Phasers Set To Stun: Top 10 Episodes from Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3

0:05 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. Hello listeners, and welcome back to Phasers Set to Stun, where we continue to show our love for Everything's Star Trek in this continuing series from a film by podcast focusing on everything in the ever expanding universe of Star Trek, covering television, movies, animation, directors, merchandise, and much more. Joining me on the bat bridge of the Enterprise because they're currently vacuuming the carpet on the main bridge, is our Core Trek crew. I'm your host, Wayne White on David Burns, and I'm Skoy Hoffman, and I want to start off this podcast with a huge congratulations for the winners of this year's as Saturn Awards. Star Trek won some big ones this year. They took home the Best Science Fiction Series for Star Trek Card Season three, as well as some well deserved acting awards. Best Actor went to Patrick Stewart, Best Supporting Actor to Jonathan Frakes. Best Supporting Actress to Jerry Ryan All for their magnificent work on a card season three. Plus we can't forget Paul Wesley took home Best

1:38 Guest Star for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in The Strange New World. So congratulations to all of them. Yeah, well earned, absolutely all right, Going back to our program, in this episode, we continue our discussion on what we like to call Starter Treks, a chosen list for first time viewers. This spoiler free list focuses on the top ten episodes from each season for people diving into the Next Generation for the first time, showing them a great place to start and want to steer clear of. With Starter Treks, we simplify the menu with choices that give our new listeners a taste for each season. After listening to this episode, you can find the course we plotted for you at the convenient list located in the description below. But before we begin, let's listen to what a Fellow, a film by contributor Amber Lewis, has to say about some of the episodes we chose for season two.

2:35 Hey, guys, I adored Next Generation and never missed it back in the day. I am loving this series. You're doing because it makes it easier to do a rewatch since you don't have to slog through all twenty two plus episodes a season. You made great points for including the episodes on the list, and there's a lot to love in season two, including Diynan, the Holidac, and the introduction of the Borg. But on the flip side, my absolute hatred of both Doctor Pulaski and the episode Up the Long Ladder cannot be overstated. I would personally add the episode Manhunt to the list of episodes to watch because I absolutely love Troy's mom. She is hysterical and I love how uncomfortable she makes Troy, who is usually so composed. So keep up the great work and I can't wait for season three and one of the best season finales ever. Thanks for that, Amber, and to all our listeners. If you'd like to comment or add what you think are the top ten, please do so because we'd love to hear from you. David, what are we discussing today, Well, we are the best discussing season three of Star Trek the Next Generation, which is going to get the ball rolling.

4:01 The episodes and the seasons are getting better. Oh yes, they are definitely definitely. There's been a lot of changes between season two and three, the big one being Gene Roddenberry stepped back and Rick Berman took over a show runner and the executive producer, and that he brought about a lot of much needed and much wanted changes to the show. First and the big one he rehired Gates McFadden back to play doctor Beverly Crusher. Thank god. Yeah, what a what a great change. You know, when you look back, it's it's hard to believe that she wasn't there for a season, but she was missing. Yeah, the big new opening title frequents too, we got that's right, brand new title sequence, brand new costumes. They hired a new costume designer, Robert Blackman. He redesigned all of them for the main cast and the guest stars. And and another big thing is they got rid of something that I really wasn't aware of. But for the first two years, Ruddenberry had a rule that forbid them from acknowledging anything about the original Star Trek series. This rule was gone, as we'll see later on in season.

5:06 Yeah, thank goodness, man, Yeah, that would make no sense to me. Like this anyway, this is Star Trek wait a minute. What right, Yeah, all, I can understand them wanting to establish themselves, but it's the third year. Now it's time to get rid of that and starts showing the continuity of the series. Absolutely. Another thing is this season saw Michael Pillar joined the writing staff for the show. He was responsible for really really honing the style and type of scripts that were brought in. That's this is a big change that we saw as viewers back then. He demanded the stories revolved around the characters rather than just the events of the enterprise.

5:46 It brought in a lot of other great writers like Ronald Moore. And then another thing that I remember is he instituted that open submission policy where anyone out there, even if you didn't have an agent, could submit a script directly to them. You didn't have to have experience. They would take a look at everything and they got a lot of good writers and a lot of good scripts through that. But to go back to what you said about the uniforms, just the uniforms in themselves, what what a leap in production value that provides that that two piece they have now, you know, it just looks so much better on screen than that one piece. Yeah, it looks really really company too. Oh yeah, I mean the actors were real happy about that. Anybody noticed that the at the beginning of this season when they did bring the new uniforms, those aren't the actual uniforms that we're familiar with.

6:35 Somewhere they liked the last like four or five episodes in they changed them again. They they still kind of looked the same. But I always wondered, I never found that the answer is to why what happened there? What was the difference between us? This must have been something for some reason for them to change those I'm not sure, but yeah, you're right. Maybe merchandising, so they could more uniform variations, or or the the actor for complaining about, you know, being comfortable or not. Who knows, could be Yeah, you're right, yeah, yeah, all right, we're going to dive right into the episodes we chosen. We're going to be talking about them in the order in which they were originally broadcast back in nineteen eighty nine nineteen ninety. So to begin, let's move right to our first pick.

7:15 And I have the honor of starting us off with the season premiere, which is Evolution, written by Michael Pillar and Michael Wagner and directed by Winrich Colby. The Enterprise has been sent to the Cavist Alpha binary star system to witness a rare stellar explosion and assist in the experiments of doctor Paul Stubbs. However, just before the explosion starts, the Enterprise begins to malfunction in odd ways that put both the experiments and the entire crew in great jeopardy. Of course, we just got done mentioning lots of changes here, which is why this episode really needs to start in the viewing and you're viewing for the season, because there's so much going to got the reintroduction of doctor Crusher, you got the uniform, You've got Wharf's been promoted to full lieutenant before has been promoted to lieutenant commander. Yep, you know, the new opening title, Segua you mentioned, David, We've got changed the slight alteration to the theme song.

