DS9 on Jeopardy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYZta...eature=related

Fixed.

Trek as a category on Jeopardy? Awesome (even if those questions were pretty easy).

I've never been a fan of Joe Piscopo so his presence in that episode didn't do anything for me. In his defense, such as it is, I doubt any comedian could have helped that script.

Today was attack of the stupid people episodes. "Samaritan Snare" has Geordi being kidnapped by aliens that were several fries short of a happy meal and Picard getting a heart replacement. "Up the Long Ladder" gave us hillbillies in space meeting the clones and "Manhunt" provides the return of Troi's mom looking for a mate. Great googly moogly those were some bad episodes. The only redeeming point was "The Emissary" where we meet Worf's old flame.

Of course all of these clunkers are in preparation for tomorrow's grandaddy of bad TNG episodes: "Shades of Gray."

Season 2 is finally finished. "Peak Performance" was OK. We see that Data has an ego and Riker is a sneaky captain. It is still really odd to see the Ferengi as some sort of military powerhouse. I'm glad the writers ditched them as a big bad.

"Shades of Gray" was really bad but I don't think it's the worst episode of the series. It's a clip show and the plot thread stringing the clips together is nonexistent. At least some of the clips were interesting. Some of the earlier clunkers can't even claim that. Don't get me wrong, the episode still sucks and it will be an extremely long time before I watch it again.

It's hard to believe that, the early days of TNG, they were trying to push the Ferengi as some kind of huge menace when they're so fucking goofy in both looks and actions.

Season 3 is on! You can see a difference in the writing from the very first episode. "Evolution" was a Westley Crusher episode so some might not like it but it was interesting. Yet another discussion on how we define sentient life. Westley might be an annoying character but he did help the nanites evolve into a new sentient species.

"The Ensigns of Command" Data has to convince some overly invested humans to flee their home or else they'll be destroyed. Now I understand how hard they worked to set up their colony but your alternative is death. If the head of the colony had been any kind of real leader he should have told the families with children to flee and everyone else could stay and fight if they wanted to.

I've always enjoyed "The Survivors" though I can't really put my finger on the exact reasons why. John Anderson's performance at the end of the episode where he admits the genocide he committed in an act of grief was just heartbreaking.

"Who Watches the Watchers" is an episode that continues to grow on me. When it originally aired, I don't think I understood the not-so-subtle critique of religion the episode was making. Now I think it may have been more effective it the "only primitive people believe in God" message had been a bit more subtle. I wonder how this episode would be received if it aired today?

I just hope Westley Crusher is the non-annoying twin of Wesley Crusher.

I don't know why I keep putting a t in his name. While a couple of the other characters have evil twins in one form or another, Wesley, as far as I remember, does not.

A few more episodes before I grade papers *sigh*

"The Bonding" interesting meditation on death and loss. It's a sold episode that really should have been done after Tasha Yar's death. Since this was a character the audience didn't know, the audience really didn't feel the impact of that death (I think about similar episodes on Buffy or [/b]The Unit[/b] that were way more powerful). Though to be fair, I think the episode was more concerned about how the crew experiences loss and even Riker mentioned that people feel death more if it is someone close to them. Accrording to the Star Trek Companion the original thought was to have Jeremy recreate his mom on the holodeck and that might have been more effective than the alien presence the writers ended up with.

"Booby Trap" sees the beginning of Geordi's issues with women. The A story of why the Enterprise was trapped was not as interesting as the B story with Geordi trying to solve the problem with the phantom Leah Brahms. I didn't knwo this was the frist Trek episode directed by a woman.

"The Enemy" was another Geordi-centered episode and that works for me. It was really nice to see Andreas Katsulas again. The B story with Worf refusing to help the injured Romulan by donating blood was fascinating - still a little pissed about the death of his parents. I think it's interesting that Picard didn't order Worf to donate the blood and I bet this whole story caused quite a stir in the writer's room.

"The Price" at last the Ferengi are the gold-loving aliens they should be and not some manufactured scary presence. Troi's love life wasn't particularly compelling but there was a compelling conversation regarding the ethics of using an empath to read beings without their knowledge.

