Star Trek TNG: Season 4
My apologies for the long wait for this review of TNG's Season 4. I would have been done this back in the spring time but as I noted in my March monthly entry, I hit a snag. The DVD-R which contained the downloaded episodes was given to me by my former roommate Shane, turned out to be corrupted. From episode 23 "The Host" to Season 5's episode 10 "New Ground" could not be viewed. In April my brother-in-law found the episodes for me and gave them to me but for some reason, the files wouldn't play properly. The video or sound would be off-sync and I just couldn't view them that way. I was upset and on and off for months was I trying to find a way to play the files or look for free online viewing of those missing episodes to no avail. To also complicate matters, this review you see here was almost lost! When I got my new PC, I transferred a lot of my files from the old PC onto a hard drive dock and then to the new PC. I forgot to copy this review file from Semagic and when I unplugged and put away the old PC, I didn't have the room or patience to hook it back up now that the new PC was in place. The old hard drive was intact and kept the old data safe. I left my old PC with my friend Peter because of the move and had plans to possibly sell it cheap. Throughout the spring and summer, I only caught some past episodes of TOS and TNG on Space Channel that I've already seen and refused to watch any TNG episode I've never seen before. Last week, I tried one of those files again and the error message mentioned something about a codec needed. I thought downloading a different player would help so I opted for Media Player Classic. I installed it and opened Episode 23 "The Host" and while there was an error message, the video and sound were all in-sync! There are subtitles but it's no bother. I was so thrilled that I watched the next episode right after! Again, it worked perfectly. As of Sunday I finished Season 4 but before then I managed to salvage the file of this review from my old hard drive after a visit to Peter's. It took a while to search for the file given that there were two folders that old entries were in. Semagic was working still but the folder that contained my past saved entries only had one entry in it! "Where the fuck did my other ones go?" I yelled and was getting upset. The search feature from Windows Vista on Peter's computer was such crap. I typed in "Star Trek" to search the entire docked drive and nothing came up. When I typed in from memory what the filename was, it appeared (good memory!) and was intact. I opened the entry and copied and pasted the text onto a MS Word document and emailed it to myself. It certainly saved me hours of work having to research and retype this review from scratch. I then added the last episodes, downloaded a few pictures, and lo and behold, here we are. Season 5 will be on the way this fall. As for my old computer, I took the hard drive and RAM but gave the tower and everything else to Peter so he can donate it to the Neil Squire Society.
"Family": This is another one of those touching episodes. Following the two-part "The Best of Both Worlds" episodes, the Enterprise is going through repairs and the crew get to visit or receive visits from family. Worf's human parents, Sergei and Helena Rozhenkho arrive and learn of Worf's discommendation from the episode "Sins of the Father". While trying to avoid his parents love and support over the issue - viewing them as human qualities, I almost shed a tear when Worf's parents reaffirm their sincere love and support for him as he feels shame. I also liked the main story arc of Picard visiting his family home in La Barre, France. He meets his older brother Robert, his wife Marie, and their son Rene. Rene dreams of one day being in space just like Picard but Robert discourages such thoughts. You can feel Robert's animosity and jealousy toward Picard because he was left to care for the family home and vineyard while Picard joined Starfleet and rose in the ranks. It was fun to see them wrestling in the mud and getting drunk together as they reconcile. The ending was nice as when Picard leaves, Rene is allowed to go back to dreaming of his possible future beyond the sky.
"Legacy": We meet Ishara Yar, the younger sister of Tasha Yar. It's too bad that Tasha didn't appear at all in this episode but it was a great tribute to her. The Enterprise crew visit Tasha and Ishara's birth planet Turkana IV and found it hasn't changed much from what Tasha described it. Data tells Ishara how her sister was killed on assignment, referencing the Season 1 episode "Skin of Evil". I found out that this episode marks a milestone as it's the 80th one in the series and that it just surpassed The Original Series which only had 79 episodes. It is mentioned at the beginning of this episode that the Enterprise has passed the planet Camus II - which was in the final episode "Turnabout Intruder" in TOS.
