Favorite Episodes of The Next Generation, Season 2

Greetings and welcome back to, that's right,

you guessed it, one of your favorite podcasts,

at least I hope so anyway. I am one of your people

in charge today. I don't think I'm the captain.

I'll settle for XO. This is Future Imperfect,

only on thezookingeek .net and our friends over

at geekcastradio .com. I'm, of course, Mike the

Birdman, but I'm not alone as I trek across the

stars in this episode of Future Imperfect, where

we're going to be taking a look at Star Trek

The Next Generation Season 2 and our picks. I'm

joined by one of my favorite people, my best

friend, the guy who kept the site running while

I was gone. Alex, I was going to say something

funny, but I couldn't think of anything, and

I couldn't think of any funny characters from

my episode to talk about either. And then, of

course, as we often do at Future Imperator, we're

joined by our good friend over at the Geekcast

Radio Network. Steve Megatron. And then, finally,

the last member of the Twig crew, the guy who

keeps us rooted in science, understanding, and

just a damn funny guy to have on the show, the

guy from Earth vs. Soup. Aaron Pellier, how's

it going, everybody? It is fantastic to be back.

I'm glad to be talking Star Trek again with you

wonderful people, because I do find when I do

watch Star Trek, I get more excited when I'm

able to talk about it with people who understand

it, who get it. In Aaron's case, he writes it

for a living. It depends on the Trek, is what

you're saying, though, too. Yeah, it also depends

on the Trek, because sometimes I get angry and

we get Discovery Season 2, or Season 3, rather,

but sometimes I get... pleasantly surprised with

star trek lower decks season two comes out next

month so looking forward to that yeah and the

other cartoons coming out sometime in the fall

i think right yeah prodigy premieres before the

end of the year i'm 90 sure the first teaser

trailer's out now So fingers crossed some decent

Trek is coming in the form of cartoons. Yeah,

so we'll have to wait and see. But as I said

off the top of the show, we're going to continue

our watch through of the Star Trek The Next Generation

series. But what we're doing is each season we

get to pick one episode apiece and it cannot

be one that's talked about all the time. Like,

for example. If there's a super duper famous

episode, like for season one, we said Encounter

at Farpoint is out because it's the pilot and

everybody talks about it. For season two, I was

like, let's continue that forward and we're not

going to do Measure of a Man because everybody

knows that episode. It's drilled into us. And

so forth with season three, we won't do Best

of Both Worlds part one for season four, the

second part, and we won't do... Is season four

have unification or is that five? Oh, man. I

think it's four. I think it's four into five.

And you say that people have had Measure of a

Man drilled into them, but judging by Picard

season one, I don't think they've actually understood

what it was trying to say. You see, I should

clarify, Trek fans. I'm not convinced anybody

that writes for Discovery is a Trek fan. So that's

the general... ideas and it doesn't have to be

an episode unlike a lot of the people are like

these are the best episodes these are our personal

a personal favorite or ones that we've never

seen before yeah and it can be it can be one

that is either not well received or considered

a bad one but if it means something to you that's

cool too so we are going to kick things off with

uh aaron's pick uh and aaron Take it away. Okay.

Well, my pick is something that means something

a lot to me, but I also think that it's well

regarded and it's elementary deer data. And most

people know this as the first Sherlock Holmes

episode. But to me, it's the first episode that

shows truly what computers are capable of in

the next gen. And it has informed. not only other

writers of Star Trek through the years, like

writing for Voyager with the EMH, or with me

personally writing some of the adventures that

I have for Star Trek Adventures, knowing that

a computer can generate an artificial intelligence,

a sentient self -aware being, is stunning. And

it makes you really consider a lot of the other

stuff that's happening in the background of the

Star Trek universe. But let's get into the actual

episode, and I'm going to try to be very brief

with this. Basically, Data has an idea of having

an adventure on the holodeck with Geordi, and

he is going to play Sherlock Holmes, and Geordi

is going to be Dr. Watson. And Data has... read

all of the Sherlock Holmes adventures, as you

should, as I have, and he goes into the holodeck

and immediately solves the adventure. And Geordi

gets pretty ticked off because that's not what

the holodeck is all about. Dr. Pulaski gets involved

with a bet that says Data really isn't a person

because he can't think outside of what has already

happened previously. He can't, like, anticipate.

So they go into the holodeck again, this time

with Pulaski there, and they have the computer

randomly generate a Holmesian -style story, but

the computer generates all these little story

elements from other Holmes stories, and Data's

able to put the pieces together and immediately

solve it. And Pulaski gets pretty ticked off

with that and says, you're a cheat, you're a

fraud. And then Geordi tells the computer to

create a... antagonist that is capable of defeating

data big mistake and the computer takes this

literally and generates an artificial intelligence

a sentient self -aware being in the character

of moriarty moriarty is an evil genius but as

he is suddenly self -aware and able to realize

that he's in an artificial environment he's able

to actually witness that the characters leave

the holodeck he's able to actually start influencing

the ship itself through his will. This is an

episode where we also see matter that was made

on the holodeck leave the holodeck, i .e. one

of Moriarty's drawings of Enterprise. It means

that the ship is able to actually just create

matter through replication, and it's not just

holograms. It also showcases the fact that...

Obviously, the computer can just make these beings.

The episode wraps up with Picard convincing Moriarty

to let the ship go and let Pulaski go because

he shouldn't basically just be this evil person.

He should rise above it all. And Moriarty's scared.

He doesn't want to die when the program gets

shut off because it would be like you just having

your consciousness switched off. And Picard has

him saved to... the computer databanks and says,

you're not going to die. You're going to exist

inside the computer and we'll revisit your self

-awareness later and computer end program. So

the whole episode seems to be kind of an adventure

rescuing Pulaski, but it's also this another

commentary on artificial life. Just like Measure

of a Man, Elementary Dear Data deals with this

idea of artificial life. The thing that kind

of makes me think about this, it's its take on

mortality, as you just mentioned, with Moriarty

expressing, I don't want to die. That ties into

the big goodbye from season one. where Picard

is getting ready to leave the program and he's

talking to the police officer. And he's like,

Dix, when you leave, what happens to me? Will

I still have my family to go home to? Will I

still have a wife who loves me? And Picard can't

answer him. And seeing Moriarty basically realizing,

hey, like you said, when the switch gets flipped,

there's nothing left. There's... I find early

Trek, when it got a chance to play with these

morality ideas and philosophical ideas, that's

when it's at its best. Not big fighting the Borg

or the Romulans or the Klingon Civil War or whatever.

