[00:00:03] Discovery going throttle up.
[00:00:10] 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
[00:00:27] Hello and welcome to the Star Trek Warp Top 10 podcast. What is going on out there, everyone?
[00:00:33] What is up? Trekkes. Trekkers. Trek Curious. What is happening?
[00:00:37] I'm your host, Phil Rizzo, welcoming you back to another episode and flying solo again today, folks. Hey, listen, we're gonna do. We're gonna do one of the season breakdowns. Okay? I've been taking my time with those.
[00:00:49] We're gonna break down TNGs. That's the Next Generations season four. I'm gonna tell you my top 10 episodes.
[00:00:56] Yeah, doing a quick solo. We'll be back with another episode. Either a bomber's trek or another top 10 soon enough. But today you got me going solo, so. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm excited to talk about Star Trek Next Generation Season 4, but before we get going on that, I wanted to let you know that you could, like, subscribe, follow us on TikTok, Instagram threads, twarp10, and you can let us know what's going on with you personally. If you want to email us, you can do that. That is stwarp tenmail.com that's where we are at. Check us out. So listen, we got a little housekeeping from our last couple top 10 episodes.
[00:01:37] Not much, just a couple little things I wanted to clarify. So I know we were talking about Chief o' Brien and how many episodes of Next Gen he appeared on. I think I said like 40 or so. Col Meaney, as Chief O' Brien was in 52 episodes of the Next Generation.
[00:01:53] That was a little more than I thought. That's pretty good. That's over a quarter of the episodes, well over a quarter that our good man Cole Meaney was in. So that's kind of cool. And then I took a shot at how many Star Trek episodes there were overall. I don't know if you remember that or not. I might have said like 700 and something. Well, if you count every iteration of Trek, including, like, short Treks and things like that, by my count, there are 932 episodes of Star Trek out there. Pretty crazy. So, yeah, it's a lot of Trek. So you know what? That's always my selling point, too. If I'm trying to get somebody into Star Trek, I'm always saying to myself, hey, man, what if you imagine, if you like it? Like, what if you love it? Then you have like fucking 12 shows, 13 movies, and 932 episodes to devour. Like, I would love to just get into a franchise where I Had all this, all this stuff for me to check out. So that to me is a selling point for Trek. I think it's worth giving it a shot if you wanted to do that, just because of the sheer content that's out there.
[00:02:50] A couple other little housekeeping things. We were talking about the New Frontier book series in the last pod we did. Last pod, I did the top 10 Peter David sort of contributions to Trek. And I failed to mention that John Ordova co created the New Frontier with Peter David. He didn't write the books, but he did co create the concept of Peter David. So I thought it was only fair that we give him his due.
[00:03:17] Speaking of giving people their due, Memory Alpha. Can I just say how great that is? Look, if you're a Trek fan out there and you don't know what Memory Alpha is, check it out. It is the definitive source for all knowledge that is Trek.
[00:03:30] Whenever I'm not 100% sure about where something came from or where it originated or how it happened, I just jump right to Memory Alpha.
[00:03:39] Don't get enough credit.
[00:03:41] I've used it a lot on this pod and I think it's time to. I say thank you, Memory Alpha. And the last bit of housekeeping I have shifting right back to the New Frontier series. If you are a fan of the New Frontier series and you have read some of Peter David's books, it slipped my memory. When I was talking about the character of Soleda the Hev Falcon, Hef, Romulan science officer on the Excalibur, I mentioned that they don't really flesh her out until later on in the series. That was complete and utter bullshit because I was rereading the, the fourth chapter in the first sort of novel. And yeah, they go ahead and flesh her out pretty good. In one of the scenes that I completely forgotten about. So there you go. So fly by the seat of your pants. You're going to get some things wrong. What are you going to do about it?
[00:04:25] Yeah. So let's talk about season four.
[00:04:28] So we did season three. Now, if season three was the season in which next Gen came into its own, the season in which it elevated to the level that we're used to, then by season four, longer evaluating it in the same way, right? You're just thinking, okay, we're, we're here, we're just gonna enjoy this now because season four is just banger after banger after banger, you know? And season three had them as well, of course. But season four is like, like autopilot, right? Like, it's like, all right, this is great.
[00:04:59] So you're no longer evaluating the show in the same way. Right? You know, so. So you're, you know, you're tuning in every week. You know what you're gonna get now it's no longer up for grabs like this shows just. Just fucking awesome. And you know what you're gonna get. Like, if you watch seasons one, two and three, you saw that progression. You saw that evolution. You saw that step up in quality in almost every respect at this point, you're no longer saying, okay, this is better than it used to be. Now you're just like, okay, this is good. Every week I'm tuned in, I want to check it out. This is my show. Boom. And I have to imagine that this is when it really took off for even the mainstream viewers in the early 90s.
[00:05:39] Seasons 4, 5, 6 and 7, they were watched by so many people. The popularity of Next gen can't be unrelated, undersold.
[00:05:46] It often gets overlooked because it was a syndicated show and they didn't have the same hard data that they had for network shows, you know, I. E. The Nielsen ratings and things like that. I knew people who wouldn't call themselves Star Trek fans or Trekkies or anything, and they were watching the show faithfully every week. It was just on tv and the times it was on might have been an advantage, right? So syndicated shows don't always air in primetime. At least they didn't back then. You know, Next Gen was on it like 6 o' clock or 7 o'. Clock.
[00:06:17] Same for. For D space 9.
[00:06:20] Voyager was. Was the difference because it was on the newly launched UPN network, which did not last very long. But so that was a primetime network. So, you know, Voyager was on, I believe, at 8 o' clock or, you know, maybe even 9 o'. Clock. I think they aired one of the wrestling shows that was on upn, RAW or whatever. I.
[00:06:40] I haven't watched wrestling in years, folks, but I believe it was on right after, like, whatever wrestling show they had. It was pretty. They were anchoring that. That one popular night that they had. And I guess their plan was a build from there. They didn't really get to build. It pretty much began and ended with. With Voyager. I know Enterprise was on UPN as well, but it, you know, we all know what happened with Enterprise's ratings. So syndicated shows were on at like 6 o', clock, 7 o', clock, and maybe that lent itself to sort of families enjoying them during dinner or when everybody's sort of Settling down. Boom. That was kind of the show that.
[00:07:12] So Next Gen was insanely popular and, you know, we know why, and season four is a big, big reason why.
[00:07:18] So, yeah, so let's talk about it. No preamble, no nothing. Let's just dive right in. So we're gonna start. Okay, folks, looks, I'm sorry. We can't dive right in because we're gonna parrot skit. Parrot sketch not included.
[00:07:31] Best of Both Worlds, part two. Now, listen, this might just be a continuation of my season three pod. I parrot sketched, you know, the first part of Best of Both Worlds as well. So I'm just gonna kind.
[00:07:44] You know, I don't think you could separate those two episodes anyway, at least not in my mind. So it would be problematic to put it on this list anyway.
[00:07:53] And in the future, I might just include it as one episode, but for now, it's going to be parrot sketched not included. So there you go. No honorable mentions. Let's just go number 10, Devil's Dew.
[00:08:05] Devil's Dew, 7.2 on IMDb.
[00:08:09] Here is the synopsis. While answering a distress call, Picard finds himself not sure of exactly who he's dealing with, but he's sure he's not dealing with the planet's version of the devil, as she claims to be. It's a pretty good synopsis. Whoever did that, well done.
[00:08:25] Yeah. So a lot of people are kind of down on this episode. Obviously not a lot of people are. If it's, you know, 7.2 on IMDb, which in my estimation, any episode over 7 is a good episode, anything over 6 might be worth watching. Anything below that.
[00:08:39] But I think anything over seven is certainly a good episode and respectable. And I agree. I like Devil's Due. So this episode, you know, yes, it was one of the comfort food episodes that I used to watch on the Columbia House VHS tapes. But it's just a fun episode. I mean, even if it's not cleverly written, which I think it is, but I'm saying even if you don't think it's cleverly written, even if you think it's a little campy, which it is, it doesn't take away from the fun. So I don't know the actress's name who played Ardra, who was claiming to be the devil.
[00:09:10] But I thought she was great. I thought she was a ton of fun. Oh, Marda Dubois. I think her name is Marta Dubois. So, yeah, she was a lot of fun. She really, really, you know, sort of poured herself into the role. It's It's a fun guest spot for an actor to do, I would imagine. Just gotta come on. And you're flirty and, you know, sultry and you're snippy and you're all things beginning with S.