8:15 Just there's there's just so many changes it would be rather jarring to just kind of skip this and go into to the rest of the season. So that's what makes this episode very important, and in my opinion, it's a good episode. Yeah, it's this is vital. You know, some people may disagree with us on some of our picks, but this one is for a person who's just joining Star Trek. If we skipped over this, what's going on, Doctor Crusher is back and you know, yeah, everything's changing. So yeah, I completely agree with you on that way. One of the things this goes back to what you were talking about earlier on how Roddenberry didn't allow anything talking about you know, the original Star Trek and stuff like that. Data in this episode mentions you know about a system wide technological failure hadn't happened seventy nine years yep, and he's talking about Star Trek five, yeah, right, which it just came out just before this season's aired, so it was fresh in everybody's mind. Yep. This one wasn't one of my picks for I understand the importance, but the character of Paul Stubbs, specifically doctor Stubbs, is so abrasive and so condescending, especially to Wesley.

9:22 There's just a little bit of Pulaski left, I think in Stubs and just just know that, you know, his character doesn't always rub everybody the right way. But yeah, there are so many milestones and kind of getting into season three and establishing a lot of important characters in that I think is important. Yeah. Absolutely. And here's another thing that I found interesting. If you guys noticed or not, did you know Scott Grimes is in this Yeah? Uncredited. Yeah, remember that he plays one of Wesley's friends at the very end. And if you're not paying attention to it, you're going to miss them. So I find that very interesting. You know, a good old days of critters a Scott when we talk, but the Nike that's right.

10:03 Well, he's come a long way the power of the Night. And I also want to put a mention now to the episode's main guest star, Ken Jenkins, who played doctor Stubbs. He was in so much stuff back in the eighties and the nineties, so many shows, X Files, Babylon Five, he was one of the cast members of Scrubs. But you know we're being we're Ohio boys. He was born right here in Dayton, Ohio. That's right, so you know, a nice little shout out to us local. But I think he did a good job. You're right. His character was abrasive, but I liked him. I liked his the way he relaxed by by going over baseball games in his mind. I thought that was a really unique idea. Yeah. I mean, let's let's be honest.

10:50 I mean, he's obsessed with his project. He's been working on for a very long time, so it makes sense that he's like that. Even though I didn't like it, because you're right, Scott, it takes us back to the Pulaski days and it really just grates on you. But if you look at it through his eyes, I guess it makes sense for the character to be like that. It does, and I think, you know, Ken Jakes does a great job of portraying that character in that way, and I do think it does. You know. The title of the episode evolution being a step toward like, okay, can we respect Wesley now and right? Make him part of the crew? Come on, I have this, you know, little kid kind of portrayal of him. And the title of the episode is rather fitting because this was the evolution of the show. The show hasvalved past its first two seasons and now we're moving into the more familiar Star Trek that lasted till today. Yeah, and this season shows it.

11:39 I mean, you know, for you listeners, this was tough for us to pick our top ten. Some of them. Obviously, we're going to keep with me in the top ten, but there are some other ones that I know were good that we getn't at. It was tough, it really was, because the seasons are just getting better. All right, Let's go on with our second pick, and this is brought to you by David Yes. So this is the episode called The Survivors. The Enterprise travels to Rana four, where only two people have survived of what was once a population of eleven thousand. It seems that something tragic has occurred on this planet, and it is up to the crew of the Enterprise to discover what it is and what has happened. The away team beams down to discover the two survivors to our husband and wife, Kevin and Rashawn Uxbridge. Counselor Troy begins suffering from a melody that continues to play within her mind, and the card suspects that two survivors are holding a secret that must be uncovered. Gentlemen, I love this episode. And if you know the history of one of the actors in this episode of what had occurred to him, and I'm talking about John Anderson, I don't want to give away too much, but you know what happened to him. He claims this was one of the toughest episode's performances he's ever had to do in his entire life. And when you understand the episode and what happened to him, you will understand what he was going through when in his performance in this and that just adds to this so much. And Haney, who plays for Sean, I thought she did a wonderful job. And watching this again, I realized, oh my god, she played Bonnie and the Golden Girls. I did not realize that until I watched this again,

13:13 and then itned not really Holy crap. Marina Surtis's incredible performance in this episode. You know, you believe she was suffering listening to that music over and over and over in her head. And I just thought she did an incredible job in this. Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah. There's a lot of emotional weight to this episode, which is something we're gonna see a lot more in uh season three and beyond. Yeah, right, I think this definitely shows kind of that tonal shift and a little bit more of a you know, there are some some thought provoking aspects to this, kind of in a twilight Zone kind of nature that also comes through a lot more in this series, which is great for making things. You know, occasionally there's just a standalone, episodic kind of entry, and I think this is one of the one of the best ones. Yeah, I agree, it's kind of it.

14:09 It looks like a bottle show, but it really isn't. So it's a freak confined, small guess cast. But one thing is this episode made the cast really happy because they got to go on location and film. And I never realized it, but this was really the first major location shooting that they did since the first season. There was only one brief location shooting during the second year and it only had I think Prince Spiner and Patrick Stewart were the only ones on there. Yeah, it was nice for them to go out and finally see the sun. I'm sure. I think one of the call outs in this episode two is wharf drinking tea. Yes, it's great.

14:50 Yeah, all right, let's move on to our third pick, and that goes to you, Scott Yep. So this one is called the Enemy and and so in this one in a way mission leaves Jordie's stranded and blinded on a desolate planet ravaged by storms, but he soon's discovered that he's not alone. A desperate injured Romulin is also maruned with him. Their only hope for survival is to work together. I don't think it's spoiling too much if I say that there were a lot of beats of this episode that reminded me of Enemy Mine. No, not at all. Absolutely. So we've got another entry with the Romulins becoming more and more important, learning more and more about them. We get the introduction of I think one of the great Romulin characters, Commander Tomloch, and more exploration of Jordie's capabilities, his rolled beyond engineering.

15:52 He's stuck on a rock where he can't communicate with anybody and there's very limited technology, and the way that he navigates through that, I think is brilliant. Yeah, it's it's the whole depending on somebody else that you don't trust, and you know, vice versa. I love those kind of episodes, and you know, we get to see Jordi for the really for the first time like that, you know, struggling with his blindness because he can't use that. I thought that was really really well done, and I want to call out Commander Tomilok. Wayne, you know where I'm going to go with this. I was hoping you would place Jakar in Babylon five. He's fantastic who is incredible as Jakar and does a great job here too. And the next generation is Tomalak you know so. And he also made an appearance I believe in Enterprise as well. Yep, and he comes back later on in the series. It's one of the few return guest characters from the show.

