[00:00:00] You Discovery. Go with throttle up.
[00:00:09] 198-765-4321.
[00:00:26] Hello and welcome to the Star Trek Warp top ten podcast. How's everybody doing?
[00:00:32] Really glad to be doing this again. It's been a while. I apologize. We are trying to get these out as much as we can. We've been experiencing some technical difficulties recently, not to mention some life schedules getting in the way. Been trying to sync up with my current partner Brian Parks, even hopefully trying to get together with my former partner Lucas Jerome Boyle, but neither of them are on the pod today. It's just me, folks.
[00:01:03] So today we're going to go ahead and break down Next Generation season one.
[00:01:09] Yeah, we're just going to break down the top ten episodes of Next Generation season one. So my plan is to kind of get more pods out there by kind of doing this. We're going to take Next Generation, D, Space Nine and Voyager, and we're going to go ahead and break down each season and pick the top ten episodes of those seasons. If you're a next gen enthusiast, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making the list for season one.
[00:01:31] To me, it's kind of a way to get an extra pod in there every once in a while when our schedules kind of don't sync up.
[00:01:38] Brian and I have been trying to get together with this pod and get some more recorded for you guys, but we've had, like I said, technical issues, so it's been difficult. So I'm flying solo today. I'm just chomping at the bit to go ahead and get another pod out there. I really miss talking to you guys about Star Trek, so I wanted to go ahead and just jump on that and do that. But before we get into know a little bit of housekeeping from the last couple episodes. That's right.
[00:02:04] So I was talking about on our Captain's pod, I did mention Captain Rios from Picard. I did not know that actor's name. I wanted to give him a shout out, santiago Cabrera, because he needs a shout out from me. Well, he's got it anyway, so Santiago Cabrera, really great actor. I like him a lot. Captain Rios. Love him. And I also mentioned Captain Rachel Garrett from the Enterprise Sea on the captain's pod, and I didn't know her name, so I wanted to go ahead and let you know that Tricia O'Neill was the actress who played Captain Garrett. Great job there.
[00:02:38] It's also kind of funny. I realized I made a mistake when I was trying to think about the new Kirk, the actor who's playing Kirk on Strange New Worlds, and it's Paul Wesley, and I think I said John Wesley at first. And I think what I was thinking of, I was actually thinking of John Wesley Ship who played the Flash in the 80s TV show. That's correct. He played the Flash in the 80s TV show that I think was on CBS. I like that show a lot. I watched it every Friday night. Good show.
[00:03:05] It was a little cheesy and the effects were a little cheesy, but it was still a lot of fun. It kind of looked good. It was kind of one of the first live action superhero things that I actually enjoyed watching.
[00:03:15] One more little tidbit of information I think I mentioned a couple of times on this pod that on Deep Space Nine, the first mention of the Dominion was in the episode Sanctuary. Almost Positive. I said that while I was dead wrong. Yet again, I'm rewatching some Deep Space Nine episodes the other day and I'm watching the episode Rules of Acquisition. Why you ask? Thank you for asking, because I'm putting together a top ten quirk episodes, but we'll get to that at some point down the road. But in watching Rules of Acquisition, they did mention the Dominion. So that was the first mention on Deep Space Nine, was Rules of Acquisition, not Sanctuary. I was wrong.
[00:03:54] That's all the housekeeping I got. Like I said, we're going to try to keep it brief today. Going to get a quick pod out there for you, maybe see it as a little appetizer till we get back to doing the big boy pods with my partner Brian Parks or, God willing, Lucas Boyle. But until then, give us a shout out. You could hit us up on Instagram at Sdwarp 10. You could also check out our TikTok, same thing, Sdwarp 10, and give us a shout out on email. Email us, let us know how we're doing. Good, bad? Give us a list of your own that's at Stwarp
[email protected]. Go ahead and let us know you're out there. Hey, that's it. Let's dive right in. So, like I said, we got 21 extra pods that we're going to kind of slip in here and there, taking the seven seasons of Next Gen, seven seasons of D Space, seven seasons of Voyager. That's 21 extra pods, folks. We're going to break down each season. And today, obviously, we're going to start with Next Generation season one. So a little bit about Next Gen, if you haven't heard me mention it six or 7000 times already, next Generation was how I got into Star Trek. That was my first love.
