Phasers Set To Stun: Top 10 Episodes from Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6

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. Welcome back listeners to Phasers Set to Stun, where we continue to show our love for everything 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, books, merchandise, and much more. Joining me on this time travels back to nineteen ninety two is our Core Trek crew and I'm your host, Wayne Whiten, I'm David BYRNS, and i'm's Kyle Hoffman.

1:08 And in this episode, we will continue our discussion with 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 warp away from. With Starter Treks, we simplify the menu with choices that give the new listeners a taste from each season after listening to this episode, You can find the course we plotted for you in the convenient lists located in the description below. All Right, we've talked our way through the first five seasons of Star Trek the Next Generation. We've discussed our likes and our dislikes, chatted about the characters, and brought you tidbits and behind the scenes facts to keep you interested. But we love hearing from you and what you like or don't like. So if you'd like to comment or add what you think is your top ten, please do so, because we would love to hear from you. All Right, Scott, what are we discussing in this episode? So at the start of season six, one of the things I want to kind of talk about, just briefly without spoilers, which would be easy and quick, is times arrow the resolution of that. There's there's differing opinions on it. I personally, I'm like devouring the Mark Twain character and I think fantastic. The whole concept is fascinating, and I think

2:39 it's one of the rare times when they you know, didn't break the prime directive with a with a time traveler. So I enjoyed it quite a bit. Highly recommend that anybody who watched the first definitely finish out times zero. I'll agree absolutely. I think it was a fantastic second part. I mean it's not the best of all of them, of course not, but it was still entertaining, still fun, come on command a record with the role he has in his history. Yeah, yeah, we didn't get Riker dressed up as Mark Twain right well a oh go ahead, wa Oh. I think it was a success. I mean it's a fun episode and it was it's neat seeing the characters out of costume and uh in the past, you know, plenty of action comedy. Yeah, I really like the scene between Ryker and Crusher in the hospital. Oh, I think you know, you don't see the two of them together very much, and it was just a neat scene. And plus we got Gynan a lot more of her. She's practically takes a main role in this episode. Yeah, we get to see her a little bit of her past, the connection between her and the card, which I think is really interesting. Yes, and I do I do love the mini production of a Midsummer Nights stream of theater kind of things will come up a lot come on Lafos holding the book upside down. Yeah.

4:00 That was like, oh man, seriously, it's great. Yeah yeah, so yeah, ohk ahead, And now I was gonna say my favorite one is Mark Twain calling Warfaw were Wolf come on with stereo. I feel like I feel like Q should have popped in and gone like, see, I'm not that far off. So well to start off our list, you know, just to be clear why and you'd already set it up. We're talking about the ten episodes to watch in order of appearance, not necessarily order of preference, So our number one isn't the very best. We're just talking through in order, right, that's right. And you know, with season six, you know, it's very important to remember that this year was the premiere of Star Trek Deep Space nine, and you got a big impact on the season. You debuted in January third, nineteen ninety three. That was during the season hiatus that they always had in between the uh, the winner break.

5:02 You know, this was important because I mean, this is the first time we've had two Star Trek series on at the same time. I mean, this this was unbelievable and huge. Oh yeah, it was huge, and you know, and it was great because we had crossovers with it for the first time ever, you know, you had crossovers between the two. And also another you know important thing that goes along with that is we lost a lot of secondary characters from this show. They you know, we lost Cole Meenie and Rosalind Chow. They went over to Deep Space nine. We saw their child, Molly Hannah Hat she first appeared in the season and then went over to Deep Space nine. Let's you know, this is Whoopi Goldberg's final season in the show. You know, she didn't appear in season seven and we won't see her again until the films. Michelle Forbes, this is her final as a regular secondary cast member. She comes back one more time.

5:58 But you know, we're whittling down the secondary cast. Leave just are our main Southern for the final year. Yeah, get growth. Yeah. And at this time, it felt like it was just like Christmas for a Star Trek right, oh yeah, you know, like I can't wait to talk about DS nine. And at this time too, we didn't know Star Trek de Nijuration only had one more year. We didn't know that no, no, I mean seven years became a standard. But at that point. No, you're right, we didn't. Yeah, all right, let's dive right into the episodes we've selected. We've got a season full of holidack, high jinks, romance for Picard, two Q appearances, Wharf's Ponytail, and a deadly alien dog, and we're going to be talking to them about let me skip that. So let's fly our shuttle craft right into our first pick, and Scott, you have the honor of talking about that one. Great.

6:50 So our first one is called Relics. Our first pick revolves around a pair of engineering marbles that shouldn't be possible in this era. One is a dice in sphere, which is basically an inverted planet built around a star. All the living spaces are on the inside, thriving on a constant source of solar energy. On the outside, it basically looks like the Death Star. But this abandoned relic of a structure hosts our second engineering marvel, Captain Montgomery Scott from the original series, preserved in a trademark Mister Scott Rigged Transporter. He's the same age that we see him in the Generations movie. He finds himself feeling as obsolete as his original Enterprise in this new future and wondering where he fits in. When the Dyson Sphere threatens the Enterprise, It'll take a blend of something old and something new to save the day. Written by Ronald Y Moore and Brandon Braga, directed by Alexander Singer. This is you know.

7:43 I had to basically spoil that mister Scott comes back in this one because I don't think we could spend talked about him in digging into some interesting facts. So I wasn't aware that the Dyson sphere was a real theory apparently was postulated in nineteen fifty nine, and when Dyson was able to see a copy of this episode, he said it was fun to watch and even though it was all nonsense, it was still quite a good piece of cinema. I disagree with the nonsense part, but I mean, it's Dyson's theory, and I had forgotten that James Douhan am I saying that name right? James doing the actor who portrays mister Scott is missing his right middle finger. Yep, that was lost in the World War two D Day invasion of Normandy. Yeah, that's fascinating. I know, it's fascinating me. I know, there are a bunch of you know, stand in hands that they had done for some close up work. But similar to Radar O'Reilly in Mash, I keep forgetting that there was something that they were purposefully trying to hide about his hand.

