Phasers Set To Stun: Top 10 Episodes from Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4

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 Stunman, Hello, and welcome back to Phasers Set to Stun. In this ongoing series from a film by a podcast, we focus on every quadrant of the expanding universe of Trek by covering television, animation, movies, directors and more.

0:50 Lodon the course, as always, is your core Trek crew. I'm Scott Hoffmann, I'm David Burns, and I'm Wayne Whited. Welcome back everybody. And then this episode, we're continuing with Starter Treks. A spoiler free curated episode list of the top ten episodes you can watch is a great way to get into each series. After listening to this episode. You can find that list in the description below. We're going to talk again about Star Trek the Next Generation continue that season four, And just to be clear, when we're talking about these top tens, we're talking about the top ten episodes to watch an order of appearance, not necessarily the order of preference, so it's all in chrinological order. And before we go into season four too much, we should start by talking about the conclusion of one of the best two part arcs in Star Trek history. Without getting into spoilers for that conclusion, whichuld be very difficult our viewers technically haven't seen it yet. Let's talk about our thoughts on that episode overall, Dave, Well, obviously, the biggest one is Wolf three five to nine. You know, we're going to come back to that quite a bit throughout the series. Even in the card we're going to hear about it and have some really good dialogue about what happened at Wolf three five nine. But another thing that I really loved about this episode, it's a very good conclusion, I should say, to the two parter. It lives up to the cliffhangar that we saw from season three. And well, one of the things I really like about this was commanded Rectors a brilliant tactics that he shows in this, and you know, it shows that he should

2:23 be a captain. There's just no doubt about that. That the man deserves his own ship, and he proves it over and over, especially in this episode. But I'm glad he's still here. With us. Oh yeah, this, Yes, we got to have record. Yeah, I mean Shelby is brilliant and everything, but I think it's a god said we had Riker at the helm. Ye, Wayne, what about you? For the most part, I think it succeeded. Back when it first aired, I was I loved the episode, but I was kind of disappointed that it wasn't a third part three parter. I felt that it was a little rushed. But now, you know, looking back in hindsight, you know, with that first contact that gets Star Trek Picard season three, I think it's perfect.

3:05 Right now, I've changed my opinion. I love it. There's so many great scenes in it. I love the stakes that the episode brought up for Riker, for Picard. It's it's the perfect Star Trek conclusion. Yeah, it's in the stakes that you bring up to it's the stakes for Starfleet. I mean, what happens, and it's just a lot of devastation that they have not seen a long time. Yeah, that scene with the aftermath math of well three five nine, that's really devastating and it had such a huge impact back there in nineteen ninety when we were watching it. Sure did it and keep that in mind when we start to talk about Deep Space nine, because literally the first scene of the first episode gets into Captain Benjamin Cisco in that battle. Yeah, so it's it's very interesting how that all connects and comes back later. So obviously, first time viewers please watch that before getting into anything else this season. We're going to talk a lot about things that would be considered spoilers if you haven't seen part two. So if you've been able to wait this long, you've got a lot of willpower. Congratulations, but pause here if you need to, and then come back for more.

4:23 Speaking of this almost being a three parter, the first episode that we picked to talk about is in some ways considered to be almost kind of a part three of this. To me, it feels like an epilogue for the best of both worlds. Yeah, and it works that way. I like this episode. Yeah, it kind of Like I said, I was disappointed it was not a three parter, but this kind of fills in that gap. It does exactly so. That first episode is called Family. As the Enterprise crew recovers from the previous episode, we got some personal perspective on four key members of our crew, Wharfs, Optive, parents visit the ship for the first time since his discommendation. Beverly Crusher has to revisit the past as she gives Wesley a message from his father, Jack, who left behind a recording for Wesley to watch when he was old enough. We also get a visit with Picard's family on Earth, his nephew, his brother, and his sister in law at the the card Vineyard. He thinks about all that he's been through and contemplates his future with Starfleet. Both Wharf and Picard and Beverly and Wesley have so many powerful moments in this episode in very different ways, and each one is important for the series and their character arcs overall. Written by Ronald D. Moore and Suzanne Lambdon, directed again by lesland Now, who notes that this is his favorite episode of Next Generation. It could apparently also be known as Data's Day Off because it's the only episode that doesn't have Data appear, and when you hear Brent Spiner talk about his days of making the

5:59 show, it's a well earned rest for any one of them. But I know this is one that correct me if I'm wrong. But this could be called one of the Bottle episodes. We've been talking about and we'll talk about a few this season, and what that means is that the production is a little less extensive and therefore a little less expensive to create. There's a lot of big special effects. It's very self contained. Wayne, what are your thoughts about this episode? I love this episode. I loved it when it first aired. I think it's a great epilogue to Best of Both Worlds, a great pause in this series. I mean, it was such an emotional, such a huge impact Best of Both Worlds. We needed this episode to take a breather, you know, I know that. You know behind the scenes, Geene Roddenberry hated this episode. He did not want them to make it, and they fought. Both the producers fought to get it and it changed their way they worked with with Roddenberry after that, and I'm glad that they succeeded because they gave us an incredibly emotional episode, especially with the card.

7:05 Plus we get to see Worfe's parents and that's fantastic. Yeah, yeah, they were. They had such great performances in this one. I love his parents so much. I do too, But they're the parents that everybody wants, you know, they they They're lovable, they're caring. They won't be there for you, but they will embarrass you to you at the same time, even though they don't really mean to do that, because they care about you so much. They were a perfect couple of perfect perfect parents were worf. I think one of the lines in it absolutely loved was when he was waiting for the beam on board and he was basically, you know, I wish it would I wish it would start to get end sooner. I left so hard about that. But no, this is a really good character driven episode. And just as Wayne said, you know, it's not only for the characters to catch their breath for Starflee to catch their breath for too.

8:00 As an audience. Because of what we just went through with the best of both worlds, we really needed this, but the character did too, and the card we really we really get to see him in a way we've not really seen him before, you know, in an environment that we've not seen before, where he's not the captain, you know, and he's just a brother to somebody, he's just an uncle to somebody, you know. And I love the dialogue that we got there with all of them, and so much comes into play, and I can't say anything because as the first motion picture of Star Trek, Generations deals a little bit with this episode, Yeah, it does, and you know, so when we move on to that, you know, we'll obviously come back to this episode a little bit when we talk about Generations. But yeah, I love this one. I think everybody knocked it out of the park in their performances, and we got to know them more than we have, so I loved it. Yeah, there's a very poignant moment with the car and his brother toward the end.

