kirk is such a fascinating dude because 99% of the time he’s the most chill happy dude you’ve ever met but every once in a while the PMS will hit and he’ll be like hmmm fuck all you bitches what if i just flew the ship straight into the sun

ST: TNG Watchthrough Episodes 21-25. Final episodes of Season One.

Symbiosis: Remember kids, drugs are bad! Okay tbf this WAS back in the 80’s where crack and stuff were a growing issue and drug addiction episodes were not at all uncommon. Heaven knows that I saw PLENTY in cartoons from the time, such as Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue or a VERY infamous episode of Captain Planet that I’m shocked got by the censors. As with many of those cartoons though, this episode is... well, pretty preachy. Not as badly, they save it for just one scene for the most part, but still. I don’t think that tackling addiction in ST is a bad idea, but... well, 80’s. I guess if it educated people then that’s good. Frankly I was on Crusher’s side that they should do something, but they stick with the Prime Directive which I guess they’ve gotten a LOT stricter about since the TOS days. The ending is pretty depressing with the addiction continuing, the assholes continuing to sell it, and our heroes can only allow it to happen aside from depriving them of ships to stop shipments, leaving them to figure it out themselves. Hopefully one day things can get better for them. Otherwise, it was just okay. Not the worst drug PSA I’ve ever seen by a long-shot. Oh and apparently there was a Reading Rainbow episode where Levar showed the making of this episode, so if you can find it you should check it out~! 3/5.

Skin of Evil: So... I already knew going into the show that Yar died and Worf would take her place as Security Chief. It’s a shame tbh cause while underdeveloped, I really liked Yar and had she held out, she could have gotten some REALLY good development. But I understand why the actress was unsatisfied with being on the show and left, and I read that she does get to come back for an episode later on so that’s nice. I’ll go into how her death was handled in a bit. As far as the episode itself goes, we have a VERY creepy black liquid monster holding Troi hostage in a crashed shuttle and considering it just managed to kill a person, the danger is VERY real. And it did it essentially because it wanted to cause suffering which Troi senses, which makes it all the more horrifying. The tension and fear is very strong and them themes of a being that serves evil just because... yeah that was something. Picard causing it to break down was freakin’ awesome, Kirk would be proud! Now Yar’s death. The reactions of everyone were appropriate and the event was properly shocking. I went wide-eyed when it happened since I did NOT expect it to happen that fast in that kind of manner. The funeral was also properly sad and showed that Yar was a valued member of the crew and very much respected by her crewmen, and that she respected them in turn. The final scene where Data is confused if he missed the point by feeling lost and Picard telling him that he got it exactly right? That was a perfect note to end on, and by God is that the truth regarding grief/loss. That being said... while I understand why it was done as it was and can’t complain about the execution and tone, the abrupt end just feels unsatisfying. I hate character deaths like this because it makes the character feel wasted and robs them of a proper sendoff, even with Yar’s message. They just feel like fodder. So while it had the proper weight, I’m still unhappy with how it’s done and I hope that Yar’s later reappearance will allow more closure or her. Because even if underutilized, she deserved a better ending. Still, even taking that into account, the episode is dark, tense, and Yar’s death does leave a shocking impact that TOS never quite gave me (Spock got brought back so that doesn’t count, plus he got a proper sendoff that would have been satisfactory fi he hadn’t come back). 4.5/5.

We’ll Always Have Paris: So after major character death and evil tar monsters, we get an episode on Picard’s love life! I guess a pre-requisite for being a Starfleet Captain is to have a crappy one of those. Then again maybe Sisko will break the curse when I get to DS9, we’ll see. Anyways! As the title hints, this is essentially the ST version of Casablanca. Picard has an old flame who left him, got married, and now the couple are in need of help while that old flame between Picard and the woman Jenice (is Janice and variaiton fo Janice just... a REALLY common name in the future? There was Janice Rand, Kirk’s ex in Turnabout Intruder was named Janice, now in TNG we have Jenice, how is this a pattern?!). Isn’t love fun folks?! So the episode was... okay. The time distortion or whatever broke my brain so that didn’t help. Picard and Jenice... didn’t work for me? Like... I felt no chemistry. It felt like two people in denial about a flame that fizzled out ages ago than one that burned for many years but was lost. IDK fit hat’s on the actors, the script, and/or the directing but I felt nothing, plus Jenice flirting wih Picard while her husband was in sickbay possibly dying... felt pretty shitty. Oh and the Picard/Crusher ship tease also made me feel nothing. I like Picard. I LOVE Crusher. I don’t have any feelings for them as a pair especially considering that Crusher’s husband was friends with Picard and died on duty with him... which just makes it feel WRONG to me. And poor Troi has to deal with everyone being emotionally repressed idiots, the poor woman deserves a niiiice Shore Leave. So it was average, but the lack of romantic chemistry and me just being confued by the time distortions cause... time distortions just left me confused and uninvested. So yeah... that’s all I can say. 2/5.

