Phasers Set To Stun: Top 10 Episodes from Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2

WEBVTT

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This episode is dedicated to Gary Graham, who recently lost this month. He

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played Vulcan Ambassador Soball on Star Trek
Enterprise, as well as many other various

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roles throughout Star Trek including Voyager as
well as the Alien Nation TV series.

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Thank you, Gary for all that
you've done for the Trek world and beyond

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space the Final Frontier. Join us
for a bold conversation our prime directive to

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recap our favorite Star Trek shows,
both new and old, to engage in

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debate about all things Trek. Prepare
to energize with Phasers Set to Stun.

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to
Phasers Set to Stun. Will recontinue to

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show our love for everything Star Trek
in this ongoing series from a film by

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podcast which focuses on every quadrant of
the expanding universe of Trek A covering television,

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animation, movies, directors, and
more. Plotting the course, as

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always, is your Core Trek crew. I'm David Burns, I'm Scott Hoffman,

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and I'm Wayne Whited. In this
episode, we continue our discussion on

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what we like to call Starter Trek. A curated episode list for first time

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viewers. This spoiler free list focuses
on the top ten episodes from each season

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for people like our producer Jeff as
a great place to start with starter Treks.

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We simplify the menu with choicecotts of
Prime Trek that gives people a taste

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of each season. After listening to
this episode, you can find the course

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we're plotting for you with our list
in the description below. But before we

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begin, let's listen to what our
producer Jeff has to say about some of

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the episodes we chose from season one. Guys, ever since you've known me,

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you knew I was a casual Star
Trek fan. I was fond of

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the original series and I like the
movies, but that's pretty much where my

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Star Trek fandom ended. Last year, however, you showed me that the

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world of Star Trek continues to be
incredible with shows like Strange New Worlds and

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Lower Decks, and I simply wanted
more. I never thought I'd have enough

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time to invest in it. But
with your curated list, these starter Treks,

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as you call them, I feel
like I'm gonna warp through all seven

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seasons of the Next Generation in no
time. I love these characters. I

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absolutely love this cast and I'm excited
to see where their adventure takes them.

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You guys are doing a fantastic job. Please keep plotting the course because I,

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for one, plan to stay engaged. Thanks for that, Jeff,

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and for you listeners. If you
like to comment or add what you think

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are the top ten, please do
so so because we would love to hear

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from you. Scott, what are
we discussing today? We're diving into season

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two and we're going to notice that
the seasons are getting more and more difficult

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to find out. What are those
favorites? What are the top ten that

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somebody who's coming in fresh or somebody
who's coming back to it really needs to

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watch. So it's an interesting kind
of factor that we're taking into account with

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this top ten. Yeah, things
things are beginning to change for the better,

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I might add, it's getting harder
to choose those top ten and the

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biggest one for me, Riker has
his beard. Yeah, finally, Yeah,

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there were a lot of changes,
a lot of alterations to the show

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for this season. You know,
some of the mistakes from season one they

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corrected, others maybe not so much. Not quite yet. Yep, almost

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there, almost there, Yeah,
they're almost there. Well, this season

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was hugely affected by the rider's strike
of nineteen eighty eight. We talked a

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little bit about that last season that
it ran from March to August of that

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year, and it's really blamed in
the drop of quality for this season,

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which I don't agree. I think
the quality actually went up in the writing,

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but it delayed the start of the
season by about two months and it

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resulted in a shorter season. They
lost four episodes, dropping the down run

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amount down to twenty two episodes,
and there were a lot of behind the

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scenes problems there too going on.
Gene Roddenberry was still in hands on control

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of the series and he promoted one
of his writers, Maurice Hurley, who

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wrote A Heart of Glory and Heid
and Q, to the showrunner, which

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was if in hindsight, probably a
mistake because he alienated a lot of the

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writers that were working this season and
many of them quit, like Tracy Tormy,

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who was a huge poll for the
series, and because of all the

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rewrites that Hurley did, he walked
out. And he also talked Roddenberry into

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firing Gates McFadden, which I think
we'll all agree was a big mistake,

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huge, yes, mistake Yeah,
he just he had a lot of there

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was a lot of behind the scenes
animosity between the two, and he created

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the character of doctor Pulaski of course, to replace him. Plus there there

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were other arguments. Rodden Berry and
and another writer that he brought in from

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the original series, David Gerald,
were also fighting behind the scenes to Gerald

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had written a script for this season
called a Blood and Fire was a big

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one. It was gonna be a
really big story for the season that Paramount

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won. It specifically asked for this. It was commissioned to be written by

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him, but because roden Berry there
were there were a lot of things going

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on and Roddenberry's lawyer didn't like the
script, so he convinced Roddenberry to drop

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the script, and so Gerald left. It wasn't until the end of the

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season when when Hurley and Roddenberry left, that things started to smooth out and

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a lot of the mistakes that were
made were corrected. Yeah, you can

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see that too, with even three
coming up, which obviously we're going to

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talk later, but yeah, you
definitely can see those things are starting to

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get smoothed over. You. Yeah, all right, Well we've got we're

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gonna go ahead and get diving in
to these episodes. We are going to

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be talking about them in order as
they were aired on television. So to

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get us started, we are going
to be talking about our first pick,

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Wayne, What is it? Well, the first pick is the season premiere,

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and that is The Child which the
original script was written by Jaron Summers

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and John Pouble and this script was
rewritten for the Next Generation by Maurice Hurley

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and directed by Rob Bowman. The
Enterprise is preparing to transport plague specimens with

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the hope of devising a cure to
an epidemic. On Richelli's Deanna Troy discovers

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that she is inexplicably pregnant, and
when she gives birth to what appears to

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be a normal bet as a boy
just a few days later, the Card

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and the others deal with specimens growing
out of control and believe that the two

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strange occurrences have to be connected.
Now, this is an odd script.

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There's a lot of backstory for this
one, but I'm going to kind of

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summarize it really quick. Because of
the strike, there was a real quick

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rush to get scripts, and there
wasn't enough time to write all these scripts

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in such a short time. So
this script was actually pulled from Paramount vaults

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because it was originally written back in
nineteen seventy seven for a series that was

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planned called Star Trek Phase two.
This was going to be a new series

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featuring the original crew on their second
five year mission. All the original cast

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was coming back extupt for Leonard Nimoy, and they had new characters coming in

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such as character I Lea and new
first Officer Decker. The two events led

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to the cancelation of that series.
Paramounts was planning a new network and they

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just decided not to do it.
And then also Star Wars, which was

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a big thing, which made Paramount
realize they didn't want a new TV series,

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they wanted a movie. But a
lot of people don't realize how close

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this series got to be made with
all the scripts were written, costumes were

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made, casting was done, directors
were set sets were built. Many of

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those sets were actually reused for the
next generation. We see a lot of

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them from State from Phages two being
used. And The Child was going to

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be the fifth episode of that series
and it took very little rewrite. The

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originally script had Aileiah having the child
and the problems coming from that, Maurice

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Hurley went rewrote it so that it's
Troy and other than that, it's basically

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the same. This episode also introduced
Gynan Captain Pulaski. It's got a beautiful

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visual effects opening. I love that
opening, with an incredible score by Dennis

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McCarthy, and it introduced a new
set ten to Ford. The production was

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allowed to have one large permanent set
new to the studio each year, and

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this was the one that was built. Yeah, it's a quite a way

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to start a season, when't you
agree, Getting one of the main characters

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pregnant right away and it's like,
okay, what's going on with this?

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But where are we going? And
then I would absolutely love the reaction with

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the reaction that Riker gave when they
were in the meeting room when he found

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out for the first time that she
was pregnant. Yeah, there's definitely some

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weirdness here, and I mean,
you know, it's it's one that when

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you when you look around, it's
on a lot of top ten worst episodes,

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and you know, when we're when
we're going through this list, I

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mean, in my opinion, you
know, there's some problematic things here as

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far as you know the nature of
how she winds up with this child and

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the the trauma of having to kind
of put her through that. But the

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reasons I think it's important. It
it finally gives Troy a spotlight episode.

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Yeah, and it does knowing what
happens with her character way off into the

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future into more recently released series.
It's kind of an interesting lens to look

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at, you know, one of
her first experiences with family and with motherhood.

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I think it's also just useful to
see this episode because of the introduction

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of Guynan, who is one of
my favorite characters in Star Trek, and

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uh doctor Pulaski, who is not
one of my favorite characters in Star Trek.

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But it can be kind of jarring, to say the least, to

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jump right in and not know,
you know, the context of like who

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are these people and you know,
when did they when did they come in,

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especially with doctor Pulaski. Yeah,
and I think a lot of that's

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got to do with with the problems
that were said behind the scenes. I

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actually I like this episode. I
agree it's probably not the best way to

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open the season, but it's still
a good episode. And you mentioned it,

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uh, you know, they've corrected
one of the very first mistakes that

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I felt was the problem during the
first season, and then that's starting to

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spot likes each one of the characters. Give them an episode, uh to

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to shine and Troy hardly had anything
to do during the first season, and

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it was nice to see an episode
with her being the star of the story.

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Yeah, this is I know.
Marina Surtis does not like this episode.

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She says this is her least favorite
episode of the entire series. But

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there's a lot of stuff going on
in this one that that's why we have

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to pick this one, because you're
right. If this was not in the

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top ten and we were telling people, you know, don't don't watch this

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one, they're gonna be lost.
Yeah, yeah, you know, there's

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just too much going on. You've
got to watch this episode. I mean,

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Jordie LaForge is promoted. We learned
that in this episode. You know,

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yep, this is the first time
that we see Wharf with his baldric,

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you know. So there's a lot
of stuff going on in this episode

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that you know, for a first
time well watcher, they need to see

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this stuff being introduced for sure.
And you're right that that also brings up

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a few other things. There are
some other changes too. You know,

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Wharf is now had of security yep, with his yellow uniform. We have

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Jordie, he's now the moved to
chief engineer. He's got his yellow uniform.

