Star Trek TNG: 125-126

All this Plot A vs. Plot B talk is a bit annoying. There are over 1,000 people on the ship. Can't they all have lives while the bridge crew is carrying out a mission? You have to slow down a bit; this is Star Trek, and its audience is perfectly capable of following several things at once. Besides, this style of storytelling makes life on such a large spaceship much more real.

Lord Joe

Wow, my memory must be shit. I had it in my head that "Measure of a Man" was in Season 1.

Marcus Hicks

Holy shit I knew I recognized the musician in the finale, that actor, Leon Rippy, was in a ton of great shows and movies (and Maximum Overdrive, so bad it's good), Deadwood, Young Guns 2, too many to remember, but I also recognized him for a small part in The Color Purple, which is a movie I had commented about in the season 2 opener because of Whoopi Goldberg, who was amazing in that movie, but I deleted the comment because it was long and winding about underrated movies with mainly minority casts. LIFE, with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence was the main movie I was referring to, it's insanely, criminally underrated, pun intended, more people need to see this movie.

MacGuffinStuff

yeah George ... She Gone!

LazyBoy Stays Up Late Watchin Video Tapes

I'm a week late, catching up, but I just had to say one thing, wow The Neutral Zone was giving me Battlestar Galactica (the newer version). Just the "we're back" thing and I thought even the Romulan ship kind of looked like a gigantic version of a Cylon Raider. I was expecting Ron Moore to be a writer on this because I know he wrote a good amount of both TNG and DS9 episodes, but no. I still don't think it's a coincidence though, lot of Battlestar feel to the A plot in my opinion. Anyway that's a digression, just thought it was interesting as a fan of Battlestar Galactica, not bears or beets though.

MacGuffinStuff

This early season they leaned a little too heavily on the present being forgotten and backwards, and everyone from the past is stupid. Which, yeah, I get criticizing humanity, but they go overboard sometimes here. Like, isn't there an episode where they suggest people barely speak French any more? In later episodes and other Trek series, some older cultural things still do exist. If we can still appreciate Shakespeare today, why act like modern art and music is abandoned. Seems like a snobby attitude like suggesting music from the 1800s is all high art and the 20th century is all junk.

Joe Concepts

It costs money to redo an opening sequence, even if it's just one credit.

John Smith

Lower Decks has a brief mention of Clemonds in the background of one episode.

John Smith

Princess Mononoke is my favorite Ghibli movie but they've said before they have to be really cautious with them because Ghibli copyright complaints have gotten whole channels taken down.

dys

There's a great book about a scenario of someone being frozen in our time and thawed up 130 years from now and finding himself in a very different situation than he thought. The frozen people are now owned by a company and are revived as sort-of-AI in a computer with no body to be trained to control networks of manual labor robots. They have no rights, no possessions and can be deleted if they are deemed unsuitable for the task. Very entertaining, interesting and funny book called "We are Legion (We are Bob)". Won a bunch of Sci-Fi awards too I think.

erosennin

So glad to have watched season one with both the Cinebingers and other community peeps. In my humble opinion, S1 is nowhere as bad as people often state. I like season 1 but I also know how much better it gets. Glad George liked it overall, Simone too. Even if George didn’t like it glad to be a passenger on this ride. Cannot wait to “engage” with everyone on season 2! 🖖

SpankTheMonk

Da Neutral Z: “Just a piece of space debris…” 🤦 Picard hand on face. The writer failed. Thank you Data! I know many people have mentioned this, but just parroting again - Star Trek is set in a parallel universe/timeline so things will not line up- allows for differences in history and writing explorations. “I would like to outthink them then outfight them…” ⭐️ Congratulations writer you are so back. And right after fail - wow wishy washy writing- getting sea sick 🤢. Warf is just interesting looking. A life/human or other I believe shouldn’t been seen as useful or not. Wow the food replicator 🤤. Like George the ancient humans are performing their types well. The Picard speech, “accumulation of things…” is a brilliant speech and retort- writer you are back in my good graces! TV Picard wow I love you - oh Captain my captain ❤️. Love Simone being gripped by the Romulans and Federation first convo in generations. “The challenge Mr. … is to improve yourself…” heck yeah Picard. “Still so much to learn…” writer you are back in good graces with me! Not a drug addict just liked his liquor and eventually led to his liver failing. Happens to non alcoholics too. Agree with what a few people below mentioned George - you are just privileged to see ToS recently. Got to put yourself in the shoes of people watching back in the day.