"The Vengeance Factor" centuries of bad will dies hard. While the episode itself was solid, I think this topic was already handled in "The Enemy" with Worf and the blood transfusion. There was no real explanation of how Yuta stopped the aging process in order to carry out her assassination and we never even find out what caused the rift in the first place.

"The Defector" can you trust a Romulan defector? I've always enjoyed this episode as James Sloyan totally nails the is he or isn't he nature of a defector. You totally buy his reasoning for defecting to the Federation and his reasons for not completely selling out his people. When he realizes he has been tricked by his own people you feel his pain. Great episode.

Interesting student papers, interesting episodes - good day all around. The first two eps were way more relevant than I bet the writers wanted them to be.

"The Hunted" the joy of asking people to go fight a war and then not providing the resources necessary to acclimate the soldiers back to civilian life. I know this was meant as an analogy for Vietnam veterans but it's unfortunately way too relevant today. It was nice to see James Cromwell but after First Contact I always see him as Zefram Cochran though this episode obviously came out before the film.

"The Higher Ground" addresses the use of terrorism and like the previous episode, way too relevant in today's world. Why does terrorism work in some instances but not in others? What is the difference between terrorists and freedom fighters (and who decides those distinctions)? What is the appropriate responses to terrorism? Lots of interesting questions posed in this episode. Nice to see Picard punch the intruder on the bridge.

"Deja Q" finally an episode where Q doesn't annoy the daylights out of me. A humble, mortal, and human Q was an interesting thing to behold. It was interesting to watch Data try to explain human behavior to Q. I watched the sfdebris commentary on this episode and while it was hilarious as usual, I did disagree on one point. As the crew was trying to decide whether Q was actually human or just screwing with them, Guinan took the initiative and stabbed Q in the hand with a fork. While the sfdebris commentator found this behavior out of sync with the high moral values of the 24th century, I thought it was hilarious and Q totally deserved it. Q repaying Data's kindness and selflessness by letting him experience a full-fledged belly laugh was awesome.

"A Matter of Perspective" was reminiscent of a TOS episode where Scotty was accused of murder. This time it's Riker who has to prove his innocence. A Rashomon type episode where we see several different points of view on what happened. Solid episode overall but the it was so clear that Riker's story was the only plausible one that it took all of the suspense out of it. Granted, no one in the audience was going to believe that Riker committed the murder, making the differences in the perspectives more subtle, could have helped the tension.

If all goes well, I'll get to view three of my favorite episodes tomorrow. I'm going to miss Spring Break when it's over.

Alright I watched the episodes but forgot to post my thoughts. Here we go:

"Yesterday's Enterprise" even though this script was written by committee, the episode is still one of my favorites. The interaction between Picard and Guinan as she tells him to send the Enterprise-C crew to their deaths is really excellent. Though I didn't really care for Tasha Yar in the first season, her appearance here was decent. It did seem to take the Enterprise-C forever to get back into the rift at the end of the episode though but hey, we did get Picard jumping over a console to defend his ship.

"The Offspring" is another one of my favorites. Even though Data's rights as a sentient being were codified in "Measure of a Man" we see here that the law and reality are often two different things (as it is in reality). Even Picard, who fought for Data in "Measure" had the nerve to tell Data that he should have asked for permission before he procreated. Really? Starfleet is supposed to be this upstanding and moral organization but the idea that they would snatch Lal from her father seems incomprehensible. Lal's interaction with Data as she died was really emotional. I had a thought about this after the episode was over *spoiler for Generations*


"Sins of the Father" and I'm three for three is favorite episodes. We find out tons of info on Klingons and Tony Todd makes his first appearance in the ST universe. Worf accepts disgrace in the name of politics. I'm glad we'll get back to this in later seasons.

"Allegiance" isn't a bad episode but compared to the previous three, it was just lacking. Picard singing in Ten-Forward? Inviting Beverly to dinner and then kicking her out when she wouldn't play ball? Wow, this isn't the Picard we know. Glad they switched him back.

I figured I'd split up the comments so the posts aren't too long

"Captain's Holiday" OK, I know Stewart wanted more action and adventure but this episode didn't quite make it. Picard just isn't a romantic leading man type of character. I didn't buy Picard's relationship with Vash, I didn't buy that he would just take the alien's at their word that they were from the future and had a claim to the artifact. We'll just ignore the Ferengi too while we're at it. It wasn't a bad episode it just required way more suspension of disbelief than I was willing to give.

