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

0:00 This episode is dedicated to Gary Graham, who recently lost this month. He played Vulcan Ambassador Soball on Star Trek Enterprise, as well as many other various roles throughout Star Trek including Voyager as well as the Alien Nation TV series. Thank you, Gary for all that you've done for the Trek world and beyond space the Final Frontier. Join us for a bold conversation our prime directive to recap our favorite Star Trek shows, both new and old, to engage in debate about all things Trek. Prepare to energize with Phasers Set to Stun.

0:54 Hello everyone, and welcome back to Phasers Set to Stun. Will recontinue to show our love for everything Star Trek in this ongoing series from a film by podcast which focuses on every quadrant of the expanding universe of Trek A covering television, animation, movies, directors, and more. Plotting the course, as always, is your Core Trek crew. I'm David Burns, I'm Scott Hoffman, and I'm Wayne Whited. In this episode, we continue our discussion on what we like to call Starter Trek. A curated episode list for first time viewers. This spoiler free list focuses on the top ten episodes from each season for people like our producer Jeff as a great place to start with starter Treks.

1:36 We simplify the menu with choicecotts of Prime Trek that gives people a taste of each season. After listening to this episode, you can find the course we're plotting for you with our list in the description below. But before we begin, let's listen to what our producer Jeff has to say about some of the episodes we chose from season one. Guys, ever since you've known me, you knew I was a casual Star Trek fan. I was fond of the original series and I like the movies, but that's pretty much where my Star Trek fandom ended. Last year, however, you showed me that the world of Star Trek continues to be incredible with shows like Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, and I simply wanted more. I never thought I'd have enough time to invest in it. But with your curated list, these starter Treks, as you call them, I feel like I'm gonna warp through all seven seasons of the Next Generation in no time. I love these characters. I absolutely love this cast and I'm excited to see where their adventure takes them.

2:37 You guys are doing a fantastic job. Please keep plotting the course because I, for one, plan to stay engaged. Thanks for that, Jeff, and for you listeners. If you like to comment or add what you think are the top ten, please do so so because we would love to hear from you. Scott, what are we discussing today? We're diving into season two and we're going to notice that the seasons are getting more and more difficult to find out. What are those favorites? What are the top ten that somebody who's coming in fresh or somebody who's coming back to it really needs to watch. So it's an interesting kind of factor that we're taking into account with this top ten. Yeah, things things are beginning to change for the better, I might add, it's getting harder to choose those top ten and the biggest one for me, Riker has his beard. Yeah, finally, Yeah, there were a lot of changes, a lot of alterations to the show for this season. You know, some of the mistakes from season one they corrected, others maybe not so much. Not quite yet. Yep, almost there, almost there, Yeah, they're almost there. Well, this season was hugely affected by the rider's strike of nineteen eighty eight. We talked a little bit about that last season that it ran from March to August of that year, and it's really blamed in the drop of quality for this season, which I don't agree. I think the quality actually went up in the writing, but it delayed the start of the season by about two months and it resulted in a shorter season. They lost four episodes, dropping the down run

4:12 amount down to twenty two episodes, and there were a lot of behind the scenes problems there too going on. Gene Roddenberry was still in hands on control of the series and he promoted one of his writers, Maurice Hurley, who wrote A Heart of Glory and Heid and Q, to the showrunner, which was if in hindsight, probably a mistake because he alienated a lot of the writers that were working this season and many of them quit, like Tracy Tormy, who was a huge poll for the series, and because of all the rewrites that Hurley did, he walked out. And he also talked Roddenberry into firing Gates McFadden, which I think we'll all agree was a big mistake, huge, yes, mistake Yeah, he just he had a lot of there was a lot of behind the scenes animosity between the two, and he created the character of doctor Pulaski of course, to replace him. Plus there there were other arguments. Rodden Berry and and another writer that he brought in from the original series, David Gerald, were also fighting behind the scenes to Gerald had written a script for this season called a Blood and Fire was a big one. It was gonna be a really big story for the season that Paramount won. It specifically asked for this. It was commissioned to be written by him, but because roden Berry there were there were a lot of things going on and Roddenberry's lawyer didn't like the script, so he convinced Roddenberry to drop

5:42 the script, and so Gerald left. It wasn't until the end of the season when when Hurley and Roddenberry left, that things started to smooth out and a lot of the mistakes that were made were corrected. Yeah, you can see that too, with even three coming up, which obviously we're going to talk later, but yeah, you definitely can see those things are starting to get smoothed over. You. Yeah, all right, Well we've got we're gonna go ahead and get diving in to these episodes. We are going to be talking about them in order as they were aired on television. So to get us started, we are going to be talking about our first pick, Wayne, What is it? Well, the first pick is the season premiere, and that is The Child which the original script was written by Jaron Summers and John Pouble and this script was rewritten for the Next Generation by Maurice Hurley and directed by Rob Bowman. The Enterprise is preparing to transport plague specimens with the hope of devising a cure to an epidemic. On Richelli's Deanna Troy discovers that she is inexplicably pregnant, and when she gives birth to what appears to be a normal bet as a boy just a few days later, the Card and the others deal with specimens growing out of control and believe that the two strange occurrences have to be connected. Now, this is an odd script.