16:47 Yeah, and David and I we got to actually meet Andreas back in two thousand down at Atlanta, and he's just as flamboyant and as wonderful in person as he is on the show. Yeah. He just brings such a performance. I can see why he got casted in all the roles he gets cast in it, because he just brings that that presence that he's a leader. Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, Well it's one of those you know, the face offs through a view screen on the bridge with the card comes up a few times. That's just done brilliantly. Yeah. And I mean I can't see him without thinking of The Fugitive with Harrison Ford. Oh yeah, absolutely, in The Fugitive. Yes, that's such a great job. Yes he does. This was the first episode that we start on a planet. It's usually with the ship in space and open up. This is the first time they've done it right, Yeah, which makes sense, I guess right. Not the sunny locale we had in the last one, No, not at all. Another thing I really liked about this episode too, is we're really getting to see more of Riker and a Card like continuing to balance each other. You know, yes, Riker has got that that that gung ho wanting to go back down to the planet. You know, they even the cars like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

18:02 Hold on a second here, you know, we got to figure this stuff out. And the same thing with when the Romulans make for our appearance. You know, Rker wanted to go right at him and the cars like, we can't do that. You know, you're still you're still seeing that that that number one attitude going on with Riker and not seeing the captain that's inside of him, which Picard still has. But you see this too, balance each other, and I love that between those two. Oh. This this is a great episode and this shows it's a good example of Michael Pillar's idea to make the stories more character focused, because this really is character focused, especially with la Forge, it gives him so much to do. The original idea for this script actually had LaForge and Troy on the planets. I don't think that would have worked as well, and I see why they rewrote it.

18:47 But unfortunately that really made marinossert Is mad that she was almost completely she was completely written out of the script. She only has one line left. She got very, very upset and actually contemplated leaving the show time. Well, I'm glad she didn't, but it makes sense to the episode. It really does. It does. The story would not have been the same if if she was down there with him. This this worked better in my opinion. I agree, absolutely agree. They made a good choice there. Yeah. Now let's not forget, and we can't give away too much of what's going on the episode because we're you know, we're staying away from spoilers for our new listeners. But uh WARF's objection and his dilemma in this episode, wow, wow, and how they touched on how they dealt with it, It just was incredible. Man, The scene between him and the card and you know what I'm talking about just my goodness, just just this on the edge of your seat kind of stuff man, of what was going to go happen and how it did turn out. Just fantastic writing right there. Yes, and an important note in War's progression as a character. Yes, definitely, yeah. Yeah. And my favorite line in the in the in the episode I never lie when I got sand in my shoes, commodore. All right, Well there was our first three. But before we continue on, let's take a short break and when we come back we'll dive into the next three episodes of Starter Treks. Welcome back everyone. Let's continue on with our fourth episode on the list, and that is The Defector. Written by Ronald

20:21 D. Moore and directed by Robert Shearer. The Enterprise comes across to Romulin scout vessel under attack by a warbird and are able to rescue its crew a single Romulin named Stal who claims to have a secret information about a Romulin base on the planet Nirvana three and seeks to defect to the Federation, but the crew are skeptical of his claims and feel that he may be leading them into an unescapable trap. This episode was one of the episodes that was written by Ronald Moore had brought him into the show and earned him a position on the writing staff, and I definitely this is a fantastic episode. And he would go on to write so many great episodes of this series and become executive producer of Deep Space nine and then well he also wrote Star Trek First Contact as well, which yeah, you know, probably one of the best next generation films they made, without a doubt, right, And then of course later on he would create another fantastic show, the new version of Battlestar Galactica for the Sci Fi Channel, which that shows phenomenal. If you haven't seen him, go watch it. It is James Sloan, is it tall? I thought he did an incredible job in this episode, so good, oh man, so many good scenes with him and do you believe him? Do you not believing? Do you trust him? I don't know. And they played that off so well, and he plays it off so well in his performance and just the things that unfold, man is wow. This definitely to me

21:55 felt like a Tom Clancy fans would they love this episode, just the the nuances and the intrigue and the political balance. There's not a lot of action per se in this one. But the tension is so high, so high, and he does an amazing job of giving the the Rymelans more depth and breadth. Yeah, but you see, from a Rymlin's perspective, this is what's important to me. These are my feelings about my my planet, my species, and what I'm willing to risk for that and what that means is enormous. Yeah, James does an amazing job in this episode. I mean, put yourself in those shoes, Scott, specially you you've got kids, you've got a wife. Think about that. Put yourself in the shoes of that guy and what he had to let go of to be in the position that he's in right then Korea? Yeah, absolutely, yeah. But just and I if I'm not correct, me if I wrong? But doesn't he play Odo's father in Deep Space nine? Yes? A, yeah, I think you're right. I think yeah, yeah. Yeah. This episode and the the episode before really changed the way we looked at Romulans. I mean, you know, before they were always just played out as villains, even through the Capital series, and and now we're seeing, you know, other sides of them. They're not just villains, They're a whole race, you know, that there's good and the bad side, and they fortunately the show

23:27 continued doing that. I like the idea, just like the Klingons, and they did that a lot with the Klingons to this series. But you know, there's more to these races than just you know, good guys bad guys. Yep. Yeah, and it absolutely has it has beats that come back in season one up the card. Oh yes, it's very important to watch that for if for that, if no other reason. And this was the first episode of the nineties. Yeah, yeah, that's right. This is also the first episode that was a result of the problems that they had with the elementary Dear data. That holiday sequence at the beginning that Henry the Fifth was actually supposed to be a Sharlock Holmes sequence, but no, they couldn't do that. No, no, no, no, we're not going down that again. Right. Moving on, let's hear our fifth pick for season three, David. Well, gentlemen, we know what a phenomenal episode this one is, and we knew this was going to be our top ten without any doubt, and that is the episode Yesterday's enterprise definitely a temporal rift opens bringing a starship through which turns out to be the Enterprise see twenty two Years from the Past under the leadership of Captain Rachel Garrett. However, upon arrival of this ship, it instantly changes history and alters the crew and timeline we know, creating a federation who is now battle weary as they have been at war with the Klingons for many years. Gynan quickly recognizes that something is wrong and does her best to convince the Card that this ship from that past must