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Now, you know, there's there's
a lot of changes, and it

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would be really it would be very
jarring if you just suddenly walk everybody's wearing

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different uniforms and have different positions.
This is a good episode to start with.

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Yeah, absolutely getting reactions through all
these introductions and changes, right,

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reactions from the crew and how they're
kind of responding to it. Yeah,

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yeah, absolutely, no doubt.
All right, Well let's go on to

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our second pick, Scott. Yeah, this is a little bit more fun

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with elementary dear Data data and jority
share. Holideck adventure Sherlock Holmes and Doctor

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Watson, only to find that the
mysteries aren't enough of a challenge. But

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when the holid Deck creates a program
to match their wits, they get much

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more than they bargain for. I
can't say too much more, no,

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but there is an introduction of a
character that just has a fascinating background that

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has to do with the Holideck.
We didn't quite talk about the big goodbye

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in the last top ten this one, this one is a great way to

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feature the holid deck, not only
in terms of how people use it,

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but the capabilities of that holideck and
kind of the implications of that, specifically

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things like the safety protocols that they
have to put in place, so what

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if you're on a holideck and somebody
shoots you? Things like that. I

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thought it was a fascinating dive into
Data and Jordie is a great look at

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their friendship, I think, and
their relationship. You know, how Jordie

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is helping him in his progression,
but how Data is genuinely, you know,

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one of Jordie's best friends that has
a lot of implications in the future.

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Yeah, and watching this series,
this is like one of many holiday

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episodes that you're going to see over
the series. But you know, you

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hit on a key point that I
definitely wanted to make sure, you know,

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everybody was aware of them to talk
about. And that's the Jordan and

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Data's friendship. We've already started seeing
that blossomsalm, you know, in season

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one, but this one really focuses
on that and you can see that how

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much they are connecting to one another. And again, Brince Spiner is just

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brilliant in his role. Yes,
yes, And and a funny fact about

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this, the producers actually got in
trouble for this episode. They didn't realize

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that Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle
was trademarked, and yeah, Paramount kind

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of had to scold them and said, don't do it again. So this

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is why we don't see them go
back to the Sherlock Holmes world for a

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while. They do eventually, We'll
get to that eventually, but that's the

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reason why we don't see it because
it could have been a yearly thing,

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but not until some behind the scenes
legal problems were smoothed over at the Big

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Oops. Yeah. Along those lines, there's actually an interesting parallel that I

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found between why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
did made a certain choice with the Sherlock

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Holms series that has kind of a
parallel to this episode. But I can't

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talk about that without spoiling it,
so no, no spoiler enough, no

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spoilers. One of the one of
the things that really love is not giving

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away anything is when data they went
into the Hollow deck for them, you

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know, to relax and you know, just solve a mystery. And Data

204
00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:13.320
just quickly solved it with no problems, and Jordi basically just threw his hands

205
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up, I'm done, you know, in program and get ready to walk

206
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out, and Data is like,
what's wrong, you know, And then

207
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Jordi had to explain to him,
Look, you know, we're here to

208
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relax, enjoy this, you know, actually solve the mystery. You're not

209
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doing that, you know. And
of course this is eventually what leads them

210
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to get into trouble with the hollow
deck. But hey, I really like

211
00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:35.200
that. That was a cool scene. Yes, it is. There is

212
00:15:35.240 --> 00:15:39.480
also kind of a minor detail you're
going to see with kind of the juxtaposition

213
00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:46.519
of Jordy and Data's friendship and doctor
Pulaski and Data's relationship and you know how

214
00:15:46.759 --> 00:15:50.799
Jordie regards him as you know,
a life form, es sentient life form,

215
00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:54.279
a friend and a person like anybody
else. But doctor Pulaski has a

216
00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:58.320
very kind of almost a one dimensional
kind of view of Data, which is

217
00:15:58.600 --> 00:16:02.320
very friend frustrating. Yeah, that's
the way the character is written. But

218
00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:10.440
Wowdato, yeah me too. I'm
sure there had to be a take where

219
00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:14.759
Brent was like, it's data,
it's data, get it right? I

220
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mean, yeah, that just irked
me when I heard it again, I'm

221
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like the last yeah, yeah,
yeah, all right, Well let's move

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on. So our third pick is
this skis away Man. To know him

223
00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:33.039
is to love him, is to
know him. Doctor Ira Graves is a

224
00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:37.759
brilliant scientist living with his assistant working
on research very important to the Federation.

225
00:16:37.399 --> 00:16:41.159
The card in the Enterprise are sent
to Doctor Grey's at the request of an

226
00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:45.559
urgent matter. However, before they
can arrive, another urgent matter occurs,

227
00:16:45.559 --> 00:16:48.559
force supid card to make a decision
to send a landing party to meet with

228
00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:51.840
doctor graves needs, while the rest
of the group go to help a ship

229
00:16:51.879 --> 00:16:55.759
desperately in need of help. It
is discovered that doctor Graves is dying,

230
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but before he expires, manages to
put his consciousness into data, which causes

231
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:10.559
disturbing consequences this episode. Here Guys
continues to prove Brent Spiner's b brilliance.

232
00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:18.319
Range lects his acting muscles in this
episode beyond more than we have seen,

233
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and we have seen quite a bit
of him doing this, but this episode,

234
00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:26.720
wow, does it really shine.
But another character actor I would like

235
00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:30.400
to point out is William Morgan Shepherd, who we get a little bit of

236
00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:37.200
him in this episode as Doctor Graves
before he expires, but many of them

237
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are going to know a couple years
later he'll be in Star Trek Undiscovered Country

238
00:17:40.279 --> 00:17:44.640
as a character. And of course
Wayne, we would know him from Gettysburg,

239
00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:47.839
you know, he was in that
as well, and not to mention

240
00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:52.400
numerous other shows, movies and stuff
that mister Shepherd was in, including Doctor

241
00:17:52.440 --> 00:17:56.079
Who and there you go, including
Doctor Who and the new Star Trek movie

242
00:17:56.160 --> 00:18:03.720
The CHRISTI yes, yes, The
little amount of time that Shepherd is on

243
00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:10.440
this episode just was brilliant and set
forth what we're going to see in data.

244
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It was just a great performance on
his part, and Brent Spinder just

245
00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:18.839
picked it up right where he left
off and truly shine in this episode.

246
00:18:19.319 --> 00:18:22.480
Definitely. Yeah, yeah, yep. You can see how he does a

247
00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:27.640
great job of emulating Shepherd's performance yep, right and following that lead. And

248
00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:33.319
it's we're going to get a lot
more of that range from Brent Speiner in

249
00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:37.720
this series and we're the better for
it. It's fantastic. Yeah, absolutely,

250
00:18:37.079 --> 00:18:40.160
I know one of the things I
found interesting too, was when they

251
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were running that test on Data.
You know, we get to see images

252
00:18:42.359 --> 00:18:45.440
of Tasha y Are, which we're
gonna get to see that get in and

253
00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:49.279
later another episode we're going to talk
about. But Dexter Remick and Project Genesis

254
00:18:49.400 --> 00:18:52.599
are displayed during that test. If
you guys didn't pick that up, yeah,

255
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but I thought that was really neat. There's a scene in here where

256
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Troy and Jordi go are invited to
Data's room. If you guys know what

257
00:19:06.799 --> 00:19:10.480
see I'm talking about. Towards the
beginning, they go to his quarters and

258
00:19:10.519 --> 00:19:15.759
when they enter they see what is
on his face. Well, apparently Marina

259
00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:19.359
Curtis was laughing so hard at the
end of the scene that she had to

260
00:19:19.480 --> 00:19:23.119
leave. So when she leaves in
that scene, that was really Marina SERTs

261
00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:26.799
having to leave because she was laughing
so hard that she couldn't control it.

262
00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:32.839
So the good thing is Brent Spiner
LeVar Burton just kept it rolling. They

263
00:19:32.920 --> 00:19:37.359
never broke character, allowing the scene
that we see to make it into the

264
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episode. I thought that's incredible.
Yeah, that's fantastic. It's a great

265
00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:45.920
scene. I want to watch that
again, just just knowing that makes you

266
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appreciate that much more and the professionalism
of those actors that they were able to

267
00:19:51.240 --> 00:19:53.519
just keep rolling and not break.
You know, that just shows her talent

268
00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:59.759
for sure. Yeah. Well,
in just that it's that infusion of comedy.

269
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It's not meant to be like,
hey, the jokes are coming,

270
00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:06.359
you know, like Star Trek does
a great job of that, specifically with

271
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Next Generation, and you know,
knowing that they were able to get through

272
00:20:11.799 --> 00:20:15.319
that and then keep that footage is
is great. That's a great behind the

273
00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:21.519
scenes. Yep, yep, absolutely, go ahead. I was just gonna

274
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say, we also get Susie Plaxon, one of my favorite character actors in

275
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this series. We'll talk about a
little bit later. In this role.

276
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She's Lieutenant Selar Vulcan doctor comes back
in this series and several other series,

277
00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:41.680
and I think just as great job
all over. Oh it's interesting because it's

278
00:20:41.720 --> 00:20:45.079
it's a great character. I'm surprising
they never brought this character back. They

279
00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:48.319
did in a lot of like books
and comics and stuff, but in the

280
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series, this is the only time
we ever see her, and it would

281
00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:55.599
have been interesting for her to be
around the sick Bay. Maybe another character

282
00:20:55.759 --> 00:20:59.480
with Doctor Krusher. Yeah, it's
a shame they didn't continue that way.

283
00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:02.599
I don't believe agree with you on
that. Another thing I thought that was

284
00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:07.160
kind of creepy in this episode was
the tune that Graves always whistled if I

285
00:21:07.240 --> 00:21:12.880
only had a brain, and how
that's used when Data whistles it basically signaling

286
00:21:12.920 --> 00:21:15.599
what had happened. I love that. I thought that, Oh man,

287
00:21:15.640 --> 00:21:18.559
that's kind of creepy but yet really
cool at the same time. Seah every

288
00:21:18.599 --> 00:21:23.279
reminds me of Denzel Washington's Fallen with
Time is on our side, you know,

289
00:21:23.480 --> 00:21:26.759
just a great way to just add
a little bit more creepiness in there.

