New kids in the class. Let's watch and discuss, Star Trek: The Next Generation

[russdm]

Season 1 Episode 14
11001001
Stardate: 41365.9

[Plot]
So the Enterprise goes to Starbase 74 for getting a clean or an upgrade, or something. The starbase looks like the one in Star Trek 3, because that is where the footage is from. The Enterprise docks, we meet the guy in charge of what is going to happen. Who also mentions how he worked on building the ship.

There are also some aliens called Bynars there. They talk in funky ways, finish each other's sentences and interact in a way suggesting a computer relation.

The work on the ship starts going. Wesley asks about what is happening, Riker goes wandering. He meets Yar and Worf going off to play some games. Riker ends up wandering down to the holodeck, and ends up hanging out there.

Then through a set of events, the ship is apparently going to explode. It takes off, after having the crew / people on board evacuated. Then, with Riker still in the holodeck, Picard ends up finding him.

There is a mention of whether Data could paint or learn to paint. In the holodeck later, Riker creates a jazz club and does some playing with a trombone. He meets a hologram lady that he gets smitten by.

The hologram lady is called Minuet, and she is pretty advanced. She can react and adjust her parts/programming as need be when events happen (An early version of what the Doctor on Voyager and Vic from Deep Space 9 would end up being like)

Due to events, the Bynars steal the ship and take it off home. Along the way, both Riker and Picard get out of the holodeck, causing trouble. Then they get the ship to go for self-destruct, do a few things, and then a couple of events happen (They use the self-destruct, the bynars have kind of mental seizure and collapse, Riker and Picard retake the ship and turn off the self-destruct)

Riker loses Minuet, the hologram lady, in the course of events.

[Rating]
2 - Poor episode: Not too bad but has one or two week areas (Poor plot, weak character use, bad effects)

{Episode Commentary}
To be honest, this episode could have been just mediocre, but it falls down. That is due to the stealing the ship plot. There is little improvement with this. The rest of the episode, or whole episode could have just been about meeting the Bynars and how they can do so amazing holograms. That would have worked out for the episode, since we have seen other holograms in the episode with Picard playing as Private Detective Dixon Hill. It would have been a nice little follow up and we could have seen some interesting things. See the possibilities.

The other problem, is that the Bynars consider that Starfleet might have said "No" if asked for help. That is not likely to ever happen, with Starfleet being the way they are. It is something I would expected the Bynars to know about. For making their plans, that is a variable I feel that they should have considered.

So, the episode is a 3, but slips down to a 2.

So? Do fellow playgrounders agree? Disagree? Comments of your own? Get some discussing going on

Trackers)
Hidden Gems: 2
Rank of Miles: Ensign
Prime Directives: 2
Patrick Stewart Speech: 2 (Did I miss an earlier one? I don't think so)
Riker "Patrick Stewart Speech": 1
Riker Romances Something/Someone: 1
Pithy Aesops: 1
Klingon Proverbs/Beliefs/Sentiments: 1) Drink not with thine enemy;
Worfed (Worf loses to establish danger): 2
Holodeck Mishaps/Breakings/Issues: 1
Actually Alien Aliens: 1
Lore's Appearances: 1

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I think I remember this one. The Bynars needed the ship to save their home planet or something, didn’t they?

But yeah they could have asked first, and then stolen the ship if Starfleet did say ‘no’ for some reason. It would have saved them effort in the (agreed, likely) case of a yes, and in the case of a no, they’re no worse off then they were without asking.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Hey - this is one I've actually seen!

I'd have given it a three - the plot was OK, and there wasn't wasn't any amazing revelations, but I don't recall anything I would particularly mark down for.

The other problem, is that the Bynars consider that Starfleet might have said "No" if asked for help. That is not likely to ever happen, with Starfleet being the way they are. It is something I would expected the Bynars to know about. For making their plans, that is a variable I feel that they should have considered.