25:00 be sent back through to fix the timeline. However, doing so would send the crew of the Enterprise see to their certain depths. Rated by many as one of the best episodes of All Star Trek. And I know there's some things we can't talk about, guys, because I don't want to ruin this for anyone who watches this episode, and you know what I'm talking about, so let's not talk about that portion. But what I love about this episode is when it opens and the events of the present day change, and how they do the camera effect and it changes into you know, with the card and the bridge still, but it's like, you know, everything changes on us. I love how they change the lighting. Do you guys notice that the whole episode a lot changed. Yeah, yeah, but the lighting on how it was darker and more you know, constrained on the actors and stuff like that. It felt more cinematic for one thing, but like even like when certain dialogue seats were going on, and I don't remember what a scene it is. I just remember a card like with a little bit shadowed, and then he stepped up and you get that effect where the light which it comes into his face. And I always remember the scene from Raiders that lost Art when Steven Spielberg did that, when Indy jumped, you know, moved into the light. It felt like that on the bridge, not on the bridge, round the ship with the enterprise, with all those changes, I thought that was incredible. And they knew that this was going to be a big episode, and because it aired in February, which was this one of the sweeps months back then, so it was a really important episode, and

26:32 so Paramount threw a little bit more money. And you can see it in there with the changes in the costumes, the sets, the lighting. It it looks fantastic, and it's because you know, they they needed the ratings and they got him from this. It's an incredible episode. You can't talk. I mean, we cannot stress how much we loved this episode. Oh yeah, I mean I think even we were talking about, like we were working in season one or season two, we were talking about, well, we know yesterday's enterprise is going to be in the top it's a given us how good this is. Yeah, it gets a lot easier as we go into the seasons, as much as it gets more difficult to pick a top ten because there are some that just feel like naturals, like this is an automatic is one of them? Absolutely, And what you mentioned about the lighting is so important because it it not only signals kind of that shift from one event to another or one timeline to another, like bright and cheery too, yeah yep, but you also see the fatigue yep on Picard's face. Right.

27:33 It has that slightly sinister air which made me think of, you know, mirror universe kind of things. But it's definitely not mirror universe. It's just a slight shift in what if that has just done so well? So difficult to talk about you want to talk about, but you know, standout performances, I'll just call out Tricia O'Neill as Captain Rachel Garrett. I think did a cool, great, fantastic, great job she did. The use of costuming in this is also so important. And then you can't talk about this episode without talking about Lieutenant Richard Castillo Christopher MacDonald from Happy gil Moore DVD that Jeff Johnson can never find on his resh because I lost it, but so many stand up performances. Uh and Wooby Goldberg as Gun and I think this is such a great episode. Especially the end scene gives me goose bumps.

28:38 She has so much more to do in this episode. She's actually vital to the to the story, which you know, usually it's more than just her giving advice to the bar. She finally has something to do in the episode, and that's great. It's amazing that this episode became out to be so as good as it is because this this was a mess behind the scenes to make. This was actually two scripts that they merged into one, and it was rewritten a dozen times by six different writers. You know, we all know that's usually the recipe for disaster, but it doesn't happen here. You know. One one of the scripts that they merged had them running into the The Guardian of Forever from the original series and had Sarah in it, and he had to go back in time and save Vulcan and become become the legendary Serac and and it changed all of history. And and that's where that part comes from. And then the other part. I can't really get into that other script because that goes into some of the spoilers for this episode.

29:37 You know, they merged them all together and it worked. It worked perfectly. Yeah, to go back to Gaynan what b Goldberg's performance is always stellar, Yes, but when we always talk about actors and how they can perform with their eyes, they don't have to say anything and they're able to pull off the emotions that we are able to feel as a you know, a viewer. She does that so well when she goes into ten Ford and you know what's seen him talking about if we can't say it, but you just you just feel the emotion there of just the glances that she gives and just incredible performance on her part. And yes, I just want to call her out again just as you did, Scott, because we b Goobery just did an incredible job in this episode. So many people put in impossible situations, absolutely impossible decisions that have to be made here, and this has a very important impact through the rest of the series. It does, Yes, it does. And we got to call out too that this did win an any Award for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series. I felt like they should have won a whole lot more awards because it's just done so well and the excitement when this first aired, you know, we all were looking forward to this episode. I remember exactly where I was all those years ago that that day.

30:48 It was the day of our sole and ensemble contest for the band and we had to be bust up to Lima and there was a huge lizard that day, and I was so upset that we weren't going to make it back to watch this episode. I went, I went to our band director, and I complained and I raised a fuss, and we made it back. We made it back just in time for me to watch the episode. And I took home the Blue Ribbon that weekend. So fantastic day. When when all right, we have a six pick for you and Scott, let's hear what that is. This one's called the Offspring. So the mission to seek out new life becomes personal for Data as he welcomes an android daughter into the world. He learns about life as a parent watching someone grow, and gets a new point of view on the challenges of life as an android. But when Starfleet intervenes, he finds out how much he would do for those he cares about. Most goosebumps you have. It's just go back to you having kids, Scott, How would you again? How would you feel? Be Data? So hard to talk about this episode without spoilers. Yeah, but there's a stand up performance by Helly Todd as Low Data's daughter and by Nicholas Coster as Admiral Hafdel. Obviously they're on they're on different sides. What should happen with Lall's future obviously kind of hangs in the balance. But we haven't seen any other Androids since Lore, and this brings attention to Data's place in

32:23 the universe, feeling isolated, feeling alone, thinking about his evolution that we saw in Measure of a Man right, that absolutely comes back in this episode with great effect. And Yeah, the the emotional arc what you see with Data is absolutely incredible, and you know, we're not going to spoil anything, but Brent Spiner's performance right up to that absolute final scenes when credits start to roll. Oh, it gives me chills. The emotion range that he portrays with an emotionless character arguably is phenomenal. That is one of my favorites.

