Category Archives: The Next Generation

Also known as TNG

1988, 2364, The Next Generation

“Datalore”

March 11, 2015 Paul

asdfasdf — “In a minute, I’m going to yell, ‘I said, Give me the brandy!'”

The Enterprise stops by the mysterious planet Omicron Theta, where Data was discovered more than 20 years earlier. Riker leads an away team and finds a planet devoid of life — and a secret chamber near where Data was found. The chamber (which wasn’t found with Data originally) contains a lab where our heroes find the components of an android identical to Data and piece together (TOS-exposition style) that the reclusive scientist, Dr. Noonien Soong, must have built both androids there. Back on the ship, the Enterprise crew puts the other android together, and he tells them his name is Lore. Lore is much more human than Data and incapacitates his “brother” in order to take his place and summon a “crystalline entity” — essentially a giant snowflake (in space!) that eradicated the colony — to attack the Enterprise. Wesley does his boy-genius thing and figures out that Lore is impersonating Data, which should have been pretty obvious to the adults. After the bridge crew tells Wesley to shut up about 10 times, he gets his moms to turn Data on (Not in that way! This isn’t “The Naked Now“) and the three of them stop Lore, by beaming Lore into space.

asdfasd — “Commander, I am not sure why you and Geordi think this is the lab of Dr. Noonien Soong. We see strange devices like these nearly every week.”

Why it’s important

The introduction of Lore and Data’s background is hugely important. It’s a key point in “The Measure of Man”, one of the highlights of TNG. In the third season episode “Brothers”, we learn Soong is still alive when he summons Data (and, inadvertently, Lore) with a homing signal. At that point, Lore steals an emotion chip meant for Data, kills the elderly Soong in the process and escapes. He later uses the emotion chip to help a group of Borg separated from the collective by the Enterprise’s actions in “I, Borg”, becoming a sort of cult leader (in “Descent, I and II”). After temporarily turning Data in those episodes by using the chip, Lore is defeated by the Enterprise crew and deactivated, ending the threat to the Federation.

Data later employs the emotion chip in “Star Trek: Generations”, which complicates the investigation of a Romulan attack at the Amargosa Observatory. A cowering Data, overcome by emotions, allows Dr. Tolian Soran to escape, which leads to Picard’s efforts to stop Soran on Veridian III with the help of James Kirk. Kirk had been consumed by a time-traveling event (called the Nexus) during the maiden voyage of the Enterprise-B 78 years earlier, in the opening of that film, and dies shortly after the confrontation with Soran. Data, as the movie ends, has adapted to the emotion chip and has emotions (more or less) in the next three films.

Soong’s research also led to the construction of the prototype android B-4, which Romulan Praetor Shinzon uses in an elaborate trap to attack the Federation and capture Picard in “Star Trek: Nemesis”. We also learn about Soong’s family in the Augments trilogy during the fourth season of “Star Trek: Enterprise.” Arik Soong, an ancestor of Noonien Soong, began down the road of cybernetics after he deemed genetic engineering (based on the work that led to Khan and others in the 20th century) hopeless. Brent Spiner, naturally, played Arik Soong.

We also see the crystalline entity again in “Silicon Avatar”, Data’s “mother” Juliana Soong (who was on the colony and escaped with Soong before it was destroyed) in “Inheritance”, and learn more about Soong and androids in several other episodes. Generally speaking, exploring Data’s origins and capabilities was a major piece of TNG, and it really began with “Datalore”.

What doesn’t hold up

This episode suffers from some first-season issues. How Data — who presumably would have done research on androids to learn more about himself — wouldn’t have heard of Soong, and how Riker, Geordi and Yar (!) would have (as shown during the lab scene) is hard to swallow. Beyond that, Data being so uninvolved in Lore’s activation was weird. It’s almost as if Data knew very little about androids — which makes almost zero sense, especially based on what we see later (like when he BUILDS an android in “The Offspring”). This would be like if Worf, who grew up separated from his origins, knew very little about Klingons — despite a strong interest in his origins. Wouldn’t Data have come across the name Noonien Soong in research on androids? Remember, this is an android who remembers everything he reads and can consume information at ridiculously fast speeds.