This is the type of shit that I really dig. These

things that really get you thinking later. Because

one of my biggest fears in real life is when

I die. Will my consciousness cease to exist?

And I've been through a number of surgeries in

the last couple of years. And when I go under

anesthetic and I've got the mask on and they

inject the stuff into my veins to knock me out,

I always wonder just before I go, well, the last

thing I'm going to see is this ceiling and this

ugly ass nurse and these goofy looking scrubs.

Well, that's not very cool. That's what they're

trying to tap into, right? The universal human

questions. And this is early track. While some

people may say is a little more boring, what

it does, though, is it provides the, hey, the

family's sitting there. There's the conversation

starter, whether you like it or not. See, the

other thing I think this raises is the ethics

of simulation. When your computer is able to

sufficiently simulate. an accurate representation

of a human being in its desires, in its wants,

in its drives, is it ethical to play God with

that simulation? Because that is effectively

a human being. And it raises some really sticky

ethical concerns. And I don't think they really

cover it very well in this episode, but let's

be frank, the holodeck can be used for sex. Is

that legitimate? Is that an ethical use of the

holodeck when the beings that are created in

there are just as real and have the opportunity

and have the capability of being just as self

-aware and just as intelligent as you are? Well,

it's like when Barclay had his hollow addiction

when he first shows up and he's in the holodeck.

belittling the senior crew and then making the

female officers swoon over him. Yeah. Yeah. Becoming,

you know, the, it was super creepy in your own

mind. Yeah. And like, this is why that this episode

really resonates with me. There's, there are

so many interesting questions that, that pop

out of it while watching it. And it's giving,

it's given me ample chances to write interesting

things that have, that have stemmed from this.

One of the things I noticed about this while

I was watching your episode today, Aaron, is

Pulaski, first off, I like the actress. I really

do. When you give her something to chew on, she's

great. But the character's written like shit.

And the way she says the data, you can't do this.

You are... She's a racist. Yeah, but... Here's

the thing. She's the stand -in. Her feelings

about Data are the feelings that everybody else

has for the hologram characters. But she's always

like that towards Data. Yes, she is. And she

never really changes. I mean, she does seemingly

change by the end of the season when she leaves

because at least she gives grudging respect to

Data. But I don't think she ever really grows

to understand that Data is a person just as much

as she is. Yeah, that always sat wrong with me

because the idea of Star Trek, in my mind, is

diversity, accepting others despite you look

different than me, but we can still cooperate

and work together. We can still do all these

wonderful things. Did they try to just make her

bones, but even more crotchety? Yeah, basically.

Yeah, there's just something about the way she

was written that I never liked. And I'm a Pulaski

defender. I like her. when she can do something

and just don't be crotchety old bitch be a person

for lack of a better word be a freaking person

the data because that guy is nothing but cordial

he's nice to you he's genuine he's loyal He's

the guy you want at your back because look how

loyal he is to Geordi, how genuinely he questions

people. She doesn't even view him as good as

she views a dog. Or a tricorder. She looks at

him like a tricorder. Yeah, she would treat his

pet, his cat, better than she would treat him.

Remember that she misspeaks his name purposely

all the time and it says Data. Your name is Data.

And he's like, no, my name is Data. well, what's

the difference? One is my name, one is not. It's

that she sees him as an object. And she's frustrated

and mad that he would dare to think otherwise.

Yeah, but you see her bias also coming across

with her interactions with Moriarty, that she

honestly can't even imagine the fact that...

this guy really is self -aware she just continues

to play the part of like a 19th century woman

that has been kidnapped for the longest time

uh in this episode just kind of playing along

with the original holodeck her her superiority

complex shows yeah yeah So that is Aaron's pick,

and that is Elementary Dear Data. It's in the

first couple episodes of Season 2. We're going

to move on to Steve now, who's picked one of

the more popular episodes in Star Trek and definitely

pushes the lore forward in what should have been

a one -off bad guy turned into something a whole

hell of a lot more. Steve, take it away. So I

picked the episode Cue Who, and it, in a lot

of ways, left a lot more questions than answers.

it was meant to be, as you said, kind of a throwaway

villain, just, you know, villain of the week

thing. And they ended up recycling it the very

next season for the Locutus arc, the best of

both worlds. But it also, it threw some other

things in there. And that other thing is Q. And,

you know, whenever Q shows up on the Enterprise,

it's always fun and games. Although in season

one, he was less about fun and games. He was

more of just testing them and just being an irritant.

And as the seasons progressed, he becomes more

of this kind of plucky trickster that's helping

them and guiding them along the way. Whereas

here, season one, he was just an asshole. Later

on, he's just like your dick uncle. Yeah, whereas

later, he's more like that Trelane character

in the original series. Just kind of for his

own amusement, but he's got an ulterior motive

to help to some degree, but he wants to see you

struggle. So here is kind of no different. He

offers his services to Picard, and Picard in

typical Picard fashion, at least in the beginning.

um is like uh bite me q get off my ship we we

passed your your test now go away we're prepared

for anything yes and he's just another big mistake

yeah he's being cocky and he's like oh you know

little here you know human and then sends him

to uh cross the galaxy and Guinan's like if I

were you I would turn around and head back uh

and then the the illusion of you know her species

Because you really don't know much about Guinan

species either. Was she introduced up to this

point, or was this the first big showcase ever?

This is more where she talks about her past a

little bit, but we never learn more, truthfully,

until generations we know more about her. Yeah,

you learn that she's been to Earth a couple times,

you know, during Mark Twain's time and Samuel

Clemens and everything. Wasn't that like season

six and seven or something? Yeah. She was in

the first episode of season two. But you learn

how in season six and seven, how she met Picard

originally, which was in that time period. But

yeah, you get this weird dynamic between Guinan

and Q. And Q's like, what do you have that thing

doing on your ship? She's an imp. Yeah. She's

not what she appears to be. And what I loved

is even as a kid, I was like, why does she? make

her hands like cat claws. Yeah, I'm like, what

is she going to do? Like electrocute him like

the Emperor? Yeah. And I was kind of waiting

for it and then nothing happened and Q's like

cowering behind Picard. Well, that's the scary

thing. I don't think they ever elaborate on that.

