Mastodawn

* love how many different perspectives the show is willing to engage with re: what makes us human, identity, etcetera -- Worf's is different than Data's is different than Sela's
* if they wanted to bring Denise Crosby back this badly maybe they shouldn't have fucking killed Tasha in the first fucking place

"Temba, his arms wide."

good episode -- great episode -- but also this language feels pretty crackable to me, a huge story nerd. i could figure this out in an afternoon. Kevin Costner at the campfire. (Dathon's body language is also just pretty clear.)

the whole "the whole Bajoran race are terrorists, damnit" thing Starfleet are doing here is gross, and it's upsetting to see it reinforced by people like Riker, who, like, Will, you hang out with a Klingon, your boss was a Borg for a bit, don't be a fucking dick here,

but it sure doesn't surprise me

I think there's a compelling emotional core here -- a scientist discovers some part of her dead son is accessible through Data, who because of his resemblance to Lore she holds responsible for his death -- but the Crystalline Entity isn't that interesting, the memories she's able to access through him aren't particularly engaging, and I'm tired of the random robo-racists of the week.

Everyone getting isolated into their own bottle episodes and having to work outside of their comfort zone is fun. Picard assigning those kids jobs he can work with is clever.

I get Ensign Ro's arc is probably about what it does to somebody to be in Starfleet while culturally so outside of it, but I continue to find the main cast's open distaste for her presence to be unpleasant, as well as frequently out of character.

parents and their game boys am i right

Think this and part two might be the last appearance of a TOS main character that I definitely haven't seen before. (I know I've seen at least one of the TNG movies.)

They really take their time to get around to actually showing you Spock, but when they get there it does feel like an Event. #startrek #tng

A good use of Spock, I think.

It never becomes the Spock Show, his function is to move the Vulcan/Romulan situation into a new status quo, and I think that's a good way to do something like this.

We've been over this, but I genuinely and viscerally dislike when they're rude to ensign Ro. Riker should, well, okay, he should go shove it up his ass, but if this is how little control he has over his reaction to a subordinate, everyone around him should consider him unfit for his position.

I can only hope them, uh, getting along as well as they do in this tabula rasa state here does actually meaningfully change this dynamic going forward. #startrek #tng

This one is just too close to the previous one -- two weeks in a row of leads not behaving like themselves because of an alien light effect is too much. #startrek #tng

I think this lands at "good episode" even if its perspective on the issue of euthanasia and how that intersects with Worf's culture lands firmly at being extremely 1990s writers room-brained.

Anyway, just because this doctor does something right at the end doesn't mean she shouldn't go to science jail and have her license to practice medicine thrown in the science incinerator.

Speaking of 1990s writers room-brained allegories, woof.

I think that's all I have to say about this one.

hahaha

and also

fuck yes

not always big on the courtroom episodes, but making it the Starfleet equivalent of Wesley having a teen driving accident is clever and makes the stakes very human, very personal. Wheaton great here. #startrek #tng

This might be one of the least successful hours of "Trek" I've ever seen -- those holodeck scenes are beyond baffling -- but, and I can't believe I'm saying this, Lwaxana Troi as a character is kinda starting to work for me. Her admitting to Alexander that she feels old and lonely may be the most moving this character has ever been. #startrek #tng

Good Ensign Ro episode, it's nice to see her connect with Geordi here instead of always being at odds with Riker. Unfortunately his hostility to her does raise its ugly head at the start, even though I'd hoped we'd seen the last of it. #startrek #tng

A hoot, but I feel like the only thing that really makes this a season finale is that it's a two-parter -- you can kinda find Data's head buried under San Francisco for half a millennium any day of the week, no?

Though maybe I'm saying that based on later shows I've already seen doing this kind of thing more frequently? #startrek #tng

There's a lot to like here -- the stuff with Picard and Guinan, the pretending to be a theatre troupe -- but Mark Twain may be this show's most annoying guest star yet, and the way things resolve is all pretty bog-standard.

every Barclay episode be like
* Barclay shits himself
* the crew gently tries to get him to at least aim at the bowl
* Barclay keeps shitting himself, just all over the place, it's a real problem
* wanting Barclay to stop shitting himself all over the place, the crew finally take Barclay seriously and start looking into it
* they get Barclay the help he needs
* turns out helping Barclay also resolves the B-plot. wow, convenient.

The only mystery in one of these -- Troi engages in an alien ritual with a visiting ambassador, immediately starts behaving like a deranged horndog -- is why the crew are so consistently blind to people they've known for approaching a decade behaving oddly. #startrek #tng

When I referred to "Unification" as the last TOS main cast appearance I'd never seen, note that I fully forgot about this one. Scotty! :')

At my current pace, I'll hit DS9 very soon.

...Do I have a DS9 emojo? Yeah, that works.

the episode that dares to ask, what if a hangover was a thing done to you by aliens #startrek #tng

Solid little comedy episode, but the Ensign Ro story here made me cry. #startrek #tng

Funny how "the gang has to covertly sneak onto a planet" is a big two-parter here, but the kind of thing Strange New Worlds just casually does off-screen as a joke now, while "the new captain we're all gonna have to get used to" is here a sort of busywork B-plot, while it feels like it was half of Discovery's season arcs. #startrek #tng

There are, of course, four lights. #startrek #tng

* Would simply not have my entire life ruined by some Frenchman's Main Character Syndrome problems. Pitting Sisko so strongly opposite Picard is a smart choice.
* As is the conflict with the Bajorans -- hard not to feel like they're basically right about Starfleet setting up shop here.
* Have seen this one before, but I don't think I got very far into the season.
* That this show hasn't been remastered really makes TNG's remaster look incredible.

Bashir/Garak is the gayest situation I've ever seen. #startrek #ds9

O'Brien being such a main character on this show gives it all such a workplace comedy vibe. DS9 itself just a big mall.

I assume wormhole visitors will be a recurring go-to thing on this show? #startrek #ds9

geordi

you're investigating a murder and though the structure of Trek means she didn't do it, /you're/ definitely not sure she didn't do it

geordi

this is unprofessional at best

(there's some unhealthy patterns in Geordi's romantic life that this 90s writers' room is just incapable of interrogating -- he was like this with Brahms, too, just instantly making himself part of a "we" with somebody who doesn't get consulted on whether she wants that)

Works, but does so define itself in relationship to the TNG Q stories that it, perhaps inadvertently, really makes clear that the dynamic he has with Picard is something special, something that just doesn't really exist with Sisko, who simply takes none of the guff Picard so beleagueredly tolerates from Q. #startrek #ds9 #tng

I think this is a pretty great story, and a great display of exactly what makes the dynamic between Q and Picard tick. Great take on "Christmas Carol"/"Wonderful Life" only TNG could do.

But that whole friendship completely falling apart immediately just because Picard, given the chance, would strongly prefer not to get stabbed in the entire Hades-damned heart, woof, Johnny, make better friends.

On the one hand, lovely to see Worf connecting with his Klingon culture, finding not just value but beauty in those traditions.

On the other hand, frustrating that that means being racist to Romulans, that it means trying to force violent and outdated ways of doing things on a peaceful colony of people who are clearly fine without all that junk. #startrek #tng

There's /some/ small pleasures to be found in the silliness of the crew having to go through this Global Village Coffeehouse-ass "Celestial Toymaker" games-world, but mostly this is pretty bad.

This could also firmly have been a TNG -- none of this is distinct to DS9, and we learn very little of interest about any of the leads as they go through this. Kira doesn't like frivolity? Yeah, no shit.

Wallace Shawn perfectly deployed as "Ferengi so annoying and in charge even Quark thinks he sucks." #startrek #ds9