"Reunion": I was excited to see Chancellor K'mpec again (above, WOOF!) in this episode but was very sad when he died. I found this episode both entertaining and sad in general. Worf's love interest, Ambassador K'Ehleyr returns in this episode and brings with her a child Klingon named Alexander - who turns out to be Worf's son! The episode centers on a power struggle in the Klingon Empire and the decision for a successor after K'mpec's death by poison. One of the Klingon's, Duras is an enemy of Worf and kills K'Ehleyr. In revenge, Worf challenges Duras to a duel and kills him. At the end of the episode we see Worf admit to Alexander that he is his father and feels his sorrow of missing his mother. Worf also tells him that it would be best for him to live with his human parents as Alexander needs a family. I thought it was touching when Worf hugs his son before having to leave him.
"Final Mission": Wesley has been admitted in to Starfleet Academy and has one last mission with Captain Picard on a desert planet. I found this episode to be pretty unoriginal and just didn't care for it. It's a shame as Wesley was maturing and becoming less of a nuisance character compared to the first season.
"Clues": I saw this one years ago and it's another one of those great mystery-themed episodes. The Enterprise crew are knocked unconscious except Data by getting near a wormhole. When they awake, Data says they were out for about 30 seconds but clues around the Enterprise suggest they were out for a day. The crew question Data's explanations and behaviour which may cost him his career. In reality he is saving their lives by being tight-lipped. A xenophobic race called the Paxans (they speak through Counselor Troi) don't want themselves to be known and have threatened to destroy the Enterprise. Because they were the ones that stunned the crew and were able to erase their memories - Data was immune and presented a problem.
"First Contact": While nothing to do with the movie of the same name, this was a pretty good episode. A humanoid race from the planet Malcor III is engaging in warp technology which is a signal for the Federation to make first contact with them. They have been studying the Malcors for years though before the away team was about to leave, Riker, disguised as one of them, gets injured and the Malcors take him to a medical facility for treatment and interrogation. This complicates the matter but Picard talks to both Science Minister Mirasta Yale and Chancellor Durken about the Federation and the process of first contact. Picard explains that because of learning from the past mistake of their engaging the Klingons, the Federation take precautions in observing alien races as dictated by the Prime Directive. They are willing to spend years in covert operations to study their way of life and the day finally comes when a race invents warp drive technology. While this is all exciting to Mirasta, Durken is skeptical about the implications this would have on his species because they have yet to mature their thinking about life outside the galaxy. Thanks to the actions of one paranoid Malcor named Krola who almost kills Riker and was willing to martyr himself, Durken declines Picard's offer to join the Federation and asks him to leave the planet until a day comes when they are ready. Disappointed, Picard complies though Mirasta decides to go with Picard to see what the galaxy has to offer.
"QPid": An old flame of Picard, Vash returns. She is disappointed that Picard has never mentioned her to any of the crew and has chosen to keep their first meeting private. Q comes back to return a debt he owes the Enterprise crew from when the Continuum made him human last season and with their "help", his powers were restored. He forces the Enterprise crew into the world of Robin Hood as Picard playing the title character, and Vash playing Maid Marian whom Picard must rescue. When everyone is transported back to the Enterprise, Vash decides to take Q's offer to travel the galaxy. Besides being fun to watch, there are a couple of cute guys in this episode.
"Half a Life": A good episode on big ethical and culture issues. Troi's mother Lwaxana visits and falls for Dr. Timicin (above) of the planet Kaelon II (good taste on her part this time! he's woofy!). The sun on his planet is in a state of decay and threatens the lives of everyone. He performs experiments hoping to find a way to bring life back in the dying star. But it isn't the only problem Timicin faces. On his planet, every one who reaches 60 years old must die by suicide (kind of reminds you of Logan's Run, eh?) in an act called "The Resolution" to prevent the burden on younger generations to care for the elderly. Lwaxana is obviously upset and views this tradition as barbaric and immoral that she protests. After a night of her and Timicin having a sexual escapade (lucky broad! LOL!), he explains "The Resolution" to her but she still cannot accept it. He hits a snag in all this as his experiments have yielded some results but avoiding "The Resolution" will mean his people will not accept his work. To push him further into complying, Timicin's daughter beams aboard the Enterprise and firmly states to both her father and Lwaxana that while she loves her father, she is ashamed of him and wants him to be buried next to their mother. Seeing no other choice, he agrees to go through with "The Resolution" but Lwaxana joins him on the planet to be by his side in his final minutes.