[00:09:31] So that's, that's a fun role for an actor to play, but really just the plot's kind of fun. You know, you're watching this episode, they go to this planet, the planet's freaking out because they think the devil's gonna come and enslave the population because of some, you know, thousand year old contract that was made up. So, you know, they dig up the contract and again, which is cool, you know, Data's used in such a cool way. Picard's like, hey, listen, we're all gonna go to bed. Data, you know, you kind of hang out here for eight hours and, you know, find me a loophole in this gigantic, you know, contract. The scrolls of Ardra. As you know, Mr.
[00:10:04] Afraidy, Akos Jared says I didn't have a stroke. Akos. Jared is the guy's name, the character name, who is the, I guess the prime minister of Ventax 2. You know, it's, it's really, really fun to watch, you know, Picard, with Geordi's help, sort of turn the tables on Ardra. Spoiler alert. She's not really the devil, but we do learn what the Klingon devil is called and looks like. Feklar.
[00:10:32] You are not Feklar. It's my wharf impression. Probably the last time I do that. So soak that one up, kids.
[00:10:40] It's fun. It's not much more than that. It's certainly a boom, boom, in and out, you know, planet of the Week, monster of the week, guest star of the week. But that does not make it, you know, that doesn't make it unfun. So I really like this episode a lot. And devils do. It's worth checking out. A lot of fun.
[00:10:57] All right, so number nine. Number nine is Data's day.
[00:11:02] Now, we did just discuss this a couple episodes ago, so I'm not going to dive too hard into it, okay? But Dana's day, I couldn't not put it on this list. It's an 8.1 on IMDb.
[00:11:12] Dana tries to comprehend the complex emotions between O' Brien and Keiko, who are about to be married. Now, when I said this synopsis on the Data episodes pod, you know, a month ago, I, I remembered how, how misleading it was. That's, that's a fraction of what this episode's about. As I went into In Depth, you know, during that pod. So just to say, you know, this was an interesting sort of a different kind of episode for Star Trek. I don't think there had been an episode in TOS or TNG that was sort of had a narrator from what I remember, folks. Maybe. Maybe, you know, they did, and I'm forgetting about it, but this was a first that I can remember for Trek, which is interesting.
[00:11:58] And, you know, it let Brent Spiner really shine. It really did.
[00:12:03] This is also the rookie card for Keiko o'. Brien. We talked about that. Worth noting. And, you know, like I said, we talked about this ad nauseam, so I'm just gonna leave it there. But day, it is day. A worthy entry on the top ten for season four.
[00:12:17] All right, let's go. So number eight. Eight. Identity Crisis. This is an episode I might not have talked a lot about. Now, this is an episode in which I do not understand the IMDb rating. I'm looking at it, and it says 6.7 on IMDb. I think this is a very cool episode and we're going to talk about it. Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge and an old friend fight to defeat a parasite that is trying to transform them into another species.
[00:12:42] Pretty good. Pretty good. That's. That's pretty apt. All right. Yeah. So this. This is a wacky episode. I'll say that up front. Okay. But we do. It's a cool Geordi episode. We do get a little backstory on Geordi when, you know, the former ship he served on, he made some friends on there, some, you know, close friends that he almost feels like family, probably just almost as close as the next gen crew.
[00:13:05] So, you know, one of Geordi's old friends, a commander, comes on, you know, the Enterprise, and they're trying to figure out what happened. There's a team that went down to a planet when Geordi was on his old ship, and the members of that team are disappearing, sort of. I'm sorry. Yeah, they're disappearing. Sort of reminds me of the D Space Nine episode, the Darkness and the Light. There's an episode there in which members of Kira's old Shakar resistance cell are being picked off and killed one by one, and nobody knows why.
[00:13:35] Another cool episode. We'll talk about that. And, you know, two years, but for now, Identity Crisis was cool, you know, and.
[00:13:43] Okay, disclaimer, folks, you really have to suspend your disbelief in this episode. No question about it. I'm not saying that some people who gave this a 6.7 rating don't have reason to do so. It just didn't affect me. The negatives didn't affect me, maybe as they should have, or maybe, you know, just. Just as much as they did other people.
[00:14:04] So, you know, the key moment of this, the key act of the episode, is when Geordi' Spoiler alerts. Now, folks, Geordi's old friend, the Commander, she falls ill to the same thing that's apparently been picking off the rest of that team. So Geordi's trying to figure it out, and they leave him alone in the holodeck. Now, this is a shame, because the holodeck, the recreation of this old video from which they're trying to figure out what happened, is the coolest part of the episode. But you also got to suspend your disbelief the most. I mean, they would never leave him alone, have one security officer there, just, like, watching him to make sure he doesn't get affected, doesn't get sick, like they know he's going to, and try to leave the ship. All right, now, I understand there's no episode without that, but you can't tell me you couldn't take a little more time and try to write around that. You know, it seems like some of the laziest writing on Next Gen is revolving around Geordi.
[00:15:04] Right? Right. I mean, remember that time we were talking about whenever there's an engineering problem, you know, it's just Geordi trying to figure shit out. I mean, I think we just talked about it in season three, you know, they're stuck in that booby trap. They're trying to figure out, you know, how to move the ship.
[00:15:19] It's Geordi on a ship of a thousand. He must have an engineering team of 30 people. 40 maybe, if you're doing, like, three shifts and he's by himself trying to figure out what a hologram. Get your team together like you did in Hollow Pursuits in the Barclay episode. Right. The whole team's there. They're all trying to figure it out. And guess what? Everyone else, you know, has input. So sometimes with Jordy, the way they write these stories, you just gotta suspend your disbelief.
[00:15:45] But all that being said, once they project that video into the holodeck and they're walking through the simulation trying to figure out what happened. Man, there is a really, really creepy moment when they're eliminating variables and, you know, moving stuff out of the way to try to, you know, break down what's going on.
[00:16:06] And they're getting rid of people, but there's still a shadow remaining on the wall. And Geordi's trying to figure out whose shadow it is. It's kind of a creepy, creepy moment there. Just a cool little mystery.
[00:16:17] And then I thought the, I thought the, the makeup slash special effects was really good. When they kind of. When these unfortunate Starfleet officers turned into this other species, sort of the blue glowy things they had going on, I thought that was really cool. And I thought it was a touching moment at the end when Commander Latham. Latham.
[00:16:36] Samantha Latham, I think it's her name. Was able to coax Jordi just, just from the edge because he was, he was almost, almost gone. Like I said, it's, it's not, it's not brilliant, but I think it's a really cool episode. I think it's got some cool stuff going on. If you could take your brain out for just 45 minutes, I think you'll enjoy it too. So, yeah, so that was Identity crisis. So moving on. Number seven.
[00:17:00] Number seven is an episode called Future Imperfect. This was fun. This was a fun episode.
[00:17:07] This was the first of two Twilight Zone type episodes that I have on my list.
[00:17:12] So Future Imperfect is a 7.7 on IMDb. Pretty solid, right? Riker awakens 16 years after an away mission where he contracted a disease which destroys his memory back to the point of infection, or so he's told.
[00:17:28] Mmm, I like that. Whoever wrote that, good job.
[00:17:31] Yeah. So just like it says, so Riker wakes up, it's 15 years in the future, he's the captain of the Enterprise. What the hell's going on? So this, this is, this is, this is a great way to sort of just, just do crazy alternate universe shit just for the sake of doing it right. This is something that they will really go nuts with in a seven season episode called Parallels, which is one of the best episodes of the series. Big Wharf episode that's a lot of fun. But they kind of started doing that here, right? Just subtle changes to enormous changes, subtle changes such as, you know, the rank insignia is a little different. The, you know, the com badge is a little different.
[00:18:10] You know, you put a little gray in Riker's beard, you could age him, you know, 10, 15 years.
[00:18:15] You know, sort of subtle things and then big things like, oh my God, we're peace treaty with the Romulans is happening. And you know, so, so there's a lot of fun playing with our expectations and our, in our knowledge so far of the series. It, you know, they had a lot of fun sort of turning those things around. So this was a cool episode. It was also an emotional episode. In some ways, one of the big surprises. Spoiler alert. In the episode is that Riker finds out he has a son, a son named Jean Luc, and his wife has passed and he's a single father.