The way I saw it was that, despite their complex and multifaceted products, ultimately the Binars were incapable of seeing anything as any other than ultimate yes or no. They had a plan that the Federation might agree to or reject. They couldn't see that there were other possible solutions that the Federation might have, or that they might be able to get part of what they want and wing the rest of it. It was their way or the highway, as it were.

And because they could only see those two options, they had no choice to deceive the Federation, otherwise their plan might not happen.

It was an attempt to show a race that thinks in a fundamentally different way. And that is a very hard thing to do.

[russdm]

Hey - this is one I've actually seen!

I'd have given it a three - the plot was OK, and there wasn't wasn't any amazing revelations, but I don't recall anything I would particularly mark down for.

It was an attempt to show a race that thinks in a fundamentally different way. And that is a very hard thing to do.

Yeah I would have given it a 3 as well but:

I feel like the Bynars would have provided for an interesting story about exploring how they work and how they are able to make such an amazing hologram lady, Minuet. That would have been good for the episode. For discovering new civilizations and interacting with them.

We got:

Little exploration of the Bynars and about the hologram lady.

The Grand Theft Starship, in which the Bynars proceeded to steal the Enterprise. Which they were to take to their homeworld and fix a computer problem for them

Riker and Picard playing Rambo and Die Hard. They have to take the ship back, like nothing else can happen until they succeed in that, then they can worry about whatever.

Really:

Once Picard and Riker learned why the Bynars needed the ship, they would stop and pause and find some way to work with the Bynars and accomplish a goal.

I think that Minuet, the hologram lady told them about what or at least, some of why the Bynars stole the ship.

An exploration of a new race would have been interesting to see. So I was not as impressed with including the theft.

I know that the show needs drama but somehow the part and plot of the Enterprise theft feels out of place. Like it just doesn't have a connection with the rest of the episode.

Maybe I am affected from the other instances of somebody trying to steal the enterprise. Which happens in a few more episodes of this show and other ones. Enterprise theft or the attempt.

That may be really it, what is making me give a lower rating.

There is a latet episode with a follow up that makes the earlier episode, and the follow up episode, bad in one of its plotlines

[russdm]

They had a plan that the Federation might agree to or reject. They couldn't see that there were other possible solutions that the Federation might have, or that they might be able to get part of what they want and wing the rest of it. It was their way or the highway, as it were.

And because they could only see those two options, they had no choice to deceive the Federation, otherwise their plan might not happen.

I think that is another problem I have with the episode. I have thought that it has been established before and will be after, that Starfleet and the Federation have such a friendly and caring attitude that they will do all sorts of things without thought if it would help some people out.

I mean that Starfleet is totally willing to give some replicators to the Cardassians and they agreed to not make any cloaking devices and they agreed to help out the Klingons with their environmental problems and they did to such extent that it appears that those Klingon environmental problems are not seen in the episode that we visit the Klingon homeworld.

There were times when Starfleet didn't have to help out but they did anyway. The times that Kirk broke some computers. How the incident with the tribbles ended, how the events with Kang, the thungs with Kruge.

Starfleet and the Federation could have pushed hard at the Klingons for what they have done before. Starfleet and the Federation could have pushed hard at the Romulans for what they did.

So, I don't have an impression of a Starfleet and the Federation that would say no to a request for help or assistance and that it would have been known about somehow for the Bynars.


That is what I felt myself.

I did want to give the episode a rating of 3 but it felt through it and at the end, that it had somehow dropped slightly down a bit in grade.

And I know that there ends up being no follow up with the Bynars and what they needed. So we never find out what happens with it and the events.

[The Glyphstone]

The race with high aptitude towards computers and a tendency to see all situations as binary options is named...Bynars. If these writers had been working on TOS, Worf would be an Honoroid and Spock would be a Logican.

[russdm]

The race with high aptitude towards computers and a tendency to see all situations as binary options is named...Bynars. If these writers had been working on TOS, Worf would be an Honoroid and Spock would be a Logican.

Corrected you there.

They do have computers on them, and they are also partly computers. Basically two people linked together in a way. And they speak in computer sounds too.

