30th Anniversary TNG Episode Discussion Marathon

[Nate the Great]

February 15th, 1988, "When the Bough Breaks"

No fiver
Transcript
Memory Alpha

The Episode

Let's get this out of the way first: this is a horrible episode. A good line here and there does not redeem the asinine nature of this plot.

HARRY: I'm not going back. I hate that teacher and I hate calculus.
BERNARD: Everyone needs an understanding of basic calculus, whether they like it or not.
HARRY: Why?

I understand how we're supposed to be smarter in the future and getting more advanced education earlier, but this is ridiculous. Calculus isn't just memorization, it's a framework of methods that's built on earlier education. You can't rush it unless the kid is a prodigy, and Harry is clearly meant to be an ordinary 24th-century kid. And it's not like you couldn't have had the same resolution using algebra instead...oh, wait!

CRUSHER: Captain, they haven't been through decontamination.
PICARD: Our medical doctor is concerned that you didn't go through the regular transporting procedure.

Party game everyone, how many instances in NextGen can you name where mysterious people beam themselves onto the ship and no one insists on decontamination procedures?

RADUE: We must return now to Aldea. Our eyes are very sensitive to bright light.

I get that this is a clue for the radiation sickness reveal later, but delivered in this way it really does seem like a Chekov's Gun to incapacitate them later, doesn't it? It's a shame the writer never thought of it.

TROI: Humans are unusually attached to their offspring.
CRUSHER: Our children are not for sale at any price.

Can you name any races that would be willing to sell their children? I can't even imagine the Ferengi willing to do this (the kids wouldn't be raised with Ferengi values!)...

RIKER: It's the children. That's why we've been brought here. That's what they wanted.

Yeah, Will, they told you that a few scenes ago! Was the editor asleep this week?

CRUSHER: Don't give in to fear. Now, we all knew what the risks were when we signed on, and that's the choice we made.

But your kids didn't make that choice, that's why they're not supposed to be on exploratory vessels!

RADUE: Where have you been Rashella? Zena and Aran are waiting to take Alexandra.
RASHELLA: No.
RADUE: No? I told you that she
RASHELLA: No, Radue. They can't have her. I will never let her go.

One wonders where Rashella learned the maternal instinct from. It makes a great act climax, though.

RIKER: You're certain they'll negotiate?
PICARD: Oh, they'll negotiate, or they'll call it that. They've taken what they want. Now they'll rationalise it by throwing us some sort of bone.
RIKER: And when we don't accept their offer?
PICARD: The minute they believe that we won't accept their compensation for the children, they'll break off the discussion, they'll disappear behind their shield, locking us out and the children in forever. That's why I've got to keep them talking.

Reasonable, but this seems awfully deceitful for Gene's perfect humans.

WESLEY: What does the Custodian do?
DUANA: It frees us from all burden. It takes care of all our needs. It regulates our lives.
WESLEY: Who built it?
DUANA: The Progenitors.
WESLEY: When?
DUANA: Oh, hundreds of centuries ago.

Didn't we already go through all this with Vaal? The problem with these "central computer maintains the status quo has some sort of paradise" plots is that it's not paradise. Either the people eventually learn to want more, or the computer makes them sheep unable to think for themselves.

WESLEY: What's in there? The power source?
DUANA: I don't know. It's forbidden.

Look, with the more primitive societies of TOS you can get away with this sort of programmed "blind spot" (Norman: I am programmed not to respond in this area), but with this much interdependent technology you can't have everyone be a mindless sheep.

PICARD: No. Doctor Crusher is a Staff Officer, Radue. Starfleet Regulation six point five seven requires that at least two Staff Officers are present during any treaty or contract negotiations.
RADUE [on viewscreen]: Very well.
RIKER: Not much on pleasantries, is he?
DATA: I am not aware of Regulation six point five seven.
PICARD: No, Data. Neither am I.
DATA: I see, sir. Oh, I see, sir.

This regulation seems pretty reasonable, I wonder why it wouldn't exist...

PICARD: Before we begin, we want to see the children.
RADUE: No. We're here to negotiate appropriate compensation, not to pander to emotions.

Time to go get the rest of the fleet and bombard this planet until they surrender. These guys are jerks and whatever compassion I may have had for them has evaporated.

DATA: I believe it was a repulsor beam.
PICARD: Position report.
LAFORGE: This is unbelievable, sir. According to my calculations, we're three days from Aldea. At warp nine.

I wouldn't go back to Aldea immediately, I'd call the rest of the fleet etc.

LEDA: Ah. A fish. We used to have them in our oceans. I've never seen one before.

Wait for after the next quote...