[00:05:05] And season one, obviously, was where I started. Not obviously, but that is where I started. So I did watch a season two episode first. The episode that got me hooked on Star Trek was peak performance from season two, where they do that sort of fake war game where Ry crew takes over the old dilapidated ship and he takes half the crew and they kind of do a simulated battle. Then, of course, the Ferengi show up and surina Kolrami with his many, I don't know, layered fat chins on his face. Played Stratagema. He was a grandmaster of Stratajama. Data tried to beat him, lost. Then he played for a tie and humiliated him. Yeah. So I got hooked on peak performance. That episode really got me into Star Trek. So then I went back and watched my father's tapes, and season one was where I started. So we're going to start there now. A couple of things about season one. Yeah, it is very dated. If you try to watch it now, 1987, it's dated. There are some cheesy aspects about it. They didn't quite have a handle on where the show was going. They didn't quite survive that sort of 80s cutesy curse when it came to TV, some of those moments were a little cheesy, but not to say I don't love it all. So I did fall in love watching season one. So, hey, how bad could it be, right? And it's not it's not as bad as I make it out to be sometimes. There are some really great episodes in here, and there are some real clunkers in there. Kind of like any season with 26 episodes, breaking it down to ten with 26 episodes, they're not going to be all golden episodes, they're not going to be all classics, but we're going to break down the ten that I think are the best, or I should say, the ten that are my favorite. That's kind of how we're going to do it.
[00:06:57] Choosing my list for season one, Next Gen, is going to be a little different, I think, from the way I choose the remainder of these seasons in Next Gen, Deep Space and Voyager, because these hold a special place in my heart. As I've mentioned, they're the first set of episodes I ever watched. And one more quick disclaimer, as you may have already sort of heard, I'm not able to record in my usual space, so the sound might be a little off. I apologize for that. One of the technical issues we had is that my basement got flooded. That's where I usually record these pods. So I've been kind of holding out hope that we would get the basement squared away so I can get back down there and pod, but we have not. So I'm up on my second floor. I'm in my living room hanging out, and the sound is not going to be as great as it is downstairs. So I really hope that you bear with me. Thank you very much.
[00:07:44] But all right, like I said, we'll keep it brief today. Let's break this down. The top ten Next Generation season one episodes. No honorable mentions. We're just diving right in. Number ten.
[00:07:54] The episode called Home Soil. Okay, I know a lot of people are like, really? That one? Well, Home Soil, it's got interesting aspects to it. I like the idea of trying to classify what life is. What is life? What is the definition of life, and does everything sort of fit into that definition? They discover this life form on this planet, and it was kind of a cool sick base scene. Couple scenes where they were trying to break down what life is and what constitutes life and what's the definition of life, and whether you're into their definition or not, it was still kind of cool to watch them try to classify this new life form. Also very cool, a couple of cool moments. Data gets to show off his Androidness.
[00:08:40] He goes into this sort of laboratory where a scientist had just been killed.
[00:08:46] Not sure why he was killed till Data gets in there, and then the machine sort of wait a minute. Am I thinking of the right one? Yeah, machine sort of tries to kill Data. His android like speed saves him from that, and he has no choice but to destroy a lot of the equipment in there to sort of save his own life.
[00:09:05] Turns out the life form is trying to just defend itself. And it was interesting. They beamed down to the planet with some Terraformers down there.
[00:09:15] Interesting writing. Some of the acting was a little weird. The actor who played the leader of the Terraformers, I've seen him in, like, a James Bond movie or something, seemed a little mean. I like the actor in general, and I don't know his name, but he seemed a little miscast. But just kind of an interesting episode. That's kind of what made it jump onto the list.
