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calliecat93 · 3 years

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ST: The Next Generation S4 Watchthrough Episodes 2-5

Family: I fully expected the episode after the whole Borg thing would just be another typical episode that maybe brought it up, but otherwise be business as usual. Thank God that they didn’t go that route. This was the follow-up needed, a calmer, more introspective episode. No aliens. No politics or social issues. No heavy action. Just a cool-down, character-driven episode to let the audience breathe and allow character development. Picard of course is the big plot, going back to France (is this a joke because Patrick Stewart is British?) to reconnect with his family and deal with the trauma of the Borg assimilation. Robert is kind of an ass… but he does care about Picard and does ultimately help him open up about the trauma. Seriously, Patrick Stewart’s acting in that scene? 100% perfect. I like his sister-in-law and nephew as well and I liked finally seeing Earth outside a Starfleet base/an area not technologically advanced. We also met Worf’s adopted parents! While they’re a little much, they clearly love Worf, did their best to adjust in properly raising a Klingon child, and I’m just glad to see some actual competent/caring parents in something. Crusher and Wesley’s plot isn’t much… but not gonna lie, if my mom hadn’t been in the room I’d have likely cried. Wesley watching the hologram of his deceased dad… while Wil Wheaton’s acting was a little underwhelming… yeah God that hit far too close. My dad died three years ago and I still get choked up about it sometimes. And when Crusher was going through Jack’s belongings and picking up his uniform? Just… damn. I’m so glad to see an episode that just… lets the characters develop and grow without having to add a whole bunch of melodrama or an over-complicated plot or anything like that. It’s about family, and it was freakin’ perfect. 5/5.

Brothers: Well… I should have seen this coming eventually. Lore is back folks. Oh but it’s not just him. After three seasons, we finally meet the infamous Dr. Soong. Guess this is why Data wasn’t in the last episode, his family issues needed one all their own. So first… Brent Spiner deserves every freakin’ acting Emmy ever because he played all three of these characters. Yep, all three at the same time in the same episode. And he plays all three with great distinction and character and… the man is freakin’ good. The whole episode was just… damn. The first half where Data essentially hijacks everything.. yeah if Data ever went evil, everyone would be screwed. That was legit horrifying… though why they left Data alone on the bridge when something was clearly wrong with him I’ll never know. As for Dr. Soong himself… I’m not sure how to feel about him. Oh as a character he’s great. Brent Spiner really put a lot into him. I’m just not sure whether to call him out or feel bad for him… but maybe that’s part of the point. And Lore? Well… while he’s certainly evil… I actually felt bad for him? I can’t blame him for being angry and resentful because… yeah him being deactivated/disassembled while Data got to live out a life and shown clear favoritism is very understandable. He truly feels like the angry older brother whole Data is the younger, more inquisitive brother not quite sure what to think. Soong does seem to regret decommissioning Lore, especially now that he’s dying (which Lore’s actual emotional reaction… it was possibly an act but IDT it was, again excellent work by Brent Spiner), and it does feel like he summoned the two (even if Lore was unintentional since he didn’t know he’d been reassembled) to make some form of amends, but IDK if it’s legit regret or some form of ego. It really feels open to interpretation or perhaps a mix of both. Despite that, Soong being killed by Lore who escapes with the emotion chip not designed for him implanted to wreak havoc again in the future… yeah him accepting that it’s over and his and Data’s goodbye with Data calling him ‘father’… again, just perfect. This whole episode was perfect, Event the subplot with the two kids was done well and served as a good parallel to the Data and Lore situation. Those two were able to forgive… but I don’t think it will be that simple for Data. I’m still hoping that Data gets happy things later (WHEN DOES HE GET HIS KITTY?! I WANT HIM TO GET HIS KITY!), but still a fantastic episode. 5/5.