Chief Medical Officer's log, stardate 41512.9. I've begun to suspect that whatever is killing the Aldeans is related to a danger faced by Earth in the twenty first century. Can it be that Aldea's ozone layer has been weakened?

Very topical. You can read about the effect of ozone depletion on the ecosystem here. In short, more UV radiation stunts the growth of fish and the plankton they eat. This affects the entire food chain. But no fish means that the entire ecosystem has been destroyed. That just raises further questions!

RADUE: Before we begin, Captain, you must speak with the children. It seems they are on some sort of strike. I don't understand it. You must deal with this, Captain. I'm not very good with children.

Classic buyer's remorse. Maybe they should've stolen a few parenting manuals while they were at it. One wonders if the Custodian could hack the Enterprise computers...

HARRY: Dad, I want to be an artist, but I don't want to take calculus anymore.
BERNARD: You can be anything you want, Harry. Anything. But you still have to take calculus.
HARRY: Okay. Thanks, Dad.

A good lesson. It's a shame more wasn't made out of this. Seriously, why wasn't a family of minor recurring characters in the cast from the start? Have one of them be part of the engineering staff and the other part of the science staff, or whatever. See the kid a couple episodes a season, a few B-plots to make the ship feel like a city in space and not just a giant taxi.

DATA: It worked well, sir. We have successfully reseeded the ozone layer. But for their atmosphere to maintain it's integrity, they can never use the shield.
RIKER: Or be cloaked again.

Destroying an atmosphere in one day is reasonable, but fixing it shouldn't be this easy. Couldn't the captain's log have said that a science vessel will be coming soon to handle this project, as well as the long-term medical treatment of the locals?

Memory Alpha

* "Aldea" is Spanish for "village". Huh? None of these people are Spanish, or even human!
* Kirk's Enterprise was flung a great distance away in "That Which Survives." Toss that onto the pile of TOS episodes that are ripped off poorly this week.

Nitpicker's Guide

* Phil agrees that "Things are only impossible until they're not" is a great line.
* The Aldeans expect to repopulate the planet with seven kids? Too bad all of the children could've been kidnapped, but they were all transplanted to other continents and Wesley's group couldn't contact them in time. The creators never seemed to grasp this concept of "offscreen people never add to the budget or production time, so always use numbers that sound logical".
* Phil points out that the gravitational effects can help locate any cloaked planet.
* There are more kids kidnapped than parents present in the meeting. Therefore all of the kids that were kidnapped are part of single-parent homes. Every. Single. One. Did the budget really not extend to nonspeaking bit parts using already made costumes?
* Doesn't the Federation have orphans for these guys to adopt? Not that I necessarily consider these people fit parents or anything...

[Nate the Great]

February 22nd, 1988, "Home Soil"

Fiver (by Derek)
Transcript
Memory Alpha

The Episode

Let's get this out of the way up front: even after having proof that the microbrain is alive the crew is still uncertain, and then even after having proof that the microbrain is sentient the crew is still uncertain. It gets really annoying really fast. Furthermore even if Data is excluded from the list of nonorganic life forms because he was constructed, at the very least we have the Horta, the Excalbians, and the Crystalline Entity as proof that such things are possible, so the characters should stop acting like such a thing is impossible!

Captain's log, stardate 41463.9. While mapping the Pleiades Cluster, we've been asked by the Federation to visit a group terraforming Velara Three. Communications have been erratic and there is some concern about their welfare.

This seems like a TOS premise, doesn't it? Ships spread much farther apart than usual and all that. And note that Picard said while they map the cluster, not suspend mapping the cluster to go somewhere else. By sheer coincidence the Enterprise happens to be next door to this place exactly when communications become erratic. Talk about narrative convenience....

TROI: I sense deliberate concealment, sir.
PICARD: Of what?
TROI: I don't know, but it's intense.

That "of what" almost sounds like Picard is expecting telepathy, not empathy. Ugh.

BENSON: An android?
TASHA: And third in command of the Enterprise.
BENSEN: Where were you manufactured? Are there others like you?
DATA: Both matters are subjects of protracted discussion.

You'd think all of the scientists in the Federation would know that an android is in Starfleet. There are still science journals in the future, right? These guys can't be so busy that they never have the time to curl up with a good book, even Scotty did that!

LUISA: The first phase involves selecting the planet. That's very important. It must have the right mass and gravity, the correct rate of rotation, and a balanced day and night. The planet must also be without life or the prospect of life developing naturally. The Federation determines if that's so.