SpankTheMonk

so what he said is correct then.

lalaland

1:11:05 Everyone is penniless, George. Money doesn't exist... 1:13:00 Its not defined but analyzing context clues leads me to believe he is referring to Collard Greens. 1:14:36 "Low mileage pit wolfies, and help them build a memory." Find two fun loving young women and have a good time. Party, drink, play music all night. The kind of stuff that got him to 'rich musician with exploding liver' stage.

Gryff

I always presumed that Data wanted to appear more human too. So plugging in or using wireless connectivity would break some illusions. But he does do things faster…Bender quote incoming, “Robots do everything faster, including evolving...”. Siri talking to Alexa 🥁. Insurance not bad back 🤓. Impressive 3D medical image graphic. A little stop motion neat. A new alien life- kill it fast 🤷 ugh 💩 “Shatner”. I think it is wonderful and hilarious that George likes Conspiracy.

SpankTheMonk

A bit of hyperbole on the early seasons in my opinion. And as Simone states well that people have the perspective of the latter seasons to make the comparison. Also you can go a “Number 1” or a “Shatner” 🤓. Ah code 47- keep a keen eye and ear out for that magical number, there is a bit of a cool story of why it shows up a lot in Trek. Badass captain- not what I would say, I would say fits a different mold that we have not yet seen from the other male captains with her interests and background. But I respect Simone’s description of Voyager’s captain.

SpankTheMonk

Probably sets and amortized budgeting limitations?

SpankTheMonk

Devastating and where is HR!?

SpankTheMonk

Especially with the current notions that human brains may not have changed much in hundreds of thousands of years

SpankTheMonk

Isn’t he briefly in Star Trek 4 under makeup? During the earth operation room scenes

SpankTheMonk

God bless him! “See old Starr Trekk is violent too….” This episode is used over and over as an example to compare modern Trek too. But as mentioned below it is an aberration. Glad he missed it

SpankTheMonk

I see it as George is a practical view and Simone is more hopeful. But I agree I would love more discussions

SpankTheMonk

Not sure if you are joking about conspiracy 🫠

SpankTheMonk

indubitably 🖖

SpankTheMonk

Skants are seen on several men in the first season, especially in the pilot episode IIRC.

Brian Moore

Is that a man in the star trek mini skirt uniform at 33:48? Maybe its a short haircut and some rockin thighs but if it is I don't remember this ever being shown before.

David N

Damn right Voyager has the most badass captain! Janeway is the GOAT! Best captain in the franchise! Ah yes, the season finale. The most condescending, anti-capitalist, Marxist, completely un-self-aware nonsensical bullshit in all of TNG. God, I hate this episode.

Chase Lonnergan

I've said before, it's not that S1&S2 are bad. It's that the show finds it's feet in season 3 due to a number of factors. Roddenberry stepping back, other departures and additions to the production team. Moving away from the TOS 3 lead format to more of an ensemble, it becoming an ensemble lending itself to changes in the filming schedule giving actors more free time, the writers strike that mired season 2 leading to them opening up script submissions in season 3. Others have mentioned the documentary Chaos on the Bridge, that's probably relatively spoiler free after season 3 of TNG. There's also a series called the Center Seat that's fascinating, unfortunately they do montages of future episodes that spoil stuff so beware. It covers TOS all the way to Enterprise and I think the TNG movies.

Lincynity

That's because that was the last scene Denise Crosby shot. They filmed the episodes out of order. Not because the character sensed her impending doom.