[00:09:40] Some cool moments. And yeah, it just sticks out in my mind for some reason. So, yeah, there's an OD one to start at a saw at home. Soil number ten. Number nine. Skin of Evil.
[00:09:51] Yes, most Next Generation fans know that episode. That is the episode in which we lost Tasha Yar. Sorry. Spoiler alert.
[00:10:01] A pretty good episode. Maybe the closest to horror that season one of Next Gen. Kind of approached the villain of Armis is interesting, kind of this scary, Tar creature who can kind of transform and has sort of undefined powers, like, who kind of knows what he can do.
[00:10:26] He could affect matter when he's I don't know, he has a lot of weird powers. They never really defined what he could do and what he couldn't do, but he was this lonely entity on this planet. He kills Tasha Yar in sort of an offhand, just kind of a way to demonstrate his power was a really shallow way in which she died. I still kind of don't know why they made that choice. She wasn't like a legendary character at that point. This is only, I want to say, 1819 episodes into the season, maybe 20 episodes into the season, and it's only the first season, so it's not like, oh, my God, they killed Tasha Yar. But it kind of was they could have given her a little more dignity than that. Not really sure why they kind of killed her in that know, just sort of an important episode for Next Gen season one. Especially know that we will see Denise Crosby playing multiple roles going forward on the show. So this episode as sort of weird and sort of weirdly written as it was, it did pave the way for some really, really great episodes, not the least of which is Yesterday's Enterprise and Or Redemption part One and Two. So interesting episode, Skin of Evil sticks out in my mind. All right, number Eight, another kind of weird one that I always kind of liked, but I think a lot of fans will be like, really? That one? The Arsenal of Freedom. So this is the episode in which let's see.
[00:11:55] And again, folks, I didn't watch every single episode leading back up to this. I just kind of looked at the list of episodes, remembered what I remembered, made my list. Of course, I've seen this episode multiple times, but if I get a couple of facts wrong, it's because I'm not working off notes, I'm just talking. Talking.
[00:12:12] So, yeah. So this is the episode where they beam down to the planet. At least let's see it's. Yar, Riker and Data, that kind of beam down and they get attacked by these floating laser drones.
[00:12:26] Turns out they're kind of learning they destroy one and then they kind of change their tactics. Then they need two phases to destroy the next one.
[00:12:36] They kind of get bogged down with the technology, this weaponry just kind of trying to kill them. So riker and crusher. Sorry. Hello. Picard and Crusher beam down and try to see what's going on, which is weird because Picard is really not supposed to beam down to any kind of planets. Riker is very adamant about that, but for the sake of TV, he does. Anyway, they fall into this pit. Crusher breaks her leg, so Picard's trying to healing her. So it's kind of one of those episodes that they've done multiple times across the show where they kind of split the crew.
[00:13:12] Know there's like three or four different things going on. At Know. You got Crusher and Picard trying to heal her leg and keep her alive and keep her conscious. You got Data, Yar and Riker trying to battle these drones. You got Jordy in charge of the ship for the first time, which was kind of cool dealing with a shitheal engineer. Good actor, though. Good character actor. He plays a douchebag. And like, everything he's in, I could certainly think of. He was in the first season of angel as well. And he played a really, really oh, he's in the pilot episode. I'm sorry, he was in the pilot episode of angel titled City Of, where he played like, this complete asshole vampire who almost kills Cordelia. Anyway, this is not angel top ten. This is Next Gen top ten, season one. Let's get back to it. Interesting factoid about the holographic salesman who tries to sell Picard weaponry.
[00:14:05] I am related to him. That is, the actor Vincent Chiavelli and turns out. He is a distant cousin of Mia, my father's side. We are both from Palermo in Italy. I was not born there. I don't know if he was either. But you were both descended from that part of the boot, as Tony Soprano would say. And, yeah, he's a distant cousin. Vincent Chiavelli. Good actor if you can't picture who he was from Next Gen. He was the subway ghost in the movie Ghost who taught Patrick Swayze how to hit Chip. There you go. That's all I got for you as far as Vincent's Chiavelli. Yeah, just an interesting episode. I like seeing Jordy kind of do things by himself. I kind of like the idea of these drones that can think. And this weapons showcase.
