Tag: season 6

Posted in Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 230: Descent

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG
Episode: 6.26/ 7.1 Descent (June 21, 1993 (1) and September 20, 1993 (2))
Rating: 5/5
Redshirt Status: 3/23/57  (we will give it to season 6)

Notable Guest Stars:
Steven Hawking (Himself) –  Steven Hawking is a well-known physicist.  He plays himself in the opening scene.

Natalija Nogulich (Admiral Alynna Nechayev) – This is not the first nor the last time we will see Nogulich as she continues to play the role Admiral Nechayev on various episodes of both TNG and Deep Space Nine. She had a reoccurring role on The Pretender and appeared on West Wing as Isreali ambassador Shira Galit.

John Neville (Isaac Newton) – Neville was a popular theatre actor. He also had a recurring role as the “Well-manicured Man” on the X-files, Mr. Laurence in Little Women (1994) and the Admiral in the Fifth Element (1997).  Also, he is the grandfather of actor Joe Dinicol who may be known from Arrow. Neville died in 2001.

Jim Norton (Albert Einstein) – Norton played Einstein in an earlier episode of Star trek, The Nth Degree. 

Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh) – Del Arco appeared before as Hugh, and he will appear as the character again in Picard. He is also known for being Dr. Morales in The Closer.  When not acting he is a political activist with a particular interest in furthering equality for the LBTQA+ community and the environment.  He will appear as different characters on Voyager and the Star Trek associated video games.

Richard Gilbert Hill (Bosus)- Gilbert-Hill has worked on several TV shows, including one I would watch with my grandmother called The Guardian which stars Simon Baker.  It’s a very good show, you should watch it.  He also periodically does write scripts, and even has a credit on Highlander.

Brian J. Cousins (Crosis) – Cousins is a reoccurring Star Trek Alum, who first appeared as Parem, a Romulan military officer in the TNG episode The Next Phase.  He will return in an episode of Enterprise.

Review:

This is actually a pretty interesting episode.  It brings forth two questions to answer over the course of the two-parter.

Read more: The Rewatch 230: Descent

The first is Data’s ability to handle emotions.  Its been a long used plot point that Data wants to be as human as possible and its usually emotion that keeps him from fulfilling that goal.  In this episode, Data begins to experiment with that.  Granted, its with the help of his brother Lore, who is never up to good.

The second plot question is what happened to Hugh, the borg that they set free to go back to the collective and infest with independence.  Well, we find out in this episode.  Hugh and the others are holding up on a far-off planet where they are following Lore.  Having grown up with the hive mind, the affected Borg do not settle well into independence.  Lore takes advantage of this and steps in to help lead them.  Some break away after realizing that Lore is also using them for experimentation.

As you may figure, Lore is why we can’t have nice things.  In this episode he is able to share emotions with his brother through a radio signal.  The only issue is that he only shares anger.  Data so enthralled with the idea of emotion goes with it, acting extremely out of character and rebelling in a very teenager fashion (as much as a 40ish year-old android can).  The anger and hate fill him up and it takes a lot of work from Geordi and Picard to get through it all and activate his programing that lets him have morality. 

This episode is very important in the story of Data, and I think anyone who is a Data fan should include this two parter in their must-sees.  Because at the end of the day there is a difference between Data and his older brother – Data has a conscious, and Lore does not.

In the second part, we really deal with the borg and how being left to their own devices they were vulnerable, and Lore took advantage.  He created a cult of Borg, and it took a lot for any of them to leave.

I think its notable that several key players in this episode were not happy with the end result.  Brent Spiner and various production staff have all had complaints about the limits they had to really get into the themes of the episode and make it reach its full potential.

Interesting Notes:

  • Written by (1) Ronald D. Moore on the story by Jeri Taylor and (2) Rene Exhevarria.
  • Directed by Alexander Singer
  • This Two-parter includes the final Season premiere of TNG, as it starts the seventh and last season of the show.
  • There is a novelization of this episode, along with four other episodes.
  • This episode closes a few plot threads, but it also dangles one open which will be brought up in the 1994 film Generations:  The emotion chip.
  • The building that Lore & his borg companions live is the Brandeis-Bardin Institute.  Previously this building had been used to be the setting of the Khitomir Accords in Star Trek VI.
  • Stephen Hawking is the only person to have a cameo as himself in the franchise.  The scene in which he appears contains several jokes about his theories on physics and how they interact with Einstein’s and Newton’s.  He had requested to appear on the show, being a big fan of it.  He even wrote the forward on a book on the Physics of Star Trek.
  • One of the ships that the admiral mentions is a homage to Chancellor Gorkon.  This was the first ship to be named after a nonhuman in the series.  Discovery would continue this tradition so in the show’s chronology this was far from the first.
  • There were a lot of issues with the set being too hot for those in costume. 

