UNDERDOG of PERFECTION

The Price
Season 3 Episode 8
Original airdate: November 11, 1989

Netflix Synopsis

While the Enterprise hosts negotiations for control of a stable wormhole, Troi forms a personal relationship with an opposing negotiator.

My Brief Review

I was prepared to turn this episode off 10 seconds into the cold open. Much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed the episode, despite its focus both on Deanna Troi’s love life and a particularly annoying trio of Ferengi. It helped that 2/3 of that trio ended up trapped in the Delta Quadrant on the other side of an unstable wormhole, and that Troi recognized what a smarmy sleaze ball the guy was and sent him packing.

Memorable Moment

The looks on the Ferengi’s faces when they realize the wormhole has closed, leaving them trapped…

Crew Rando

I’m at a bit of a loss on this one… but checking IMDb I see once again backflip master Crewman Martinez made an uncredited appearance. I think he may have been seen momentarily in sickbay, helping Dr. Crusher attend to the poisoned Federation negotiator, Mr. Mendoza.

Distance Rating: 3K

IMDb score: 6.3/10

The Enemy
Season 3 Episode 7
Original airdate: November 4, 1989

Netflix Synopsis

La Forge gets left behind on a storm-plagued planet when the rest of his team encounters a Romulan warrior.

My Brief Review

Funny… here’s a case where the Netflix and IMDb synopses are word-for-word identical. I’m still trying to figure out the mystery of where Netflix sources these.

Two days ago I decided not to watch any TNG on the treadmill when I read the previews for five episodes and was not interested in any of them. This was the first of the five. Today I went back and gave it a chance, and I’m glad I did! It was a very good episode. (With a couple of major flaws.)

Riker, Geordi and Worf are on an away mission to a planet full of heavy electrical storms. They come upon an injured Romulan — who has no business being on a Federation planet half a light year from the edge of the Neutral Zone! Meanwhile, Geordi falls in a hole and is lost. Their window in the storm closing, Riker and Worf beam back with the Romulan and leave Geordi behind.

Back on the planet, down the hole, Geordi finds (thanks to his visor) some metallic ore that he melts with a phaser to turn into a couple of climbing spikes he uses to get back to the surface. (Clever!) Only, he stumbles upon… a second Romulan!

I won’t spoil the rest of the story, but there are some heavy themes dealing with the limits of trust and the willingness we have to die for principles — or to let others die for them. Surprisingly, the writers left this difficult issue hanging in the air for us to struggle with, as the story does not provide a tidy resolution of the matter. (This is uncommonly “deep” writing for ’80s television.)

This episode features a special appearance by one of my favorite character actors as the Romulan Commander of the ship that comes to answer the distress call — Andreas Katsulas, perhaps best known as… well, the fugitive in the movie version of The Fugitive. (OK, he’s probably best known to a lot of sci-fi fans as G’Kar from Babylon 5, but I never got into that show.) His character here, Tomalak, is probably the most well-known Romulan face on TNG, making three subsequent appearances after this episode, including the series finale.

The only real problems I have with this episode are right at the beginning and end. First, I find it highly improbable that a planet whose surface is so “storm-plagued” would be a place humans could survive on for even a few seconds, despite whatever invisible technology these guys are supposed to have. And then, right at the end, after Picard says he will be escorting Tomalak’s ship back to Romulan space, we see the two ships leaving orbit of the planet in opposite directions. I recognize that they had a limited number of stock shots of the ship models in motion to work with, but surely they could have either made something work or skipped the obligatory final exterior shot of the ship this time.

Memorable Moment

Picard’s deft brinksmanship in his negotiations with the duplicitous (he’s Romulan, after all) Tomalak is some classic TNG.

Crew Rando

There are so many people working in sickbay in this episode! Where did they all come from, and why do we so rarely see anyone in there besides Dr. Crusher? If she’s in charge of the whole thing, wouldn’t she actually be the one least involved in all of the day-to-day caregiving? (This is one of my big complaints with Star Trek in general. If they have a crew of hundreds, you know every last person sent on an away mission to a barely-habitable planet would be a red shirt, not the second, fourth and fifth in command!

Distance Rating: 5K

IMDb score: 7.9/10

Booby Trap
Season 3 Episode 6
Original airdate: October 28, 1989

Netflix Synopsis

The Enterprise picks up ancient radio signal code from the ruined planet Orelious IX, a remnant of a total war over 1,000 years ago.

My Brief Review

That incoherent Netflix synopsis, coupled with an opening shot of Geordi trying — and failing — to seduce Christy (no rank given… is she crew? non-Starfleet personnel on board for some other purpose? who knows?) on a beach, on the Holodeck, were enough to bias me against this episode before it even really got started.

The premise of this episode is excellent… the Enterprise crew happens upon a perfectly preserved ship from an ancient war (a “total” war, in fact) and investigates, but soon discover that they’re ensnared in the same trap that killed that ship’s crew at their stations.