Bynars/Bynar -- Binary

It does make sense

[The Glyphstone]

Typo, yeah. But thats sort of what I'm saying, its taking the Planet/Race of Hats that Trek is already known for up to a new level by even having their name conveniently match their Hat. I just find it uncreative.

[russdm]

Season 1 Episode 15
Too Short a Season
Stardate: 41309.5

[Plot]
So the crew goes to consult with an admiral after receiving a message from the leader of a planet that has reported some hostages having been taken. the admiral will be going with them to deal with the situation.

as it turns out the admiral has taken some special de-aging substance that makes him get younger. it, the substance, also gives him pain.

the Enterprise heads off to Mordan. No, not Mr. Mordan, but a planet called that. it had been in a civil war for 40 years. the leader of Mordan is named Karnas. the admiral is named Mark Jameson.

Jameson keeps getting younger and he wants to go in forcefully. we learn that Karnas is holding the hostages. Picard learns that Jameson traded weapons for the hostages when Jameson was a captain. then Jameson gave the enemies of Karnas the same weapons.

this ended badly in that while Jameson hoped for a short war, it caused a civil war that lasted for 40 years and that Karnas wants revenge.

the storming the base to rescue the hostages fails. the admiral and Karnas meet again and Karnas gets his revenge as the admiral dies thanks to the substance. Karnas has the admiral buried on planet. Karnas releases the hostages.

Riker and Picard do a talk like how Kirk and Spock would do.

[Rating]
4 - Good episode: A few parts of the episode are above average - good plot points, clever use of effects and so on.

{Episode Commentary}
First, to get it out of the way, the stuff to show the admiral being different ages until looking like the actual actor are terrible. very bad makeup.

the plot is good over how a solution of arming both sides equally in a way similar way that Kirk did but for different reasons, can turn out rather badly. the need to atone is something that the admiral feels. that part or plot works.

the part with the de-aging substance is mixed, the episode struggles with it.

the background events for this episode is {scrubbed} so there is that. i think that a few episodes have a real world event triggering them.

again, the makeup for the de-aging admiral is terrible

So? Do fellow playgrounders agree? Disagree? Comments of your own? Get some discussing going on

Trackers)
Hidden Gems: 2
Rank of Miles: Ensign
Prime Directives: 2
Patrick Stewart Speech: 2 (Did I miss an earlier one? I don't think so)
Riker "Patrick Stewart Speech": 1
Riker Romances Something/Someone: 1
Pithy Aesops: 1
Klingon Proverbs/Beliefs/Sentiments: 1) Drink not with thine enemy;
Worfed (Worf loses to establish danger): 2
Holodeck Mishaps/Breakings/Issues: 1
Actually Alien Aliens: 1
Lore's Appearances: 1

[Peelee]

The other problem, is that the Bynars consider that Starfleet might have said "No" if asked for help. That is not likely to ever happen, with Starfleet being the way they are.

Federation may totally have said no, circumstances depending. I don't mind that aspect. Sure, they were likely to say yes from all indications we can see, but if the prime directive means letting a sapient people die out for whatever reason, Federation will sit by and watch them die. Can't fault a people not in the Federation for not knowing the intricacies of Federation policy.

[russdm]

Season 1 Episode 16/17
When The Bough Breaks
Stardate: 41509.1

[Plot]
So the crew arrive at the planet of Aldea. Events happen, the kids or some kids get kidnapped. The crew get the kids back. Wesley learns about the planet and how everyone on the planet is sterile or like it apparently. Then the crew fix the problem of that. The planet's inhabitants don't know how to work the technology they have anymore.

Everything ends well, Captain Picard ends up with a tribble toy stuck to him.

[Rating]
2 - Poor episode: Not too bad but has one or two week areas (Poor plot, weak character use, bad effects)

{Episode Commentary}
Yeah, this is a stinker.

The plot of missing kids really doesn't ever pay off, because frankly, we have not seen them really anywhere before. The kid that the ship seems to have by this point is Wesley, with a brief appearances maybe in a couple of episodes of so family presence. Really, this whole point of families being on board, should have been the feature of several previous episodes. That would have helped here for the plot.