Pros

  • This is a great Data episode.  Brent Spiner always gets to test his limits as an actor when it comes to Lore episodes because he has his usual Data, and the more emotional and angry Lore.
  • It’s nice to see Beverly show her command skills. In a later episode Deanna asks her about being a Bridge Officer.  I kind of wonder what made her decide to become one.  I don’t think they will discuss that, but I will see when I get to the episode and see it again.

Cons:

­I’m always a little bit uncomfortable when people are in such a defense mode that they want to destroy everything upon finding it.  It always makes me wonder if they have lost their ability to see the nuances of life.  In this episode the Admiral basically dresses down Picard for letting Hugh live.  Given what the Federation and Starfleet stand for, I think it was a reasonable thing for him to do. But then I’ve always been averse to outright destruction.  I’ve also never been in a survival situation before either.

Screencap via CygnusX1.net

Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 228: Timescape

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG
Episode: 6.25 (June 14, 1993)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Status: 0/20/54

Notable Guest Stars:

Patricia Tallman (Romulan) – Patricia is a background actor and stuntswoman, and worked on 3 of the 90s trek shows. She also was Laura Dern’s stunt double for Jurassic Park.

Review:

So we have another time travel episode from Brannon Braga. This time Troi, Data, Geordi and Picard are returning to the Enterprise from a conference when they stumble upon fractured time. The Enterprise and a Romulan ship turn out to be in the middle of it all, and the four left out have to investigate.

Read more: The Rewatch 228: Timescape

I enjoyed this epiosde, overall. However, its not their strongest. Its not an episode I would put in a “Top Ten Must See Episodes” list. At the same time it is not bad by any means. Its just…good.

I do appreciate a few things that the episode presents. In particular Troi is shown to be less a pretty face and trouble monitor for Picard. She is relied upon for knowledge of the Romulan people and their ships. None of the characters are shown as more or less useful then the others.

Its also nice to have a Romulan episode where they are not the bad guys.

Interesting notes:

  • Written by Brannon Braga based on a pitch by Mark Gehred-O’Connell
  • Directed Adam Nimoy (son of Leonard Nimoy)
  • Braga put a few injokes into the script, using the names of an old girlfriend and a teacher as speakers at the conference.

Pros:

  • Good use of characters. You don’t often see Troi involved with action sequences. She’s usually in the more dramatic scenes due to her character’s occupation.

Cons

  • There was some elements of “How did that even work?” in the episode.
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 225: Second Chances

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG
Episode: 6.24 Second Chances (May 24,1993)
Rating: 3/5
Redshirt Status: 0/20/54 

Notable Guest Stars:

Mae Carol Jemison (Lt. Palmer) – Mae Carol Jemison is a real life astronaut, and was in fact the first black woman in space. She was also the first astronaut to guest star in Star Trek. She is awesome for so many reasons.

Jonathan Franks (Thomas Riker) – I mean…


Review:

Honestly this isn’t my favorite episode to watch. But it is an important episode because of future episode of DS9 Also Imzadi reasons.

This episode focuses on Will Riker, who finds himself a twin all of a sudden. Prior to being on the Enterprise, Riker had partispated in a mission where he was involved with a transporter accident. To his mind everything ended up okay -he made it back on the ship and continued on with his life. I’m going to refer to Riker Prime as Will. Will has grown considerably as a person and has become more comfortable with his life, his decisions and where he wants things to go. He no longer wants to advance as fast as possible, hoping to linger where he can learn. And he’s also built himself a family on Enterprise. I have my own theories about why it took Enterprise to finally make him comfortable with himself but lets stick to the episode.

Riker 2, or Thomas as he will be known, did not make it up to the ship. The transporter accident caused a duplication of Riker, with one making it back and the other spending 7-8 years living on the planet waiting for a rescue. Tom has spent this time alone and focused on his previous decisions. One of the things that kept him going was correcting his mistake with Deanna.

If you are an Imzadi fan this episode can be a pretty good one. It goes more in depth about their history, and gives us more moments where you see what is still there. And just because I didn’t really care for the episode doesn’t mean you will. In fact, many people like this episode, and its exploration of having gone in both directions from a single incident.

I think what bothers me about this episode is that Tom Riker isn’t really spoken of much afterwards. He does appear in an episode of DS9. He ends up being a way to play wiht Riker if he wasn’t molded by Picard’s sense of ethics and duty. Tom spent 8 years alone and pining for a woman who he loved but who didn’t (seemingly) love him enough to stay with him.