It's just the idea that Q, first of all, she

could sense Q was there, number one. Number two,

Q couldn't sense she was there. Yeah. Which might

be... even if Guinan doesn't have any power per

se, the idea that maybe their species has found

a way to elude the Q in general is probably what

scared him. Yeah, I would definitely agree with

that. And in the fact that you really don't get,

I mean, you get totally in Soren in Generations

that says we're a race of listeners and we're...

you know, we, we have, you know, they say they

have long life expectancies and everything, but

there's really no payoff to this Q Guinan confrontation.

Although I think they're going to do that Picard

season two. Oh, because, because no, I'm not

trying to go that way. I'm just saying they have

John Delancey. They have whoopie Goldberg. I

think they're going to do it. Plus probably plus

Guinan is probably going to be their moral compass

in that because she can detect time travel, you

know, differences. like she's done in various

episodes in TNG. People forget how big of a get

it was to have Whoopi on there. She was at the

peak of her career. Her movies were making like

$100 million at that point. And she loved being

on TNG. Yeah. So, I mean, this would have been

right around the time Sister Act 1 came out.

Yeah. And she's become like a big, big box office

attraction. And she's on television. What year

was this? 89, I think. Sister Act didn't come

out until the 90s. This would have been Jumpin'

Jack, Flash, and stuff like that. She was still

doing a lot of stand -up. Yeah, Sister Act came

out in 92. This came out in 89. Okay, so it's

right at her ascension. Yeah, this is her. She's

on all the talk shows. She's doing a lot of stand

-up. She's doing any movie she wants. And she

came on this little television show because she

was a fan. Didn't she request to be on it? I

think so. Oh, she wanted to be on it. It was

LeVar Burton that got her on there. And she had

been a fan of Star Trek since she was a kid.

Yeah. So this might have been the first time

where we heard that this nerdy little show ended

up being an in -demand thing with actors vying

for roles. And it's kind of funny because if

you watch through TNG, you'll see actors that

have become huge after playing this little bit

part on the show at some point. Oh, yeah. But

no, it's interesting because Picard, after shooing

off Q and Q, you know, shuttling him off to where

the Borg happened to be at. He snaps his fingers

and they spin like a spinning top. Oh, I know.

It was hilarious. They send him to System J25

and Guinan's just like, head back. And he's like,

I think I want to explore it. And they're like,

head back. And they're like, how fast can we

get back? And it's like, years. Yeah. Years to

like the furthest base, Starbase away. And then

you get this cube that just comes into view and

they're like, what is this? And they're like,

hey, there's something going on in engineering.

And they all just stand there and look at him.

And Picard tells Worf, you know, take care of

it. And Worf is like pointing at his security

guys. Hey, you do it. You know, let him get thrown

first and then I'll go after him. But I thought

it was kind of interesting that they showed up.

Yeah. They show him pulling the pieces off of

the dead Borg on the ground after he's stunned

to the ground, and then still continues what

he's doing, and then teleports away, and then

they have to get in a fight, and they're not

able to outrun this cube at all. Wasn't the cube

originally pieces of model kits, all the little

bits and pieces glued together? Yeah. Which is

a brilliant way to do it, right? In today's day

and age, they would try to, if they were to do

a model, they would do it on a computer and then

try to 3D print it. And they were just like,

grab a bunch of model kits and glue it all together.

Which is kind of brilliant. But they had to be

ingenuitive. They didn't have copy -paste CGI.

Exactly. And it would have taken a long time

to draw that out and then have somebody sculpt

it. Oh, I know. So they're just like, eh, just

glue it. Because as a kid, before I knew that

it was a model kit, my thought was, oh, they

must have grabbed a giant square piece of foam

and then slowly cut out all the intricate pieces

and then painted it. And then it's like, no,

we don't have the money for that. At least the

cube that was in First Contact, though it was

made with tons of metal piping, it's actually

a pretty big miniature. But it was a miniature.

It wasn't CGI. I got to see it at an exhibit

in Detroit. Yeah, I saw that, I believe, too.

They had the Star Trek thing at the Henry Ford

Museum a few years back. Yep, that's the one

I'm talking about, yeah. Yep, I went and saw

that. And I just, I don't know, I love the fact

that they made models of this stuff. Like, there's

so much intricate detail that they can do with

that that somehow gets snubbed over when they

turn it to CGI. Well, and the expensive part

now is doing the proper, you know, here's ray

-traced lighting in games. Well, movies have

done it now for years, but it's super expensive.

Whereas when you build a model and you just shine

a light on it... It does all the light refractions

the way it's supposed to because it's real. Yeah.

So it ultimately costs a bit to make the model,

but then it's cheaper to shoot in the long run.

Well, yeah, because you can continue to reuse

the same model. Yeah. So, I mean, it was interesting

because at this point, every alien ship we had

seen had mostly been, you know, something that

looked, that resembled the ship as we know it.

Right. Or had been like, like. some sort of probe

or a satellite and this was the first time from

the original series yeah whereas this the freaky

thing is everything is so sleek and smooth looking

uh you know in in star trek and here we see something

that looks like it was made out of sewer pipes

and it's a it's a basic geometric shape and you're

like what the hell is that and it's just freaky

like between the music between the tone like

it's just it's creepy as all get up and i i just

love when q Comes up to Picard and says, you

can't outrun them. You can't destroy them. If

you damage them, the essence of what they are

remains. They regenerate and keep coming. Eventually

you will weaken. Your reserves will be gone.

They are relentless. And Guinan saying, you can't

reason with them. Well, at least not yet. I don't

know anybody that ever has. Nobody has. And they're

like, well, it's like, no, like, don't. you can't.

Yeah. And then, and then Q, you know, Picard

has to finally just do it as they're, they're

getting more freaked out by this and it's begging

Q, you know, I need you, I need you. And then

Q flings them back, you know, and. Flings them

back, but, but all the crew that died is still

dead. Yeah. He didn't bring them back. He didn't

rewind time or anything. And they're like, all

the crew is dead. And he's like, well, you had

to learn a lesson. Yeah. There's a line around

this interaction where they talk about sometimes

a lesson has to be a bloody nose. And Q says

something to Picard along the lines of... He's

like, if you can't take a bloody nose, you should

just stay home. Yeah. And he's like, there are

some wonders that the human mind cannot comprehend.