7:00 There's a lot of backstory for this one, but I'm going to kind of summarize it really quick. Because of the strike, there was a real quick rush to get scripts, and there wasn't enough time to write all these scripts in such a short time. So this script was actually pulled from Paramount vaults because it was originally written back in nineteen seventy seven for a series that was planned called Star Trek Phase two. This was going to be a new series featuring the original crew on their second five year mission. All the original cast was coming back extupt for Leonard Nimoy, and they had new characters coming in such as character I Lea and new first Officer Decker. The two events led to the cancelation of that series. Paramounts was planning a new network and they just decided not to do it. And then also Star Wars, which was a big thing, which made Paramount realize they didn't want a new TV series, they wanted a movie. But a lot of people don't realize how close this series got to be made with all the scripts were written, costumes were made, casting was done, directors were set sets were built. Many of those sets were actually reused for the next generation. We see a lot of them from State from Phages two being used. And The Child was going to be the fifth episode of that series and it took very little rewrite. The originally script had Aileiah having the child and the problems coming from that, Maurice Hurley went rewrote it so that it's Troy and other than that, it's basically

8:33 the same. This episode also introduced Gynan Captain Pulaski. It's got a beautiful visual effects opening. I love that opening, with an incredible score by Dennis McCarthy, and it introduced a new set ten to Ford. The production was allowed to have one large permanent set new to the studio each year, and this was the one that was built. Yeah, it's a quite a way to start a season, when't you agree, Getting one of the main characters pregnant right away and it's like, okay, what's going on with this? But where are we going? And then I would absolutely love the reaction with the reaction that Riker gave when they were in the meeting room when he found out for the first time that she was pregnant. Yeah, there's definitely some weirdness here, and I mean, you know, it's it's one that when you when you look around, it's on a lot of top ten worst episodes, and you know, when we're when we're going through this list, I mean, in my opinion, you know, there's some problematic things here as far as you know the nature of how she winds up with this child and the the trauma of having to kind of put her through that. But the reasons I think it's important. It it finally gives Troy a spotlight episode.

9:56 Yeah, and it does knowing what happens with her character way off into the future into more recently released series. It's kind of an interesting lens to look at, you know, one of her first experiences with family and with motherhood. I think it's also just useful to see this episode because of the introduction of Guynan, who is one of my favorite characters in Star Trek, and uh doctor Pulaski, who is not one of my favorite characters in Star Trek. But it can be kind of jarring, to say the least, to jump right in and not know, you know, the context of like who are these people and you know, when did they when did they come in, especially with doctor Pulaski. Yeah, and I think a lot of that's got to do with with the problems that were said behind the scenes. I actually I like this episode. I agree it's probably not the best way to open the season, but it's still a good episode. And you mentioned it, uh, you know, they've corrected one of the very first mistakes that I felt was the problem during the first season, and then that's starting to spot likes each one of the characters. Give them an episode, uh to to shine and Troy hardly had anything to do during the first season, and it was nice to see an episode with her being the star of the story.

11:11 Yeah, this is I know. Marina Surtis does not like this episode. She says this is her least favorite episode of the entire series. But there's a lot of stuff going on in this one that that's why we have to pick this one, because you're right. If this was not in the top ten and we were telling people, you know, don't don't watch this one, they're gonna be lost. Yeah, yeah, you know, there's just too much going on. You've got to watch this episode. I mean, Jordie LaForge is promoted. We learned that in this episode. You know, yep, this is the first time that we see Wharf with his baldric, you know. So there's a lot of stuff going on in this episode that you know, for a first time well watcher, they need to see this stuff being introduced for sure. And you're right that that also brings up a few other things. There are some other changes too. You know, Wharf is now had of security yep, with his yellow uniform. We have Jordie, he's now the moved to chief engineer. He's got his yellow uniform.

11:58 Now, you know, there's there's a lot of changes, and it would be really it would be very jarring if you just suddenly walk everybody's wearing different uniforms and have different positions. This is a good episode to start with. Yeah, absolutely getting reactions through all these introductions and changes, right, reactions from the crew and how they're kind of responding to it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, no doubt. All right, Well let's go on to our second pick, Scott. Yeah, this is a little bit more fun with elementary dear Data data and jority share. Holideck adventure Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, only to find that the mysteries aren't enough of a challenge. But when the holid Deck creates a program to match their wits, they get much more than they bargain for. I can't say too much more, no, but there is an introduction of a character that just has a fascinating background that has to do with the Holideck. We didn't quite talk about the big goodbye in the last top ten this one, this one is a great way to feature the holid deck, not only in terms of how people use it, but the capabilities of that holideck and kind of the implications of that, specifically things like the safety protocols that they have to put in place, so what if you're on a holideck and somebody shoots you? Things like that. I thought it was a fascinating dive into Data and Jordie is a great look at their friendship, I think, and their relationship. You know, how Jordie

13:28 is helping him in his progression, but how Data is genuinely, you know, one of Jordie's best friends that has a lot of implications in the future. Yeah, and watching this series, this is like one of many holiday episodes that you're going to see over the series. But you know, you hit on a key point that I definitely wanted to make sure, you know, everybody was aware of them to talk about. And that's the Jordan and Data's friendship. We've already started seeing that blossomsalm, you know, in season one, but this one really focuses on that and you can see that how much they are connecting to one another. And again, Brince Spiner is just brilliant in his role. Yes, yes, And and a funny fact about this, the producers actually got in trouble for this episode. They didn't realize that Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle was trademarked, and yeah, Paramount kind of had to scold them and said, don't do it again. So this is why we don't see them go back to the Sherlock Holmes world for a while. They do eventually, We'll get to that eventually, but that's the reason why we don't see it because it could have been a yearly thing, but not until some behind the scenes legal problems were smoothed over at the Big Oops. Yeah. Along those lines, there's actually an interesting parallel that I found between why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did made a certain choice with the Sherlock Holms series that has kind of a parallel to this episode. But I can't talk about that without spoiling it, so no, no spoiler enough, no spoilers. One of the one of the things that really love is not giving

