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.
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.
Loved just how fun this episode was with some good role reversal for the characters. Picard working with children after they got trapped in a lift together was hilarious no matter how poor the child actors were, and Worf delivering a baby is a classic Star Trek moment. Troi getting the chance to command the bridge too was excellent, and a real welcome change of gears for the show.
A fascinating proto-DS9 episode that really puts down the groundwork for the Cardassian/Bajorans conflict. Michelle Forbes is great as Ensign Ro who goes against what we've seen from Starfleet officers so far, and this allows for plenty of tension with herself and the crew in a great way. Forbes works really well with both Goldberg & Stewart, her scenes with Guinan - particularly at the start, were a highlight, as were Picard's at the end.
Like with Family, Star Trek: The Next Generation is really good at those Picard-centric second episodes after a big blockbuster series opener. The performance here again by Patrick Stewart was excellent as the episode really got what Starfleet was all about and showed it perfectly down to a T. One of the best episodes of the series so far for me, carefully contained.
As season premieres go, this was a pretty good one that upped the stakes from the last episode with all the set-up out of the way. Having Denise Crosby return was a welcome surprise in a new role especially learning what happened to her after the events of Yesterday's Enterprise which was something I wasn't expecting the series to touch on again; and seeing Data in command of his own ship was so satisfying.
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).
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.
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.
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.
I'm a sucker for a good Robin Hood story and it was great to see a Q-inspired take on the legend. The concept of seeing the crew of the Enterprise as the Merry Men was hilarious and played for laughs to brilliant effect, and they were brilliantly chosen to match up with the characters. It's another fun opportunity for Patrick Stewart to play Picard playing someone else in a fun, light-hearted affair that is one of the better Q episodes and involving Vash made for a nice continuation of her arc.
More Barclay! Really wish he showed up more on this show, but he certainly knows how to make the most of his time in every episode. Dwight Schultz is one of the show's best guest stars. Loved everything that he got to do this episode; his scenes with La Forge and Troi were great.
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.
Pretty much the definition of the term instant classic.
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.
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 strong episode, overall - and a good, optimistic look at the risks that can go when Starfleet's practise of First Contact goes wrong - encountering an xenophobic society who maybe aren't quite ready to reach for the stars just yet. It was good to see the decision to switch from the space race to education being made, with the outlook of preparing the planet for first contact rather than forcing them to make it when they're not ready for it yet.
It does feel like the Enterprise jumped the gun a bit too early - they should have known that they arrived at the world too early. But it's a very nice contrast to Discovery's New Eden, my favourite episode of that series so far, and the decision to take the Minister with them rather than leave her behind echoed Pike's approach in that episode. No surprise to see that Jonathan Frakes was heavily involved in both episodes.
This episode kept me hooked from start to finish - its plot was gripping and the stuff with Riker kept things unpredictable if there were a few things that didn't quite have the intended effect.
Another emotional gut-punch of the highest quality that shows Dave Filoni should be given the keys to the Star Wars franchise for as long as he wants. He gets these characters, has a perfect ending - and that payoff with Vader witnessing the aftermath of the crashed ship, and hits all the feels of an epilogue-heavy finale that wraps up loose ends after the more impactful penultimate episode. It's a quieter episode - yes, you know Ahsoka, Maul and Rex are going to escape because they have to - but the show finds a time to throw in one last homage that reminds audiences that the Clones were the characters that made this story as special as it was. Seeing Ahsoka look at the helmets of the dead Clones wearing their Tano-coloured armour was heartbreaking and a devastating final conclusion to her arc.
It didn't need to be an epic; and arguably the quieter touch makes this one feel more impactful because of this. We got the last stand of Ahsoka and Rex in the previous episode, so again, their escape was a formality here. I did like Rex being proud of how efficient the soldiers under his command were even though they were trying to kill him. I love that Rex becomes such an instrumental part of Rebels later; along with Ahsoka. It just feels right.
As finales go, Victory and Death is one of the best.
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.
This episode felt so out of place with Season 4. Would have been more at home in the earlier seasons - it's one of the weakest of the season so far. Entirely devoted to a bland plot about a fraudster posing as a Devil come to collect her due whose tricks are found out by La Forge at the last minute after an extended and rather lengthy courtroom sequence, this feels like a classic Scooby Doo episode where the villain is revealed to not be a supernatural threat all along. Maybe it would have been more interesting if Ardra had been Q after all...
To be fair, you can tell Marta DuBois is having fun as Ardra even if there isn't much depth to her character and she's very one-dimensional. But everything feels really lazily done here - which is a shame after the excellent episode that preceded it. Very much TNG on autopilot.