9:01 Yeah. This this episode is so much fun. It is absolutely I think my first favorite part is finding out how he was able to keep himself alive in a transporter. Yeah, giving him in the buffer that that was fantastic with two percent degradation, that's it. Yeah for poor Franklin though, Oh yeah, oh yeah, when when you don't forget to the original sound of the transporter engaging, when when the when the being back? That was fantastic that they went that route. Oh I love that. When you hear that sound, you're like, yes, brings back so many memories. And the ethics are the original too. Yeah, yep, yep. There was kind of a mini theory that popped into my head and I can't go into it, but I think the two of you know where I'm going with this.

9:50 The fact that he had two percent degradation. I wonder if that impacted his memory because he doesn't ask about something that comes up in a later movie yeah, that's true. Yeah, And I got to tell you it had been a while since I've seen this episode, but when he went to the holodeck and went on to the bridge, and that was just heartbreaking. It really really was. When he was looking around and looking at the different chairs and you know, and saluting them basically, you know, with the drink and stuff like that. Oh my gosh, dude, that was heartbreaking. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, that that drink he's having that el Debur and whiskey. That's actually high see ecto cooler, fantastic. But you're right that that is probably the highlight of the episode, that scene where he got onto the holidack. And to make it clear, you know, they didn't actually build that set. You know, they just built part of it, like the captain's chair and the navigation consolement, a little bit of the wall. They actually used footage from some of the original episodes and green screened it in. They just didn't have the money to build a whole set.

11:00 That the dialogue with the card in Scotty about their first ship, I thought that was fantastic just listening to them and just knowing the history of all of those two characters. Yeah, you know, Oh my goodness. And there's also I have to point this out, there's a big boo boo in this episode. And you know, the producers actually acknowledged this. But right at the end when they're beaming Scotty and LaForge off of the ship, the shields are still up. There's something they shouldn't be able to do. No. Oops, I didn't even notice that, Wayne. So, yeah, Scotty had to have something rigged or something like that. Yeah, well, let us give it to Scotty. Yeah, give him the credit for that.

11:50 Yeah, give him just a lot of dialogue and say that's how we did it. All right, Let's move on to our second pick, and that's yours, David. The episode called Rascals, directed by Adam Nimoy, written by Alison Hawk, Picard, ro Guynon, and Keiko are returning to the Enterprise when their shuttle gets into serious trouble. The Enterprise has to do an emergency transport to get them off of it, but comes with consequences. The four are beamed on board safely, but find themselves turned back into their pre adolescent selves, fault in confusion among everyone as they are trying to figure out how to get the four crew members back to their normal selves. The ship is suddenly attacked and boarded by the Fringy, making an already difficult situation even worse. You know, this is a fun episode, guys. Oh yeah. It's not like the best episodes of Star Trek or anything like that, but I really enjoyed this. One of the biggest one is David Burkin, who plays the young Jean Luke in this episode. We talked about him in the episode Family, where he played Renee, the nephew to Jean Luke, and now he gets to play Jean Luke. I think that was a really neat casting that they did here. I think all the kids did really good. They felt like the adult characters that they were portraying. Every one of them did good. The only thing that I found weird, and I don't know if you guys would agree with me on this, is the voice of young guy. Yeah, the only one on this it did sound like adr. Yeah, it had to have been. Well, you know that that young actress, so what's her isis Carmen Jones. She actually played a

13:26 younger version of Woope Goldberg again sister act So yeah, I don't know. They must have saw something there, but I agree with you it is it seems it does sound like it was redubbed. Yeah, it had to have been, because it felt so off every time she was talking. But I thought all of them did really good. I love the fact that Gynan really took advantage of this situation, yeah, you know, beginning to be a kid again and just you know, getting Roe, bringing Roe out, you know, to let her experience that kid again, because she didn't get the experience that when she was and she explains that in the episode of what she had to go through as a kid, She doesn't like being back there again. But the fact that Ginning got to bring that out in her, I thought that was fantastic. Whole jumping on the bed and all that stuff was cool. Well, think about it, I mean think, you know, if you had the chance of being a kid again, you know, what would you do. I think I'd have to do the same thing they were, to have fun. Yeah, yeah, I think. Yeah. I love the what you mentioned about bringing more out of Row because just thinking about her character as being somebody who has been in prison is basically looked down on by everybody in Starfleet. And she has this unique opportunity on the Enterprise to change her perception of Starfleet or what Starfleet can be, right this microcosm of a family on the ship and her ability to you know, thrive and be the kind of person that she wants to be, the kind of officer that she wants to be. And I think there are a lot of important moments for her in that. In that regard, there was a lot of good

14:56 parts of this. And we talked about the comedic beats that we have done BEFO, and I know we did it last season, but the whole time when they were getting trying to get the children's computer to cooperate with them, and how they kept getting their response from the computer and they was like, do you know how to spell Enterprise? I love the design of that, you know, the little using the fish as the interface. I love that. Yes, yeah, it was so good. And then the whole when Picard had to act like a kid and blow up to the Faringhi. So many good seeds in this episode. Oh yeah, and he hugs riichery Dad. Yeah, he had my number one, number one dad, but number one dad, no good? Oh yeah it is And and you know, this episode isn't forgetten forgotten because during the fourth season of Deep Space nine, Odo brings it up to Wharf as a breach of security on the enterprise, so they never let him forget about that. Yeah. Nice. And this is also the first episode to be filmed when Deep Space nine was being filmed, since the first one when they went into production. Yeah. I think Ronald D. Moore, one of producers, he was dead set against this episode, but then he said after he saw it, he you know, he thought it was completely insane at first, but then he actually loved this episode. Well he's right, it is insane, but it's a great and fun episode. Yeah, happens yep. Well, and you get to have some moments where Alexander saves the day. Oh right, Like give him something good to do there, you know, all right. Our third pick is