15:01 away anything is when data they went into the Hollow deck for them, you know, to relax and you know, just solve a mystery. And Data just quickly solved it with no problems, and Jordi basically just threw his hands up, I'm done, you know, in program and get ready to walk out, and Data is like, what's wrong, you know, And then Jordi had to explain to him, Look, you know, we're here to relax, enjoy this, you know, actually solve the mystery. You're not doing that, you know. And of course this is eventually what leads them to get into trouble with the hollow deck. But hey, I really like that. That was a cool scene. Yes, it is. There is also kind of a minor detail you're going to see with kind of the juxtaposition of Jordy and Data's friendship and doctor Pulaski and Data's relationship and you know how Jordie regards him as you know, a life form, es sentient life form, a friend and a person like anybody else. But doctor Pulaski has a very kind of almost a one dimensional kind of view of Data, which is very friend frustrating. Yeah, that's the way the character is written. But Wowdato, yeah me too. I'm sure there had to be a take where Brent was like, it's data, it's data, get it right? I mean, yeah, that just irked me when I heard it again, I'm like the last yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, Well let's move on. So our third pick is this skis away Man. To know him is to love him, is to know him. Doctor Ira Graves is a

16:33 brilliant scientist living with his assistant working on research very important to the Federation. The card in the Enterprise are sent to Doctor Grey's at the request of an urgent matter. However, before they can arrive, another urgent matter occurs, force supid card to make a decision to send a landing party to meet with doctor graves needs, while the rest of the group go to help a ship desperately in need of help. It is discovered that doctor Graves is dying, but before he expires, manages to put his consciousness into data, which causes disturbing consequences this episode. Here Guys continues to prove Brent Spiner's b brilliance. Range lects his acting muscles in this episode beyond more than we have seen, and we have seen quite a bit of him doing this, but this episode, wow, does it really shine. But another character actor I would like to point out is William Morgan Shepherd, who we get a little bit of him in this episode as Doctor Graves before he expires, but many of them are going to know a couple years later he'll be in Star Trek Undiscovered Country as a character. And of course Wayne, we would know him from Gettysburg, you know, he was in that as well, and not to mention numerous other shows, movies and stuff that mister Shepherd was in, including Doctor Who and there you go, including Doctor Who and the new Star Trek movie The CHRISTI yes, yes, The little amount of time that Shepherd is on

18:03 this episode just was brilliant and set forth what we're going to see in data. It was just a great performance on his part, and Brent Spinder just picked it up right where he left off and truly shine in this episode. Definitely. Yeah, yeah, yep. You can see how he does a great job of emulating Shepherd's performance yep, right and following that lead. And it's we're going to get a lot more of that range from Brent Speiner in this series and we're the better for it. It's fantastic. Yeah, absolutely, I know one of the things I found interesting too, was when they were running that test on Data. You know, we get to see images of Tasha y Are, which we're gonna get to see that get in and later another episode we're going to talk about. But Dexter Remick and Project Genesis are displayed during that test. If you guys didn't pick that up, yeah, but I thought that was really neat. There's a scene in here where Troy and Jordi go are invited to Data's room. If you guys know what see I'm talking about. Towards the beginning, they go to his quarters and when they enter they see what is on his face. Well, apparently Marina Curtis was laughing so hard at the end of the scene that she had to leave. So when she leaves in that scene, that was really Marina SERTs having to leave because she was laughing so hard that she couldn't control it.

19:27 So the good thing is Brent Spiner LeVar Burton just kept it rolling. They never broke character, allowing the scene that we see to make it into the episode. I thought that's incredible. Yeah, that's fantastic. It's a great scene. I want to watch that again, just just knowing that makes you appreciate that much more and the professionalism of those actors that they were able to just keep rolling and not break. You know, that just shows her talent for sure. Yeah. Well, in just that it's that infusion of comedy. It's not meant to be like, hey, the jokes are coming, you know, like Star Trek does a great job of that, specifically with Next Generation, and you know, knowing that they were able to get through that and then keep that footage is is great. That's a great behind the scenes. Yep, yep, absolutely, go ahead. I was just gonna say, we also get Susie Plaxon, one of my favorite character actors in this series. We'll talk about a little bit later. In this role.

20:30 She's Lieutenant Selar Vulcan doctor comes back in this series and several other series, and I think just as great job all over. Oh it's interesting because it's it's a great character. I'm surprising they never brought this character back. They did in a lot of like books and comics and stuff, but in the series, this is the only time we ever see her, and it would have been interesting for her to be around the sick Bay. Maybe another character with Doctor Krusher. Yeah, it's a shame they didn't continue that way. I don't believe agree with you on that. Another thing I thought that was kind of creepy in this episode was the tune that Graves always whistled if I only had a brain, and how that's used when Data whistles it basically signaling what had happened. I love that. I thought that, Oh man, that's kind of creepy but yet really cool at the same time. Seah every reminds me of Denzel Washington's Fallen with Time is on our side, you know, just a great way to just add a little bit more creepiness in there.

21:26 Yeah, yeah, absolutely, it was well, good deal. Well, before we continue on, let's take a break and when we come back we'll talk about the next episode. All right, well, welcome back. Let's talk about our fourth episode, Waning and that will be a Matter of Honor, which is written by Wanda Height, Gregory Amos, and Burton armis directed by Rob Bowman again, and this we finally get the Klingons again on the next generation. An officer exchange program allows Commander Riker the chance to serve on a Klingon ship under the command of Captain Cargan. When the Klingon crew find a micro organism eating away at their hall, Cargan believes it to be a new Federation weapon and put Riker on the wrong side of a potential Klingon starfleet conflict. Now, this this is a much loved episode, I think of pretty much everybody will say this is one of the better episodes of season two. It is. It's a good episode, and this is the second time we really see the Klingons spotlighted on the series. We had one last season and now we have this one. But this is the first time that we see the Klingon Bird of Prey, the model actually being used on Star Trek next Generation. It was used in last in Star Trek five, but now we get to see it on the show, and we'll see it a lot more. But here I want to point out one guest star here that

22:57 made everybody not who This is Captain Cargan. He was played by actor Christopher Collins. That's actually a different name. He normally goes by the name Chris Latta. He was the voice of Star Scream and Cobra Commander on Transformers and g I Joe, a very different role seeing him not only live action but under heavy makeup. And there's another guest star to Brian Thompson. He played the first officer Clagg. He was the one that introduced Riker to goachch. Yeah, he goes on. He appears on Star Trek quite a few more times. He was on twice on Deep Space nine, three episodes of Enterprise, and he played kling On again on Star Trek Generations. Yep. He was in the nineteen eighty six is Cobra Yes, right, yeah, the seen one. Rikers got all the food they're ten forward. Oh my god, I that was just disgusting and he was just enjoying himself. Here we go. Although credit to Food Services for that absolutely to be able to make that. I'm sure there's more than one take. Like yeah, so so many good scenes in there with Jonathan Frakes's Commander Riker, just proving what a badass Commander Riker is and why we love him so much as a character.

