole.  But it's more than that.  "Conundrum" makes the whole crew part of the act.  In fact, it's all the more amusing because Data is part of it for a change (unlike, say, "The Game"), when everyone kind of assumes he's just the bartender, because that's where he happened to be when the scenario begins.

Best of all, though, again, is Ro.  Instead of pitting her against Picard, it's Riker who's plays off of Ro, as they both play for and against type as they sift through their mental fog.  It's one of Riker's better romantic moments, because normally he's so guarded, dedicated to that idea of his career that previously sabotaged his relationship with Troi.  This is a perfect episode, because it works with all the interpersonal dynamics that would otherwise need something more dramatic to make it possible.  No, "Conundrum" works because it's so apparently mundane.  It's the series finally learning to integrate that slice-of-life instinct from the fourth season into its regular plots.  And as such, a step into the future of the franchise, and TV in general.

And yes, it's a classic.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Michelle Forbes (Ro Laren)
Liz Vassey

The Next Generation 5x13 "The Masterpiece Society"

rating: ****

the story: A colony is reluctant to receive help for a potential disaster, as contact with the crew could pollute its society.

similar to: "Meridian" (Deep Space Nine), "Dear Doctor," "A Night in Sickbay" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: "Masterpiece Society" has always been tricky to contemplate, as it threatens to dissolve into the milquetoast reputation of Next Generation, something that seems bland in comparison to some of the more exciting elements of the franchise, or entertainment in general.  In short, it's a think piece.  And, perhaps, a perfect Star Trek think piece.

The franchise is no stranger to examining cultures that its crews find hard to interact with, for any number of reasons, most of them unflattering to those cultures.  In the most reductive analysis, Star Trek can be seen as a remnant of the age of exploration, when various leading states went blundering into native cultures and pronounced them primitive throwbacks to an earlier time, easy to judge and exploit.  Now, clearly the franchise has always preached that exploitation is out of the question.  But what about all the judgment inherent in these adventures, from a supposedly enlightened people?  Sometimes, if you think about it, it's just a tough thing to reconcile. 

Then an episode like "Masterpiece Society" comes along, and forces you to think about why this tends to happen.  It's one thing when, say, "Darmok" explores a language gap, but a culture gap can be all the more astounding.  What happens when Starfleet comes across a world that wishes to isolate itself, with reasons that don't seem clear until it's too late?  It's a matter of the Prime Directive, not merely a matter of protecting inhabitants at a different development platform, but cultures that are so different, they're difficult to comprehend, so that in doing anything at all will affect them. 

In "Meridian" (Deep Space Nine), there's a planet that necessarily experiences a different relationship with our plain of existence.  In "Dear Doctor" (Enterprise), it's a culture with two competing species you'd have to play god to consider helping during an epidemic at all.  In "A Night in Sickbay" (also Enterprise), it's about failing to comprehend what's important to them (better than as portrayed in Next Generation's own "Justice").

And in "Masterpiece Society," it's a culture where every member has been specifically assigned a task, and that's what they do for the duration of their lives.  Yet when Picard's crew comes along, some of the members realize there's a true alternative for the first time.  (See also: Insurrection.)  It's the rare episode that dares suggest the good guys are in fact the bad guys, not because of anything they do, but for what they fail to understand.  It's an episode, like "Ensign Ro," that suggests the perfect future really isn't so perfect after all.

It's also a minor Geordi spotlight, pointing out how in some cultures his blindness would have resulted in an abortion, his imperfection intolerable.  It's a thorny topic we still debate today, and "Masterpiece" may be worth viewing to meditate on that alone.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Ron Canada

The Next Generation 5x12 "Violations"

rating: ***

the story:  A visiting alien delegate may be violating people's thoughts.

similar to: "Fusion" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: This is the episode the series had been trying to tell with Troi, as previously attempted in "Tin Man" and the abysmal "Night Terrors."  This time, the story serves the empathy, figuring out how to organically integrate her into itself, and still finding compelling material to explain how it fits in with everyone else.  While it doesn't do much to explore Troi, it's another in the series of latent continuations of the slice-of-life episodes from the fourth season.

With characters like Keiko O'Brien around to help sell the concept of a telepath with seemingly remarkable abilities helping the whole crew, if they'd like, remember fond memories, the nightmare sets in when many of them begin to experience nightmares from their past, or in Troi's case, something that never happened at all.  The whole thing really feels like a direct apology for "Night Terrors," actually, especially in that regard.

Nightmares and dream sequences are another Star Trek trope, one Next Generation regularly mined (with Data in particular, in "Birthright" and "Phantasms").  Yet "Violations" is more akin to Enterprise's "Fusion," in which deviant members of Vulcan society are performing the forbidden mind meld experience, which in their hands is as destructive as what Troi experiences.  There's also an echo of what Shinzon and his Viceroy later do to her in Nemesis.

