Month: March 2010

So Wesley turns out to be a bit of a racist prick. Well, he turns out OK in the final moments of the episode. But by now we know that the correct answer *should* be, when faced with a beautiful woman who shape-shifts into a monster, that appearances don’t matter. Except that they do, kind…

Another good episode – hey, that’s two in a row! While I’m not convinced by the legal procedure used by the JAG office, it gets us into a great situation: Picard facing off against Riker to prove that Data is sentient. OK, so that’s a setup for a bunch of lengthy courtroom scenes. But I…

Riker goes on a holiday on a Klingon ship. It’s just about the most we’ve ever seen of Klingons to this point, and while the culture is a bit primitive (rargh, warriors) it’s drawn out quite nicely, and the dinner scene makes them feel more like a culture than a one-note villain factory. The plot…

Doctor Pulaski has her big moment. I’m not sure if this was always intended as the big ‘Doctor and Captain become friends’ moment, or if it was a mid-course correction from the writers when they saw how things were developing. Regardless, it doesn’t quite work. Why not? Captain Picard never really has a breakthrough in…

Here’s a helpful hint if you’re ever on board a starship in similar situations to these ones: when you’re emotionless android suddenly has human emotions, the correct answer is to lock him up and *then* find out what’s going on. Especially if he’s super strong and acting irrationally and jealously. At this point, you’d think…

To me, the core of Star Trek is to tell good Science Fiction stories through the lens of the Enterprise crew. This is a really good example of that. The basic idea is an exploration of a common trope of SF, exploring some ideas of more alien lifestyles. It’s carried through well here, particularly through…

Apparently the writers think the most important character to resurrect from the Original Series is Harry Mudd. It’s hard to see the character of Okona as anything other than a direct copy, which is not a good sign. After all, the Mudd episodes were some of the worst. The first act (‘oh, the charming rogue’)…

So, apparently the programmers of the Enterprise Holdodeck have never heard of elementary computer security, such as not allowing programs to escalate their privileges and execute arbitrary code. This means I’ve got a bit more suspension of disbelief than usual to do. Alien species, faster than light, those are all easy. But the idea that…

Oh dear, it’s the superpowerful aliens again. It’s a crutch for lazy writers, really. You can ignore logic, and don’t have to worry too much about the plot. So you end up with a universe that seems to be packed with super-powerful aliens around every other corner. The episode does have some nice pieces: Worf…

Welcome to Season 2. And we’re off to a pretty heavy dose of retooling. A new doctor, a new set (complete with stunt recurring guest star), some reshuffling of roles, and even a uniform for Wesley. Oh, and the bead. Thank goodness for Riker’s beard, it’s absence had been unsettling me. Some things haven’t changed…