Okay, time to bring up the Genesis Experiment. Without protomatter the instant process is impossible, and let's figure that most of the technology is dependent on said protomatter, so most of that research is useless. Even so, they managed to fill an underground cavern with life that was seemingly stable. None of this could be used to fill a planet with life in a timescale less than a lifetime? Do they have to plant all the seeds one by one?

LAFORGE: Data, what's happening?
DATA [OC]: Too much to explain.

"The drill is out of control and firing at me." That hardly seems like "too much to explain." Yikes, I can be pedantic sometimes...

PICARD: None at all, Mister Mandl. Until this is sorted out, I've provided temporary quarters for you and your staff. Perhaps you'd like to make use of them.
MANDL: You're overstepping your authority, Picard. You have no right to interfere.

Yeah, good luck defending that argument in court, Mandl. I'm pretty sure Starfleet has authority where crime scenes are involved.

MANDL: I have a schedule to meet.

Schedule with who? Picard as a representative of Starfleet has put the schedule on hold. If he means that the various terraforming projects that they're working on have interlocking schedules that demand that the schedule be kept if months of work aren't to be undone, then he should've said so.

PICARD: Doctor Crusher is still making her determination. Mister Mandl, you know the Prime Directive.
MANDL: Are you saying that I knowingly defied it?

Here's the thing, "aware of surroundings" does not equal "sentient", and I'm pretty sure that the Prime Directive only applies to sentient life. It's a little too early in the episode to invoke the P.D. if you ask me.

Captain's log, supplemental. The inorganic life form from Velara Three has apparently taken over our Medical Lab.

Apparently? If there's doubt I'd like to see where it's coming from, Captain...

DATA: The Universal Translator is coming on line, sir.
VOICE: Ugly, ugly giants bags of mostly water
PICARD: Bags of mostly water?
DATA: An accurate description of humans, sir. You are over ninety per cent water surrounded by a flexible container.

You mean billions of tiny bags of mostly water, right? To get to the "bag of mostly water" stage you have to be talking about a single cell. Ugh. Furthermore, how would this thing have the concept of beauty if they can't see beyond light vs. shadow?

PICARD: Then what is feeding the damn thing?
LAFORGE: We found traces of cadmium salts. Now, cadmium is a conduit for converting infra-red into electricity.
PICARD: Meaning?
DATA: Meaning the microbrains might be photoelectric.

Okay, they set this point up earlier under a mountain of technobabble. A better Chekov's Gun than you'd expect for the season, but still rather clunky.

PICARD: We mean you no harm. Do you believe me?
VOICE: Yes.
PICARD: Good. It is important that you trust us.
VOICE: Not yet. You are still too arrogant. Too primitive. Come back three centuries. Perhaps then we trust.

The twenty-seventh century? Not that you care, but it seems that the microbrain will trust us when we are capable of creating the Tox Uthat.

The Fiver

Louisa Kim: Hi! I'm in charge of PR for the terraformers; let me give you the tour. Afterwards, you can visit our giftshop.
Riker: Thanks.
Louisa: No problem. (ahem) What is terraforming? Well, put simply, terraforming is life from lifelessness....

So these guys haven't bothered changing the script since the Genesis Project days. Talk about being committed to your work instead of public relations.

Troi: I'm sensing that Nerd 2's in danger!
Riker: I don't hear any screams. Are you actually being useful for once?
Nerd 2: AAAAAH!
Riker: Wow. She was.

Gasp!

Data: Hey, Geordi! Look down this hole!
La Forge: Weird. It's inorganic, but it's doing strange flashy things.
Data: Who would've known there would be such a devil in the dark?

See, Horta!

Picard: Did you know there were lifeforms on the planet?
Nerd 1: At first the sand was just showing circles, but then it started displaying ellipses, parabolas, and the weirdest thing I've ever seen!
Picard: Come on, it couldn't be that weird.
Nerd 1: That was a hyperbole. It showed a hyperbola.
Picard: How eccentric.
Nerd 1: At least 4.5. Maybe higher.

As a math geek I approve.

Riker: Captain, you should look at this picture of the sand.
Picard: (over the comm) Amazing, it's using force lightning!
Riker: Does this mean it has joined the dark side?
Picard: I'm afraid so, Number One.
Riker: Look at all the chaos Mandl brought.

Star Wars and the Mandelbrot Set. Only in fivers. Enjoy some images of Mandelbrot Sets...

Data: I figured it out! They're photoelectric.
Picard: All right. Kill the lights!
Lights: GAK!
Picard: I meant in the lab, stupid.
Data: Sorry.

Another classic fiver gag.

Memory Alpha

* Final episode where Gene was head writer.
* The Horta is also brought up.

