TNG Season 2 Episodes

[00:00:03] Discovery going throttle up ten. [00:00:12] 987-65-4321 hello and welcome to the Star Trek War Warp top ten podcast. What's going on, everybody out there? [00:00:32] This is your host, Phil Rizzo, flying solo today. I'm sorry. I know, I know. [00:00:39] Stop yelling, please. Like, I get it, I get it. I know you'd rather be listening to, you know, me and bomber or me and Luke or me and Troy or anybody besides just my voice, right? But today we're doing a solo pop. We're going to bang this one out. So continuing with next gen seasons, we did the next gen season one top ten. So today we're going to do next gen season two and break down those top ten. [00:01:03] Yeah. So that's what we got today. We'll probably keep this bad boy in probably under under 45 minutes. We'll see what happens. [00:01:11] And listen, before we get going, check us out on Instagram and TikTok at St. Warp ten. [00:01:17] Or send us an email at St. Warp 10. Yeah, give us a shout out, let us know what's happening. So, yeah, so basically, you know, I'm working my way through prodigy. That's my final frontier. [00:01:29] About halfway through the first season, I throw them on whenever I in the mood. You know, they're fun. They're fun stories. The animation is incredible. [00:01:38] You know, it's. They're made for all ages. You know, those episodes are for all ages, of course. But I mean, I'm still getting a kick out of seeing. Seeing janeway do her thing, you know, listening to Kate Mulgrew's voice again, that's always awesome. So I like hearing that. So, yeah, just watching prodigy, you know, finishing up then. Yeah, then my Star Trek journey is pretty much done as far as that goes. A little bit of housekeeping from last episode. So just a little bit. So there's a big, big episode that I. That I didn't even talk about at all when talking about Voyager. So we did top ten Voyager episodes in our last pod. And one of the biggest episodes in Voyagers run is year of hell, part one and two. Now, I know, I'm sure a lot of people were yelling, you know, how is year of hell not on there? And listen, year of hell is a great two parter. Really, really suspenseful. A lot of great moments, you know, great, great guest stars, like, had a lot going for it for some reason, you know. Course, it was in my thought process, but it just didn't make my cut a top ten. I don't know how else to say it, you know, I've seen that as the number one episode on a lot of Voyager list. So if, you know, if I'm way off, I'm way off. But it just, you know, I thought about it. I didn't even parrot sketch it. I just figured this just didn't make the cut. So it just didn't make the cut. Probably would have landed around 1212 and 13 if you take both parts. So, uh, it's a good ep, but didn't make my top ten, you know, for the Voyager episode. That's. That's. That's all the housekeeping I got. So, yeah, so, you know, the task at hand. So, like I said, let's talk a little bit about, you know, next gen, season two. So, you know, season one of next gen was kind of uneven. You know, there were some good episodes there, to be sure. And, you know, for 1987, I thought it was great television. I mean, it's great television. Anyway, let's not be silly. But, you know, watching it now in 2024, say, I mean, it's a little dated. You know, it's definitely eighties television in a lot of way. And I only mean that in terms of like, you know, these cute little moments that they had here and there. Like, you know, they. They feel like the main character, especially Captain Picard, had to be, you know, caught up in these cute little moments, you know, where they do that little. That little light musical cue, you know, the boom, boom, boom. I think you know what I'm talking about. Perhaps you don't, because that was a terrible impression. But yeah, so, so, you know, if season one had that eighties thing going for it, and of course, season two takes place in the eighties too, but, you know, so season two. Season two feels like an improvement over season one. It's four episodes shorter. Five if you count the clip show. We'll get to that. But, you know, season two, definitely an improvement. I think they were starting to come into their own a little bit. I know that's kind of generic to say, but I think it's true. Some of the first season episode plots kind of follow the original series in a couple episode plots. I mean, especially, you know, episodes like the Naked now, which was really a direct sort of sequel to the original series episode the Naked Time. But, you know, more than that, like, it feels like the actors were growing into their roles a little bit better. Right. You know, um, even, you know, costume wise, you know, I know they still had those sort of pajama onesies that they wore. And then season three is a huge improvement over that, but just, you know, Counselor Troy, you know, was pretty much, you know, set in the outfit she started wearing in the. In the second season. You know, we get Pulaski instead of crusher. You know, that was kind of weird. [00:05:04] I don't dislike Pulaski, Doctor Pulaski, but I do prefer Doctor Crusher. So it was nice getting her back in three, but for two, she kind of was an interesting, interesting character. She was a bit of a foil for data. She kind of didn't believe that he was fully sentient and he couldn't have any spontaneous thought. Everything he knew, he learned from the books. Right. According to her, that, you know, the elementary, dear data, the Sherlock Holmes episode, which, you know, you'll undoubtedly hear about today, you know, so. So, yeah, I like her, but, you know, a lot of fans really didn't like her, and I get why, but, nah, I kind of like Doctor Pulaski, played by Diana Muldar. So, yeah, so, you know, season two, it had some really. It had more. More standout episodes than I think season one did. And I think the episodes are. The episodes are better quality than. Than the one, than the good ones from season one. Right. If you take, you know, episodes