Because this is about the first time that the issue of kids and family seems to have come up in the show, the entire plot just falls sideways. The whole kid kidnapping and the upset parents, just don't ever work. We never saw them before, and given how "monster of the week" TNG is already, I pretty much know that things will turn out well anyway. That just about strips all of the value and tension from this episode. The parts not massively damaged due to having never seen any of the families in the episode before.

The planet of Aldea is interesting up to a point, but then the inhabitants have pretty much forgotten everything about their own technology and such. That would have worked with a different secondary premise, cutting all of the kid parts and getting another plot element. Maybe the inhabitants of Aldea request assistance from problems that they just don't know how to handle, and then follow up with some Wesley exploring as he did, and include that bit and trail. Then, I think the episode would have worked out better.

A Deep Space 9 episode featured a plot of people going missing and troubles. it was the one with the holographic village, and it did a much better way of making you care about everything in my opinion. That just wasn't the case here. The DS9 episode built the characters involved in the problem and Dax & Odo 's experiences with them, so when things happened badly, and when things were fixed, there was strong emotional involvement there. This episode just couldn't get that to work.

The lack of build up, of families, really hurt this episode. It made it not that interesting and I found that, I didn't care at all.

It was funny though that apparently kids need to learn Calculas (sp?) since, supposedly like all mathmatics beyond a basic level is going to be used in every day life. Sure.....

The two plots that were meshed together here, just don't work. Terrible episode.

So? Do fellow playgrounders agree? Disagree? Comments of your own? Get some discussing going on

Trackers)
Hidden Gems: 2
Rank of Miles: Ensign
Prime Directives: 2
Patrick Stewart Speech: 2 (Did I miss an earlier one? I don't think so)
Riker "Patrick Stewart Speech": 1
Riker Romances Something/Someone: 1
Pithy Aesops: 1
Klingon Proverbs/Beliefs/Sentiments: 1) Drink not with thine enemy;
Worfed (Worf loses to establish danger): 2
Holodeck Mishaps/Breakings/Issues: 1
Actually Alien Aliens: 1
Lore's Appearances: 1

[GloatingSwine]

Season 1 Episode 16/17]
It was funny though that apparently kids need to learn Calculas (sp?) since, supposedly like all mathmatics beyond a basic level is going to be used in every day life. Sure.....

To be fair, if you live on an actual spaceship* the likelihood of complex mathematics becoming relevant to your daily life shoots up dramatically.


* Especially one named Enterprise where weird nonsense is guaranteed to occur every wednesday at 6PM.

[DavidSh]

And you have to start early, if you want to be able to learn Warp Physics in high school.

[Peelee]

And you have to start early, if you want to be able to learn Warp Physics in high school.

That's what I was about to say. Calculus used to be advanced mathematics. Now it's a high school subject, because the current advanced math and chemistry needs that as a very basic foundation. By the time you get to the level of technology and science in TNG, gotta start moving to calculus as soon as possible to get it out of the way for the rest of the stuff they'll need to know by high school (or equivalent).

[russdm]

Season 1 Episode 17
Home Soil
Stardate: 41463.9

[Plot]
The crew arrive at a planet to check up on the terraforming in progress. There have been setbacks. As it turns out, the terraforming people are lying and Troi demonstrates her talents.

The progress has slowed down due to issues. There are some. Then we learn about there is some inorganic crystal like life forms that have some issues with the planet getting terraformed. So they take steps to stop or hinder the terraforming. A laser beam kills someone. then other issues. Then Data talks with the inorganic life forms. Who are some what sorry over killing that person.

The crew work to help out the crystal like life forms and it becomes some big crystal. The crew is able to help out.

After the events, Picard marks the planet as being in quaratine and not to be visited. Picard is also hopeful about not doing another thing like this again.

[Rating]
3 - Average episode: OK to watch, but nothing amazing. This should be the default score.

{Episode Commentary}
To be honest, I had wanted to give this a higher rating, but based on reading parts about the episode on tvtropes, it is clear that the plot is a bit old. Despite that, it works.