Nitpickers Guide

* If the microbrain needs saltwater to interconnect, how can it live in the lab where there is none?
* How can the microbrain start dying immediately upon losing access to light, what about nights on the planet?
* It's impressive that Data can apparently move at the speed of light to dodge laser blasts.

[Nate the Great]

I happened to find the TNG Companion at a library, so let's see if I can catch up in the next few posts.

GR had always insisted that people be at the heart of any Trek yarn, and it was in the arena of human interaction that the differences in TNG would be the most striking. While Kirk's crew was on a five-year mission, the new starship was to be outfitted for an assignment of ten years or longer. Because of that, officers and crew would be allowed to bring their families along.

Here's the thing; if you're going to operate under this "we won't be back in the core of Federation space for a long time, we need to have families on board" theory, you need to follow through with it. And that means you can't have wars where the flagship will be needed to defend Earth. It means you can't be patrolling the Neutral Zone (that's for the short-range military vessels). It means you have to have a captain that can deal with children!

But no, the E-D did not go past Farpoint Station into the great unexplored mass of the galaxy, it piddled about along the fringes of known space. And going back to Earth was not treated like an extremely long trip. So families aren't needed! Unless you're willing to always act like families are on board and structure the episodes around them. And separate the saucer every time battle is anticipated. And so forth.

Probert had also designed a transporter just off the bridge, but GR wanted the characters to have conversations en route to the transporter room, so that idea was dropped.

What conversations couldn't be held on the bridge before walking over to the transporter area? For me, the reason to have a separate transporter room is isolation from whatever's beaming on board. Even so, the five-minute walk is ridiculous. You could've used the same set for all transporter rooms and imply that one is within a minute's walk of the bridge, another is down the hall from Sickbay, etc.

The rest of this post is from the first casting call, December 10th, 1986:

Capt. Julien Picard. A caucasian man in his 50s who is youthful and in prime physical condition. Born in Paris, his gallic accent appears when deep emotions are triggered. He is definitely a "romantic" and believes strongly in concepts like honor and duty. Capt. Picard commands the Enterprise. He should have a mid-Atlantic accent, and a wonderfully rich speaking voice.

Hmmm....okay.

Number One (AKA William Ryker). A 30-35 year old caucasian born in Alaska. He is a pleasant looking man with sex appeal, of medium height, very agile and strong, a natural psychologist. Number One, as he is usually called, is second-in-command of the Enterprise and has a very strong, solid relationship with the Captain.

Fair enough.

Lt. Commander Data. He is an android who has the appearance of a man in his mid '30s. Data should have exotic features and can be anyone of the following racial groups: Asian, American Indian, East Indian, South American Indian or similar racial groups. He is in perfect physical condition and should appear very intelligent.

You'll note that everyone is in perfect physical condition so far. I guess the world was ready for a bald captain, but no one on the Enterprise is fat or sickly. Ugh. I do wonder how having an Asian or Indian actor would've altered the role, especially if the pale makeup was still intended.

Lt. Macha Hernandez. 26 year old woman of unspecified Latin descent who serves as the starship's security chief. She is described as having a new quality of conditioned-body-beauty, a fire in her eyes and muscularly well developed and very female body, but keeping in mind that much of her strength comes from attitude. Macha has an almost obsessive devotion to protecting the ship and its crew and treats Capt. Picard and Number One as if they were saints.

Doesn't Tasha treat all Starfleet officers as though they were saints after they rescued her?

She'll be turned into an Eastern European (one novel specifies Ukrainian and Lithuanian) after Denise Crosby was cast. I suddenly wonder how Roxann Dawson would've done in this role had she been a few years older.

Lt. Deanna Troi. An alien woman who is tall (5'8-6') and slender, about 30 years old and quite beautiful. She serves as the starship's Chief Psychologist. Deanna is probably foreign (anywhere from Italian, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, Icelandic, etc.) with looks and accent to match. She and Number One are romantically involved. Her alien "look" is still to be determined.

We all know how Crosby and Sirtis initially auditioned for the other's role, but we switched. I can't see either of them in the swapped role. At best I could see Riker and Crosby's Troi in a different sort of relationship than Sirtis' Troi.

Leslie Crusher. An appealing 15 year old caucasian girl (need small 18 or almost 18 year old to play 15). Her remarkable mind and photographic memory make it seem not unlikely for her to become, at 15, a Starfleet acting-ensign. Otherwise, she is a normal teenager.

How often did Wesley act like a normal teenager?

Beverly Crusher. Leslie's 35 year old mother. She serves as the chief medical officer on the Enterprise. If it were not for her intelligence, personality, beauty and the fact that she has the natural walk of a striptease queen, Capt. Picard might not have agreed to her request that Leslie observe bridge activities; therefore letter her daughter's intelligence carry events further.