9:01 I can't say what happens, but it's a very interesting application of I guess you could call it makeup in that scene. Given what we remember about the best of both worlds. It also seems like, you know, Picard is faced with some personal choices about you know, it's almost like a sliding doors kind of thing. You know, what if I had gone this way instead of that way, which almost comes up again in a future episode called The Tempest, where Picard kind of comes face to face with some of those choices. So I wonder thinking about those episodes together other kind of shape things. I know, Jeremy Camp was awesome. Whatever Picard, he whoever casted him, casted that perfectly because you needed that that rough brother who you know pushes around Picard, which we've not really seen, you know, you know, push it around John Luke, but you know we see that, and you even see Jean Luke kind of like, you know, I don't want to see it, afraid of his older brother. But there's just that that tension, that pressure there between the two of them, you know, which comes off really well on screen. But I also love the relationship between Jean Luke Piccard and his nephew. I loved how each other called uncle and nephew.

10:13 You know, he'd call him uncle and the nephew would call him nephew. I love a lot of fun so much it was. It was so much fun. And one thing I want to point out here, I don't know if you guys know this or not, but the kid that plays Renee, he actually plays Captain Piccard in a future episode, which I'm sure we're going to talk about the same actor, yep, yeah, yeah, And there we got a really unique look at the enterprise to that shot with it in the dry dock. I love that shot. Now, I'm not sure if you guys remember this, But way back in nineteen ninety when this episode was airing, like the day or two before that, there was a show on ABC called Primetime Live that aired a behind the scenes look at the making of this episode. Was hosted by Deforce Kelly, and they showed how that shot was made. They showed, well, they showed a lot of stuff about the making of the episode, but the shot of the Earth behind the Enterprise is an actual satellite shot of the Earth. That's a real shot of the Earth. Yeah. That always stuck in my mind because I mean, I was big into Star Trek then I wanted to learn everything about it, and when that aired, I had to watch it. All Right. Well, Dave, I'm jealous to pass the torch to you for this next episode.

11:24 Why didn't you tell us about a number two pick? Yeah? Number two pick is called Brothers, directed by Rob Bowman and written by Rick Berman. A practical joke on the Enterprise renders one of its children on board in serious danger, forcing the ship to star Base four one six to help in his recovery. However, the ship is hijacked by none other than one of its own data. The crew scrambles to try and figure out how to stop him and what he is up to while a young boy is slowly dying. It isn't long until Data transports himself down to a planet or to his surprise, discovers more than what he could possibly imagine, you know. So, Brent Spiner, we've talked about him so many freaking times on the performances that he brings to the table. He plays three parts in this and I don't want to say any more than that because I don't want to ruin it for anybody.

12:13 Well done, But he does such an incredible job guys, And we said it before, but man, he can just turn that switch off and on, off and on like it is nothing. I mean, to him, it might have been a bit different story. You know. He's probably you know, nervous on how he was able to switch up, you know, but man, he does it so freaking well, just so impressive on his performance that he brings in this again, Yeah, I can't speak enough about this episode just because of that and what we get to see more of. And I know this is where the was it the emotional chip is that what it's called. That's where this gets it start. And obviously we'll have a lot more to deal with that later on down the road, especially in generations. Yes, especially generations again, right, this is this is one of my go to episodes. I don't know why, but whenever I I've been out of Next Gen for a while and I feel the need to dip back in, this is one that I always pull off the shelf. It is amazing. Davey did a great job of tiptoeing around spoiler territory. So hard to do it. It's almost like we need a recap to say, like, Okay, here's all the stuff that we can geek at about.

13:24 But the initial sequence when he's hijacking the enterprise is so fast and so brilliant, like every step that he takes to go through that, And it's just interesting when I watch it thinking about how I've heard that Brent Spiner does a great Patrick Stewart impression, and when he has to emulate his voice for that, I'm like, did they ad r that or did they just say Red, go ahead and do your pack. There's so much development for data here, there's so much I think, element for Brnce Spiner in his range, and it's such an important episode and there's a lot of tension that builds there in just the right time. Yeah, knowing what, it's hard to say anything else, So I'll just stop Wayne, what about you? No, you know, I love the twist ending. But you know, it's probably good that Brince Speiner had that episode off last the week before because all this stuff he has to do in this episode. To imagine the behind the scenes work that had to go into just putting this episode together, I can't even get my mind around it. I agree with you, Scott, I I love this episode. This is this is one of the best of the season because in my opinion, because of Brnce Speiner and his performance, it's just it's absolutely phenomenal. Shows the range of what he can do. You know, there's a lot going with this episode. But you know, as you

14:56 mentioned, David, this episode was written by Rick the executive producer. That actually caused a little bit of behind the scenes turmoil with the music. Yeah, Ron Jones, I'm sorry. He did the music for this episode and he had a little bit of a problem with the recording of it. He was planning on using something some sort of state of the art piece of equipment, this new synthesizer, and when they went in to record it. It failed and the entire musical session was unusable. And you know, they made these episodes so close to the air day. This episode was being still being worked on a week before it aired, and this was devastating, and he ended up having to go and hire the orchestra again and reperform all new written music, all out of his pocket. He had to pay for the entire thing out of his pocket. And since he was already hated by Rick Berman and Berman was looking for some way of getting him fired, this was like the worst episode that he could have done that for and it was basically strike one for him, which we'll see I'll mention later on in the season.

16:04 This will come to effect. But it's a great score. You know, I love the music this. I love talking about the music. So you hear a lot about that over the episodes. But that's a little bit of the behind the scenes stuff going on there. Yeah, to go back to a little bit what you were mentioned earlier about Brin Speiner and his performance in this I know him and Rob Bowman like rehearsed and blocked all of those scenes. It took him three days, just the two of those to get that figured out. When you see this everyone listeners, you don't understand why it probably took them three days to get this film Hurst and blocked. Yeah, definitely. Well, you know, I'm gonna mention one other thing to all of our Bourbs fans out there. Oh hey, Johnson, I'm looking at you. Ricky. Butler says you should watch this episode to see if you recognize any familiar faces. Yeah, just great performances all around, all right, Wayne, take us to number three. Number three is remember Me.