[00:18:49] So, you know, and folks, obviously this. None of this turns out to be true, but as far as Riker is concerned, it is. And he does a great job in this episode. This is a Jonathan Frakes episode, a William T. Riker episode. It's. It's good. We get. We get a lot of good Riker episodes, but this is. I can't remember talking about another Riker episode yet, though, so. Hmm, that's interesting. I don't think I've ever discussed a singular Riker episode in depth on this pod. Anyway, so there's a lot of twists and turns at the end of the episode when you kind of figure out what's going on and why he's in the future and what's happening.
[00:19:26] You get some good guest stars in this episode. You got Tomaluk, who's always fun to see, the Romulan commander, Picard's sort of arch nemesis in seasons sort of 3, 4.
[00:19:38] We have a really good child actor in this episode. You know, some of you may recognize his face. I only knew him previously from an HBO show in the 80s called Dream On. I don't know if you guys remember that show with Brian Benman and Wendy Malik. Actually one of her first really big roles. If you don't know Wendy Malik is IMDb or she's all over the place. You'll know her as soon as you see her. But, you know, that was HBO's one of their first real, like, you know, rated R adult shows. This is like 1987 ish, you know, oh my God. It's a TV show, but there's nudity. And so it was kind of funny to watch. It's sort of an interesting little experiment there. So anyway, I had recognized this child actor from that. I don't. I don't remember his name offhand. I can look that up for. For housekeeping next time. But yeah, look. So anytime Star Trek does this, they do this a lot. Pretty much every series has an episode like this where all of a sudden someone wakes up and it's the future and everything's just a little different and what's going on? Am I somebody trying to, you know, fool me? So this was just a lot of fun. A lot of fun there. Not much more to say about the episode.
[00:20:42] It was very Twilight Zone Y, right? Like, oh, my God, I Woke up and time has passed. You know, it's so Twilight Zone. But who doesn't love Twilight Zone? I know I do. Oh, and of course, one last great, great little moment in this episode is when Rikers, when Riker first realizes that this may all be fake, the wife that is used to try to fool him is a wonderful callback to a season one episode called 11001001, Minuet. He sees Minuet again and he knows instantly, wait a minute. This is. This is bullshit.
[00:21:15] So that was a really. That was a really cool touch on the episode, bringing that actress back and a great callback to four seasons prior. So, yeah, there you go. All right, kids, let's move on. So we're looking at number six here. So number six, another super fun episode. This is a fun damn season, man. Next Gen Season 4 was just. It was just boom, boom, boom, boom, and they were laying out the hits. It's so good. So let's talk about the nth degree. Yeah, the nth degree. A 7.9 on IMDb, when assigned to investigate an unknown probe, Lieutenant Barclay. Yay. Is hit by an energy surge through a shuttlecraft's computer. And he receives an inexplicable boost of confidence and a vast increase in his knowledge. So, yeah, I'm sure you all remember this episode.
[00:21:59] So this is your run of the mill.
[00:22:03] All of a sudden, someone becomes super intelligent and the power is too much, and he tries to take over the universe.
[00:22:09] It's happened a lot. As a matter of fact, I sort of free association. All of the pop culture references I was thinking about in this, and it led me down this road. So Flowers for Algernon, right, is. I believe it's a book that's based on exactly this and then was made into a movie called Charlie with Cliff Robertson, where he, you know, is a not that intelligent man, and he's injected with this, you know, serum, and he becomes super smart.
[00:22:38] And then there's an episode called Flowers for Charlie on Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is a cool combination of Flowers for Algernon and Charlie. Love that. So, you know, Charlie Day did a great job in that episode. He didn't become super smart. He thought he did. It was sort of a placebo. Hilarious.
[00:22:54] Which led me to think of Flowers from Matthew, which is a news radio episode where Auntie Dick all of a sudden becomes smart and confident. I'm doing impressions.
[00:23:06] I don't know what's making me do it, but I'm doing them. That's actually more of an impression who's the guy from the league? You know what? Doesn't matter. I am way off the rails here and I'm bringing it back. So Flowers for Matthew was a funny news radio episode. And then Lawnmower man, which is not a free association, but it really is exactly what's happening in this episode. If you haven't seen the movie Lawnmower Man, I think it's worth seeing. I think it's a really cool, like, early 90s, sort of cheesy sci fi film. It stars Pierce Brosnan, Jeff Fahey, so check that out. It's pretty much exactly what happens in this episode. So. Phil, bring it back. Okay. The nth degree. So Barclay starts becoming super smart. If you're not familiar with Lieutenant Barclay, I imagine that Hollow Pursuits, his rookie card episode, was in my last discussion of the Star Trek season. So I think season three, Lieutenant Barclay was Hollow Pursuits was on there. So if you're not familiar with Barclay, start there, then come back to here. This is his.
[00:24:08] I guess this is the second episode on the show, so. And again, Dwight Schultz, who plays Barkley, really, really plays this character well. So with each subsequent episode that you see Barkley in, he plays him a little more confident, a little less jittery, a little less neurotic. So it's really interesting to watch Dwight Schultz's performance through the course of the series and through the course of the franchise as he is in Star Trek, First Contact and many Voyager episodes.
[00:24:38] So he starts getting super smart. And for someone like him to become super smart, it was a really good move on the part of the writers to make this the character that that happens to. If it happened to, you know, Geordi, everyone would be like, well, Geordi is really smart. Anyway. Would have taken him way longer to figure out he was fucked up.
[00:24:54] Maybe Worf. So anyway, so. So it's a great move by the writers doing that. So Barclays becoming super smart.
[00:25:01] This is the fun part, guys. We all like watching this. We all like watching sort of things that are extraordinary and just kind of also someone's getting super smart and you know, they're kind of, oh, they're doing, oh, they can play the violin now. They couldn't do that last night. You know, shit like that's fun to watch. We all, you know, for me, that's a grabber that. That's a. That's a premise that you could latch on to and have some fun with. So the fun part of the episode is watching Barclay go through this progression.
[00:25:24] So he gets there to the point where, of course, he's too smart or too powerful for what's going on. So he takes over the ship and just vaults them across. Across the stars to God knows where. So this is why this episode is pretty high on the list. So not only is that a cool premise, and it's a lot of fun to kind of latch on to, to that sort of hook, but the ending, I think the ending is a twist in and of itself, and I think it's really, really intriguing.
[00:25:50] So, spoiler alert if you don't want to hear the ending. Turns out Barclay was sort of not infected with this. You know, super smart, whatever happened to him, but whatever the probe did to him, turns out it was. It was, you know, for. For a very benevolent reason. So. So we finally get to where Barclay is taking everyone, and they meet this race called the Cythereans. Cytherians. And it turns out this is how they explore the galaxy. They don't get in a ship and go from planet to planet, star to star.
[00:26:18] They bring people to them, they exchange information, and then they return them to where they were. So cool, right? So. So Barclay was, you know, impelled to, you know, bring them there, as, you know, the. The probe was designed to do. So I thought that was really cool. Really cool ending, nice little twist, you know, maybe a little Twilight Zone Y as well, now that I think about it. Anyway, so it's a great episode. I think it's a lot of fun. It's one I returned to a lot. I think it's worth checking out. So if you haven't seen it, check that out. All right, let's move on. So number five is clues 8.2 on IMDb effects of passing through a wormhole give the Enterprise crew a sense that they were unconscious for more than the 30 seconds they've been led to believe.
[00:27:02] So that's cool. It's a cool premise. So it's a great cold open.
[00:27:06] That's always a plus. So, you know, the whole crew gets knocked out. Cameras on Data, he turns around, he's fine, but the whole crew is knocked out. Turns out that they were out for 30 seconds. They count their blessings and move on.
[00:27:19] Ah, but then they start to notice things. Clues start popping up that leads them to believe that they were out for a lot longer than 30 seconds. So as they go along and they investigate, it turns out Data appears to be hiding something about what happened. He was the only one who was, in fact, alert when the whole crew was knocked unconscious. And, you know, Data might be the only one who could tell them what happened. And he refuses to. Really cool little premise for an episode. I like it.
[00:27:46] Now, the episode is.
[00:27:50] I don't know if it's bookended, but it definitely begins with Dixon Hill. This might be the last Dixon Hill, not counting the movie First Contact in the series, now that I think about it. So this is sort of the last foray into Dixon Hill for John Lupicard on the holodeck.
[00:28:06] But, you know, obviously the fact that he's a private detective and clues, it's a nice little. Nice little tie in there. It makes a lot of sense to have that. So, yeah. So overall, this episode was just fun. It was fun sort of watching them sort of uncover certain, you know, mysteries, certain problems that they were noticing with, you know, day to day things. You know, hey, these plants have grown a lot more than 30 seconds. You know, there are a lot of examples. So overall, this episode was a lot of fun. It was fun watching them sort of solve this mystery.