like data lore or, you know, the neutral zone, really good episodes, you know, but when you stack them up against, you know, even my number three, there's no comparison, in my opinion, for season two. So season two is a big improvement. [00:06:13] You know, they. They went 22 episodes, the last of which was not a cliffhanger. It was not a finale. It was more or less a clip show. And I get that they're saving money. This is still, you know, the late eighties and, you know, network television is what it is. Even though they weren't on a network, they were syndicated. But, you know, you get the drift. Yeah. So, you know, season two was not great. It would certainly be, you know, if we ever ranked the next gen seasons. It would certainly be, you know, five, six or seven for, I mean, probably five or six, but it definitely wouldn't be in the top four, you know, just off the top of my head. So it is what it is. But listen, it's still next gen, season two. I still love it. This was still, you know, when I started watching next gen, the first episode I ever saw was from season two, peak performance. We'll get to that as well because it is on the list for sentimental reasons. But, you know, I watched that. So that was kind of halfway through season two ish. So by the time I got into it, my father, like, I mentioned before had all the episodes recorded on VHS. So when I dove through that catalog and watched them multiple times, that's all I had. Season two was a big part of that as well. So, season two and season one still have that. That nostalgia for me. You know, I kind of lumped them together as far as the beginning of my all time Trek journey. But we're not talking about season one. We're talking about season two tonight, and let's. Let's get to it. You ready? Let's do it. So, Star Trek the next generation, season two, top ten episodes, number ten pen pals. Not an episode that would be on a lot of people's top ten. I wouldn't think this is one of those episodes that just became comfort food for me. I know I say that a lot, but that's actually a big part of my life. I watched multiple shows over and over and over. So a lot of times, I'm in the mood just to watch something that's familiar and feels good. I'll put on a comfort food episode, and Star Trek gave me a ton of those. Now, like, I know I've mentioned a couple comfort food episodes in next gen before. The wounded from season four is another one, another big one. But for some reason, early on, when I was watching the VHS tapes, even the VHS tapes that I ordered from Columbia House, the ones that had, like, the full decked out, you know, stylized design, when I started buying those, this was still one I popped in a lot. [00:08:27] Pen pals. Yeah. So a 6.8 on IMDb may be deserved. Data befriends an alien girl in distress, breaking the prime directive while Wesley commands his first team. I know, you know, that could either sound exciting to you or the most boring piece of crap ever, but like I said, it is what it is. It's an episode I watched a lot. [00:08:48] I like the a story. So the a story is data just sort of reaching out and communicating with this young girl on this doomed planet. The prime directive dictates that we do not interfere with pre warp civilizations, even if it's about to be obliterated. Kind of dumb, but I get it. Where do you draw the line? Picards make that. Made that argument before. And speaking of Picard and next gen and the prime directive, you know, it's. It's. I feel like he sold the prime directive better than any other captain. I feel like Picard tried to stick to it as much as possible. He may have violated it more than any other captain, too. You know, I haven't done the math on that. But he argued for the prime directive in a lot of good ways, less so than Janeway did. And I don't even remember Cisco even talking about it because there were, hey, there, station. They didn't have a lot of, you know, planets to corrupt with their. With their futuristic technology. So, you know, really just thinking about, you know, Kirk Janeway, you know, pike, just captains who have had to deal with the prime directive, even Burnham. The latest episode of Discovery I just watched really dealt with the prime directive. Not a great episode, but, you know, we'll get to that when we do discovery. Season five, you know, sidebar. So far, not too bad. I think season five is indefinite improvement over four and three, at least four so far. Anyway, I got four episodes to go. I'm excited to see where it lands. I love the. The plot from this season. Not only does it harken back to the next gen we're talking about, but it also is reminiscent of season two, discovery, which is my favorite season of discovery so far. So discovery. Yeah, let's see what happens. Hopefully. Hopefully it'll stick the landing with this season and, yeah, you know, that's discovery. Anyway, back to next Gen. So, like I said, I like the a story. I like data communicating with this girl. It's a neat little story. It's got a little heart. You know, it's nice seeing data sort of break away from the robot trope. The, you know, and, you know, not just. [00:10:40] Not just practice human emotion, not just stand in front of a mirror and try to sneeze, but, you know, just. Just through the dialogue and the character development, just, you know, nice little. Nice little human story for data there with a little emotionality behind it. We'll see a lot of that this season and season three as well. Anyway, you know, the little girl, too, like, little actors, actress who played her was really cute. And I love what they did with her voice, you know, was very. It sounded soothing over the. Over the communications array. Right. It's that high pitched voice, but, like, a little. The computer behind it. I kind of like that. So that. That was kind of cool. You know, the visuals could have been better when data landed on the planet, but, you know, again, we are talking about budgeted 1988, you know, tv show. So what are you gonna do? It looks good