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Re: PIC S1: Remembrance

Actually, despite some flaws, i found Picard to be very enjoyable, I have always said I'll take bad Trek over no Trek any day, hence why I watched S1 of Disco even though it SUCKED. Season 2 was better and I very much enjoyed season 3.

Picard has me wanting more, though I don't like the new captain guy much, the gimmick of his ship being fitted out with holograms of himself is pretty amusing, every one of them is more likeable than is the flesh and blood guy, but if you are making holos of yourself, you would want them to be versions of you you can stand to interact with, and to quote the holographic character bible "Red Dwarf; Infinity welcomes Careful Drivers" : 'Rimmer was beginning to realise that, as a companion, the last person he wanted to spend any time with was himself'.

I was annoyed that the guy playing Maddox was not the guy who played Maddox, but I read he retired from acting on TV.

Everything else I liked except I don't know why Elnor, raised among Romulans who were taught to speak American or UK English, has an Aussie accent. Maybe it's like the doctor says "Lots of planets have a North / Scotland / Australia", and as an Aussie born in Scotland, I like that sentiment.

In the end. Like JL (god I hate that abbreviation), I guess I don't want the game to end either. So many happy ours as a teenager and as an adult watching Trek. I just want it to go on and on and on and on like it has.

Re: TNG S7: Parallels

I'm not sure I noticed Data's blue eyes the first couple of million times I watched this episode. I don't know who, they are glaringly obvious, and as much as I hate changes to characters, I did enjoy the subtlety of that being a change in the universe.... and Data looked better with blue eyes.

Did I just say that? lol Anyway better than he does in Picard.

Visor does not set Worf Leaping, it dies set him Sliding and that's because one of the bits they used to make the VISOR was once inside part of a mobile phone shoved inside a TV remote control in San Francisco.

I was not a fan of the Worf / Tori relationship, although I liked both characters, and I did want to see a Riker Troi reunion, after all the build up, but I think it's one of the more adult bits of story telling that they both "moved on" only to end up together after the fact. Like way after the fact. That's how it goes sometimes.

Crusher was stunned that Ogawa was a doctor because in her universe Ogawa is still whatever chimplike thing she devolved into in that other episode.

A great ep, definitely one of the stronger ones. I think giving Worf more funny lines would have been good though, Dorn can do comedy, he has good timing and is immensely likeable.

Re: TNG S7: Masks

Was just re-watching this ep yesterday for want of anything else in the entire universe to do with my life, and I have to agree with my own comment form 2016. lol Go me.

I still think ,whilst it is far from the greatest episode, there is a great deal to like. I think Picard and crew were as dense as dense can be, not leaping to an astronomical interpretation earlier in the piece, Australian Aboriginals have been studying astronomy for 40 odd thousand years, and have numerous mythological explanations for their observations which also serve to remind them when to hunt what kinds of prey, when it's safe to pick what kind of plants, when to hold various ceremonies. But now imagine if something astronomically improbable happened, the star man stops chasing the star lady or something. Imagine further that the failure of whatever celestial body the Star man actually represents to follow its ordinary path caused some kind of reverse Nightfall type scenario of ecological disaster on that planet.

Presuming that the Myth was as powerful, culturally as any of the mainstream religions we have today, then even though the culture had spaceflight, holotech (or whatever Mcguffin was used in this ep), the mythohistorical (to use a Trekism) impact of that cosmic change would still, even to the scientific population be at least as significant as whatever "real world" astrophysical disaster caused the actual environmental disaster that followed.

Presume again that they have a Darmokian ritualistic bent (comparisons to the Inner Light ep here are very valid), why would you not want to push the message out there? "We were Ozimandeus, look upon us all ye mighty and tremble".

Again, Spiner's Ihot (?sp?) is irritating, much like any other non-data character I've seen him do, but Masaka and the old dude by the fire continue to be very compelling.

Anyway, at least I'm consistent.

Re: TNG S5: Time's Arrow, Part I

I have to say that whilst a lot of the comments here I find myself agreeing with in retrospect and many years on, and yet this 2 parter is by far my favourite of any trek episodes. Its not that BOBW doesn't kick all sorts of rear ends, cos it does, and it's not like AGT was a let down (if you are gonna go out, go out kicking, I say, and did they ever), but there is so much Data in this episode that I can't help loving it. I very much enjoy "Thine own Self" for that reason also.

The devastation of the crew at the thought of losing Data mirrored my own, and frankly, it was handled better here than in the movies (do not get me started on Insurrection).