That was a good, strong philosophical episode that Trek does really well. Colm Meaney was as great as ever as Miles O'Brien, and another O'Brien heavy-episode in a row? I could get used to this. Feels like a very heavy stage-setter for Deep Space Nine and it's easy to see why O'Brien out of all people made the jump to that show. Hard to believe that only Captain Maxwell was held responsible for this - wouldn't his senior officers be indicted too? Feels like a rather weak response on Starfleet's part and Maxwell deserved far greater punishment. It felt more like a casual, dismissive shrug - also, wouldn't it have been more effective if we'd known Maxwell before this? We've only really seen one side of him here. But aside from that it was a good episode, although the conflict could have been resolved better.
Love to see how well developed the Cardassians are so early on and the whole scenes with them working in the background allowed for an incredibly tense final standoff between Picard and Maxwell.
This was another highlight from Season 4 so far and one of my favourite episodes of the eleven from this season that I've seen so far.
Data and Dr. Crusher dancing in the holodeck was a great scene that the two shared together; I really like both characters and they come into their own here. This was a big Data-centric episode too as he learnt more about human wedding customs and the show reflected on the definition of what marriage was as a concept and what it meant to him. Brett Spiner knocked it out of the park - he was really born to play Data. I couldn't imagine anyone else in the role.
This feels like very classic Trek in all the best ways. Having seen Deep Space Nine Miles O'Brien is one of my favourite Trek supporting characters so he had that advantage coming in and it's great watching Colm Meaney grow into the character and get bigger and more important roles in episodes rather than just cameos as The Next Generation continues - and it was fascinating to meet Keiko for the first time here. Rosalind Chao was great too in her role, and she more than delivered.
I wasn't too much of a fan of the Vulcan/Romulan subplot but then the show has usually - at least so far - never really been able to balance two plots in one episode that well, with it feeling tacked on in comparison and lets anotherwise good episode down. But even so; it's not the weakest subplot that we've had.
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.
This was Wesley Crusher's best episode, so naturally, it's his last one as a series regular - I know he returns semi-regularly further on down the line so I've got that to look forward to at least and I'm glad he wasn't killed off.
Shooting on location really helped this episode especially with the hostile atmosphere of the desert planet; and Wesley aspiring to not dissapoint Picard led to some great, emotionally charged moments between the two - and Wil Wheaton has really grown into his role as an actor and went from strength to strength this episode. It's another one of the standouts from Season 4 so far for me, along with Family, Best of Both Worlds Part 2 and Reunion.
The strongest parts of the episode were easily the scenes between Picard and Wesley - I couldn't care about the supporting throwaway character at all this time out but at least the plot was interesting and he was a good foil to both characters, allowing Wesley to come into his own. this was very much a character-centric episode first and foremost and TNG usually does these very well. The less said about the stuff on the Enterprise; the better as well, but we can't have everything be perfect, can we?
It says something about Wesley's growth as a character that by the end I'm actually going to miss him being a permanent feature on The Enterprise.
Utterly unforgivably bad even before the use of a Gary Barlow song; Dracula's third episode is a trainwreck of a finale that makes Dracula Untold (which is only a few minutes longer than this episode and that was a feature length movie released in cinemas) look like Citizen Kane in comparison. It's a complete and utter mess. The storytelling is the very essence of a script that thinks it's smarter than it actually is, and if you thought the second episode was Moffat and Gatiss at their most self-indulgent then you haven't seen anything yet because this is a new brand of awfulness altogether.
I did love the performances throughout though - Claes Bang and Dolly Wells deserved a much, much better Dracula adaption as Bang is one of the best Draculas that we've had in an age; and I still love nearly all of Moffat's work on Doctor Who and think his run on the series doesn't deserve as much flack as it does, but this is the worst thing that he's worked on to date and I can't offer any kind of defence for it. It didn't need to be as long as it was and just like Dracula drinking blood from his victims, any sign of life that this show had is sucked dry by the end.
A holodeck within a holdeck concept was a fun idea, I liked seeing Riker's dynamic with the kid and his eventual acceptance of him as his own son - and then for the second time when he realised who he really was. It was fun seeing Tomalak again too after The Defector, and seeing the older versions of the crew - including a promoted Picard and Riker in charge of the Enterprise - was rewarding - it turns out I'm a fan of most Riker-centric episodes at this point.