But… ugh. There is so much Holodeck in this, and it’s so much creepy Geordi, feeling stirrings towards a programmed simulation of Dr. Leah Brahms, one of the scientists who designed the Enterprise’s engines.

Great premise, terrible execution.

Memorable Moment

Picard taking the helm to steer the Enterprise on thrusters through an asteroid field… pretty cool.

Crew Rando

Since we don’t know whether or not Christy is actually part of the crew, I’ll go with the unnamed engineer milling around in the background as Geordi first starts talking with Leah’s simulated voice, before entering the Holodeck.

Distance Rating: 2K

IMDb score: 7.5/10
To be fair, I probably would’ve gone longer on the treadmill during this episode if this weren’t my first post-Christmas run, and my ankle and knee were bugging me a bit.

The Bonding
Season 3 Episode 5
Original airdate: October 21, 1989

Netflix Synopsis

A startling surprise awaits the crew of the Enterprise when a mission costs the life of a crew member, who left her son behind.

My Brief Review

Ugh. I’ll say this: you can tell this is a season 3 episode, because the writing and acting are a lot more cohesive than they would have been in a mediocre episode like this in one of the first two seasons.

I like kids in Star Trek about as much as Captain Picard does… which is to say, not much. But he manages to be kind and understanding towards Jeremy Aster, whose rando mom, Lt. Marla Aster — apparently the ship’s archaeologist, who we never knew existed — dies in the first minute of the episode.

Worf was leading the away team, so he feels an obligation to Jeremy, now orphaned, and so ultimately helps as Picard and Troi convince an energy being from the planet, who tries to recreate Jeremy’s mother and house from Earth as a refuge for him, that humans need to suffer loss as a natural part of life. In a genuinely heartfelt moment, Worf connects with the boy over their shared experience of becoming orphans, and bonds with him in a Klingon ceremony that joins their families and makes them brothers.

But guess what, just as Lt. Aster was a rando, so is her son. This “brother” of Worf’s is never seen again.

That’s what makes this a crappy episode. One of the few true “red shirt” moments in TNG (although Lt. Aster, being a scientist, wore a blue uniform), but we’re supposed to believe both that Lt. Aster was a valued member of the crew and that her son is now forever a part of Worf’s life. But it’s all throwaway, and the context — a barren planet and a simulated Earth house created to ease the pain of someone left alone — is way too similar to The Survivors an episode that had aired just two weeks prior to this one.

Once I had achieved my bare minimum running distance of 3K, I actually watched the majority of the rest of this episode at double speed with the closed captions on, just to get through it. It wasn’t bad enough to turn off altogether, but I wanted to hurry and get it over with.

Skip this and just watch The Survivors again.

Memorable Moment

Not the R’uustai itself, but I will remember the moment when Worf finally figures out how to connect in a meaningful way with Jeremy. Right as Troi and Picard are doing a terrible job talking to Jeremy, Worf steps up and shows he can be the most human of them all, convincing Jeremy that the energy being taking his mother’s form is not really his mother, and that from now on she lives in here (Worf’s heart) and here (Jeremy’s heart). It’s sappy, but it works.

Crew Rando

Lt. Aster, of course!

Distance Rating: 3K

IMDb score: 6.7/10

Who Watches the Watchers
Season 3 Episode 4
Original airdate: October 14, 1989

Netflix Synopsis

A proto-Vulcan culture worships Capt. Picard as if he were a god, and they prepare to offer a sacrifice in his honor.

IMDb Synopsis

A proto-Vulcan culture worships Captain Picard and prepares to offer Counselor Troi as a sacrifice.

My Brief Review

Here’s another one where Netflix obviously cribbed its synopsis from IMDb, fortunately making one key detail more vague, which made for a slightly more surprising viewing.

This is another excellent episode. Season 3 is so far superior to seasons 1 and 2, it’s hard to believe the show even made it to this point, but it probably saved the entire Star Trek franchise. (Might be worth me taking the time to see how the timing of this series lined up with the movies, but I digress.)

It’s a Prime Directive episode, where Federation anthropologists studying a Bronze Age culture (whose development is similar to Vulcans’ and who — inexplicably — resemble them) has its cover blown, one of them gets taken to Enterprise to repair injuries from a fall, and he comes to believe Picard — I mean “The Picard” — is a god.

Oops. How will Picard manage to not only extract his people from the situation, but also keep this rational culture from regressing into superstition? I’ll leave that to you to find out when you watch it.

Memorable Moment

Pretty much any time Liko (who vaguely resembles Phil Hartman as “Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer”) calls him “The Picard.”

Crew Rando

“Rando” Crewman Martinez (possibly the backflip master from the previous episode) makes another appearance, but the ultimate “rando” in this episode is Dr. Barron, played by James Greene… who I immediately recognized as Councilman Milton from Parks and Recreation.

Distance Rating: 6K

IMDb score: 8.1/10