TNG Episode 2.08 – A Matter of Honor

In which Riker is swift as a coursing river, with all the force of the great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the mooooooooooon.

Memory Alpha says: Riker serves as an exchange officer on a Klingon warship. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review

Yes, I said that next I would be doing the Ferengi Twelfth Night episode, but I’m just not in a Deep Space Nine mood. I want to sink back into early TNG. If you mind, I’m sorry. Besides, this episode has Riker eating worms. I have tagged it ‘Riker’s hairy chest’ even though I don’t think we see it, because in this episode, he really is The Man.

TNG Episode 2.07 – Unnatural Selection

In which we see the worst age make-up since ‘Too Short a Season.’ Possibly even the worst age make-up since ‘The Deadly Years,’ in which, for some reason, accelerated aging gave McCoy David Bowie hair from the Thin White Duke period.

Memory Alpha says: The Enterprise investigates the deaths of the crew of the USS Lantree, who all died of old age. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review

This is one of those episodes that sneaks something in that, according to later episodes, shouldn’t have happened at all: namely, in a Federation facility, the deliberate genetic engineering and augmentation of children. I think we have to file this together with things like Q’s reference to the Klingons having been conquered by the Federation, under ‘retconned because we totally didn’t realise it would ever matter,’ with a possible side order of ‘season two was a mess because of the writers’ strike; you are lucky it makes this much sense.’ You can only imagine how annoying Dr Bashir would find the whole thing if he knew.

Plus, O’BRIEN GETS HIS NAME. At least, his surname. ‘Miles Edward’ wasn’t unveiled until later. Still, it’s an important milestone (ha) for the Artist Formerly Known As Battle Bridge Conn.

TNG Episode 2.06 – The Schizoid Man

In which it becomes ever more clear that Data comes from a family of assholes. (Not you Juliana. You’re okay as far as I can tell.)

Memory Alpha says: An away team discovers the dying Doctor Ira Graves, who claims to be Data’s “grandfather.”  (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review
Okay, getting back into this thing. Usually when I cover a Datasode, I am inspired to write out a full summary with commentary interspersed, but I am still rusty and so I’ll just use bullet-point form today.

Is this the first episode in which Data is possessed? I want to say yes. He does seem to be unusually prone to it, no doubt partly because Brent Spiner is good at acting out multiple personalities and so writers enjoyed giving him that to do. So anyway, establishing/reinforcing a trend, and also reinforcing the ‘Tin Man’ cracks at his expense. (On the other hand, the actual Tin Man of Oz is not, strictly speaking, an artificial man or robot – he started life as a Munchkin whose body parts have been entirely replaced by tin prosthetics, so that he is in effect a sock made up of darns with none of the original fabric left. You could have a nice long nerdy chat about who Data most closely resembles, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and/or Tik-Tok. Baum certainly found this character type interesting enough to create multiple variations on it; I haven’t mentioned Jack Pumpkinhead or the Flying Gump or Scraps the Patchwork Girl.)

DS9 Episode 2.05 – Cardassians

Memory Alpha says: Garak and Doctor Bashir investigate abandoned Cardassian war orphans on Bajor. (Please click the ‘Memory Alpha’ link for detailed information.)

My Review
Firstly, I’d like to apologise for this update being such a long time in coming. I’ve been having a really messy time. I have suffered from stress-related depression for much of my life and have just had to resign from my job (I did survive six years as a high school teacher which is quite impressive for someone who would rather be at home reading) and have had to move back into my parents’ house while I work out what to do with my life and, well, aargh.

One of the key signs of depression is anhedonia, the l0ss of interest and enjoyment in the things you used to like to do. Often, in fact, rather than feeling actively sad, depressed people just feel really blank and apathetic. This, unfortunately, is part of why they are often perceived as ‘just lazy’ by people with no direct experience of the condition. Thus, while I still really love both Star Trek and expressing opinions about Star Trek at great, garrulous length, I haven’t felt up to doing another Picardigan entry for a while.