24:19 But the fact that he took on that role was very happy, you know, winning with the scene between him at Picard when they're doing at the phaser range, which is the first time we've ever seen that. By the way, it was neat when Picard was telling him what was going on and that they were doing in exchange, and Picard obviously was leaning towards, you know, trying to talk Riker into taking it. But Riker knew what was going on, so he had the big smile on his face, you know, it is that yeah, yeah, who do you have in mind? But no, when he went over to the to the ship and just you know, proved himself to the Klingons that he deserved to be there. Man, just what a Jonahan Frakes is just awesome? Yes, yes, and you mentioned the Phaser range. It's actually one of my favorite sets, even though it's there's not much set to it. Right, the giant circle with a bunch of darkness all around. This is a little blinking lights. You have to shoot at the right time. There's a there's an episode where they use that again with the wharf and Guymon and they have a great conversation in that later later, later, But yep, it's a great set. Yep.

25:22 What I found interesting too is instant mindon you know who I'm talking about who shows up when Wesley mistakes him. Yes, that's the same actor. Interesting, Interesting and that's an uncomfortable exchange, right, Yeah, Yeah, it was a very interesting exchange. Which it's kind of funny that they did that the same actor from the first back in the first season correct, okay, yeah, played by John Putch, I believe. I don't know if it's pronouncing his last name correctly, but yeah, same actor. Yeah, there's a great effect that costume. Yeah, where every breath has like a little bit of dry ice or some kind of smoke coming off of it. Yeah. It's a good concept, a good good alien. We don't see too much of it, but I like that. I like the idea that they have to accommodate for different atmospheres. Ye, all right, let's go on with our fifth pick for season two, Scott. Yeah, so that takes us to the measure of a man, which I've I'm lucky to have two data centricquins to focus on, and this one is a standout I've heard.

26:23 Oh yes, Brent Spiner was on a podcast recently. It was talking about, you know, one of his standout episodes, and this is absolutely one of them. So Doctor Maddox of Starfleet's Daystrom Institute is one of the leading minds in cybernetics, and he spent his career trying to replicate data, but the next step Mattics needs to take would end Data's life. We see one of the outstanding Trek legal dramas that asks if data is just Starfleet property or a sentient life form to protect. This is another one where it's hard to dive into too much detail without getting to spoiler territory. But the prosecution and the defense that's chosen to represent Data one way or the other is very interesting.

27:11 It absolutely calls back to some elements we saw in Data Lore as far as how data functions and things like that. But one of my one of the standout moments in this episode for me is the conversation between I believe it's Guidan and a card correct that talks about the implications of doing so, and we're going to see that come back in Picard season one. That makes me kind of look at season one with kind of a different lens. But it introduces another great relationship actually between Data and Maddox, which at first you see Maddox is this you know, oh, well, clearly this is the bad guy so to speak, But there's there's a twist in their relationship and a continuing evolution we'll see through the series that I think absolutely bears mentioning doctor Maddox and those implications, but also just the acting, the structure, the legal debate of this is amazing. No, it is. I mean, this is a courtroom drama and it is a really good one. Yeah, you get to see I mean you feel for Data throughout this episode, as you should because you know, as he is being we don't know, but he needs to be treated like one right maybe you know, it's it's that the you know that the discussion that they have. But one of the scenes in this that acid by the way, the scene between Guy and the card was not originally in the script. Paramount had to have them add something because apparently

28:47 she was going to be there committed to that week. So they ended that scene for that. Oh yeah, me too. It's a great scene. Great, yes, But the one thing that I love it, and I don't think it's going to give away too much, but just how broken Commander Riker was, how torn he was, and what he had to do in this year. Yeah, when he his line when he says Pinocchio has broken, Its strings have been cut, and you know, what happened right before he said that line was just so powerful. As soon as he said that then went and sat down, I was like, damn, you just chills, man when that happened. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that had to hit Jonathan Frakes and everybody on set pretty hard. It's so powerful. Yeah, yeah, so much, so much goodness, So many great performances in this even Patrick Stewart incredible performance, you know with him, you know, defending you know, it's just my goodness. It's just watching this episode again for the first time in a long time, I forgot how powerful it was.

29:47 And you know, when you get to that, I mean some of the things that you wouldn't think would be going through data's you know, processors and stuff like that. Well let's say what it is brain. But it's just, man, just a lot of stuff die get into this episode that you just really makes you think. Yeah, it's a big evolution in data overall, so the character itself, how people will regard data, which is an interesting parallel to Pulaski's character and a lot of their interactions, but also brend Spinder's performance as data. You can definitely see an evolution here because this is a life or death situation, and his application of stoicism and curiosity in this character, I think is one of the defining characteristics of data. We're going to see that come back in another episode The Most Toys, where you know, life and death situation and how that's faced and process is absolutely fascinating.