Moreover, it’s never made a ton of sense that Data spent more than 20 years in Starfleet (at Starfleet Academy and before his posting on the Enterprise) not learning more about himself (and why he’s still so unhuman/android-like by the time we meet him). It’s always been puzzling why the creators set Data’s discovery so far back in the Star Trek timeline. It sort of sets up his ascendancy through Starfleet to where he is a fairly high-ranking officer. But we know other characters — Riker and later La Forge — reached the rank of lieutenant commander in significantly less than 20 years. Riker was actually offered his own command less than 10 years after he graduated from the academy!

Back to this episode, there’s also the really annoying stuff with the bridge crew and Wesley. Wesley could have been more persuasive and Picard and Co. could have been FAR less dismissive. Wesley Saving the Day was an annoying trope in the early seasons mostly because of the execution of HOW he usually saved the day. Wesley spotting Lore as Data could have been pulled off in a much more believable method.

But the big problems really come down to the events on Omicron Theta. Here’s what we know (based on this episode and others):

— Humiliated after failing to build an android with a positronic brain, Soong (with his wife, Juliana, we learn later) moves to the remote Omicron Theta. While there, the two begin construction of androids, Lore, Data and prototypes including B-4 — who must have been stored elsewhere in Soong’s lab as the away team doesn’t find him, but Shinzon apparently does prior to the events of “Star Trek: Nemesis”. I guess the Enterprise crew was in a hurry/not very thorough?

— Lore is completed and alive for a while on the colony, but his emotions make him “twisted and cruel.” The colonists feel threatened by him.

— Soong decides to build an android without emotions (Data) and (at some point) decides to deactivate Lore. Before being disassembled, Lore contacts the crystalline entity, which destroys the colony, but not before Data is left outside (after Soong provides him with the colonists’ memories) and Soong and Juliana escape.

I’ve never understood how this sequence of events is possible, considering how efficient the crystalline entity is with its methods in “Silicon Avatar”. A colony of 400 or so people MIGHT have had a few hours to do anything before it was destroyed, unless something seriously slowed the entity down.

We’ll begin with the conceit that Data was under construction — perhaps near completion — BEFORE Lore was deactivated. Otherwise, there would have been no time for Soong and Juliana to build and test Data (there are lines of dialog in “Inheritance” about extensive testing) and disassemble Lore.

Then, you figure that as Data’s being completed, Lore contacts the entity — which might have been what finally prompted Soong to deactivate him. That makes sense if Soong learned of the communication well before the entity arrived, especially if he didn’t understand what the entity was capable of doing (or what, exactly, Lore contacted). Otherwise, why stay on the planet? Why not warn the other colonists? And, of course, how did Lore find out about the crystalline entity in the first place?

Shortly thereafter, Data is completed. Then, presumably, the entity arrives and scares the colonists enough that children draw pictures of the thing. Soong hurriedly uploads the colonists’ journals into Data, puts him on the stoop, possibly creates the hidden lab door (although that could have been done earlier) and escapes with Juliana before the colony gets destroyed. Lore (and B-4, presumably) are left in storage at the lab.

It just might work — if we didn’t know that the entity does its thing efficiently and should have made quick work of the colony. Or, if we knew what delayed it. Maybe it hovered for a while trying to find out what happened to its BFF Lore, but I sort of doubt it. It’s also odd that Lore, in this episode, knows that the entity was successful, even though he was on a shelf during the attack. I guess he just… pieced it together?

Other than that last note, we’re addressing continuity/logic problems that mostly aren’t the fault of “Datalore”. But it’s unlikely that we’ll review some of the episodes that cause issues with this one — so it makes sense to do our analysis here.

Back to this episode, Lore’s plan after he’s reactivated is sort of odd. Did he think the entity could remove all life on the Enterprise — leaving him (and maybe Data) as the only survivors? Or, did Lore figure he could somehow travel with the entity after the Enterprise was destroyed? The second option makes more sense, otherwise, Lore would have needed an escape plan when he drew the entity to the colony in the first place. Maybe he figured he could escape on the shuttle Soong used to escape?

Oh, and, finally, why did the Enterprise crew simply leave Lore floating in space? They had to know where he was. Couldn’t they have beamed him aboard and put him somewhere where he could do no harm? That certainly would have prevented some problems later (see above). OTOH, it’s odd that Picard, with his very real respect for life, wouldn’t have tried to save Lore.