enough. I'm not complaining. It looked good enough. So the A story is cool, and then the B story wasn't too bad either. You know what? Wesley, you know, commanding his first, you know, his first set of his first team. Right. But they're all adults. And honestly, anyone, you know, a lot of people can relate to that. I certainly can. You know, when I became a manager, you know, at a restaurant, and then you start telling people much older than you what to do, you're always like, eh, who am I? You know? But you learn. You get past it, right? It's part of growing up. [00:11:51] So that's a cool story. But really, overall, like I said, pen pals is just on this list because it was a comfort food one for me. You know, I enjoyed watching it a lot. Oh, you know what I did want to mention about this episode? The meeting Picard has in his ready room. We don't really see that much at all. We saw that in season two, and then they really didn't do that again, as far as I can remember. Anyway, now, this is something that I think deep space nine did really well. They had a lot of those personal meetings either in Cisco's quarters or in the wardroom, where they just kind of all just threw ideas out, you know, a place other than, I should say, the wardroom in dspace. Nine did fulfill the same purpose as the conference room on next gen, right off the bridge. But I feel like there were casual moments in the wardrobe. They were having, like, a get together, and they were just kind of throwing ideas out. That's kind of the feel I have. But also, Captain Pike. Pike clearly does this a lot. I mean, in two seasons, he's already had the whole crew over for dinner two or three times, so. And, you know, and they talk shop in there, so I like that. I like that next gen did that. It was opening for Picard. You know, it was kind of showing that he's opening up a little bit, not being so stiff. There's not that complete compartment compartmentalization, you know, in his brain between, you know, what the crew is and what family supposed to be and all that kind of crap. So I like that, that meeting in there. We just kind of, you know, they all weighed in. And then, of course, you know, data not so purposefully slash purposefully playing, you know, her voice over the speaker before he deleted it, just so everybody can kind of hear and be like, ah, shit. You know, you put a. You put a real voice to these nameless sort of prime directive subjects, and something's gonna happen. Something's gonna give. So cool, cool scene. I like that idea. And just a solid episode for me. Anyway, IMDb disagrees. 6.8. Let's see what's going on with number nine. So number nine is the emissary. This is a popular episode from season two. Gets a lot going. [00:13:42] 7.5 IMDb. [00:13:45] So the Enterprise addresses the emergency of an old Klingon ship coming out of stasis and ready to fight the Federation. So. [00:13:53] Oh, my God, there's more to it. Sorry. A half human, half Klingon emissary arrives to help who once knew Worf intimately. Ooh, didn't need that second part. Don't even need these explanations. But, hey, they're out there in case you need to be reminded about the episodes like I do sometimes. So the emissary is a fun episode. So we meet Kalar for the first time, worfs old flame, you know, spoiler alert. We all know, you know, what ensues after this episode and the, you know, succeeding episodes with Kaylar in it. But she's a great character. You know, Suzy Plaxton, she's been. She's been on next Gen, she's been on Voyager. She played a lot of roles. So she's a fun friend to Star Trek. And I like that whole Worf and Kaelor storyline. Not so much when the storyline expands a little bit, but we'll get to that when we get to what, season four, I suppose. [00:14:44] And the plot. Right. So this plot, it's been done before. So it might be from a book or something, I'm not sure. But the idea of. I mean, it was just spoofed on Archer a few seasons ago. So the idea that you're gonna find a world War two soldier who didn't realize the war ended because they've been stranded on an island or their. Their group got isolated, you know, and they've just been training for when the war starts again. And, you know, so the idea of having to hunt down Klingons and tell them that the war is over, you know, that might be pretty, pretty crazy. But you know what? They put a Sci-Fi twist on it by having these klingons in stasis, you know, and it makes perfect Star Trek sense. Perfect Star Trek sense. [00:15:24] And I don't mind seeing rehashes of certain stories or certain angles on stories if they're done well, I think this was done pretty well. So whenever you have the Klingons involved, it's always. It's always, for me, it's a mixed bag. I'm not a huge fan of Klingon centric episodes. [00:15:38] You know, it depends on the story. Completely on the story. I mean, I love Worf. I love Kaler. I love, you know, all of our klingons Belana Torres. But it's got to be the right story. The Red Klingon story. But this was good. This was a good one. Like I said, it got a lot going. I like the idea of, you know, Kayla roughing it to get there. Reminds me of roga Danar from season three, the little capsule he was trying to escape. The Enterprise inn. We'll get to that when we get to season three, if that makes the top ten. We'll see. But, yeah, not much to say here. The emissary. Okay, number eight, let's have some fun with the royale. Yes, yes. Right. Now, my brother, who's listening to this, is like, all right, the Royale should have been number one, he would say, but let's leave it at number eight for now and see what happens. So the Royale, 6.6 on IMDb. I get why. I get why. Worf, Data and Riker find themselves trapped in a recreation of a poorly written novel. Now, this is one of those episodes that you probably remember it because it's pretty distinctive, but you either hated it or loved it. That's probably what happened for me. I loved it. This was a fun fucking episode. It's been done a million times in a million shows. Not just Star