However, things are getting a bit better since I’m not at work getting ground down by the stress of it any more, and I want to get back into the swing of this, particularly because I enjoy the interaction I can have with like-minded people through the comments.

So here we go with ‘Cardassians,’ point-form, and for goodness’ sake, I should enjoy this. Incidentally, I have decided to skip the episode after this, ‘Melora,’ because I find it horribly annoying. Some bad episodes are enjoyably bad, like ‘Code of Honor,’ but others should just be quietly ignored.

Happy Captain Picard Day!

These good folks have made a blog all about this most special of days.

I swear to Earl Grey that I’ll post again soonish – it’s just that shit’s been crazy here, I had to resign from my job because the depression got too bad, and I’m moving house, and Gul Dukat has been talking to me through the flame of a Glade scented candle I got at the supermarket, asking me to rescue him from Mount Doom the Fire Caves.

So in the meantime, keep your cardigans on, drink plenty of tea, and hug your captain.

He’ll harrumph a lot and act like he hates it but secretly it warms his artificial heart.

DS9 Episode 2.04 – Invasive Procedures

In which I can’t shake the idea that a boy Klingon has a girl Vulcan’s name.

Memory Alpha says: A desperate Trill tries to steal the Dax symbiont. (For detailed information, please click the Memory Alpha link.)

My Review
Well, doesn’t T’Kar look like a girl’s name to you? Or does it remind you more of G’Kar off Babylon 5? Anyway, let’s see what’s going on with this episode. I am trying to get out of a funk – and this is the first episode I’m watching from my lovely set of DS9 DVDs (seasons one through five – anybody want to give me six and seven? no?) that I got in the Whitcoulls ‘We Are In Major Financial Shit’ sale. The Cardie-styled menu screens are very nice.

TNG Episode 2.05: Loud As a Whisper

In which it’s a Very Special Episode.

Memory Alpha says: The Enterprise brings a deaf negotiator to mediate the end of a planetary civil war. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review
And so I’m  back! From outer space! Not quite, but I did visit San Francisco, and I did drink root beer (in a Jack in the Box). Quark and Garak are right about it being cloying, but I don’t know about insidious. I think I’d rather the Federation tasted like iced tea. On to this episode.

Picardigan’s Holiday

This blog will be on holiday from 14 April to 15 May (at least) because I’m going to be on a trip to the USA with my family. Lucky me! I will be visiting, among other places, San Francisco, where I will be obscurely disappointed that I can’t see Starfleet Academy.

So if you think of me in that time, think of me like this:

except I don’t have a hairy chest and I don’t really look that good in my swimming togs.

also don’t disturb me with wacky shenanigans when I am trying to read Jodi Picoult.

TNG Episode 2.04: The Outrageous Okona

In which I question the Star Trek writers’ understanding of the term ‘outrageous.’ Also ‘comic.’

Memory Alpha says: The Enterprise-D crew rescue a roguish freighter captain whose ship is malfunctioning, but his presence drags them into an interplanetary feud. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review:
Literally all I can remember about my first viewing of this episode is ‘You’re a droid, and I’m a noid,’ and thinking ‘well that’s not very funny.’ Bullet points, ho!

TNG Episode 2.03: Elementary, Dear Data

In which Geordi is a fun ruiner. He ruins people’s fun.

Memory Alpha says: The Enterprise is threatened when a character in Data and La Forge’s holodeck simulation becomes sentient. (Please click the Memory Alpha link for detailed information.)

My Review
Here is the single strangest thing from the Memory Alpha entry for this episode: the equation on Moriarty’s chalkboard is a reference to the characters Ataru and Lum from Rumiko Takahashi’s manga series Urusei Yatsura, about an obnoxious teenage boy who is pursued by a mad alien princess in a tiger-skin bikini who wants to be his bride.

I just don’t know how to process that. But, okay, Rumiko Takahashi is an excellent artist and writer, and my favourite of her series is Maison Ikkoku. (You should have figured it’d be the one that is most like a comedic soap opera.) And I guess it’s no less cracky than the Ren & Stimpy tributes in early DS9.