Final thoughts

This is another step toward TNG’s improvement during the first season. The series was remarkably stronger after the first 10 episodes or so — even if it wasn’t quite as good as it would be in the third and fourth seasons.

Still, “Datalore” is somewhat campy, employing the “evil” version of a main character and using some B-movie camera angles and music. And Data’s final line to Picard, where he uses a contraction (like Lore) and has a facial twitch (like Lore) was sort of a cheap in-joke. Was it actually Lore who survived (thunderclap)?

Coming next week …

It WAS Lore who survived and now he’s taken over the Enterprise and turned Wesley into a torch! Just kidding — we’ll see some Klingon stuff, or something.

1988, 2364, The Next Generation

“The Big Goodbye”

March 9, 2015 Paul

Picard is all stressed as he prepares to give a very elaborate greeting to a very protocol-driven (read: anal) alien species called the Jarada. Troi tells him he needs a break, so Picard checks out the upgraded holodeck — now capable of characters with more human interaction. He chooses to play the role of 20th-century American gumshoe Dixon Hill, a longtime hero. Picard is so amazed with the results after a brief visit that he returns with Data, Crusher and historian/redshirt Whalen (David Selburg). While they’re inside, the Jarada probe the Enterprise, messing up the holodeck, trapping our heroes and removing the safeties. Gangster Cyrus Redblock (Lawrence Tierney) shows up in Hill’s office and shoots Whalen. Realizing they’re cut off from the rest of the ship and in danger, Picard and Co. tell Redblock that they’re actually engaging in a simulation and — after Wesley and Geordi fix the holodeck — Redblock and one of his toadies exit (looking for new plunder) only to disappear. Data and Crusher then hurry Whalen to sickbay and Picard has a short discussion with a non-bad holodeck character who wonders whether his world will continue after Picard leaves. Picard tells him he honestly doesn’t know and heads to the bridge — where he does the weird Jarada greeting successfully.

asdfas — “It’s really gonna be a shame when we replace you with the woman who fell down the elevator shaft on ‘L.A. Law’.”

Why it’s important

Although this episode has some first-season issues (which we’ll get to in a moment) it’s a huge moment for Star Trek storytelling in at least three ways:

1) It sets up the second-generation Trek’s version of the “parallel Earth” stories. Fortunately, it’s much more believable in TNG, DS9 and Voyager than on TOS because our heroes are actively creating 20th-century Earth scenarios, rather than randomly finding them on far-flung planets, like in “Bread and Circuses”.

2) It sets up the “holodeck accident” trope that became a fixture for the next 14 or so years. This had mixed results, from good episodes like “Elementary, Dear Data,” “Our Man, Bashir,” and “Worst Case Scenario” to awful ones like “Good Shepherd.” There were a lot of “meh” episodes thrown in, too.

3) But probably most important is the idea of holographic characters becoming sentient. That led to the successful “Elementary, Dear Data”/”Ship in a Bottle” arc in TNG, the somewhat successful Vic Fontaine stories in DS9 and, of course, Voyager’s best character, the Doctor.

It’s unclear how much of what happened in “The Big Goodbye” and later “Elementary, Dear Data” prompted Starfleet to design sentient holograms like the Doctor. But, it’s pretty obvious the Star Trek creators got the idea for sentient holograms in the early TNG stories. Either way, this episode lays a lot of foundation for later Trek.

What doesn’t hold up

The episode suffers from what I call “M*A*S*H Syndrome” — where main characters are put into positions simply because they’re main characters and not because people in their roles would realistically interact in such a way. It comes across as if the handful of characters played by the show’s stars only interact with each other — even though there are many more people around. Voyager was actually the worst series as far as this problem, but TNG had its share, too. The key scene in this episode is in the observation lounge following Picard’s first visit to the holodeck.

Simply put, having everyone in that scene was weird. Later TNG might have Picard telling Riker or Data or Troi about his adventure. But there’s no way Picard in the fourth or fifth season would take time away from the Jarada briefing for something like this. And there’s no reason for Wesley (who’s usually only in briefings in the series when he’s working on something with Geordi) to be in the scene. Wesley’s involvement later in rescuing Picard and Co. still could have happened.