Trek, you know, but the idea. So the cool part of it is they're scanning the planet and there's nothing. It reminds me of. God, there's. They did rehash a lot in season three, didn't they? I was about to bring up the survivors, which is almost exactly like the beginning of this episode, and how they find what they find, but it doesn't matter. We'll get to that. We get to season three. I'm gonna say that a lot. Clearly. So, yeah, they scan this planet and there's others. There's. There's this one spot where something's going on here. We gotta beam down. They beam down and there's an old, tiny, revolving revolving door just there in the middle of this nothingness like that. That's intriguing to me. That's very twilight zone. It's very, you know, where the fuck is this going? Like, I like that. And it doesn't matter that it goes to a slightly generic place. Right. It's still fun. The journey is kind of fun. So the royal is a lot of fun. So, yeah, you know, like I mentioned in the synopsis, you know, data, Worf and Riker, they go through this door and they end up at this old timey casino. [00:17:42] And they're like, what the hell's going on? You know, Holland manners from angel is the concierge. And, you know, there's. There's cowboys gambling, and there's, you know, you know, bellhops in trouble. So. So it turns out. I think it's a cool twist, too. It turns out that, you know, they find. They detect human remains or something. So they go up to the hotel room in this fictitious, you know, hotel, and they find an actual NASA astronaut. Pretty cool. They find, like, a NASA insignia and stuff like that, you know, and it turns out that this NASA, you know, astronaut got. [00:18:22] You know, what I forget exactly. Waste away, caretaker style. Or he. [00:18:27] Either way, he ended up trapped and alone on this, you know, on this planet. So these aliens felt bad for him. So they. The novel that he was reading at the time, they made that his whole world thinking. Thinking that's what he would love, you know? Turns out, you know, according to Picard or Riker, one of them says it's such a badly, poorly written novel. Oh, no, I'm sorry. It's Colonel Richie, the astronaut. The astronaut. He is the one who said, you know, it's such a poorly written novel with cliches and all this shit. They didn't know the fucking hell they were putting me through, which I think we could all relate to you from a fun fantasy standpoint, right? Think of the worst fucking novel or tv show you've ever read or watched, and imagine being in there forever. There must be fucking torture. Anyway, so, you know, there's some really fun moments with data and worf. You know, data starts gambling, and, you know, the bad guy from the last Boy Scout is, you know, gambling at the table, the cowboy hat. And, you know, you got the, you know, the girl who's trying to take advantage of. It's, you know, it's just full of cliches and shit, but it's a lot of fun. I thought the royale was a lot of fun. And like I said, it's a very memorable episode, whether you remember it for good reasons or bad reasons. So, yeah, the Royale, number eight. All right, so number seven. We won't talk much about it. Peak performance. Like I said, this is the episode that. The very first episode I've ever watched of Star Trek start to finish. So it had to make somewhere on the list, in my opinion. That's how my lists go. I think you guys know that by now. But, uh, it's still a fun episode, you know? So. A 7.7 on IMDb. We're getting better. The crew of the enterprise participates in war games. [00:20:04] Enough. Enough said. Right? That's all you get. All you gotta hear. It's fun. It's a fun little, little scenario. It's fun seeing rikers shine. It's fun seeing Wesley be creative and think outside the box. [00:20:15] It's fun seeing Glenn Morshauer, the actor who played Aaron Pearce on 24, who's been in a million, loved that actor. I met him once at the Garden State film festival. Really super friendly guy. [00:20:28] So, yeah, so it was fun seeing him. He had a lot of lines. He was taking over for security. [00:20:34] He was taking over for Warford security. He had that line, bye bye, hathaway. You know, I watched that episode a gazillion times when I was growing up, like I said. [00:20:45] And then I went on to watch the actor in question, Glenn Moorshower, beyond 24 and bloodline and just a million shows, right? This great character actor. And only last week when I was watching, when I was just watching episodes for fun, for this pod, just to kind of catch up, I put on peak performance and I completely forgot. I never put it together that he would. That was him. Even after I met him, I didn't remember that he was in this episode of Next Gen. [00:21:10] Because you know what? When you're 16 and you're watching tv and you see some actor in the background, you know, ten years later, when you see him on another show, a lot of times you don't remember. Now, usually I do. And right now, most of my friends listening to this are pretty disappointed to like Phil. You didn't know that? I didn't know it. I've also never seen Chinatown, so, you know, fuck off. That was for my friends, not you guys. You guys are awesome. So what can I say? Peak performance, number seven. Ooh, 7.7. Number seven. Is there anything there? No. No. All right. Number six. [00:21:41] 8.9, IMDb rating. So maybe you can guess this episode. It certainly ain't shades of gray, but it's Q who. [00:21:51] Q who? That's right. I know. It's only six. I know. [00:21:55] A monumental episode in the history of Star Trek. Let's talk about why. So like I said, 8.9. Q tries to prove that Picard needs him as part of their crew by hurling the Enterprise 7000 light years away, where they encounter the Borg for the first time. Now, like Bomber and I were joking about if this is a tv God synopsis, they're not going to say where they encounter the Borg for the first time, or maybe they will, but they probably shouldn't, because if you're new to Star Trek, who the fuck are the