17:04 It was written by Les Sheldon and directed by Cliff Bull. Originally aired on October twenty second of nineteen ninety The Enterprise docs at starbas one thirty three, where Doctor Crusher welcomes her longtime friend doctor Dalen Quais on board, but shortly after, doctor Quas vanishes without a trace and nobody seems to remember his existence, that is, except for doctor Crusher. And when further members of the Enterprise crew began vanishing without a trace in memory, Beverly begins to suspect that it may have something to do with her son Wesley's warp bubble experiments in engineering. You know this episode, it's one of my personal favorites from the season. Basically because I like Gates McFadden. I was so happy that she had returned, and she gets the majority of this This is her episode. It's also got that beautiful visual effect at the beginning I was created for Star Trek three and it was used during the first season. But I like that shot of the star bas the Enterprise enter in the Star base. But this this episode was actually originally written as part of the episode Family. There were supposed to be three ongoing stories and this was going to be the third episode.

18:15 But they liked it, and they felt that Family was a little bit crowded with that much going on, so they moved it out and gave it its own episode sense. But again, also just like Family, this is one of the bottle episodes of the season. If you really look at it, you can tell. I mean, most of the visual effects are all reused, very little guest stars, and it pretty much all takes place on the Enterprise. It's a great feature for Gates McFadden. I mean, she's in it solo for about forty percent. Phenomenal episode. Somebody needs to tell Wesley he needs to stop doing things because it keeps happening. These nothing but problems they got to get rid of him the experiments, Yeah, which came in handy in the previous episode. Yeah, a little bit of a cheat, but yeah yeah. And also you know, I also point out at Gates McFadden, she performed all her stunts in this episode and you'll see there's a there's a big one in here. And then she also discovered that right after finishing her stunts she was pregnant. Yeah boy, yeah, yeah, Wayne, I love that you love this episode because it's another one, but I consistently pull off the shelf. This is one that I'd actually recommend that viewers watched twice because once you discover it for the first time, it has this great twilight zone aspect of it. It does a lot of doubt, a lot of what actually is happening that you don't catch on to until maybe like three quarters of the way through the episode. But when you watch it a

19:47 second time and you pick up on the little breadcrumbs that are telling you what's happening, slows you as it goes along. Really kind of it starts to unravel, and it's just so satisfying. I think, God bless Gates. We're going to talk about doctor Crusher a lot here and this is a standout performance. She is taken to the brick with this one. I think it's safe to say without spoiling too much. Well, it also shows you her intelligence and her brilliance on how she figures things out, because which is where West gets it from too, you know, so you can see why he's her son and why she is his mother. You know, they go hand and hand on their intelligence. And I love how she figures it out.

20:32 And I don't want to give away anything. It's probably said too much right there, but still it's a really good episode for Doctor Crusher. How of might give away that's it's, you know, my favorite episode of hers for the season obviously, but I thought she did fantastic job. Another thing, too, is Eric is Menuk I believe is how you pronounce this last thime who plays the Traveler. He originally auditioned for the role of Data. I don't know if you guys knew that or not, but he got be up by Prince Spiner. I can see him playing Data, but I think Prince Spiner deserved the part. Oh gosh, yeah, without question. Yeah, I don't know if Eric has the same comedic roots that Brent does. But I think there's there's a lot to being able to be so to pivot so quickly and to adapt so much. I'm sure that it's not you know, it's nothing that Eric could not have done, but I think Brent is perfectly positioned for what he got. Definitely, yep. Absolutely, Well, before we get into number four, let's take a quick break and when we'll come back, we'll keep going through the starter tracks. Okay, we're back.

21:45 Let's talk about number four, and I'll take us into this episode called Reunion. In this one, Ambassador Klar returns to the Enterprise as tensions continue to escalate on the Klingon home world of Chronos. She's returning because Kempek, the leader the High Council, is dying, and Kempec wants Picard to find out who's responsible while helping to mediate succession of the next leader of the Empire, Doros or Gowrom. On this mission, Wharf looks forward to seeing the woman he loves, but he doesn't know that her visit will change his life in more ways than he can ever imagine. Written by Thomas Perry and Joe Perry, directed by the One and Only Jonathan Frakes. There's a lot of important things to tiptoe around here, and it's stuff that happens in like the first what fifteen minutes, a lot of firsts, a very important Lingon centric episode.

22:41 I was surprised to learn this is the first time we see at battles m h. Yeah, it's very interesting, a very cool weapon if you if you understand that kind of arch weapon. And Wayne, is this the first appearance of the Vorcha classic Cleon Cruiser. Yes, it is the first new Klingon ship that they built. It was one of the three new models that were built this year. The Nebula class and the Cardassian battle Cruiser was the other two. But yeah, this episode really expanded a lot on the Klingons and Gludender ships. Yeah, this whole season is leading into the Klingons heavily, as we're gonna see as we move through this list. Yes, oh my god, done so well. I've got to call out standout performances.

23:22 Susie Plaxon as Klar. Yeah, I love Susie's performances every single time. Yep. Robert O'Reilly as go oh yeah, you will stare through your soul. Yes, I'm like God, and he's an important character. You'll see him a lot more through this season or through this series and through Deep Space nine. Absolutely, yes, Yes, great performances there, Dave, whatever, what are the thoughts you have about Regina? There's there's just so much build up we're starting to see already. You know, we thought it last season, just starting a hint of it, of what was going on with Klingons, and now we're getting more and more of that. Now. You're right, Scott, there's so much that we got tiptoe around here. We can't say too much of what happens in this episode because there's just so much that goes on in this one that just moves us forward to the next few episodes that we're going to see and how this season is going to end.