I didn't need the mental image of Beverly strutting across the bridge, thank you Gene. I could've sworn he said he didn't want Beverly and Picard to get together.

Furthermore, if events had proceeded like this the audience would've had even less reason to like Wesley. Couldn't he have been a bit older, a prodigy that graduated from the Academy at nineteen or whatever but still had the heart of a kid?

Lt. Geordi La Forge. A 20-25 year old black man, blind from birth. With the help of a special prosthetic device he wears, his vision far surpasses anything the human eyes can see. Although he is young, he is quite mature and is best friends with Data. Please do not submit any "street" types, as Geordi has perfect diction and might even have a Jamaican accent Should also be able to do comedy well.

Jamaican accent. Ha ha. Sure, mon.

"Although he is young, he is quite mature." Ugh. The phrase "trying to have it both ways" comes to mind. Has the backstory of working with the kids not been thought of yet?

[Nate the Great]

"The question will be raised as to why he [Wesley] was selected for this all-important mission rather than someone older who would have the maturity and experience which he has not, as yet, attained." Justman wrote in a memo to GR way back on November 12. "Because of his youth, Wesley Crusher has not yet had to learn to go with the herd and compromise his thinking just because compromising is easier and more socially acceptable. He has the ability to grow with the job and to devise new approaches and new capabilities for whatever unforeseen events we encounter. In effect he is a one-man "think tank" without preconditioned limitations."

Nice try, crew. Exactly the same thing could be achieved with a slightly older enlisted crewman. Someone like O'Brien who didn't go to years of the Academy but is out here after a few months of training. If it were necessary to have a youth perspective on this mission Starfleet Command would've assigned one.

Coming up with a reason for Wesley's special status that viewers would accept proved difficult for writers and producers alike.

So...hold off on introducing the character until you have a reason that the viewers would accept? There's no reason why he couldn't be bopping around belowdecks with the rest of the civilians. Maybe he hangs around Engineering for an internship for a year as a recurring character.

Roddenberry admitted that this character [Data] sprang from the Questor, a similar android seeking its creator in his weel-recieved yet unsold 1974 TV pilot movie, The Questor Tapes.

So...change Data enough to not be a blatant Questor ripoff? Put in a little more effort?

Worf, the lone Klingon in Starfleet, almost suffered from Gene Roddenberry's insistance that "no old races", that is, alien races that appeared in the original Trek, be featured at first in order to distinguish TNG from its predecessor.

So where did "Heart of Glory" come from? I agree that you can't just have reprises from TOS races, but the idea that anything TOS-related is automatically bad is ludicrous. After all, you're trying to get the TOS fans to watch the show, right? Plus doing a total rehash of a TOS episode for the first episode after the pilot makes it look like either the staff was lying, the staff is incompetent, or the staff thinks the viewers at home are idiots who wouldn't notice.

Then again, I'm of the opinion that the Star Trek creators have been bitten on the butt over and over again by the desire to do something different just to do something different, as opposed to wanting to do something different because doing something different has a lot of potential for good storytelling.

Of course it swings both ways, they wanted to be different with Voyager but the studio wanted TNG Part 2.

We start catching up with the episodes in the next post.

[Nate the Great]

Actually, let's take a sidestep to the casting memo reproduced on this page.

I'll only comment on the actors I'm familiar with.

Mitch Ryan was considered for Picard, and played Kyle Riker later. He's a bit too rough around the edges for the kind of captain Picard was supposed to be. Certainly a fellow captain as a recurring character, and I would've liked to have seen him as Kyle at least once more, perhaps in the aftermath of "The Best of Both Worlds." And married to Pulaski just to mess with Will's mind, of course!

Rosalind Chao as Tasha just seems ludicrous (even if John Ferraro seemed to like her). Maybe she could've played Troi.

Eric Menyuk eventually played The Traveller. I could see him play a different sort of Data, perhaps one built by an alien and having a more generic "become more humanoid" goal rather than strictly human.

Kevin Peter Hall eventually starred as Leyor (one of the bidders for the Bazan wormhole) in "The Price". I don't really remember how he did.

Seeing Tim Russ and Wesley Snipes on Geordi's list is just surreal.

Seeing McFadden using her real first name of Cheryl is a bit unsettling. I'm glad that her schedule evidently cleared up so she could take the role.

[Nate the Great]

TNG Companion, "Encounter at Farpoint"

The first pilot outline was a more primitive version of the "exploited alien" subplot. A second starship and a battle are involved. As has been mentioned elsewhere, the Q stuff was only added to pad out the episode past an hour.