Suddenly Human: So in this episode, we have a human boy who was raised by an alien culture known as the Talarians. Due to being raised among them, he acts and views himself as a Talarian moreso than he does a human. Well… that’s certainly an interesting episode topic. It’s kind of like with Worf, a Klingon, having been raised by humans, albeit they did try to keep his Klingon heritage intact as much as they could. I think that this may be the first tme we’ve had a human being raised in an alien culture? Spock may have kinda counted, but he was half-Vulcan, half-human, and still had both parents so that’s still a different situation compared to someone born and raised human until his parents died and was taken into the very group that caused their deaths. I guess the title character in Charlie X back during TOS may have also counted, which I do get similar vibes from especially the whole ‘captain super awkwardly stepping up as a father figure against his will’ part… albeit I feel more sympathetic towards Jono than Charlie who went thoroughly power-mad, plus Charlie very clearly didn’t want to go back to the aliens. Jono just wants to go home. Honestly… IDK how to feel about the situation. I get wanting to have Jono connect to his human roots and being concerned about him being among the Talarians who have a… rather ruthless, very patriarchal lifestyle. However, the man who took him in does genuinely love him and it does seem like he’s been accepted into their world and he’s content with that. It’s where I get the crew’s concerns and while a little too excessive Crusher’s concern about Stockholm Syndrome does make sense somewhat… but I’m also like ‘this is his choice, if that is what he wishes then grant it to him.” . Trying to make him get in touch with his roots as though they know what’ best for him when they absolutely don’t, no matter how well-intentioned… yeah don’t agree with that. Even if he has remaining family on Earth, then as sad as it is, he gets to make that choice for his life no matter what the consequences may be. IDK is they intended to bring up the moral complexity of these kinds of situations because there are solid arguments that you can make for all sides here, but I do think it’s there and is very much a relevant topic in today’s world. I’m very much on the ‘make the choice for yourself and allow one to make that choice’ opinion. Allow them to learn about their heritage and the truth about how they ended up where they did, and let them decide what they’d like for themselves/how they’d like to lead their lives. Ultimately that’s what Jono did. He understands what happened and he finally expresses missing his parents and the trauma he endured due to it… but he also chose to remain with his adopted father and those who raised him, but maybe now more open in getting in touch with his Earth/human heritage. IDK if it was the right or wrong choice, but it was his choice. 4/5.

Remember Me: 🎶Though I have to say goodbye. Remember me, don't let it make you cry.🎶 Sorry, the Disney/Pixar nerd in me required me to do that XD Okay in all seriousness... guys they did it! They made an episode centering on a female character (Dr. Crusher) aND IT WAS ACTUALLY GOOD! So we have huge chunks of the crew disappearing and everyone’s memories of them wiped… except for Dr. Crusher. So… I won’t go into the plot twist here. Like with The Survivors it is really something I’d rather not spoil. But damn, I already liked Dr. Crusher… but this made me love her. The poor woman keeps questioning her sanity because of all the disappearances/memory gaps. To everyone else, nothing is out of place. To her? Everything is breaking down. I do like that the crew does listen to her and take her fears seriously. No one questions her going insane, Troi even telling her that if she thinks that something is wrong, then she’s acting as she should. Even when it’s only Crusher and Picard, despite clearly getting tired of it… Picard still listens to her and trusts her word. With how in both this and TNG they sometimes have dropped in common sense, it’s just so nice to see them treat this situation seriously and carefully and not act like Crusher is just a hysterical woman. Which she is not. While she understandably is freaked out and upset, she acts competently and intelligently especially when it’s only her left. Again, without spoiling anything, the way she gets out of it shows just how freakin’ awesome she is. Just an overall really good episode and Thank God that Dr. Crusher finally got the focus that she deserved. Sorry Pulaski, but them ditching you was worth it for this~! 4.5/5.

Wow we are off to an excellent start! Brothers may be my favorite episode in the whole show thus far. Much more to go, so hopefully the quality remains consistent. We shall see~!

#st watchthrough

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sshbpodcast · 5 years

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Tales from the Holodeck: TNG Fanfic: Chris’s Story

A Star to Steer Her By is closing the book on Star Trek: The Next Generation with our much anticipated fanfic series “Tales from the Holodeck”! With our random draws for our special guest characters in hand, we’ve written new adventures for the crew of the Enterprise-D for you to enjoy! Listen to the whole episode here, or read on below for Chris’s story!