The episode deals with discovering that something already lives at a place where some terraforming was going to happen. That is not exactly a newish thing anymore, in the 1960s it may have been. So, this is the last of the TOS style of scripts for use. So, this episode works as an episode of Star Trek, but nothing pushes it up, to either a 4, or being a Hidden Gem. So, it is where it is.

So? Do fellow playgrounders agree? Disagree? Comments of your own? Get some discussing going on

Trackers)
Hidden Gems: 2
Rank of Miles: Ensign
Prime Directives: 2
Patrick Stewart Speech: 2 (Did I miss an earlier one? I don't think so)
Riker "Patrick Stewart Speech": 1
Riker Romances Something/Someone: 1
Pithy Aesops: 1
Klingon Proverbs/Beliefs/Sentiments: 1) Drink not with thine enemy;
Worfed (Worf loses to establish danger): 2
Holodeck Mishaps/Breakings/Issues: 1
Actually Alien Aliens: 1
Lore's Appearances: 1

{{Addendum}}

So, we are 9 episodes from finishing out the Season. I think that I will be making a Season Recap, a commentary on the season and how it did. Also, we have reached the point that Roddenberry is starting to take his first steps of considering/lessening influence on the show too.

Also, coming up, is the episode that is a two-parter of probably among the worst of TNG episodes with the next episode having part one of that two parts/episodes. You should be easily able to figure out what I am referring to here.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Another one I've not seen, but the moment I way "crystals" I was thinking of "The Devil in the Dark", although that was based on mining rather than terraforming, and a form of co-existance was brokered in the end. Also it gave rise to one of my favourite novel characters, Lt Naraht.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Manga Shoggoth
Also it gave rise to one of my favourite novel characters, Lt Naraht.

I'm glad someone else remembers this guy. Diane Duane was one of the better TOS novelists back in the day.

[The Glyphstone]

The Romulan Trilogy is still canon as far as I'm concerned. Along with How Much For Just The Planet?

[russdm]

Season 1 Episode 18
Coming of Age
Stardate: 41461.2

[Plot]
So the crew goes to have Wesley do some testing for getting into Starfleet Academy. Then a few guys show up to visit to critique how Captain Picard is doing, or so.

[Rating]
Wesley and his parts of the Episode --
5 - Excelent episode: Episode excels in most or all ways - major character development, good story and so on

The Inspections/Critique of Captain Picard of the Episode -- Stand Alone --
3 - Average episode: OK to watch, but nothing amazing. This should be the default score.

The Inspections/Critique of Captain Picard of the Episode -- With the follow up episode in consideration --
Barely reaches up to -- 1 - Bad episode: Multiple weaknesses (bad acting, bad story, disasterous effects, poor connection to lore)

{Episode Commentary}
So this Episode gets a few ratings for it because it contains separate parts and one of those parts has a follow up episode with it.

All of the episode that relates to Wesley is very interesting and very good. Seeing Wesley explore parts of himself and his fears makes for some compelling watching. This could have been the episode itself alone. I really really liked it and was annoyed when the episode switched away. This episode is really Wesley at his most non-annoying and most personable and likable. Some staggeringly good acting on Wil Wheaton's part here.

The other part...

Is mediocre. The critique of Captain Picard is not really that interesting and it is just a follow up of the different events that happened before this episode. Some of the previous episodes have their plots mentioned some. The overall feel is just meh, it doesn't really seem like much. Not bad but not great. Overall, just a middle of the road performance.

The other part, thanks to the follow up episode...

The stuff about how there are weird things that worry Admiral Quinn probably would have worked, but knowing what the follow up episode for it is (Conspiracy), I honestly wish this episode's part was just erased. That it got completely axed. The follow up episode for this was so staggeringly bad that I want to burn out my memory.

Had there been a different subject for the Conspiracy, then I think that this episode's parts could have stayed as being what it was. But what was gotten just retroactively ruins the parts here. It is just such a bad idea of a plot and so terribly done, that it just brings down this episode as well.