Lincynity

Queen of the damned (Ann Rice Vampire) Repo the Genetic Opera (Gothic Musical) God Bless America (funny thought provoking, better than falling down) 10 Thing I hate about you (Obvious, said you guys where going to) I now pronounce you chuck and larry (death by laughter) Animatrix (Really cool animated sci-fi) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Cool and sad Sci-fi) IQ (Awesome Romcom) Mighy Ducks (Feel good sports comedy) A score to settle (Good Nicolas Cage Action) Real Steel (Feel good family action comedy)

Morion Williams

Good points. They were on a delicate diplomatic, possibly military mission, which should have precluded the involvement of senior officers, but except for Geordie, the executive officer, the chief medical officer, the tactical/security officer, the operations officer, and the ship's counselor, all, were called to deal with unexpected visitors. In TOS, when this happened, Kirk, at least, called down to the history division to have a junior officer specializing in the visitors' time period take responsibility for their reintegration period. And, come on, Riker. Picard said specifically he did not want the cryo-babies to disturb him during this important mission, and dude shows up on the bridge? You couldn't post guards, or confine them to the guest lounge or restrict their access to comms, engineering, the armory, anything?

Simon Pegged Me

Hope you watch more ghibli movies like princess mononoke or the boy and the hero. Or the silent movie flow won a Oscar for best animation

PASCAL Schüttte

Well hasn't she said she tends to skip the first couple seasons on rewatch, so her memory of those is kind of spotty? I'm pretty sure TNG is the one she considers her Trek, the one she grew up watching the most. She didn't really know much about TOS until they watched it on here, but she references stuff from TNG, DS9, and VOY now and then.

Allan

And it's just as obnoxious lol... I wish I could control the sound mix.

Ben Schwartz

I think it's funny that Simone made herself out to be a big Trek fan, but as the season progresses, it seems clear she really doesn't know anything about Star Trek post-TOS. Maybe in later seasons she'll start to remember.

Ben Schwartz

I'm just hoping that they stick with it for the whole show's run, because the seasons get better and better later on... Season 1 is just a taste.

Ben Schwartz

Frozen people would be of no use in the future? Tell that to Robert Johansson! Seriously George, you need to read "We Are Legion, We Are Bob" and the sequels. SO good!

Angzarr

Considering that he dislikes bathing so much, it's weird that Worf became the voice of Neutragena T/Gel Shampoo!

Angzarr

Well, there is KIND OF a follow-up... the idea for this species lived on, sorta, it just became very different. So different that it didn't make sense to connect it with this episode anymore. My understanding is that the idea that started as these aliens evolved into the B***, who ended up filling the role instead. And I'm thankful that it did!

Angzarr

That would be the late Anthony James. In the Heat of the Night was only his second film. It should definitely be watched here.

REDR58

At the end of Symbiosis as Picard and Krusher are exiting the Cargo Bay, Tasha waves goodbye to the camera, knowing she’ll be killed off in the next episode.

Pearl Jam

I never realized that an entire location at the front of the saucer (if you know you know) and a certain character wasn't even in the first season! It's like how I was surprised Chekhov wasn't in season 1 of TOS. I never noticed way back in the day. This season feels very bridge heavy. I feel like later seasons move a bit more into the rest of the ship, although, if you've ever explored the ship on MineTrek, now defunct, sadly, you know that we never see the overwhelming majority of the ship. It is colossal.

Gary Fixler

I liked the surprise over "boob tube," because I hadn't noticed that phrase slipped out of common use long ago. Parents back then would say "You're not spending all day in front of the boob tube! Go outside!" Another one was "couch potato," which was even a board game in the late 80s.

Gary Fixler

Tasha had to leave because there was just no one left for her to hit on. Very sad.

Gary Fixler

This was great. These are two of my favorite episodes from season 1. I also want to point out that one of the Romulans was an actor from In the Heat of the Night 1967, a movie I strongly recommend

John

The reference to “greens” is three main types Turnip Greens, Mustard Greens and Collard Green usually cooked with sausage or/and ham. As far as people from the past where did all of our science, math and astronomy come from? Just a thought.

Robert Elliott

I'm going to keep saying this whenever it's relevant, but the Documentary called "Chaos on the bridge" explains a lot of the head scratching questions present in the early seasons. The documentary is free on you tube.