This episode also is the clearest example of Picard and Crusher having feelings for each other that we see until the seventh season, as the whole ordeal in “The Naked Now” could be chalked up to the weirdness that happened to the entire crew. It’s frankly a little over the top here — particularly in the observation lounge (with the entire senior staff and Wesley present) and knowing where Picard comes down on romantic relationships with crewmembers.

Otherwise, there’s only really one big issue — why Geordi, Wesley or one of the other engineering dudes didn’t rush into the holodeck after it was fixed to tell Picard that the Jarada were waiting. It’s also odd that Redblock and his crony didn’t see any of Geordi’s team when they exited.

Final thoughts

To be fair, the above complaints don’t rank very high and “The Big Goodbye” was a clear step in the right direction after a lot of bad television in TNG’s first several episodes. As long as you don’t dislike holodeck stories generally, this isn’t a bad view. It was fairly original when it aired. And the Redblock character added some interesting wrinkles to the show’s final minutes, as he clearly was a well-conceived holodeck character.

Just as “Tomorrow is Yesterday” should be gently viewed as TOS’s first time-travel story, “The Big Goodbye” should be viewed as TNG’s (actually, all of second-generation Trek’s) first holodeck problem story. From that perspective — and compared with a lot of the dreck from early TNG — it works quite well.

Coming later this week …

We learn about Data’s backstory, off switch and inability to use contractions. But it’s cool. He’s fine …

1987, 2364, Ferengi, The Next Generation

“The Last Outpost”

March 5, 2015 Paul

The Enterprise is chasing a vessel of the mysterious Ferengi, who may have stolen some energy doohickey. The chase takes them to a star system, and the Ferengi ship seems to have a weapon that is draining all the Enterprise’s power. Picard contacts the Ferengi to surrender — second surrender in the first four episodes! — and learns the Ferengi are being affected in the same way. The two ships determine something on the planet’s to blame, so they beam down away teams. After Riker and Co., are assaulted by the Ferengi, an automated ‘portal’ left behind on the planet from the long-dead Tkon Empire appears to pass judgment. Riker uses some Kirk-style verbal tricks to impress the portal (yawn), saving the away team and the ship (which was about dead in orbit). Riker also asks the portal to spare the Ferengi, which he does.

riker2 — “Commander Riker, you should know that in addition to being the Portal, I’m also an extra on ‘Golden Girls.'”

Why it’s important

Well, the Ferengi were supposed to be TNG’s big enemies. They’re mentioned in “Encounter at Farpoint”, and Picard implies that they’ve been known to eat their past business associates. Of course, the Ferengi we see in this episode are far from intimidating. They’re really just incredibly annoying.

Essentially, the creators gave themselves a mulligan on the Ferengi — an alien race they clearly spent time developing but one that didn’t work out. In the first and second seasons, the Ferengi are made out to be adversaries on par with the Romulans, Klingons — and later, the Cardassians and the Breen. But by season three, they’re not seen as a major threat. They’re really just a nuisance. When the Dominion War breaks out in the latter seasons of DS9, the Ferengi Alliance doesn’t rank as high as the other Alpha Quadrant powers and doesn’t appear to get involved in the war.

The best thing that this episode did was to lay the groundwork for the character of Quark in DS9. Armin Shimerman, who plays one of the Ferengi on the planet, brought a level of depth to his portrayal of Quark that almost made sitting through the two Ferengi episodes a year on DS9 doable. Almost …

What doesn’t hold up

It’s been said that early TNG isn’t just bad TNG. It’s more like bad TOS. This episode could have fit right into the original series, with Riker playing the part of Kirk on the surface, leading the fight scenes against the bad guys. Picard, on the ship, plays the part of Scotty. Later in TNG, the roles are reversed, with Picard and Data taking on the Kirk/Spock roles and Riker often left behind to mind the store. In some ways, this change helped make TNG a better series — but the marginalization of Riker gets pretty ridiculous in the sixth and seventh seasons. More on that in later reviews.

The solution in this episode, meanwhile, is also vintage TOS. Riker, as Kirk, tells the portal some enlightened human ideas, impresses him and then shows mercy. I’m not saying that’s a particularly bad approach, but it wasn’t particularly well done here — and it certainly isn’t in the stylings of TNG at its best.

The informal attitude on the bridge and among characters is strange here, too. The attempts at witty dialog are pretty bad. It’s clear that the writers were still getting their sea (space?) legs.