16:30 the first of the two two parters of this season, Chain of Command, written by Frank Abetta Marco and Ronald D. Moore, directed by Robert Shearer, and originally aired on December twelfth and December nineteenth, nineteen ninety two. The card Wharf and Beverly Crusher are sent on a covert mission to seek and destroy a Cardassian biological weapon installation on the planet Celtris three. Once there, they finally been led into a trap, and while Warf and Krusher managed to escape, the card is taken prisoner by the Kardassians and tortured to try and gain knowledge of Federation's secret plans. Meanwhile, command of the Enterprise is given over to a Captain Jellico, who has the task of not only dealing with the Kardassians, but a crew that find it difficult to work with their new commanding officer. Now, this this episode's talked a lot about a lot in Trek Circles because mainly because of the second part. But I want to bring up one of the reasons why I like these this two parter, and it's the guest stars. This has got some fantastic guest stars, and top of it is David Warner. Yeah, he is such a phenomenal actor. You know, he's done Star Trek twice before. He played Sagan Talbot and Star Trek five and Chancellor Gorkhan and Star Trek six. You know he's been in He's been in everything. I mean, it's a Twin Peaks, Babylon five,

18:02 Batman the animated series, even Doctor Who. Uh, you know, he's been active in film and he's been active in audio. He's on torch Wood Sapphire's Steel played alternate Doctor and Doctor Who audio was up till last year before he passed away. And then also the second guest star is Ronnie Cox. You know, he's also someone who has appeared in practically everything back in the eighties, so much stuff. And he's a great actor. He comes off rather abrasive in this this episode. That's the points that's Yeah, he's the person you're supposed to hate and he plays it brilliantly. Oh and you hate him? Oh yeah, oh you hate him? Just you wait? Yeah. Yeah. One of the things I want to bring up too about David Warners that we were talking about him, he learned three days of notice that he got that was getting this role. Wow, And he could not learn his lines in that amount of time, So they actually were holding up his que cards behind the card behind Patrick Stewart so he could read them.

18:56 The fact that he was able to do that and give such an incredible performance in this just speaks volume of an actor he is. That makes me wonder was he a replacement for for another actor. I've not read that. I'm not sure he have to be. Yeah, coming in at that last minute, that makes me curious. I wonder if who it was, If anybody knows, let us know. Well, I'm glad he did because he was just phenomenal in this Man, Oh my god, that goes yes. Yeah, and what Picard has to go through in the second part just is mind blowing. You know, we've seen him go through so much and I think we talked about this in the last episode of what Picard had has gone through and again here he goes again, has to get tortured and going through all of us, he has to go Oh my god. Man, it's it's kind of that's rough. I mean, it's it's incredible that he's kept his sanity because he's been through so much over the last few years. Yeah.

19:55 Absolutely. But the whole the whole friction between Jellico and Riker, oh so well done. I mean, I know we all hate Jellico, but man, ronnick Cox have pulled that off phenominally. The moment you meet him to the moment he leaves, Oh my god, he just gets on your last nerve. Well, I mean it's a very intense situation, not only how he approaches command, but also how he approaches negotiations with the Kardassians, Like, oh my god, it feels like he's throwing a ball of gasoline on a bonfire, right, And it's very, very tense. It is.

20:37 And it's because of him that Troy has to wear the star Fleet uniform. Oh yeah, he keeps from then around. Well, let's discuss that real quickly. I mean, do you like her in the dresses and are the leotards? Do you prefer her in the uniform? Well, I had seen that Marina Syrtis actually appreciated the change to a certain degree because it was a reminder that she had a command role on the bridge. Yeah, that she wasn't a supplementary character, and given how much damage she has to undo for each of these characters, m m, yeah, she's a full time job. Yeah. I think I liked her in the star Fleet uniform the most it And I'm gonna go back to what I said. I think a couple of seasons, a couple of episodes ago, when Wesley Crusher got the star Fleet uniform, his character became so much better. Now I'm not saying Troy was a bad character by no means. Troy has been phenomenal, But when she gets the Starfleet uniform, she's taken a whole lot more seriously. Yeah, yeah, that's true, that's true. Yeah, she starts acting like a Starfleet officer and not as just one of the civilians as walking around.

21:38 You know, she she she has rank. You know that's one thing a lot of people don't realize she had rank, and you know, she has the ability to command, and this kind of gave her that air of authority that that I think the character really needed. Yeah, and if correct me if I'm wrong, But isn't this the episode that establishes the Kardassians is the main villain for Deep Space nine. Yes, this is very important. Well, this was their final design. Was has come up in this, but they also mentioned that they pulled out of the Bajorn Sector, which is a major plot point in the first season of dew Space nine. So this was the first episode to air before the premiere of dew Space nine aired, So you know, having those those planing those seeds for the series was essential for him. Yeah. Yeah, this is such an incredible two parter and I got a pile on the accolades for David Warner, Oh my god, ever since I met him as Evil in Time Bandits Yeah, Oh my god.

22:37 And then Rosal Ghoul in Batman animated series Perfect Undiscovered Country. Absolutely loved it, and this one is like the icing on the cake. He is just so perfect in both these parts, right through to the to the end of the second part, and you'll be captivated. And remember, listeners, there are four lights right well, there's our first three selected episodes. And before we continue on, let's take a short break and then we'll come back and dive right into what we have next for you in Starter Treks. Welcome back everyone. We're beaming David in for our fourth episode of the list, and that would be Ship in a Bottle directed by Alexander Singer, written by Renee Antaveria. Moriarty is back, reawakened by mistake when Lieutenant Barclay tries to repair and fix some issues with the Holidack. Upon his return, Moriarty, who is still self aware, demands for his long overdue wish to be fulfilled.

23:42 In the sequel to Elementary Your Data, MORIANDU wants to live out his life off the Holidack, with further demands of allowing his one true love to be able to join him. He takes charge of the Enterprise and will not relinquish command until he receives what he desires. A bigger mystery is afoot than the crew of the Enterprise realizes. Guys. Daniel Davis is back as Moriotty, and man does he blow it out of the water once again. Yeah? Yeah, But I also wanted to bring a performance to somebody else who we've not talked about yet. But he's been on the Enterprise for a while, and that's Dwight Schultz as Barklay. We've not talked about him, guys, and he's been around. For those who know a lot about older television series.