But there's also tears out here that'll freeze

your soul. So if you're going to explore, be

ready for it. Well, and Guinan says, since they

are aware of your existence, they will be coming.

And she said, you can bet on it. They scan the

ship. They'll know where Earth is. Yeah. And,

you know, we end up getting the real payoff season.

Well, a little bit of season two. And then the

real main payoff is the movie. You know, when

we get the movie, it's like, oh, their fleet

is here. Yeah. Except they're more ready during

first contact only because the Enterprise shows

up. Picard has inside knowledge and knows how

to destroy them, but it was all a ruse anyway.

Yeah, I mean, for the sake of the movie, the

movie still had a fairly limited budget in that

we weren't going to see 150 Borg cubes show up

on screen. But what we got was satisfying enough

that they actually did the proper payoff for

it. But there is the other aspect that... some

of the lore gets changed later on when they show

the babies in the incubators. Yeah, that's just

weird. I can explain that. Can I guess before

you school me in your knowledge? Sure. My guess,

looking at how it could be retconned or explained,

is they assume that this is how they're born,

and they add the enhancements later on. When

the reality would be, oh, these are just literally

babies that were captured and assimilated. Because

there's no real hard evidence they have to go

on that this is how they're born. Yes, assimilating

the babies that were just captured, that is part

of it. But it's also genetic manipulation of

the drones that they have, of the material that

they have. And let's see if we can get something

new. unique biologically out of this oh that's

creepy so like hey you know let's be honest drones

that are assimilated do you need your gonads

anymore no but they're probably in a freaking

file somewhere and they're just going whatever

like medical borg that are there are going to

keep tinkering with sperm and ova that are around

to try and make the ultimate whatever that's

that's very boys from brazil creepy yeah i know

where the borg queen keeps coming from Yeah.

They keep hatching another one. Pretty much.

There's a lot about this episode that sets up

Star Trek right in through Picard where the Borg

are this huge threat although they haven't really

addressed even with the artifact in Picard season

one they don't really tell us what happened after

Voyager just hey we found a cube now we're going

to hang out here and live and fuck here. Well

like their idea was like you killed the last

queen but it's like How do we know? How do we

know? It's like, we killed the one that came

into the Alpha Quadrant, and then you killed

the one that was in the Delta Quadrant. Why couldn't

there be, I don't know, a couple more? As the

Queen even said, you think so three -dimensionally.

It doesn't matter if you kill the Queen. The

Queen exists anyway in the collective, and probably

actually exists outside of space -time. Yeah,

so for all we know, you know, they blow it up,

transwarp conduit, yada, yada, yada, and bam,

somewhere in the Gamma Quadrant, there's, you

know, an incubator. Or, honestly, the Borg are

so powerful with their transwarp shit, you're

telling me there's not at least a Borg colony

in the Andromeda Galaxy? Yeah, they might be,

like, maybe they're just not even in the Milky

Way. It's possible. But I doubt that they would

actually be in Andromeda. There's bigger, nastier

things in Andromeda from the original series

that are mentioned. But again, we're also sort

of thinking, what would they probably do with

Picard? They're not going to remember the original

series. The only people that might remember the

original series are maybe Anson Mountain, other

actors on these shows. Well, they remember Voyager

enough to actually put in that transporter that

can go 30 ,000 light years or whatever. They

should have assimilated everybody by now by beaming

drones randomly to M -class planets. That's a

good idea. That's too much logic. You wouldn't

even have to beam drones. You would beam freaking

loose nanites and just spread it through the

atmosphere. I mean, speaking of that, I don't

know if that's a good... We'll talk about something

like that later on with Mike because there's

a technology there that could have been used.

But my final thoughts, at least on this episode,

are it sets up what, for better or worse, what

was to be the most important enemy of two series,

maybe even the whole franchise. Yeah, basically,

they wanted something... cooler than the Klingons,

because that's what everybody associates with

Star Trek, something that can beat you up that

isn't a Romulan and isn't just random shit on

your face. Something that wasn't tied to ancient

history or tied into the Cold War. An enemy that

was outside of the realm of our own. And I almost

wonder, was Roddenberry still alive in Season

2? Should have been. I was going to say, is this

a bad guy he would have been okay with? Because

it seemed like everything he wanted was to have

its roots in reality. Well, they kind of started

pushing him out the door. So it's not really

surprising that things just kind of started changing.

Plus, I believe at this time his health was getting

weaker, and by, like, 91 he died. Yeah, so I

can see that. I mean, should I go into my episode

then? Yeah. Okay, so I will preface this by saying

my favorite Trek episodes, outside of the ones

that have long arcs that go on and so on, I love

when Star Trek can be a little more like Outer

Limits or a little more like the Twilight Zone.

I am the fan of, I love the episodes where they

do the holodeck stuff, but I like episodes where

there is a quirky mystery or something really

out there. So I picked the Royale. Initially,

my honorable mention will be, what was it called?

Matter of Honor or whatever. It's got honor in

the title. That was the episode I was thinking

of picking because that's the one where Riker

goes onto the Klingon ship and then becomes part

of their crew for like an exchange program. Yeah,

Matter of Honor. That's a really good one. Yeah.

And it's a good one. It's got some famous actors

in it that I like and it has the memorable. memorable

line where the two women Klingons are staring

at him and the second in command of the ship's

like they're trying to decide whether or not

you'd be able to survive being with them and

then he's like both and cracks them all up so

it has its funny moments and it's one of the

few times where you see like a crew member actively

maybe having to go to war with the Enterprise

itself because They're duty bound based on where

he's working. Cool episode, but my favorite episode

of the season, partially because Pulaski's in

it very little, is the Royale. The basic setup

is they are scanning a planet and they're like,

oh, this is a terrible planet. There's tons of

neon and methane and terrible stuff in the atmosphere.