Which is another part of this episode that brings some interesting conversation. Tom is made to be what Will would be like if he hadn’t been on Enterprise. Except not, because Tom was stranded Alone for 8 years. That’s got to do something to your psyche. And he’s had 8 years to obsess over his break up with Deanna. So I think that for her, while it was nice reliving the glory days of their relationship, Tom wasn’t ready anymore then Will had been. He had some things to work through. I think the Will that spent 7 years on Enterprise was more ready for what she needed, to be honest. Even though it takes them another 7 years to figure that out.

Interesting notes:

  • Written by Michael A. Medlock (Story), and Rene Echevarria (Teleplay)
  • Directed LaVar Burton in his first directing role.
  • They almost killed off the original Will Riker that we had grown to love. They also almost killed off Tom Riker. I’m glad no one died.
  • Nichelle Nichols was also on set.

Pros:

  • Mae Jemison.
  • Imzadi content

Cons:

  • Transporter Clone stories always seem weird to me and uncomfortable.
Posted in Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 223: Rightful Heir

Posted on by sokorra

Series: TNG
Episode: Rightful Heir (Aired 5/17/93)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Rating:0/20/54

Notable Guest Stars:
Alan Oppenheimer (Koroth) – Oppenheimer is a character and voice actor who will go on to appear on several episodes of Star Trek.
Robert O’Reilly (Goron) – Gowron remains one of my favorite reoccurring characters on TNG. He is no longer actively acting.
Norman Snow (Torin) – Snow has appeared in several sci-fi series, including Quantum Leap. He’s also a Julliard graduate.
Charles Esten (Divok)– One of his more recent roles was in 2012 as Deacon Claybourne on the tv series Nashville. He has also appeared on Voyager, ER, The Mentalist and NCIS: LA.
Kevin Conway (Kahless)- Conway had a mix-media career, with credits on film, Television and Broadway. One of his bigger credits is as the Control Voice on The Outer LImits (1995), Roscoe Martin on JAG, and Jonas Stern in The Good Wife.

Review:

Continue reading “The Rewatch 223: Rightful Heir” →
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 221: Suspicions

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG
Episode: 6.22 Suspicions (05/08/1993)
Rating: 3/5
Redshirt Status: 1/20/54 

Notable Guest Stars:

James Horan (Dr. Jo’Bril)- Horan has done alot of voice work over the years in several highly known video games, including tie-in games for Star Trek, Star Wars, and Avatar. He will appear again in DS9 and Enterprise (as the humanoid figure seeking to change time). More recently he has played in Orville.
Peter Marx (Dr. Reyga) – Marx has played a series of Ferangi characters over the years, appearing first as Nibor in Menage a Troi. He will also appear in Voyager in the 2 parter year of hell
Joan Stuart Morris (Dr. T’Pan) – Morris has a fairly short credit list, with Star Trek in the middle. Her last credit is listed in 1995.
John S. Ragin (Dr. Christopher)- Surprisingly, this is Ragin’s last listed credit on IMBD. He is known for his roles on Santa Barbara, Quincy M.E., and The F.B.I. He died in 2013.
Tricia O’Neil (Kurak) – Tricia O’Niel is a Star Trek Alum, having previously shown up on TNG as Captain Rachel Garrett in Yesterday’s Enterprise. Of course, with the make-up and her acting skills you can’t recognize her.
Tracee Cocco (Ensign Jae) – while her roles are mostly listed as “Uncredited” Cocco has appeared in 62 episodes of TNG, 6 episodes of Voyager, 6 episodes of DS9, several movies, and a few video games. So for this episode, I’m going to acknowledge her contributions to Star Trek

Review:

This is an interesting episode. We start at the midway point as Guinan shows up at Beverly’s apartment seeking treatment for a tennis elbow, and listens to Beverly explain the events of the past few days. You see, Beverly was impressed by the presentation of a Ferengi scientist, Dr Reyga, and his metaphysic shield. However, Reyga was faced with some discrimination due to his being a Ferengi and in general no one trusting someone from that species to be a scientist with ethics.

So Beverly gathers a few scientists: Dr. T’Pan, Dr. Christopher, Dr. Kurak, and Dr. Jo’Bril. The four of them, along with Beverly procede to cautiously examine the data, and few the test run. Dr. Jo’Bril even offers to be the pilot of the test craft, to make it a bit more unbias. But then Jo’Bril suddenly dies, after what seems like a positive test run. Then Dr. Reyga dies. And Beverly has a hinky feeling about all this. Side Note: This review has some serious Spoilers as I have to talk about the end of the episode

Continue reading “The Rewatch 221: Suspicions” →
Posted in mythology, Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 217: The Chase

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG

Episode: 6.? The Chase (04/26/1993)
Rating: 5/5
Redshirt Status: 0/19/54
Notable Guest Stars:

Salome Jens (Progenitor) – Salome Jens is probably best known in Star Trek for her role as The Female Changeling who acts as the head of the Changelings and the Dominion.  She’s an essential character to DS9 and Odo’s story arc.