30:48 Yeah. Yeah, this is probably definitely my favorite episode of the season. It's great because Prince Spinder's performance is just phenomenal. Jonathan Franks's performance will be Goldberg's. We finally see how useful her character can be with this series. Plus, for anyone who once likes this episode, there is This is one of the very few episodes of the series where there's an extended version of it. The Blu Rays have a much longer version of this episode. It's almost almost fifteen minutes longer, and it's definitely worth watching or or trying to find because it adds a lot of great scenes that we didn't even see in the original airing. And this is the first episode to feature a poker game, which we know we will reoccur quite a bit to this series. Yes, yes, critifact absolutely, All right, Well, let's move on with our sixth pick. Contagion. The Enterprise receives a distress signal from the USS Yamato, a sister ship who is near the Romulan neutral zone. Upon their arrival to their whore, the Yamato explodes, followed by the appearance of the Romulans, but Card demands an explanation, But upon further investigation, it is discovered that an ancient civilization known as Iconia, of which the Motto had gone to look for in the neutrodrone, have ancient technology that he believes the Romulans are seeking to use against the Federation. They quickly discovered that what happened to the AMOUNTA before it exploited is now happening to the Enterprise, damaging the ship

32:21 and data. The crew race to answer, not only to save their lives, but also to stop the Romulants. This is one of those episodes, and I don't think we've talked about this yet. Star Trek is the master of that opening sequence before they go into the title credits. Star Trek is the master of that. And again they prove here on how good they're at it. I mean, the crew of the Enterprise. You know, it goes from bad to worse here you know, they arrived to the sister ship. You know, they talk to them, and then boom, and then all of a sudden, the Romulants show up. Wow, oh great, great, We've gone from bad to worse in this situation. And then we move right into the credits. Star Trek is rate at that this episode is the first time the card orders tea Earl Gray hot, which was not successful of course in this episode. But again, we're gonna talk about season three where a lot of firsts are starting to happen that we're gonna start seeing throughout this series. You know, this is just another episode that does that for us. It is also the first time Riker gives his iconic line Fate protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise. This is a good episode I enjoy. There's a lot of original ideas here, and I like the idea of the Iconians and their uh, their way of transporting. Mm so petty, we we never went back to that too and got to learn anymore because it's kind of opened and ended with that civilization at the end. And

33:52 and then we get a great look at the Romulns. We hardly got anything during the season finale last year. You know, they're Romulan Warburg. That's a beautiful model, an incredible, incredible design. I like the episode. I think there's a lot of original ideas. Yeah, but you can tell the writers. I mean, even though the strike was going on and there's you know, a bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes and stuff like that, but you can tell that they're really starting to explore Star Trek in ways that first season kind of did in a way, but not as much as they are doing in season two. And as obviously we're going to see later on in each season, as we grow, they just get bigger and bigger and better and better, you know. So, Yeah, I think this episode was really really well done, and you know, we get to see more of our characters explored. I mean, Picard, we learned he loves archaeology, right, this is the first time we see that too.

34:43 Yeah, this season we get farther away from trying to copy the style of the original series and more about developing the next generation's own style. We see that a lot through season two, and at this point we've pretty much shucked all of the original series ide is a way and starting our owns thing now, all right, Well, let's go on to our seventh pick, and this is probably going to be the most controversial. Oh but I like it, okay. The Royale, written by Tracy Tourmeat and directed by Cliff Boyle, Ryker, Data and Wharf being down to a planet to investigate a mysterious structure. Upon entering, they find themselves within what looks to be a twentieth century casino and hotel, wrapped up in the almost cliche like events, cut off from contact with the Enterprise, and no way to get back out.

35:37 As I said, I like this episode. It's fun. I think it's a fun episode. It's if you don't think too much into it. This is one of the episodes that, as I mentioned before, that was written by Tracy Tormey that was heavily rewritten against his wishes, and this is what forced him to make the decision to quit the show, which is because he's a great writer. He went on to create another series that I absolutely loved later on called Sliders with Jerry o' crannell. Yeah, he's he's a great writer. His original idea for the script was that the astronaut was stuck in this surreal nightmare fantasy world and then when the crew comes and beams down, they get stuck in his own in his own mind and his own nightmare.

36:30 It's because he left. He ended up using a pseudonym to to credit himself because he didn't want his name on this. He felt it was rewritten so much that he didn't want to be involved in it. And as it comes the rest of the series. When the original airing, I remember I love this when it first aired. But something I just recently learned. You know, the all the episodes of the Next Generation were recently UH remastered into high definition about ten years ago. And in the original airing, the patch on the astronauts' uniform that was the nineteen seventy two Apollo seventeen patch, and it had the Apollo name removed, but the name of the original astronauts were still there. But when they went and remastered this and reassembled it back in twenty twelve, they took CGI and they've changed those patches and put the correct spaceship and the correct names. It has a little catchphrase it says, first beyond the Solar System. I never noticed that until I was doing research on this episode. It's great that they were able to go back and remaster and if you do watch them on streaming now you are seeing the remastered versions of the episodes. Right. Yeah, this is a very simple strip. And I don't want to call it simple, but I mean the sets were very simple.

37:44 Let's be honest. They clearly a cheap episode. Tried to save some money, you know, to contain it in like if you know one area, but it worked, you know, I agree, Wayne. There's probably a lot of people who are like, you're picking the Royale what, But no, it is it is. I had a lot of fun with this. You know, you're if you really think about it, you're you're supposedly stuck in this nightmare with this astronaut. I find that concept really cool. And you know that's that's Star Trek for you. Right yeah, And this one, no, I was gonna say. And the other thing that I really wanted to point out is Sam and Anderson as the assistant manager of the hotel. I will always remember him as mister gorp Lee from Perfect Strangers.