24:14 But yeah, kudos to Susie Plaxon for Klar because she was awesome. You know the fact that you know this is what her third time, second time in this role. I thought she did a fantastic job in this. In her chemistry with Michael Dorn as Wharf just continued to just show on screen between the two of them, and I just thought it was absolutely incredible of what the what they showed us. Yeah, I think it's a great idea to have the relationship between them, with her being half human and him being raised by humans for so much of his life yep. And this being such a big episode for a wharf and for the Cleons in general, so to have her perspective specific is is vital to WARF's development. Wait, don't what about you. This is just such an important episode. You can't. You can't skip it. Whether whether you love the Klingons or you hate them, you have to watch this episode. It's just too important to the whole Star Trek lore. This This was the first episode that was written by Brown and Braga, who I always thought was one of the best of the Star Trek writers. He wrote so much of Star Trek coming up in the future, like one hundred different episodes, and he wrote jud Generations. He wrote First Contact, and he started off with a bang. I mean, this is just I can't mention too much about this episode. There's so much going on

25:47 that we have to get around. You can't believe you. Just let me just say this. Just watch it. Just go and watch it, Okay, know, go watch it. Dave take us to number five, all right, final mission, directed by a corel written by Casey Arnold Enz and Jerry Taylor. The time has come for Wesley Crusher to leave the Enterprise and head for Starfleet Academy, but before he does, he joins Captain Picard on one last mission, a mission that puts them in serious danger when they are forced to land on a nearby moon, where they find themselves in a dire situation. Meanwhile, the Enterprise is sent on a rescue mission to help save a planet from a ship that had suddenly arrived in orbit and is threatening. That are very survival you know, as much slack as or a munch flack.

26:33 I should say that Wesley Crusher has gotten over the years. He was fantastic in this episode. Yes, I loved his relationship between him and Picard here, and some of the dialogue that we see between the two of them towards the end of this episode really made Will Wheaton shine in this episode and it made me appreciate Okay, there was probably some episodes that I didn't like his character, But when we get to this episode and another episode we're going to talk about next season, I guarantee we're gonna be talking about it as some of his finest moments and made me appreciate him through the other seasons.

27:15 And I was glad that he was there, and it was sadden me, you know, to see that he was moving on. But he needed to, you know, moving on to Starfleet Academy. You know, it was the proper movement. And I believe Will Wheaton wanted to go on to be in movies, and I think they used this opportunity to write off his character. I think you're right, yeah, which you know I hated to see at this moment, because he was finally coming into his own, you know, on the ship. He was becoming a good character with the people around him and they were leaning on him and needing him. And I really loved this episode just between the Carton and Crusher. I'm glad you brought that up too, because you know, Will Wheaton takes a lot of ribbing over the years, and he's he really is a good actor. Oh yeah, it was so much that it wasn't his acting that was the problem. It was just that a lot of the writers just didn't know what to do with Wesley and or or they just didn't write Wesley properly. And here this episode is a great example of him being written properly, written with a lot to do, with a great emotional impact. I'm glad that he got one final great episode for his last regular episode. It's seen as soon as he put on that Starfleet uniform, he became a very important character, and they started writing him better lines and writing him better stories that we appreciated. Yeah, I feel like this is obviously a very important episode for Wesley. I feel like behind the scenes, as I'm thinking back to some of the dialogue that he

28:48 has with Captain Picard that's so poignant, it almost feels like Patrick Stewart speaking directly to Will. It is knowing how much there was kind of that familial relationship that I think built behind the scenes. Knowing how much he had grown up on the set and he's being watched by this kind of other figure. It had to be very, very difficult to film. And I've got to give credit to Will Whedon knowing what he was going through at the time, Knowing what he had gone through and and how much he loved the Star Trek crew and the actors on the set, the crew. It's it's very interesting how much of a dynamic we see here with Wesley kind of growing up and taking a stand. There's this Captain Durgo who is as a shuttle shuttlecraft captain the companies of them on this trip, and just kind of the almost the antip card like seeing a lot of the qualities there that that Picard doesn't bring as a captain, and Wesley's standing up for that and standing up for himself and the decisions that he makes. Got to applaud Will Whedon for this episode.

30:19 Very important his arc. So absolutely don't mess this one. The dialogue between Wesley and Picard. You know we've mentioned before, but did I know that's the first time that boothb is mentioned, and obviously you know it's going to come you know, into play in the next season. But the one line that I just it just gave me chills and almost teared me up is when Picard looked at him, he goes, oh, I envy you, Wesley, Crusher, You're just the beginning of the adventure. I love that line so much and such an impact it has between those two characters, because because remember because they get this child off my bridge, you know, when we saw in season one, and how much their relationship has grown and just comes to this point and so expertly written, Like the even the title when you first see it, like we've lost some big characters at this point, right, and the cliffhanger that we just recovered from it kind of feels like nobody's really safe. So when it's titled final Mission, you're kind of like, oh, damn, yeah, what's going to happen here? There's a line after that, Dave and I totally agree that's that's such a great performance when Wesley is walking away at one point and Picard says to him, I've always been so proud of you. That's such an important moment for the two of them. Just too many good things to say with us. And I

31:49 also want to mention because this season had some great guest stars all throughout the year, but I want to bring up this episode's main guest star, and that's Nick Tate. He did a really good performance in this episode. He actually was one of the stars of another great sci fi series that I love, Space nineteen ninety nine. You played it Alan Carter during its two seasons, so it is meat saying him and I remember it was a big deal too. I mean, the TV Guide made a big deal about him appearing on the show, but you know he'll he'll appear again. I think he comes on and I think he was on Deep Space nine for episode or so if I remember right. But I had to point him out because he's phenomenal in the episode. Absolutely, all right, Wayne, take us to number six, all right. The sixth episode is Clues, written by Bruce d Arthurs and Joe Minelski and directed by Les Landau. It aired on February eleventh, nineteen ninety one. When the Enterprise is investigating a planet in the Nagambi Nebula, the crew are knocked unconscious by a mysterious wormhole. According to Data, the crew were only unconscious for a mere thirty seconds, but events are discuss that forced the crew to believe that Data may be lying to them, and they were unconscious for far longer than he has led them to believe.