After that episode was the long gap in continuing the series due the corrupted DVD-R disc and file problems. Months later I continued on below...
"The Host": Not much to say but this episode very much reminded me of the episode "Return to Tomorrow" from The Original Series. While that episode had pure energy essences that overtook the bodies of a few Enterprise crew, this episode had a parasite being. In both cases, their going in a human body wasn't ideal and they had to leave or else they would kill their hosts by accident. I thought the ending was a little funny... I was thinking that horny, heterosexual male trekkies were wishing that Crusher had a lesbian scene with the female host of Odan.
"In Theory": Data once again trying to be a lover while incapable of feeling love. Some parts were funny as expected.
"Redemption I": TNG's 100th episode! The continuing saga of Worf trying to set the record straight and restore his family's name. Picard (as "Arbiter of Succession") is asked to install Gowron on the Klingon High Council and has the support of K'Tal (above, WOOF!). He informs Picard that the House of Duras will challenge Gowron's position and may lead to a Klingon civil war. This presents an opportunity to Worf and his younger brother, Kurn, to back Gowron. If Gowron can be installed as the Leader, he can reinstate their family name. But the Duras sisters present their deceased brother's illegitimate son, Toral, who has the lineage to challenge Gowron. Picard relies on Klingon law to stop Toral to become Leader and installs Gowron who in return, restores Worf and Kurn's family name. The Duras sisters are assembling a fleet to incite a civil war. As the Federation cannot get involved in internal affairs, Worf resigns from Starfleet to assist Gowron and Kurn (pic below is from Part II). Throughout the episode, we see that the Romulans are involved with the Duras sisters. Hard to believe that some Klingons sink so low to team up with Romulans. But holy shit! Worf leaving the Federation to help the Klingon Empire and Denise Crosby playing the Romulan in the shadows who shows herself at the end before the credits, looking almost like Tasha Yar (above)? If I watched this episode when it originally aired, the wait for Part II would be killing me!
"Redemption II": Picard appeals to officials from Starfleet who then grant permission to put him in charge of a fleet of ships to create a blockade between the Klingon and Romulan border. With limited Enterprise crew, some are assigned temporary command of individual ships. Data commands a ship called the "Sutherland" and all ships in the blockade create a web that can detect cloaked Romulan ships. Commander Sela, the Romulan resembling Tasha Yar, contacts the Enterprise much to the surprise of Picard. Sela reveals that she is the daughter of Tasha Yar, who returned to the past on the Enterprise-C 24 years earlier (from the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise"). Sela warns Picard that if Starfleet does not break off the blockade in 20 hours, their fleet will be attacked. Meanwhile, Worf is first seduced but then kidnapped by the Duras sisters. As both Picard and Gowron cut off The Duras sisters supply route and use up their resources, the sisters demand the Romulans bring supplies. Sela finds a way to sneak through the web but Data, suspicious of a distortion, orders the firing of torpedoes which reveals the Romulan ships. They retreat and the Duras Sisters are forced to end the civil war. Worf breaks free in time to secure Toral, but the Duras sisters escape. At the ceremony, Gowron gives Worf the opportunity to kill Toral by Rite of Vengeance. While tempting to kill the son of the man who shamed his family name, he declines and even prevents Kurn from carrying it out too, sparing Toral's life. Worf requests to Picard that he be reinstated as a Starfleet officer which Picard grants. I'm guessing at the very end, Toral is about to be shamed by the Klingon High Council in the similar vein that Worf was earlier.
I'll be working on Season 5 this fall and the review that'll follow. :)