Zero Cochrane

1. lock the door, disable the wall panels, so the people from the past can't mess with things. 2. it's kind of adorable how much L.Q. Clemmons likes Data immediately. He was basically like "Wow, a robot? Well alright, then, we're BFFs now." 3. Why is no one interested in people that were frozen for 370 years? That feels like it could be the most interesting thing in a different episode. People would want to ask about life back then, and what they think of things now. I'd want to show them all the cool things from the future. The whole thing here was like "People from centuries ago? Sigh, all right, let 'em on board, I guess. We'll find somewhere to put them for now." It's weird. Their mission is new life, and old life is a kind of like new life in this case. 4. 2023's average is 1.94 children per family, which means, if that rate held, there would be around 750 people at the last level, if I'm doing the math right, and I'm probably not (1.94¹⁰). If that is the right math, and every offspring had 5 children, then it would be more than 9.7M at the last level. Mathletes, correct me if I'm wrong.

Gary Fixler

It will be interesting to see what George and Simone think of the Ferengi when they get to DS9.

REDR58

Did you notice the subtle feather patterns on the upper hull surface?

REDR58

It’s less obnoxious than the anti-drug message in “Symbiosis.” That one was really ham-handed and apparently some of the cast didn’t much like it.

REDR58

Memory Beta states that: "’Don't Send Me No E-Mail Unless You're a Female’ was a musical composition written and performed by the Human musician ‘Sonny’ Clemonds on Earth in the year 1993.”

REDR58

I can't believe George and Simone have never heard of country music sensation, L.Q. 'Sonny' Clemmons.

Gary Fixler

Ah yes. Because the 21st century has record keeping as bad as ancient Rome on parchment... It's not like we literally record everything all the time. We'd have a lot less questions about ancient Rome if they had smart phones and cameras everywhere. Even in the 80s when the show was happening people had cancorders and you know, tv news existed.

lalaland

George is ignoring the historical value of being able to speak to someone who really lived through events. Imagine we find some Roman frozen in the alps and we somehow had the tech to bring them back. They could tell us what the hell those dodecahedrons are for.

Eversharpe

I disagrees with George's idea that people from the past, woken up in the present, would be useless to society. I've worked with, been served by, and been governed by so many people from the present who I'm absolutely certain have better counterparts from the past, even if we went all the way back to Roman times. Philip J. Fry excluded, of course.

Gary Fixler

A mess of greens is a Southern specialty in the US. My usual batch takes a couple of days. Collard greens, mustard greens and kale. Start with onions and some form of smoked pork, jawls or smoked trotters or whatever you have. Add stock and seasonings, salt cayenne and whatever ;and then steam the greens down covered for a few minutes, a handful at a time. Once they have softened, simmer for three or four hours. You can serve them then, or rest in the fridge overnight to improve flavor. I like mine with a dash of vinegar based hot sauce.

Keith Jones

I was thinking of doing a Babylon 5 rewatch soon, but worried the politics might be a little too on point currently

KnittingHaven

I think George is 100% correct that the "Neutral Zone" episode would've been better served if either plotline had been given its own dedicated episode. I'm also glad to hear (from the pre-show discussion) that he's enjoying TNG, even though we haven't even gotten to the second season yet.

WastedPo

The season finale is basically "Lecturing At the Audience: The Episode", but it's one of my favorites from season 1. I think the A and B plots tie together quite well thematically, with the Romulans wondering how far humans have come in 50 years while we have this example of how far they'd come in the last 400.

dys

As for the "we're back" line not feeling impactful, you also didn't go almost 30 years without hearing about them like the original trek fans did. That's always been my guess but I wasn't a trek fan till the 90s so idk. And yea, seasons 1 and 2 don't suck but 3+ are far better. Google the phrase "growing the beard" lol.

Zerocyde

Simone laughs exactly like Data! Maybe she's an android. 🤯

Andrew

And unfortunately, there’s not going be very much character development, as George has repeatedly said he likes, with most of the characters in this series, with a few very important exceptions. And in other cases, that will come for some of them, later...

REDR58

The Romulan Bird of Prey introduced in The Neutral Zone is probably my favourite ship design in all of Star Trek. ❤

Big Blue Wobbly Thing That Mermaids Live In

I don’t mind if a A&B plots are not even connected at all. In this case, though, I think they both could’ve fleshed out these ideas into two separate episodes. It really was just too much jammed in together with not enough for the Romulan plot. I frankly found the cryo-people plot more interesting.

REDR58

Too bad Simone didn't remember that swedes took out both the Romulan and Federation outposts.