33:07 You would give me this episode because I have to go on record say, and this is not one of my favorites this season. I just I find well, I this is time. This was this was in nineteen ninety one, and there was another show that I had just started watching at the time, and that was a Red Dwarf. This episode is so similar. It's nothing. I think that I've watched him like in the same month that I recognized it right way. There's there's an episode in that that series is very, very similar to this, where they wake up without any memory and then they discover clues to say they they'd lost their memory longer than what they believed and only Holly knows what happened to them. It was during the second season of the show. Thanks for the memory I had. I had to pull it on my head there, and I just I wasn't that impressed. It's it's not a bad episode. There are no bad well let me rephrase that, there's only one bad episode this season, and I'll get into that.

34:07 But this isn't a bad episode. It's an interesting episode. It's just not one of my favorites. It's like like last season, it's a in my opinion, it's a mediocre episode in the middle of all these great episodes. And that's nothing against the writer this. The writer for this episode was brought in through the open submission policy that I mentioned earlier, but the whole thing had to be like completely rewritten because they had to write out the character Wesley he was in it. And again because for some reason, we're choosing them all this episode. This is another one of the Bottle episodes. You know, this just pretty much just has the main cast and no guest stars and just the Enterprise as the sets. I don't know, just this season seems like all the Bottle shows are the great episodes. Yeah it does. I think I thought this is and I know what you're talking about with the red dwarf thing, but I still like the episode. I like how we have a really good mystery going on and it keeps you guessing of what's happening because you know, Data is lying and he's getting caught in those lies and does an android lie? What? You know, what is he doing? What he's protecting is something? I'm wrong with him? So many good scenes, you know, between the card and Data and in some of the other cast members on what was going on, and you know, I thought that led to a brilliant ending of what had happened and then starting it all over again.

35:29 I just thought that was pretty cool. Oh, and you're right, the cast is great, fantastic, It's this Patrick Stewart, Brin Speiner on our wonderful in it and it's it's does have a good mystery. Yeah, yeah, I think this is one of the episodes. It reminds me a bit of Remember Me, because there's that mystery that doesn't kind of unfold, you know. It feels like there's that kind of you know, two for watching on this one where you you really should go back and then see, like, you know, how does data kind of dance around the the issue that he has to manage. I think it's it's very interesting how it almost kind of builds on the most toys. Yeah, that last scene when he's like, oh, maybe something happened in transport and you're like, I never thought about the connection. You're right? Is he kind of like selectively going through that And that reminds me of Spock's character in Undiscovered Country, which we'll talk about at some point, where he chooses like a way to characterize something so it's not exactly a lie, it's an exaggeration, right. The way that he has to kind of dance around that almost to the the point where there's talk about disassembling it and you know, stripping, stripping him down to his buyers to find out what's going on, and he staunchly believes in like, yeah, I know, yeah, I have to protect the truth.

36:55 So that's what's happening. And Brent Spiner again a great foremants in just being so matter of fact as data and just calm and cool approach to the to the situation. It's very interesting. Let me take us to number seven. This one is called the Drumhead. So this is one of the best courtroom episodes I think in Next Generation, and it's filled with intrigue. Yeah, let me try to dance around this without spoiling thing. A Klingon Exchange officer is accused of selling secrets to the Romulents, and a disaster and engineering temporarily cripples the enterprise. To help investigate these incidents that seem to be related, a retired admiral and legal legend visits the enterprise and begins to discover begins to uncover more suspicious incidents. This episode is a fascinating perspective on events that continue to unfold in the series, but the message behind this episode is extremely important for the Federation. Yeah. Oh, it's so hard to talk about this episode without spoiling that's a good one. Admiral Satti. It does a phenomenal job. Gene Simmons in that role, She's wonderful. Just it's it's like a certain point you're kind of like, I love this performance, but oh this person bothers you so much that scene at the end that you know what I'm talking about, not going to say it wow performance man, Yes,

38:30 yes, another example. It ends on a pin drop, right. Yeah, she's another example of the great guest stars this season brought in. It's She's phenomenal. Yeah. Written by Jerry Taylor and Ronald D. Moore, directed again by Jonathan Frakes. Well done, sir, Yeah, I know this is one of Michael Dorn's favorite episodes. Ye. I can see why, and you can see why. It's a It's another one, Dave. I think you had mentioned, you know, dialogue between Wharf and Picard, and this is one of the more powerful ones and his struggles I think we've talked in previous seasons. Oh my god, that's the scene between the two of them in the meeting room when Picard was telling him you know where this is going, right, you know what is happening here? And you know it's Man, I got chills now, just to get some of that dialogue between the two of them, and yeah, the card is right that what was going on trial here and where this was leading was going in some serious dangerous territory and that is what Picard is trying to warn here. And then when he gets you know, what happens to him too, it's just like, oh my god, this is exactly what Picard was warning about and it is happening. Yeah. Yeah, it definitely sets a lot of in terms of wharfsparc h. This helps to kind of fuel that tension that we're going to continue to see yep into the finale. Yeah, and so good, just like emoting help. Right, we're not even out of the season.

40:06 And we talked about earlier about best of both worlds too, about Wolf three five nine is going to come up again. It already comes up here in this episode. Yeah, yep, and this is this is again another bottle show and this is this is far better than what it deserves to be. I mean, bottle show shouldn't be this good. And you know, funny that the studio actually wanted them to make a clip show. They wanted to Oh god, studios. The producers really had to convince Paramount that we don't want to do that again, please, you know, we want to do this. Thank god they did this. Look what we got from this incredible. Ye. I think Jonathan Frakes even mentioned that he took a couple he stole some uh some stuff from courtroom films, like including Judgment at Nuremberg and the Cane Mutiny, which, funny enough, William William Shatner was in I don't know if anybody knows, but he was in The Star Trek too.

40:59 But what Yeah, but yeah, Jonathan Franks admits that he took some of that when you were directing this and it works so well. Yeah, And let me also bring this up to here. This is the last episode that was scored by Ron Jones for the series. He was fired right after this episode. You know, I explained the problems earlier about what happened with brothers, but you know, he was on the producer's ship list, really is what it was. You know, he had problems. There was another episode earlier called Night Terrors, where he wrote a credible score for it with a four full piece choir, sixteen piece background choir, and Rick Berman heard it.

