Star Trek TNG: 119-120

Love the "Coming of Age" episode but ... while I get that they wanted to make Remmick really unlikable, they lost me a bit when they wrote for Remmick to step in front of Picard to lecture him about his responsibility to the kid in the shuttle right after they announced that he had 78 seconds to live. There is no way anyone would do that.

Guts

Btw there is interesting trivia to react to relating to some of the episodes and TNG in general, like the BTS reason for the Riker maneuver (Johnathan Frakes injured his back). Would be a neat thing to include. Or maybe even react to Patreon comments.

Guts

yes, Worf is a very interesting character. He is the ideal Klingon. The Klingon Klingons claim they are but aren't. I wish I could explain more but that be spoilers of the journey ahead.

Duane Klaus

1987 - 1994, So, well before these two were born.

LazyBoy Stays Up Late Watchin Video Tapes

So the back up for failing life support is transport. It is interesting that even in TnG they didn’t have more away mission mini cameras. It couldn’t be to hard to predict that in the future, so I am guessing it is a story reason. The empty shell of the body for Klingons was completely forgot by Kurtzman trek ☹️. I get frustrated on any show when the script writers remove appropriate dialogue so that conflict can happen- Tasha can’t say the Klingon ship captain informed them they are wanted criminals. One thing that both Klingons and predator species tech they have seems to run counter to their culture- cloaking.

SpankTheMonk

Star Trek Day! Also random fact I realized and looked up, the use of the TNG shuttle in the episode, “Coming of Age” is the first time in TNG and looked a bit rough around the edges both with the CG and inside. Also it is Starfleet Academy they get accepted to not Starfleet. They can still fail and or quit once there. 🖖. Oh cool ILM is credited in the end credits.

SpankTheMonk

Very cool

SpankTheMonk

Last paragraph might be slight spoilers

SpankTheMonk

They mentioned it in the beginning

SpankTheMonk

One-camera sitcoms only existed for a short time. Three cameras (actually, usually four) were pioneered by "I Love Lucy," allowing for more camera angles to be shot in one take, making it more of a live-theater experience for studio audiences with less down time. Sir Patrick Stewart "phoning it in" still beats many actors' earnest effort. One of the things I love about TNG is the growth not only of the characters but of the cast and crew. Stewart himself has admitted that he took himself pretty seriously at first, sometimes lecturing the rest of the cast about goofing around on set. Eventually he loosened up, which only vastly improved his acting. There's a show called (IIRC) "Extras" where he guest-starred as himself. I've only seen outtakes, but he was absolutely hilarious.

Subscribe Or Simone Will Stop Being Cute

Yes, but everyone in the original audience had the same questions at the time, and no answers yet. If you want as close as you can get to the experience at the time the show aired, airdate order is the best way to watch.

Lincynity

Frakes also looked better in red so they changed that to command colours I heard somewhere they also put Data in yellow and made him Ops Officer instead of science because the blue uniforms clashed horribly with the gold make-up. Probably also why they don't have a nominated science officer on senior staff.

Lincynity

I'm a chess player so I will be insufferable in the comments if they react to Searching For Bobby Fischer or Queens Gambit. Good movie though.

Tall Paul

George asked about filming schedules. Network television typically used to produce episodes about a month ahead of airing, and then produced them at about the same speed they were aired during the season. That seems to have mostly been the case for TNG, based on production dates. For example Coming of Age was written in December 1987, filmed around 12 Feb 1988 and broadcast on 14th March 1988. I was shocked to see the UK airdate three years behind the US, I thought it was only one. I think the studios idea was you were protected against surprises and accidents, but were not spending the money until you had to, both for cash flow and in case you decided to cancel the show.

Tall Paul

I'm so sorry Simone got it right. Speaking of, I believe "Space: Fuck the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Candide.." would be a great intro to a Star Trek series about a group of jaded optimists in the fourth year of a five-year mission charting the ass-end of the galaxy where nothing interesting, wondrous, challenging, or extraordinary ever happens and everyone just wants to go home. Thanks Simone for screaming FUCK at just the right moment after missing "space." I can quote several monologues from Raising Arizona, including the opening one. I can quote Jack Nicholson's You Can't Handle the Truth speech. And I can quote Warren Beatty's speech on individuality in Reds (1981). Trying to think of the monologues I can quote made me think of a movie I hope you'll react to, Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993). Finally, I think Tasha might not be good at her job. Within the Star Trek universe, she is. But watching this, I think, why didn't she lock down the floor? Why didn't she post guards at the entrances to the ship's most vulnerable areas, like Engineering? There are only two Klingons on the entire ship. Could she have identified his pattern, and beamed him to the brig? (This one might be on the show, since they're unclear about the capabilities of the transporter.) It just seems that the final scene could have been avoided with a better security officer.