But then they find an object in the orbit of

the planet. And when they beam it on board, it

ends up being the side of what appears to be

like a NASA capsule or part of the shuttle. And

they're like, what? Because this is not anywhere

near Earth. And they scan it like, oh, it's somewhere

in like the 2040s to 2070s, I think is what they

say. Something like that. There's 52 stars on

the flag, if I remember correctly. Yeah, 52 stars.

I guess the assumption is at that point, Puerto

Rico has become a state and who knows, maybe

Canada or Guam or something. But they did mention

that it was when they did the research in the

show, it's from the third attempt for Earth to

fly beyond its solar system pre -warp. So it

predates, I guess, World War III. Or it's during

it. Yeah, yeah. Whatever. There are still nations

struggling for power. And I'm trying to pull

up the exact date that they... It's 2039 is when

they say it's from. See, World War III is kind

of hazy of when it takes place. One can say that

it is ended by the time first contact happens.

It's been gone for a while, but let's say that's

during World War III. It would have to be during

World War III. Okay. So it's an attempt, you

know, maybe to show superiority or also it could

have been an attempt to say, hey, if we destroy

the planet, we need to be able to leave here

and find a habitable planet. So I'm assuming

it was not just a ship sent to find another,

you know, to leave the galaxy. It might have

been a scouting out where can we live sort of

thing. So they then find a structure and it looks

sort of weird on their, their 3d model. But they're

like, there's a bubble around it with breathable

air. And they're like, that shouldn't exist.

And they're like, well, let's do an away team.

And they send off the. They send off a bunch

of bridge crew because, of course, that's a good

idea. But I guess that's sort of Star Trek in

a nutshell, right? You have Riker, you have Data,

and you have Worf go down to the planet. And

it's got this cool green screen effect for the

late 80s where you can see the bubble encapsulating

them where above them is like the death mist.

And then in front of them is just a black void

and a revolving 1930s -esque door. And when they

enter, bam, Twilight Zone episode starts and

Alex gets super into it. And they are in an amalgamation

of like a 1940s style casino with a 1980s style

casino. There's a bit of both in there in the

way it sort of mixed together. And that's partially

because they probably didn't have the budget

to make it really look like when the book would

have been written. And they end up discovering

that. All of the people in there aren't really

real, but they can still interact with them.

Some people won't talk to them or acknowledge

that they're there, but some do. There's also

a really cheesy B -plot happening. And at first

glance, you might go, oh God, it's a cheesy,

cheesy episode. But then you've realized as you

go on that it's intentionally cheesy because

this entire world is based on a novel that was

inside of the space shuttle that this alien had

decided to... recreate for a passenger of the

spaceship simply because they thought that that

was the idealized version of the planet they

came from. So it's based on the equivalent of

not like a good Raymond Chandler book, but like

a really bad dime novel from the 40s or 50s.

And they are sort of just enacting and enacting

what happens in the book. So the only people

they can interact with happen to be... the people

on the book that are named characters. And there's

a plot going on of a love tryst and mobsters

and so on. But to get there, they realize they

can't leave. They're only able to communicate

halfway through the episode when they find a

way to penetrate the beam, sort of the force

field that's protecting them. But they go up

into the hotel room, find... I can't remember

his name now, but they find one of the passengers

of the NASA spacecraft and he died of old age.

And that's where they find his book. And they

find a journal entry basically saying he harbors

no ill will because whatever the alien, like

they came in contact with aliens and there was

some sort of germ or bug. They didn't kill them

on purpose, but it was the equivalent of, hey,

you know, it's like if we were. unvaccinated

and you went over and got malaria somewhere they

got some sort of disease that killed them from

the aliens uh only one of them survived and they

didn't know where he was from or anything because

he was like in a coma when they found him and

they basically recreated this from the book he

had on him as a place for him to live out his

days maybe in hopes that somebody would find

him or it's not really explained but that's where

this whole mystery know this how this came to

be it was sort of a sanctuary as a sorry hey

sorry we killed your crew by accident um here's

your here you can live and maybe somebody will

find you little do they know it's been a couple

hundred years I think he died, they said, like

240 years earlier or something. Something like

that, yeah. And he died of old age. But yeah,

the journal entry he wrote, he only wrote one

entry, was stating that and then saying he has

no ill will to them because he doesn't think

that they did it out of malice, but that he welcomes

death because he was living in this loop that

he could not leave. He was from a time where

they didn't have transportation, the transport

technology. So even if he left there, he would

just be surrounded by a bubble. that he couldn't

leave so they end up finding out the only way

to get out because they're stuck in the loop

it's the the entire simulation follows the story

of the book so they find out oh there's three

foreign investors that are coming to that end

up buying the casino in the book so they have

to win a bunch of games data fixes a bunch of

trick dice that were weighted dice to balance

them out and they win all the money they you

know They're flamboyant, give a bunch of money

back to the casino, and then they leave as the

music starts to rise and they sort of end the

book. They leave, they get transported out, and

then there's a little joke that Riker says to

Picard, something about how it was like, oh,

I guess it was just business as usual up here.

And, you know, closes it off. A lot of these

early season episodes have a pretty abrupt ending.

um so it was a little quick but uh they did have

you know a few sort of guest stars that were

decent and they're like a lot of character actors

playing it out and they're really hamming it

up in the scenes that are from the novel to the

point where i i think there's a part where uh

counselor troy is listening to an audio version

of the novel with picard and picard's doing the

classic like holding his hands across his face

in embarrassment and she's just like with your

permission sir I'd like to leave she can't listen

to more of it so that's this is the quintessential

kind of episode that I like the most whether

some people might say it's a guilty pleasure

but for me it's not a guilty pleasure because

I just unabashedly love all these ones where

it's like hey it's Star Trek but it's also like

a Twilight Zone episode The thing I think that

this episode stands out particularly, there are

two reasons. Number one, I see a budgetary constraint,

as you mentioned. This is what's known in television

typically as a bottle episode. It takes place

in one or two locations. That's it. Most of this

episode takes place on the planet within the

Royale place. You never find out what's causing

it. And yeah, it's just that the aliens built

it for him as a sort of sanctuary for him to

recover out of being sorry for him. Yeah. So

there's a part in this that I absolutely love.