290
00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:30.519
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, it
was well, good deal. Well,

291
00:21:30.200 --> 00:21:34.119
before we continue on, let's take
a break and when we come back

292
00:21:34.119 --> 00:21:38.839
we'll talk about the next episode.
All right, well, welcome back.

293
00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:44.960
Let's talk about our fourth episode,
Waning and that will be a Matter of

294
00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:48.799
Honor, which is written by Wanda
Height, Gregory Amos, and Burton armis

295
00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:56.960
directed by Rob Bowman again, and
this we finally get the Klingons again on

296
00:21:56.640 --> 00:22:03.039
the next generation. An officer exchange
program allows Commander Riker the chance to serve

297
00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:07.720
on a Klingon ship under the command
of Captain Cargan. When the Klingon crew

298
00:22:07.759 --> 00:22:12.039
find a micro organism eating away at
their hall, Cargan believes it to be

299
00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:17.480
a new Federation weapon and put Riker
on the wrong side of a potential Klingon

300
00:22:17.640 --> 00:22:22.440
starfleet conflict. Now, this this
is a much loved episode, I think

301
00:22:22.440 --> 00:22:26.400
of pretty much everybody will say this
is one of the better episodes of season

302
00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:30.920
two. It is. It's a
good episode, and this is the second

303
00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:37.039
time we really see the Klingons spotlighted
on the series. We had one last

304
00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:40.119
season and now we have this one. But this is the first time that

305
00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:44.440
we see the Klingon Bird of Prey, the model actually being used on Star

306
00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:51.200
Trek next Generation. It was used
in last in Star Trek five, but

307
00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:52.039
now we get to see it on
the show, and we'll see it a

308
00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:57.480
lot more. But here I want
to point out one guest star here that

309
00:22:57.519 --> 00:23:03.799
made everybody not who This is Captain
Cargan. He was played by actor Christopher

310
00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:08.319
Collins. That's actually a different name. He normally goes by the name Chris

311
00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:14.680
Latta. He was the voice of
Star Scream and Cobra Commander on Transformers and

312
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:18.759
g I Joe, a very different
role seeing him not only live action but

313
00:23:19.799 --> 00:23:25.880
under heavy makeup. And there's another
guest star to Brian Thompson. He played

314
00:23:25.880 --> 00:23:32.960
the first officer Clagg. He was
the one that introduced Riker to goachch.

315
00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:36.640
Yeah, he goes on. He
appears on Star Trek quite a few more

316
00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:41.000
times. He was on twice on
Deep Space nine, three episodes of Enterprise,

317
00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:47.039
and he played kling On again on
Star Trek Generations. Yep. He

318
00:23:47.079 --> 00:23:52.319
was in the nineteen eighty six is
Cobra Yes, right, yeah, the

319
00:23:52.599 --> 00:23:56.039
seen one. Rikers got all the
food they're ten forward. Oh my god,

320
00:23:56.039 --> 00:24:00.039
I that was just disgusting and he
was just enjoying himself. Here we

321
00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:04.759
go. Although credit to Food Services
for that absolutely to be able to make

322
00:24:04.759 --> 00:24:10.960
that. I'm sure there's more than
one take. Like yeah, so so

323
00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:15.759
many good scenes in there with Jonathan
Frakes's Commander Riker, just proving what a

324
00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:19.440
badass Commander Riker is and why we
love him so much as a character.

325
00:24:19.799 --> 00:24:22.519
But the fact that he took on
that role was very happy, you know,

326
00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:26.480
winning with the scene between him at
Picard when they're doing at the phaser

327
00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:29.400
range, which is the first time
we've ever seen that. By the way,

328
00:24:30.680 --> 00:24:32.960
it was neat when Picard was telling
him what was going on and that

329
00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:37.440
they were doing in exchange, and
Picard obviously was leaning towards, you know,

330
00:24:37.559 --> 00:24:40.519
trying to talk Riker into taking it. But Riker knew what was going

331
00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:41.920
on, so he had the big
smile on his face, you know,

332
00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:47.400
it is that yeah, yeah,
who do you have in mind? But

333
00:24:47.480 --> 00:24:48.960
no, when he went over to
the to the ship and just you know,

334
00:24:49.119 --> 00:24:52.640
proved himself to the Klingons that he
deserved to be there. Man,

335
00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:57.400
just what a Jonahan Frakes is just
awesome? Yes, yes, and you

336
00:24:57.480 --> 00:25:02.000
mentioned the Phaser range. It's actually
one of my favorite sets, even though

337
00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:04.480
it's there's not much set to it. Right, the giant circle with a

338
00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:08.079
bunch of darkness all around. This
is a little blinking lights. You have

339
00:25:08.119 --> 00:25:12.480
to shoot at the right time.
There's a there's an episode where they use

340
00:25:12.519 --> 00:25:17.440
that again with the wharf and Guymon
and they have a great conversation in that

341
00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:21.400
later later, later, But yep, it's a great set. Yep.

342
00:25:22.200 --> 00:25:26.519
What I found interesting too is instant
mindon you know who I'm talking about who

343
00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:33.960
shows up when Wesley mistakes him.
Yes, that's the same actor. Interesting,

344
00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:37.359
Interesting and that's an uncomfortable exchange,
right, Yeah, Yeah, it

345
00:25:37.400 --> 00:25:38.759
was a very interesting exchange. Which
it's kind of funny that they did that

346
00:25:40.119 --> 00:25:44.960
the same actor from the first back
in the first season correct, okay,

347
00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:47.759
yeah, played by John Putch,
I believe. I don't know if it's

348
00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:51.359
pronouncing his last name correctly, but
yeah, same actor. Yeah, there's

349
00:25:51.359 --> 00:25:55.480
a great effect that costume. Yeah, where every breath has like a little

350
00:25:55.480 --> 00:25:57.400
bit of dry ice or some kind
of smoke coming off of it. Yeah.

351
00:25:57.559 --> 00:26:00.519
It's a good concept, a good
good alien. We don't see too

352
00:26:00.599 --> 00:26:03.960
much of it, but I like
that. I like the idea that they

353
00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:10.680
have to accommodate for different atmospheres.
Ye, all right, let's go on

354
00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:15.720
with our fifth pick for season two, Scott. Yeah, so that takes

355
00:26:15.799 --> 00:26:18.680
us to the measure of a man, which I've I'm lucky to have two

356
00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:23.519
data centricquins to focus on, and
this one is a standout I've heard.

357
00:26:23.880 --> 00:26:30.559
Oh yes, Brent Spiner was on
a podcast recently. It was talking about,

358
00:26:30.599 --> 00:26:33.160
you know, one of his standout
episodes, and this is absolutely one

359
00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:37.680
of them. So Doctor Maddox of
Starfleet's Daystrom Institute is one of the leading

360
00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:41.839
minds in cybernetics, and he spent
his career trying to replicate data, but

361
00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:45.920
the next step Mattics needs to take
would end Data's life. We see one

362
00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:52.240
of the outstanding Trek legal dramas that
asks if data is just Starfleet property or

363
00:26:52.279 --> 00:26:57.119
a sentient life form to protect.
This is another one where it's hard to

364
00:26:57.160 --> 00:27:03.480
dive into too much detail without getting
to spoiler territory. But the prosecution and

365
00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:11.000
the defense that's chosen to represent Data
one way or the other is very interesting.

366
00:27:11.559 --> 00:27:15.640
It absolutely calls back to some elements
we saw in Data Lore as far

367
00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:22.039
as how data functions and things like
that. But one of my one of

368
00:27:22.039 --> 00:27:27.039
the standout moments in this episode for
me is the conversation between I believe it's

369
00:27:27.400 --> 00:27:36.839
Guidan and a card correct that talks
about the implications of doing so, and

370
00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:41.400
we're going to see that come back
in Picard season one. That makes me

371
00:27:41.480 --> 00:27:47.880
kind of look at season one with
kind of a different lens. But it

372
00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:53.839
introduces another great relationship actually between Data
and Maddox, which at first you see

373
00:27:53.880 --> 00:27:56.799
Maddox is this you know, oh, well, clearly this is the bad

374
00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:03.400
guy so to speak, But there's
there's a twist in their relationship and a

375
00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:10.599
continuing evolution we'll see through the series
that I think absolutely bears mentioning doctor Maddox

376
00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:15.319
and those implications, but also just
the acting, the structure, the legal

377
00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:21.400
debate of this is amazing. No, it is. I mean, this

378
00:28:21.519 --> 00:28:25.480
is a courtroom drama and it is
a really good one. Yeah, you

379
00:28:25.480 --> 00:28:29.039
get to see I mean you feel
for Data throughout this episode, as you

380
00:28:29.039 --> 00:28:33.119
should because you know, as he
is being we don't know, but he

381
00:28:33.160 --> 00:28:36.359
needs to be treated like one right
maybe you know, it's it's that the

382
00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:38.720
you know that the discussion that they
have. But one of the scenes in

383
00:28:38.759 --> 00:28:41.440
this that acid by the way,
the scene between Guy and the card was

384
00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:47.880
not originally in the script. Paramount
had to have them add something because apparently

385
00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:51.200
she was going to be there committed
to that week. So they ended that

386
00:28:51.240 --> 00:28:53.440
scene for that. Oh yeah,
me too. It's a great scene.