There’s also something odd about the scene where Riker materializes on the planet without the rest of the away team. It’s a really dull scene where he walks around looking for everyone (“Annnyybodddyyyy?!”), eventually finding Geordi and Data. What’s also odd is the way Riker asks who the Ferengi are before they attack. I guess he wouldn’t know their names — but wouldn’t he know that they’re the Ferengi away team?

I’ve always wondered if the idea when the scene was shot was for it to begin the episode. Much of first-season TNG was re-written on the fly, so maybe that scene was filmed and then the scenes on the Enterprise leading up to it were added. Even if it’s not the case, the early stuff on the planet is pretty weak.

Perhaps the episode’s goofiest notion, though, is that Crusher would spend what she thought were her last moments alive — on the bridge WITHOUT WESLEY. She tells Picard that Wesley is in their quarters (Wil Wheaton doesn’t appear on camera) but why wouldn’t she be there, with her only son? Sometimes TV shows have to work around the availability of certain actors, but here, the conceit is just ridiculous. The real problem (other than the lack of Wheaton in the episode) is that Riker takes the entire bridge crew (other than Picard and Troi) to the planet, so having Crusher on the bridge keeps Picard from spending what might be his final moments with some nameless ensign. But still …

Oh, and it’s a small thing, but this is the first time we see the inconsistent treatment of gold in second-generation Trek. The Ferengi take communicators off several members of the away team and make comments about their worth. In later episodes, we learn that gold — on its own — is somewhat worthless, but that gold-pressed latinum is a major galactic currency. The matter is pretty inconsistent even on DS9, where the presence of Quark brings latinum into the conversation like 20 times an episode.

Final thoughts

This episode, like “The Savage Curtain”, is another that we don’t really recommend for quality — but still is sort of essential viewing. The Ferengi are a major race in Trek going forward, even if their standing changes a lot over the years. And the Ferengi whip weapons are pretty cool in a retro sort of way.

Arguably, there are just two other episodes of TNG where the Ferengi are villains in the classic Klingon/Romulan sense — “The Battle” later in the first season and “Peak Performance” in season two (and perhaps “Bloodlines” in season seven). Mostly, they’re more like conniving cheats, like in “The Price,” “The Perfect Mate” or “Captain’s Holiday.” That change probably made a lot of sense, as taking the Ferengi seriously was never very easy. But why the creators didn’t simply choose to move on from the Ferengi — like, never show them again — is perplexing. Episodes of Ferengi mischief made some sense on DS9 with Quark and his antics. But inserting them into Voyager and (especially) Enterprise? It’s almost as if the creators couldn’t believe that the Ferengi weren’t well-received, so they kept going back to the well.

Coming next week …

Holodecks and the people who recreate in them — even though the damn things are 24th-century death traps.

1987, 2364, Ferengi, The Next Generation

“Encounter at Farpoint”

March 1, 2015 Paul

On the Enterprise-D’s maiden voyage, a mysterious and powerful entity calling himself Q (John de Lancie) blocks the ship’s path to Farpoint Station, accusing humans of being a “savage, child race” and telling them they must stop exploring the galaxy. After some verbal sparring with the ship’s commander, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Q puts the crew on trial for the crimes of humanity and then decides to judge them based on their ability to solve the mystery at Farpoint (natch). The new station seems almost magical and the station’s builders are loathe to answer any questions about it. On the clock with Q’s impending judgment and with a mysterious ship in orbit attacking the planet’s inhabitants — but not the station — Picard and Co. learn at the last moment that the station is actually a space lifeform forced to become the station by the planet’s inhabitants. Picard helps free the lifeform, and it leaves with its mate, which was actually the ship in orbit. Q declares the puzzle as too easy — which it really was — and leaves, but does not promise never to return (thunderclap). Then, the new crew decides to “see what’s out there,” and begins the 7-year run of the Enterprise-D.

Why it’s important

As Trek’s first television foray since 1969 — other than “The Animated Series” — “Encounter at Farpoint” establishes the new Enterprise, the crew (with surprisingly detailed backstories for many of the characters and only a smidge too much exposition) and, of course, Q. It’s hard to evaluate, all these years later, just how groundbreaking the episode was at the time, but it was clearly a reimagined version of Starfleet and the Federation we knew and loved — a version with a lot of spark and creativity. Next to the release of the original series and “Star Trek — The Motion Picture”, this is probably Trek’s most important premiere, from a real-world perspective.