And it's where Data is working with Riker and

Worf and they're at the craps table. Now he's

crushed the dice in his hand to change the weighting

of them. So they'll come up seven consistently

now. And he looks at. uh, Jonathan Frakes as

Riker. And he says, well, Papa needs new shoes

or baby needs new shoes. Yeah. And the look that

Riker shoots them. I wonder if that was Brent

Spiner. Yeah. Cause there's a, there's a few

moments of like that in here. Uh, when they go

to use the turbo lift in quotes, uh, and, uh,

Wharf is like, it must be malfunctioning. And

then data is just like, push. And he pushes the

button to go up. There's another great moment.

And this is, once again, Riker at his most Riker.

And they're talking about how they have to bet

everything and spread the wealth around because

how they get out of this is in the novel, quote

unquote, foreign investors come. They have to

raise $12 .5 million. And Riker tells Data, bet

it all. We have to be flamboyantly generous.

And he's like, are you sure, sir? And he's like.

Oh, yeah. And it's just the way he smiles. Well,

there's the part where he's introduced to Texas,

played by Noble Willingham, who was the only

guest star that they noted as a guest star. And

I think if anybody recognizes him now, he was

in a ton of stuff. He was one of those perennial

TV movie actors. But where we would probably

remember him from was he was like the boss in

Walker, Texas Ranger for years. That's how I

recognize him from that stupid show. But he's

like a classic, you know, poorly written Texas

millionaire who happens to be there and befriends

them. I think he gives Data his cowboy hat at

one point. That is brilliant. I love Data in

a cowboy hat. He puts it on Data's head and Data's

like, what? But the other line that I think a

lot of people remember from this is, again, the

jokes are starting to come through a little better,

a little more snide in here. When they find the

body in the bed and it's partially decomposed

and they say, oh, he died in his sleep. And as

Worf is walking away, he goes, terrible way to

die. So it's, they're starting to put in like,

you know, the logical humor in it for, you know,

it's like, oh, he didn't get to die as a warrior.

He's died in his sleep of old age. What a terrible

way to die. So there's that. And then there's

a part where you want to talk about Riker smiling

and having like so much fun, like whether it

be, and it looks genuine, looked like it was

genuinely fun is when Noble Willingham comes

in, introduces himself and he goes full on, like

a hamming it up Texan. to data and like they

brushes by him. He just has like a shit eating

grin from ear to ear that he's just having so

much fun down there from scene to scene. So that

really came across the screen like this. This

is a fun, but also creepy and menacing episode

in some aspects. I mean, overall, it's a fantastic.

uh episode i think as alex does it's worth a

watch if you want something kind of fun trekkie

but not too trekkie it's it's a it's it's one

of the better ways to do a one -off um all right

so we're going to move on to my pick and the

final episode we're going to talk about and this

episode is called contagion and contagion uh

for so the tldr is the enterprise's sister ship

called the umato is trapped in the neutral zone

due to computer malfunctions that's crippled

the ship. So they talk to the Enterprise and

say, hey, can you come help us? We're trapped

in the neutral zone. Picard knows this guy. Several

other people know the captain of that ship. And

they're like, hey, yeah, we'll go help you out.

I mean, we're another galaxy class. We're the

most sophisticated piece of technology ever created.

Yeah, they said it's a sister ship. I think there's

only two of them at this point, right? There

should be at least Galaxy, Enterprise, Yamato,

and... Man, off the top of my head, now I'm not...

I know all my constitutions. It's one of the

first times I think we see another Galaxy, right?

Yeah, but there should be at least three right

now. Yeah, because there would be the Galaxy,

which is the prototype, the Yamato, and then

the Enterprise. And not only does he know the

captain, they're on a first -name basis, so they

really do know each other. So they start downloading

the logs from the Yamato before they get there.

They're like, just in case, let's know what's

happened to you so data can take a look and we

can see what's kind of going on. And then their

ship, they're like, hey, Captain, things aren't

looking too good over there. You're starting

to lose magnetic containment. Do you want to

start beaming people off just in case? And then

the ship blows. Thousand people dead. right off

the hop and there's nothing they could do and

um it starts getting tossed around just the way

that the problem happened they're like is this

a design flaw are we sitting on a bomb and jordy's

like well yes and no um yeah this shouldn't happen

but he's like at the same time it could and it

could be very bad it could well at first i think

Picard's like, it can't happen. And he's like,

it can happen. But a very specific set of catastrophic

failures have to happen. Yeah. So they send Geordi

to go read the owner's manual for the rest of

the episode. And eventually he gets tossed around

on the turbo lift, which is unintentionally funny.

Yes. And he tells Captain Picard when they arrive

at this planet, there's a probe coming. Shoot

it. Don't let it scan us. He's like, well, why?

Because that thing is a weapon, we think. So

it turns out when the Yamato blew up and they

transmitted their logs, there was a computer

virus or something hidden in the logs. And it's

slowly rewriting the Enterprise's software. But

because the Yamato was scanned, it infected it.

every system at once, whereas the Enterprise's

systems are slowly being compromised because

it was only hidden in one file and it slowly

spread. Yeah, in the communications array versus,

you know, everything getting hit. Also, again,

inadvertently funny moment, or maybe purposeful,

you know, he gets blasted, falls backward, his

visor comes off, they help him up, and first

thing Picard says is, welcome to the bridge.

And then there's moments where they get down

to the planet where Picard says, I'm leading

the away team. And Riker's like, we have this

conversation every time. No, you're not going.

He's like, well, I'm an archaeologist. You're

not. No, the Enterprise is yours. And then Riker

sarcastically says, well, for as long as it lasts,

yeah, sure. So they go down to the planet. The

planet's been wiped out. There was this war with

orbital bombardment like 200 ,000 years ago.

And they find out where these things are coming

from. But it doesn't look like it's a military

command center. So they go in there. They start

kind of playing with it. Data and Picard are

able to figure out rudimentary language to get

the computer up and going. And it turns out the

Iconians, which is this huge technological civilization.

may not have been wiped out they may have just

run to a different planet and because they have

this technology that allows them to go pretty

much anywhere in the galaxy or universe maybe

but the romulans want this shit too because they

follow the enterprise Yeah, nobody knew what

it was that they had at this point, right? They're

like, oh crap, if the Romulans find this, this

is bad. Because what they have is a technology

that can open a doorway to anywhere they want.