38:25 Oh yes, wow, good poll. Yeah. No, And you know, while we're on the subject, I'll bring up Noble Willingham As, Texas. Yes, another one that you know, Dave you and I are going to talk about him and Norma Ray and I'm always going to picture him as you know, Rolin City Slickers is really in Good Morning Vietnam. There's a lot of personality there, and the way that they use these characters, it's it's it's almost like it feels like a Holidack episode kind of turned on itself. Yeah, right, like you're trapped in it and you can't do it unless you play it out. But it's a horrible novel. It's you know, it was a darkened, stormy night, like as bad as you can get. But it's it's played so well and as soon as as soon as they figure out what's going on, they lean into it so much. And I love the performances there. Yeah, they look like they're having a lot of fun, just you know, stepping out from the normal techno babble and serious storylines, just having fun in this pretty cheesy casino sets. And yeah, I love it. I love it. Hell love it or hate it, you got to admit it. It's fun on you can tell. You can tell Brit Spiner as Data was having fun of gambling with the dice and the cards and stuff like that. Come on. Yeah. Oh yeah, the data snap. Yeah, yeah, it was a fun episode. Absolutely.

39:52 Before we continue on with our next episode, we're going to take another break. We'll be right back. Welcome back, everybody. We are going to continue with our eighth pick, Scott. Yeah, there's an embarrassment of riches here because this is one of the best of season two. Yes, if not one of the best in the series, which actually didn't discover until I had seen season three. But this one is called Q who so Q is back to pester the crew with a new proposition, let me join your crew, because you can't face this universe without me. When they reject his offer, he seeks to prove his argument in a dangerous way, flinging them seven thousand light years away, which is roughly two years from home at best speed, to face the Boorg for the first time. Will they accept his help or fight one of the most dangerous species in the Trek universe. Now there's a subtle spoiler there in mentioning that the Borg appears, But it's very important to mention that because as you're thinking about, you know, which episodes to watch, this instroduction is exceptional important and it's one of those Q episodes.

41:01 That doesn't necessarily it's not him being kind of a you know, a jokester or anything else like that. He's absolutely serious. I need to join you. You're advancing way faster than you should. Yeah, this episode is so vital and so important of what is to come in Star Trek the next generation. And this is I'm not going to say too much what's coming up later for the for this villain or the villains if you want to say, but this sets up some storyline that's coming along. But this is the main villain that the next generation crew is going to be fighting for a very long time, and in my opinion, is the best and creepiest villain that anybody has had in Star Trek. And I'm not putting anything down through the original Star Trek or de Space on Fords or anything like that, but come on, let's be honest here. The board is frightening. They are hard to fight and in this episode of Q who watching it again, I had goosebumps.

41:59 I don't know if it's because I knew what was coming with with this with this villain, but the just the the the you can feel it in the air, Am I right? Do you guys get that, like when when they're when they're discovering the Borg for the first time, you can just feel it in the air of this crew is in a position they should not be in right now. You know they should have not met the Borg, and Guynan even says that, you know, you, guys, you know you shouldn't have You shouldn't have been here, you should have met them. And that leads up to some of the great scenes between Guynan and Q that we see in this episode that are just phenomenal acting. Between John Delancy and Whoopi Goldberg. Whyne you mentioned earlier on how good Whoopy was in Guyan, but she does it again here. She proves Scott, I think it was you who said you love Gunhan. Who's her your favorite character in Star Trek.

42:47 You can see it here on her bringing her a talent to this role as Guynan, and she senses it. You see that in the scene towards the beginning, she senses something's wrong, something's going on, and just so much build up in this episode. I was jealous when I saw you got this. I'm like, God, dang it, Star But it gives us all the chance to talk about it, and I don't want to. I don't want to halg the microphone to a guy speak speaks. You said it right there. This is a build up, and that is what this entire episode is. Q is giving the the Enterprise a taste of what's to come. And that is exactly what the producers are giving us as viewers. They were giving they're giving us a taste of what's to come. We never knew at the time, but now in hindsight looking back, uh, this it just you can just feel it in the atmosphere, you knowing that you know, here we are seeing the beginning of the rest of the next generation history.

43:43 Yeah, there's a there's a great, a great standoff between Q and Guymon. They kind of trade, you know. Jean Gray Magneto hand gestures, right, Yeah, she keeps Q at bay. She presents Q with somebody who's a foil, if not a threat, and which is fascinating and the tension and the build up from our core mission is to explore the universe, seek out new life, new civilizations. Well, here's one right in front of us, but an expert who has seen this species wipe out or scatter her species across the universe to saying if I were you, i'd start going back now, don't be curious, don't study. But they can't help it, so it's kind of the danger of doing so, proving ques point to a certain degree. But absolutely the quiet and the slow build up of this juggernaut of a species. They don't really say much, they disregard them, and they're relentless, like as soon as they start chasing the Enterprise, there's no stopping, there's no slowing down. So one of the things that was a little interesting is that I know there was a we've already talked about season one, so I guess I can do spoilers. There was a certain episode from I think it was a conspiracy from season one that was supposed to

45:15 set up kind of that slug parasite race was somehow related to the board, like they were sending a signal out to take the board, get the board back into the quadrant. There's a almost a throwaway line from Data where he says, we're seeing this planet where roads are still intact, but the entire cities have been kind of scooped off of the face of the planet, similar to what we saw near the neutral zone. Now that was in the season finale neutral zone. Yes, So does that mean that the board were in the neutral zone or is there some way that that's been kind of retconned out. No, that's an actual direct connection to this episode. The original It still was part of the original plans at the time. They hadn't written q who yet, but it fits, it fits right in the they went with it. And because we see in this episode and then we also see later in the next season in Best of Both Worlds, the connection between them was wasn't the original plan The FARRINGI was supposed to be the main villain for the Star Trek Nixtiration crew. They became off, they became too comical. Then they're like, we we can't, we can't do this, and that's where they leaned in and started creating the board. Yeah. And this was also supposed to be a two part episode, the up of their episode called Time Times Squared, which I think aired a couple of seasons before. This was actually supposed to be the part first part, and then during the rewriting stage, they decided to split the two episodes and u uh not connect them.