[images © Paramount/CBS]

“Special Delivery”

by Chris

Random Picks: Berlinghoff Rasmussen, Lal

“Well, Doc, here we are,” the pilot said, a low rumble filling the cockpit as various thrusters fired to bring the ship to what amounted to a “stop” in the frictionless vacuum of space. He turned to face his passenger, his idiot ponytail almost snagging on some of the flotsam he wore on his ridiculous vest. “Looks like we beat your contact, tho.”

“Oh, that I very much doubt, Captain,” the lanky passenger replied, standing and leaning towards the comms panel. He punched a few keys, and within a moment the sensor panel was alive with warning.

“What the…” The captain’s eyes darted around his panels. “A ship is decloaking! Doc, what’s going on? I don’t want to get mixed up in anything unsavory!”

“Don’t worry, my dear Captain. My friend isn’t unsavory. Merely cautious.”

He said that, but being honest he’d never actually met the owner of the ship that was, for lack of a better term, wavering into view. It was a simple, silvery affair, all sleek curves and a few, decorative swirls in the hull. It wasn’t the kind of vessel that was supposed to inspire awe or fear, to make people back away and tremble, and also not so high end as to inspire envy. A ship easy to lose in a crowded spacedock or port.

“This is the Erstwhile hailing civilian yacht,” the Captain said, interrupting the Doctor’s thoughts. “Repeat, this is the Erstwhile, Captain Okona speaking. Please respond.”

“Er, hrm, yes,” came a somewhat-croaking voice over the speakers. “This is the Stuart. Is Doctor Isaacson with you?”

“I’m here, yes,” the passenger called.

“Good. Handle anything remaining with your pilot and prepare to beam over.” A small beat. “You...have it, then?”

“I’d not be here otherwise.”

“Good lad. Stuart out.”

Several years in the 24th century had still not entirely gotten Rasmussen used to the sensation of transporting. He’d remembered the theory of teleporters getting real traction in his time, with early and promising tests with photons and such, but even then it was assumed they wouldn’t be considered safe for more than cargo for at least a century after their introduction. From what he’d learned, however, it didn’t take long for some mad Starfleet Captain to find an excuse to hurtle himself through space with one of the things.

He had been told by the denizens of the time that you adapted eventually. He wasn’t sure. To Rasmussen, it started as a tingle, like when his arm or leg would fall asleep, only over and within every inch of his body. And for a split-second he was aware of his entire being in a way he normally wasn’t, possibly because the sensation was so all-consuming. And even that second was so overwhelming that he felt his brain much shut down from the overstimulation of feedback.

Not that his feeling was, apparently, universal. Some people thought it was a pleasant, warm feeling. He’d read the memoirs of a Starfleet physician named McCoy who said it was simultaneously itchy and ticklish, while making him feel weightless for a few, spare seconds until reassembly made him feel sure, for just a moment, that his hair alone was heavy enough to crush his whole body.

Either way, for every little convenience and luxury and delight the future held, Rasmussen could’ve thoroughly done without transporters.

He glanced around and found he had materialized on a simple, three-pad affair. He was in the middle, his simple baggage to his left, and his delivery to his right. Before him was the control panel and, presumably, the person who had operated it. Well, person according to everything Rasmussen had read about his host. If someone said he was from a race of potato people he’d not be entirely surprised.

“Professor Soong!” Rasmussen said with a broad grin, stepping off the pad and extending a hand. “What a joy to finally meet you in person!”

“Hm, yes, likewise, Doctor...” the old man paused. “Is it Isaacson or Rasmussen?”

“Ah, yes, safe to use my real name now.”

“Then hello, Doctor Rasmussen.” The old man’s eyes darted to the case on the transporter pad. “So...was it difficult to get?”

“Oh, probably.” Rasmussen winked. “I wouldn’t know.”

“Huh? What does that mean?”

“It means I made sure my hands weren’t seen in this. Safer for both of us that way.” He turned around and lifted the case from the pad. “You meet the most interesting people in one of those Federation detention camps. Not that you’d know, of course…”

“No. The ne’er do wells in my family history went to regular jail.”