41:40 Hated it, absolutely hated the score because it stood out you know, he believed that music should be in the background, should be wallpaper to the episode, and having the choir there made it stand out too much. So they toned it down to the point where you couldn't even hear the music. They put sound effects over the choir, They took out a lot of it. And then he went to the studio and said, hey, look look at all the money this guy spent and wasted by hiring all this choir. And that gave them the opportunity to finally get rid of Ron Jones. And that was a pity because he was such an incredible composer for the series, you know, And if anybody wants to hear his music and the music that wasn't even used, it is out there on CD for you to get.

42:22 And as much as I love music, Wayne, I know you appreciate as much as I do too. It just it breaks my heart to hear something like that, It really does. Yeah. Yeah. Another thing is I love talking about cinematography in certain camera shots in movies and episodes and stuff like that. There's one shot in here that I absolutely loved and it added to the drama that was going on screen, and that's when the card's giving his speech in the courtroom, and the camera slowly tracks from right to left, just moving very slowly as he's giving that speech. I just thought that camera shot just added so much attension to his dialogue. I loved it well. And the fact that that's kind of designed to follow the arc of the kind of the semi tribunal that's sitting around him. Yep, brilliant was great.

43:10 Great, A lot more ahead of us to talk about. It's only three more episodes, but oof a lot to him. So let's take a quick break and come back with number eight. All right, we're back, Dave, take us to number eight. I would love to Half a Life Directed by Les Landau, written by Peter Allenfields and Ted Roberts. Walks on a Troy, Deanna's mother is on board the enterprise when doctor Timyson, a highly celebrated researcher for his people, arise with hopes trying to save his planet Kaylon two's dying son. When the mission fails, they must return to Klon two. All the while, both doctor Timyson and walks on a Troy have gone closer to one another. However, despite the new romance between the two, it seems that according to his planet's a culture, he must complete the Resolution, a ritual where he must kill himself, as everyone does when reaching the age of sixty. The Prime Directive prohibits Captain Picard from intervening, but when doctor Timoson asked for asylum, it puts Picard in the cruise of the Enterprise in a dangerous situation. I've got to say, this is a really good episode. But when it opens up with Picard trying to step out of the turbo lift and he's like looking around trying to you know, who he's looking for. I laughed so hard at that because she was obviously trying to avoid walks on a Troy and sure enough she catches, of course. But no,

44:43 I mean, there's so much to like about this as Troy played Montjoe Barrett is so good in this role as Deanna's mother, so good in this role. And I think this is the first episode we've had that we're talking about her, right, guys, I don't think we've I know, we've mentioned her character. We had her in Haven, Heyvin, That's right, we had her in Haven, Okay, But it's so funny like the one other then that when she was on the bridge and it clearly shouldn't have been there. But when she was talking to Wolf and she's like cuts up button and he's like no, no, no, stop, don't don't do that, and she causing Wolf. I love, I left feel hard there too. It's Wolf not Wolf. Yeah, wait, what about you guys?

45:24 Now this this is I can definite safely say that this is my favorite episode of this season. And it's because everything you mentioned and more, I mean wa, Stanna Troy is a great character and the episode starts off so funny, there's so many great funny moments, but then it just like completely takes one hundred and eighty degree turn for her and for the episode becomes an incredibly dramatic episode shows a totally different side for her character. Let's hear play the comedy and the serious drama, and Majel Barrett is wonderful here, you know. And plus it's it's got a strong message about how we look at old age and the end the life. And she really, if you think about it, she's the perfect character to tell that story and you see it right here with with her performance. Yep and David augen Steers, Dr Jilson I thought he did a wonderful job, and I know a lot of people would know him from Mash and many many other things he's been in. But we also get an introduction to Michelle Forbes, who plays Dara, the daughter of doctor Timison, who will take on another role we will all love and appreciate, and that would be instant Row coming I believe next season, is that right? Yeah, that's right? So yeah, yeah, Scott, what about you man? Yeah? Oh my god. The writing by Peter Allenfields and Ted Roberts, the direction again by Les Landau. When you talk about this being a turn or kind of a more of a rich deep dive into Lawasana's character, they couldn't have done a better job with this one, right.

47:01 I think it was just absolutely perfect. It has one of the best uses of dramatic tension. There's, you know, usually in these episodes being sci fi, there's an aspect of it where a sun is exploding, or there's some kind of planetary disaster or something like that that they have to fix with technology. This one's very much debating the validity of this practice on this planet. A great pasting choice with David Ogden Stiers. It's so similar to Winchester. The moments when he has those kind of you know moments where he has the epiphany where he feels that little bit of you know, reluctant, hesitant joy where it's starting to get to a good place, and then when it all starts to come crashing down and he kind of just occasionally opens up the gates to the frustration, the rage, whatever he's doing, but it's always very proper, always very tempered. For him to be somebody who's connected with law Woxana is brilliant because she's very flambuoyant. She's very expressive all the time. He's very tempered, and she's never trying to change that. She loves that about him and the relationship that they have. The choice, especially that she makes at the end. Oh my gosh, it's a knockout by

48:32 Angel Barrett. Wow, I'm very good. No, Just the decision they both make and the performances that they give together. They are absolutely the spotlight and the standout for this one. If you've ever been a fan of La Waxana, it's definitely very important. She has another another few episodes similar to this one that comes to mind. In Deep Space nine but wow, just a great pair. Yeah. Her chemistry with David Ognoon is just incredible. There are so many good scenes between the two of them here. But the one scene that is my favorite in this entire episode is when Dara is there and Michelle Forbes is giving one hell of a performance she is as his daughter, and I can see why they're like, man, we got to bring her back in some way. She is incredible. Oh yeah, and she is. And you know, there's so much going on in this episode and such great two great guest stars that for Gates McFadden is left with one scene and one little line of dialogue right at the end of the episode. So yeah, but I also want to mention too that again, the music of this episode is phenomenal. Dennis McCarthy did the score. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for the score for this episode. He lost to John Debney for that man's work for young writers definitely worth while. Well, all right, Wayne, take us to number nine and that's the Minds I written by

50:06 Renee Etchivaria and Ken Schaeffer, directed by David Livingston, aired on May twenty seventh, nineteen ninety one, right after we graduated Jordi Jeordie LaForge, is heading on a much needed vacation to rise Au when his shuttle is intercepted and captured by the Romulans, who hope to use him to start a war between the Federation and the Klingons. Jordy is brainwashed and returned to the Enterprise, unaware that he has been transformed into the perfect Romulin assassin. It's very obvious that this episode is inspired by the film The Manitarian Candidates, but it works. It's a great episode. I mean Ron Livingston, who is one of the producers of this series, he used that film as an influence for this and kind of emulated some of his the direct style that the original director used.