33:09 Again, it goes back to what we talked about Will Big Goberd a little bit ago. It's it's that being able to perform without saying a word. It's it's it's it's such a talent man that some people have, and Brent Spiner clearly has that. It does You're right, I mean he's playing someone who doesn't have emotions, but yeah he does. He pulls it off so well. And we also have to mention Jonathan Frakes directed this episode, yes, yes, for his first time doing it, and now he directs so much Star Trek, which we love very very much because he's fantastic at it, which is why he's barely in this episode because he was busy behind the camera. But the one scene that he was in was her sterical yes oh yeah ye. And the way that he composes There's three characters, Jordie, Troy and Wesley that start the episode and they have a very important role towards the end of the episode and the way that their emotions uh, they kind of emote for Data, and it's that secondary That second scene has just done so well, Like you see this range of emotions from three different people on behalf of Data, who has his own you know, can't necessarily express those emotions or doesn't necessarily have those emotions, but wow, so impactful.

34:35 It's it's such a great episode. And you know this the second half of this season just was one great episode after the other. It's hard to believe that you know this, This episode the Offspring was not only was it a bottle show, this was this was their their bottle show for the season. They were saving a lot of money on this and you look and you see it, but it worked. But this was one of the scripts that was submitted to the open the open mission process. So this was just some some writer out there with no agent decided, Hey, I have an idea and send it in and this is what we got. And of course he would go on to write more a lot more episodes. But it's just it's so good. Right after yesterday's enterprise and we boom, we got this fantastic episode and there's there's that one big scene between ad will have to hold up a card and data when they're all in, you know, in the room talking together. Oh my goodness, performance is great by everybody there. Yeah, all right. The next episode, the seventh on our list, is Send to the Father, and this is written by Ronald D. Moore and Drew Dehan and directed by Les Landau. The Enterprise receives a Klingon first officer, a Commander Kern, through the Officer Exchange program, whose command style aggravates the crew. With Kern is confronted by Wharf. He has revealed that Kern is Yarf's younger brother and that on the Klingon Horn world, their father has been charged as a trader to the Empire by Durros. To clear his family's name,

36:05 Wharf travels to Kronos with Picard at his side to challenge the charges, but soon's discovered there are darker conspiracies happening behind the scenes of the Klingon Council. Once again, another huge memorable episode right at one right after the other. This is This is a big Klingon episode for the season, and one of the most important episodes not just for the nixt generation but for just Star Trek War altogether. This is the first time we see the Klingon Home World. It hasn't been named yet, it won't be named for another year. In Star Trek six they just call it the Klingon Home World here, but its real name is Kronos. By the way, it's the name that they came up in Star Trek six effect. It's great. It won It won an Emmy as well this season for Best Art Design. Richard James has designed for The Klingon a great Hall was phenomenal. It's just it's very epic story.

37:05 And then you know, we've got some incredible guest appearances, incredible performances. I think the big one that I want to point out is Tony Todd. He's a phenomenal actors actor. Uh. He plays Kerrn Wharf's brother. He appeared in so much uh uh, so many films and television. But he also would go on and play Kerrent again in Star Trek both this series and the Deep Space Nine. And he also played a few other characters. And one of my favorite characters that he played was an older Jake Cisco in the episode of The Visitor of Deep Space nine, which is probably one of the strongest episodes of that series. But he's just he's an incredible, incredible actor. Yeah, and Patrick Massi, who played d Roth, I thought he did a good too. He's he's he's great. And we also got Charles Cooper in this episode too. He plays Kim Pick. We just got done seeing him playing uh, General Cord in Star Trek five, and here he is again, and he's wearing the same outfit that he woren't Star Trek five, that cloak with all the pins, exactly the same thing. But why not? Now this this is a shining moment for Michael dorn in, a shining moment for Wharf. So many things happen in this episode, right Wayne, that sets up the future of the Klingons, and we're going to revisit, I know, uh an episode we're gonna be talking about later on, you know, not in this season, later season that you know,

38:36 it's going to come back to a lot of this stuff. And well that Tony Todd is in obviously, but man, what a performance with Michael Dorn here. There's just so many things to talk about that we can't talk about, especially on how this episode wraps up and stuff like that. But some moments between him and the card that we're just so well done, and just seeing the struggle that Wharf was going through here, not only finding out that he had a brother, but then the tension that's on the Enterprise between Riker and well clearly everybody on the Enterprise with him and what was going on at least in some good moments of his funny moments, but since seriousness too.

39:20 Great performance is all around. Yeah, and I think it's one of Michael Doran's favorite it is I could see why. Absolutely I'm gonna double down on Tony Todd as Kern. An amazing performance, an amazing character that he helped to build that becomes so important as we progress through the series. The set on Chronos is epic. I love that set. It is so good and such a great follow up to that previous episode where Riker was on the Klingon ship and seeing that from another point of view, the emotional walls that Kern and Wharf both have to kind of put up through this entire episode and ongoing it is this this season specifically is a great step forward for Wharf's character and for clean Ones in general. It is and you get that the car is always the captain, the leader, but here when they're on the Klingon world.

40:21 You know, when the Card steps up, you know, to assist Wharf, you know, the role's kind of reverse you a little bit because Wof is the one that really has to, you know, put the foot forward and you know, say what's going on, what he needs to do, and what the outcome of all of it is. The cards there to council him in this stuff. But you know it's it's really p Card taking that back seat a little bit and letting Wharf you know, take over because he has to, you know, but still p Cards there and does some really good things in this episode. It's really hard to because, uh, you know, Patrick Sewartt usually dominates the screen every time he's on there, but here he's he's taken the back seat. Michael dorn Has has the front and center and and just really performs incredible job. Ye all right, it's time for another break. Stay tuned, listeners, and we'll return after these important messages. Welcome back everybody, and we're going to continue with our eighth pick. David tell us what that is. It is the episode called The Most Toys Sounds like My life but no kidding. On our routine mission shuttling important material, Data's shuttle explodes, leaving everyone believing he is dead. However, Data awakens to find himself part of a collection by a crazy collector of original, unique, and one of the kind items. The Enterprise moves on, continuing their mission to help a colony while Data tries to find his way home and escape his capture. This episode, you know, caught me by surprise a little bit again. We're getting another great performance by Brent Spiner.