24:26 He played Murdoch from The A Team, and he does such a good job acting strange and unusual. I think that's why he did Murdock so well in The A Team, But he does so good as Barclay as well. Would you guys agree? Oh, definitely agree. Yeah, he's a fun character, and we really haven't talked much about him. None of the episodes just happened to be any of our choices, but we do love the character. Yeah, absolutely, he has a lot of his character kind of reminds me of some of the things we've seen in Lower Decks, right, oh yeah, but automatically confident just because they were the uniform or because the position they're in, and some real struggles with anxiety and you know, confidence problems and things like that. It's very interesting that I see that mirrored in another character that I won't say who because it's a spoiler, but when you wouldn't expect and it's easy to kind of identify with what Barkley might be going through.

25:23 I think there have been a lot of episodes where he really really stands out, and I think he's a great addition to the show. Oh absolutely yes. Now, remember back in our second episode for Phaser such as Stunt, I mentioned about the legal troubles between Paramounts and the Conan Doyle Estate. Well, obviously with this episode it's all been taken care of. It seems actually that the estate had no problems with the Next Generation. Their fight with Paramount was about to the film Young Sherlock Holmes, and it was all a misunderstanding and they were perfectly willing to license the use of the of the characters for a next generation which is we got this episode, and I'm great grateful that they did because this I love this episode. It's one of my favorites of the season. It's another fun episode. It's great seeing those characters back.

26:21 And like David said, I love Daniel Davis as Maria. He is so fantastic. You know, most viewers know him from David. This is one of your favorite shows, isn't it. The Nanny? I remember, you love that. You're funny, You're funny. But I mean, he had a long run on that, and you know he he does a great British accent, but you know he's not British's he's actually that's a fake accident. Yeah, he's actually from Arkansas. And he did a good job. Interesting. And you know there's another guest star I want to point out too, is Stephanie Beacham. I love her. You know, she's really known for her long run on Dynasty, but she also starred during the first season of one of my favorite sci fi show sequest dsv Oh. Yeah, I loved her character as doctor Wes Phalen. It's pretty she couldn't continue on, but you know, here we got her and she does a great job and it is a great foil with Daniel Davis. Apparently she's deaf in one here, Yes, that's right. Yeah. And there's like one of the scenes when she's talking to a card you can see her like kind of like leaning in to listen to what he's saying. Yeah, it's kind of It's a pair of amazing characters. And the concept behind this one, there's a I don't know if it's the final line, but one of the final lines in the episode conceptually just gets you to think a little about the episode. So I feel like this is another you know, another one you can watch twice, and this is in different ways. If if you ever seen the movie

27:52 Inception, the how that ends, this episode ends similar. You get you thinking like, yeah, are we how do we do it right? Yeah? Yeah, And this was the first episode that came on after that winter break, so when this episode aired, we'd already gotten three episodes of Deep Space nine, so we are right in the middle of it. And also another happy thought is that when Professor Moriy already mentions holding doctor Pulaski hostage, this is the last mention of that character ever in Star Trek. I imagine Pulaski and Angelico are probably happy as clamps on the ship somewhere together. As the show I do not want to watch. No, Now, let's hear our fifth pick for season six, Scott, Yeah, this one is an amazing one called Tapestry. To paraphrase Charles Dickens, Picard was dead to begin with. This episode rushes us into a scene where Picard is on the brink of death after being shot. I believe in his artificial hearten. As he approaches a heavenly figure basked in a vast white light in the of the afterlife, he finds Q waiting to usure him to his eternal reward. Unless which is always a word that precedes Q based mischief. Unless Picard makes a safer decision in his past that prevents him from ever needing his artificial heart. This episode gives us a look at a pivotal lowered dex moment in Picard's youth,

29:23 and a glimpse into the future that might have been if he had made different choices. It all weaves together for a fascinating episode and an important chapter in Picard's life. Written by Ronald D. Moore and Brandon Braga, directed again by Les Landaut I found it interesting to learn that producer producer Ronald D. Moore thought this was one of the best things he'd ever written in one of the show's finest episodes. I would agree with that assessment. I think this one is aside from the fact that Picard is facing Q as God, which he just dismisses to a certain degree, but there's a there's a fascinating twist in that that you learn about in the episode, but getting to see another aspect of Picard, getting to see him in his youth and being, you know, i'd say a lot more reckless than he is nowadays. Degree, you do not even imagine what Picard was like at that age when you when you realize who he was and what we've gotten used to with, Uh no, that's not right. Yeah. Yeah, it was weird. Yeah, very weird, especially to see him, yeah, interacting with women in various ways and you just get like, oh, really, yeah, he's very grown over time, Yes, big time. The actor Will Wheaton, who played Westy Crusher, as we know, he doesn't have any appearances in the sixth season, he commented, my favorite episode of Next Generation is Tapestry,

30:53 and it is a really great example how everything that happens in our lives, even the shitty things, help us us into the people we are. And he is absolutely right. This is a fantastic episode. Marda played by J. C. Brandy Zeeler, who was played by Nid Vaughan, who I swear was it could have been played by Eric Stoltz. I really could have. They all did a fantastic job of you know, how the events take place and how they do and you know the Clarden making those decisions, you know, very similar to like Scrooge. I mean, if you think about it, it's kind of like a Christmas Carol if you think about it in that way. That's funny you say that, because that's actually was the original intention for this episode was to be a Christmas Carol type episode. There were going to be three events, uh. I think one of them was Jack Crusher's death on the Stargazer and Card's young childhood in France. But I don't think the producer liked it so and they thought it was too much for for an hour episode, so they turned it down, which I think was a good a good choice. I think there's two kind of chapters of this one.