51:02 And yeah, there's quite a surprise at the end of this episode. I can't really talk about it because it's one of the biggest spoilers of the season and and has implications that continue to the next year of the Social All I can just say is just go, you know, watch this one and see that for yourself, because it's it's quite a shock. Yeah, I mean, this clearly leads into the episode that Scott's gonna be talking about our tenth pick. Yes, and we've been talking about all season and how all of this is just building and building and building until we get to this crescendo, which is what we're going to get in the finale. But I really love this episode. But LeVar Burton, I thought that obviously a fantastic job because in this and you know, and playing that you know, you know, is it him? Is it not him? You know, those kind of things, and the ending that he has with you know, I believe they were my memories. You know, I swear I did those things, you know, but they were implanted. And just that that dialogue he had with Counselor Troy there at the end, I just thought was oh, well done. But again going back to talking about some cinematography work, the odd shots of la Forge walking through the halls of the ship heading towards you know, the shuttle bay where we know what events are going to try to take place where he's heading. I love those shots because they were supposed to be awkward and weird to make you feel uncomfortable, and I thought it great.

52:21 It did. Yeah, you know, just taking a quick moment to acknowledge how much Counselor Troy has her hands full with this ship not just for this episode, but so many times when somebody has to endure a lot of psychological trauma, like doubting reality type of psychological trauma. Hands full, hands down, especially the dialogue that you were starting to mention there, Dave toward the end of the episode. Such a great performance by both Lavarburdon and we're in a sertis h. I love the use of the Jordi vision see its visor.

53:07 I think it's a much it's it's a it's a great improvement versus what we have seen before. I know there's a previous episode we were able to kind of like see through his eyes and they had it on the view screen. It was very difficult to see. Just a very interesting use of purples and greens there. The range of emotion that LeVar has to go through that he has to portray in this with his conditioning, with his torture, and then just to be so you know, fool and collected not knowing what's happening to him on the enterprise is astounding. Just great use of visuals, great use of psychological intrigue, and the good tension building that we get towards the end when data, you know, finds out what he finds out, and you know you got to get racing to that moment to get things to stop and the back to back to what Wayne said to the ending to this time.

54:06 Wow. Yeah, although in a in a in the subsequent watching of the viewing of this one, there is part of me that was thinking, all that speed, that data was able to apply in Brothers, maybe he could have found a quicker way to he had to stop. Maybe this is the time to be a little bit more. And there are there are two really good guest stars. Actually there just three, but we can't mention one of them. But one of the guest stars was Larry Dobkin. He played the Klingon Ambassador. He actually uh was a director during the original Star Trek series. He directed the episode Charlie X. And then we got John Fleck, who plays one of the Romulans. We see him later on. He played uh uh Silic in Star Trek Enterprise during its first two years. Oh and there's a couple first too. In this episode. You know, we got the first time we ever see the Klingon and the Romulent transporters, and then we got to see the new Starfleet Phaser rifles too. That's right.

55:05 There's one more first time Migell Merrett receives credit for voicing the Enterprise D's computer. Oh well, she deserved if they're I'm glad they did finally get around to doing that. Yeah, yep. She is so important to Star Trek universe in general. Yes, yep, don't overlook Majel Barrett. All right, Well let me wrap up the list with number ten. And there is another two parter. This is another Cliffhanger is very good, so watch it. That's all I can say. There we go, We're doing. Tensions on the Klingon homeworld escalate into civil war as the Doros family and Gowron continue to fight for leadership of the High Council. The Enterprise, Picard, and Wharf are forced to decide where they stand in the matter, or if they should do so at all without violating the prime directive. Behind the scenes, a mysterious and villainous figure is pulling the strings that connect the Romulans in this conflict. This is an important two part episode that has repercussions into the rest of my generation, Deep Space nine and beyond. I've got to you know, I got to give credit to Cliff Bowle. The director does a great job in this one, the writers Ronald D. Moore and Joe Minoski.

56:25 But I really want to point out Larsa and Vittor the I forgot the U introduction. Oh good, Gwyneth Walsh, Barbara Marsh. Wow, this pair is so smart, so powerful, so manipulative. Damn a whole other aspect of uh clingon culture and of how Klingons kind of differ. Right, You're seeing different facets of what it means to be clon, how people will interpret that, and the power play. I love the sets in this one.

57:08 I love being in the council chambers. I love the transporter effect that we see with this one. Yeah, clingon kind of red dusting. And I think one of my favorite scenes in this is actually Wharf and Gaynan talking about that warf not be believe in that Klingons laugh. Was it the target practice? Target practice? Good? That line where He's like, well I practice at this level and she was like, all right, I guess I could come down to that for a day. I love I've talked about that target practice kind of set before, very simple, just a circle surrounded by you know, darkness and a bunch of you know, lights you have to hit in a certain sequence, I assume. But their interaction builds on their relationships so much for her to be able to kind of like take him out of himself for a moment and just say, hey, there's a difference between your perception of what that needs to be and who you are, and it's a balance between the two. You don't have to dive headfirst into this too much one way or the other. Find that balance. Such an important relationship and so many important things that happen in this episode. Oh my gosh, Yeah, I mean Robert O'Reilly's back is gwarn and of course we get Tony Todd back as current God bless Tony Todd. Yes, yes, And you know I mentioned this to you, guys, I texted you the other day when I rewatched this episode. I still think Best of Both Worlds Part one is still the best finale of any Star Trek. But man, I forgot how

58:42 powerful the ending of this one was too. Yes, and this was originally going to be the third season finale before they even come up with Best Both Worlds. But then they did and said, oh, let's let's move this off. We gotta do the board one. Yeah, yeah, I'm glad they did this way too. Me too, But so much going on, and if it leads into the next season, then just leads onto everything else in Star Trek from here on out. All right, So that wraps up our top ten. Now there's still a bit more to talk about, and usually I want to end on a high note, so let's go low for a minute. In every season, there's got to be an episode that we don't necessarily love for certain reasons, or things that we wish didn't happen. I don't know that there are many for me in this one, but I would say, just to start us off, you know, as strong as the season is, even the problematic episodes still have a lot of merit.