Borg? Right. Well, if you're not new to Star Trek, you know who the Borg are. So this episode had to be on this list for that one reason. This episode introduced the Borg to Star Trek. You know, the Klingons are iconic, right? The Romulans are iconic. But I mean, and I'm pretty sure the Borg were number one on my list for villains. And I still think that's the, that's the case. I mean, you know, the Klingons served a purpose. The Romulans served a purpose. They were the foil. They were the bad guys in a sixties show, you know, well done. Lord knows we love Klingons and Romulans, but the Borg completely changed the game. The Borg changed the landscape of Star Trek in all of its timelines, you know, but largely. I mean, the 24th century on was never the same again. And it was because Q hurled the Enterprise 7000 light years away. They encounter the Borg before they're ready to. We get our look at the Borg. I was rewatching this episode not too long ago and I was really impressed about how much they established in this first episode that became and solidified or concretized. That's for you, Luke, as bourg lore, right? No pun intended there, man. I'm on a roll. So, you know, good job. Good job. Creators, producers, writers. You know, the first time we see the Borg, we get a lot established. [00:23:43] So, yeah, so it's fun there. Terrifying, terrifying villain to encounter. You know. [00:23:51] You know, villains without emotion are just completely horrifying, right? You know, serial killers, robots with anytime, anything. You know, there's just no emotion. They're just detached from emotion. You can't fucking. You can't talk them down. You can't bribe them, you can't reason with them. They're gonna fucking kill you no matter what. So you're screwed. [00:24:11] And the Borg with that, you know, the Borg with that, simply. So watching them for the first time, you were kind of like, wow, it's. It's a cube. That's pretty cool. And they don't give a shit that you're poking around on their ship until you do something damaging. Then they're gonna come at you. It's. It's pretty cool, pretty wild concept, you know, for 1988. Or maybe it was 1989 by then when it came out. But either way, season two, next Gen. Way to go. A fucking home run for the franchise, guys. So good job there. Yeah, it's a great episode. Who doesn't love C and Q? You know, Q was one for one in my opinion, Luke would tell you that Q was, you know, two and o, because hide and Q is the greatest episode ever, ever written on any show, ever, according to Luke. But for me, just me personally, for me, just me talking here, I did not like hide and Q. So, you know, the pilot, Q was really intriguing. Hide and Q, it's like, eh, not crazy about that episode. So when you see Q again, it wasn't an automatic home run, right? You know, when you see Q show up in season six, you're like, this is gonna be a fun episode. I wasn't so sure, but he did a great job. We establish his relationship with Guinan in this episode. Guinan has encountered the cube before her species. The El Orians have encountered the cube before. Man, the Elorians get around, don't they? So not only in this very episode do we learn that there's a. There's a deep and disturbing history with the quote, but her species has got a deep, disturbing history with the Borg as well. [00:25:35] Her planet was, you know, her species were pretty much scattered across the galaxy by the Borg. I'm starting to think maybe it's the Elorians fault. I mean, Guinan and, what, Soren are the only ones you've met and sworn was a dick, so starting to think it's their fault. Well, we'll get more into that at some point, clearly, but El Orians needs further inspection. Ku, what can I say? The Borg are introduced. Cue is awesome. We got Guinan putting her hands up because apparently doing that and sort of the claw gesture, that's gonna. That's gonna fend people off. So want to know what kind of magic she's working on there. We are going to move on. So we're looking at number five now. This is. This is another episode that's just. It was comfort food for me, but it's also just a great episode. Great Sci-Fi episode. Contagion. The episode contagion. Fun. Episode 7.6 on IMDb. Encountering the superior technology of a very ancient race creates system malfunctions for a doomed Federation starship, for the Enterprise, and for an eavesdropping Romulan warbird. These are very talky breakdowns, I gotta say. There's not. There's no periods at all. There's just commas and semicolons and run on sentences. So I apologize for that. Those were written by IMDb users. I'm not blaming you guys. I love IMDb. Hey, you know what? God bless. So contagion, man, a fun episode. So this is where we encounter the enterprises sister ship, the Yamato, which is freaking hilarious. The idea of a sister ship saving money is fucking brilliant, right? So does it stab a, you know, dagger into, you know, Star Trek canon? A little bit. So, obviously, the flagship of Starfleet is the NCC 1701 D, right now, right? It's the most sophisticated thing ever built, galaxy class. Can't wait to see what it can do, right? [00:27:24] Oh, there's two. You made two of them? Well, why not make six? So, you know, the idea that there's another, you know, galaxy class ship just like the Enterprise out there is kind of stupid. But you save money, right? You do what you got to do. Like I said, season two, they're trying to save money. They got a fucking clip show going on, they got some bad effects going on, and they got. They got the Yamato as the sister ship. Now, all that being said, this is still a great fucking fun episode. And we get introduced to another species that doesn't have anywhere near the impact that the Borg had on Star Trek. But we are talking about the demons of air and darkness, right? The iconians who popped up again on deep space nine. A lot of fun. A lot of fun doing that. Anyway, yeah. So they encounter the Yamano. They're having these weapons melt. Sorry. These ship malfunctions. [00:28:11] You know, one of Picard's