Pinpoint anywhere in the entire galaxy. And you

walk through and you're there. Yeah. So this

was what I was going to say. Can you imagine

what happens if the Borg got this technology?

End of all civilization as we know it. Within

a matter of weeks easily. So the Romulans are

in the neutral zone investigating the explosion

of the Amado. And there's kind of a standoff

between this sub commander insert name here and

Riker and Picard. And they're like, well, we

need to find out what's going on. So this doesn't

happen to anybody else. Let's give us some time.

And she's like, no, leave or I'll kill you. And

then her ship starts getting malfunctioned because

they intercepted the logs from the Yamato as

well. But before, so they arrive at the same

planet as Picard. When they beam down, Riker

calls over to that ship and says, if you see

a probe, kill it. And the sub command was like,

I don't believe you. You're bluffing. I'll kill

you first. And he's like, no, seriously, please

do it. And she listens to him. And then the ship

decloaks. And then they just. fuck off for a

while so well their power keeps turning on and

off yeah well like the ships are awfully close

together i would be worried they're just gonna

like drift into each other at this point so they

get on the so when picard is down on the planet

trying to figure this out data gets hit by something

and starts realizing his software is being overwritten

too. And there's a point where you think he dies

when they get him back to the Enterprise. At

first he's like, I'm blind. I'm blind and my

motor... And you're like, crap, he's dead. Yeah.

And basically the episode ends where they kind

of figure out they can stop more probes coming

up from this planet by basically locking the

doors. as the probes launch, and then the backwash

will kill everything in there. The problem is,

when Picard tells them this plan, he has to stay

behind to activate the sequence, realizing he'll

die. So he looks at the door thinking, well,

I could get out of here at the very last second,

but I don't know where I'm going. Well, not realizing

that O 'Brien actually had a fix on him and was

going to teleport him out. Yeah. So the episode...

ends back on the Enterprise with Data being dead,

but then he just reboots. And everyone's like,

what the hell? He's like, oh yeah, I just flushed

everything that was in active memory. So the

episode boils down to literally every call you've

ever made the Comcast, Roadrunner, or any piece

of technology. I will correct you slightly there

because being somebody who worked in that field,

it's not just turn it off and turn it back on.

Yeah, but that's the first solution everybody

goes to first. Yes. They did say he had to wipe

any record of what happened currently. It's the

equivalent of a high school using, remember the

program called Deep Freeze? Yep. That was so

kids couldn't install porn and crap onto the

computers where every time you rebooted the computer,

it would. it would take it to a state that was

locked specifically to that. And you can only

install... You can install an update all you

want. You can put games on anything. The second

you reboot the computer, it would automatically

revert to a secured state. That's what they had

to do to the ship. Turn the power off and then

reboot it to a previous save state. I wonder

if this is where people got the idea for Mac's

time machine or similar software. Well, I mean,

that's... time machine that's what it is that's

what that's what windows system restore is it's

the same the only difference is the it used to

be that uh deep freeze and software like that

was only for corporations and schools and stuff

where they had like a thousand computers to deploy

it to well that i here's the funny thing is i

wouldn't be surprised if that software was inspired

by this episode because that software came out

around like 95 or 96 so all of that and miles

yeah it's a it's a weird one it to me it's it's

one of the many examples of a galaxy class blowing

up from a warp core breach because i think there's

like seven or eight examples of the enterprise

d blowing up from warp core breaches and like

alternate alternate histories or whatever you

know in time loops just wait till we get to parallels

oh yeah yeah it's insane um so like my ongoing

gag is that galaxy classes warp cores are like

you know made with tinfoil and duct tape it's

a crystal ball that's hollow yeah and it does

seem like there was another galaxy besides galaxy

enterprising and yamato at the time it looks

like challenger was also launched okay Maybe

when they said sister, they meant that they were

launched at the same time. Yeah. According to

the TNG technical manual, that they actually

had swapped systems between Enterprise and Yamato

during construction. So they shared a lot of

the same equipment. Okay. So that would make

sense. They were being built at the same time

and christened at the same time or whatever.

Yeah. But yeah, and I will mention one thing

that I forgot to mention from my episode is just

a little trivia fact. They mentioned Fermat's

last theorem, which they said had not been solved

for 800 years, but a proof was found six years

after this episode aired. So it dates it a little

bit, but it's also a neat little point where

they're... at the time they're like here's a

problem that hasn't been solved for hundreds

of years and then some brilliant person figured

it out like six years after the show well who

knows it's an alternate timeline that person

wasn't born because of the eugenics wars or whatever

so what are some other thoughts about this episode

before we start to kind of close things out like

I said I think this pushes the lore forward it

was yeah it was one of the first episodes I don't

think it was was it the first But it was one

of the first where Picard is on the away team

without Riker. Or he even leaves the ship. I

think it's a weird episode just because I do

like the idea of an information weapon. But having

it be able to infiltrate other computer systems

that are completely differently coded or would

use a different... I don't want to say operating

system, a different way of computation. It would

be like using your Mac to hack a Babbage engine.

Could you really do it? Yeah. You'd assume that

if every bit of machine code, assembly, whatever,

it boils down to zeros and ones, a pure binary

language, we're going to assume that that is

what the Klingons and Romulans, that everything

goes down to a binary system. Only way would

be, well, quantum mechanics and quantum computing

is not binary. There's also another state. So

you could go there, but like, so the idea would

be that this is so foreign to it that it's not

even based on binary computing. I would argue

that that is the case because duotronics is the

step up from the computers that we have today.

They go from transistors to duotronics in 2243.

And it's never really clearly stated what duotronics

is. I guess the equivalent would be what we're

doing now with quantum computing. Yeah, it's

probably quantum computing using quantum pairs.

That's why it's called duotronics, using quantum

pairs to do stuff. And then the stuff that's

on TNG is actually a step beyond that, and it's

called isolinear. And to me, that suggests there's

some sort of molecular computing going on. using

using chains of molecules to store information

and unravel to so things so the but the idea

would be that this would have to be so foreign

that it's not even like they're using it like

they're so alien and so foreign to it that it's

not even like they're using that tech or binary

or anything any root technology that we've used

it's just completely out there like oh this this

this computerized technology uses some form of

mathematics that we never discovered. And the

fact that it's taking a long time for it to adapt

to our technology would say that it's foreign

enough but not necessarily more advanced than

what we have. Or that the... that the actual

isolinear systems adapt to any intrusion as quickly.