John Cothran, Jr (NuDaq)– Another long term Star Trek Alum, Cothran will continue to play various guest characters in DS9 and Enterprise.

Maurice Roeves (Romulan Commander) – Roeves guest starred in several TV programs, but one of notable credits include Ulysses (1967), The Last of the Mohicans, and Beautiful Creatures (2000)

Linda Thorson (Gul Ocett) – Thorson is a well known Canadian actress, having starred in the 1960s series The Avengers.  She has a bountiful theater career as well.  More recently she played a recurring character on the Hulu series The Hardy Boys.

Norman Lloyd (Professor Galen) – Lloyd was a well known actor, director, and producer over the long span of his career.  He began as a child and continued to work up till he was past 100 years old. A notable credit is He Ran All The Way, which he performed with John Garfield, one of the more visible victims of the Hollywood Blacklist.  One of his more recent credits before his death was a 2017 appearance on Modern Family.

Review:

I really enjoyed this episode for several reasons.  The story is strong, it opens up the universe a bit by including more than one alternative species, and it ties in Original Series mythos.

Continue reading “The Rewatch 217: The Chase” →
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 215: Lessons

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG
Episode: 6.19 Lessons (4/5/1993)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Status: 8/19/54

Notable Guest Stars:

Wendy Hughes (Lt. Commander Nella Daren) – Most of Hughes’ work was in Australia so unfortunately I have not had the chance to see much of her work. She did appear in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries which I saw an episode of. Unfortunately she died in 2014 of cancer.

Review:

This episode is a much lighter episode then the one before, and is more about character then it is about action. Picard slowly falls in love with a new member of his crew, Lt. Commander Nella Daren, who runs the Stellar Cartography lab. The two Their romance is paired with them and their music, playing together in the Jefferies tube and generally enjoying their time together.

Continue reading “The Rewatch 215: Lessons” →
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 214: Starship Mine

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG Episode: 6.18 Starship Mine (3/29/1993 Rating: 4/5 Redshirt Status: 8/11/46

Notable Guest Stars:

Tim Russ (Devor) – Tim Russ will become better known to you all when we get to Voyager. He plays one of the main characters, Tuvok. More recently he has appeared on Orville, a Star Trek homage.

Marie Marshall (Kelsey)- Marshall has guest starred in several shows over the years, including The Pretender, Babylon 5 and Silk Stockings. The latter two were ongoing roles in the production. She also worked on As the World Turns, playing Denise Darcy for two years in the mid Eighties.

David Spielberg (Commander Calvin “Hutch” Hutchinson) – To be honest, I haven’t seen much of what he has been in, but he had a big part in this episode, so it felt wrong to exclude him. I have heard of The Practice, so I’ll point that one out.

Glenn Morshower (Orton)- He has been on quite a few of my favorite TV shows over the years. He had a recurring role on CSI Miami, X-men First Class, JAG, X-files, West Wing and Criminal Minds. He also appears on Voyager and Enterprise. However his most known credit is apparently the show 24, which I have never seen.

Tom Nibley (Neil)- Nibley had a short career in acting, mostly in the late 80s and 90s. He has appeared on some shows I have seen, including Days of Our Lives and The Golden Girls. His last credited role (according to IMDB) was in 1998.

Patricia Tallman (Kiros) – She is known for her roles on Babylon 5, Night of the Living Dead (1990), and several Star Trek shows. She has appeared both as an actress and as a stunt performer. She performed Laura Dern’s stunts in Jurassic Park. She also owns her own Adventure corporation called Quest Retreats.

Tim de Zarn (Satler) – He has appeared on several TV series I have watched growing up, including Dr. Quinn, Criminal Minds, Cold Case, and of course a few episodes of Star Trek. He also appears in the 2002 film Spiderman (my first exposure to Spiderman) playing Mary Jane’s father. Recently he guested on Better Call Saul.

Review:

Continue reading “The Rewatch 214: Starship Mine” →
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 212: Birthright (1 & 2)

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG
Episode: 6.16 Birthright (03/07/1993) & 6:17 Birthright Part II (3/14/1993)
Rating: 3/5
Redshirt Status: 0/3/38

Notable Guest Stars:
Siddig El Fadil/Alexander Siddig (Julian Bashir) – This episode crosses over with DS9 slightly and brings Julian on to show the interconnection of the two shows existing together. At this point in time he was still being credited with his actual name of Siddig El Fadil.