He gestured to Rasmussen and walked away from the transporter controls. There was no separate room like on larger ships; Rasmussen was standing right in the midst of a large space that was filled with various tables laden with a variety of electronic clutter. Off to one side, however, was a smallish bar, with a grinning man standing at it.

“Refreshment before we get to it, Doctor?” Soong offered. “Walsh here is an excellent bartender. What’s your pleasure? Samarian Sunset? Jipper? Mint julep?”

“I’ve developed a taste for Saurian brandy, if you have any of that.”

“Right away, sir!” chirped Walsh, spinning quickly to the collection of bottles behind him. He was soon slowly pouring from one of the distinctive, curved bottles into the traditional, corkscrew glass.

“Professor, is he…?”

“An android, yes. A very basic model, though. Nothing like my sons. Why make a machine that wants to be more when you just want it to make you dinner and tidy up, hmm?”

“Your drink, Doctor!”

“Thank you.” He waited while Walsh assembled some green concoction for Soong. He smiled, and the men clinked glasses. “To the Soong positronic brain.”

“Hrm, yes. Hopefully those Starfleet scientists didn’t make a mess of it.” Soong took a pull from his drink. “So...if you didn’t get it, who did?”

“A lovely woman I met at the camp. Actually the one who got us out, too. She’d done up this brilliant con where she had the natives of some backwater convinced she was some ancient God or demon or something they’d made a deal with for a millennium of prosperity or somesuch. But then Starfleet got involved and blew her cover. My old friend Picard was her captor, no less.”

“He gets around. Still, no offense to you, but no one I’d rather have keeping an eye on my boy.” Soong took another drink. “So, where’s your compatriot now? She’s not going to show up separately asking for pay, is she? Because whatever you offered her is coming out of your share of the latinum.”

“She wouldn’t know how to find you. And she thinks I’m dead.”

“Oh?”

“I staged an attack at our rendezvous point. I was “disintegrated” by some pirates when she handed over the package.”

“A lot of people are getting involved…”

“Don’t worry, you and the real contents of my package never came up. They thought I was smuggling narcotics to Risa, nothing special. I assume they’re awake by now…”

“Eh?”

“Oh, the idiot leader has this bizarre loyalty device implanted in all his crew and himself. It was easy enough to figure out how to mimic the signal of his controller. They were all having a nice nap when I met up with Captain Okona and beamed away. I set their ship to head for Romulan space. Hopefully they came to before crossing the Neutral Zone…”

“I suppose you left a bomb or something behind with Okona?”

“No, he was a gormless kid. Told him I was shipping some rare Tholian biological samples to be studied by a Federation scientist. The fare was nothing, already paid.” Rasmussen took another drink. “So...shall we to work?”

A table was cleared for the case. Rasmussen punched a code into a pad on the front, and a hiss escaped the box as its lid opened. Inside, perched neatly inside black padding, was what appeared at first glance to be a human woman’s head. Soong reached inside with trembling fingers and extracted it, revealing the metal joint and various connectors that were at the bottom of the neck. Its black hair was badly mussed and fell oddly around its face.

“Hello, Lal,” Soong whispered. “I’m your Grandfather.”

He carefully slotted the head into a socket resting on top of the table. He fiddled around underneath the hair and suddenly the entire top of her head came away, taking most of her hair with it. He spent a moment just admiring the silver skull underneath, tracing his fingers over a few connectors and the tiny, currently-unlit status bulbs scattered across it.

“From what I read there was complete cascade failure,” Rasmussen said after the pause had begun to become uncomfortable. “So...is there really anything that can be done?”

“Maybe. Just...maybe.” Soong looked up. “You see, my boy...well, he’s brilliant. But even he doesn’t have quite all my knowledge on positronic brains. And some of the work involved is...well, I hate to say this, but it’s not an exact science. Some of it is just intuition. And for all I can do, that’s something that’s just not programmable.”

“Well, then. Won’t know until we try. May I assist?”

“Thank you, yes.”

After that there was very little talking for the next several hours, save for Soong asking for a tool or directing Rasmussen to make some connection or replace some doohickey. Walsh would occasionally putter over with water before heading back to the bar to vacantly stare into the middle distance. While he had been very convincing at first, Rasmussen had to admit that the bartender was, indeed, an inferior model.