32:01 I guess maybe three. But it's very important that they focus on each of these things and that you get to see some regrets from Picard in different ways. And this and very interesting how he learns that the choices that he makes in his life make a big difference. I think it's one of the most clever uses of laughter I've ever heard of in Star treksh I think it was. It was a brilliant plot device, and I've got to say I really enjoyed the Nauskins, especially the way they say dom John. I think my my favorite line in the episode is when Q was you know, kept probing it at McCarty as he always does, but he's you know, getting into what he regrets, what he regrets and letting He finally said, well like grets dying finding you here yep. And you know, this is Q's second appearance for the season, but he actually had another appearance just the week before this episode aired. He was on Deep Space nine on the episode Cules, and he even mentions in that episode that he believes he should pay John Luca call, which he did. He does right here. It is ye and guys, I'm sorry he doesn't look good and Blue I was so thrown off by that, and I'm like, I don't like this. I just if you're dirty. It was kind of his pitiful actually, you know.

33:34 It was the way he had pretty much ruined everything, you know, let all the opportunities slip by. It's kind of sad. Yeah, yeah, all right. Our sixth Pick is the second of the two parters Birthright, written by bron And Braga and Renee at Schavaria, and part one was directed by when Rich Colby and part two by Dan Currey. This originally aired on February twentieth and twenty seventh, nineteen nineth The Enterprise makes a layoverstop at Deep Space nine to assist with repairing the Bajoran aqueducts. During their stay, doctor Julian Basher asks Data and LaForge for help with an artifact discovered in the Gamma Quadrant, and during their experiments, Data is zapped by a strange energy discharge, which causes him to experience dreams of his creator, Doctor Nunian's song.

34:24 Meanwhile, Wharf has problems of his own when an alien approaches him with evidence that his father, Mode, believed to be long dead, is still alive and being held in a Romulan prison camp. Now, as I said, this is the second of the two two parters this season. This is a big one too. This is the first multi series crossover take place with Deep Space nine. This is something that they were hoping to do every year. Didn't work out that way. They kind of did a little bit of it during season seven. But makes you wonder if they had actually thought that season seven and would was going to be the end. Maybe they had planned on it being continuing even even farther. And you know, we got we got one character from d Space nine, doctor Bashir. But Jazia Dax was actually supposed to appear in this episode as well, but she was she was busy filming Move Alon Home, which that's an episode during the first season, and I couldn't work the schedule out, which you know, she was rather upset that she couldn't be in the episode. And I'm a blamer. I'd rather do this episode than Move Along Home. That's very well known. That's one of my least favorite episodes of the series. I want to mention because I find the guest stars of all the episodes is really interesting. Some of the best things that I enjoy the most. The character of Shrek, not not the ogre Shrek the alien Trader that's played by James Cromwell. You know, we see him later on big part In Star Trek First Contact he played as Zephyron Cochrane and we also got Richard Hurd. He's a fantastic character actor,

35:59 none of one of the those that's pretty much just appeared in everything back in the eighties and the nineties. He plays the klingon Liquor in Part two. You know, he was gosh, some of the things he's done. He was the visitor leader on v he was Admiral Noise on SeaQuest City. He would to return and play Admiral Paris, Tom Parris's father on Voyager in quite a few episodes. And Scott and I just recently just talked about The Giant Syndrome, the film at forty five that he was in. That's right. Yeah, See, he's everywhere it is, and he's a great actor. I mean, you know, I can understand why he had no problems getting jobs. Oh yeah, yeah, I'm glad they made this on a two parter because there's so much to unpack. There is absolutely so much unpack.

36:47 I love julianaar in this one. Oh absolutely. His presence I think was a great kind of bridge with with DS nine. Yeah, and the introduction where he's kind of like tinkering with stuff he's supposed to. They kind of chastise him for it. What are you doing? Man? Come on, you know better than this. It always gets us in trouble. So I know this is a two parter, but please don't chastise me when I say this, but I feel like the first part was a whole lot stronger than the second part. I know you're dealing with a lot more of the wharf stuff in part two. I love the Data stuff. I love the dream sequences that we got with Data and him exploring that part about himself. I felt like they should have maybe given us a little bit more if they could have, so that would have extended into part two. Maybe that would have taken away from WARF's story a little bit. I mean, there were some good stuff at Part two, don't get me wrong, I just feel like the first part with a lot I agree, and I'm glad you brought that up, because, yeah, this is a two parter, but it feels like two separate episodes. The part one is mostly about Data and his dreams and there's I mean, while Wharf's story starts, there's very little of it there, with the exception of like the very end of the episode and then episode two, you know, none of Data's story is in there, and it's all Wharf. I mean, yeah, it is a two parter but barely barely hanging together. Yeah. And I think it's fascinating to see like

38:21 the depth and the complexity of Data's character and how much has been burnhamed and that he isn't even aware of that Doctor Sum you know, engineered him with. There's a great look at that in the first part. Yeah. And the second part is a lot of resolution. It seems like it is progress for a Wharf, but it doesn't seem like it's as much growth maybe as we see with Data. Yeah, and it brings up another thing about Wharf in the second episode, because I don't want to give too much away, but does Wharf really cross a line in that episode and what he does and think about that I'm directive kind of thing. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, Yeah. I really like the Data dream stupits. I think they're beautifully shot, very interesting. Oh yeah, and I got to point out that the final shot when he's flying like the bird, that shot of the enterprise is gorgeous. It is, you know, it's the only time is that shot has ever seen Usually most of the most of the visual effects that we used, but this one was specially shot for the episode. It is. It is a beautiful shot of the enterprise that you usually don't see from that angle. Yeah. And the music, the music from that that sequence too, that was done by Jay Chadaway, absolutely fantastic. You know. He used a wind machine, which is something that I always familiar with with the wind machine from Jerry Goldsmith used it really prominently in Star Trek Motion Picture and he used it here and it it just highlights