387
00:28:53.559 --> 00:28:56.279
Great, yes, But the one
thing that I love it, and I

388
00:28:56.279 --> 00:29:00.920
don't think it's going to give away
too much, but just how broken Commander

389
00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:03.720
Riker was, how torn he was, and what he had to do in

390
00:29:03.759 --> 00:29:08.160
this year. Yeah, when he
his line when he says Pinocchio has broken,

391
00:29:08.279 --> 00:29:11.480
Its strings have been cut, and
you know, what happened right before

392
00:29:11.480 --> 00:29:15.920
he said that line was just so
powerful. As soon as he said that

393
00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:21.000
then went and sat down, I
was like, damn, you just chills,

394
00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:22.720
man when that happened. Yeah,
yeah, I'm sure that had to

395
00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:27.680
hit Jonathan Frakes and everybody on set
pretty hard. It's so powerful. Yeah,

396
00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:30.960
yeah, so much, so much
goodness, So many great performances in

397
00:29:32.039 --> 00:29:37.319
this even Patrick Stewart incredible performance,
you know with him, you know,

398
00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:41.880
defending you know, it's just my
goodness. It's just watching this episode again

399
00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:45.400
for the first time in a long
time, I forgot how powerful it was.

400
00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:48.599
And you know, when you get
to that, I mean some of

401
00:29:48.599 --> 00:29:52.440
the things that you wouldn't think would
be going through data's you know, processors

402
00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:56.119
and stuff like that. Well let's
say what it is brain. But it's

403
00:29:56.200 --> 00:30:00.119
just, man, just a lot
of stuff die get into this episode that

404
00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:04.480
you just really makes you think.
Yeah, it's a big evolution in data

405
00:30:04.680 --> 00:30:08.920
overall, so the character itself,
how people will regard data, which is

406
00:30:08.920 --> 00:30:17.200
an interesting parallel to Pulaski's character and
a lot of their interactions, but also

407
00:30:18.319 --> 00:30:22.279
brend Spinder's performance as data. You
can definitely see an evolution here because this

408
00:30:22.440 --> 00:30:30.400
is a life or death situation,
and his application of stoicism and curiosity in

409
00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:33.279
this character, I think is one
of the defining characteristics of data. We're

410
00:30:33.279 --> 00:30:40.680
going to see that come back in
another episode The Most Toys, where you

411
00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:48.359
know, life and death situation and
how that's faced and process is absolutely fascinating.

412
00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:53.079
Yeah. Yeah, this is probably
definitely my favorite episode of the season.

413
00:30:55.359 --> 00:31:02.319
It's great because Prince Spinder's performance is
just phenomenal. Jonathan Franks's performance will

414
00:31:02.319 --> 00:31:08.000
be Goldberg's. We finally see how
useful her character can be with this series.

415
00:31:08.920 --> 00:31:14.200
Plus, for anyone who once likes
this episode, there is This is

416
00:31:14.200 --> 00:31:17.160
one of the very few episodes of
the series where there's an extended version of

417
00:31:17.240 --> 00:31:22.039
it. The Blu Rays have a
much longer version of this episode. It's

418
00:31:22.039 --> 00:31:26.319
almost almost fifteen minutes longer, and
it's definitely worth watching or or trying to

419
00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:30.200
find because it adds a lot of
great scenes that we didn't even see in

420
00:31:30.200 --> 00:31:36.000
the original airing. And this is
the first episode to feature a poker game,

421
00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:40.519
which we know we will reoccur quite
a bit to this series. Yes,

422
00:31:40.640 --> 00:31:45.000
yes, critifact absolutely, All right, Well, let's move on with

423
00:31:45.039 --> 00:31:52.160
our sixth pick. Contagion. The
Enterprise receives a distress signal from the USS

424
00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:56.480
Yamato, a sister ship who is
near the Romulan neutral zone. Upon their

425
00:31:56.599 --> 00:32:00.240
arrival to their whore, the Yamato
explodes, followed by the appearance of the

426
00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:04.519
Romulans, but Card demands an explanation, But upon further investigation, it is

427
00:32:04.559 --> 00:32:08.279
discovered that an ancient civilization known as
Iconia, of which the Motto had gone

428
00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:13.039
to look for in the neutrodrone,
have ancient technology that he believes the Romulans

429
00:32:13.079 --> 00:32:16.160
are seeking to use against the Federation. They quickly discovered that what happened to

430
00:32:16.200 --> 00:32:21.279
the AMOUNTA before it exploited is now
happening to the Enterprise, damaging the ship

431
00:32:21.599 --> 00:32:23.799
and data. The crew race to
answer, not only to save their lives,

432
00:32:23.799 --> 00:32:29.119
but also to stop the Romulants.
This is one of those episodes,

433
00:32:29.559 --> 00:32:34.119
and I don't think we've talked about
this yet. Star Trek is the master

434
00:32:34.599 --> 00:32:39.119
of that opening sequence before they go
into the title credits. Star Trek is

435
00:32:39.160 --> 00:32:43.640
the master of that. And again
they prove here on how good they're at

436
00:32:43.640 --> 00:32:45.599
it. I mean, the crew
of the Enterprise. You know, it

437
00:32:45.640 --> 00:32:49.480
goes from bad to worse here you
know, they arrived to the sister ship.

438
00:32:49.640 --> 00:32:51.799
You know, they talk to them, and then boom, and then

439
00:32:51.839 --> 00:32:53.119
all of a sudden, the Romulants
show up. Wow, oh great,

440
00:32:53.240 --> 00:32:57.400
great, We've gone from bad to
worse in this situation. And then we

441
00:32:57.440 --> 00:33:01.599
move right into the credits. Star
Trek is rate at that this episode is

442
00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:07.400
the first time the card orders tea
Earl Gray hot, which was not successful

443
00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:13.440
of course in this episode. But
again, we're gonna talk about season three

444
00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:15.920
where a lot of firsts are starting
to happen that we're gonna start seeing throughout

445
00:33:15.920 --> 00:33:21.000
this series. You know, this
is just another episode that does that for

446
00:33:21.079 --> 00:33:25.559
us. It is also the first
time Riker gives his iconic line Fate protects

447
00:33:25.599 --> 00:33:32.839
fools, little children, and ships
named Enterprise. This is a good episode

448
00:33:32.920 --> 00:33:37.000
I enjoy. There's a lot of
original ideas here, and I like the

449
00:33:37.039 --> 00:33:44.119
idea of the Iconians and their uh, their way of transporting. Mm so

450
00:33:44.160 --> 00:33:46.279
petty, we we never went back
to that too and got to learn anymore

451
00:33:46.319 --> 00:33:52.000
because it's kind of opened and ended
with that civilization at the end. And

452
00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:55.559
and then we get a great look
at the Romulns. We hardly got anything

453
00:33:55.640 --> 00:34:00.400
during the season finale last year.
You know, they're Romulan Warburg. That's

454
00:34:00.680 --> 00:34:07.680
a beautiful model, an incredible,
incredible design. I like the episode.

455
00:34:07.799 --> 00:34:10.079
I think there's a lot of original
ideas. Yeah, but you can tell

456
00:34:10.119 --> 00:34:13.480
the writers. I mean, even
though the strike was going on and there's

457
00:34:13.639 --> 00:34:15.760
you know, a bunch of stuff
going on behind the scenes and stuff like

458
00:34:15.760 --> 00:34:20.159
that, but you can tell that
they're really starting to explore Star Trek in

459
00:34:20.159 --> 00:34:22.000
ways that first season kind of did
in a way, but not as much

460
00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:24.360
as they are doing in season two. And as obviously we're going to see

461
00:34:24.400 --> 00:34:28.800
later on in each season, as
we grow, they just get bigger and

462
00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:31.320
bigger and better and better, you
know. So, Yeah, I think

463
00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:36.599
this episode was really really well done, and you know, we get to

464
00:34:36.639 --> 00:34:38.920
see more of our characters explored.
I mean, Picard, we learned he

465
00:34:38.960 --> 00:34:42.400
loves archaeology, right, this is
the first time we see that too.

466
00:34:43.239 --> 00:34:47.760
Yeah, this season we get farther
away from trying to copy the style of

467
00:34:47.800 --> 00:34:52.880
the original series and more about developing
the next generation's own style. We see

468
00:34:52.880 --> 00:34:57.760
that a lot through season two,
and at this point we've pretty much shucked

469
00:34:57.840 --> 00:35:00.840
all of the original series ide is
a way and starting our owns thing now,

470
00:35:01.039 --> 00:35:06.599
all right, Well, let's go
on to our seventh pick, and

471
00:35:06.719 --> 00:35:12.000
this is probably going to be the
most controversial. Oh but I like it,

472
00:35:12.039 --> 00:35:16.639
okay. The Royale, written by
Tracy Tourmeat and directed by Cliff Boyle,

473
00:35:17.679 --> 00:35:22.760
Ryker, Data and Wharf being down
to a planet to investigate a mysterious

474
00:35:22.800 --> 00:35:27.519
structure. Upon entering, they find
themselves within what looks to be a twentieth

475
00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:31.760
century casino and hotel, wrapped up
in the almost cliche like events, cut

476
00:35:31.800 --> 00:35:36.639
off from contact with the Enterprise,
and no way to get back out.

477
00:35:37.239 --> 00:35:42.039
As I said, I like this
episode. It's fun. I think it's

478
00:35:42.039 --> 00:35:46.880
a fun episode. It's if you
don't think too much into it. This

479
00:35:46.920 --> 00:35:50.760
is one of the episodes that,
as I mentioned before, that was written

480
00:35:50.760 --> 00:35:55.599
by Tracy Tormey that was heavily rewritten
against his wishes, and this is what

481
00:35:55.719 --> 00:36:00.239
forced him to make the decision to
quit the show, which is because he's

482
00:36:00.239 --> 00:36:05.480
a great writer. He went on
to create another series that I absolutely loved

483
00:36:05.519 --> 00:36:09.320
later on called Sliders with Jerry o'
crannell. Yeah, he's he's a great

484
00:36:09.320 --> 00:36:15.559
writer. His original idea for the
script was that the astronaut was stuck in

485
00:36:15.599 --> 00:36:23.360
this surreal nightmare fantasy world and then
when the crew comes and beams down,

486
00:36:23.400 --> 00:36:27.800
they get stuck in his own in
his own mind and his own nightmare.

