Feels like this episode would have been a lot more effective if Troi losing her powers had been a permanent - or at least a longer feature than just being resolved by the end of this episode - but it did lead to some good scenes between her, Riker and Dr. Crusher. But there's some good content here and it feels like not having more Troi-centric episodes has been a missed opportunity.
Well, this was fun. I did appreciate that little diversion in the holodeck at the beginning with Guinan adding some extra camp to it (any excuse for Patrick Stewart to act differently to how Picard normally would is always welcome) - you can tell that the writers are massive fans of classic noir in just a few short moments.
Once again this is another hour that works as a great character-centric episode for Data, and seeing the crew put together the puzzles and unravel the mystery slowly was effective if a largely fine and unessential episode in the grand scheme of things. There isn't much more to add here.
It's a fun episode, and a rare Geordi-centric one that's a sequel to another Geordi-centric one. There's not much to say about this one again but it's a cool follow up to Booby Trap despite some caveats, and seeing the real Leah Brahms as opposed to the holodeck one was cool. Susan Gibney shined here - the chemistry between the real Gibney and Burton is good even if it ultimately can go nowhere between their characters due to Brahms being married - and it's a shame these are her only two TNG episodes, would have loved to have seen her become more of a feature on the series. At least Gibney got to show up in DS9, though.
Brahms admitting that she hasn't been very fair to Geordi was a bizzare reaction, though, and was a downpoint to an otherwise solid episode. The plot about a space--born alien life form thinking that The Enterprise was its mother was a decent, if unessential, storyline, that TNG has refined enough by now.
A refreshingly dark nightmare-fuelled episode with some bizarre dreamlike experiences for Troi. Among the more out-there Star Trek episodes of this season, but still, like most of this season so far, incredibly entertaining. Would like to see Trek try out more horror as this was a promising episode, which feels more akin to Doctor Who's scarier episodes rather than Trek but in a good way.
Another Geordi episode! Galaxy's Child has the slight edge in terms of Geordi-centric episodes but this was still a good one. Maryann Plunkett was a great guest star here, and her chemistry with Burton was good - based on this and Galaxy's Child, Burton has good chemistry with everyone. I really liked all the special effects in this too for its age but we're in the very early 90s now.
And it turns out Star Trek can do courtroom drama better than most courtroom drama shows that I've watched lately. What an episode! Probably a contender for one of my favourites from Season 4 so far; if not my favourite. This was a fantastic episode for Patrick Stewart to shine and he more than delivered. Jeri Taylor's scripting was excellent - particularly with Picard using the quote of Admiral Satie's father against her. Speaking of Satie; Jean Simmons was fantastic as the guest star in this, one of the better ones of the season. Frakes' directing is strong as ever.
Half a Life (Or: What happens when Star Trek does Midsommar)
In all seriousness though, this episode has a lot in common with Ari Aster's latest. It didn't quite payoff entirely - there's some rough edges around the middle, but I didn't hate this episode. It's perhaps the one that's most at home in Star Trek: The Next Generation out of all of the Star Trek shows. Picard taking a reserve, back seat action to something that feels so inherently wrong a concept as this is certainly not something that Burnham, Sisko or Kirk would have done to name a few examples.
Rather than take the easy route of making the natives of the planet the bad guys or cartoonishly evil, even though they're in the wrong and nobody would argue otherwise (apart from that cult in Midsommar, I guess), the actors do a convincing job of selling their characters' beliefs and the script does an effective job at giving depth to them.
A decent episode, some Dr. Crusher stuff can be a bit hit/miss and this feels rather in line with the middle of the pack. Unfortunately the romance isn't as convincing despite the fun lead into the awkwardness of the the Dr. Crusher/Riker stuff. It feels largely half-baked mainly because the show insists on telling us rather than showing us how much the two love each other. Again it feels like a victim of TNG's firm attention to the standalone episode structure, as this show could have used more time to develop the characters' relationships than just what we had with them here.
Like Half a Life before it it tries to tackle the problems that come with romances between species and again, like Half a Life before it it's not the best executed episode of Trek ever. The episode raises questions as to how the Trill society functions - where do they get all their hosts from? and Dr. Crusher not being ready to accept Odan's new transformation into a woman feels much more like a step backwards rather than a step forwards for the character.