Simon Pegged Me

Ok, to answer a few questions you had: First, the Klingon homeworld is called Qo'nos (pronounced Kronos). Secondly, several questions about the treaty/accords will be answered throughout your continued exploring of Star Trek, mostly in TNG, but perhaps also a little in DS9. Thirdly, the treaty/accords only make the Klingons allies of the Federation, they not part of the Federation, so to my knowledge, they can continue to be "true" Klingons within the Klingon Empire, and anywhere else, as long as it's not against any Federation members, or other allies. Fourth, not so much an answer to a question, but I will say that Worf has always been one of my top two favourite Trek characters, and don't worry George, you're going to get to know him much more over the series and movies. A general observation - I think a lot of people perhaps said that seasons 1 & 2 were weaker because it seems at times that they're trying to be similar to TOS, and just hadn't found their own identity as a show yet, as it can take some time. If you can be this confused now, and still enjoy it, just wait until you get to Enterprise. I hope this helps a little, and I don't think I spoiled anything.

Basilisk

Kronos is the Klingon homeworld

Old School Drew

That word is GAGH, as the treaty helped stabilize the cost of shipping live gagh across the Empire.

p0sthum4n

To me, is much more like humans renouncing they're raw nature for the ethic.

Light Movies

You will learn more about how the Klingons and Federation came to a peace treaty in later episodes in TNG and DS9 as well as in the later movies. If you listen to the Klingons, there is one word that they use a lot, and that word has a lot to do with the peace treaty. The word is honor, and in a future episode you will learn about the very honorable thing that a past ship named Enterprise did to earn the Klingon's friendship and respect.

Alan Kobb

Good work Simone! This season has turned out a lot better than I thought. Just finding newfound appreciation watching it with fresh eyes. It's been a while. Also Jean-Luc Picard is the best, hands down. I think even the worst episodes are elevated because of how awesome he is.

kered

For TNG, episodes were generally shot over a few weeks. Depending on the sets they might be shooting scenes from a few episodes at a timein case they needed extra days to shoot more complex sequences or at remote sites. Special effects and post-production took a few weeks. Episodes usually aired weekly between September to May with a few weeks off during times like holidays, which is why a season had around 22 episodes. This was a big improvement from TOS which required months of time to do special effects for some episodes with the 1960s technology.

Alan Kobb

YEY!!!!!!!!!!!! She got it. Wait... whoa!

G Lam

Uh, might want to hold off with spoilers.

REDR58

The security guy that gets shot by the Klingons when they first escape from their cell: You see that guy pop up over and over again throughout TNG, DS9 and VOY, as different characters, and any time you see him you know that character is about to get punched or shot or have to fall off something: He’s the stunt coordinator for the show.

Lowlows

Why are all the Admirals assholes? Gene Roddenberry had a rule for his writers that he didn’t want the main cast to be in conflict with each other. He was a strong believer in his utopian vision of the future and wanted a show where people got along. Arguably it’s one of the reasons why the show is such a success: It’s a comfy place to be where people like and respect each other, and work together against problems. That said, the writers all pushed back on this rule because normally on a movie or TV show, drama comes from conflict. Because of this rule, they needed to keep finding other sources of conflict from outside of the main cast, and it can’t all be “planet of the week” stories, so often you get a random Admiral turn up. They’re assholes because it creates the conflict they couldn’t have in the main cast. It’s interesting to see them address this in DS9 and Voyager: Make it so that a bunch of the main cast aren’t Starfleet.

Lowlows

Why did people not like Wesley at the time? Some people felt like he was a Mary Sue character; a boy genius that is given special attention and privilege. He’s also considered Gene Rodenberry’s self-insert character (Rodenberry’s middle name is Wesley), that he put in the show for self-indulgent reasons.