This is an instance of a seemingly minor episode being more significant than it seems.  It's one of Troi's better showings, and a sign that she would get better material in the future as well.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Rosalind Chao (Keiko)

The Next Generation 5x10 "New Ground"

rating: **

the story: Worf begins full-time custody of his son Alexander.

similar to: "Collective" (Voyager)

my thoughts: Alexander can be viewed as the Wesley Crusher of the second half of the series.  He's the second youth to be featured regularly.  Apart from Jake Sisko in Deep Space Nine and his regular antics with Nog during that series' early seasons, there's no one quite like Alexander, otherwise, except the Borg kids in Voyager, who debut in "Collective," and are eventually boiled down to just Icheb.

Yet being the youngest of the bunch, Alexander stands the best chance of being considered as irritating as Wesley famously was by fans.  His regular recurring debut in "New Ground" explains it all nicely.  The son of the late K'Ehleyr, whose arc is otherwise irrelevant to him, aside from his similar struggles trying to find a place for himself between the Klingon and human cultures he straddles, Alexander is everything the young Kirk and Spock in Star Trek are not, continually trapped in the role of being a pain in his father's side.  This might be considered shedding light on Worf (having a son paves the way to the relationship with Troi that culminates in "All Good Things..."), but his obvious discomfort in the role of father makes him look weak.  Not imperfect, just weak, because it's a role he doesn't even want, never fully commits to, and routinely fails at.  Maybe it's a judgment on Worf's own discomfort with his duel Klingon/human heritages, but in isolation, when all he has are other humans (or, half-humans, in Troi's case), it presents a lopsided narrative that painfully crescendos in the seventh season episode "Firstborn."

Leaving "New Ground" very hard to justify itself.  If the fourth season was all about finding comfort in family, the fifth is about the discomfort of it, whether in "Ensign Ro" (a Starfleet officer who doesn't fit in) or "The First Duty" (cadets who fail miserably to live up to moral standards, including Wesley).  It's the first Klingon-centric episode since "Redemption," bringing high drama back to low, mundane affairs.  Adding characters like this is a common trope for long-running series.  The one real benefit is that, unlike Wesley before him, Alexander allows the viewer to see more of the family aspect of the ship, which has all along been touted to feature family in abundance.  Except aside from the random appearance here and there, kids are mostly absent. 

If Jake hadn't come along and filled the role better, I might not have as much a problem with Alexander, or "New Ground" specifically, but Jake did come along, and he was instantly a better character.  Alexander wasn't a total loss ("Cost of Living," "Fistful of Datas," the aforementioned "Firstborn"), but he's a huge letdown, at least initially.  That's kind of bad enough.

Maybe you aren't, or won't be, as annoyed by Alexander as I tend to be, just I won't dismiss "New Ground" entirely.  It does have some important things to say, and to show.  But it could easily have been better.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Brian Bonsall (Alexander)

The Next Generation 5x9 "A Matter of Time"

rating: **

the story: A man claiming to be a time traveler visits the ship.

similar to: "Cold Front" (Enterprise)

my thoughts: I just described "Disaster" as the last slice-of-life episode inspired by the run of similar stories from the fourth season, but all in all, that's what "A Matter of Time" is, too.  Aside from the con artist (which is itself a Star Trek trope, covering everything from Harry Mudd to "Devil's Due") aspect, most of the episode is really about a fairly routine rescue operation that we track without it being the main source of the drama, and yet we follow the crew as it goes about its efforts to prevent the catastrophe.  Then again, it's also another in a series of episodes where the most extraordinary member of the crew is kidnapped (covering everything from "Spock's Brain" in the original series to "Think Tank" in Voyager and even "The Most Toys," where it's previously happened to Data) (spoiler alert).

Yet it's also, and first and foremost, a time travel episode, which obviously one of the most popular franchise tropes, and a clever entry at that, featuring someone who claims he's visiting the crew because something historic is about to happen.  That is, in fact, nearly exactly what the Temporal Cold War subplot in Enterprise is all about, as (to my mind) most memorably explored in "Cold Front."

So it's an interesting episode, going over what was already and would become even more familiar territory, and because of its odd mixes of tropes, remains interesting despite ultimately adding very little to any of them.  It's just a fun episode to watch, and let's go ahead and leave it at that.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Matt Frewer

The Next Generation 5x8 "Unification, Part 2"

rating: ****

the story: Sela attempts to sabotage Spock's efforts to reunite Romulus with Vulcan.

similar to: "Balance of Terror" (original series), "Blood Oath" (Deep Space Nine), "Redemption" (Next Generation)

my thoughts: While lightly juxtaposing, as it should have, Spock with his spiritual descendent Data, "Unification" concludes by giving Sela the big moment she needed (in order to be justified at all) and finally defines the character of the Romulans in the franchise in a satisfactory way.

It also features "a fat Ferengi," not so much a milestone moment so much as one that's always amused me.  It's Riker at his most confident!

To speak of Spock's significance is something I already discussed in the first part of the story, even though the franchise icon's role is mostly explored, and featured, in this follow-up.  It's one of the most important moments of the series, concluding the emotional arc begun in "Sarek" and further contrasting Next Generation from the original series.  Yet Next Generation seizes the moment in a most unexpected way, also concluding the story from "Redemption" in explaining what it is that motivates Sela, the Romulan daughter the alternate Tasha Yar from "Yesterday's Enterprise."