Conspiracy: Well a title like that can only mean good things, right? RIGHT?! So... remember the brain slugs from The Wrath of Khan? Well they decided to bring that concept back! They’ve taken over the admirals of Starfleet and are taking over with our heroes having to try and figure out what’s happening and stop it. It’s an interesting one for sure. We have Picard on Earth with the admirals while Quinn from a previous episode is on the Enterprise and causing chaos on there. It’s pretty scary to think about, the higher ups being brainwashed and could have easily destroyed the Federation from the inside out if Picard hadn’t been warned ahead of time. When Picard is utterly surrounded and they were eating the worm things... God it was scary. Although Riker really DID fool me into thinking he was possessed, so I outright cheered when he pulled out his phaser. Badass! Oh and Crusher blasting Quinn until he was down was also badass. It was also shockingly graphic with the bugs and the one guy’s body that hosted the alien... how THAT got by the censors I will never, EVER know. In the end, we never find out about who unleashed the parasites (apparently it was going to be The Borg but it didn’t work out) or what they wanted, but it certainly left an impact. Plus I think the ambiguity makes it all the more horrifying. Someone or something almost took over... and they’ll never know who or what. Overall, really good episode. 4/5.

The Neutral Zone: Well they’ve mentioned then and hinted at it a few times, but at last in the season final, the Romulans have made their return. IDT thy’ve been major villains since The Enterprise Incident back in TOS S3. Speaking of TOS... I thought we were done reusing plots, but this is more or less Space Seed except the frozen people aren’t evil, bio enhanced lunatics. So not a direct reuse but it’s pretty hard to ignore the major similarity. Anyways, we have a bit of an interesting premise with people from the 20th Century being thawed into the 24th Century and letting them interact. There would be major culture shock and values dissonance because even compared to the 80’s and the 2020’s so many values and views have changed. So imagine how much changed in between four centuries with concepts like phones and banks no longer a thing. It was... eh? I like the idea but I just didn’t care for these people much? Well the one guy who is a walking Southern redneck stereotype didn’t especially when he... was alone with Crusher. I HATED that guy, and I’ve seen rednecks my entire life! The other two I at least felt some sympathy for especially the one woman, but not enough to get me invested in this particular plot. Though I WAS amused by some things like TV not surviving past 2040... yeah THAT I find difficult to believe. Ah, the irony of making TV shows set int he future when you have no way of predicting what will and won’t happen. But yeah I get the parallel they were going for by the end with the civilians and Romulans being out of touch with the Federation, but I just didn’t care enough. The Romulan half of the plot? The build-up to it was good with everyone on edge since this will be the first time dealing with them in over 50 years and who knows what they’re like now compared to the TOS era. And when we finally see them? Well they’re very much still intimidating and a sense of danger is very much still existent, though they do agree to share information on this one issue so they aren’t foolish. It very much brought back whatever investment I had in them back in TOS, Went hey said that they’re back, that was a promise and I am all for it~! As far as being a season finale goes... well TOS weren’t exactly great in that area so it being just fine is par for the course, but it is just fine. Really the Romulan bit was what helped this episode, otherwise it’s just okay, but at least the ending scene promises more to come. Not a bad note to end on. 3/5.

Well it took much longer than I had hoped, but we have finished TNG Season One! It was... rough, but I knew going it that it would be. There were some bright spots and it did well enough to get renewed, but clearly a lot was going to need to be done to fine tune the show and let it reach it’s full potential. Will Season 2 be an improvement? What changes will they make? Will they be good or bad for the show? Will Riker ever get his glorious beard anytime soon? We’ll find out in due time. So tomorrow I’ll do the Top 5 Best/Worst list for S1, then by Friday I hope to get S2 underway. For now one season down, six to go. The adventure continues.