Matt O'Keefe

Meh I disagree about season 6 being considered good. The writing for season 6 & 7 I consider poor not only because they were splitting the writing duties between TNG & DS9 but when people lament the writing of the first two seasons you can at least say it was growing pains and they were still finding their footing with the show and characters. Seasons 6 & 7 don't have that excuse.

Henchmen21

Definitely not a spoiler. I didn't even know that, so it must be in books or an encyclopedia somewhere.

Kane Is Able

I don't know when to warn them. They seem to shoot many episodes a day, because, in this reaction, George doesn't know why Tasha was killed even though many people told him about Denise Crosby's desire to leave because her character wasn't being developed. So, this was probably shot on the same day or near the last reaction episode. They could do half a season in 2 days.

Kane Is Able

This season George has established, in exquisite detail, how much he does not like A/B-story type episodes. Now he can just relax and watch the rest of the series run, hopefully... 'cause they are going to keep coming.

Thomas Yanez

Jaffa Kree!

AVATAR-X

I think she chose not to name it to keep expectations low and to keep it a surprise. Can we please not spoil or set expectations?

Kane Is Able

There are a few series that are better from an overall standpoint than The Next Generation, like Babylon 5 or Deep Space Nine. However even now almost 40 years later, The Next Generation still has most of the best single episodes ever made in television. We start to get those episodes sprinkled around the less impressive ones starting with Season 2 and up to Season 6.

Chris Davies

Oh, and George, if you're hoping for some more story threads that go beyond just a single episode or two, the TNG series will disappoint you. Deep Space 9 will be the first trek series that contains much longer plot threads beyond just an episode or two. And the writers had to fight for it (they were originally told "Don't make it more than three episodes." but they rebelled and stuck to their plan anyway).

Jomero

It's measure of a man! Measure of Man is her favourite from season 2. Cause its all our favourites from season 2.

Alex Macdougall

So, from my understanding and what a friend of mine has told me because he knows the lore a lot more than me is that the Romulan ship that showed up is so much bigger than the Enterprise that the Enterprise can fit within the middle space of the Romulan ship.

Sol-Edge

Captain Rixx, the blue guy with the ridge down his face, is played by Michael Berryman, who's been in a lot of films. He has an unusual look, because he was "born with hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, a rare condition characterized by the absence of sweat glands, hair, and fingernails." I went with with a close friend 20 years ago to Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors, a convention of horror movie stuff and fans in LA. My buddy was going to meet Bruce Campbell, and I got their picture together. Anyway, as we were nearing the doors to the convention hall, from the parking garage, Berryman was coming out, to go to his car, and I didn't recognize him, but did notice his unusual look. As he passed us, and I nodded hello, my friend said something like "I didn't know they let FREAKS in here." and my heart went up into my throat. I couldn't believe my buddy would attack someone like that over their looks, like a teen from a Steven King book, but then Berryman turned around and went right into character, doing the next line from whatever film it was, and I said "Oh, fuck me, it's from a movie." My friend is a horror movie buff. Mr. Berryman came back and chatted with us for a few minutes, laughing about their little roleplay moment, super nice, happy to spend some time with a fan in a parking garage, while I was just standing to the side, buzzing with adrenaline and flop sweating.

Gary Fixler

For those who are interested, Clare Raymond, Ralph Offenhouse and L.Q. "Sonny" Clemonds all show up again in some various Star Trek novels but I don't read the books so I have no idea how good they are. You can read about them on Memory Beta, starting with Offenhouse and there are links to the two others on the left. Of course, spoilers at the link: https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Ralph_Offenhouse

REDR58

The Neutral Zone Riker is remarkably uninterested in the “ancient” space vessel from earth. If we somehow found, say, some old sailing ship afloat on the high seas you can bet it would be towed back or otherwise secured for recovery. I wonder if any effort was made to ID the skeletal remains. It would take little effort to beam those remains over. What happened to the person in the empty chamber??? Part of me hoped Data and Worf would have found another skeleton on the floor nearby or in the next chamber, implying that the person inside had somehow awoken and crawled out only to have discovered he or she was trapped. Very grim. I’ve never found an explanation for why Crosby is still listed in the opening credits. Perhaps it was for contractual reasons. I think these Cryo survivors could be quite useful to historians as they are living witnesses to history of several hundred years ago. The Enterprise crew would absolutely be able to communicate with those people, certainly Data would. Shakespeare’s English is intelligible to us now and there is a similar gap between us and him than the Cryo people and the humans living in the time of TNG. Boob tube is a term disparaging people being stupid or dull (boobs) who sat and watched a lot of TV. Tube of course is “Cathode-ray tube.” “Why don’t you come back later on an’ you and me’ll find us a couple o’ low-mileage pit woofies and help ‘em build a memory.?” Yes, Sonny is talking about getting laid. Why can’t they give the cryopeople something else to wear? They look like a janitorial team.