46:45 Yeah. This episode won two Emmy Awards Outstanding sound mixing and outstanding sound editing, which it well deserved. And when I found interesting, director Rob Bowman voices the board, M I didn't know that. Yeah, so yeah cool. No phenomenal episode listeners out there. I hope this is at the top of your list. For one. Can you can tell the love the three of us have for this episode and anybody can give it. You cannot skip this one. It is super important of what's coming up in the next season and then beyond that, believe me, trust me, even the motion pictures, everything all the way up to last year, the most recent Star Trek. You gotta see this one. Yep. Absolutely super important. All right, well, we're gonna move on to the ninth pick the Emissary. The Enterprise is sent to certain coordinates with unknown orders from Starfleet. While en route, an admiral is in contact, advising the card and crew that they will be meeting in emissary who will instruct film on what is needed. Upon arriving, the Beam aboard a probe to discover a half human half Klingon known as Klar, of which Warf is not pleased to see. It is discovered that a Klingon battlecruiser whose crew was prosen in time from when they were at war with a feed is coming back online. It is up to Wharf and the crew of the Enterprise to come to a solution to stop this battle cruiser and possibly starting a new war. This. You know, this episode really gets to explore you know, Michael Dorn in his performance, especially you know his history with Klar. You know, I love the scenes between those two,

48:21 you know, the backstory and stuff like that. It is just Michael Dorn as Wharf is just phenomenal, and you're getting to see him explore more. And she She's a fun character. Here we get Susie Clinkton getting playing Klar. It's it's interesting to see a half human, half Klingon, especially one that has pretty much shut, you know, denounced the Klingon ways. She's she more embraces her human side, which is something we've we've never seen before. You know, Uh, Wharf, being raised by humans, has pretty much kind of embraced his Klingon side. So here we get the exact opposite. Yet opposites attract, so you know, they make a great couple. I like her and I like the episode. Yeah, we get Poker again.

49:06 By the way, I want to point that out. Yeah, and in the great use of the holidack, Yes, yes, for exercise, and I think it's used in a great way. I love the effects of the the the opponents that are in Worf's calisthenics program and they eventually go to level two. I say, as a happily married man, I've I've had a crush on Klar since this episode just so so fantastic, such a breakthrough performance. Aside from being gorgeous her her performance, like you said, Wayne, is kind of a lens for the Klingon culture. She's a Cleon ambassador.

49:50 So clearly she's respected and revered by Playon's is somethody that they listen to and you know, pay attention when Kaylor has something to say, we'll see like up in a future season. It's almost like she has kind of that that Han solo charisma. Oh you know the happening. But she's like, I mean, come on, like, there's this thing we got to do. Really do we have to do that? Because they've been doing that for centuries and I don't believe in it, but whatever, you know, not making fun of it, not scoffing at it, but just saying I'm not going to let my life be ruled by these traditions that we want to go through, which is a great you know, parallel to Wharf's journey with this, right, things that are going to things that are happening to him, things that are going to happen to him, and how he kind of processes that in being Klingon who is raised by humans. There's so much that's just absolutely fascinating about her character, and I love what it does for Wharf's character to advance his growth, but also kind of giving us another way of looking at the Klingon culture, which we haven't seen much aside from what we talked about before. A matter of honor. Yeah, and not not to give away to me spoilers, so I gotta be careful of what I say here.

51:10 But the problem solving they have towards the end that Wharf comes up with, I thought, yeah, really cool. Yeah, you see some some some ice in the veins when there's some some tense moments. So yeah, all right, Well we're gonna move on to our tenth and final pick, Scott, What have we got? This one's a little tough because there's one performance by one actor who does a great job, but it's so grating the personality of this character it's hard to say, like, yeah, watch this one because you're gonna be like, oh, oh, don't like this is called peak performance. So the best of our crew is put to the test in more ways than one. What begins is a war game that splits their crew in two and across two ships quickly becomes a bigger threat when the FERANGI think the game is real. As a side narrative, the orchestrator of this war game puts data skills to the test in one of the toughest games in the galaxy. There's a slight spoiler there. Yeah, granted, granted, but you can't get around it. It's a tension of what this introduces.

52:20 There's there's a great use I'll go ahead and name you know Roy Brocksmith. Oh plays the games Master and oh his performance. It's it's one of those characters where it's like you do such a great job of being unlikable. It's like, you know, respect the actor hate the character. When he first came on the bridge, he's like, look at this. Weaslely of a guy so much, so much, And there's already been a little bit of the you know, I feel like one of the things that's hard with doctor Pulaski is kind of the side eyed judgment stance that she seems to have, right, that there's not always the best chemistry, the best level of respect with you know, data, data kind of things. So when the games Master comes on, there's a similar like, you know, always kind of judging, always kind of looking down at the characters, and and it's just it's pristling. But there's there's some great I love the war game aspect of it and how you see you know, it's like a scrimmage, right, and they're picking their teams and who gets who. Raker certainly stacks the deck, but that a little bit. Yeah, there's some some Wesley cleverness in there that I'm like, is that is there a flag on that one?

53:47 But yeah, and then uh, it's it's another place where we see an exploration of Data's development right as a character. Again that that stoicism where he should have you know, an emotional response. Nope, totally doesn't end. It's a great effect. Yeah, this is another episode. This is like the roy Allens. You love it, you hate it, but it's it's a fun episode. It's it's got some great elements. I like it. I liked it ever since the fir staring. I think Data, Prince Finder's fantastic, Jonathan fix are all great, fantastic. Plus you got we could see the Fringia again and they're they've been slightly redesigned, not quite to where we'll we'll see them in the future, but they're they're they're working on it.

54:29 It's it's neat to see them again. What another thing I love about this episode. We always talk We've been talking a lot of this episode about growth for these characters. You really see the respect that you get between the Card and Riker in this episode. Yes, you know when you know Serna is you know, putting down Riker the cars like stop, basically puts him in a place right then and there about you know you listen here about Riker, you know he you know the respect he showed for him right then and there was just shows how much their characters have already developed, but where they're going in the respect they are going to have for one another. But what I also like is the fact on how much fun Jonathan Frakes was having or I should say Riker was having on that broken down ship that they had to repair to get get it gone, including Jordy. I mean, you could just see the smiles on their face of like, we get to do this, they get our budt kick who cares? You know. I loved it.