41:54 But Fajoe bet his name played by Saul Rubinik, such a fantastic job here. You really hate that guy, you know, and you're supposed to, you know, because he wants it his way and only his way. And when you see him try to control Data in this episode and Data doesn't want to have anything to do with that really leads to some really fun moments in this episode. Yeah, yeah, this, Oh my god, that's so hard to talk about. I know, so many important beats for Data. When you think about what I was saying before from the Offspring, with his his his ability to emote for an emotionless character. It is so powerful in this episode because there are so many moral dilemmas in this episode for Data and his his fight for you know, being seen as a being, not a piece of property, not a possession. Right, really really highlighted in this episode. You mentioned Saul Rubinik, such an amazing performance. Talk about characters that are done so well that you hate them so much, done with great effect, like his use of audible pauses, like when he takes a breath and it's kind of this like emotion change for him, done just so well,

43:28 just such an important part of this character. But I really want to make sure that we mentioned the original actor that was going to play Quibis Fajo, David Rappaport, in honor of his memory. He's a very important actor in my childhood, specifically time bandits As Randall just an amazing actor and unfortunately he was going through some struggles in the early filming of this, and I believe he attempted suicide a few days into filming. Unfortunately, he would commit suicide two months later, and that's when they had to bring sal Rubink in.

44:14 This is one of those episodes where I really impress on people. This is like an onion of an episode. So watch the episode itself, then look into some of the backstory of this episode, specifically some of the interviews that Brent Spiner has done talking about the development of this episode and his history with Saul. Knowing the connection that they shared before filming this episode really gives it a whole another layer too unpack and saw he did a phenomenal job for someone who has had to be brought in right at the last minute and thrown into filming to replace the original actor. The footage with David Rappaport is available to watch. It's on the Blu ray of the third season. They both put on a fantastic different performance to the character. It's it's kind of a nice so I'll look to see what if with such a sad story. Yeah, I find it interesting too in this episode when they're going through data stuff, it's the same stuff that he had packed when he was leaving in The Measure of a Man. Yeah, the same same items. I thought that was interesting, And the very final scene is one that for me, it just sticks with me, like there's a a non verbal exchange of looks between two characters that I won't mention, but it makes you think long after the credits roll, like you know, what really happened. Another thing too that

45:45 I also noticed in this episode was the shuttle pod that Data is flying is called the Pike A little no, Captain Christopher Pike. That's right, it's not a neat I love it when they do that stuff. It just it. It adds to the show so much more. Love it too, And they're finally able to do it this season as well. Right, all right, let's move on to our ninth pick. And I'm a little jealous that you got this one is It's one of my, if not my favorite from the season. So Scott, you tell us about it. Yeah, listen, I'm sure and have plenty to talk about. Yeah. Simply titled Sarah, directed by Leslandau, written by Peter S. Beagle and Mark Cushman.

46:28 In this one's Spock's father, Sarah is one of the most important Vulcans in Star Trek history. Aside from what we've seen in on screen. His diplomatic work has built or reinforced the foundations of the Federation, and his most recent mission on the Enterprise is focused on that same goal. As a preeminent Vulcan, Sarah's ability to control his emotions as an important part of his work. However, as Sarah arrives for this delicate mission. Emotions on the Enterprise are escalating and running a muck for some mysterious reason. The emotional and historical impact of this episode will be felt throughout the series. So hard to talk about without spoiling things. The emotional performances in this by Patrick Stewart and Mark Leonard am I saying that, right, that's right, correct, are just out of the park. Mark Leonard, of course playing the titular character of Sarah, who is just as legend who is just as legendary as the character he plays on Star Trek. Before he became Sarah, he played a rodulent commander in the original series as a balance of terror, which we recently saw was an important part of Strange New Worlds. He first appeared as Sarah in Journey to Babble If I'm not mistaken, and returned in several Star Trek movies.

47:40 I'm just skimming the surface way and I think You're gonna have a lot more to say. But his contributions to Bulkan culture and the Star Trek franchise are immeasurable, and it's easy to see why from just this episode. Oh yeah, yeah, and this is the first episode to directly reference and show the Balkan culture in the Next Generation first to show a mind mold. Yep, you know we we've they've avoided the Vulcans like the plague for the first two seasons. Now we finally get an episode with them, and I'm glad to see them fully involved in the Next Generation universe. That I love this episode. I loved it when it first aired. This is definitely my favorite episode of the third season. There's just so many fantastic scenes. And she said, like the scenes between Patrick Stewart and Mark Leonard are so powerful, so they are emotional. The one that stands out for me the most is the concert. There's there's a concert scene in the middle of the episode. It's the way it's shot is just so it's so stunning. It's, you know, we got this beautiful piece of music playing in the background, and you know, there's no real dialogue, it's just the camera movements, the cuts, and the emotions shown by the actors throughout the shot just tells the stories.

48:54 It's so beautifully done. Although Data does make a little mistake Harry actually uh names the piece of music they're playing wrong. Hey, even androids aren't aren't perfect They're not perfect, that's right. So yeah, to to speak about the performances again, and you know we're gonna keep deeling on this because Mark Leonard and Patrick Stewart are just at the top of their game, especially in this episode. But as we all know, Patrick Stewart is it what Shakespearean performer. He that's how he learned to become an actor. And you clearly see that in this episode. And you know what seeing him talking about I can't say it because I don't want to ruin it for our listeners, but just the emotions and stuff that this man has to go through and pull off on screen is just something to behold in this episode. Patrick Stewart is great in everything that he has done, but man, he really shows shines here. Man shines such a powerful performance. I know exactly what scene you're talking about. It is huge. You know, your viewers out there, first time viewers, you'll know exactly what we're talking about too, and you see it. It's Patrick Stewart. He puts on his most powerful performance of the series to the today. Yeah, and note too, is Picard mentions that he was at Sarah's son's wedding and you know who that is. Oh, that's right, Yeah, he talks about that. So I think patardsta was like twenty two years ago, which kind of funny. Twenty two years comes up again when yesterday's Enterprise was twenty two years as well. Interesting.