487
00:36:30.199 --> 00:36:35.519
It's because he left. He ended
up using a pseudonym to to credit himself

488
00:36:35.519 --> 00:36:37.320
because he didn't want his name on
this. He felt it was rewritten so

489
00:36:37.480 --> 00:36:43.480
much that he didn't want to be
involved in it. And as it comes

490
00:36:43.719 --> 00:36:49.559
the rest of the series. When
the original airing, I remember I love

491
00:36:49.639 --> 00:36:52.719
this when it first aired. But
something I just recently learned. You know,

492
00:36:53.280 --> 00:36:59.559
the all the episodes of the Next
Generation were recently UH remastered into high

493
00:36:59.599 --> 00:37:02.400
definition about ten years ago. And
in the original airing, the patch on

494
00:37:02.480 --> 00:37:07.840
the astronauts' uniform that was the nineteen
seventy two Apollo seventeen patch, and it

495
00:37:07.960 --> 00:37:13.599
had the Apollo name removed, but
the name of the original astronauts were still

496
00:37:13.639 --> 00:37:16.800
there. But when they went and
remastered this and reassembled it back in twenty

497
00:37:16.840 --> 00:37:21.800
twelve, they took CGI and they've
changed those patches and put the correct spaceship

498
00:37:21.840 --> 00:37:25.360
and the correct names. It has
a little catchphrase it says, first beyond

499
00:37:25.360 --> 00:37:30.400
the Solar System. I never noticed
that until I was doing research on this

500
00:37:30.639 --> 00:37:34.519
episode. It's great that they were
able to go back and remaster and if

501
00:37:34.559 --> 00:37:37.760
you do watch them on streaming now
you are seeing the remastered versions of the

502
00:37:37.800 --> 00:37:42.280
episodes. Right. Yeah, this
is a very simple strip. And I

503
00:37:42.280 --> 00:37:44.880
don't want to call it simple,
but I mean the sets were very simple.

504
00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:49.000
Let's be honest. They clearly a
cheap episode. Tried to save some

505
00:37:49.079 --> 00:37:52.960
money, you know, to contain
it in like if you know one area,

506
00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:55.079
but it worked, you know,
I agree, Wayne. There's probably

507
00:37:55.079 --> 00:37:59.280
a lot of people who are like, you're picking the Royale what, But

508
00:37:59.639 --> 00:38:01.239
no, it is it is.
I had a lot of fun with this.

509
00:38:01.480 --> 00:38:06.280
You know, you're if you really
think about it, you're you're supposedly

510
00:38:06.320 --> 00:38:09.639
stuck in this nightmare with this astronaut. I find that concept really cool.

511
00:38:10.599 --> 00:38:15.000
And you know that's that's Star Trek
for you. Right yeah, And this

512
00:38:15.079 --> 00:38:17.639
one, no, I was gonna
say. And the other thing that I

513
00:38:17.719 --> 00:38:22.400
really wanted to point out is Sam
and Anderson as the assistant manager of the

514
00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:25.679
hotel. I will always remember him
as mister gorp Lee from Perfect Strangers.

515
00:38:25.880 --> 00:38:32.039
Oh yes, wow, good poll. Yeah. No, And you know,

516
00:38:32.079 --> 00:38:37.599
while we're on the subject, I'll
bring up Noble Willingham As, Texas.

517
00:38:38.280 --> 00:38:40.960
Yes, another one that you know, Dave you and I are going

518
00:38:42.039 --> 00:38:45.039
to talk about him and Norma Ray
and I'm always going to picture him as

519
00:38:45.159 --> 00:38:51.559
you know, Rolin City Slickers is
really in Good Morning Vietnam. There's a

520
00:38:51.599 --> 00:38:55.519
lot of personality there, and the
way that they use these characters, it's

521
00:38:55.639 --> 00:39:00.400
it's it's almost like it feels like
a Holidack episode kind of turned on itself.

522
00:39:00.519 --> 00:39:04.039
Yeah, right, like you're trapped
in it and you can't do it

523
00:39:04.119 --> 00:39:07.559
unless you play it out. But
it's a horrible novel. It's you know,

524
00:39:07.320 --> 00:39:10.800
it was a darkened, stormy night, like as bad as you can

525
00:39:10.840 --> 00:39:15.639
get. But it's it's played so
well and as soon as as soon as

526
00:39:15.679 --> 00:39:20.840
they figure out what's going on,
they lean into it so much. And

527
00:39:21.079 --> 00:39:22.519
I love the performances there. Yeah, they look like they're having a lot

528
00:39:22.519 --> 00:39:28.119
of fun, just you know,
stepping out from the normal techno babble and

529
00:39:28.519 --> 00:39:35.199
serious storylines, just having fun in
this pretty cheesy casino sets. And yeah,

530
00:39:35.559 --> 00:39:37.199
I love it. I love it. Hell love it or hate it,

531
00:39:37.360 --> 00:39:38.719
you got to admit it. It's
fun on you can tell. You

532
00:39:38.719 --> 00:39:43.840
can tell Brit Spiner as Data was
having fun of gambling with the dice and

533
00:39:43.880 --> 00:39:45.920
the cards and stuff like that.
Come on. Yeah. Oh yeah,

534
00:39:45.440 --> 00:39:52.280
the data snap. Yeah, yeah, it was a fun episode. Absolutely.

535
00:39:52.360 --> 00:39:54.760
Before we continue on with our next
episode, we're going to take another

536
00:39:54.800 --> 00:40:00.840
break. We'll be right back.
Welcome back, everybody. We are going

537
00:40:00.880 --> 00:40:07.039
to continue with our eighth pick,
Scott. Yeah, there's an embarrassment of

538
00:40:07.119 --> 00:40:12.039
riches here because this is one of
the best of season two. Yes,

539
00:40:12.119 --> 00:40:15.320
if not one of the best in
the series, which actually didn't discover until

540
00:40:15.360 --> 00:40:22.079
I had seen season three. But
this one is called Q who so Q

541
00:40:22.360 --> 00:40:25.159
is back to pester the crew with
a new proposition, let me join your

542
00:40:25.239 --> 00:40:30.440
crew, because you can't face this
universe without me. When they reject his

543
00:40:30.519 --> 00:40:34.280
offer, he seeks to prove his
argument in a dangerous way, flinging them

544
00:40:34.320 --> 00:40:37.320
seven thousand light years away, which
is roughly two years from home at best

545
00:40:37.360 --> 00:40:42.559
speed, to face the Boorg for
the first time. Will they accept his

546
00:40:42.639 --> 00:40:45.920
help or fight one of the most
dangerous species in the Trek universe. Now

547
00:40:45.920 --> 00:40:51.760
there's a subtle spoiler there in mentioning
that the Borg appears, But it's very

548
00:40:51.800 --> 00:40:55.440
important to mention that because as you're
thinking about, you know, which episodes

549
00:40:55.519 --> 00:41:01.639
to watch, this instroduction is exceptional
important and it's one of those Q episodes.

550
00:41:01.679 --> 00:41:05.679
That doesn't necessarily it's not him being
kind of a you know, a

551
00:41:05.800 --> 00:41:08.880
jokester or anything else like that.
He's absolutely serious. I need to join

552
00:41:08.960 --> 00:41:15.719
you. You're advancing way faster than
you should. Yeah, this episode is

553
00:41:15.760 --> 00:41:20.400
so vital and so important of what
is to come in Star Trek the next

554
00:41:20.440 --> 00:41:23.360
generation. And this is I'm not
going to say too much what's coming up

555
00:41:23.440 --> 00:41:27.920
later for the for this villain or
the villains if you want to say,

556
00:41:29.079 --> 00:41:32.880
but this sets up some storyline that's
coming along. But this is the main

557
00:41:32.960 --> 00:41:37.199
villain that the next generation crew is
going to be fighting for a very long

558
00:41:37.239 --> 00:41:42.800
time, and in my opinion,
is the best and creepiest villain that anybody

559
00:41:42.840 --> 00:41:45.159
has had in Star Trek. And
I'm not putting anything down through the original

560
00:41:45.159 --> 00:41:47.480
Star Trek or de Space on Fords
or anything like that, but come on,

561
00:41:49.159 --> 00:41:52.440
let's be honest here. The board
is frightening. They are hard to

562
00:41:52.440 --> 00:41:59.559
fight and in this episode of Q
who watching it again, I had goosebumps.

563
00:41:59.599 --> 00:42:01.639
I don't know if it's because I
knew what was coming with with this

564
00:42:01.840 --> 00:42:07.480
with this villain, but the just
the the the you can feel it in

565
00:42:07.480 --> 00:42:08.679
the air, Am I right?
Do you guys get that, like when

566
00:42:08.679 --> 00:42:13.639
when they're when they're discovering the Borg
for the first time, you can just

567
00:42:13.840 --> 00:42:16.639
feel it in the air of this
crew is in a position they should not

568
00:42:16.760 --> 00:42:21.360
be in right now. You know
they should have not met the Borg,

569
00:42:21.400 --> 00:42:23.639
and Guynan even says that, you
know, you, guys, you know

570
00:42:23.639 --> 00:42:25.599
you shouldn't have You shouldn't have been
here, you should have met them.

571
00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:30.079
And that leads up to some of
the great scenes between Guynan and Q that

572
00:42:30.159 --> 00:42:35.719
we see in this episode that are
just phenomenal acting. Between John Delancy and

573
00:42:35.719 --> 00:42:39.599
Whoopi Goldberg. Whyne you mentioned earlier
on how good Whoopy was in Guyan,

574
00:42:39.800 --> 00:42:44.440
but she does it again here.
She proves Scott, I think it was

575
00:42:44.480 --> 00:42:46.719
you who said you love Gunhan.
Who's her your favorite character in Star Trek.