REDR58

George sneezing at the exact wrong time to miss the head pop was too good

Doug

I would like to see more debate among gourge and simone, i can see that george has a more grim and fatalistic point of view about the future and sci fi, but i'm not sure about simone, she never argues much about the plot or discuss meaning and i would really like to see more of that. Loving the tng episodes, an excuse to rewatch star trek.

Juanjomaster !

Regarding the Romulans announcing "we're back" and how yes, that was clearly meant for the audience. One thing to keep in mind is this episode aired in 1988. The last time the Romulans were seen on screen was TOS in 1968, so a full 20 years for Star Trek fans who've only seen them in old re-runs, and even then, I think they were in only 3 episodes. But for the watch schedule here on patreon, they were seen only a few months ago. So still fresh. So I think it hit hard for fans at the time because they were a staple in Star Trek lore, even tho not used that much, haven't been seen in decades, and the Ferengi missed the mark at being this show's big bad as they were kind of seen as a joke. I think some fans saw it as recycling old stuff due to poor ratings, but since they weren't over exposed in the original series it didn't feel too "recycled" either.

akaTheBARON

It was my assumption that the preservation capsule ship was in orbit around Earth and somehow drifted into deep space.

REDR58

Knowing George's pop culture knowledge I'm almost sure he knows whats coming but doesn't know is from Star Trek.... xD

Guillermo Antonio Ricci Alvarez

Star Trek day. Time to see what my guy Jean-Luc Picard is up to. Being awesome, being bald, those are my guesses.

Jpsynergy

One of those Romulans is a Zando-Zan in disguise…. The man gets around!

REDR58

Barryman was born with hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia which results in him not having any body hair, sweat glands or fingernails but he made the most of his condition and has been cast in a number of “unusual” roles.

REDR58

Season Two happens during a Hollywood Writers Strike. That's a problem. However, the BIG thing to look for in Season Two is where Gene Roddenberry tries to manhandle control 'back' to his Ideal of having: "A Politically-Liberal John-Wayne Captain with an Angel on each shoulder, One Of Humanity (Dr. McCoy) one of Science (Spock)" -- instead of the Ensemble Cast of variable characters that work together as a team (the reality of the show that Berman, etc. were pushing for and would eventually win as Roddenberry's health became an issue and Berman got really good writers (Piller & Ryan) around Season Three!) But George -- in Season Two -- see if you can find out what Roddenberry has done to try to create a Kirk--Spock/McCoy relationship! And, LOL, see if you agree with 90-twelve percent of all fans who HATE what he did!

W_E_Ray (Dungeons-Dragons Grognard since '81)

In "The Neutral Zone" I think everyone has always wished the A and B plots were their own seperate episodes. I agree that probably everyone who has thought about is has forever come to that same conclusion. .... My problem with the A plot of the 1990s folks is that it suffers from the "TV-Show Problem": It's stupid because it's a TV show. The 'real' Enterprise has hundreds and hundreds of citizens, well over a THOUSAND! Including historians. Including historians that specialize in 20th century history. Including experts on music, musicology and music history. The thought that there wouldn't be dozens and dozens of Enterprise crew that would be handling every aspect of Plot A is grossly, inexcusably, astonishingly STUPID. There are many, MANY times (this is one of the biggest but not *the* biggest example of this we'll eventually see) where we the audience must look past the actual plot or story and on to the Theme of what the writer, what the Brand, is trying to convey. Riker and Data would never even meet these people on the real Enterprise. But it's a TV show. So we have to look past the stupidity -- and then we can reallyenjoy it! I LOVE this episode -- my favorite of Season 1!