Lowlows

Matt O'Keefe

A Federation vessel tried to help a klingon Colony under attack but they were destroyed. That Sacrifice made the Klingons see the Federation in another Light.

TomGas2025

In terms of production, this was a syndicated show, but they did produce every episode essentially on a weekly basis. but there would be a couple of week lead in time for post production and distribution (remember this was before internet so tapes were physically mailed to local stations or beamed via satellite and recorded on to tape. Most episode were shot around 5-7 days and then aired probably a week or 2 after it finished shooting. On rare occasions for season premieres and finales or 2 parters, there would be longer shooting days up to 10 days and for pilots they would get much longer shooting time, such as Voyager's pilot which I think had like a month of shooting. And that's just for production, it probably took weeks and months of writing the scripts before they were even considered for production. I try to keep this in mind when I watch 90s trek because it gives me an extra sense of appreciation for the amount of work that went into producing these shows in a pre-internet, pre-CGI era. AND on top of that they produced 24-26 episodes a season, which meant they probably worked something like 48-50 weeks a year and only probably got a total of a month off a year... that's crazy and we should be grateful for what they did to bring us this show.

The Real Andrew Kim

Heart of Glory is one of the episodes that explains why Worf is one of my favorite Star Trek characters, any show etc. I don't want to get too deep on it but it's like TNG has two different characters that expand on the dilemmas of being different that Spock represented in TOS (I mean except the entire rest of the Star Trek universe lol, but you know what I mean, these specific characters, and there will more which I LOVE, it's just being so different that, well). But Vulcans are generally respected for their intellect, except by people jealous of it lol, I said it. Klingons are kind of the opposite, rough and violent, but with a concept of HONOR. But Worf has to live out honor in a way that isn't necessarily traditionally Klingon but deeper than tradition, it's a really moral and ethical dilemma he as a the first has to figure out (I equate honor with honesty, and integrity, and courage to abide by those principles, which is not always easy in this world). So I think in some ways Worf has a tougher time bridging the two cultures, being the first bridge in a way, and forging a unique path. I think what I'm getting at is how awesome this show and Star Trek are at talking about diversity in a way that is relatable, it's sometimes cultural, and sometimes it's just being neurodivergent, and sometimes it can even be both, and even political on top of that. So awesome.

MacGuffinStuff

Random fun fact: They swapped the colors yellow and red for command or support from TOS to TNG simply because red suited Patrick Stewart better in the early test shots.

doe555

Yes!, they should have just finished with all the TOS movies before they started TNG, oh well, they'll just have to wait until they get to ST6, when ever that will be

Khan1001

"Fuck you, fuck all of you!"

William Willis

TNG Season 7, episode 24: George: *asks a universe question* Simone: Oh I dunno

JD Nevesytrof

This is incorrect in part.

JD Nevesytrof

I can do the intro to Conan the Barbarian, and I'm pretty good at the voice too, also the father's monologue about the riddle of steel, and a lot of the James Earl Jones parts and I'm pretty good at his voice too ( I have a pretty deep voice naturally).

MacGuffinStuff

Used to work in TV. Scripts would be written weeks in advance of shooting and go through many rounds of re-writes (you could get new pages even while shooting sometimes). For shows like TNG (a "single-cam" show because they are shooting for one lighting setup at a time), they might shoot for up to 8 days for a single episode. Thus, they begin shooting well in advance of air dates, as the show still had to go through multiple edits, effects, music, and titles. Shows like Friends would typically shoot an entire episode in two days, and thus shoot an episode a week. Thursdays for dress rehearsal, and Friday for the production shoot. They would shoot with three to four cameras, each capturing a different angle for coverage of the cast and set action. Everything in TV production overlaps: episodes are being written while the director of next week's shoot if prepping, while this week's director is on set, while last episode's director is in the editing room, etc. etc. etc. There's always something going on, but production time on any one episode lasts for weeks.

Joshua Milus

George: "It feels like you're asking humans to never go outside again." me: "Mmm hmmm.. ❤️" George: "Like it's a natural thing for us to want to leave indoor spaces at times, right? To seek open space." me: [looks around nervously]

Gary Fixler

Just wait…

REDR58

"Someone or something is trying to destroy the fabric of everything we've built up in the last 200 years..." Sighs in American.