We did at least get the Trills' introduction though, which leads into Jadzia Dax showing up in Deep Space Nine as one of the franchise's best characters.
This concludes the "trilogy" of inter-species romances (and I say "trilogy" if you take out the previous episode) that bookended the series. that began with The Host & Half a Life. It's where Trek decided to turn into a romantic sci-fi show with... mixed results, but out of these three episodes I found In Theory to be the best. Data literally taking La Forge's advice to heart and asking everyone was fun, and we got to see various takes on his relationship with D'sora from the rest of the crew.
It was sweet, and very awkward with the kind of awkwardness that The Next Generation does so well. It would have been so easy to screw up this episode and it really only works because of how good Brent Spiner is at playing such a likeable character.
And we're pulled into another season finale which means a cliffhanger episode, and this was a big one. We've seen bits and pieces of the brewing Klingon Civil War in the background and the Romulans attempts to slowly get more and more involved in others' affairs and they come about in a big way here.
This was a huge episode for Worf and him leaving Starfleet to return to the Klingons would have been more impactful of a cliffhanger if I hadn't already seen Deep Space Nine and knew he returned to Starfleet. But still, there's plenty of material here for him that further cements his status as one of my favourite characters on this show. The conversation between him and Guinan is great (prediction: Worf will laugh in the next episode), and I did like the Klingon political stuff again because they're never boring in this show.
I'm looking forward to getting stuck into Season 5 and picking up where I left off. I did like the show's strong emphasis on its family and although the slog of episodes towards the end did get a bit rough at times in terms of quality there were a few standouts and the show has very much found its groove. I did like how much time the show spent dealing with the Borg and the consequences from that; you can see why they've become such an iconic Star Trek villain (although the Cybermen are the superior sci-fi monsters, fight me).
Star Trek: Black Mirror with the return of Wesley Crusher. I liked the send-off for Wesley the last time and it's cool to see him back, Wil Wheaton improved a lot the older he gets as an actor and the straightforward Wesley saving the day allowed for an almost horror-fied Trek. The game itself was a disappointment though, even by Trek standards. And was not expecting Ashley Judd to show up here.
Surprisingly low-key for such a major crossover as this with Spock involved; he's barely in the first part at all. Seeing Picard & Spock pose as Vulkans was a fun diversion in Romulus but the best scenes of the episode were easily the moments between Sarek and Picard, they're amazing every time and both Patrick Stewart & Mark Lenard have great chemistry. Lenard is terrific - I'll miss seeing him on the show.
I'm really starting to like Sela as an antagonist.
Leonard Nimoy is fantastic as Spock as always; and his scenes with Picard particularly knowing what had happened between Picard and Sarek really hit well. Patrick Stewart carries them brilliantly. Furthermore; the scenes between Data and Spock were powerful the more we learnt about Spock wanting to leave humanity behind whilst Data was trying to embrace it.
Between this and Discovery, Spock really does have a habit of going AWOL, doesn't he?
A promising storyline let down by a weak second half, saved by a strong final classic series outing for Elisabeth Sladen who makes those final moments instantly memorable.
Season 14 started off on a pretty weak note with this enjoyable but imperfect caper set in San Martino. It really needed a better alien.
Probably the longest TV commercial I'll ever watch in my life (until WB try the same thing a few years later). Made by committee filmmaking that's capitalism at its absolute worst
Marvel need to start paying David Aja and given that his influence over the series is absolutely everywhere, it's criminal that he hasn't been yet.
Really solid episode. Season 2 has been excellent so far.
Good premiere. Glad I caught up on this show over the Summer.
This episode was awesome. Loved Constantine's appearance but he should have had more screentime though.
Excellent finale to a terrific season. Really hope this show gets a third go. One of my favourites of the year.
This was okay. Has potential but the cast needs to improve. Too much exposition.
RIP David Bowie. Legend. Great film, this.
Fantastic to have this show back.
Probably one of the weirdest & most surreal films that I've seen, but still one of the best.
Well, the stakes just got raised. Excellent episode.
Finally back and well worth the wait!
An amazing end to a brilliant series. One of the greatest series finales ever.
A really solid comedy that has excellent performances from Spacey and Shannon.
An excellent film that is an absolute blast to watch.