old friends, Donald somebody. I can't remember the name of the captain, but. Captain Donald somebody, you know. It's good to see you, Jean Luc. What are you doing out here? Riker? What's going on, fuckface? You know, they're kidding around. They're having some fun, and then fucking, hey, the Yamato explodes, right? Boom. [00:28:30] So, I mean, you know, over a thousand people on it just blow up because I'm some malfunction. [00:28:36] Sort of like, what the hell's going on? You know? I'm not gonna lay out the whole plot for you, but it's fun where it goes. Obviously, the Enterprise starts having those malfunctions. It's like, oh, my God, what's gonna happen to us? Are we gonna blow up? Let's figure this out. So they do a couple great twists involving Romulans. [00:28:51] Check out the episode, if you haven't seen it, tons of fun contagion. Yeah. Love it, love it, love it. All right, number four, another comfort food episode, one of Luke's favorite titles, going all the way back to season one of our little pod here, where silence has lease. [00:29:07] Good fucking episode. Good Sci-Fi Episode 7.80 on IMDb, the Enterprise encounters a mysterious void in space, and when they move in closer to investigate further, it envelops them and they can't get out. That's a succinct description. Well done. So this is a fun little episode involving this alien that, you know, that I mentioned. It swallows the Enterprise and then they're rats in a maze. This entity, nagilum, has never encountered humans before, clearly. Or apparently, I should say, because that's kind of hard to believe. Anyway, I guess the idea is that the enterprises is, you know, out there exploring the, you know, the great unexplored mass of the galaxy, as you put it in the pilot. Right? So he hasn't seen humans, so he starts experimenting with them in kind of fucked up ways, you know, kills someone. He's throwing Pulaski around the bridge because she's a woman, not a man, checking out her biology, you know, and he's like, all right, in order to keep studying you bitches, I'm going to have to kill a third of your crew. Can't happen. Or have something like that. Either way, it was something that they couldn't. They couldn't deal with, you know, how do you make those decisions? So they decide to blow up the ship and boom, boom, boom. There's a bunch of spoilers in there. But you know what? Check it out. It's a fun episode. [00:30:20] You know, I like how it ends. Luke and I did have a cool conversation about the scene in Picard's quarters. Right. There's that season two recurring theme of just having people in his quarters to talk. I mean, they knocked on the door. He didn't invite them. But, you know, it is what it is. The. Well, I won't spoil that for you. Watch the episode. But anyway, they have a great conversation about, you know, philosophy and life and death and the afterlife and spirituality and what you believe in, and was really well written. Really, really well written. [00:30:50] And Luke pointed that out. So, yeah, so a couple things about Nagilum. This. This alien entity, great visual. This great visual effects in this episode. I love the way Neghillam sort of puts together his own look. He kind of looks like a. It looks like gizmo from gremlins, actually, now that I think about it. But sort of like cat features. You just kind of look like humans, or look enough or look close enough to them where they didn't freak the fuck out. So I liked what they did with that visually. I liked his voice, very sort of calm and soothing in a creepy Hal 9000 way, you know, kind of voice, you know. So just a great, great Sci-Fi premise. The rats in a maze, what do you do? You know, they're scientifically curious and it gets them kind of into trouble. So good episode, man. Where silence has lease. A fun one. A fun little gem hidden away in season two. [00:31:40] Alright, number three, let's get down to it. Time squared. I've talked about this episode before. I certainly mentioned it in reference to the great performance by Patrick Stewart. This was one of my top ten Patrick Stewart performances. Really well done. [00:31:55] So Times squared, 7.5 on IMDb. [00:32:00] Great premise. The Enterprise comes across its own shuttlecraft adrift in space. Ooh, hyphen. Hyphen. A duplicate. Second hyphen with an unconscious duplicate. Captain Picard inside. Interesting. If you didn't hear the beginning of the pod, that hyphen shit was really confusing, but trust me, it flows. Anyway, so Times squared. Fun episode. They find another Captain Picard from just, you know, in the future. A little reminiscent, or I should say deep space nine episode visionary. A little reminiscent of this episode where, you know, O'Brien kind of keeps jumping forward just a few hours or he sees himself a few hours in the future. Interesting. [00:32:40] Anyway, hey, like I've said, nothing wrong with borrowing a premise. If you do it, well, do it originally. So Tupac cards, you know, and they don't know what the hell's going on. They find shuttle records where the Enterprise is destroyed and they figure they only have x amount of time before. No matter what happens, the Enterprise is going to be destroyed. It's happened. It's already the few, you know, it's happened. It was in the future. [00:33:01] Can't stop it, right? That's, that's, that's the crux of this episode. Can you alter your destiny? [00:33:07] I'll leave it to you to watch the episode and enjoy it because it's a fun one. Hopefully Bomber will be getting to season two soon. He has not moved off his spot on next gen, as far as I could tell. As far as I know, anyway. But we're gonna. We're gonna make that happen soon, so. Yeah, so he'll be enjoying this soon, hopefully. And you should too. Timesquared is a fun episode. Great performance by Captain Picard. Great Sci-Fi premise, great visual effects. I'm just really well done. Really well done. Top two, folks. So. So these two, even looking at them right now, I could flip flop them, but I'm not going to. I'm going to leave them where