"Tin Man" I get what the writers were going for in this episode. We don't think about what it must be like for a telepath to always have other people's thoughts and feelings swirling around in their heads. I even understand why Tam joined the alien in their ritual suicide for lack of a better phrase. On the other hand, something was missing in this episode and I can't really put my finger on what it is. I think because Tam was just a one-off character who the audience really doesn't get to know is part of the problem. He's an unsympathetic character and while we understand why he's that way, I just didn't care that he found peace.

"Hollow Pursuits" welcome to the ST universe Reginald Barclay! I've always had mixed feeling about this character. I like Dwight Schultz and he plays both the introvert and the extrovert parts of the character really well. Sometimes I just wonder as I watch the character stumble through reality: how on earth did Barclay make it this far in his career? Though it doesn't seem like it, this episode really tells you more about Geordi than anyone else. At first he really sut doesn't like Barclay but after talking to Guinan, he makes the attempt to get to know him and he's the only character who doesn't freak out about seeing his likeness on the holodeck. I have to agree with sfdebri's analysis on this one: Riker came off as a total ass in this episode and all that hostility seemed unnecessary.

"The Most Toys" I feel like I just saw this episode. Didn't Picard get kidnapped in "Allegiance"? Now Data gets kidnapped. It was interesting that Data did fire his weapon at the end of the episode and totally didn't want to talk about it when he got back to the Enterprise. Data might have been programmed to value human life but at what point does self-preservation kick in? Data had the weapon at the end, he could have incapacitated Fajo without killing him.

"Sarek" is still an awesome episode. Mark Lenard was awesome as Sarek and his chemistry with Steward made this episode (and Stewart was amazing as he played out all of those emotions). The final scene of Sarek holding his wife's hand was lovely.

and you move from such an amazing episode to "Menage a Troi" Yeah it's an episode with Troi's mom so there's not much else to say.

"Transfigurations" was interesting. Maybe it's because I watched it recently but this episode reminded me of Babylon 5: The River of Souls. You have a species evolving into non-corporal beings and someone's getting in the way. It was an OK episode.

"Best of Both Worlds Pts I & II" What is there to say about two of the best episodes in the series. I remember watching Part I when it originally aired and thinking holy crap when the episode was finished. I think that was the first time I cursed the cliffhanger concept. I like how they set Riker up as the captain just in case Stewart didn't sign a new contract. Seeing Picard as a Borg is still shocking all these years later. Originally I wasn't fond of Lt. Shelby - I thought she was entirely too arrogant and it seemed weird that she was in charge considering she had no contact with the Borg. Watching the episode now, I don't think Shelby was arrogant, she was young, ambitious, and Riker was being too cautious. I still think it was odd that Admiral Hanson trusted Shelby over Riker and Picard both of whom actually battled the Borg before.

Once again I think the scenes with Guinan were telling. When talking with Picard they discuss whether or not confrontations with the Bog mean the end of the Federation and in a sense it did. For TNG and DS9 we see a Federation that is less about exploration and more about security. Guinan's discussion with Riker about letting go of Picard got at the heart of Riker's hesitation about being in the captain's chair. He couldn't beat the Borg unless he acted like the Enterprise was now his ship. Part II wasn't as strong as Part I (writing both episodes together could have changed this) but it was still quality TV. The final shot of Picard looking out of the window pondering the violation he just experienced was heartbreaking.

The hits keeps on coming:

"Family" takes place pretty much right after "Best of Both Worlds." We see Picard go home and try to come to terms with what happened with the Borg. For the most part, the scenes with Picard and his brother left me feeling cold until the point where Picard admits what happened and blames himself for the death and destruction the Borg inflicted. For me, the B story with Worf and his family was the more interesting of the stories. We see how hard Worf's parents tried their best to raise him and at the same time gave him the space to be a Klingon (which couldn't have been easy for either Worf or his parents) and we also see how much they love Worf even if they don't understand what actually happened with his family's dishonor.