Robert Justman said that the editing had to be made a bit less tight to fill the time available. I'm reminded of when SF Debris complained that Voyager filled leftover time with technobabble and DS9 filled it with character work. Apparently early TNG was filled with special effects like STTMP, and we all know how well that turned out.

DeForest Kelley insisted on being paid scale for his cameo.

O'Brien is mentioned with the rank of Lieutentant, but this version of the Companion only goes up to the fifth season, so perhaps his rank was still in flux. I don't have the time to go to his Memory Alpha page for something this trivial right now.

Tasha's one-time use of the skant and Troi's appearance in the miniskirt uniform are mentioned.

[Nate the Great]

TNG Companion, "The Naked Now"

This episode sparked the first of many waves of early criticism from fans who felt that too many TNG plots were being lifted from original-series stories. In this case, however, that was exactly what Gene Roddenberry wanted: a story, like "The Naked Time" of 1966, in which the wants and needs of new characters could be quickly revealed to a waiting audience.

There's a way to achieve that goal without blatantly copying "The Naked Time", Gene. Rick Berman tries to claim that it's a homage, not a copy. Nice try, Rick.

"Code of Honor"

Tracy Torme, an eventual writing staffer, later said he was embarrassed by the shows "1940s tribal Africa" view of blacks and by the fight's uncanny resemblance to the win-or-die battle between Kirk and Spock in "Amok Time".

"Uncanny resemblance"? If you say so, Tracy...

"Haven"

The Companion claims that this is the only time Troi uses "Bill." We've already covered the second time. "Imzadi" won't be used again until "Shades of Gray", a surprise to me.

"Where No One Has Gone Before"

In the original teleplay, Kosinski was responsible for both the warp effects and the accident; he also had a son who felt he spent more time on his career than with him. The crew was in awe of Kosinski in the original script, and the hallucinations were even more bizarre, including the image of Jack Crusher appearing to both Picard and Beverly.

I don't know where you could've fit Kosinki's son into the story, although it would've done a good job of fleshing him out. I wonder what a Jack Crusher hallucination would talk to Picard and Beverly about: giving Beverly permission to date again and telling Picard to stop feeling guilty?

"The Last Outpost"

According to Zimmerman, the Ferengi's poor eyesight accounts for their beady eyes and brightly lit ship's interiors; their huge ears help to compensate by providing them with better hearing.

So that's why the lights were so glaring. I always thought it was to save on the cost of building a Ferengi bridge set!

"Lonely Among Us"

The diplomatic conference was added by Fontana, as in her 1967 original-series script, "Journey to Babel."

If that was Fontana's intent, she didn't do very well. As I mentioned in my original coverage of the episode, exactly what the crew was supposed to be doing was unclear, and having cannibal ambassadors sort of killed the mood.

Apparently O'Brien was in Security this time around. I'm reminded of Leslie back in TOS.

"Justice"

In an earlier draft (before Roddenberry sexed up the locals) there was a rebellion in progress, complete with an execution of the rebel leader. I question how this could've worked if there was a god hovering above the ready to stop any such violence.

"The Battle"

The Ferengi do better in their second appearance, but the "silliness quotient", as Rick Berman put it, made them a "disappointment as a major adversary."

Yeah, and who's fault is that?

No mention has ever been made of the nine years in Picard's life between the Stargazer abandonment and his taking command of the Enterprise, although several incidents are mentioned as having occurred in that era: in "The Measure of a Man" and "The Wounded", including Jack Crusher's death "Family."

"The Measure of a Man" refers to the Stargazer inquiry, but that couldn't have taken that entire time. "The Wounded" and "Family" refer to events during Picard's Stargazer era, not after it (Jack died in 2353, the Battle of Maxia was in 2355).

Memory Alpha makes clear the fact that we know nothing about the nine year gap after the inquiry ended, except for the following:

* He must've been in command of a ship when he met Tasha as referenced in "Legacy". Tasha was saving colonists from a minefield and impressed Picard.
* The novel "The Buried Age" says that he took a sabbatical after the inquiry to pursue archaeology for awhile.

Apparently this episode has the first appearance of the shirt-tugging variant of the Picard Manuver.

[Nate the Great]

March 14th, 1988, "Coming of Age"

Fiver (by Derek)
Transcript
Memory Alpha

The Episode

Let's get this out of the way up front: This whole premise of "only one person from this group can get into the Academy at this time" is ludicrous. Period. It opens plotholes and is clearly just here for cheap drama. Wesley just happened to be here! There doesn't seem to be a reason why all of these candidates have to be in the same place. Whatever the screenwriters intended Mordack was badly written and his acceptance really does look like filling a quota. This. Is. Badly. Written.