Within the Star Trek universe, this episode shows that humanity and the Federation have made some major headway since last we saw Kirk and Co. In real time, the last Star Trek available prior to TNG in fall 1987 was “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” in 1986. We last saw the original crew on the bridge of the new Enterprise-A, which we learn later was 80 years before the events of this episode. Starfleet technology has notably advanced in the intervening time, things are at least somewhat better with the Klingons (with Worf on the bridge and all) and the high-sounding words of Picard and others clearly advance the idea that humanity continued to evolve.

We also learn that the Enterprise carries families and can separate when going into battle. The saucer section, carrying the families, presumably would run for cover while the star drive goes to kick some ass. It’s kind of an odd concept (more below).

We also meet Q, who is noteworthy as Trek’s first truly recurring villain. Khan might qualify, but he only appears in one episode and one movie, while Q makes regular appearances on TNG, shows up once on DS9 and three times on Voyager. Q, of course, introduces the Enterprise to the Borg in TNG’s second season — though it’s pretty clear that the Borg had dealings with the Federation (that weren’t apparent or possibly public knowledge) prior to Q’s actions in “Q Who?” In other words, it’s more than likely that the the Borg would have become a big thing to the Federation at some point, even if Q accelerated the timetable.

Lastly, we hear the name of a fairly important alien race for the first time in this episode: the Ferengi. Of course, they’re made out to be far more intimidating than what we see a few episodes later and throughout most of second-generation Trek. Picard actually says they’ve eaten their past business associates. Not sure the Brothers Quark would agree with that …

What doesn’t hold up

As this is was a pilot episode and the beginning of second-generation Star Trek, some rough spots were understandable (but worth noting):

— The technology is weird. Picard mentions use of computer printouts (!) and the bad science of TOS continues in a few spots. How did the Enterprise separate the saucer at warp if the saucer has no warp engines? And how did the saucer escape the encounter with Q and make it back to Farpoint on impulse? Were they that close to the planet when Q attacked? If so, was there really any advantage in removing the saucer?

— The saucer separation idea was a bizarre item in the first place, considering how rarely the move was made (just “The Arsenal of Freedom,” “The Best of Both Worlds”, and “Star Trek: Generations”). In only one of those instances was the saucer separated so the kiddies could get away before possible battle, despite multiple occasions where it could have been used. One that always stood out was the encounter with the Lore-led Borg in the “Descent” two-parter — where the ship uses a subspace corridor to follow the Borg into space that the crew knows will be hostile. I’m sure the initial idea was about a “gee-whiz” factor made possible by improved effects. Either that wore off, or the creators decided they didn’t like the headless-duck look of the star drive that much. Or both.

— Some of the characters weren’t quite right. Picard (as he does for most of season 1) seems officious and unnecessarily harsh. Data, much like Spock in early TOS, is too human (and he uses a lot of contractions and apparently can’t read a calendar). Troi’s emotive behavior when sensing emotions was just WAY over the top (not surprisingly, considering Marina Sirtis was probably Trek’s weakest regular actor). Everyone else was more or less on target with at least the first-season versions of the characters (Riker is stiff, Yar is overly earnest, Worf is too willing to pull a phaser, etc.).

— While Q generally fits with what we see later, it’s odd that he would need to throw force fields up in the middle or space or have the weird flaming-globe ship that pursues the Enterprise. It was probably another example of the creators wanting to flex their effects muscles, but if Q is all powerful, why would he need to have a vessel (or whatever that thing is) travel at warp in pursuit of the Enterprise? Was it a matter of further intimidating Picard and Co.? We only see the force field once more, after which Q’s powers are far less effects-driven.