That Follow UP Episode...

Conspiracy is the follow up to this episode's parts with Remmick and Quinn, and given that episode (Conspiracy) falls next to Code of Honor and the Janeway - Paris as Salamander Episodes and all of the other utterly horrible episodes of Star Trek, I just don't see how They (the cast and crew) could have thought what got made should have ever been aired at all. Conspiracy is almost entirely made of Narm and Stupid, then graduates to Narmy Stupid and Stupid Stupid. Bad all around.

Of course, we will get to that episode, and I will be proceeding to chew that episode out for what a piece of royally impressive garbage that it happens to be.

So? Do fellow playgrounders agree? Disagree? Comments of your own? Get some discussing going on

Trackers)
Hidden Gems: 2
Rank of Miles: Ensign
Prime Directives: 2
Patrick Stewart Speech: 2 (Did I miss an earlier one? I don't think so)
Riker "Patrick Stewart Speech": 1
Riker Romances Something/Someone: 1
Pithy Aesops: 1
Klingon Proverbs/Beliefs/Sentiments: 1) Drink not with thine enemy;
Worfed (Worf loses to establish danger): 2
Holodeck Mishaps/Breakings/Issues: 1
Actually Alien Aliens: 1
Lore's Appearances: 1

[Velaryon]

Season 1 Episode 16/17
When The Bough Breaks
Stardate: 41509.1

I agree this was not a very good episode. I put it down to two main factors:
1. Other than Wesley, we have never seen any of the other kids before nor will again, so it's hard for the audience to care about these characters specifically.
2. This came way too close on the heels of another episode about people trying to steal from the Enterprise instead of just asking for help that would have been freely given (the last being "11001001").

There's also a lot of poor acting going on here. The kids say they miss home but there's no whining, no crying, no tantrums, and no acting out whatsoever. Other than one brief moment where the one woman refuses to give up the little girl to the family she was assigned to, nobody acts particularly emotional about the Enterprise taking back its children even though these people believe that will mean the end of their civilization.

In general I think season 1 is better than its reputation, but this episode is impossible to defend.

[russdm]

Season 1 Episode 19
Heart of Glory
Stardate: 41503.7

[Plot]
the ship goes and rescues some klingons. we get to see how la forge sees. it is really cool. then the klingons are rescued and brought to the ship. One dies and we get the klingon death ritual. Picard doesn't buy the story that the Klingons tell him. He doesn't have proof though. He leaves them with Worf.

Picard consults with the Klingons/starfleet, and also has a klingon ship nearby sort of. Picard hails them and speaks to them about the klingons. He learns they are radicals/renegedes.

We learn about how Worf ended up in the Federation and in starfleet. Also about the relations between Klingons and Romulans some. The Klingons try to appeal to Worf, to convince him to join them. They fail. They also attempt to escape and one klingon dies.

The last klingon takes the ship's warp drive hostage, as it were, and speaks to Worf. Worf then kills that klingon.

The klingon on the approaching ship speaks to Worf and offer him a space on his ship. Worf accepts to be polite as he tells the others.

[Rating]
5 - Excelent episode: Episode excels in most or all ways - major character development, good story and so on

{Episode Commentary}
I love Klingons, whenever they appear, and this is our real first appearance of them in the show. Not only are the Klingons pretty awesome whenever, but this episode begins the process of moving them from their pseudo Soviet Union portrayal to that of the Viking/Samurai style they would have. All in all, it helps establish the Empire and what it is dealing with.

Peace between the Klingons and Federation, is not exactly working here. It contrasts heavily with much ideals, and Klingons remain one of a handful of races that Picard cannot do his speech to but he does earn their respect.

Klingons are pretty awesome. They have a great look from TOS and here in TNG, they have really nice looking uniforms and stuff. They just look like Warriors, like they could totally beat up people and look cool while doing so. They have a style that the Federation/Starfleet just simply lacks. They just look cool.