Gary Fixler

I like how even if I can't recall exactly what a person did in an episode I saw as a kid, I still remember how they made me feel. That's what we remember. When Remmick beamed in, I thought "Oh, no, this guy..." Couldn't remember why I felt that way, though 😆

Gary Fixler

Most TV shows filmed one episode a week. They usually started filming a few weeks before the broadcast season began in the fall, taking breaks over the winter holidays and over the summer. They had to stick to this schedule because most popular shows had episode orders of 22 or more. Daytime soaps had even more brutal shooting schedules as they had to air one episode per day five times each week!

sarCC

I memorized the president's speech to the pilots in Independence Day, with all the inflection and everything, and always wanted an excuse to use it, like at work (it was a fun place; they would have enjoyed it), but we always had off, so I was always home.

Gary Fixler

We are all sorry we doubted you, Simone!

dasgrove

The catalyst for the Klingon Federation treaty is the plot of "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country."

Kevin Knadle

Yeah I'm pretty sure some of the episodes, especially in the first half of the first season were just TOS episodes they never got around to filming.

Simone's Coconut Squire

I've always liked Roy Battys monologue at the end of Blade Runner. Short and sweet

Comrade Terb in your face

You'd have to film well ahead of air date so you have time to do special effects.

Simone's Coconut Squire

George - Klingons are by nature warriors. They're more or less "civilized" barbarians. They'll respect peace but hunger for war. Their love for battle is immense. The reason for this (not sure if spoilers so read with caution) is because they have a NEED to have honor/glory. It's their way to measure up in their species.

Logan Kerlee

Simone: "Is there a likable admiral in the star trek universe?" Yes! Admiral Ross on Deep Space 9 is the GOAT! One that both listens to and sides with people below his rank!

Jomero

George: "Are there any scenes or monologues you have memorized?" Me: "You're watching it."

StonyD

You're dumping an episode of TNG for And/Or? That's it, Star Wars vs Star Trek, let's go! lol

StonyD

Wesley's test is basically a personalised Kobayashi Maru. It's a no-win situation, so he had to make a decision in the moment, knowing that there's no way to save both men.

A Red Mage Named Blue

Hay there Gorge In regards too why the Klingons and Federation have such a good peace-treaty even though it is agianst their nature for this type of peace, it will be explained in the next movie of TOS you have yet to watch. And hints at why they start to work soo well togather. Also it helps that the Federation gets into a lot of small fights here and there and generally dont mind calling in help from the allies (as they are still 2 DISTENCT goverments) for some help when things are not looking soo good. Also, Klingons love a good fight. I would say Worf becomes one of the most beloved character from TNG. Honestly, if he had his own show, it could be based on his religious aspects (at times) and explored that along with exploring what kind of crew would work with him (after later sessions that is)

DasBigUn

Can every day ending with a y be startrek day?

David Szoke

Enterprise fixed something with the Klingons, I won't say what as it's a spoiler

David Szoke

Heart of Glory: Simone, please keep saying “totes.” And well done on the “Space” timing! Though I was hoping it would last until the final episode of the season. And blank you right back! Ah, the “visual acuity transmitter.” Enjoy it for the single time it’s ever used! Which is a shame. The POV from Geordi toward Data looks like another actor in place of Brent Spiner. Hair is all wrong, for one thing. Possibly the same for Frakes. They may have shot that scene second unit with stand-ins. The view of the Klingon cruiser “K’nera” is stock footage from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It is a K't'inga-class battle cruiser, a variant of the D7-class. Going against “the nature” of an entire race of sentient beings seems very simplistic. “Warrior” races or cultures, ugh. If I never hear about that in fiction again it will be too soon. Yet another example of force fields that should never be used in holding cell applications, certainly not the only barrier. You are right George, engineering is just too easily accessible and fragile. And a body standing and then falling forward should definitely not be able to shatter the glass of the floor and drop to the next level. It should all be steel floor grates or whatever future metal alloy they use.

REDR58

Concerning George's question about memorized monologues: Nothing so grand from Trek as the Independence Day speech, but a few character interactions and sentences or paragraphs. One from S3. One from S7.

Gryff

any episodes with the Klingons and their culture always are some of my favorites.