59:35 I think. Yeah. That being that being said, the episode that I would choose is actually suddenly human just because it had a lot of annoying moments from an audible perspective. There's this kind of wailing that one of the characters does, and he's got this kind of teenage attitude that's very grading, and you know music that he plays that sounds like a garbage disposal running full of Christmas ornaments, Like it just really got out my nerves, So what's one of yours for me? The least episode they didn't like, and this one was the episode the Loss counselor Troy losing her betazoid powers and basically resigns her position, and then I guess there was like what two life forms that the Enterprise finds itself trapped between, and then by the end, everything's okay, everything's back to normal. Okay, fine, let's go, let's move on.

1:00:30 I know they toyed with the idea of making her lose her power altogether, and I don't know if I would have gone that far. But what I have liked to have seen in something they would have done today is they might have stretched this out more where she did lose her power for maybe a season, you know, or half a season or something like that, and you see that coming back in each episode where she's dealing with that. I think if they would have done that more of that throughout the season, we're taken into the next season and she finally gets them back, I think I would have liked that a lot better. But as a whole, I just did not like this episode. Yeah, that's a good idea, I like that, which you just said that that would have been a great idea for me. It's very obvious because it's this was a great season, and there's really only one that stands out. That's Night Teares definitely my least top five least favorite episodes of the series for so many reasons. I find the the FX that Troy flying through the clouds just just really bad. I mean, even the guys who did the visual effects thinks as bad. Jonathan Frakes hates this episode. The director of the episode hates this episode. You won't even talk about it. But I have a more personal reason for hating this episode because kind of a major event happened in my life. I was a senior in high school and I was working at McDonald's and I had gotten off late.

1:01:53 These episodes aired at ten o'clock on Thursday nights in my area, and I was rushing home, driving home real quick down the State Route twenty nine, trying to get home, and I ran into a deer. Oh, and it smashed up my car big time with you know, I hit it and it flipped up in the air, hit my roof and smashed my front windshield, put two thousand dollars worth of damage to my car and and I had to miss the episode. It was this episode. Yeah, and it was this episode. Didn't even to make matters worse. You know, I was rather embarrassed that, you know, I hit a deer rushing home to watch Star Trek. So I didn't want anyone to know about it. And the next day I went to school, and where I went to school, there was a teacher that was a relative of mine, and he found out and and of course, you know, me trying to keep it a secret, he announced it on the morning announcements to the entire school. You know that I had hit a deer rushing home to watch Star Trek. So I was really embarrassed. So I hate this episode. You have many good reasons there, Yeah, you do. I'm with you on this. I don't disagree with the flying Deanna effect. It was so weird, all right.

1:03:10 Getting into something a little bit more positive. We always focus on one specific crew member for our favorite moments, and every season we picked somebody different, and for this one, we're picking doctor Beverly Crusher. So, Wayne, what's one of your favorite moments of hers? I had to really think about it because I loved her starring role and remember me, and she really shines in that one. But I think I'm going to choose the dancing lessons in Data's Day. I know it's one of the episodes of our top ten, but it's still a really good episode and a really important one too. She did all the our gates mcfahen did all the choreography for the scene because she was a core choreographer before she became Beverly Crusher and she worked with Jim Henson and his on some of his films. But I love the look on her face when when Data comes and asks her to teach him how to dance, and she grabs him and pulls them out out of the way so that nobody else can hear it. And you want to keep it a secret. From what I heard that both her and Spiner wrote their own dialogue for the scene and then the writers just went with it. I love that scene. I think it's it's one of the scenes of the entire series that defines the character of Beverly Crusher. Yeah, David about going with the Hoffman answer again, I'd love to do this because it was tough for me to pick just one, but it really it boils down to just one theme. I guess you could say it's it's Beverly Crusher being a mother to Wesley. Oh yeah, there's some elements in this season that we see some really good stuff between the

1:04:40 two of them. We see that in Family when she's showing the when she finds that memory card that was recorded of her of his father, and then some of the stuff that we see with her in Final Mission, you know, we get to see a little bit of the dialogue between the two of them. So it really boils down to one theme, just being the mother to Wesley throughout this season. It just seems like it was a lot more powerful this year to me. Yeah, yeah, I'm glad that they did more with her character, and I know that I've heard that the Gates McFadden was very frustrated with, you know, how much she was not necessarily given.

1:05:24 But you definitely see, you know, when we talk about Counselor Troy had her hands full, so did Doctor Crusher. Like the scenes where you see her have to keep her composure during final mission to be like, yeah, well my son might possibly be dead, but there's a lot I have to do here on the ship and just keep it together. Wait, I'm gonna double down on what you said about Data's day and the dance scene. When she's a choreographer, I know that she would usually go by Cheryl McFadden when you see that behind the scenes Labyrinth outtakes or the behind the scenes special of that. When I saw her there as Cheryl McFadden, I was like, oh, twin sister, Like that's great, but knowing how much that's an important part of Gates McFadden, the fact that she did all the dancing in those scenes and she's listed as the choreographer for this one is great.

1:06:15 I think we're at the end of this episode, wrapping up season four. Thanks guys for being here. Yeah, bond is always love it, Yes, love it And as always, thanks to our listeners for joining us. Know that Haaling frequencies are always open for you to share your thoughts and your questions on social Let us know what you think and share your favorites that we didn't mention. You might get a mention on a future show. You can email us at a Film by a Podcast at gmail dot com, find us online a Film by a Podcast dot com, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and all your favorite social channels, and if you're looking for more exclusive content and swag, send some latinum r away through Patreon. We'll see you next time for another episode of Phasers. Set to stuff, you can email us at a film bait you can break. Taylor Kayler Kayler, Kaylor Kayler k k Lar. I got it right this time. Dammit, We're proud.

1:07:19 All good,