they are and we'll see we'll see where you guys fall based on my explanation for being two and one. So we'll see. So who gives a shit, right? Phil? Just get to it. All right, done. No problem. Number two. Elementary, dear data. [00:33:55] And I know a lot of you are like, wait a minute. You know, this should be number one. Or, Phil, I really thought this would be your number one for season two because you mentioned it's one of your favorite episodes of all time. I did say that. You should think that. I didn't do that. Hang on. So an attempt to provide data with a challenging Sherlock Holmes holodeck program backfires when its professor Moriarty character accidentally becomes self aware. Alright, so I'm pretty sure if you're listening to this pod, you're probably familiar with this episode. If you're not, it's just a lot of fun. You know? Data and Jordy get to play Sherlock Holmes, and then doctor Pulaski and Picard end up playing Sherlock Holmes. Even Worf gets involved, I think. So they go to 19th century London and it's just really a great showcase for what the Holodeck can do. Right. We saw the holodeck in the first season and we had. [00:34:45] You know, we had the forest scape that data was hiding out in. You know, I'm pretty sure there were snowballs. Wesley was playing with his little friends after they got done wharfing, and then. And then we had the big goodbye. Right? One of the. Really, the first real holodeck episode. A lot of fun, Dixon Hill. But this really. Okay, so we can create any point in time and just go walk around. Awesome, right? Who wouldn't want that? Our first taste of Daniel Davis. I think it's Daniel Davis. Forgive me if that's the wrong name, playing Professor Moriarty. Um, you know, you may know he returns again in season six of next gen. And then. Oh, he returns again and another show as the same character. Very cool. Um, won't spoil that for you yet. Still pretty, uh, still pretty fresh in our minds. So. I mean, what a fun episode. Elementary, dear data. Uh, you know, it was in my. I think was my favorite holodeck episode. You know, it's a lot of fun. Talked about it a lot on there, but, uh, some good Sherlock Holmes stuff. They really stuck to the source material. Bomber and I both have read the whole catalog of arts author Conan Doyle stuff, and there's a lot of cool, deep cuts to appreciate in there, especially in that first scene where data is going through his. Through his study. [00:35:54] You know, Doctor Pulaski was great Captain Picard, I should say. [00:35:58] Diana Muldar and Patrick Stewart were great. Daniel Davis was amazing in this episode. It was just really well done. Really pulled off well. [00:36:06] Fun all around. So I think I mentioned offhand, this might have been one of my favorite. I mean, it was one of my favorite next gen episodes. It was on that list, too. But I thought when I was looking at season two, it would clearly be my favorite episode. But then I forgot about my number one, and I know you didn't, and this would have been on. I knew this would be in the top five somewhere. But I rewatched it. I rewatched both episodes recently, but this one I rewatched. And I was, like, just so caught up in it emotionally still. And I'm sorry, I hate doing that. Measure of a man. The measure of a man is my number one. And I think most of you knew once I said elementary to your data for number two, that number one be measure of a man. So the first nine rating on IMDb in NextGen's run. Let's get to it. When data resigns his commission, rather than be dismantled for examination by an inadequately skilled scientist, a formal hearing is convened to determine whether data is considered property without rights or as a sentient being. So that's sort of an age old sort of premise. But, man, did I do it well. So there's so much going on for this episode. You know, you have this. This great storyline where, you know, Commander Maddox steps in and he wants to, you know, create more data. Because who wouldn't want more datas, right? I know I brought this point up before, but Picard mentions it, like, Data's, you know, contribution to the ship is incalculable, right? You can't even imagine, you know, having an Android on every bridge of every Starfleet ship. So he wants to make more and duplicate Doctor Soong's work, right? The positronic brain wants that. Wants to make more of those. Why wouldn't you? But he needs to dismantle Data to do it, and he really doesn't. But he's not quite there yet, and Data knows it. Data's like, do more research, dude, before you fucking open me up for parts. So he doesn't want to do that. So he's like, no, your property. I'm going to do it whether you like it or not. Data's like, all right, whatever. That's weird. And Picard's like, no, no, no, no. Hold on, asshole. He's not property. He's a fucking sentient being. And he deserves the same rights everybody else has. So therein lies the philosophical debate of the episode. And, you know, who doesn't love a fucking courtroom scene, right? Or a courtroom episode? And I may have mentioned this before, but I'm in the middle of cooking up a top ten courtroom episodes. There's a lot of great courtroom Trek episodes, and this will probably be on that list somewhere, but not courtroom episodes. So. Yeah, so, you know, we have Picards love interest who's going to be the judge advocate and sort of this makeshift trial they're going to do. But if you see the episode before, you kind of know where I'm going. So Riker has got to be the prosecutor, right? So Ryker's got a. Got to fight against data because he's the second in command of the ship, and that's, like, naval tradition, blah, blah, blah. So it's Riker versus Picard, for data is right to choose. Pretty dramatic stuff, you know? Right. You know, Jonathan Frakes plays it really well. It's written really well. You know, he doesn't want to do it, but he has to. So he's this reluctant sort of, you know, advocate. But Riker's good at his job, right? So he's gonna. He's gonna find some shit, and he's gonna