576
00:42:47.079 --> 00:42:52.719
You can see it here on her
bringing her a talent to this role

577
00:42:52.559 --> 00:42:55.599
as Guynan, and she senses it. You see that in the scene towards

578
00:42:55.599 --> 00:43:00.119
the beginning, she senses something's wrong, something's going on, and just so

579
00:43:00.280 --> 00:43:02.639
much build up in this episode.
I was jealous when I saw you got

580
00:43:02.639 --> 00:43:07.480
this. I'm like, God,
dang it, Star But it gives us

581
00:43:07.519 --> 00:43:09.280
all the chance to talk about it, and I don't want to. I

582
00:43:09.280 --> 00:43:13.599
don't want to halg the microphone to
a guy speak speaks. You said it

583
00:43:13.719 --> 00:43:15.760
right there. This is a build
up, and that is what this entire

584
00:43:15.880 --> 00:43:21.559
episode is. Q is giving the
the Enterprise a taste of what's to come.

585
00:43:21.679 --> 00:43:25.159
And that is exactly what the producers
are giving us as viewers. They

586
00:43:25.159 --> 00:43:28.880
were giving they're giving us a taste
of what's to come. We never knew

587
00:43:28.880 --> 00:43:32.320
at the time, but now in
hindsight looking back, uh, this it

588
00:43:32.519 --> 00:43:37.039
just you can just feel it in
the atmosphere, you knowing that you know,

589
00:43:37.119 --> 00:43:42.000
here we are seeing the beginning of
the rest of the next generation history.

590
00:43:43.239 --> 00:43:46.920
Yeah, there's a there's a great, a great standoff between Q and

591
00:43:47.199 --> 00:43:52.239
Guymon. They kind of trade,
you know. Jean Gray Magneto hand gestures,

592
00:43:52.400 --> 00:43:57.280
right, Yeah, she keeps Q
at bay. She presents Q with

593
00:43:57.360 --> 00:44:02.039
somebody who's a foil, if not
a threat, and which is fascinating and

594
00:44:04.679 --> 00:44:10.679
the tension and the build up from
our core mission is to explore the universe,

595
00:44:12.360 --> 00:44:15.039
seek out new life, new civilizations. Well, here's one right in

596
00:44:15.039 --> 00:44:22.000
front of us, but an expert
who has seen this species wipe out or

597
00:44:22.079 --> 00:44:27.360
scatter her species across the universe to
saying if I were you, i'd start

598
00:44:27.360 --> 00:44:31.440
going back now, don't be curious, don't study. But they can't help

599
00:44:31.440 --> 00:44:38.079
it, so it's kind of the
danger of doing so, proving ques point

600
00:44:38.079 --> 00:44:44.760
to a certain degree. But absolutely
the quiet and the slow build up of

601
00:44:44.840 --> 00:44:49.599
this juggernaut of a species. They
don't really say much, they disregard them,

602
00:44:50.119 --> 00:44:53.679
and they're relentless, like as soon
as they start chasing the Enterprise,

603
00:44:55.599 --> 00:45:00.880
there's no stopping, there's no slowing
down. So one of the things that

604
00:45:00.960 --> 00:45:07.480
was a little interesting is that I
know there was a we've already talked about

605
00:45:07.480 --> 00:45:09.199
season one, so I guess I
can do spoilers. There was a certain

606
00:45:09.280 --> 00:45:15.360
episode from I think it was a
conspiracy from season one that was supposed to

607
00:45:15.440 --> 00:45:22.199
set up kind of that slug parasite
race was somehow related to the board,

608
00:45:22.480 --> 00:45:24.960
like they were sending a signal out
to take the board, get the board

609
00:45:24.960 --> 00:45:30.920
back into the quadrant. There's a
almost a throwaway line from Data where he

610
00:45:31.000 --> 00:45:36.760
says, we're seeing this planet where
roads are still intact, but the entire

611
00:45:36.840 --> 00:45:39.480
cities have been kind of scooped off
of the face of the planet, similar

612
00:45:39.480 --> 00:45:44.960
to what we saw near the neutral
zone. Now that was in the season

613
00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:50.440
finale neutral zone. Yes, So
does that mean that the board were in

614
00:45:50.480 --> 00:45:53.119
the neutral zone or is there some
way that that's been kind of retconned out.

615
00:45:53.440 --> 00:45:59.199
No, that's an actual direct connection
to this episode. The original It

616
00:45:59.320 --> 00:46:01.400
still was part of the original plans
at the time. They hadn't written q

617
00:46:01.599 --> 00:46:06.199
who yet, but it fits,
it fits right in the they went with

618
00:46:06.239 --> 00:46:10.079
it. And because we see in
this episode and then we also see later

619
00:46:10.280 --> 00:46:15.480
in the next season in Best of
Both Worlds, the connection between them was

620
00:46:15.480 --> 00:46:19.760
wasn't the original plan The FARRINGI was
supposed to be the main villain for the

621
00:46:19.800 --> 00:46:22.880
Star Trek Nixtiration crew. They became
off, they became too comical. Then

622
00:46:22.880 --> 00:46:25.599
they're like, we we can't,
we can't do this, and that's where

623
00:46:25.639 --> 00:46:29.480
they leaned in and started creating the
board. Yeah. And this was also

624
00:46:29.480 --> 00:46:32.440
supposed to be a two part episode, the up of their episode called Time

625
00:46:35.400 --> 00:46:37.440
Times Squared, which I think aired
a couple of seasons before. This was

626
00:46:37.440 --> 00:46:42.440
actually supposed to be the part first
part, and then during the rewriting stage,

627
00:46:42.440 --> 00:46:45.639
they decided to split the two episodes
and u uh not connect them.

628
00:46:45.920 --> 00:46:52.800
Yeah. This episode won two Emmy
Awards Outstanding sound mixing and outstanding sound editing,

629
00:46:52.880 --> 00:46:57.480
which it well deserved. And when
I found interesting, director Rob Bowman

630
00:46:57.719 --> 00:47:04.159
voices the board, M I didn't
know that. Yeah, so yeah cool.

631
00:47:04.320 --> 00:47:07.039
No phenomenal episode listeners out there.
I hope this is at the top

632
00:47:07.039 --> 00:47:09.079
of your list. For one.
Can you can tell the love the three

633
00:47:09.079 --> 00:47:14.239
of us have for this episode and
anybody can give it. You cannot skip

634
00:47:14.280 --> 00:47:16.960
this one. It is super important
of what's coming up in the next season

635
00:47:17.000 --> 00:47:21.519
and then beyond that, believe me, trust me, even the motion pictures,

636
00:47:21.599 --> 00:47:24.320
everything all the way up to last
year, the most recent Star Trek.

637
00:47:24.320 --> 00:47:29.599
You gotta see this one. Yep. Absolutely super important. All right,

638
00:47:29.639 --> 00:47:34.320
well, we're gonna move on to
the ninth pick the Emissary. The

639
00:47:34.440 --> 00:47:38.119
Enterprise is sent to certain coordinates with
unknown orders from Starfleet. While en route,

640
00:47:38.199 --> 00:47:42.400
an admiral is in contact, advising
the card and crew that they will

641
00:47:42.440 --> 00:47:45.960
be meeting in emissary who will instruct
film on what is needed. Upon arriving,

642
00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:51.719
the Beam aboard a probe to discover
a half human half Klingon known as

643
00:47:51.840 --> 00:47:54.480
Klar, of which Warf is not
pleased to see. It is discovered that

644
00:47:54.519 --> 00:47:59.519
a Klingon battlecruiser whose crew was prosen
in time from when they were at war

645
00:47:59.599 --> 00:48:02.880
with a feed is coming back online. It is up to Wharf and the

646
00:48:02.920 --> 00:48:07.360
crew of the Enterprise to come to
a solution to stop this battle cruiser and

647
00:48:07.440 --> 00:48:10.519
possibly starting a new war. This. You know, this episode really gets

648
00:48:10.559 --> 00:48:15.400
to explore you know, Michael Dorn
in his performance, especially you know his

649
00:48:15.400 --> 00:48:21.800
history with Klar. You know,
I love the scenes between those two,

650
00:48:21.920 --> 00:48:25.679
you know, the backstory and stuff
like that. It is just Michael Dorn

651
00:48:25.719 --> 00:48:29.800
as Wharf is just phenomenal, and
you're getting to see him explore more.

652
00:48:30.400 --> 00:48:34.960
And she She's a fun character.
Here we get Susie Clinkton getting playing Klar.

653
00:48:35.599 --> 00:48:39.159
It's it's interesting to see a half
human, half Klingon, especially one

654
00:48:39.199 --> 00:48:45.079
that has pretty much shut, you
know, denounced the Klingon ways. She's

655
00:48:45.119 --> 00:48:49.679
she more embraces her human side,
which is something we've we've never seen before.

656
00:48:49.800 --> 00:48:52.800
You know, Uh, Wharf,
being raised by humans, has pretty

657
00:48:52.880 --> 00:48:57.000
much kind of embraced his Klingon side. So here we get the exact opposite.

658
00:48:57.079 --> 00:49:00.400
Yet opposites attract, so you know, they make a great couple.

659
00:49:00.960 --> 00:49:06.079
I like her and I like the
episode. Yeah, we get Poker again.

660
00:49:06.119 --> 00:49:07.880
By the way, I want to
point that out. Yeah, and

661
00:49:07.880 --> 00:49:12.920
in the great use of the holidack, Yes, yes, for exercise,

662
00:49:13.000 --> 00:49:15.639
and I think it's used in a
great way. I love the effects of

663
00:49:15.719 --> 00:49:22.639
the the the opponents that are in
Worf's calisthenics program and they eventually go to

664
00:49:22.719 --> 00:49:27.599
level two. I say, as
a happily married man, I've I've had

665
00:49:27.639 --> 00:49:36.679
a crush on Klar since this episode
just so so fantastic, such a breakthrough

666
00:49:36.760 --> 00:49:43.559
performance. Aside from being gorgeous her
her performance, like you said, Wayne,

667
00:49:43.639 --> 00:49:49.960
is kind of a lens for the
Klingon culture. She's a Cleon ambassador.