50:24 Huh, that's right. Yeah, all right. Let's move on to our tenth and final episode of the season of Starter Treks. David, you have the privilege of giving us this one. Gentlemen, thank you for letting me have this one. And once everybody sees this one, you're gonna know what we're talking about here. Resistance is Futile, Best of both Worlds, Part one, The Enterprise and its crew respond to a distressed call from a Federation colony. On arriving, it discovered the colony is gone, ripped from the very fabric of the planet. Quickly, the Enterprise meets up with another Federation ship, where they are joined by Admiral Hansson and Lieutenant Commander Shelby. It is quickly discovered that the greatest villain and threat to the Federation has arrived, the Borg. Lieutenant Commander Shelby remains on board the Enterprise as she has become sort of an Borg expert, and the ship and crew needs her expertise to survive a possible encounter. It isn't long, however, to when they discover the infamous Tube ship and the fight for survival begins. Gentlemen, I think you will both agree with me when I say this is the greatest cliffhanger in all the Star Trek. M Oh, yeah, definitely. When I watched this for the first time when it aired in nineteen ninety, that was the longest summer. I'm waiting for the second part. Ye my god. And we're not gonna give away spoilers, because man, does this have a cliffhanger

51:55 at the end that you're gonna be like, are you kidding me? Today? Said yeah today. For those who have not seen this, good for you that you get to see the second part right away. We couldn't. We had to wait the whole summer and it was mind boggling. But gentlemen, let's talk about Commander Shelby played by Elizabeth Denny, who does such a fantastic job. There is a scene between her and Riker when they're on the turtle lift that the friction between those two characters because Shelby wants his job, you know, and Riker doesn't really want to give that up because he loves being the first number one on the Enterprise under Pericard. But there's just some things that come up in this episode that you know, we're questioning for Riker.

52:42 You know, one of my favorite lines in this episode comes from the Admiral when he's talking to Picard and he's talking about Riker. You know, you know we've given you know, we've we've pulled out that direct that that Captain's cheer. He just doesn't want to sit. You know. I love that line, and you know, it brings up some stuff for a Riker that he has to deal with in this episode. But on top of that, he has to deal with so in this episode who keeps getting in his way? Like so much good stuff in this you know, this was basically what a sequel to Q who. Yeah, you know, and I know this was supposed to be like a three parter at one time, and I guess they had to pull back on it. It kind of still is if you really look at season four, and we'll get into it next episode.

53:30 But yeah, yeah, absolutely, but I don't want to give I don't want to talk about all of that gentlemen, please join me in the love of this episode. Please. But you know, there was a lot of rumors back then. You know, back then we didn't have the internets, and you know, we didn't have all this behind the scenes information. We had to get it from magazines or word of mouth. But you know, you watch this episode, you know we heard there were rumors that maybe Patrick Stewart was going to be written out of the series, that Riker was going to be taking over, and there were rumors that that Shelby was going to join the cast and be that the new first officer of the show. We didn't know that, I mean it from this episode, it could have it looked like that was what was going to happen. We never knew and having to wait three months. Oh my gosh, I was screaming at the television when the TV continued comes up. You know, how can you do this to us? You know, it's it's amazing the feelings we had back then.

54:22 Looking back, it's I laugh now. But it was a long, long summer of wait and when I think, when I think, you'll join me too in seeing how incredible the music was in this episode. Oh yeah, Ron Jones, uh you know, he gave us an incredible score, and you know, they also once again knew this was going to be a big episode. They put everything into it, and they doubled his budget, gave him a twice this big orchestra, seventy seven piece of orchestra, and it really shows he's a phenomenal composer. The producers hated him, but he was a phenomenal composer. And shortly after that they released it on CD, and I mean I went out rushed and bought it, so we all did.

55:06 Yeah. Yeah, this is one where I mean in terms of a cliffhanger specifically at the time, this is not like you know, holding on to that cliff with your you know, with both hands. It's one finger left on that cliff. It takes you right out to that line. Man. And you know, this is something that we're doing for first time listeners and for people who are coming back, and it's kind of you know, created pick shown our love and people come back and see it. But if it's your first time, at least try to wait twenty four hours, yes, before you see that next episode, because there's something that we're kind of missing in having that tension hang on. I haven't really felt that since Infinity War leading into endgame. Yeah right, I would have that amount of time that it just it helps a little bit to give the It gives that that part two more more weight, and there's there's something to be said for waiting on that. This is actually one of the times when I started recording episodes on the VCR, because at the time, not only do we not have the satisfaction of being able to see what happens next right immediately or wane to your point looking at the internet for you know, theories and facts and whatever, you didn't get to see it again until it was rerun in syndication.

56:28 And this is one where you really want to be like, what what did I just see? You watch it a couple of times. This has so much impact that's felt all the way through to Picard season three. It's it's such a journey for so many characters, one character in particular that I won't mention, but Riker as well, struggling with that, you know, why am I not going to my own ship? This is an important part in that. Yeah, and showing what he does in leadership roles, away teams and all this other kind of stuff. So yeah, it's it's so hard to talk about this, it is without getting into the the the resolution of it. But we're giddy. Yeah, we're also giddy about it because we know how good this is and what it did for us when we first saw this, you know, years and years ago. But the ramifications of this episode are to come, not just for the opening of season four, but you know, First Contact, the Star Trek, the Next Ration movie that I talked about is the best next Generation film. Yes, this has a lot of consequences in that film too, and Emissary as well, and Emissary absolutely. Yeah, there's just there's so much involvement in it. Now.

57:51 I remember when we talked about Q WHU, how all three of us, you know, we agreed on how you just get that atmospheric feeling of of of something huge is coming. You get that again in this one. I don't know if it just because because it comes with the Borg and its just how much of an incredible villain they are and just how almost impossible they are to beat, but it's just you get that again in this episode. You just feel it, like the hair standing on your you know, standing up as you're watching this episode because you know what's coming and what that crew has to deal with. Just incredible episode. And I had mentioned last season with q who that that episode felt like a teaser, and it was that it was a teaser for this. Yeah, I mean, this is this is what we wanted waited for. We wanted these board to come back, and we wanted to see a true confrontation right here it is. Yeah, and even Deep Space nine opens up with what we're gonna see uh in two partern Yes, which is interesting. You mention that because when I watched this episode before I watched part two, I stopped and watched at least the first part of DS nine. Yeah. Don't do that. Yeah, don't do that.