almost take fucking data down. Right? [00:39:18] I don't think I'm spoiling it by saying, you know, data wins the right to choose, but if I am, I apologize. Check out the episode. It's still awesome, man. But there's a real emotionality to this episode, and that. That's really what put it over the top. Not only is it well written, not only is it well acted, not only is it well staged, you know, everything. It's just an emotionally charged episode, and it's earned. And it's not cliche. You know, it's really well done. You know, data, by definition, his acting, Brent Spider's acting performance is not eliciting an emotional response. It is physically, literally not doing that. But you still get there, right? You get there because, you know, they're fighting for data, who does not have emotion. So, you know, some of the stuff they bring up at the trial is really great. It's a great touch where they're reading all of his medals and, you know, accommodations and, you know, Picard, you know, insists that it be read. Right. It's a smart move. It's a good objection, but a smart move. Good courtroom. Good courtroom tactic there, right? So this episode, it's not far and away the best episode of the season because, you know, because of what I mentioned about elementary, dear data. But I think it's the clear winner. As I sit here right now, I'm going to tell you that measure of a man I think is the best episode of the season. [00:40:28] You be the judge. Let me know. Let me know what you think. Throw your top ten up in an email. Let us know. Stwarp one zeromail.com. let us know what's going on there. That would be fun to see if you think I'm right. Wrong. Way off. [00:40:41] Before we stop this bad boy, I do want to mention the clip show that I'm mentioning, the final episode of the season. Episode 22 is called Shades of Grey. Okay? It's basically a clip show episode. It's not a finale. It's not a cliffhanger. It's just kind of, just kind of an episode. And even if they fleshed it out to be a full episode, not a clip show, it'd still just be an average episode. But I think the premise had promised. I like that the premise had promised was a promising premise. You know, I do like the idea of record getting bit by something and we don't know what it is. So they got to go back down to the planet, you know, and everyone's doing research to, you know, save this person. I mean, that's been done before on multiple shows. You know, it's been done on trek before, but it doesn't mean it's not a good device. It doesn't mean it doesn't draw you in. I just think they could have done it without, if they had the budget, they wouldn't have done it. They would have done it without the clips, right? [00:41:34] So this was eighties television, guys. Like, so I don't know, you know, a lot of you, if you're young, if you were born, you know, in, I don't know, the nineties or higher, maybe you don't know what a clip show even is. So. So back in the day, tv shows, mostly network shows, but yes, indicated shows, too, in order to save money. Like, you know, they would do what's called a clip show. They used to have like 20, 22, 26 episodes a season back then. So, you know, shows like family ties, Cosby Show, Star Trek, the next generation, they would have, you know, 22 episodes a season. It's not like that anymore. Streaming, as you know, you know, shows, if they have more than ten, it's, it's, it's too much. Nowadays, most shows are ten or eight or even six episodes. I know when streaming first started 13 was kind of the magic number for some reason. Not sure why. Even on HBO, you know, a lot of the wire episodes were 1313 episodes long. I feel like the Sopranos hit 13 a couple times. So, yeah, so, you know, back in the day, there were, there were more episodes to make. Hence cost you more money to run that season, right. So you would do something called the clip show. You would show previous scenes from other episodes, from past episodes, you know, so you didn't have to film new things, have actors there, you know, blah, blah, blah. So that was a clip show. [00:42:48] Hey, the Simpsons did it. You know, a lot of shows did it, but you don't really see it much anymore. And to my knowledge, none of the nineties shows ever did it except for this one time. I don't think Voyager D space did a clip show per se. Obviously they showed clips from other shows and maybe even overdid it in a couple episodes. But. But for the most part, I feel like, you know, there were no clip shows. This was the only one in nineties trek. And, yeah, I mean, it was a lot. Like I said, it felt normal when we watched it in the eighties, but when I watched it in the. I guess it was, I was still the eighties. Yeah. When I watched it, you know, it felt normal to me. It doesn't mean it wasn't a boring episode, because it was. But I had promise, you know, I had promise. It was kind of a cool, cool plot when it first started and then it kind of devolved into this, you know, clip show. So it is what it is. So shades of grey. Yeah. Not list, which, by the way, I think is like a 3.3 on IMDb. I think it's by far the lowest rated episode of Star Trek on IMDb. I think even with all the hate for Discovery on IMDb, I feel like 3.3 is still the lowest, so. [00:43:54] And it's clip show, so does it deserve it? Maybe. So. Listen, I told you I keep it short and sweet. I know you don't want to hear me talk on and on and on and on and on without somebody else to bounce this stuff off of, but, but it is what it is, folks. I got a talk track, man. And I want to keep it flowing for you guys. I want to try to get more content, more episodes out there. We're going to, we're recording another episode tomorrow night. I want to say with, with Bomber, with Brian, who couldn't be here tonight. So. Yeah, hopefully you like it. And I really, really appreciate you listening. You know, thanks for that. You know, it's, it's, it's just cool knowing that some people are, are into it and listening to what we're doing. Thanks so much, and we'll see you next.