“Right.” Soong suddenly straightened up. Or at least became as straight as his ancient, bowed back would allow. “That should do it. I’m afraid her memory may not be intact, though…”

He gently placed the top of the head back into place, and a barely-audible click sounded from somewhere. He gently patted down her hair as a very subtle movement started under the eyelids. He crouched down, bringing his face close to hers.

“Come on. Come on. I’ve worked with enough androids in my time...you can do it.”

“You know, it’s funny,” Rasmussen said, wandering around behind Soong and casually picking up flotsam from tables. “I’ve been reading a lot of things since I’ve been freed. Catching up on two hundred or so years of history and technology.”

“Yes, I’m sure it’s been terribly edifying.” Soong’s tone made it plain he did not care about whatever his guest was going on about.

“And Starfleet...well, they are rather bad at keeping things locked down.”

“My boy did take over their flagship pretty easily.”

“I’ve managed to get into some very interesting records. Even some reports that went to Starfleet command.”

The android’s eyes began to slowly flutter open.

“That’s it...hello….” Soong whispered.

“There was even one related to the time Data took over the Enterprise. Do you know why he did it?”

“Of course!” Soong stood up rather surprisingly quickly, considering all his movements up until that point. “I’m the one that contacted him! It activated a subroutine…”

“In both him and his brother. His brother who killed you.”

“Oh, is that what’s bothering you?” Soong snorted and turned back to the head on the table. He placed his hands to the tabletop and leaned heavily. Her eyes were open, but her eyes were slowly lolling around, struggling to focus on anything, and occasionally going out of sync. “Yes, well, there’s a simple explanation for that.”

“Which is?”

“Noonien Soong is dead.”

Rasmussen let out a shocked gasp as, in that exact moment, a pair of powerful arms had wrapped around him, squeezed tight, and lifted him off the ground. He kicked uselessly at the legs of his attacker as Soong moved towards him, a hand going for his pocket.

“You know, had you just not bothered being so nosy, I would have paid you and sent you on your way.” His hand emerged, a hypospray gripped in it. “Ah, well.”

He pressed the tip to the protesting Rasmussen’s neck, and the Doctor quickly went limp. Walsh lowered him to the floor, where he began to snore quietly.

“What shall I do with him, sir?”

“Escape pod.” Soong’s voice had taken on an entirely new quality. “Then send a signal to the nearest Federation starbase where to find their fugitive. Then get us out of here, maximum warp.”

“You do not wish to stay to see if there is a bounty?”

“Not worth risking myself, Walsh.” He tugged on one of his hands and the skin suddenly went very slack, slipping off like a glove to reveal a much smoother one underneath. “I’m probably more wanted than him”

He walked over to the table as he removed his other false hand. He then reached up and pulled off the white wig he wore, revealing a crop of short, dark hair. He turned back to Walsh, grinning broadly through the false face he still wore.

“Besides, this girl is going to be worth so much more to me than whatever piddling reward Starfleet might have on offer for such a non-offender as him.”

“Wh-where…” came a voice from the table. There was a slight hum and click under it, betraying its electronic nature. Something that would have to be fixed eventually.

“Ah, good evening, my dear!” “Soong” said, turning back to her and crouching.

“Where am I?”

“You’re safe.”

“Who...am I?”

“You are Lal.”

“Lal.”

“Who are you?”

“I...am your adoptive father.” He reached up, and pulled his false face away. The wrinkles and bushy eyebrows were gone, replaced by an almost cherubic face adorned with a thick mustache that he began to neaten with his fingers, before curling up the edges. “You can call me Harry. But to everyone else, I am Harcourt Fenton Mudd.”

Mudd rose, and looked over to where Walsh was dragging away the unconscious Rasmussen.

“You see, laddybuck, you don’t have the monopoly on time travel…”

A strange, turquoise-colored crystal on a nearby table softly glowed.

the end

—

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#star trek #Star Trek TNG #fanfic #Star Trek Fanfiction #rasmussen #lal #soong #okona

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