James Cromwell (Jaglom Shrek)- James Cromwell is one of my favorite actors. He’s well known in Star Trek, having appeared several times over the years in various franchise roles. His most reoccuring role is that of Zephram Cochran, which he would play in a few years. He is under heavy make-up for this episode though, but that distinctive voice carries through.

Cristine Rose (Gi’ral) – Cristine Rose is most known for her role on series Heroes, where she played Angela Petrelli. She has also appeared on Friends, NCIS, Chicago Hope, Crossing Jordan, and Gilmore Girls.

Jennifer Gatti (Ba’el)- She is known for her work in soap operas, including Guiding Light and Young and The Restless. She has appeared on several shows as a guest actor, including Voyager, ER and Cheers. In 2019 she appeared on the newer medical drama The Resident.

Richard Herd (L’Kor)- He might sound familiar because he will appear several times on Star Trek Voyager as Admiral Owen Paris – father of Lt. Tom Paris. He also appeared in Seinfeld, Quantum Leap, and JAG among many others. He has been inducted into the National Broadcast Hall of Fame for his radio work. Unfortunately, he died of cancer in 2020.

Alan Scarfe (Tokath) – Alan Scarfe has appeared on TNG before, but he has also appeared on my favorite Scifi series Stargate Atlantis, and another good series called Andromeda. He has won several awards for both film work and stage work.


Review:

Continue reading “The Rewatch 212: Birthright (1 & 2)” →
Posted in Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews

The Rewatch 210: Tapestry

Posted on by sokorra

Series: Star Trek: TNG
Episode: 6.15 Tapestry (2/15/1993)
Rating: 3/5
Redshirt Status: 0/3/38 

Notable Guest Stars:
Ned Vaughn (Cortin Zweller) – Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile know that Apollo 13 has been my favorite movie since it came out in 1994.  Ned Vaughn appears in the movie as CapCom 2.

J.C Brandy (Marta Batanides)- J.C. Brandy has appeared in various tv series over the years, including a couple soap operas.  She also made an appearance in the Halloween film franchise.  She was 17 years old when she filmed this episode.

Clive Church (Maurice Picard) – This appears to be his first -and only – known credit.  Which was notable enough for me to include him in this section.

Rae Norman (Penny Muroc)- Rae Norman was appearing on Guiding Light around the same time she was on Star Trek.

Review:

I have to admit this is not one of my favorite episodes of TNG.  Every show has their “It’s a Wonderful Life” episode, it seems, and this was TNG’s.  Picard, having received a near-fatal wound, finds himself in a space with Q.  Q uses his powers to show Picard what might have happened if he hadn’t been stabbed by the Nausiccaans, a story mentioned earlier in the show.

My problem was most IAWL like episodes show the effect someone has on other people, not just their own life. And Picard had a deep impact on the other characters.  For example, there is a scene where Altered Picard talks with Will Riker.  Will is still the executive officer even though its been pretty much implied that the main reason he hasn’t taken a ship of his own is because he wanted ot learn more from Picard. I find it hard to believe that Will would still be on Enterprise and not on his own ship.  And, what does this mean for Jack Crusher? 

Of course, this could all be explained away as being part of Q’s made-up world.

There is also the weirdness of the Marta romance.  For one, they never really made Picard out to have been a lothario till this episode.  And the actress for Marta was 17 years old. While neither actor seemed to find anything amiss, the fact that the crew thought she needed to be aged up by make-up makes me wonder why they didn’t hire an older actress.

This episode did launch a thousand memes of Picard waking up to Q in his bed. 

This episode is usually critically accepted as good, and while I may not particularly feel driven to watch it, I don’t think it’s the worst episode ever. (You have seen me skip episodes so you know that). 

Interesting Notes:

  • Written by Ronald D. Moore
  • Directed by Les Landau
  • This episode was inspired by “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens.
  • The brainstorming team liked this episode as a comparison to Picard’s wild child youth and studious adulthood while Kirk was a studious young man and only earned his reputation as a risk taker as an adult (and as a Captain).
  • First appearance of the Nausicaans

Pros

  • I wonder if they realize that they made Q appear pansexual at this point. I mean it would make sense for an energy being such as the Q continuum not to limit their interests by gender.

Cons:

  • I feel the story seems a little farfetched as far as it not effecting other people that where Jean-Luc was in life was different.  Our lives are ripples, not stagnant dots no matter what Q believes.

Screencap via CygnusX1.net