668
00:49:50.079 --> 00:49:54.960
So clearly she's respected and revered by
Playon's is somethody that they listen to

669
00:49:55.199 --> 00:49:59.760
and you know, pay attention when
Kaylor has something to say, we'll see

670
00:49:59.760 --> 00:50:04.840
like up in a future season.
It's almost like she has kind of that

671
00:50:04.840 --> 00:50:08.559
that Han solo charisma. Oh you
know the happening. But she's like,

672
00:50:08.880 --> 00:50:12.320
I mean, come on, like, there's this thing we got to do.

673
00:50:12.519 --> 00:50:15.639
Really do we have to do that? Because they've been doing that for

674
00:50:15.760 --> 00:50:19.760
centuries and I don't believe in it, but whatever, you know, not

675
00:50:19.920 --> 00:50:22.960
making fun of it, not scoffing
at it, but just saying I'm not

676
00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:25.920
going to let my life be ruled
by these traditions that we want to go

677
00:50:27.000 --> 00:50:32.079
through, which is a great you
know, parallel to Wharf's journey with this,

678
00:50:32.519 --> 00:50:37.440
right, things that are going to
things that are happening to him,

679
00:50:37.519 --> 00:50:45.039
things that are going to happen to
him, and how he kind of processes

680
00:50:45.119 --> 00:50:52.280
that in being Klingon who is raised
by humans. There's so much that's just

681
00:50:52.559 --> 00:50:57.760
absolutely fascinating about her character, and
I love what it does for Wharf's character

682
00:50:57.920 --> 00:51:02.119
to advance his growth, but also
kind of giving us another way of looking

683
00:51:02.119 --> 00:51:06.800
at the Klingon culture, which we
haven't seen much aside from what we talked

684
00:51:06.800 --> 00:51:08.519
about before. A matter of honor. Yeah, and not not to give

685
00:51:08.519 --> 00:51:10.880
away to me spoilers, so I
gotta be careful of what I say here.

686
00:51:10.880 --> 00:51:15.480
But the problem solving they have towards
the end that Wharf comes up with,

687
00:51:15.559 --> 00:51:22.599
I thought, yeah, really cool. Yeah, you see some some

688
00:51:22.599 --> 00:51:28.559
some ice in the veins when there's
some some tense moments. So yeah,

689
00:51:28.599 --> 00:51:31.599
all right, Well we're gonna move
on to our tenth and final pick,

690
00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:37.639
Scott, What have we got?
This one's a little tough because there's one

691
00:51:37.719 --> 00:51:44.760
performance by one actor who does a
great job, but it's so grating the

692
00:51:44.760 --> 00:51:46.880
personality of this character it's hard to
say, like, yeah, watch this

693
00:51:46.920 --> 00:51:51.239
one because you're gonna be like,
oh, oh, don't like this is

694
00:51:51.280 --> 00:51:53.679
called peak performance. So the best
of our crew is put to the test

695
00:51:53.760 --> 00:51:58.320
in more ways than one. What
begins is a war game that splits their

696
00:51:58.360 --> 00:52:02.320
crew in two and across two ships
quickly becomes a bigger threat when the FERANGI

697
00:52:02.400 --> 00:52:07.039
think the game is real. As
a side narrative, the orchestrator of this

698
00:52:07.119 --> 00:52:10.079
war game puts data skills to the
test in one of the toughest games in

699
00:52:10.119 --> 00:52:15.719
the galaxy. There's a slight spoiler
there. Yeah, granted, granted,

700
00:52:15.960 --> 00:52:20.400
but you can't get around it.
It's a tension of what this introduces.

701
00:52:20.480 --> 00:52:23.480
There's there's a great use I'll go
ahead and name you know Roy Brocksmith.

702
00:52:23.920 --> 00:52:29.519
Oh plays the games Master and oh
his performance. It's it's one of those

703
00:52:29.599 --> 00:52:34.360
characters where it's like you do such
a great job of being unlikable. It's

704
00:52:34.400 --> 00:52:38.119
like, you know, respect the
actor hate the character. When he first

705
00:52:38.159 --> 00:52:40.519
came on the bridge, he's like, look at this. Weaslely of a

706
00:52:40.639 --> 00:52:45.800
guy so much, so much,
And there's already been a little bit of

707
00:52:45.840 --> 00:52:52.079
the you know, I feel like
one of the things that's hard with doctor

708
00:52:52.119 --> 00:52:55.760
Pulaski is kind of the side eyed
judgment stance that she seems to have,

709
00:52:57.440 --> 00:53:01.280
right, that there's not always the
best chemistry, the best level of respect

710
00:53:01.360 --> 00:53:07.119
with you know, data, data
kind of things. So when the games

711
00:53:07.119 --> 00:53:12.719
Master comes on, there's a similar
like, you know, always kind of

712
00:53:12.800 --> 00:53:15.880
judging, always kind of looking down
at the characters, and and it's just

713
00:53:15.079 --> 00:53:22.239
it's pristling. But there's there's some
great I love the war game aspect of

714
00:53:22.280 --> 00:53:28.079
it and how you see you know, it's like a scrimmage, right,

715
00:53:28.400 --> 00:53:34.079
and they're picking their teams and who
gets who. Raker certainly stacks the deck,

716
00:53:35.400 --> 00:53:43.159
but that a little bit. Yeah, there's some some Wesley cleverness in

717
00:53:43.199 --> 00:53:45.920
there that I'm like, is that
is there a flag on that one?

718
00:53:47.320 --> 00:53:52.960
But yeah, and then uh,
it's it's another place where we see an

719
00:53:52.960 --> 00:53:59.000
exploration of Data's development right as a
character. Again that that stoicism where he

720
00:53:59.039 --> 00:54:02.800
should have you know, an emotional
response. Nope, totally doesn't end.

721
00:54:02.800 --> 00:54:07.079
It's a great effect. Yeah,
this is another episode. This is like

722
00:54:07.119 --> 00:54:09.480
the roy Allens. You love it, you hate it, but it's it's

723
00:54:09.480 --> 00:54:13.280
a fun episode. It's it's got
some great elements. I like it.

724
00:54:13.320 --> 00:54:17.880
I liked it ever since the fir
staring. I think Data, Prince Finder's

725
00:54:17.920 --> 00:54:22.800
fantastic, Jonathan fix are all great, fantastic. Plus you got we could

726
00:54:22.800 --> 00:54:25.440
see the Fringia again and they're they've
been slightly redesigned, not quite to where

727
00:54:25.480 --> 00:54:29.679
we'll we'll see them in the future, but they're they're they're working on it.

728
00:54:29.679 --> 00:54:31.599
It's it's neat to see them again. What another thing I love about

729
00:54:31.599 --> 00:54:35.400
this episode. We always talk We've
been talking a lot of this episode about

730
00:54:35.440 --> 00:54:38.719
growth for these characters. You really
see the respect that you get between the

731
00:54:38.760 --> 00:54:45.440
Card and Riker in this episode.
Yes, you know when you know Serna

732
00:54:45.559 --> 00:54:50.280
is you know, putting down Riker
the cars like stop, basically puts him

733
00:54:50.320 --> 00:54:53.480
in a place right then and there
about you know you listen here about Riker,

734
00:54:53.920 --> 00:54:58.199
you know he you know the respect
he showed for him right then and

735
00:54:58.239 --> 00:55:01.760
there was just shows how much their
characters have already developed, but where they're

736
00:55:01.800 --> 00:55:06.239
going in the respect they are going
to have for one another. But what

737
00:55:06.280 --> 00:55:09.000
I also like is the fact on
how much fun Jonathan Frakes was having or

738
00:55:09.159 --> 00:55:14.599
I should say Riker was having on
that broken down ship that they had to

739
00:55:14.679 --> 00:55:17.360
repair to get get it gone,
including Jordy. I mean, you could

740
00:55:17.360 --> 00:55:21.320
just see the smiles on their face
of like, we get to do this,

741
00:55:21.559 --> 00:55:24.079
they get our budt kick who cares? You know. I loved it.

742
00:55:25.320 --> 00:55:30.239
Yeah, Yeah, fantastic episode.
But all right, so gentlemen,

743
00:55:30.360 --> 00:55:36.840
we have talked about our top ten
episodes of season two, so let's go

744
00:55:36.880 --> 00:55:38.840
back and do a little bit what
we did last season where we talked about

745
00:55:38.840 --> 00:55:43.880
our best moment for Riker. This
time we're going to talk about our best

746
00:55:43.960 --> 00:55:47.480
moment or best episode whatever you want
to do for Data this season. Wayne,

747
00:55:47.559 --> 00:55:51.119
what do you have? Well,
it's going right back to what we

748
00:55:51.199 --> 00:55:54.559
just talked about in peak performance.
I love it when when Data is beaten

749
00:55:54.639 --> 00:56:01.039
by Karam in the game of Stratagema, the scene where a card basically has

750
00:56:01.119 --> 00:56:04.760
to tell him, you know,
suck it up and get back to work.

751
00:56:05.679 --> 00:56:09.239
I love that. You know,
Data is so devastated, so that's

752
00:56:09.280 --> 00:56:14.280
not really good, that's emotional.
But he's confused that how can he lose

753
00:56:14.320 --> 00:56:17.880
He's a computer he can't lose,
and and and it almost forces him to

754
00:56:17.880 --> 00:56:22.960
shut down the cards like, you
know, you can't just let things like

755
00:56:22.000 --> 00:56:25.000
this, let defeats get to you. You have to you have to get

756
00:56:25.039 --> 00:56:29.880
back up, and you have to
to get right back into it and try

757
00:56:29.880 --> 00:56:34.119
again. And it's a great lesson
that learned from Data and a great great

758
00:56:34.119 --> 00:56:36.960
moment between him and a card.
And that's my choice. Good choice,

759
00:56:37.000 --> 00:56:42.199
Scott, what about you? The
game is a foot every every part of

760
00:56:42.239 --> 00:56:47.480
his performance is Sherlock Holmes from the
Data perspective, from bet Spider's perspective.