The Klingon ships also look pretty cool anyway. They contain a sense of alien look and feel to them, while also including a strong predatory kind of "This is a warship" vibe. The Feddies don't have that for any of their ships except for the Defiant, Sisko's ship.

This episode also highlights an issue with the Federation: They have been at peace for way too D@## long. Conflict, between yourself and others, is one of the best ways to test and show your determination. You must be challenged.

Kahless had it right, "Fight to enrich the spirit". Life is conflict, and the Klingons get this. They don't allow themselves comfort and what we see of their ships doesn't have the "Hotel" in space feel from the Enterprise D. The Klingons are a warrior people, who go about fighting. They may hold to very different ideals, but they completely challenge how perfect our humans actually are.

Klingons are awesome. They get amazing weapons, amazing songs, amazing cultural details and myths. Our Feddies ?humans get very little that makes them interesting. They come across as really dull. just dull.

Ah, Klingons. How awesome you are.

So? Do fellow playgrounders agree? Disagree? Comments of your own? Get some discussing going on

Trackers)
Hidden Gems: 2
Rank of Miles: Ensign
Prime Directives: 2
Patrick Stewart Speech: 2 (Did I miss an earlier one? I don't think so)
Riker "Patrick Stewart Speech": 1
Riker Romances Something/Someone: 1
Pithy Aesops: 1
Klingon Proverbs/Beliefs/Sentiments: 1) Drink not with thine enemy; A few in this episode
Worfed (Worf loses to establish danger): 2
Holodeck Mishaps/Breakings/Issues: 1
Actually Alien Aliens: 1
Lore's Appearances: 1

[Gnoman]

The funny thing is that later episodes establish that the war between the Federation and the Cardassians is going on around this time.

[russdm]

The fact that the Federation is at war with the Cardassians is not Canon at this point. Also, apparently the war was never important enough that it affected the Federation in any real way.

Think of it as being weird affects of Canon Retcons. Maybe fighting the Cardassians is what Miles is doing since He has been missing from the ship some.

Season 1 Episode 20
The Arsenal of Freedom
Stardate: 41798.2

[Plot]
The crew go off to investigate the disappearance of a ship. They go to a planet where they are contacted by the Harkonnens who offer to preen about been the best weapon makers in the galaxy. The Preening Harkonnen is just an automated recording. Picard sends down an away, they discover a ruined planet.

Through a series of events, the crew learns that the inhabitants of the planet, Minos, built an AI weapon that promptly and apparently destroyed them. It was a highly effective weapon. One version of the Weapon attacks the away team, while another attacks the Enterprise. Meanwhile, for reasons..., Picard and Dr Crusher fall in a hole.

La Forge has command of the Enterprise and fights the space weapon, separating the Enterprise apart while doing so. He destroys the space weapon after Picard has purchased the Weapon System.

The Federation, or Picard, now owns a Weapon System, which will promptly never show up again.

[Rating]
3 - Average episode: OK to watch, but nothing amazing. This should be the default score.

{Episode Commentary}
Okay, It is not the actual Harkonnens, but the Peddler is played by the guy that plays the Harkonnen Mentat for the Emperor, Battle for Dune game. Also, Michael Dorn appears in that game as well, playing the Atreides Duke. Of course, it does feel like the sort of thing that the Harkonnens would do; make a weapon system that couldn't be controlled in any way.

Basically, this Episode is about the dangers of making Automatic weapon systems, and how unsafe that could be. Babylon 5 does a similar episode, about a weapon that used Genetic Purity for its take on who to kill, but as it turned out, that genetic purity amount didn't work for anybody of the race/species, so the weapon proceeded to kill everyone.

With that said, the Weapon introduced in this episode would have been quite helpful for use with the Borg and with the Dominion and with other events that happened. So, it is a little bit said to see no future appearance of it anywhere.