Yeah. Like, like, like, like the idea, like I

like the idea that they had this teleportation

technology, but my thoughts are that yes, they're,

they're thousands of years old and they were

the super advanced, you know, species, but that

maybe in reality we are more advanced now than

they were. They just have a tech that, you know,

we hadn't dealt with, which is why we, you know,

we weren't able to adapt right away, you know,

and as, which would explain why as simple. method

of us just rebooting everything made it work

and flushed it out if it is these were the iconians

right yes that's who these were i mean the iconians

are iconic in star trek they're referred to quite

often as being one of like the elder races that

just disappeared for some reason yeah like they're

they're not the same race the one that like seeded

us right that that was no that's different completely

but like like the idea is like they're from An

ancient, like a first wave of advanced peoples

that their species died out. I think it's like

what, 200 ,000 years ago or something. Yeah.

So, so, so yes, like in our mind, like we've

envisioned them as being some technological marvel,

but we don't, for all we know, we've already

surpassed them. Yeah. It's very possible. They

just happened to be advanced because the tech

they developed was different than ours and allowed

them instantaneous transportation through doorways.

But because of that, would that also mean that

they maybe never had to develop some of the tech

that we did? Because they would just find a planet

that was hospitable and walk through a door and

they're there. They never had to work on spaceship

tech. I think that they did have spaceship tech,

but it probably was, again, different. Like maybe

were the probes there to try to adapt? Because

it's trying to adapt technology that might have

been. more prevalent in their time. So was it

a way for them to just like, hey, we're now in

control of your ship. You know what I just thought

of? Maybe they didn't need to have their own

ships because they would use the probes to take

over whatever ships were in the vicinity. And

that's what they used to leave if they had to.

The doors is the Iconians version of a Stargate.

Yeah, pretty much. The Iconian gateways. That's

what they're called. Yeah. So, I mean, I like

it. I don't think that they really follow up

on it. They're mentioned quite a bit. Like this

particular doorway thing, right? No, I mean,

these gateways are mentioned quite a bit. I think

there's even another episode that deals with

the gateways at some point. Maybe I'm misremembering,

but yeah, the gateways are dealt with. Obviously,

there's lots of side canon that deals with the

Iconians. Yeah, the gateways are a thing. They're

around. It's just that most of them are broken

after 200 ,000 years. And this is another episode

that has... This is one that aired previously,

right before the episode I talked about. There's

a lot of funny moments in here, too, with Data.

Data and Geordi, when Geordi gets electrocuted

and Data has to throw him across the room. And

their banter back and forth is very, you know...

there's a lot of moments that make you smile

in this, but it's not goofy. So I think they

like for season two is often remembered as like

the crappy season. But I think a lot of that

has to do. Wasn't there a writer's strike at

this time too? Yeah. Because the last episode

of the season boils down to medical bay clip

show. Yep. That's, that's not because of a writer's

strike. That's because of, they went over budget

for elementary, my dear data and another episode.

They went way over budget. But those are our

picks and selections for Star Trek The Next Generation

Season 2. Hopefully you will check these out

through your streaming service or your DVDs,

Blu -rays, whatever you have to watch. Yeah,

I think in Canada, I think it's on Crave, right?

Crave and Netflix. That's where I watch it. Crave

and Netflix. I think it'll be Paramount Plus

in the States. And I think it's either Amazon

or Netflix internationally. So these episodes

are not hard to find. So the next time you hear

the three, the four of us will be in September,

but you will hear the three of us, or at least

two of us talking about some other things as

we move forward during the month of August, because

Alex is going to take a well -deserved break

as he took care of twig while I was basically

dying. Alex, can you host the show for two weeks,

maybe four weeks at the most? Yeah. And they're

like, yeah, man, you almost died. I'm thinking.

Well, that's not very good news. It's like, yeah,

two to four weeks. That was in February. Oh,

you came back last week. Yeah, because it was

weird. I thought I would have been out of, like,

when I was admitted in March, I figured, oh,

man, this whole gallbladder thing is over with.

My liver's looking healthy. And then the emergency

room. And then surgery a month later. And then

I just had surgery a couple of weeks ago to pull

out my stent. And then I got a follow -up with

my doctor in a few weeks. So thankfully, Dr.

Pulaski. I said, I'd like to take a couple weeks

off in August. And Mike's like, why don't you

take most of August off? Because I'll still have

reviews. And I might pop up on an episode or

two here. But I won't be doing the regular schedule

stuff. Mike can do all that. You can deal with

it now. It's your baby. Yep. No problem. So we

will be talking about different things, about

sci -fi, and then when we come back in September

for Back to School, as much as that's going to

happen, we'll probably talk about our picture

for Season 3 and move forward throughout the

year. And as we said, the episode that won't

be included is Best of Both Worlds. Yes, so we'll

be doing that over the next little while. Me

and Alex will be doing some more stuff in the

next little bit. We're going to record some commentaries

while he's on vacation so he can come and hang

out because I'll be fully vaxxed by then. And

then me and Aaron will be doing some loose cannons

about some weirder movies you may have not heard

of. So it'll be fun. It's going to be different.

That's mostly what I'm looking forward to. It'll

be fun to sit down and talk with you again. It's

been too long. It really has been. So, guys,

I want to thank each and every one of you who

listens to the show across the various platforms.

We have Spotify, iTunes, or wherever. And we'll

have more than one episode of this every six

months with Steve because it's time we start

recording more. Yes. So look forward to all that

and more in August and going forward until we

take our next break, which will be after the

12th of December, where we take our usual twig

break for a month because the holidays. So there

won't be there won't be a break for Earth versus

soup. Oh, well, no, there won't be a break for

that. I've got a bunch of episodes to edit. Even

though we go on break, it just means that we're

not doing anything live during that time. We'll

have plenty of stuff to come out over the holidays.

Exactly. So don't worry about it. Twig has got

you covered. So for the Spaceship Future Imperfect,

we have been... Alex. I'm Aaron Pellier. Oh,

I'm Aaron Pellier. I'm sorry, Steve. And Steve.

And I've been Mike the Birdman saying, live long

and prosper.