59:01 If you're a first time we don't do that. But if you have, try it out, take a taste and see an important event from another side. Yeah, there is. You guys know that. You know, I love photography. I love cinema work, and anytime they do incredible camera work in a movie, it just, you know, it just makes me love the episode so much more. The last shot in this episode, and I can't say what it is, but it's that that wrap around shot where it slowly moves in on the person and it slowly moves around in front of that person just to build that emotion intense of what's happening. And I love that shot at the end, freaking loved it. All Right, gentlemen, we've talked about our top ten episodes of season three on Star Trek the Next Generation, So now let's take a side step and chat about some of our favorite character moments. For season one, we chose Riker, Season two is Data, and now for season three, we're going to talk about what we think is our favorite moments for the enterprises kling On Security Officer war Scott wats your Pa, Prune Juice his first day, his first Days and Prunes and Yesterday's enterprise. It's a pretty minor thing in the context of how much happens for Wharf, but it comes up several times throughout the series. He shares a moment with where he opens himself up a little bit and tries something from Earth that he calls a Warrior's drink. There's so much of warf kind of exploring what it means to be Klon, but then there there are other aspects to it. There's a moment later when has a line where she says no

1:00:36 other Klingons laugh, you don't, but they do, and it's just getting him to kind of open up a little bit. But yeah, Prune Juice so so fun. That's a good choice. What about you, I tell you we give a Hoffman answer. Yes, there that I should struggle with in this episode. Both episodes were we've talked about. One is is the Enemy where? And again I can't say what it is because I don't want to give that away for our listeners if who's not seen the episode. But the struggle he had, the scene he had with Picard where you know, he was talking about and you know, Picard was telling him, you know, I could make you do this, but you know I'm not, or am I. It's your decision. Just the struggle that Warf had there right then and there, I just I love that. But the other one is, you know, talking about Warf having to make the decision that he does in Sins of the Father at the end of that episode. Just what he had to do there just blows my mind as a person, as a character, because he could have just blown that whole thing open, you know, and changed everything for the Klingons, but he didn't. He decided to you know, keep it internal and just you know, let it go on, and the performance of Michael Dorn had there in that scene just was just And again when Michael Dorman says, you know that was one of his favorite episodes, I can see why, because that set Wharf up to who he is

1:02:10 and and just sent him into that trajectory of where he's going with his character that we're going to see in the rest of the next generation and we're going to see in Deep Space nine and and on and on and on. You know, it's just it sets up so much from just the you know, that scene in itself. So that's why I have to I had to say both of those, Yeah, and I agree with you. I'm going to go with actually one of the same ones you mentioned, and that's the Enemy. I just it's that scene is so incredible, between the Wharf and the card. Yeah. There, it's it's such a choice that he has to make, and we were reminded that, you know, Warf isn't human and he's not bound by the same morals that we are. I know, Michael Dorn questioned the decision at first when he first got the script, thinking it would be more honorable to do the other. But he came around, and I think that was right. I just I love this scene. I think the whole episode's a strong episode for Warmth, especially that, So I agree with you, David on that one. Yeah, all right, now is the time we get to talk about our least favorite episode of the season, which this is a hard one. Now, listeners out there, you may like the episodes we chose, and that's okay. Everyone's allowed to have their favorites and their least favorites. But here are some of our least favorite moments from students three. So, Scott, what's your choice for least favorite?

1:03:34 For me? It was not easy. That's a good answer. Not easy. So The Price. There's an episode called The Price, and you've got great performances in there. Matt McCoy, who Seinfeld fans will recognize as Lloid Braun, gives a great performance. However, I do feel like the episode didn't resonate with me. Seeing how Troy is manipulated emotionally, it seems like it was almost kind of reductive of her character. Even though they're they're aspects of the episode that come up as important. It just felt like I don't know. It felt like it was it was giving Troy. It was it was almost a Troy centric episode, but the way it was Troy centric bothered me a lot. And I can't really define why. But you know, but you got the erotic oiling sequence on I think you just nailed it, Wayne. Thanks. She just I didn't know how to you just did, bab what about you? So it's really hard I struggled to find And I don't want to say any of these are terrible episodes because they're really not.

1:04:43 In this season. The only one that just did not resonate with me is Minaja Troy, the whole kidnapping plot by the FARRINGI. And you know, Michelle Barry is awesome as the Walk's on a Troy She yes, she really is. So don't let me say this is a terrible episode because I can't say that because there's some really good performances in here. And please don't shoot me Star Trek fans because I'm not a big fan of the FARINGI I'm not. I love Quark and Deep Space nine and I love what he did with that character, but I'm not a huge Feringi fan. So that attracted this episode for me as well. But yeah, just not a big fan of that episode at all. It's good, don't get me wrong, and a good great performances, but nah, it's okay. Yeah. I we'll definitely see more of that Ferangie evolution and redemption in DS nine, so just be patient. We'll get there. But I know I hear what you're saying.

1:05:39 Yeah, for sure, Wayne, what about you? This was a hard one for me too. There really isn't any clear cut terrible episodes this season. But I think I'm gonna go with an episode It's not terrible, it's just kind of boring. That would be the vengeance factor. It's just it's an average episode for the series. Nothing really excited happens in it. It's got some good guest actors at Lisa Wilcox, she was in Nightmare on Elm Street to three and four, but I assumeing four and five and you know, I get a little bit of a romantic scenes for Jonathan Frakes. But the thing is is it's just a blot episode stuck right in the middle of all these fantastic episodes. So that's my choice. Yeah, as you say, it was a tough decision. For all of us. You know this is a great season, so how can you pick a least favorite episode when they're all pretty decent? Yeap, All right, listeners. I want to thank everyone for tuning in with us for our top ten picks of the Next Generation Season three, and we appreciate everyone listening in and supporting us. David Scott, thank you so much for joining me on the battle Bridge our pleasure.

1:06:47 Yeap oh, it was a good time course. Our hailing frequency are always open for you to share your thoughts and questions on social Let us know what you think about our choices and share your thoughts on what you think I think should have been in our top ten. Who knows you might be mentioned in a future a show. You can email us a Film by Podcast at gmail dot com, find us online at a film by podcast dot com, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And if you're looking for more exclusive contact or swag, you can join our Patreon and find out what exclusive gyms are hidden within. We'll see you next time when we bring you more phasers set to stund