It's fun, its thoughtful, and it hits me in the feels every time.

Yes the sets in the past suck badly, yes the guy that plays Twain is overbearing (but he really does look the part and is a fantastic actor, just wish he was quieter, literally not shouting every line), yes I too wondered how realistic it was for even a very wealthy woman who looks like Guinan to be accepted in that society (be nice / horrible to think that would have made a difference), and I agree the bits set in the TNG present were poorly handled once the focus shifted to Data in the past, but I only cared what was happening with him, so I didn't pay that much attention to that. But if I had to only ever watch 2 episodes of TNG ever again (you all got shivers of revulsion at that thought?, I know I do) it would be Times Arrow every time.

Re: TNG S7: All Good Things...

Thanks for all these reviews. Like a poster way, way above this post,it made me realise again "God, I love TNG". I didn't hate S7 as much as some, but I'm a forgiving sort. I remember that, back in the day Western Australia was waaay behind in showing TNG and I would go with my mates to a local university where they would rent out a lecture theatre and (in direct contravention of copyright policy - suck it thought police) show episodes of TNG (and eventually DS9 and Voy).

When I saw AGT, on the big screen (as it were) I was so happy and so sad. I still had regular eps of S7 to go on free to air TV, but I had seen the best episode of the season (and one of my all time faves) and so I knew they would disappoint. Worse yet, it would END.

Josh, a mate of mine who was the only guy I knew who actually studied nuclear physics (but now can't show his face on TV because he's a dentist) said to me one night "you know, I think of all of this as real. Like it's real history that just hasn't happened yet". Couldn't agree more, even now.

Like Neil, form the Pet Shop Boys says, the best songs can often be rubbish. It's not so much that a song (or in this case a TV show) is necessarily brilliantly written, or sung (or acted) - though some obviously are. Sometimes it's the "rubbishy pop record" that captures for you so completely what it was like for you at the time or in that place where you loved it so much, be they happy times or sad , that really stays with you. I think TNG was very strong a lot of the time and occasionally total bollocks, but the net effect is transcendant.

Generations was the first time I went to see a Star Trek Movie with female friends. We were all so excited. And then it sucked. So, so much. But even now, when I see it (by accident, I haven't deliberately subjected myself to it for years) I am transported back to that magical night of expectation and high hopes. And, like other firsts, a group of weary, bedraggled and disappointed ladies looking at me with pity afterwards.

Lol........... true story, sadly. :)

Anyway, thanks Jammer. I'll be back again when I re watch the re watchable.

Re: TNG S7: Journey's End

I never warmed too much to this episode. not a massive Wesley fan, but there were a couple of times I thought he did a good job without being annoying. It does bug me, though that even in the future with better access to education and so forth, and surrounded by professional astronauts and clever aliens, and computers and Androids, simply being an exceptionally clever human (even by those lofty standards) isn't a sufficient reason for him to be so clever. He's got to turn out to be a once in 24 centuries ubermensch into the bargain. It bugs me for the same reason that Quantum Leap's Sam Becket character having to be in control of his own leaping bugs me. Its not enough that he's the new Einstein, the oldest boy scout, Bruce Lee and Liberace all in one, he's gotta be in control of his leaps too? (read the tie in books and tell me Ziggy isn't GTFW in charge of them all).

If I was an exceptional human, I'd be even more annoyed. What does a human have to do to get credit.

Re: TNG S7: Masks

Have to disagree with you on this review, Jammer.
There are not many episodes of TNG that I hate, though there are some that I think are measurably less good than others. Having re-watched Masks last night, I was struck , not by any suckiness, or incoherence of plot (I will say I thought that a society who could build the device in the comet , which is technologically comparable if not superior to the Enterprise may have moved past such simple allegorical stories, but then our messages to the universe are simple too, by necessity), but by the fact that for once, when he wasn't playing 'straight man Data' I was impressed by Brent Spiner's performance.

I ordinarily hate him playing anyone else (in part because he is sooo good as Data), and because I find him less convincing as a human being. I thought in Masks, that his portrayal of the other characters was great. The trickster, Ehot was a bit irritating, but those archetypes roll that way, but the other 'inhabitants' were goosebump material.

I'm also realizing (I've been re-watching them all) in Season 7 that Michael Dorn is a tremendously under-rated actor. Even under all the prosthetics he as a remarkable degree of charisma and gravitas. They really should have done more Worfisodes. This episode is a great example of him being given absolutely sod-all to work with and doing a great job of it.