"Brothers" oh the return of Lore and we meet Data's dad too. I kinda feel bad for Brent Spiner having to play not one, not two, but three different characters in this episode. Overall the episode was fine though I can't shake the feeling that putting homing devices in Data and Lore seemed counter-intuitive (it's probably not a good idea to lowjack sentient beings). It also made very little sense for Lore to want the emotion chip since he already experienced emotions. Though I guess Lore does have a lot of pent-up anger toward Data and Soong so that might explain it.

"Suddenly Human" was only the second episode so far that I have absolutely no memory of. Ok, we get it, Picard doesn't like children. It's really not funny or endearing to keep matching him with children - especially damaged ones. The exploration of Stockholm Syndrome and the notion that the Federation would go to war over one person were both interesting topics but I'm not quite sure this episode dealt with either of them effectively. Again, it wasn't a bad episode it just seemed to be missing something. I wonder if the grandmother was present so that the idea of the kid's human family wasn't an abstract concept in the face of his alien adoptive father would have made a difference.

"Family" was a very interesting bit of continuity for the Trek universe up to this point. It wasn't my favorite episode, but I did like that they didn't just dismiss the monumental events of the previous episodes (I always felt The Inner Light's ramifications were dismissed a little too lightly).

And for "Brothers" I always figured Spiner probably loved those episodes. Playing Data required very little range, and I imagine it was fun for him to be able to stretch and do some different things for a change.

Yeah. I like Spiner. But you get a feeling that underneath all that yellow make-up is an incorrigable ham (see also: "Masks", "A Fistful of Datas", etc).

no, just no

I did like the fact that "Family" didn't ignore what happened in the previous episodes and I do like the episode. My issue with it in this viewing has to do with the fact that the audience has more information than the characters. Robert was such a jerk to Picard and the audience member knows what Picard went through so I sat there thinking: really, this is how you treat him? It's possible that Rene knew that being a total jerk was the way to get Picard to face what happened but it just seemed mean this time around.

From an actor's standpoint I'm sure Spiner loved playing all three roles but I'm sure it wasn't easy from a logistical standpoint.

Checked two more episodes off the list yesterday. "Remember Me" was Beverly's episode and it was interesting. We get to see The Traveler again and that was cool. I think McFadden played the "I don't think I'm going crazy but insanity is a possibility" mindset quite well.

"Reunion" continues the family theme we've seen in previous episodes from this season. Worf has a son, Duras kills Worf's mate, and then Worf opens up a whole six pack of whup-ass on Duras to avenge K'Ehleyr's death and his family's dishonor. Talk about drama! Though it made for a great story, I have always been disappointed that the writers killed K'Ehleyr. She was a strong female character and the relationship between her and Worf was interesting and could have been fun to explore as time went on. Oh well. Another plus was we get to meet Gowron in this episode.

"Legacy" another episode about family though it's not nearly as good as "Family," "Brothers," or "Reunion." My issue with this episode is that Tasha's sister comes out of nowhere. You mean to tell me that she'll talk about rape gangs but doesn't mention she has a sister? In her vid to be played at her funeral she doesn't do a shout out of some kind? Anyway, I liked the underlying idea of the episode - exploring trust, and the execution was fine, I just never bought the sister that fell out of the sky.

Moving right along....

"Future Imperfect" always nice to see Andreas Katsulas: he played a great Romulan. Riker's captain of the Enterprise and doesn't remember the last sixteen years of his life. That sucks. In a way, this episode keeps with the family theme from the previous episodes. The most important scene in the episode is when Riker is talking to his "son" in the turbolift and tells him that he won't make the same mistakes his father made. The multiple endings made me dizzy.

"Final Mission" say bye bye to Wesley Crusher. Since I don't hate the character as much as others this episode didn't fill me with the joy others may have gotten from it. The scenes between Wesley and Picard were emotional but the rest of the episode was just there (the garbage ship B plot was weak).

"The Loss" Troi losses her empathic ability and she lashes out at everyone one around her. Usually I can take or leave Troi but in this episode she drove me nuts. I know what the writers were going for in terms of showing how people react to becoming disabled but the previous three seasons didn't give Troi enough depth for me to care about her issues.