[00:14:54] All he had to do is buy the weapons to shut it off. Kind of a cool ending. Some people may see it as a jip. I thought it was kind of fun. So, yeah, an OD little episode there. Arsenal of Freedom. There you go. That's my number eight. Now the top seven are going to be more sort of famous episodes. I think if those first three were kind of weird, you will get why the next seven are in my top seven. All right, so number seven, the big goodbye. This was our real first bite of Holodeck technology. Really cool.
[00:15:28] It was. If not the first time. Certainly the first time we had sort of an episode out of it where Picard dresses up as Dixon Hill, a fictional detective. And I mean fictional fictional. Dixon Hill didn't exist even as a fictional detective in our time. At least, I don't think. I think it's sort of based novels or Mickey Spillane novels. So he becomes Dixon Hill for the first time. Very cool. We get a glimpse of what The Holodeck can actually do. Something the original series didn't have. They probably had the idea for it, but they just didn't really have the technology to take care of it. So this was pretty cool. So we get to meet this fictional plot where, you know, confronts what's his name? Cyrus Redblock. Really cool villain name. Played by Lawrence Tierney, another old timey character actor who's been around forever. Also plays an asshole in everything he's in. He's Elaine's father on seinfeld. He was the leader of the criminals in Reservoir Dogs.
[00:16:30] And Bomber, my buddy Bomber will appreciate the fact that he was the coach. He's one of the coaches in the end of Naked Gun during the baseball game. So, yeah, he was the head coach of Ball. That was him. Anyway, so we get a look at The Holodeck. It's pretty cool.
[00:16:46] Data and Crusher and Picard, of course, and that's right. The equivalent of a red shirt hops on. Because he is sort of a 20th century historian. So he accompanies Picard to The Holodeck and he gets shot and almost dies. But they saved him.
[00:17:04] We get introduced to a lot of the holodeck rules that were subsequently broken often. But we do get a glimpse of what it's like to actually experience the holodeck for the first time. Holodeck matter cannot exist outside the holodeck. Blah, blah, blah. They establish all those rules. Just a fun episode. Fun watching our characters get dressed up in old timey outfits. Crusher was banging in her 20th century outfit.
[00:17:30] Love it. Really funny moment when she swallows the gum. Good stuff. Yeah. So the big goodbye. Just a lot of fun. And, hey, you know, what a surprisingly emotional ending, considering that Dixon Hill, aka Picard, had this fictional friendship with this guy on the a little emotional saying goodbye to a holodeck character for the first time. So there you go. Right off the bat. We're emotionally invested. Well, at least I am. What can I tell you?
[00:17:57] All right, that was number seven. We are flying, folks. Let's go, number six. This was one of Luke's picks for best season finales. This is the season finale of season one, the Neutral Zone. Now, we did talk ad nauseam about The Neutral Zone when we were doing that finale's pod. It was a couple years ago, but they had a couple major points. So the A and B stories were kind of equal on this one. And they do kind of dovetail together at the end. So the A story is there are outposts that are being destroyed and nobody knows why.
[00:18:31] They suspect I don't remember if they suspect it was Romulans or not, but hey, Romulans show up. For the first time since the original series. In over 50 years, the Federation has had no trace of the Romulan Empire. Seems they were consolidating their power, building their technology and getting ready to just explode all over the Alpha Quadrant. So that was very cool seeing these Romulans come back. And I believe it was Mark Alemo who played the Romulan, Mr. Goldukat himself, or Golma Set, if you're strictly a next gen person. But, yeah, I'm pretty sure that was Mark Alamo playing the Romulan. I'll double check on that and almost assuredly correct myself on the next pod. But we'll see very cool, very cool moments there. As far as the Romulans go, very tense. Sort know, they're decloking captain, they're right there. Who is know, they really conveyed this sense of right. Very, very, you know, Russia, United States, Cold War kind of vibes.