[00:28:33] It was fun sort of watching them go through the steps.
[00:28:36] And then the ending was a lot of fun. So, you know, in the end, you. You meet a representative of the Paxons.
[00:28:44] It turns out it's an isolationist species that when the Enterprise came across them, they came up with an idea plan together, you know, the Enterprise crew and these Paxons to just erase their memories of the last, you know, full day. That way they would not be aware of the Paxson's existence. However, Data is not affected by their technology, so Picard ordered him to never reveal what had happened, to never reveal to anyone, not even to him, what he knows about the Paxsons. So, yeah, and, you know, really cool that they decide to take over Counselor Troy's body to relay this message.
[00:29:25] You know, they got her voice modulation thing going on. It's kind of creepy. It's kind of cool seeing Troy just play someone so. Just dead and emotionless.
[00:29:34] So that's kind of fun. I'm sure that was fun for her to play briefly. And, yeah, it just made for a fun, little twisty episode in which you weren't sure where Data's loyalties lie. I mean, you know, I think in the back of our heads we were like, okay, it's Data. So clearly he's doing this for a benevolent reason, but was still kind of fun getting to the. Getting to the ending and figuring out what happened there. So, yeah, clues, solid episode.
[00:29:54] So let's move on.
[00:29:57] So number four. Number four is gonna be Redemption. Redemption.
[00:30:01] I suppose. Just part one. We're Just doing season four. We could leave Redemption Part two if it makes the list for season.
[00:30:08] So let's just talk about Redemption Part one. This was a great finale, you know, such a good finale, in fact, that the only reason it's not the best season finale the Next Gen ever had is because of the aforementioned Best of Both Worlds, which was just phenomenal.
[00:30:24] So, yeah. So redemption. So an 8.4 on IMDb both Captain Picard and Lieutenant Worf must decide where their priorities lie as the Klingon Empire descends into a bitter civil war. Yeah, some cool stuff going on. I know I've mentioned in the past that I'm not a giant fan of Klingon episodes, but when they're done well, hey, they're done well. And this was really cool. This was a really cool opportunity to learn more about what's going on in the Klingon Empire with the High Council. You know, Next Gen did a phenomenal job of expanding the world of, you know, what we know today really as Klingons in the Klingon Empire.
[00:31:01] You know, TOS and the movies did a great job as well, but Next Gen really took the reins and really world built there for us.
[00:31:10] Yeah, so this is, like I said, big finale here. We got a lot going on.
[00:31:15] There's a Klingon civil war. The Federation, by definition, by their mandate, should not get involved because of the Prime Directive.
[00:31:23] But Worf is obviously torn.
[00:31:26] Kern comes on board and this is an opportunity to restore their family name after Worf accepted Discommendation in the episode third season episode Sins of the Father. So, you know, we have a continuation of that storyline.
[00:31:43] We have the Duras sisters, Larsa and Bator, who would go on to be in other episodes, Star Trek Generations and even an episode on Deep Space Nine, one of the very early episodes of season one there. So we get Lursa, Bator, and we get Tarao, this little.
[00:32:01] Little punk ass who is, you know, going to be, you know, taking over as the Klingon Chancellor if this coup, if this civil war goes the way that Lursa and Bator and the Duras wanted to. So Gowron enlists the help of. He tries to enlist the help of, you know, Starfleet, and he convinces Worf to kind of join the fight. One of the finales of this episode, which is a big one, but yet not the biggest one, I'm sorry, should say one of the cliffhangers of this episode, but not the biggest one, is Worf resigns his commission as a Starfleet officer to join the Klingon civil war on Gowron and his brother Kern's side. So some cool stuff going on there. You know, love to check out some Klingon politics. We have some really cool Federation Starfleet sort of politics involved as well.
[00:32:50] You know, just a lot going on in this episode, a lot of Klingon stuff. But hey, you know, Barry in the lead here. So the big, big, big cliffhanger is a big spoiler alert here, guys.
[00:33:01] At the end of the episode, we see, you know, this Romulan in the shadows. And the Romulan steps out of the shadows and it's Tasha Yar. What the hell? So, yeah, so blown away, right? Like we're watching this in whatever it is, 1990, 1991, and we're like, oh my God, like, what, what the hell's going on?
[00:33:24] You know, and, and you know, folks, we didn't have the Internet back then. You know, we didn't have like these, you know, forums and, and you know, Reddit, you know, threads to like, you know, talk about theories and what happened. So yeah, you know, we talk about it with friends. I'm sure he discussed it with Luke. I'm sure he discussed it with Troy. I'm sure I was talking about, you know, what, what, what could it possibly be? And we had to wait a whole summer to find out what it was. And you know what, we'll talk about the resolution of this cliffhanger when we do season five. I'm almost 100% sure.
[00:33:54] But let me say between Best of Both Worlds, the cliffhanger there and the cliffhanger here In Redemption Part 1, the explanation for these cliffhangers is absolutely superb. They're both just rock solid. You know, they're rock solid in Star Trek knowledge, right? Like in the Star Trek universe, both of these cliffhanger resolutions makes complete and total sense. It's a brilliant stroke by the writers.
[00:34:20] Even more so. I will say this about this finale. Compared to the Best of Both Worlds finale, this finale was more clever. It was smarter.
[00:34:30] Especially when, you know, you consider that they mined a previous classic episode from season three to come up with the explanation for why on earth Tasha Yar would be a Romulan and you know, the, the chief nemesis in this two part episode. So some really great stuff there. You know, it's, it's always great to see Denise Crosby again. She was such a trooper. She kept coming back whenever, you know, whenever the episode or the writer sort of do, you know, demanded that for a plot.
[00:35:01] You know, she would even come in and do A couple little cameos, which was great.
[00:35:05] You know, I'm thinking, of course, of the final episode. All good things, which I know we'll talk about at some point.
[00:35:11] So, yeah, it was great seeing Denise Crosby. It's great seeing that character, Tasha Yar. I've said this before on this pod. I think it's fascinating that a character like Tasha Yar.
[00:35:20] Spoiler alert. Special for you, Bomber, who was killed off in the first season, you know, with little fanfare. Right. With not much. Right. They had that moment at the end of the episode, you know, in the holodeck on that sort of cliff top or whatever it was.
[00:35:36] Or maybe it was just a grassy, you know, Glen. I, I don't remember exactly. I remember it was outdoors in the holodeck and it was a nice little send off and we get a little, little heartfelt moment in the Measure of a Man in season two. And then of course, she's in Yesterday's Enterprise, one of the great Sci Fi episodes of all time.
[00:35:56] And then. Yeah. And then, you know, she pops back up here and there. What a trooper. It's always great when you see these actors, you know, willing to come back and reprise a role that they must have had some sort of pride in playing.
[00:36:07] I would have to imagine that Denise Crosby had a great time, you know, with her, I should say, would hope that Denise Crosby had a good time on Star Trek. Enough to make her come back and to impel her to come back at least. So, yeah, so that was great.
[00:36:22] Not much to say about redemption. You know, the details of the episode, you know, we've talked about here and there and I'm sure we'll cover when we get to Bomber's Trek Season 4, but for now I'm going to leave it there. Just to say it's a fantastic follow up to the season three finale and I don't think you could have done better.
[00:36:42] Big shoes to fill and I think they did it, it really well. So great job there. Redemption part one. All right, let's talk about number three. Number three. Remember me? I've talked about this before.
[00:36:55] I've loved this episode.
[00:36:57] This is one of the great episodes of season four, in my opinion. Obviously it's number three on my list, but I mean to say, it's a great Crusher episode. You know, we did not get a lot of Beverly Crusher episodes, but this was, this was probably my favorite, now that I think about it. Beverly Crusher episode. And what a Twilight Zone episode, right? I know I've said that a couple times tonight, but I love the Twilight Zone. And sometimes you just can't go wrong with a great plot that is reminiscent of something that would come out of the Twilight Zone or early science fiction creations. And, you know, an episode like this deserves to be compared to a great show like the Twilight Zone. So let's talk about it. Remember me is a 7.8 on IMDb. Dr. Crusher's fear of losing loved ones becomes real when her worries create an alternate reality.