So? Do fellow playgrounders agree? Disagree? Comments of your own? Get some discussing going on

Trackers)
Hidden Gems: 2
Funny Guest Star Appearances: 1
Rank of Miles: Ensign
Prime Directives: 2
Patrick Stewart Speech: 2 (Did I miss an earlier one? I don't think so)
Riker "Patrick Stewart Speech": 1
Riker Romances Something/Someone: 1
Pithy Aesops: 1
Klingon Proverbs/Beliefs/Sentiments: 1) Drink not with thine enemy; A) Several in the Episode, "Heart of Glory";
Worfed (Worf loses to establish danger): 2
Holodeck Mishaps/Breakings/Issues: 1
Actually Alien Aliens: 1
Lore's Appearances: 1

[Velaryon]

I actually really like this episode. It's one of if not my favorite from season 1.

My personal headcanon is that the demonstration system was designed to hand customers off to an actual living salesman once they've agreed to buy, and then the system simply shuts down. Therefore no delivery was actually made, and the Enterprise never actually acquires the Minoan weapon system. Plus at the end I believe they quarantine the planet so that nobody else comes along and accidentally triggers the demonstration.

The intended message is obviously that the weapons are too dangerous to use because they escape the control of their masters and kill everyone, thus the Enterprise does the only thing it could do by promising to buy and then running away. But I do wish there had been a bit more continuity allowed in this series, and that we had seen the Enterprise or someone else from the Federation study the weapon systems on Minos and take a few of their innovations.

I also wonder how the automated drone systems on Minos would fare against the Borg. Which adaptive technology would prove the superior?

[Gnoman]

This episode is pretty much a direct rehash of the TOS episode The Doomsday Machine, with some elements of Shore Leave mixed in. The biggest change from the earlier episode is the shift from a Cold War fear of Mutual Assured Destruction to a more time-appropriate fear of unscrupulous weapons traders - a take that is oddly prophetic considering the later course of history.

[Manga Shoggoth]

I think it's fair to say this was an OK episode, but not really mich more than that.

As to the weapon being any use against the Borg, well I doubt it. The Borg are masters of adaptation and simulation and have the accumulated knowledge of an unknowk number of cultures at their fingertips. The system might well put up a good fight, but it would eventually lose.

Failing that, I suspect the Borg would be able to do the equivalent of a Zerg Rush in retalliation, which the Enterprise really couldn't.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Manga Shoggoth
As to the weapon being any use against the Borg, well I doubt it. The Borg are masters of adaptation and simulation and have the accumulated knowledge of an unknowk number of cultures at their fingertips. The system might well put up a good fight, but it would eventually lose.

Very much agreed, and it’s almost certain the Borg have come up against this sort of thing before.

We know from First Contact that the Borg have assimilated thousands of species, so that’s thousands of entire cultures and their associated technologies. At this point, the Borg are able to bring the resources of a large portion of the galaxy to bear on each new conquest, so it should be comparatively easy for them to deal with a clever but easily duped automated weapons system.

As an aside, I know TNG was constrained in terms of budget, but I always wanted to see nonhumanoid Borg, since there should be plenty of nonhumanoid species out there in the galaxy. A giant cybernetic mantis shrimp would make for some serious nightmare fuel.

Since we don’t see that sort of thing, it’s worth asking whether there’s a plausible in-universe reason why the Borg seem to selectively assimilate only humanoid species. Since the original Borg were apparently humanoid themselves, are they simply better-adapted to efficiently assimilating other humanoids?

Or, since they consider themselves well on the way to perfection, do they judge nonhumanoid species as inherently inferior and undeserving of inclusion in the Collective, and simply annihilate them rather than assimilating them?

[Velaryon]

Well, the overwhelming majority of alien species we've seen in Star Trek are humanoid in at least shape, so it's not like they're skipping over a whole swath of differently-shaped aliens as far as we know. For every Horta, there's at least a dozen species that are basically humans with something on their forehead or nose. And that's not even getting into non-corporeal beings like the Q.

[DavidSh]

Of course, more not-so-humanoid aliens showed up on the Animated Series, including a three-legged helmsman.

[Peelee]

Of course, more not-so-humanoid aliens showed up on the Animated Series, including a three-legged helmsman.

The luxury of significantly cheaper effects. Also, the animated series is better than I ever expected it would be.