[00:19:35] I always felt that was sort of the vibe with Romulans and the Federation. Always very Cold War, right.
[00:19:43] Very spies back and forth, very sort of competing technologies. Pretty much equal.
[00:19:50] That's always the comparison I made. Anyway, that's kind of changed since the fall of the Soviet Union, but since the Cold War ended, it's been a little different. But what are you going to do?
[00:20:01] So the B story, I'd say it's the B story is they sort of find three 20th century humans in cryogenic chambers. They're frozen, so they unfreeze these they're not Hicks, but they unfreeze these whoobs from 20th century Earth and unfreeze them. And Luke and I had a blast talking about one of the actors who was Chrissy Snow's father on Three's Company.
[00:20:29] Quick side note, as of this recording, a couple days ago, Suzanne Summers did pass away, so rest in peace. Suzanne Summers, the aforementioned Chrissy Snow on Three's Company.
[00:20:40] Kind of young. Too young to die, so that's a shame. We're going to miss her. So her father on Three's Company was one of the actors who was one of the unfrozen cryogenic people on Star Trek. So, folks, I'm all over the place. I realize that I am very self aware. I haven't done a solo pod in a while. So let's go ahead and forgive Phil just a little bit today. All right? Appreciate that. Thank you. So, The Neutral Zone, kind of a half comedy, half tension. Interesting episode. I didn't like it, I don't think, as much as my good budy Luke did. He probably have it much higher on this list for his next gen season one episodes. Luke, you could tell me if I'm wrong. I know I'm not. So that was number six, number five, data. Lore. That's right. Data. Lore. Lore. Lore. Lore. Lore. Lore. We get Lore for the first time, they find another Data on a planet.
[00:21:35] I want to say it's omicron something. I'll come up with it. Data's planet, where he was built and found by Starfleet officers. The reason he joined Starfleet. I probably got two of those facts wrong.
[00:21:50] Just a cool episode, man. They put Lore together. He's another Data. Hey, this is great. Wait a minute. Something's wrong with this robot. Lore is a little evil. He's a little crazy, he's a little nut job. And the square of the hypotenuse is equal to this something riker. Little trickery there. He almost got him to say the square of the sum of the other two sides, but Lore caught himself. Of course, Wesley figures it out before everybody else does. The fact that most I'm not going to say most the fact that a lot of Trek fans are not happy with the fact that Wesley solved a lot of problems.
[00:22:25] I didn't have a problem with it. Probably because I was roughly Wesley's age when I started watching Star Trek. Maybe I thought it was cool that there was a young character on there. I thought he was written pretty well.
[00:22:35] Didn't annoy me as much as a lot of Trek fans were annoyed by Wesley crusher. Hey, what are you so, yeah, listen, this was a great episode, right down to sort of how menacing and mean Lore was. He became a villain, as we all know, through the rest of the series, and earned he's kind of scary. The idea of an android with Data's power, speed, agility, intelligence, just being freaking evil. No, thanks.
[00:23:03] Yeah, great all around episode. We're also introduced to the Crystalline Entity for the first time, who would pop up again in the fifth season episode I want to say Silicone Avatar. In the fifth season episode, Silicone Avatar, the Crystal Entity popped up again, and then, folks, we didn't see it again until when?
[00:23:24] That's right, on season three of lower decks. I think it was season three. I don't think it was this season season three. So one of the cool things about lower decks in the opening credits is there's a battle in which in season one, the Romulans are fighting the Borg and the Cerritos, our ship on lower decks just kind of turns around and says, Peace. Doesn't help out at all. Hilarious part of the opening credits. But it turns out each subsequent season, they've added ships to that battle. Kind of cool to the point. Now, the battle is not just between the Borg and the Romulans. It's between the Borg and the packlids, the Borg and the Breen, the Borg and the Crystalline Entity added in season three. And I think I saw they added the whale ship from Star Trek Four Voyage Home.