Zectorman

Coming of Age: Ah Jake, the close friend of Wesley who will never been seen, heard from, nor mentioned again. They should have let him die as an example to any other young hotheads who want to steal shuttles! Picard needs to exert a heavier hand on disciplinary matters! Yes I can recite long passages from many, many movies. Far too many to list here. “Tac Officer Chang” is played by actor Robert Ito who is from Vancouver and of Japanese descent. He has played Koreans and Chinese characters a number of times. He is probably most famous in the US for his work as “Sam Fujiyama” on the medical drama. TV series “Quincy, M.E.” which ran from 1976 to 1983: https://youtu.be/GI3pd-dNN-0?si=9nsZac6m0xpe_CE2 When Wesley encounters Rondon, the big guy who gets all mouthy, note the very flat set extension of the hallway behind the actors. You can see it again outside the “environmental lab” test. I imagine that Mordor, er Mordock the Bakelite, er, Benzite has little more difficulty cleaning his face folds than he does the inside of his ears. I like how Mordock has that breathing apparatus strapped onto his chest, but I guess it’s no big deal that whatever he’s vaping mixes with the local atmosphere. Not only is Picard guilty, he is also innocent of NOT being guilty! Really though, Picard seems a little too blasé and unconcerned about the situation after Admiral Quinn starts going on about plots and conspiracies in the Federation!

REDR58

It’s difficult to describe the relations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire without spoilers, but I’ll try based on what you’ve seen so far. The Klingons were at war with the Federation. The Cold War you saw in TOS got hot, and it finally came to a full-scale war. The treaty is called the Khitomer Accords, and is mutual. In fact, uncharacteristically, the Klingons are the ones who sued for peace. However, the relationship is still turbulent, and they are not in any sort of an alliance; they just begrudgingly cooperate, and respect each other’s jurisdiction. The Klingon homeworld is called Qo’nos (pronounced “kronos”).

Will Sofer

Does Simone lose her Canadian citizenship over this? :D

Michael Kemmet

Great episodes and reactions this week. A lot of fun, thanks! 😊

Lex

I used to know every line of almost all the 90s Jim Carrey movies, especially Ace Ventura and Liar Liar. There was a point when I could do the speeding ticket rant perfectly when I was a kid. and of course....the pen is blue...the pen is blue!...THE GOD DAMN PEN IS BLUE!!!!!!!!

The Real Andrew Kim

20th time was the charm

david 0490

D. T. Nelson

The Riker Maneuver - Simone might very well know this already, but the way Jonathan Frakes sits down is because of a real back injury. It's painful for Frakes to sit down the regular way, but throwing a leg over the back of the chair is less painful for him if the back of the chair is low enough. BTW Simone, have you seen the guest cast list for season 4 of The Legend of Vox Machina? No reason. lol

Michael Kemmet

Don't be embarrassed about saying "Love you" to your boss, Simone. I said it to one of the workers at our favorite pizza place. ✌️🤓

BubblyRainbows

He needs to dominate those chairs, and show them who’s boss, after all.

Will Sofer

HAHAHAHA! SPACE! F@#$ YEAH! F##$ YOU! F@#$ ALL OF YOU! OMG.. that response is 100% Simone. Please clip that one Jakey!

Mastervodo

First of all, there are so many monologues and quotes from this show alone I remember, and the rest of Star Trek and Doctor Who too I just can't relate them all, certainly not without spoilers. The other question on the Klingons is tough to answer without spoilers, but I'm fairly sure they aren't expected to not be Klingons. I think it's more some Klingons want to indiscriminately blow shit up and not be bound to non-agression pacts at all. I've always believed it isn't that season 1 & 2 of TNG is bad, it's actually quite good IMO and has some seminal episodes and I adored it at the time. It's just it really finds it's feet starting around season 3, stops trying to be Star Trek TOS 2.0 and develops into a true ensemble cast with consistently great episodes. 1 & 2 pale in comparison, rather than being crap. (Although there's certainly some clangers)

Lincynity

I think its maybe due to Andor being done in 3 episode blocks rather than 2.

dudewheresmycar

The Klingon - Federation treaty is called the Khitomer Accords. It stop open hostilities between the two sides which were always in bad shape but eventually evolved into open warfare. Stories around this do happen in this and other series. But it’s not a spoiler to explain that a Federation ship does something to help a Klingon ship and the honor of that situation allowed the Klingons to come to the negotiating table. The accords were mutually agreed too and are enforced by both sides. It was not a treaty of Paris sort of thing.