39:52 that that scenely. Yeah, and you're talking about the shots for the dream sequences with data. I love that that that almost fish eye look of like the cameras like floating behind him as it's walking down the hallway of this ship before he sees doctor Noninsong. I love that that shot. That was so cool. All right. The next episode, our seventh on our list, is being Wrangled by David. This episode is the Chase, directed by, of course, none other than Jonathan Freaks, written by Joe Minowski. Professor Galen surprises Captain Picard, and with him he brings the chance of a lifetime. The Professor is on an archaeological mission of major significance and he wants Picard to join him. However, there is more to this mission, as it brings an ancient mystery waiting to be solved that could possibly be the greatest discovery in history. With Picard denying the Professor's request, an incident occurs, forcing him and the Enterprise into the search, which puts them on a direct path with the Cardassians, Romulans, and the Klingons who are still who are all after the same thing. One of the things that they didn't talk about in Rascals is when they were on the shuttle on their way back the Enterprise before the incident happens, how giddy a Card was when he was talking about the art items he had found. We get that again here when a Professor Galen brings that gift to him, and you know, the card like freaks out when he realizes what it was and that it's all intact. I love seeing that from Percard because you're getting to see his human side, you do not

41:22 seeing just the captain's side. You're getting to see the part of him that he's like a kid, you know, like we all do, you know, we love things like Star Trek. We get giddy about it. You get to see that out of Percarter here, and I thought that was really neat for his character development, and that artifacts. You know, he is he he lights up when he sees that. He just absolutely loves that artifact. But does he really like that artifact? Because it comes back and we see it in Star Trek Generations and he picks it up and he just throws it like like it's garbage onto the ground and then but then then it reappears again. We see it again in Star Trek Picard and there it is. I mean, did he maybe he had a change of heart. Remember what the heck was I doing? Why did I throw that down and flew all the way back to the planet and got it? Questions? Any of the answers to these again, maybe the heal grew up. I don't know.

42:12 It's the degradation. It's all about the degradation. Yeah. I thought this was an interesting archaeological mystery that kind of unravels and it really digs into that aspect of Gard's character, which I think is fascinating. You get so many players that step into this trying to, you know, vibe for whatever this could possibly be, and I think the resolution was was great. Oh there's one guest star in this salom Gens if I'm saying the Retten name right as a character. I can't tell you who it is. But this actress comes back in Deep Space nine in a big, big, big, big way.

42:55 And I thought that character in DS nine was absolutly fascinating, So I like seeing a little taste of that character here. Yeah, and she's not the only actual big name guest star on this. We got two British actor actresses on this show. We have Linda Thorson, who you know. She's best known for playing Tara King during the final two years of The Avengers the Back the Sixties spy series, which that's another show I absolutely love, and then playing the romulent is Maurice Roves. Yep. I know him because he played the smuggler Stoughts in Peter Davison's final story The Case of Andrezany on Doctor Who back in nineteen eighty four. His voice is easily recognizable, even though through all that makeup. I know him as Colonel Monroe from the Last of the Mohicans. Yes, that's right, I forgot he was in that film.

43:50 Yeah, yep, all right, it's time once again to take a break. Stay tuned and we'll be back after these important messages. Welcome back everyone, and we're going to continue with our eighth pick. Scott tell us what that is though. Our number eight pick is an episode called a Frame of Mind. Anyone who's a fan of Riker and Jonathan Frakes should pay special attention to this episode. We open with a scene where Riker plays a character in one of Doctor Crusher's theatrical productions. His character is defending his sanity as he continues to lose his own tenuous grip on reality, but soon it becomes hard to tell the difference between that character and Riker himself. He begins to question if his life on the Enterprise was ever real at all, or if it was all an elaborate fantasy that he created to live with his guilt.

44:37 If any of these personalities is going to survive, the others must be destroyed and dismissed as nothing more fantasy. It's an episode that has both the performer and us as an audience questioning what's real and a sure sign of overtime in Troy's future, if she even exists at all. Written by Brendan Brega and rene Eshebia, directed by James el Conway. Interesting that this is the first episode directed by Conway since the first season finale of The Neutral Zone. That's quite a long stretch. Yeah, that is yeah, And I saw that Jonathan Freakes has said that this is something he considers to be a really dark episode that was terrifying and creepy to do. He has a big show for him to carry, and I think he does so beautifully. It's one of those episodes that messes with your minders of your and the character's mind And like I said, I don't know how Troy is ever getting any sleep with the number of issues that she has to unpack and this this is another episode where it feels like Conception again. At the end, you're like, what do I believe? Yeah? I mean Jonathan Franks has an incredible job of making it look like he is losing his mind and in getting you to believe in that man. That's a really good performance on him. And Wayne you talk about. Uh, here we have Andrew Bryne who played Funa Wayne and I would know him as a Brigadier General Richard Garnett in Gettysburg. That's right,

46:08 But he's been he'd done a lot of stuff, Andrew Proyne has, Yeah, he did. He was on V as well. You know, we got a lot of V guest stars. Uh. You know, I I agree with both of you. I think personally, I think this is probably one of Jonathan Frakes's strongest performances in the entire series. Yeah, you know, it's it's really as terrifying. It's some of those episodes that you didn't we really didn't think about when it first aired, you know, seeing the commercials, but then you know, we watched it and it was like, wow, this this really blew our mind, you know. And you know, when doing my research, I found out this this was written at the last minute. They only had three days to write this episode. It was a replacement for another script that fell through. And I'm like, wow, you know, that's phenomenal to write something like that. Yeah, no kidding.

46:54 One of the things I really love in this is going back to the comedic beats again when Gardi and Riker are together and they're talking about Rikers thinking that he might have to back out of the performance for Beverly Crusher, and you know, Picard knows what's going on with this conversation and talks him back into no, you need to do it. He says, if you back out, she'll come after me. Yeah. I imagine Crusher probably takes a hiatus on productions after this one, especially with uh what the The reactionary shot that we see at the ending of this episode is fascinating. It is pretty It goes to a pretty deep place. The only thing that kind of sticks with me, and the only I guess daing of this one is, you know, considering the special effects of the era, there are some places where it seems like, you know, nineties PowerPoint kind of special effects. But all in all, you know, you get Riker with crazed hair and just at the freight ends of sanity. Like, I don't know how he got through this one, but yeah, definitely one of the darkest episodes of the entire series for sure. All Right, we're moving closer to our finish line.