[00:24:15] Really fun, really cool stuff. Curious who's going to be in season five anyway. So that was Data Lore fun episode. All right, let's go. Let's get serious. You know what, folks? Let's get serious. All right. Number four encounter at Farpoint. That's right. Got to get the pilot in there at some point. Okay. Was it the best pilot ever? No. Was it as good as the finale? Hell no. But it had Q. So we get Q for the first time. We get all these well, it's the pilot episode, Phil. Of course you get Q for the first time. You get all the letters of the alphabet for the first time, and you get P for the first time. P stands for Picard. Love the guy right off the bat. We talked about Picard before. He just jumps in there. Boom. He immediately brings that gravitas, that presence to that role. You immediately want to be commanded by.
[00:24:59] Know, back then, pilots were different from the rest of the series. Pilots were kind of made, and then they were sort of shoved at network executives just trying to get them to pick up the series.
[00:25:11] They do, and then you get into the series itself. So many times the pilot episode is different than the rest of the series. At least it was in eighty s and ninety s television, and I'm sure sixty s and seventy s television as well. But I was not around for a lot of that. So I know television, and I know that the pilot is a lot different from the rest of the series. For one, we do have a lot more skirt uniforms than we do in the rest of the series, at least the rest of season one.
[00:25:40] Troy never quite looked right in that little old original series skirt, did she? I mean, she, you know, good looking lady. She looked great. But it's a little dated. Little, you know, little sixty s. Seventy s. Eighty s. So some things are different.
[00:25:59] Some of the shots are different.
[00:26:01] The music is a little different. The opening credits are a little different, but for the most part, hey, we got our pilot episode. It's encounter at farpoint. It's a two hour episode, 2 hours on network television. I think it breaks down to like 120 something an hour and 20 something minutes if you kind of watch it on VHS, as I did many times. Or if you watch it on streaming. Man. Am I babbling? All right, cut back. Encounter at Farpoint, a lot of fun. Pilot episode introduces us to all the characters properly. You get to see how much of a badass some of these guys are. Data is a freaking treat. You do get a glimpse of the Holodeck in this episode as well, but you don't fully explore it quite yet. So yeah, I mean, it's the pilot episode. It's encounter at farpoint. Really cool sci-fi premise. I love the ending. I love sort of what ended up happening. Even if it's predictable, even if you saw what was coming even if you saw what was coming at Farpoint Station, it was still kind of cool to see that storyline sort of combined with the queue putting humanity on trial. Not for the last time. So, yeah, a lot of stuff going on. Encounter at Farpoint. What can you say? It's the pilot of one of the best shows of all time. Number four. Number three is the battle. The battle. So this is a great episode. This is a real gem of season.
[00:27:20] Know, picard starts having these headaches. Turns out he's being manipulated by a Ferengi who is out for vengeance. Doesn't have to be any more complicated than Know. When Captain Picard was captaining the stargazer he destroyed. And again, if I get a couple of these facts wrong, folks, I apologize. He destroyed a Ferengi vessel on which Damon Bach's son was on.
[00:27:48] So this daemon, which is the Ferengi equivalent of Captain this, you know, Alpha Revenge, gives Picard a really bad headache. So bad to the point it pushes him into this sort of psychotic break where he thinks he is back on the know, kind of a cool moment at the end where he seems like he's in this battle. He sort of commandeers the Stargazer, which, by the way, I'm sorry, I should have mentioned. So the Stargazer was discovered and the Ferengi, I think, placed this little glowing volleyball headache thing on the ship. So when they brought all of Picard's old belongings onto the Enterprise, that's when he started having the headaches. I think I got that right. Anyway, the battle at the end was kind of cool. We were about to see we did see the Picard maneuver, which was kind of cool, where you kind of warp. Right up to the nose of another ship and then fire away. It kind of makes the other ship think that you're in two places at once. That's right. The Picard maneuver. This guy was getting maneuvers named for him before he was even on the Enterprise. Bitch was doing stargazer, yo. So I'm going to repeat that. Bitch was doing stargazer, yo.