T'SHANIK: You do not look as if you meet the age requirements.
WESLEY: Uh, I'll be sixteen next month.
OLIANA: Happy birthday.

Yeah, about that...why is the age requirement so strict? The age of maturity is different for different species, and there will always be outliers like Wesley.

REMMICK: Yes. To the best of your knowledge, has the Captain ever falsified a log?

Why would Riker know? Is it his job to fact-check the logs?

RIKER: If you want to discuss anything about Captain Picard, you bring him in here and ask him face to face.
REMMICK: You are required to answer my questions, Mister Riker, unless you're trying to cover something up!

Is Remmick supposed to sound intimidating? If so, it didn't work.

REMMICK: So, you are saying Captain Picard had no control over this vessel. He handed it over to Kosinski, who took the entire crew to the edge of the universe.
LAFORGE: No, sir. That's not what I'm saying. Now, Kosinski was sent by Starfleet to improve our warp drive system. Captain Picard was ordered to take him aboard.
REMMICK: According to his own logs, his Bridge crew didn't think highly of Mister Kosinski's theories, yet the Captain allowed him to access to the engines anyway.

The captain was ordered to cooperate with Kosinski, and at the time the chief engineer believed that his work could do no harm. Furthermore, Kosinski did not take the crew to the edge of the universe, the Traveller did.

REMMICK: Do you believe the captain is emotionally and psychologically fit for command of this starship? There is nothing in his history or his personality that would suggest mental lapses?
TROI: Nothing.
REMMICK: Not even the Ferengi incident with his old ship, the Stargazer?
TROI: He was being controlled by a mind altering machine, Commander. Without his knowledge.
REMMICK: I would call that a mental lapse.

Remmick was using the term to imply a fault on the part of Picard, not an external influence. If external influences mattered, I don't think any Starfleet captain could hold their job very long.

REMMICK: Captain, you are completely responsible for that boy's life.
PICARD: Mister Remmick, either get out of my way and keep quiet, or I will have you removed from the Bridge.

I hate Remmick. He's acting like one of those smug ambassadors in TOS, but doesn't have the rank to back it up.

REMMICK: Very original, Captain. But how did that child acquire access to a shuttlecraft?
RIKER: Kurland is a highly qualified Enterprise Academy candidate, fully trained in many areas including shuttles.

That didn't answer Remmick's question, Will. Not in the slightest.

CHANG: It's important to know how you candidates deal with other cultures, other species.
MORDOCK: Then it was a test.
CHANG: Yes. Not all tests are announced, or what they appear to be.

I'm reminded of that old urban legend about divinity students being waylaid by a fake beggar on their way to a test, not realizing that the beggar was the test. Ugh.

REMMICK: You're an android, correct?

What an idiot. Of course Data is an android, it's part of the public record. What did this question achieve beyond making him look like an idiot?

REMMICK: Just how did this contaminant get aboard the ship?
WORF: By accident, sir.
REMMICK: Meaning Captain Picard has no standing procedure for this type of situation?

What situation? "Accident" means unpredicted. You can't have a "standing procedure" for everything because you can't predict everything! Remmick should be focusing on things that might have actually been judgment lapses on Picard's part.

REMMICK: You don't like me very much, do you?
WORF: Is it required, sir?

Great response, although a better one is "have you given me a reason to like you?"

REMMICK: I spoke to officer after officer, at length. I pried into the ships log reports. And yet I could find nothing wrong. Except, perhaps, a casual familiarity among the Bridge crew, but mostly that comes from a sense of teamwork, and the feeling of family.

And if that's a crime, I want no part of Starfleet. Even Vulcans have a sense of teamwork. If you don't want that, go join the Borg, you jerk.

PICARD: Mister Crusher? Why aren't you in your dress uniform for Admiral Quinn's farewell dinner?
WESLEY: I didn't think that would be appropriate.
PICARD: Why not?

"Because I'm an Acting Ensign who shouldn't be going to officer's dinners and doesn't even have a real uniform, much less a dress uniform, sir."

PICARD: Wesley, you have to measure your successes and your failures within, not by anything I or anyone else might think. But, if it helps you to know this, I failed the first time. And you may not tell anyone!

Why would he have to? It's in Picard's public record if anyone cared to look it up.

The Fiver

Picard: Good luck on your test, Wesley. I hope you get into the Academy and never have to visit this ship again.
Wesley: Thanks, sir. But I'm sure that even if I get into the Academy, I'll still want at least one episode a season anyway.

I would've thrown in a reference to his contract, but this still works.