[00:37:49] That doesn't sound necessarily Twilight zoning. But I'm going to tell you about the plot a little bit more and why I think it's very Twilight Zone y. So we have Beverly Crusher welcoming one of her mentors on the ship, Dr. Dalen Quaise.
[00:38:02] You know, a father figure to Beverly.
[00:38:05] And, you know, she's, she's clearly has a great reverence and love for this man. So he comes on board, she sets him up with quarters, normal episode. And then the next morning she goes to her quarters to grab him for breakfast or whatever and he's not there. So he's elderly and she's worried. Oh, incidentally, the actor who played Dr. Dalen Quaise, I don't know his name, but he was the, the old man, quote, unquote, the old man in the Seinfeld episode where, where Jerry was trying to reach out and help, you know, seniors and the guy was just such a douchebag and Kramer and, you know, Newman came steal his records. So that was Dr. Dalen Quaise. He was a lot more cleaned up in this one.
[00:38:42] So he's, he's not there.
[00:38:45] So she does the old computer locate Dr. Dalen Quais. You know, Dr. Dalen Quaise is not on board the Enterprise. Okay, something's a little weird. So she's worried that this, you know, this, you know, elderly, elderly mentor of hers got lost or got hurt, whereas com badge was damaged. So, you know, alerts Lt. Wharf.
[00:39:03] Lt. Worf throws an offhand remark about not being aware that he was to be on the station. And Crusher's like, oh, I thought it was standard procedure that you were informed. And he's like, well, it is. Don't worry about it. Let's find your friend.
[00:39:16] Can't find him anywhere.
[00:39:17] Picard calls Crusher on the office and says, look, I know you know what the regulations are with welcoming guests on board. And Crusher was like, what are you talking about? I put this request in weeks ago. No one remembers this person.
[00:39:29] Chief o' Brien brought him, you know, transported him onto The Enterprise. He has no recollection of what's going on. Things. Crusher is kind of crazy for sort of confronting him about it. So no one knows who this person is or never heard of him before? Crusher is the only one who knows.
[00:39:45] You know, what. And I'm gonna go back a little bit. I wanted to give you the Twilight Zone sort of snapshot right away. So we did have a scene in Engineering, which is, you know, the beginnings of the explanation for what's happening here.
[00:39:56] Crusher walks into Engineering. Wesley and Geordi are in there. Wesley's working on some sort of experimental sort of procedure. And there's a big flash. Something's going on.
[00:40:05] Wesley's, you know, engaged in his work and doesn't really pay attention to his mother. And by the time he turns around to answer, she's already gone.
[00:40:13] She's gone.
[00:40:15] So right back to our little Twilight Zone plot.
[00:40:18] So, you know, basically, you can see where I'm going here. So one by one or, you know, however it works, crew members begin disappearing from Beverly Crusher's perspective, and no one has ever heard of their.
[00:40:31] Never heard of them. Never heard of their existence. You know.
[00:40:35] You know, oh, nurse. Dr. Salar. Oh, little Dr. Solar. Shout out. I remember this. Yeah, she wasn't in the episode, but they did bring back that name. So she asked, you know. Computer, locate Dr. Solar. Dr. Solar is not aboard the Enterprise.
[00:40:48] So, you know, Beverly realizes that her, you know, her staff has gone from, you know, whatever, 20 people down to, like, nothing. She's the only medical officer on the ship, which she can't understand why the other crew members don't get that only having one physician for a thousand, over a thousand people, would make sense. But to them, it makes perfect sense. Something weird is happening. People are disappearing from Beverly Crusher's life, and she does not know why.
[00:41:15] This progresses. It progresses. There's a really kind of not creepy, but like. Like a moment in, you know, the conference room when she suggests that Worf, you know, run a security scan or something. And Picard's like, I'm sorry, whom did you say? And he's like, worf. And they all look at each other like, who the fuck is Worf? And she's like, oh, my God, the Klingon.
[00:41:38] You know.
[00:41:39] You know, the. You know, the guy who, you know, she goes into describing, you know, all of Worf's characteristics. And she's absolutely, you know, heart broken, sort of heartbroken that, you know, no one remembers this person.
[00:41:52] And this happens, you know, to every member of the crew until it's right back down to, you know, Crusher and Picard.
[00:41:59] Just two officers on the Federation flagship just gallivanting across the galaxy.
[00:42:04] It's pretty crazy.
[00:42:05] So she doesn't know what the hell's going on.
[00:42:07] There are some really, really great acting moments by Gates McFadden in this episode. Some really great writing.
[00:42:15] This was a fantastic episode. You know the moment when she sort of starts having a panic attack and, you know, she's, oh, my God, all these people are. Got you, Geordi, Troy, Data. You know, these people have been the. Whatever she misquoting, of course, the lifeblood of this ship for four years. They deserve more than to just be forgotten.
[00:42:37] Beautiful writing, beautifully acted, and really well delivered by, by Gates McFadden. It's a. It's a wonderful scene and it's a heartfelt and you feel it as a next gen fan. You know, it doesn't matter that, you know, they're gonna come back. It doesn't matter that, you know, you know, next week they're all gonna be on the ship again. Because you're caught up in the moment. You're caught up in the narrative. At least I am. I always am. I'm fooled every time. You know, I'll be watching this episode, you know, two weeks from now, and I'll get choked up when she delivers that line. It's really well done.
[00:43:07] And then we got a really great twist, you know, because. So the whole time she's sort of seeing these people disappear or witnessing this or, you know, perceiving this. There are these. These flashes of light and these sort of anomalies that are trying to suck her into this void. And she's obviously avoiding it. You know, her instincts is saying, what the fuck? You know, hold on, don't. Don't get sucked in. You know, so at one point, this void opens up and she's hanging on and the camera does this really cool thing where it sort of goes through the void and on the other side, boom, we're back in engineering and Crusher, and I mean, I'm sorry, and Wesley Crusher and Geordi are there and they're trying to figure out what the hell's going on.
[00:43:43] So clearly we have alternate reality things happening where Crusher is experiencing one thing, but on the other side of this void, the quote unquote, normal Enterprise is trying to figure out where she went. Really cool. So you go back to that scene in the beginning, and she was the one who got, you know, sort of sucked into nothingness, disappeared into this.
[00:44:01] You know, I'm not going to bore you with the techno babble, but it's, you know, the static warp shell sort of created this. This anomaly, blah, blah, blah, you know, so how are they going to get her back? Wesley's trying everything he can do to get her back, and then when all seems to be lost, boom. We get a great, great, great return of a character. Bomber, you're familiar with this character? If you are, if you're listening, I'm sure he'll listen to this. I hope he does.
[00:44:24] You know, the Traveler, from where no one has gone before comes back and he comes back to help Wesley.
[00:44:31] Help Wesley sort of channel his genius and help Wesley sort of use thought and reality and, you know, just space to find his mother and bring her back. Great episode.
[00:44:44] You know, a great, great callback to the Traveler. You know, I should know that actor's name. I don't. I'm sorry. I'll definitely have that in Housekeeping or for the next time we see the Traveler, because there will be one more.
[00:44:58] But, yeah, love this episode. Love it so much. Very Twilight Zone. Y. Can't say enough good things. It's just so much fun to watch. It's fun to watch these actors pretend like they don't know, you know, Riker exists. Blah, blah, blah. You know, it's just. Just a really great episode. And yeah, if you. If you haven't seen this one or if you haven't seen it in a long time, revisited. It's one of the true gems of season four. Well done.
[00:45:20] So let's go. We're down to two. We got two left. Now. Anyone who has been listening to this pod and kind of has listened to my passionate ramblings about Next Gen or season four, you might know what's coming. I don't know if you know what'll be one and two, but hey, let's talk about it. Number two is the drum head. This is a classic Next Gen episode. This is one of those critically acclaimed fan favorite. It's kind of just, you know, universally accepted as one of the, I'd say For sure, top 20 episodes of next Gen. I see it in a lot of top 10 lists.
[00:45:52] I think it was on my top 10 list. I'm gonna go back and revisit that. But definitely one was on my top 10 list.
[00:45:59] Next gen apps. I think it was top five. As a matter of fact, it may be even my second favorite episode. But let's talk about number two. Number two is the Drumhead 8.4 on IMDb. A retired admiral boards the Enterprise in an effort to determine the actions aboard the ship surrounding an act of sabotage and possible treason.
[00:46:20] Very good. You know, synopsis there it does.
[00:46:24] That plot does descend into some really cool paranoia and witch hunk kind of stuff. But we'll get to that. So, the drumhead. So the actress Gene Simmons.