Nothing special in terms of Trek episodes - although I'm always a sucker for these sort of episodes - but the highlight was easily the confrontation between Riker and the "Romulans" on board the ship when he realised that the whole thing was just a simulation and him telling Picard to shut up which is unironically one of the best moments of the season so far.
A jet-ski/yacht chase! I was waiting for that to happen and Outer Banks didn't disappoint. What a way to kickstart the episode - I feared the show might kill off Ward and have John B. get blamed for it and I'm glad it didn't go down that route.
I hate everyone in the Cameron family now apart from Sarah, I really do. Especially after that ending. Rafe shooting Sheriff Peterkin was actually unpredictable, although I was worried for her early on when she started going on a solo crusade against Ward - but it's still among the more surprising things that this show has done, so full credit to it. This was an episode that really ramped up the tension, and threw Rafe in with his father whilst surely now, Sarah will turn against him. That climatic showdown on the runway was as insane as you could imagine. We're in the endgame now.
Positioning Ward as the villain does a good job at creating more tension between the poorer and rich parts of the island - and showing that he has friends everywhere instantly creates plenty of unpredictability going forward - nobody really knows who to trust anymore.
And things really, really don't look too good for John B at all. I get why this isn't a mini-series now.
Okay, so the Sarah/Kiara split was finally resolved this episode. We learnt more about why Kiara and Sarah don't get along at all - and the two resolving their differences was cliche as hell but fun, and Kiara admitting that she called the cops on Sarah's party was a fun moment. This was very much an episode of two halves that almost felt like two different shows, the first half felt very standard teen drama-y and then the thing quickly turns into a remake of Don't Breathe in the second act as things veered quickly into horror territory that the show was hinting at beforehand.
The scenes where the group were avoiding the blind woman were as tense as hell, and Outer Banks did a good job with changing the atmosphere completely; when it wants to go tense - it can really go tense - I wasn't expecting it to turn into a Don't Breathe remake as quickly as it did, and I felt the group's jubilation and sense of victory about getting the gold and escaping from the house. I wasn't expecting them to find gold so early on in the series - which begs the question - what's going to happen in the next four episodes? How is this not a mini-series? How are we supposed to get a second season out of this?
That's probably the best episode that the show has ever done and my favourite episode of anything from 2020 so far. WOW. What a rollercoaster. We've reached the part where we've caught up with Revenge of the Sith and that can only mean that bad stuff is going to happen. I like how Obi-Wan has been able to keep Ahsoka up to date of where we are in it - he's off to Utapau, Anakin's spying on the Chancellor and they can't learn about Sidious from Dooku because Anakin killed Dooku.. on Palpatine's orders. Obi-Wan admitting that the Council aren't always right and getting Ahsoka to speak to Anakin on his behalf was a nice touch too, even if it hasn't happened yet.
This whole arc was building up to the Maul/Ashoka fight and it was as every bit as epic as I was hoping it would be, the animation is legendary and the fact that Maul knows what's going to happen and baits Ahsoka with Anakin turning to the Dark Side was handled really well. These little touches throughout the episode of showing Ahsoka caring for the Clones and them respecting her in return is only going to make the next two episodes all the more emotional, because it's going to get to Order 66. And I'm NOT READY. The idea of a Maul and Ahsoka team-up to stop Order 66 was fascinating - and might still happen - two former apprentices working together. Maul technically tried to save the galaxy too by wanting to bring Anakin to Mandalore to kill him before he could turn to Sidious really worked too - even if it was only Maul acting as the bitter ex and in his own self-interests - after all, Anakin would be the second apprentice that Sidious had since him.
Maul screaming that he would rather die than witness what was coming next and begging for The Clones to kill him rather than take him prisoner was, certainly a morbid end. I love what the show has done with his character too - I groaned when they brought him back the first time but Maul's arc has been as good over the course of the series as Ahsoka has, and as absolutely vital to the show. Revenge of the Sith is going to hit a little differently after this.
The Worf/Alexander stuff was good with Worf coming to terms about who his son is and his role in his son's life despite Klingon traditions, it's almost a shame that K'Ehleyr was killed off in this episode - it would have been interesting to see more of another half human/half Klingon and their role as an outsider from their own species and how they're different from Worf.
I do appreciate how the show is continuing to return to Sins of the Father and use that as a touchstone for many of the Klingon-centric arcs that I've seen so far. Worf's secret and status as a traitor is providing plenty of drama. Michael Dorn is great in these episodes. A Riker/Worf fight would have certainly been interesting.
And Duras' death is among the most satisfying in the whole series so far, and the resulting Worf/Picard scene was as effective as they come.