48:07 Here is our ninth pick, and I'll give you that one time Scape written by Bron and Braga and directed by Adam Nimoy. This originally aired on June fourteenth, nineteen ninety three. Returning from a conference by Runabout, Picard, Troy LaForge and Data discovered the Enterprise frozen in time in mid battle with the Romulin warburd beaming on board. They discovered that the crew have also been effective, and that the Romulins have boarded and the Enterprise's warp corps has begun to explode. Further investigations discovered that time is not frozen still, but moving at an incredibly slow pace, and starting it up again would mean the destruction of the ship and everyone on board. This is an interesting episode. This felt way at the end of the season, a lot of sci fi elements going for It's uh got you know, you got your time travel theory, uh, some really really cool visual effects. It doesn't it sounds simple, you know, you're just nobody's moving around the ships ever in in uh you know, frozen in time. But it really makes for a striking shot when you when you put it against the moving characters. And this is the first time we see the Denude class Runabout on Next Generation that was built for deep Space nine, which is my favorite shuttlecraft by the way. Yeah, it's it's a larger shuttle craft and you know it's able to go to warp.

49:36 The reason they used it on this show was they were trying to save a little bit of money on Deep Space nine and they needed the next generation to use some of their budget to build the sets. So they built the Runabout set and then Deep Space Nine never used it the US. But I got to point out my favorite part of the episode, and it's such a little thing. But so when when Picard begins to suffer the effects of the time displacement. Yeah, you know, they're in the engineering and they see the warp corps is exploding. It's big cloud of steam coming out, and he just starts laughing. It's this giggle and the camera turns to him and he's drawn a smiley face in the in this this steam. I mean, I love that. That makes me crack up every time. Yeah. Well then he gets it together. Yeah, then he gets it together again and starts laughing again. Yeah. Yeah, oh my god. But then he has this like breakdown. He's like, this is layers. No, no, I won't do it. Oh the range they have in this one is fantastic.

50:39 I got to give credit to the you know, the the rest of the cast in each of these scenes to just be frozen for so long in place. Yeah, it's a very like a lot of episodes, and this seas in particular, have a kind of a twilight zone aspect to it, like these conceptual ideas that really really kind of draw you in and thinking about that kind of concept well beyond at the end of the episode. Yeah, this one's absolutely fascinating, especially when you see the all the pieces that they're kind of unpacking, like when you see the uh the exterior of the ships and what's going on between the ships and them having to kind of figure some things out in the middle of a warp core breach. How I think it's Data mentions that he can see it moving at this infinitesimal rate, right, but it's still happening, like everything's still unfolding. It's absolutely fascinating. And the whole the whole mystery thing when you're when they go on the ship and you see people in certain positions so it looks like something else, but it's actually another thing when you realize what's going on, uh thing you know with Beverley Crusher, you know, all of that stuff is just so cool.

51:52 How they, like you said, how they unpack this and then you realize the truth behind all of it's really neat right, and it gets a lot to do in this episode too, you know, so it kind of harks back to her time that she spent on the Romulan ship back in last season with no that was a season excuse me, I was earlier this season ins of the Enemy, which is another really good episode but didn't quite make our top ten, but definitely worth watching, you know, just to enjoy Troy in a great, great episode. And one thing we learned is clearly Ryker and Spot do not get along. Oh yes, yep, I love Spot.

52:34 Finally, we're going on to our tenth and final choice for starter treks. David, you have the honor of closing us out, and this is the season finale to season six decent Art one, directed by Alexander Singer and written by Ronald D. Moore, and responding to a distressed signal, the crew of the Enterprise are surprised the final ship they do not recognize. Upon searching the outposts, the Await team discover who exactly is responsible for the death of all the Federation officers within the Borg. During the brief fight in the outpost, Data does something he has never done before, shows emotion by getting angry. The crew also discovers something else. The Borg they encounter shows signs of individualism, which brings a new set of problems for the Enterprise, the Federation, and most of all Data. This is another great performance but Data, I mean by Brn Speiner that we have talked about over and over and over. One of the things that I found very amusing is the opening scene where Data is playing poker with Einstein Newton and of course Stephen Hawking. Such a fun scene there, and apparently Stephen Hawking had a blast doing this.

53:45 You know, they got to show him around the set and all that kind of stuff, like getting to be in the episode two. What I found out and doing some research on this episode, is that he asked if he could be in the Captain's chair, so they actually took him out of his wheelchair and put him into the captain's chair of the Enterprise. That's awesome. Wow, Yeah, that is that's cool, you know what I mean. He's having a lot of fun in that point. Absolutely. They give him great dialogue too, mindste and Isaac Newton. I think it's fantastic. And that was a big thing too. I mean they advertised the heck out of his appearance. I remember it was on TV Guide, it was on Entertainment Tonight. I mean we knew he was going to be there and knew didn't disappoint. I love that scene too. Oh yeah, we'll talk about the ending of this because it is a two parter. It's a cliffhanger. Do not look at anything related to this episode before you watch it. Praise God, don't look at anything. But I don't know why. I find this an absolutely fascinating two parter, considering why they think this is happening to the board and considering what we kind of hear from them. There's a change in their way, right, there's a lot of changes to them. I had mentioned a while ago there was a an actor, Brian Cousins that plays Crosis on this one. I think he gives an amazing performance as one of the borg. You definitely seeing a change in them. We're definitely seeing an evolution,

55:20 and the changes in the evolution in data is at times pretty chilling. Oh yeah, there's an aazing bit of dialogue between Data and Troy, and when you hear it, like, and you know what I'm talking about? He kind of grudgingly talks about one of the feelings that he had. Yeah, and it goes right to commercial and you're like, did we just hear what we thought we heard? Oh? Yeah, yeah? Oh so here's here's my problem with this. So you know what's going on with Data, right the crew of the Enterprise knows he's struggling with this, and he has shown an emotion for the first time. Do you think it's a good idea leaving him with the board? No? No? Yeah, well yeah, there's something about this episode that drives me insane the first part. So let me ask the two of you, what is up with the opening credits to this episode? Did you guys notice this? I mean, it's the only episode ever in Star Trek to do this, But the guest and writer credits are like, right as the episode opens up in the teaser before the name of the show, before the opening title sequence with the cast's it's just so weird. They never did it before, they never did it again. It's like it's like a mistake that someone got things mixed up or there was some like last minute editing to to move something around. I mean, that would be my guest, But I've never in all the years of my research and