[00:46:33] As a kid I was excited thinking that someone from Kiss was going to be on this episode but it was not the bassist with the long ton spit and fire in. In 10 forward. It was an actress, Gene Simmons. I didn't know that the J E A N Simmons existed as opposed to the G E N E Simmons, but she did a great job. So this admiral comes on board, comes out of retirement to figure out what's going on. Apparently there was a sort of an act of sabotage by a Klingon exchange officer on the ship.
[00:47:03] So they are interrogating this Klingon officer and this Admiral comes on board with her with horror. Hello. With her.
[00:47:13] I can't remember what species he is.
[00:47:16] Betazoid. He's Betazoid with his Beta. With her Betazoid assistant.
[00:47:20] God, I forget his name. I'll get it by the end of the description here.
[00:47:23] And. Yeah, and. And they're trying to figure out. They're trying to help the Enterprise figure out what happened. So she's assisting in the investigation. You know, Picard is thrilled to have her on board. He was a big fan of her father, Judge Aaron Satie. And. Yeah. So Gideon Jordi pretty much figure out that the explosion in the warp core that launched the initial investigation was not an act of sabotage. It was, I think it was just like a. A faulty, you know, whatever warp core ring or something. You know, a faulty O ring. Kind of like what happened on Apollo 13. Right. So just a faulty O ring. It degraded and there was an explosion. Nobody was hurt, thankfully. But they found evidence that this Klingon exchange officer was doing some shady. So they started interrogating him and he ends up admitting, you know, that he was carrying information to the Romulans but he had nothing to do with the sabotage. And Councilor Troy and Wrecker believe him. Admiral Satie does not. So she continues the investigation. You know, Worf is the chief investigator and he's really, really doggedly trying to get to the heart of, you know, what's going on with this Klingon. What's going on with the possible sabotage on the station. So, I mean, on the station. Hello, D. Space on the ship. So, you know, a witch hunt starts, you know, And Picard sees it right off the bat. You know, he kind of sees where it's going and no one else kind of does really.
[00:48:51] You know, so this kind of turns into a sort of paranoid witch hunt. Very, you know, very McCarthyism, right? Very, you know, you know, 1950s sort of communist, you know, threat, paranoia and fear and, you know, all this uncertainty sort of driving these irrational behaviors and it's happening on the Enterprise. And again, this is something that Star Trek does just phenomenally, right? Like this is Star Trek in essence, right? Star Trek is, you know, taking a look at, you know, society and it's, you know, sort of telling these social commentary stories through the lens of this really fascinating sci fi backdrop. I mean, that's just what Star Trek does. Does great.
[00:49:33] So this is a prime example of that. And it's no wonder that this episode is lauded as being one of the best episodes of the series.
[00:49:42] And yeah, great, great by play between Gene Simmons and Patrick Stewart. Patrick Stewart is simply amazing in this episode.
[00:49:53] He ends up fighting the witch hunt to the point where the Admiral starts accusing him.
[00:50:00] And there's some great callbacks in the interrogation to, you know, the times that he has bent or broken the Prime Directive, his time with the Borg, to that, you know, is he still sort of affected by the Borg? Is that why he's, you know, trying to obstruct, you know, this investigation?
[00:50:16] Some great conversations, some really, really great dialogue between, like I said, Admiral Satie and Captain Picard. Especially when Picard, you know, quotes, you know, her aforementioned father to sort of help his case and she just loses it. So, you know, she gets Starfleet head of Starfleet Security to come on board the ship, which I guess is just lucky that there was somewhere near Earth, right? You know, this is one of those, this is one of those things where like, you know, the Enterprise is supposed to be out there, right? You know, exploring the great, you know, unexplored mass of the galaxy. You know, they're here, they're there, they're all over the Alpha Quadrant, Beta Quadrant and. But, you know, within a day the head of Starfleet Security is on the ship. So, you know, I'm, I'm picking nits. I know. You know, it's a TV show and, you know, and they do it. Just an absolute great job of keeping all this canon, you know, together. As, you know, I'm one of the biggest defenders of this canon. But every once in a while you say, okay, well that's, that's lucky that they were able to get him he was just pat. He was on his way to Pacifica to do some swimming and, you know, he just said, all right, screw it. Since I had my uniform and I'm, you know, I'll just jump on the ship and.
[00:51:22] Actor doesn't say a word, by the way. It's kind of interesting. He just comes down the ship, he sees Admiral Satik going after Picard like a fucking nut job. And he just kind of says, all right, this is over, and ends it.
[00:51:34] Great moment at the end, you know, when Picard and Wharf are in the conference room and Worf is kind of like, oh, my God, I didn't. I didn't see what she was, you know. And Picard, in a slightly condescending manner, sort of tells Worf, you know, well, you know, it's. We have to stay vigilant and, you know, keep watch for things like this because as evolved and advanced as we are, you know, people like her are always going to be around and they can sort of pop up, you know, I feel like she got the short end of the stick in this episode. That character, the Admiral Settee, she has this brilliant Starfleet career, or Federation career, I should say. No, she's an admiral, so Starfleet career.
[00:52:14] She comes on board out of retirement. They beg her to come out of retirement. She comes on. She, you know, she's just doing the best job she can. She's taking advice from, you know, Sabin. Oh, I told you. I remember Sabin, her Betazoid assistant. And, you know, and she takes it too far, obviously, you know, and she's a little over passionate and she's, you know, obviously, you know, conducting this witch hunt and it's, you know, it's morally wrong, but I mean, you know, it is what it is. You know, she's. She's doing what she thinks is right. So I think she really got, you know, really got the end of the stick in this episode. But she was on the side of the wrong, so. And of course our heroes are right, especially our Captain Picard. He's usually correct. So great moments in this episode. Picard on trial, when he kind of puts his head down, puts his, you know, hand over his face, and he comes up with the quote from Admiral, the Judge Sati, Admiral's father. It's just some really great moments. You know, I need to mention, of course, the, the actor from. I can never remember his damn name. The actor from Mad Men. He played Duck, I think, on Mad Men, but, you know, he was in West Wing as well, so he plays Simon Tarsus, the accused, I guess he's a medical officer. I guess he was giving the Klingon just random injections for some sort of, you know, disease that he had. And he ended up being randomly interrogated, but it turns out he was hiding something, you know, as Sabin, the Betazoid, sort of picked up on.
[00:53:42] Which, by the way, little side note, really, really great moment as well in Picard's quarters when he's confronting Admiral Satie about using a Beta Zed in interrogations. And Satie rightfully is like, what are you talking about? You have a Beta zed, Counselor. Do you not use her for, you know, for negotiations? Do you not use her when you're negotiating with the Romulans and they're about to blow you out of the sky and you rely on her to be like, okay, he's lying. He's telling the truth. And Picard kind of does a. Well, you know, you're right, and maybe I should rethink that. And she's like, yeah, shut the fuck up. Give me a break. And she's right. She was definitely right about that. I think that's a great touch by the writers to kind of give her a little more sort of leverage to use that makes her sort of witch hunt last a little longer. Because she does have a. Have a good point. You know, Picard uses Counselor Troi in these negotiations. Is it morally right to do that? Is someone entitled to their feelings, even if they're being deceptive? It's a great moral question that they sort of examined a little bit in the third season episode the Price, in which Devanani Rawl was negotiating against the Federation for the Barzan wormhole, and he was using his skills as a Beta Zed to help him in his negotiations.
[00:55:00] Is it right? Is it wrong? They certainly thought it was wrong in that episode. They sort of demonized Devin Aniral, played by Matt McCoy, like that actor also from the West Wing and Police Academy 5, 6, 7. And I think that's done after that.
[00:55:16] So the use of a Betazoid. Morally right, Morally wrong. Great moment there. So, yeah, a lot of great moments in this episode. You know, Simon Tarsus, interestingly enough, lied on his Starfleet application about his paternal grandfather being Romulan. He said that he was a Vulcan.
[00:55:34] And this does remind me, as it might remind you folks, of the Strange New Worlds episode at. What is it? Ad Astra per Aspera, you know, in which Una Chin Riley lied on her Starfleet application about being Illyrian. So, yeah, So a lot of great, you know, continuing themes, concurrent themes, you know, in these shows, in these series, but you know, the Drumhead, just a phenomenal episode. Enough said there.
[00:56:04] All right, folks, listen, we're gonna, we're do number one here.
[00:56:10] I wanted to give a shout out to Troy's son.