W_E_Ray (Dungeons-Dragons Grognard since '81)

If you want continuous stories you will love ds9

Greg Johanson

Babylon 5 is a wonderful series and G&S should definitely watch it.

REDR58

Michael Barryman as Cpt Rixx in "Conspiracy" is my favorite roll for the legendary actor. I always loved Cpt Rixx, more than any of Mr. Barryman's roles.

W_E_Ray (Dungeons-Dragons Grognard since '81)

I've definitely watched "The Neutral Zone" at least 7 or 8 times in my life, but it's only now that I realize the nods to TOS's brilliant "Balance Of Terror" episode: i) Outposts have gone silent close to the Romulans ii) There's a weapon of extraordinary power that destroyed the outposts ii) Nobody has seen the Romulans (TOS: ever / TNG: in over half a century) iii) There's a bridge-officer who is really prejudiced against Romulans Neat :)

Michael Bauer

In general I think George is being over-pessimistic re waking up in a Star Trek future - there seems to be lots of opportunities to catch-up on education and actualise yourself - the whaleologist from ST 4 seemed like she was doing ok. Also Star Trek have the magical universal translator, but even in the absence of that I think we can assume that automated translation to/from current-ish English won't be a problem given the vast amounts of material to train AIs on. Cryonics isn't a preserve of the rich (by developed world standards) - it's fairly affordable, but the big caveats/considerations are: 1. Physical location - if it takes too long to get to you that might affect what can be preserved. This can be quite a limitation. 2. Cause of death - some won't allow for freezing. 3. Whether , even in the best conditions, it'll actually work and leave you in a revivable state. (Some grounds for cautious optimism.) 4. Whether you'll make it into the future (some previous issues here as mentioned in the episode - modern setups seem more financially/legally robust and it's not actually that difficult or expensive to just keep topping up liquid n2 - power cuts aren't the big issue you might imagine). But a lot can happen in a hundred years. 5. What will happen to you in the future. In a Star Trek future I'd expect to be treated pretty well. But in a more Bobiverse/Matrix/Terminator/etc future that's a lot more questionable - and you might not have the option of a quick death at that point.

Dan

Conspiracy: Riker says to Geordi, “Increase to warp six.” Geordi then replies, “Aye sir, full impulse.” Huh? “Dytallix B” sounds like a hemorrhoid cream. Denise Crosby is again credited here. Frakes may have had a bad back but he did some high kicks there. I am fairly certain that the death of Remmick is the most graphic death in all of Star Trek at least that I’ve seen. Unfortunately George, there is no more of this storyline coming. I don’t want you do be disappointed but it’s no spoiler to say that there will never be a follow-up to this in TNG involving this alien species.

REDR58

Even though I used the phrase "stinkiest of stanks" to describe Season 1, it's true it's not terrible. Simone is right in that future seasons are much better by comparison. Horny Roddenberry as well as converted-unused TOS scripts (which they used for some S1 episodes) are purged from the system beginning around Season 3. The actors and writers have figured out the characters a lot better by then. New elements are introduced that are less campy and silly. It's just a different and more refined vibe later on. So, going back to S1 can be a bit jarring for many. And Season 2 does indeed have some really, really good episodes as well.

Jomero

There are a couple of real world reasons why a lot of actors ended up playing multiple alien roles on Trek. Normally the Screen Actors Guild has rules about how often the same actor can appear in different roles on the same show. They want to encourage productions to hire new actors and spread the work around. But those rules are waived if the actor is playing a character in heavy prosthetics, and is unrecognizable. Also, once they made a cast of someone's face, it was easier to create new prosthetics for that actor. The actor who probably appeared as the most different species is Jeffrey Combs, who played 5 different alien races, and once played two different characters (of different species) in the same episode.

Darin Foat

Lower Decks was brilliant Star Trek.

Paul T Hewes

It's difficult to imagine that an ethical/utopian-ish future society would really consider those revivable cryonics patients "dead" any more than we would really consider someone "dead" today if their heart had just been stopped due to an accidental electric shock.

Dan

I love all Q in TNG.