— Lastly, it seems like Picard doesn’t know that much about how his officers were assigned to the ship. His line about how he was “informed” that “a highly experienced man” would join the ship at Farpoint seems like Picard didn’t actually pick his first officer, which runs counter to what we learn later (notably in “The Pegasus”). Same sort of goes for Picard’s discussion with Crusher late in the episode. How didn’t he know that Crusher asked for the assignment? More on that in a moment …

Final thoughts

Again, “Encounter at Farpoint” is a pilot episode and should be given some slack (probably as much as any Trek episode other than “The Cage” and maybe “Where No Man Has Gone Before”). But there were clearly some editing issues. Why, for example, did Riker and Data formally meet on the holodeck when Data was at ops when Riker rejoined the saucer and the star drive? For that matter, why didn’t Riker just summon Data using his communicator? I know it allowed for the introduction of the holodeck, but it sure seems off. It feels like the holodeck scene was added later.

Also, why did Picard (in a scene often cut for time) take a few minutes in the middle of a crisis to go to sickbay and apologize to Crusher for the weird encounter with Wesley on the bridge? It would have made sense after the crisis was averted — but during, with a ticking clock and humanity’s future at stake? It almost feels like that scene was moved up for the sake of pacing everything else.

In fact, the entire situation with Picard and Crusher makes little sense. Surely, Picard would have known that his best friend’s widow had a son who was going to live on the ship, and would have pieced together that the boy in the turbolift — if not the boy dripping wet from the holodeck a few minutes earlier — was Jack Crusher’s offspring.

Granted, Picard and Crusher’s relationship prior to “Encounter at Farpoint” is pretty murky. But they clearly had some shared friends — e.g., Walker Keel, whom we meet in “Conspiracy” — and had enough interactions where Picard had strong feelings for Crusher (“Attached”). But here, it’s almost as if they’re nothing more than acquaintances connected by Jack Crusher.

The whole thing with Admiral McCoy inspecting the Enterprise was odd, too. How did Riker — whom we learn later came to the Enterprise from the Hood, where he was first officer — not know that a Starfleet legend was on the Hood to be transported to the Enterprise (and back) for an inspection? Or was McCoy on the Enterprise the whole time during the encounter with Q and transported to the Hood only after? Or was McCoy at Farpoint? Regardless, how didn’t Riker know about McCoy? I’m not against the “hand off” moment between McCoy and Data, but it could have been done a lot better. And, really, I wasn’t a fan of the fact that McCoy acted more like a redneck in this episode — his decision to call Data “boy”, etc. It’s almost like DeForest Kelley was doing a spoof on McCoy. Did he have too many Georgia Mint Juleps on the Hood?

Beyond that, was the Hood in orbit of Farpoint the whole time Riker was playing gumshoe before the Enterprise arrived and until McCoy was transported to the Hood in a shuttle? If so, we never see the ship or hear it mentioned. The natural assumption, too, is that Crusher, Wesley and La Forge were transported by the Hood to Farpoint (though this is never made clear).

Lastly, the post-atomic horror court scene created by Q is probably the low point of the episode. A lot of the acting — both by Patrick Stewart (surprisingly) and Denise Crosby and Sirtis (not all that surprisingly) — was pretty awful. The little person with the bell and the Asian announcer dude are straight out of the Book of Bad 1980s Sci-Fi Crutches — not shockingly, they aren’t part of the court’s recreation in “All Good Things …” — and there’s no blood when the guard attacked by Yar is shot repeatedly with automatic weapons just inches from Picard. Oh, and what’s with the conn officer (whom we learn later is Miles O’Brien) acting as if nothing had happened when Picard, Data, Yar and Troi returned to the battle bridge? He says they’ve been on course and acts as if the ship wasn’t in battle — despite the fact that the ship had separated. WTF, Miles? If everything’s cool, where’s the rest of the damn ship?

It’s also worth noting that things apparently didn’t get rosy on 21st-century Earth until well past the events of “Star Trek: First Contact” in 2063. Q says the courtroom is depicted from 2078, and Troi is very clear to Picard when she says the entire situation was “very real.” I suppose you could argue that Earth (or all parts of Earth) didn’t set course to be paradise immediately after the Vulcans landed in central Montana. But that leaves a lot less time for Earth to be as ship shape as we see it in the 2150s in “Star Trek: Enterprise.” Remember that we’re talking about a planet that, in 90 years, supposedly went from being ravaged by a world war to a society that’s totally eliminated hunger, conflict, etc.

Coming later this week …

We’re not sure you have the lobes needed for us to tell you, hu-man.

What if a site focused on the really important Star Trek episodes, explained how they were important and how they tied together — while tossing in a healthy dose of snark?