[00:29:00] All right, that happened. So the battle. A little footnote here to one of my friends who will absolutely never in a million years listen to this, but when I was living with my buddy Jay in Lakewood, New Jersey, back in the early 90s I'm sorry. No, it wasn't. It was the mid ninety s nineteen ninety six. I lived with him for about a year and a half. A lot of fun.
[00:29:23] I tried to get him into Star Trek. I might have mentioned this before he actually watched the entire first season of Next Gen, all 26 episodes. Hated it. Hated absolutely every minute of it, except for one episode. You guessed it. The battle. He really loved that episode. I don't know why. He never got around to pronouncing La waxana properly, and he thought there was a planet Narafar that he had heard somewhere, so he did not quite take to Next Gen, but he liked the Battle. So there you go. He got something right. Number three was the battle. All right, let's do number two. Number two.
[00:29:57] All right, let's do it. Top two. Let's go. Number two. Conspiracy. This is a cool episode. This is a cool episode. Not only does this episode not only does this episode sort of involve some really cool behind the scenes, who can you trust kind of things, but I said behind the scenes, really cool episode.
[00:30:22] Not only did it have a lot of, oh, my God, who can we trust? Everyone's being manipulated, the person's not acting the way they're supposed to be acting. Not only did it have that, but for me, it really started to world build a little better than the rest of the season had. I want to say this is the penultimate episode, so this is episode 25. This was right before the Neutral Zone finale. So, yeah, we had gotten a lot of really cool Sci-Fi episodes, and they traversed galaxies in the first season. I'll get to that in a second. Spoiler alert. But you got to see a bunch of other captains. You got to get a glimpse of sort of more of the other aspects of Starfleet than we kind of had before. I know we had another admiral on the ship in the episode too short a season, and I know we had some aspects of Starfleet and the overall Alpha Quadrant, but I just felt like it was a little more expanded meeting a lot of these other captains on and then sort of raises the stakes when you realize kind of what's happening. And what's happening is apparently we're being taken over by this parasitic alien race that surprisingly never popped up again. Unless I'm missing something or didn't read one of the novels, but we never saw them again. But it was a cool ride.
[00:31:43] Commander Remick returns, who was playing the role of the inspector on the Enterprise a few episodes prior. He comes back and he is promptly killed in a horrific way, but not before Picard dodges a laser. Thank you, phil Ferrand.
[00:32:02] You know, a funny scene. They just kind of spoofed it a little bit on the Star Trek Day presentation. Yeah, it's that really weird, parasitic mother thing that's living inside. REMIC. They did the best they could with effects in 1987, but I guess it was 1988 at the time, but still looked kind of cheesy. Still a cool episode, though. Something's taken over the Federation friends that you've known for years are acting weird. They don't remember your name.
[00:32:32] Yeah, so they foil the conspiracy, of course, but they leave it open with a really kind of cool, eerie ending, like, oh, they're out there. They're coming back now they never did. We're fine. So that was conspiracy.
[00:32:46] All right, let's drive this train wreck right off the tracks here. Number one, if you didn't get it from my illusion before, it is Where No One Has Gone Before.
[00:32:57] Not only is it a great politically correct title for an episode, one of the big things they did right off the bat was they changed it from Where No Man Has Gone Before to Where No One has Gone Before, and rightfully so. So let's go ahead and name an episode like that, as they did in the original series, except it was Where No Man has Gone Before. So they're continuing the know, the naked time, the naked now, where no Man Has Gone Before. Where no one has gone before. Listen, this is just a cool episode, and it sets up a lot of know. Kaczynski and his assistant come on board the Enterprise to run some tests on the Know. Something gets screwed up and they end up going faster than any ship's ever gone before. And they end up I want to say their first jump was to, like, the Far Side of the Galaxy or something. Crazy, crazy stuff.