55:25 Yeah, Yeah, fantastic episode. But all right, so gentlemen, we have talked about our top ten episodes of season two, so let's go back and do a little bit what we did last season where we talked about our best moment for Riker. This time we're going to talk about our best moment or best episode whatever you want to do for Data this season. Wayne, what do you have? Well, it's going right back to what we just talked about in peak performance. I love it when when Data is beaten by Karam in the game of Stratagema, the scene where a card basically has to tell him, you know, suck it up and get back to work.

56:05 I love that. You know, Data is so devastated, so that's not really good, that's emotional. But he's confused that how can he lose He's a computer he can't lose, and and and it almost forces him to shut down the cards like, you know, you can't just let things like this, let defeats get to you. You have to you have to get back up, and you have to to get right back into it and try again. And it's a great lesson that learned from Data and a great great moment between him and a card. And that's my choice. Good choice, Scott, what about you? The game is a foot every every part of his performance is Sherlock Holmes from the Data perspective, from bet Spider's perspective.

56:47 You know. The the breadth that we get from both is one of my favorite things. I love him getting into character, the use of different voice inflections and things like that. That stands out to me. For me, it's the kizowait Man. Brnce Speiner has proved us already in how good he does playing his brother Law and just that on and off switch that we talked about last episode where he's able to just turn on, you know, being Data and then completely turning that switch and becoming Law. Here you see him do the same thing but completely somebody else. We get to see the character of doctor Graves played again by way Morgan Shepherd, but you get to see Data become that actor. The performance that he gave us Data. Just Brince Spyer just goes on with it, you know, and you feel like you're watching Doctor Graves. You're not watching Data. And every scene I don't have a particular scene because every one woman in that episode was so good from him that I can't pick just one. So I'm saying that whole episode that is my data episode for this season for sure. Oh, definitely good choice.

57:53 Yeah, all right, So we are going to talk about next our least favorite episode. Now, listeners out there, you may like these episodes that we choose, but we think otherwise. So Scott, what about you? What is your least favorite episode of season two? I know we tossed around a few things. There's gonna be a bit of debate to behind the scenes the one that sticks out to me, and I think there's another that's like, throw it away, you don't watch this episode, don't waste your time. But my vote is for up the Long Ladder. So I feel like, you know, we talked last time about, you know, an episode that misrepresents cultures in the wrong way, at least in my opinion. I know that called Mini the actor it plays transport of Chief Miles O'Brien, one of my favorite characters in this and other series, wasn't happy with the depiction of Irish culture, didn't have a chance to change the script. He would later be able to do so in a Deep Space nine episode If Wishes Were Horses, where he was able to kind of steer away from some of those cliches. But it was it was I found, it's found. It's uncomfortable to watch aspects of that episode, and it just seemed like it felt like a throwaway to me. But yeah, you're you're right. I mean, it's not my choice for at least favored, but it's just it's one of those episodes you can skip. There's really no redeeming factor in this episode.

59:19 It's it's not worth watching. Yeah, I would agree with you, Scott, it's good choice. Wayne, Wayne, I think you and I might agree on this one. But we'll see. Wayne, what's your It's Unfortunately it's the season finale. You know you expect the season and on a strong point, this isn't it not Shades of Gray? Yep uh, They just they ran into a lot of problems this season. They overspent on on two of the big episodes, Elementary Your Data and Q Who and they had no money left for a finale, so we got we got this and it's it's the clip show. I mean it's either you just just say, you know, telling any star Trek fan, oh the clip show, they know exactly what you when you're talking about. Yeah, it works for a lot of shows, you know, Cheers, did It? Friends? Did It?

1:00:05 Golden Girls? Boy there? Really well, but those are sitcoms. This is next generation. We don't need a clip show, and especially not this early in this series. I mean, what's there to clip It's very little. You're basically just showing scenes that you you watched like less than a year ago, and for finale come on now? Yeah, yeah, it doesn't work. No, I completely agree with you, Wayne. I did not like this episode at all. And when it ended, I'm like that, wait, wait what that's it? That's all we get for season two? That? Yeah. I mean for a show that was trying to still put you know, find its place with the fans, this was not a good way to end the season. No, I mean, what what is it? Riker gets struck by what thorn? Yeah, and he gets infected by it and he has to go into the medical Bay, doctor Puleski has to try and save him. But like, the only guest star in this was what COLEMANI wasn't it? I think so for Brian the only one that was in this except for the clip stuff obviously, but it's like, no, this one didn't work at all. The only good thing and this is a spoiler, but I'm gonna let it happen. The only good thing from this episode is it Pulaski's last. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll be completely honest. I didn't even watch this one, whereas the other episodes, I just kind of brushed up as soon as I saw it was a clip episode.

1:01:24 Like you mentioned sitcoms that do it like Friends, it's such a cheat and you feel like, really, so I have to sit here for thirty minutes and there's only like five minutes of original material, Like yeah, yeah, it just it doesn't make sense. It also feels like, for as much as this series is advancing, to take so many steps back, just by the nature of looking back at clips, it seems like a very very odd choice. It was a big mistake. They realized it was a big, big mistake. They had to have a choice but to do this and it's a mistake that they never made again in the show. Thank god. Yeah, don't worry though. The next finale we get is the best finale of All Star Trek in my opinion, and we will talk about that in the third episode for sure. Yep, yep, all right, listeners want to thank everybody for tuning in with us for our top ten picks. We always appreciate you listening. Wayne Scott, thank you so much for joining me on the bridge. As always, thank you ys. Great to be here, absolutely haling. Frequencies are always open for you to share your thoughts and questions on social yeah, and let us know what you think and share your favorites that we didn't mention. You might get a mention in a future show.

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