"Data's Day" was a fun episode. We finally met Keiko and she marries Miles and Data is "father" of the bride. The scene where Beverly shows Data how to dance was adorable.

"The Wounded" until now I never realized how important this episode was. We welcome the Cardassians (and Marc Alaimo in particular) into the ST universe. We see the effect wars have on soldiers and we get some background info on Miles O'Brien. His feelings about Cardassians and what happened to him during the war makes me wonder why he accepted a post on DS9 - I don't remember the details. I'm adding this episode to my list of favorites.

"Devil's Due" Picard vs a con artist posing as the devil, really? This episode would be more at home in the first or second season. This is the dog of the season so far.

"Devil's Due" was originally going to be a "Star Trek: Phase Two" episode.

Phase Two was a second Star Trek TV series that was in development in the mid 1970s that would reunite the original crew, sans Spock as Nimoy declined to participate. The series never got to the pilot stage and eventually turned into Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

(You can read about it here if you're interested.)

Rene was the son, Robert was the brother (I had to go to wiki for that - it's been awhile).

Anyways, Robert's prickliness was what I loved about this episode. I think it makes for a more interesting dynamic than if he had coddled Picard. And I think you're right about Robert's motives: he wanted Picard to confront what had happened, and - being the hardass he is - did it the only way he knew how.

Picard's breakdown may be my favorite scene of the whole series. Beautifully understated and acted. I like that Robert simplifies the choice Picard faces.

As for the Worf and Wesley sub-plots, I remember them being more on the treacly side. But the show had been on long enough that they packed a pretty good emotional punch.

That explains it. Seriously, halfway into season four and the writers were still reaching back thirty years for material?

Oops, I'll go back and fix that. Gracias.

Today's episodes started out good and then went straight down the drain.

"Clues" was interesting: how good a liar is Data especially when lives are at stake. I remember being completely perplexed when I watched this episode originally because like the characters, I couldn't figure out what the heck was up with Data. The moral of the story if you're going to erase people's memory to cover up your existence, you better not leave behind clues or you'll be forced to try to kill us all over again.

"First Contact" was also an interesting episode. We always see first contact situations from the Federation's POV but here, we see the "aliens" POV. Can you imagine what would happen if actual aliens landed on earth? Oh lord we'd probably go bat poop crazy like some of the characters in this episode. I don't know that I agree with the Chancellor's decision not to go ahead with their space exploration program (is it really a good idea to let the most fearful and ignorant folks in a society dictate policy) on the other hand, it's usually the most fearful and ignorant folks who cause the most problems so maybe retreat was the lesser of the two evils.

Here's where things get less interesting. "Galaxy's Child" so the Enterprise kills a protective mother and has to perform a C-section on an unknown alien life form. Even the B-story with Geordi and the real Leah Brahms, which was mildly humorous, couldn't help this episode.

"Night Terrors" gives us a situation where Troi saves the ship. The whole crew is suffering from a lack of REM sleep and they're slowly going insane. There's nothing to see here.

"Identity Crisis" wasn't much of an improvement over the previous episode. Because of a mission from five years ago, Geordi and his former crew mates slowly turn into an unknown light being. Nothing to see here.

"Nth Degree" sees the return of Barclay who is infected with intelligence and confidence by an alien probe. The floating alien head at the end of the episode aside, this episode was okay. We still see the two sides of Barclay from his previous appearance but now he doesn't need the holodeck. Though it certainly isn't fair because this episode aired earlier, I had flashbacks to two Stargate: SG1 episodes which dealt with a similar theme.

"Qpid" Both Q and Vash return which was really unfortunate. Aside from Worf's famous and hilarious "I am not a merry man" quote and the Animal House shout out, this episode didn't do anything for me. I understand Q wanting to repay Picard for helping him but shipping everyone to Sherwood Forest to show how love makes him weak was the best he could do? The script was supposed to be set in Camelot which would have made way more sense from a story standpoint. If they wanted to do a Vash episode, fine. If they wanted to do another Q episode, fine. Putting them together may not have been the best idea.

I know the next three episodes will make up for these less than stellar options ("The Drumhead" is one of my favs but I purposely saved it for tomorrow).

First Contact is one of my favorite episodes of TNG.

"I'll contact you the next time I'm in this solar system."