[00:56:14] I'm trying to take his advice. Troy's 14 year old son, you know, was, was giving me some really great feedback about the pod and he, you know, he was, he was curious as to why I didn't lend more time and effort to the episodes that are closer to number one.
[00:56:31] Right. So just a great bit of advice, a great bit of feedback there. You know, I do have a tendency in the beginning of the pods, I think, from just, you know, listening to myself and Luke and Troy and you know, Bomber and anybody who's been on the pod. You know, we do tend to, as we kick it off, we talk a lot about number 10, say, or number nine. And then we might, may tend to gloss over number two when, you know, if it's number two and it's so important, why not lend a little more, you know, time to that? So I'm trying to heed your advice. Thank you so much.
[00:57:01] I'm not using his name. I don't know if I, if I'm, if I should or I'm supposed to, but thank you, son of Troy.
[00:57:08] I am blank son of Troy from the House of Leonard. Anyway, let's, let's follow his advice and let's try to talk about number one. So number one is the wounded. Now I have talked about this episode many times. This is, this is, this is such a great episode. This is, this might be the number one comfort food Star Trek episode of all the series. It might be, you know, if I'm just randomly want to have an episode on in the background when I'm just kind of playing on my phone or when, you know, exercising or when I'm, you know, just reading.
[00:57:40] I do like having things on in the background on the tv. I'm pretty psycho like that. And it could be a lot of TV shows, but if it's Star Trek and if it's Next Generation, it's definitely the wounded that's on there.
[00:57:51] 8.2 on IMDb after being fired upon by a Cardassian vessel, Picard races against time to find out the facts behind the Cardassian commander's claim that the Federation attacked one of their outposts.
[00:58:05] So yeah, that's how the episode starts. So we got a lot of big things happen in this episode, believe it or not, it seems like a run of the mill episode from the middle of a season, but to me it had a big impact for one.
[00:58:17] Let's talk about the Cardassian rookie card here. This was the first appearance of the Cardassians in Star Trek. And not only do we get this first appearance, but we learn, you know, that there's goals and there's, you know, and then, you know, we learned the goal ducat. The goal is the Cardassian equivalent of Captain. We learned that there was a Federation Cardassian war that happened not too long ago. Picard apparently was, I think on the start commanding the Stargazer when he was involved in the war with the Cardassians.
[00:58:48] You know, they just kind of threw that out there.
[00:58:50] They don't really mention it too much now. O' Brien has some history with the Cardassians and during the Cardassian War and that does come up on Deep Space Nine here and there when he's talking about Cardassians and what he witnessed and what he saw. And it certainly comes up in this episode. One of the reasons why this might be a good comfort food episode for me is because we get to see a lot of Col Meani, a lot of Chief o' Brien who, like I mentioned in a couple pods ago, was in 52 episodes of next Generation.
[00:59:18] He was a staple. He was a staple. And who didn't love Chief o'? Brien?
[00:59:22] And if you didn't love him on Next Gen, how do you not love him on. On Deep Space? Just, you know, he takes their curmudgeon torch from Bones and, you know, between him and Odo, they just grouse and gripe about everything on. On Deep Space. But I'll tell you what, it's always endearing. I never got sick of it.
[00:59:38] Love o'. Brien. So seeing him have a featured role in this episode was really cool. So he is brought to the forefront because his old captain, Captain Benjamin Maxwell, is the captain of the Phoenix and the Phoenix is the ship that has apparently destroyed some Cardassian outposts with no warning.
[00:59:58] So, you know, because of the Cardassian Federation war. And yes, that is the reason. That is the plot device. That's the reason why they. There was a war because to introduce this brand new species and have the Federation take this treaty so seriously, you kind of needed a little more weight there, right? So I get that the fact that there was a destructive war between Cardassia and the Federation, you know, I get that that is a plot device to lend more Weight to why they would need to keep the peace at all costs which I think is something the Admiral actually says right in the. Right in the episode over subspace. So they bring a delegation of Cardassians on board and yes, we do meet.
[01:00:40] You know, not gold ducat. We have Gulma set but played by the same actor, Marco Lambo, who plays Goldukat prominently on D space 9. So he does show up here playing Golma set.
[01:00:55] I'm forced to ask again why, once Deep Space Nine came around they didn't just have Gul Dukat be Gulma set.
[01:01:03] I don't get things like that. It would make my life a lot easier.
[01:01:07] But, you know, ultimately, who cares? He's just an actor behind makeup, but he's a good actor. I like the way he played this. I like the way he carried himself in this episode. Yes, he was hiding something, as we find out in the end but he really was on the. The victim side here as was all of Cardassians. Ben Maxwell is kind of going crazy and just on a hunt. He's just hunting down these Cardassians outposts and ships and nobody knows why. Seems like he's gone crazy. So Chief o' Brien served up at Maxwell. So he's brought up. They're asking him, you know, what can you tell us about Captain Maxwell that would lend some light into what's happening here?
[01:01:45] And, you know, o' Brien tells him what he can but he clearly, clearly has admiration for his former captain to the point where he even says, I can help myself. Lucky, sir. I've served with it, too. Two finest captains in Starfleet and just a great subtle acting cue from Patrick Stewart here. You know, he gets this compliment. You know, Picard is, is legendarily humble, right? But I mean, God, this actor, like, he could just pull those subtle moments off so well. Like, it must have been a pleasure just to write for him and to direct him. I couldn't imagine I've directed a little in my life and, you know, I can only imagine having an actor, you know, who I could write for, who I could direct who would be just that, that skilled and that capable. Amazing. Can't say enough good things about Patrick Stewart and for that matter and Marco Lamo and Colmeni in this episode. Just great acting all around. So here's this. There's this cool episode where, you know, this. This Federation starship's going crazy. It's nice to see the Federation on the bad end of this every once in a while.
[01:02:46] You know, were evolved and were advanced and were, you know, Earth is paradise and many Federation worlds are similarly, you know, Edens, right. But every once in a while, you know, you get some fucking nut job in the Federation and now Benjamin Waxwell is, you know, is on there. So, yeah, so they're trying to figure out what's going on. They are letting the Cardassians stay on board as they're trying to hunt down the Phoenix.
[01:03:11] Some great, great interplay between the Cardassians and the crew and the Cardassians impression of Captain Picard.
[01:03:19] You don't often see alien species be impressed by a Federation captain, a Starfleet captain, but, you know, someone like Jean Luc Picard, like, he makes an impression and to the point where in the turbolift are like, your. Your captain's pretty impressive. And if Chief o' Brien wasn't so filled with hate, he would have been like, hey, thanks for saying that. But he was like, yeah, yeah. Yes, jerk.
[01:03:43] So Chief, you know, Chief o' Brien is, you know, he saw some terrible things in the Cardassian War.
[01:03:48] You know, there was a massacre on set lick3, apparently that he was involved with and he saw what the Cardassians did to the civilians there. So he has this bias towards Cardassians.
[01:04:01] Should I say rightfully so? Who knows, right? That's a moral question. That's not for someone like me to answer. But I can certainly understand why someone who saw those things would have feelings, right or wrong. So, you know, the Chief is, you know, talking to one of the. Not the go, but one of the second in command. I can't remember what his name is. You know, it kind of blows him off at first. They asked him, he wants to go for a drink and you're 10 forward. And he's like, no, you know, go fuck yourself. I, you know, I'll tell you everything I have to do about Ben Maxwell if Captain McCarthy orders me to. But who I fucking drink with is who I drink with. It's my fucking choice.
[01:04:35] Very abrupt. You know, the Cardassians, you wouldn't know it from this episode that they would go on to be one of the most cruel species in Star Trek. But from this episode, just these three guys, you know, not counting the third one who, you know, sort of tries, like, spying on the ship while he's on there and, you know, Gomesett sort of yells at him. This actor, I'm gonna have his name for next time. So this actor, the guy who plays the third Cardassian, you know, Gomezette. I didn't mean to, you know, he. He's in a ton of 80s stuff. He's in a cispanic actor. I can't remember specific movies he's from. I feel like he's from, like, a couple Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. He might have been, like, in Commando or something. He was in a. I've seen him a million times. I'm gonna find out that actor's name and get it to you for housekeeping and tell you some of the movies that he was in in the 80s, because he was in some good. He was in some good shit. He was a. He was a cool actor that popped up the Rewatchables podcast would call him that guy. He's definitely a that guy. When you see him, you're like, oh, it's that guy.