In so doing, not only is Spock able to give further character to Vulcan interests, but Sela explains how basic Romulan frustration at the state of galactic affairs is what motivates the whole species.  Though featured in the franchise fairly regularly since their debut in "Balance of Terror," the Romulans had frequently played catch-up with Klingons for overall significance, much less psychological exploration.  While "The Defector" makes it clear that politics are of utmost importance to them, "Unification" makes it perfectly clear, even chilling, making way for the antagonists of Nemesis and Star Trek, Shinzon and Nero respectively, to further expand on their existential neuroses. 

Strangely, although Next Generation had long made a project of the Romulans, it quickly made far greater progress with the upstart Cardassians, who went on to have even greater exploration in Deep Space Nine.  It's in "Unification" where all the work comes together.

All of this makes for essential viewing.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Leonard Nimoy (Spock)
Denise Crosby (Sela)
Malachi Throne
Daniel Roebuck
Stephen Root

The Next Generation 5x7 "Unification, Part 1"

rating: ****

the story: The crew goes in search of the missing Spock.

similar to: "Blood Oath" (Deep Space Nine)

my thoughts: "Unification" as a whole is about as important a Next Generation story as there ever was.  At once acknowledging the ongoing significance of the recent "Redemption" crisis, it's the next great serialized chapter of the series, further signaling the approach Deep Space Nine would take and what viewers in general would come to demand of their favorite TV shows, even ones formerly most comfortable in and indeed known for their episodic format like Star Trek.

It's the first great Next Generation Romulan story since "The Defector," and, like another third season episode, bridges the gap between the series and its classic predecessor in a meaningful way.  Speaking of which "Unification, Part 1" features the death of Sarek, who previously appeared in the series in the namesake episode, a moment that had original series fans take Next Generation seriously for the first time, and in an even bigger moment, Spock expanding his presence in the franchise.

Ever since McCoy's cameo in "Encounter at Farpoint," crossover characters became a franchise staple.  Scotty would later appear in "Relics," and of course there's Star Trek Generations, which saw Picard meet Kirk, plus a plethora of others from throughout succeeding series (most controversially, Riker and Troi in Enterprise's final episode, "These Are the Voyages...").  Yet Spock is a seismic member of this club, duplicating his "Unification" impact in Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness as he helps launch a new version of the franchise.

Outside of "Unification," however, only Deep Space Nine's "Blood Oath," in which three actors who portrayed Klingons in the original series return to reprise their roles, features a scenario that feels organic, suitably dramatic, and true to character.

As for the episode itself, besides the Klingon references, there's also Riker investigating a Zackdorn shipyard.  The Zackdorn are a Next Generation alien species previously featured in "Peak Performance."  They fall below the Benzites as early attempts to create distinctive new aliens with any kind of staying power, mostly because "Performance" presents a thoroughly unappealing version of the species.  The effort in "Unification" is better, with a better-defined bureaucratic nature that puts them in unique, distinctive footing.  Even if this is still the Zackdorns' last appearance, it leaves plenty of room for further exploration.

The episode features a cornucopia of notable guest-stars, which I point out in advance of the usual feature, just to give you a head's up.  It's a whopper of an episode, but everything's better in the second part...

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential (all criteria met)

notable guest-stars:
Leonard Nimoy (Spock)
Mark Lenard (Sarek)
Stephen Root
Erick Avari
Malachi Throne
Daniel Roebuck

The Next Generation 5x6 "The Game"

rating: **

the story: Wesley returns on break from Starfleet Academy to discover something's wrong with the crew.

similar to: "Genesis" (Next Generation)

my thoughts: It's fascinating that Wesley's very first episode back since his departure as a regular in the previous season, is quite possibly the perfect example of everything the series needed to correct about the character and needed to redeem in the first place.  Wes was the typical boy wonder, the kid genius who quickly became annoying to a considerable proportion of fans.  "The Game" is literally about a crisis only he can overcome.

Yet it works, and is arguably one of his best episodes, if not his most memorable episode, not just because Ashley Judd was particularly adorable as his love interest, but because the whole setup is cleverly thought out, so that you don't even need to think of it as an analogy for the rising evils of video games in 1991 America.

By quickly eliminating the need to focus on, well, anyone else but Wes and Judd's Robin Lefler, the viewer is allowed to focus both on how cute they are together, and the mounting dread of the inexplicable conspiracy (better than the actual episode "Conspiracy," arguably) that has sucked everyone else into it.

...But yes, you have to ignore the convenience of everyone, even Picard, falling for the gaming scam.  If you can ignore that, you will enjoy "The Game" a great deal! 

So that leaves Data, and the further convenience of someone being cognizant enough to take him out in order for everything to work.  Really, it's to the level of everyone but Kirk succumbing to Sybok's charms in The Final Frontier.  You don't have to be bothered by such niggling details, but they exist, and how much they bother you will probably color what you think of the rest of it, much like fans don't care how much Kirk bonds with Spock and McCoy around campfires.

But rest assured, it really is possible.

criteria analysis: franchise - series - character - essential

notable guest-stars:
Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher)
Ashley Judd
Colm Meaney (O'Brien)
Patti Yasutake (Ogawa)