[00:33:46] They don't know what's going on. Kaczynski might be a fraud. He might know what he's doing. Nobody really knows. Lieutenant Commander Argyle, the chief engineer, who we'll only see again, maybe one other episode, because we got to get Jordy promoted. So Argyle. Beat it, man. Don't know what happened to you, but you're not in our engine room anymore. So they don't kind of know what to make of, like, Eh, you know, he's probably full of shit, but, hey, I hear he's doing some great things, so let's check it out. And so he takes him across the galaxy. They say, go ahead. All right. Bring us back home. That's great. Let's try it again. So instead of bringing them back home, they vault through, I want to say, like two other galaxies and end up on the far side of Triangulum. I don't know what that is, but it sounds awesome. I'm assuming Triangulum is an actual galaxy out there, I guess past the Andromeda galaxy and whatever galaxy is past that pretty cool stuff. So they end up what they think is towards the end of the known universe, where thought and ideas sort of combine to change reality. Turns out, as you all already know, that's what caused them to make these jumps in the first place. Kaczynski's assistant spoiler alert is actually the Traveler. He's from a race, I want to say from SETI Alpha C. SETI Alpha C, I think that's right. And they've mastered sort of blending ideas in reality. So if they could just imagine themselves right across the galaxy, kind of cool stuff. Great visual effects, man, really great visual effects. Especially when they get to the edge of the universe and they got them little flying cotton ball snowflakes moving through with the blue. What's going on there, nobody knows, but really cool. Picard meets his mom again. Oh, and not for the last time. As you all know, if you watched season three of Picard season two, was that season two? Season two of Picard, yes, of you know, we get a lot more from Picard's mother in that, but this one, she's just an old lady in a chair, creepy as balls. Let me tell you this old Know with her little French accent, even though Picard is British and he's from Know, I'm not going to quit. Do you see this as the end or as the beginning? And I'm just like I see it as fucked up. She freaked me out. I don't know why. When I was a kid.
[00:36:15] She is just some weird old lady sitting there in the corridor just waiting for Picard to show up. No, thank you.
[00:36:22] But hey, awesome episode. That actor who played Kaczynski, I've only seen him in a couple of other things. I know he was on The West Wing for a little bit, and he's a character who's been in a ton of stuff. I'm sure he was in a ton of 80s TV shows.
[00:36:35] I'll come up with his name next for Next Pod, but Kaczynski love him. Great. We won't see him again. However, we will see the Traveler again, as you all know. We will see the Traveler again. How many times? 543212 more times on the show, if I got that right. I think I do. He's going to pop up again in season four. Another great episode that will undoubtedly be on my top ten. Season four. Is it season four? Season three. I think it's season four.
[00:37:04] You know what, we'll figure that out. But he pops up in Remember Me, the episode in which Crusher is getting sucked into the static warp bubble or whatever the hell, he pops up on there to help Wesley get his mom out, and then he pops up again in the 7th season episode, in which Wesley goes bye bye and joins the Traveler. Oh, shit. Spoiler alert.
[00:37:23] Yeah, I ruined that one for you. Hey, but that's all right.
[00:37:27] So listen, folks, we ripped through that list. My goal was to kind of get this done in a half hour. We're at about 40 minutes, but trying to make these quicker little pods in between the meteor pods. Not to say that it's not important to break down the top ten Next Gen season one episodes. It's really just a fun thing for me to do. But, hey, I hope you enjoy it, too, especially if you're fans of Next Gen and fans of season one and the relaunch of what we all love. That's star Trek, baby. So, yeah. Hey, listen, I appreciate you indulging me going solo here. Like I said, we're trying to get more content out for you guys. So I hope you enjoyed this pod. I really, really appreciate you listening.
[00:38:05] You guys are the best. And, yeah, hopefully Bomber and I'll be back with another episode, and then maybe after that, we'll jump right to Next Gen season two top ten episodes, all right? But, hey, check us out on Instagram and TikTok at St Warp 10, and give us a shout out on email. Let us know what your top ten Next Gen season one episodes are. That's stwarp
[email protected]. Thanks so much for listening, and, yeah, we'll see you guys next time. Have a great day. Have a great day. Hey, you know what? Have a great life. God bless.