[01:05:37] Totally get it. So other than him, like, the other two Cardassians comport themselves pretty well. And you wouldn't know, you know, just from this episode alone, that Cardassians, a bunch of.
[01:05:47] Not. I'm generalizing, of course, but, you know, they're pretty cool, you know, a totalitarian sort of government and race. So. Yeah. So. But we get to know a little bit about the Cardassians here. And, you know, o' Brien's reaction was pretty abrupt, considering how sort of genial they were being. Genial? Congenial. Let's think about congenial, because I'm not sure genial is a word. So. Yeah, but that gives us the moment later in the episode where he does approach the Cardassian and kind of apologizes for his outburst in the. In the turbolift. And a really great bit of writing, you know, at the end, where he kind of says to him, you know, I don't hate you, Cardassian. I hate what I became because of you.
[01:06:31] Phenomenal. Just phenomenal writing. I love that, you know, the actors did it. Cole mean, he just delivered it really, really well.
[01:06:37] You know, he. Like I said that that's his bread and butter. He plays that. He plays that part pretty well.
[01:06:42] Great writing, great acting, good scene there. So I'm sort of, you know, putting off getting to the plot point where we meet Benjamin Maxwell, because I can't remember his damn name. You folks, I used to have this right at the forefront. This actor, phenomenal actor. Like, I won't remember it right on the spot, I don't think. And if it comes to me, oh, I got it. I got it. Bob Gunton. Bob Gunton. So if you don't know Bob Gunton, I'm pretty sure the entire universe has seen Shawshank Redemption. He was the evil warden in Shawshank Redemption who blew his head off at the end of the episode. Of the end of the episode at the end of that movie. Great movie from 1994. Should have won Best Picture. Sorry, Forrest Gump.
[01:07:21] Yeah. So Bob Gunton, he's in a million things. He's great. So he plays Captain Benjamin Maxwell and, you know, Chief o'. Brien, you know, let me go back a little bit. So they finally catch up with the Phoenix. But not before he kills like 600, I want to say 600 or so, maybe 200 hundreds of quote unquote innocent Cardassians.
[01:07:44] I think Golluma set was saying they're signed, it's a science vessel. But it was most likely a vessel that was carrying like, some, you know, secret shit to a military spy base.
[01:07:56] And that turns out is the basis of Captain Maxwell's sort of hatred for the Cardassians. He gets wind that they are setting up, you know, bases, sort of spy bases right across, like, near some really strategic Federation sectors to, you know, launch sort of a preemptive strike, you know, to start the war again.
[01:08:18] So that's what he thinks. That's why he's hunting down these Cardassians. But the way he goes about it is pretty maniacal. And it turns out, you know, he has not gotten over his scars from the Federation Cardassian war either. He was at Set Lick three as well. He lost his family there, you know, according to Chief o'. Brien.
[01:08:35] Didn't affect him. You know, he always had a joke. He always had a spring in his step and he kind of just went back to work and moved on. But I think in the back of Obriens head and certainly Picard knew no one gets over that right away. So he lost his family to the Cardassians. And this more than anything else is driving his, you know, hunt, his maniacal hunt for, you know, these supposed Cardassian spy bases.
[01:09:01] You know, by the end of the episode, you're pretty much convinced that he was right about it even though he was not right about how he went about it. But, you know, Picard pretty much, you know, drops the boom on Gulma said at the end, being like, look, we're pretty sure that he was right and if we catch you doing anything, you're fucking dead.
[01:09:19] Now, Patrick Stewart did not say those words. That's my lovely translation for you, folks.
[01:09:24] So, yeah, so really great moments. One of the best moments in this episode is when, you know, o' Brien sneaks a transport through their shields and is able to Talk to Ben Maxwell. This is just.
[01:09:38] This is just an absolutely banger of a scene here. You know, here's this, this ancillary character, Chief o', Brien, who, yeah, if you're a Next Gen fan, sure, you're invested in him, but he's not Data, right. At least not at this point in the Star Trek universe. And you have Bob Gunton playing Captain Benjamin Maxwell. It's just this one on one conversation.
[01:09:58] And, you know, they're happy to see each other and they're kind of shooting the shit and they're sort of avoiding talking about. About what they need to talk about. But there is some great writing here, some great character moments.
[01:10:08] What a great sort of, you know, moment when they talk about, you know, the old crew members and this guy Stumpy who used to sing this song and, you know, this shipmate they used to have that apparently had more of an impact on them than they thought, you know, so really great back and forth interplay between these two characters. Great writing. I mean, now that I think about it, that seems to be a theme in these top few episodes here. Just phenomenal writing. Whether it's from a sci fi perspective, are really closer to what I'm getting at. Interpersonal dialogue perspective. Just phenomenal writing, man. I mean, these writers, you know, seasons, you know what, I might not include three in this, just this particular point. Seasons four, five and six. The writing was absolutely top notch on Next Gen. Just top notch. And I don't just mean these concepts, like I said, I mean the dialogue, the character development.
[01:10:56] They did not shy away from giving an ancillary character like Chief o' Brien or an actor like Cole Meaney so much time in this episode. They've earned it. They've earned that and they bring it home. They stick the landing with this writing. Absolutely phenomenal. Great moment there. Great scene. One of my favorite scenes in all of Next Gen. No question about it. And it doesn't involve any of the seven primary characters. So there you go. That alone, I think, is worth checking this episode out for. So just a great episode. Check it out, watch it again, give it another watch.
[01:11:28] At first glance, it might be one of those episodes that just is right in the middle of a season and you, okay, good episode next week. Boom, move on. Give this episode another watch. Reminds me of the defector in season three. I talked about that episode a lot. That might have been my favorite episode. I'm not sure it was either two, either three, two or one, you know, But James Sloyan, who plays Admiral Jarok in that episode. He was my favorite guest star on Next Gen way back in season one when we did top 10 guest stars. So it reminds me a lot of that episode. And, you know, there's a theme there for me as well. You know, clearly I like moral ambiguity. Clearly, I like great interpersonal dialogue between characters. And I mean, I can appreciate really good acting. And, you know, I was never an actor, but I feel like, and this may be unfounded, I feel like I have a nice knack for seeing, you know, subtleties of acting, and there's plenty of it here. So just a phenomenal job by the writers, the actors, and all these creatives behind. Behind. Next Gen Season 4. A phenomenal season, man, a phenomenal season.
[01:12:39] Might have been my favorite Next Gen season. I know I did Star Trek seasons in general. There's a lot of Deep Space Voyager on there.
[01:12:49] It might have been only Deep Space and Voyager. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Season two of Discovery was on there too. Love that. But season four might have been my top Next Gen season. I'll have to revisit that and see, you know, and look at all the variables again. But enough said. Listen, folks, you know, Next Gen, by the time it got to where they are now, I mean, it's cooking with all the ingredients and it is on just a trailblazing path to the end of the season and four movies. It's a pleasure to watch this show at this. It was a pleasure to watch this show at this junction and it continues to be. And I hope you all love Next Gen as much as I do, and I hope you appreciate, you know, all the effort, you know, that kind of goes into making TV this. This good.
[01:13:32] I know I don't all the time, and I try to. I try to pay attention to more things like, you know, music and, you know, set direction that I don't usually pick up on right away.
[01:13:44] Yeah, you could. You could pick up on acting and writing and, you know, you know, general production and direction, you know, but for the most part, I am trying to see all the aspects that go into something this brilliant. And I gotta say, season four of Next Gen is truly brilliant.
[01:14:01] Listen, that's it, folks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening. We really, really appreciate it. Like I said, you could check us out on some of the socials out there.
[01:14:10] We're on TikTok, we're on Instagram threads. I started posting stuff on Facebook, so check it out if you get a chance. We'd really appreciate, like, subscribe, throw a comment up there.
[01:14:22] Twarp10. We'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear from you via email.
[01:14:28] You can send us an
[email protected] you know, we've gotten a few emails here and there but we'd love to see more.
[01:14:38] And yeah, if you'd like making lists, let me know what your top 10 next generation, you know, episodes are. I would love to have a back and forth with you via email about that.
[01:14:49] So hit us up. Listen, thank you Luke for producing these episodes. Really appreciate it. Could not do it without you and of course we couldn't do it without all of you listening. Thank you Troy's son who I may name at some point for that fantastic bit of feedback and advice. You're on it baby.
[01:15:06] Thank you all so much for listening. Really appreciate it. You're the best and we'll see you next time.
[01:15:16] It.