761
00:56:47.559 --> 00:56:53.559
You know. The the breadth that
we get from both is one of my

762
00:56:53.599 --> 00:56:58.239
favorite things. I love him getting
into character, the use of different voice

763
00:56:59.119 --> 00:57:01.559
inflections and things like that. That
stands out to me. For me,

764
00:57:01.639 --> 00:57:06.559
it's the kizowait Man. Brnce Speiner
has proved us already in how good he

765
00:57:06.559 --> 00:57:09.960
does playing his brother Law and just
that on and off switch that we talked

766
00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:13.920
about last episode where he's able to
just turn on, you know, being

767
00:57:14.039 --> 00:57:17.480
Data and then completely turning that switch
and becoming Law. Here you see him

768
00:57:17.480 --> 00:57:22.199
do the same thing but completely somebody
else. We get to see the character

769
00:57:22.199 --> 00:57:25.840
of doctor Graves played again by way
Morgan Shepherd, but you get to see

770
00:57:25.960 --> 00:57:34.079
Data become that actor. The performance
that he gave us Data. Just Brince

771
00:57:34.079 --> 00:57:37.159
Spyer just goes on with it,
you know, and you feel like you're

772
00:57:37.199 --> 00:57:42.039
watching Doctor Graves. You're not watching
Data. And every scene I don't have

773
00:57:42.039 --> 00:57:45.280
a particular scene because every one woman
in that episode was so good from him

774
00:57:45.480 --> 00:57:49.840
that I can't pick just one.
So I'm saying that whole episode that is

775
00:57:49.880 --> 00:57:53.039
my data episode for this season for
sure. Oh, definitely good choice.

776
00:57:53.239 --> 00:57:58.559
Yeah, all right, So we
are going to talk about next our least

777
00:57:58.800 --> 00:58:01.840
favorite episode. Now, listeners out
there, you may like these episodes that

778
00:58:01.880 --> 00:58:07.719
we choose, but we think otherwise. So Scott, what about you?

779
00:58:07.760 --> 00:58:10.719
What is your least favorite episode of
season two? I know we tossed around

780
00:58:10.760 --> 00:58:15.039
a few things. There's gonna be
a bit of debate to behind the scenes

781
00:58:15.559 --> 00:58:19.760
the one that sticks out to me, and I think there's another that's like,

782
00:58:20.159 --> 00:58:22.400
throw it away, you don't watch
this episode, don't waste your time.

783
00:58:22.719 --> 00:58:28.880
But my vote is for up the
Long Ladder. So I feel like,

784
00:58:29.039 --> 00:58:30.599
you know, we talked last time
about, you know, an episode

785
00:58:30.599 --> 00:58:35.480
that misrepresents cultures in the wrong way, at least in my opinion. I

786
00:58:35.519 --> 00:58:38.840
know that called Mini the actor it
plays transport of Chief Miles O'Brien, one

787
00:58:38.880 --> 00:58:44.400
of my favorite characters in this and
other series, wasn't happy with the depiction

788
00:58:44.519 --> 00:58:49.599
of Irish culture, didn't have a
chance to change the script. He would

789
00:58:49.679 --> 00:58:54.719
later be able to do so in
a Deep Space nine episode If Wishes Were

790
00:58:54.719 --> 00:58:58.519
Horses, where he was able to
kind of steer away from some of those

791
00:58:58.519 --> 00:59:02.599
cliches. But it was it was
I found, it's found. It's uncomfortable

792
00:59:02.639 --> 00:59:07.960
to watch aspects of that episode,
and it just seemed like it felt like

793
00:59:08.000 --> 00:59:12.280
a throwaway to me. But yeah, you're you're right. I mean,

794
00:59:12.559 --> 00:59:15.119
it's not my choice for at least
favored, but it's just it's one of

795
00:59:15.119 --> 00:59:19.320
those episodes you can skip. There's
really no redeeming factor in this episode.

796
00:59:19.360 --> 00:59:22.239
It's it's not worth watching. Yeah, I would agree with you, Scott,

797
00:59:22.239 --> 00:59:25.400
it's good choice. Wayne, Wayne, I think you and I might

798
00:59:25.440 --> 00:59:30.920
agree on this one. But we'll
see. Wayne, what's your It's Unfortunately

799
00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:35.159
it's the season finale. You know
you expect the season and on a strong

800
00:59:35.199 --> 00:59:38.920
point, this isn't it not Shades
of Gray? Yep uh, They just

801
00:59:39.719 --> 00:59:45.239
they ran into a lot of problems
this season. They overspent on on two

802
00:59:45.280 --> 00:59:47.440
of the big episodes, Elementary Your
Data and Q Who and they had no

803
00:59:47.519 --> 00:59:53.000
money left for a finale, so
we got we got this and it's it's

804
00:59:53.280 --> 00:59:57.239
the clip show. I mean it's
either you just just say, you know,

805
00:59:57.360 --> 00:59:59.760
telling any star Trek fan, oh
the clip show, they know exactly

806
00:59:59.760 --> 01:00:01.360
what you when you're talking about.
Yeah, it works for a lot of

807
01:00:01.400 --> 01:00:04.960
shows, you know, Cheers,
did It? Friends? Did It?

808
01:00:05.039 --> 01:00:07.920
Golden Girls? Boy there? Really
well, but those are sitcoms. This

809
01:00:07.079 --> 01:00:12.119
is next generation. We don't need
a clip show, and especially not this

810
01:00:12.239 --> 01:00:15.159
early in this series. I mean, what's there to clip It's very little.

811
01:00:15.960 --> 01:00:19.880
You're basically just showing scenes that you
you watched like less than a year

812
01:00:19.920 --> 01:00:23.760
ago, and for finale come on
now? Yeah, yeah, it doesn't

813
01:00:23.840 --> 01:00:27.920
work. No, I completely agree
with you, Wayne. I did not

814
01:00:28.079 --> 01:00:30.440
like this episode at all. And
when it ended, I'm like that,

815
01:00:30.559 --> 01:00:34.599
wait, wait what that's it?
That's all we get for season two?

816
01:00:34.800 --> 01:00:38.800
That? Yeah. I mean for
a show that was trying to still put

817
01:00:38.920 --> 01:00:42.440
you know, find its place with
the fans, this was not a good

818
01:00:42.440 --> 01:00:44.719
way to end the season. No, I mean, what what is it?

819
01:00:44.800 --> 01:00:49.480
Riker gets struck by what thorn?
Yeah, and he gets infected by

820
01:00:49.519 --> 01:00:52.840
it and he has to go into
the medical Bay, doctor Puleski has to

821
01:00:52.880 --> 01:00:54.559
try and save him. But like, the only guest star in this was

822
01:00:54.559 --> 01:01:00.679
what COLEMANI wasn't it? I think
so for Brian the only one that was

823
01:01:00.719 --> 01:01:04.039
in this except for the clip stuff
obviously, but it's like, no,

824
01:01:04.239 --> 01:01:07.119
this one didn't work at all.
The only good thing and this is a

825
01:01:07.159 --> 01:01:10.239
spoiler, but I'm gonna let it
happen. The only good thing from this

826
01:01:10.280 --> 01:01:17.280
episode is it Pulaski's last. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll be completely

827
01:01:17.280 --> 01:01:22.320
honest. I didn't even watch this
one, whereas the other episodes, I

828
01:01:22.360 --> 01:01:24.039
just kind of brushed up as soon
as I saw it was a clip episode.

829
01:01:24.079 --> 01:01:29.199
Like you mentioned sitcoms that do it
like Friends, it's such a cheat

830
01:01:29.880 --> 01:01:31.559
and you feel like, really,
so I have to sit here for thirty

831
01:01:31.599 --> 01:01:37.400
minutes and there's only like five minutes
of original material, Like yeah, yeah,

832
01:01:37.679 --> 01:01:40.639
it just it doesn't make sense.
It also feels like, for as

833
01:01:40.760 --> 01:01:46.199
much as this series is advancing,
to take so many steps back, just

834
01:01:46.239 --> 01:01:51.119
by the nature of looking back at
clips, it seems like a very very

835
01:01:51.159 --> 01:01:54.559
odd choice. It was a big
mistake. They realized it was a big,

836
01:01:54.599 --> 01:01:58.039
big mistake. They had to have
a choice but to do this and

837
01:01:58.039 --> 01:02:00.480
it's a mistake that they never made
again in the show. Thank god.

838
01:02:00.719 --> 01:02:05.480
Yeah, don't worry though. The
next finale we get is the best finale

839
01:02:05.559 --> 01:02:07.760
of All Star Trek in my opinion, and we will talk about that in

840
01:02:07.800 --> 01:02:12.599
the third episode for sure. Yep, yep, all right, listeners want

841
01:02:12.599 --> 01:02:16.480
to thank everybody for tuning in with
us for our top ten picks. We

842
01:02:16.519 --> 01:02:21.800
always appreciate you listening. Wayne Scott, thank you so much for joining me

843
01:02:21.840 --> 01:02:24.199
on the bridge. As always,
thank you ys. Great to be here,

844
01:02:24.360 --> 01:02:29.480
absolutely haling. Frequencies are always open
for you to share your thoughts and

845
01:02:29.599 --> 01:02:31.960
questions on social yeah, and let
us know what you think and share your

846
01:02:31.960 --> 01:02:35.800
favorites that we didn't mention. You
might get a mention in a future show.

847
01:02:36.119 --> 01:02:38.559
Email us at a film by Podcast
at gmail dot com. Find us

848
01:02:38.599 --> 01:02:44.360
online at a filmpi podcast dot com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and

849
01:02:44.400 --> 01:02:49.280
Twitter, and if you're looking for
more exclusive content and swag, since in

850
01:02:49.360 --> 01:02:53.280
Latinum our way Patreon. See you
next time for another episode of Phasers.

851
01:02:53.519 --> 01:03:06.360
Set the Sun