Skyruff

Speaking of Enter the Dragon, we should watch “Enter the Dragon”!

REDR58

Apparently, aboard Federation ships, it’s about as easy to take a shuttle out of a shuttle bay as it is to take a car out of a garage.

REDR58

They do not discuss it with outsiders. Wait… Um, nevermind. That’s… something else.

REDR58

The treaty between the Klingon Empire and the Federation is titled the Khitomer Accords, and it is explored in several other episodes of Trek and 1 movie

Joel

I can do quite a few David Mamet movies word for word, as well as Aliens.

Lamprey Fellatio

Simone, please never stop trying to get the timing down for the start of the "Space..." monologue. I still do it every time I rewatch.

Thomas Yanez

20 is the magic number, Space fuck yeah!

Tales From The Underside .com

Usually the airdate for a one hour is like 4 or 5 weeks behind. For TNG it was usually closer to 6 or 7. Their "summer hiatus" was in the late winter/early spring because they had a long post production cycle. It's the reason why even shows with a pretty tight creative crew will still have multiple directors even if, say, Aaron Sorkin writes all the episodes, Tommy Schlame still only directs half of them. They need directors to walk the episode through the process even if the cast is only shooting for a week.

Robert Cooper

Yes Simone is right about sitcoms they have 3 cameras that record what is going on on a stage usually in front of an audience it’s a technique that goes back to I Love Lucy in the 50s. For shows like Star Trek there is about a week of filming but the episode goes through stages of writing, pre production, filming, post production so there can be 4-5 episodes going through that process. Most 20+ Episode shows start filming in July to have episodes ready to air in September with filming running till March-April with a holiday break.

Jonathan

I like to play a game where I guess if Simone's "Space" is closer to the correct position or to when she says, "Fuck!" So far the fucks are winning.

Jeremy S

So how did Worf pass the entrance exam?

Leigh P

Thanks as always for the great content. Today is the 80th Anniversary of the Atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima. I would recommend Hiroshima 1995, and the day after tomorrow 1983. It’s also the 60th Anniversary of the US Voting Rights Act. I would recommend Mississippi Burning 1988 with Gene Hackman and Willem Defoe

John

Don’t be shocked if you remember several episodes soon Simone. Some very memorable ones in the final part of the season.

JediLounger

On the one hand, no issue with the schedule. Do whatever works best. But on the other hand, 3 episodes of Star Wars and only 2 episodes of Star Trek? We see which side you are on George. Brave decision. 3,2,1 engage

Tall Paul

Re: memorized things. When I was in college I used to put Star Trek 6 on as my "going to sleep" movie every night. Sometimes I would find myself drunk walking home halfway across Atlanta and I would just recite the movie from memory to keep my mind off of walking. Maybe not DLP, but I can still probably just recite at least the first half of it from memory.

Robert Cooper

< slow clap > "Space... the final, Fuckyeah!"

Dirge Girl

As for your questions about the history of the Federation/ Klingon peace treaty, all will be answered in future Star Trek movies.

Big.Bad.Mr.Mustard

He did the Riker maneuver! He did the Riker maneuver!

Kane Is Able

I compulsively recite Lwaxana Troi's full title every time she does. The Relva VII Base matte painting was originally created for "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century." They really need to stop leaving the garage door opener remote in shuttles.

Ken Quick

Growing up, my brother and I both would do the "We need emotional content." scene word for word from Enter the Dragon. My mother HATED it.

Jay Davis

2 episodes? Boooooo! Booooo! Who needs more than 3 hours of sleep, really?

Kane Is Able

Just two episodes this time? 😥 Or was the third just forgotten to mention? Well...we will find out won't we? 😁

TomGas2025

Hi Korpse, thanks for the recommendation it has already been added to the backlog. There is no need to spam this in every post, we receive an individual email for every comment made, once we see a recommendation once it will be added. Repeat requests by the same person does not affect its appearance in polls, further spams will result in account removal. Thank you.

George Simone

Desperado🙏🙏🙏🙏😁

Korpse