56:52 everything, actually found an answer to that. It had to be a mistake and they just don't admit it. It has to be they're trying something new and it didn't fit. Just do that again. Yeah, it didn't work. No, not at all. One of the scenes too, I loved in this too, was when the Card got really angry at Riker. You know that conversation that they had again. You know, those two characters really respect one another, and even even after that blow up, you know, Rikers like, yeah, yeah, I get it, you know, I understand where you're coming from with this, and they still respect one another. They just they have to talk it out. And I like that between those two characters. Oh. I got to mention Natalia admiral admiral Wow, we've we've seen Admiral and chev before, I think in this season. And yeah, the performance the dialogue again between her and the Card was very very interesting and I think Jeff in particular will find it a very very interesting bit of dialogue there. The conversation about you. Yes, yeah, absolutely, yeah, and she comes back to not only next season, but in Deep Space nine as well as one of the reoccurring admirals, which is kind of nice to see because usually it was always new admiral every time. Yeah, it's nice to have that consistency, so you get it back over and over again, so it feels real, you know. And there's our list. We've talked about our top ten episodes of season six of Star Trek the Next Generation.

58:22 So now let's take a side step and chat about some of our favorite character moments. We're working our way through the entire Command crew, and now for season six, we're going to talk about what we think is our favorite moments for the Enterprise's Resident counselor Lieutenant Commander Deanna Troy Scott. What's your pick. It's hard to pick out which one, but there are some amazing badass moments from Troy. I have they of the episode here? Yeah, in Face of the Enemy where she's basically on a Romulin ship or posing as a Romulin but the way that she just takes command, takes authority in those situations where she is in a lot of danger, but she she steps into that role, and I think we're giving we're seeing more authority from Deanna. We're seeing a build on some of the leadership abilities that she showed in Disaster, and I just I just love that that dialogue, David, what about you?

59:23 So I'll feed off of that. My favorite Troy moment is we kind of touched on it. It was in Timescape showing her brilliance in regard to the Romulus ship. You know, she is even lean on Picard by Picard in regards to this. You know, it's you know, it's we're getting to see her in that commanding role and being utilized more in that capacity. That's what I loved about it. You know, we talked about already in this episode, she put that Starfleet uniform on, and she has become a different personal most you know. I mean, she's been important to the cast this whole time. We know that we're not going to deny that, but getting to see her now as part of that command structures that she's making decisions, she's being leaned on to be helped with important stuff like this just shows how much they have moved her character forward. Well, I'm gonna have to echo you Scott, I got to say, it's from the face of the enemy. You know, this is this is an hour of Troy at her finest in my opinion, She's been kidnapped, altered to look like a Romulin and she's forced to act like a member of the tow she are. You know, she's in one of the most dangerous situations in her life. And you know, at first in the episode, she gets pushed around by the Romulins that are helping her. But then she gets to her wits end, she takes charge and she becomes that Romulin persona. You know, it's it's a marvelous performance by her in as service and we, like you said, we get to see her in a command situation, which you know, we continue to see through this season and the next season. And I like that.

1:00:53 I'm glad. You know they you realize how important of a character Troy is. You know you brought it up many times, Scott. You know, look at all the work she's got to Do's talking an entire crew, over a thousand people. You know, their mental state is her responsibility, and she shines, and this is one of the episode where she shines the most. I agree, now it's time we get to talk about our least favorite episode of the season. Now, listeners out there, you may like the episodes we choose, and that's okay. Everyone's allowed to have their favorites and their least favorites. But here are some of our least favorites from season six. So, David, what is your choice for least favorite? Mine would be episode thirteen Aquael enterprise of rise to the station to find an animalve dog and then they discover Lieutenant Aquayle later found with the Klingons, which she's accused of murder, and then Jordie falls in love with her by just listening to her audio logs before he really even meets her. This episode just did not click for me. I mean, I love to see an episode about Jeordie LaForge. I you know, I want more and more of him.

1:02:04 This episode just not did not work for you. Guys. Yeah, I second that. I was just can we not give Jordy a break once? When it comes to relationships, plea, It's like it's it's a little painful. I know that Ronald dy Moore had said of everything with Next Generation, uh, he would not have written Aquil And yeah, I totally agree, Wayne, What do you think I'll make it unanimous. It's Awkuele, which, yeah, you know, the whole story of you know, Jordie falls in love has been accused of murdering someone. Just that doesn't sit right with me. No, I I just don't see how Jordie can fall in love with with that girl. I just don't see it in the story. And I find his interest in her, you know, kind of on the creepy side. Really, to tell you the truth, there's no chemistry between them.

1:02:52 There's not. It doesn't It just doesn't work, you know. I'll use we usually avoid tellings on these podcasts, but I'm going to spoil this episode for you because you don't need to see this. The dog did it. You don't have to watch that episode, all right, although I'm sure our producer Jeff will probably go and watch this one right away. He will because of that. You're wrong. The dog is the star of the show. There you have it, another episode of Starter Treks for your enjoyment. I want to thank everybody for tuning in with us for our top ten picks of the Next Generation season six, and we appreciate everyone listening in and supporting us, David Scott, thank you so much for joining me through this jaunt through time and Tethin oh as always it thanks Wav and of course hailing frequencies are always open for you to share your thoughts and questions on social Let me know what you think about our choices and share your thoughts on what you think should have been in the top ten. Who knows you might get a mention on a future show. You can email us at a film by Podcast at gmail dot com, find us online at a film bypodcast dot com, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And if you're looking for more exclusive content or swag, you can join our Patreon and find out what exclusive gyms are hidden within. Hey, only one more season to Goo folks.

1:04:16 We'll see you next time when we bring you more phasers set to stun