Oliana: Hi. You must be Wesley. I've heard a lot about you.
Wesley: Are you a love interest for me this episode?
Oliana: Not after what I've heard about you.
T'Shanik: I'm also not a love interest; you won't get one until next season.
Mordock: And I'm your rival, so forget about any male friendship between us.
Wesley: Sigh.

"It's gonna be one of those days..."

Remmick: Would you say the Captain was irresponsible to let Kosinski into Engineering?
La Forge: No, why would I?
Remmick: Because that incident resulted in Wesley being made an acting ensign.
La Forge: That is a good point.

Yes, it is.

Remmick: So would you call the Captain sane?
Troi: Of course not. His name's Jean-Luc.
Remmick: What about the time he was mind-controlled by the Ferengi?
Troi: His name was still Jean-Luc.

Hehe.

Memory Alpha

* First episode after Hurley took over from Roddenberry as showrunner.
* Remmick meeting with Yar isn't shown, but it must've happened. I wonder what they would've had to say to each other!

TNG Companion

Larry considers Wesley to be much better written this time. Wesley’s sixteenth birthday party was shot but cut for time.

The tale of this first appearance of the shuttlecraft, initially named the Copernicus III by Probert, is another uncanny echo of the original Trek. In both series, the building of a full-scale shuttlecraft was put off for budgetary reasons until writers made the craft and integral part of a story so that it had to be built.

Nitpicker's Guide

* Phil is also confused as to why Wesley didn't get in. In particular he points out that Worf and Data wanted Ishara Yar to apply for the Academy, and she can't possibly know as much about the technology as Wesley.
* If both Quinn and Remmick are being controlled by bluegills, why wouldn't they take the opportunity presented by all of these one-on-one meetings to take control of the senior staff?

[NAHTMMM]

Yeah, I have a hard time seeing Sirtis as Yar too. I'm sure she could have managed it with less showy hair.

I'd forgotten how good that "Coming of Age" fiver is.

So...change Data enough to not be a blatant Questor ripoff? Put in a little more effort?

It's a fine idea that never actually got used, so may as well recycle it.

[Nate the Great]

March 21st, 1988, "Heart of Glory"

Fiver (by Marc)
Transcript
Memory Alpha

The Episode

* Picard wants to get more information before separating. So...when will there be enough information to justify separation besides a warp core breach?
* Why did they choose an exploding ship for this walking camera experiment?
* Even after the transmitter experiment ends, they maintain an open commlink so Picard can backseat drive. Ugh.
* Nikolai is mentioned, even if not by name. Whatever family members were invented in Season Seven, he wasn't one of them.
* Why would the Klingon death ritual be a secret? It's not like it's the pon farr or anything...
* I'm glad that the Klingon view of the body as merely a shell was kept consistent.

The Fiver

Korris: Traitor! Sheep! Peacenik!
Worf: I have heard worse insults before.
Konmel: Vulcan!
Worf: But not that one yet!

Redshirt! Bolian! Pakled! 23rd-century Federation official!

Worf: I like being the only Klingon serving on a Federation ship.
Riker: If our roles were reversed, I'm sure I'd feel the same way.
Picard: Gentlemen, may we please stop discussing these hypothetical scenarios and get on with our work?

Yes, completely hypothetical. Smirk.

Memory Alpha

* First appearance by perennial guest star Vaughn Armstrong, best known as Admiral Forrest on Enterprise.
* Using Geordi's VISOR as a camera won't happen again, at least for official use. The Romulans will hack his VISOR in "The Mind's Eye" and Soran will do it in Generations.
* First appearance of the perennial Klingon armor.
* Note the usage of "Kling" as the name of the Klingon homeworld before "Kronos" was invented. The Star Trek Encyclopedia attempts to reconcile this by using "Kling" for the First City.

Nitpicker's Guide

* Phil wonders why they didn't separate the saucer when a Klingon is pointing a weapon at the warp core.
* The Klingons admit to taking over a freighter and destroying a Klingon ship, and Worf takes them on a tour of the most vulnerable parts of the ship? Huh?
* The Guild asked why they couldn't turn off the warp core, but they also wondered why Korris couldn't have been beamed out and his weapon disabled.
* Geordi had normal sight for a few minutes back in "Hide and Q", so he should know Data doesn't glow. Furthermore, wouldn't Juliana Soong glow as well, blowing her cover?
* Why is the platform around the warp core made out of glass? The Voyage Home introduced transparent aluminum a year and a half before!

TNG Companion

The Klingon speech heard here was invented by Hurley, but in future Marc Okrand would be brought on board to bring some consistency.

[Nate the Great]

I apologize for the short entry. It was much longer, but the forum kept inflating the character count and insisting that the post was too long even though it's clearly not. Ugh.