REDR58

The more I rewatch Star Trek, the more I recognize all the actors that had roles in basically every single show! Like the Romulan is Gol Dukat. It's a fun little easteregg hunt

Thall

This is a suggestion for a reaction for the far far future (after you've done Deep Space 9 at least) but I think you'd really enjoy Babylon 5. It was one of the first scifi shows to have a full multi-season storyline and character development worked out in advance and to go into some very dark places. Both DS9 and B5 are set on a space station and they arrived at almost exactly the same time. The reason that two (initially) similar shows with a similar premise arrived at the same time is that Paramount essentially stole the idea from B5's creator when he was pitching the show years earlier and developed their next Star Trek show from the idea. They were sued over it and settled out of court.

Spacedone

TNG: The StarGate episodes

Jean-Dominic Lapointe

Has Simone seen Lower Decks? I know that's a ways off if they really do the full Star Trek journey, but man, she's going to love it if she hasn't.

R. Chang

It's never mentioned in show, so this probably isn't really a spoiler, but Offenhouse become ambassador to the Ferengi. Makes sense.

A Red Mage Named Blue

I love Sssssssspace.... fuck! Wednesdays! I want Simone, on a random movie, to be like, "Hey everybody! And welcome to.... "Ssssssspace... FUCK! I'm Simone and this is George and this iswherebweblahblahblahyeah ".

Mastervodo

For sure. Gotta be Shades of Gray, right?

R. Chang

Also: "I'm just going for a Shatner." Sounds like a comment about his singing.

Spacedone

Season 1 has good points, for sure, but I think it's pretty widely accepted that it's the worst TNG season. And not by a little bit. By a lot. Season 2 is a significant improvement and then seasons 3-6 are just consistently good to great. Season 7 is a mixed bag because they knew it was their final season and they took some wild swings. Some paid off and others really didn't. When I've done a rewatch of this series by myself, I watch maybe 10-12 episodes from season 1, 15-16 from Season 2 and then pretty much everything from 3-6.

R. Chang

Season 2 is a marked improvement but it still has its fair share of poor eps. It has some of my favourite episodes and also my single-most hated episode. :D I think the general consensus is BTB vs ATB for TNG (and DS9 too). if you know, you know...

Spacedone

D. T. Nelson

"What....is THAT?" George confirmed for space racist. (spacist)

JD Nevesytrof

Seasons 6 and 7 of TNG overlap with seasons 1 and 2 of DS9. Seasons 1 through 5 of Voyager overlap with seasons 3 through 7 of DS9. However, there's no particular reason to watch the episodes in strict broadcast order. There is some character overlap, but this doesn't extend to stories, unlike in the CW Arrowverse, for example.

GAB

"To expatiate on" means to speak or write in detail about something.

GAB

When Simone says season 2 has one of her favorite episodes overall, I think I have a pretty good idea which one that is, and I wholeheartedly agree. The first perfect example of why TNG is still my favorite show. Can’t wait!

Michael Bauer

Some notes: "Conspiracy" was based almost entirely on a studio note. Gene hated the idea, so he spent a bunch of money and made it as horrific as he could so the studio would fuck off. "The Neutral Zone" -- the plot with the Romulans is really the B plot here. It is a really subtle set up for...aah.... big things that happen in Season 2 and especially 3. You really don't even put it together until season 3, by which time you forgot it even happened. It does kind of mess with the timeline. The Eugenics Wars were in the 90s and Wold War 3 in the early 21st century, so it does seem weird that these people would be "us" as much as they are. Also, a "mess of greens" would mean mustard, collard, or turnip greens, usually cooked with a ham hock.

Robert Cooper

Somebody remember to warn them before next season's finale. I'd be so disappointed if I went in completely blind and expected an exciting conclusion to the season.

Hammerdash

I guess that to Worf, bathing is a time of vulnerability. He does it because he needs to, but it's not something that would relax him.

A Red Mage Named Blue

What third party could possibly have taken out those outposts... i wonder ;) Also, "Conspiracy" is the crown jewel of Season 1.

Ca$hWednesday

Can't remember if i put this under Close Encounters, but an alien contact movie to check out if you haven't already is Fourth Kind, with Mila Jovic. its an interesting one, and will defiantly give George opinions.

Forkbeard83

"Oh shit fuck!" -Simone 2025

Kane Is Able

Worf smells of lilacs.

Robert Cooper

Star Trek day!!!!

Ricky Patton