TNG - "Angel One"

When the Enterprise searches for the survivors of a lost Federation ship, they find them on Angel One, a planet where women rule over men in a purely matriarchal society. The ship's survivors, all men, did not accept being subjugated by the planet's rulers and are now fugitives. While Riker, Troi, and Yar attempt to stop the men from being executed, the Enterprise is plagued by a mysterious and deadly virus that stops anyone from beaming back aboard the ship. In the end, the men are spared, but exiled to a remote area of the planet, while Crusher manages to create an innoculant to the virus.

I'm not entirely sure if this episode is sexist or not. It's definitely attempting to be a commentary on sexism, yet because it constantly shows women in a negative light, one could almost assume that it is sexist in itself. Personally, I think it really comes down to this: sexists are stupid, no matter who they are. Saying that women can't be sexist is also sexist. What if the roles were reversed, and Angel One was a traditional patriarchal sexist society? Would this episode not be viewed as a brilliant commentary on sexism, then?

Okay, I never want to type "sexist" that many times in a paragraph again.

Riker wears the male equivalent of loose, skanky clothing. Troi and Yar laugh at him. This is simultaneously one of the most awkward and yet genuine moments we've had thus far. It's awkward 'cause, well, Riker's chest is all over the TV screen and his legs are showing. It's genuine because of the ladies' amused reactions.

The B plot of the episode is the usual "deadly virus infects entire crew; CMO manages to find a cure at the last possible moment" storyline. It has nothing special going for it. It's seriously just there to fill up time. There is one interesting moment, however, when Picard and Beverly talk about whether or not to sedate Wesley so that he's not awake when he dies. It's a bit disturbing, actually, and I want to call BS on Beverly even suggesting the idea. No mother would ever put her child to sleep like that, even if it was "out of mercy."

This is ultimately a really bland episode filled with awkwardness and near-meaningless social commentary. Worth watching if you're a Trek completionist, but not really worth anything otherwise.

TNG - "Datalore"

The Enterprise travels to Data's home planet, where all life, human or otherwise, has been mysteriously wiped out. There they discover a "brother" of Data's, an identical android named Lore. Lore, unlike Data, is highly emotional and arrogant. He attempts to switch places with Data, and it is revealed that Lore betrayed the colonists of his world by leading a massive life-eating "Crystalline Entity" to the planet and letting it destroy all life. After the Enterprise crew figures out what's going on, Data beams Lore into space.

That summary was the longest I've had to write for a TNG episode thus far, save for the 2-hour premiere. That should either tell you how important this episode is or how simplistic most of the show is at this point. Unfortunately, it's a little of both, mostly the latter.

Lore is a great villain, if slightly stereotypical. What makes him really work is the awesome job Brent Spiner does playing Data's polar opposite. Spiner taps into a kind of narcissistic madness with a dose of Machiavellian style. If not for this, Lore would have been a wasted, stupid character.

Wesley once again is "the only smart person on the ship" as well as "the kid that no one listens to." It's getting more than annoying. At this point, it just makes everyone on the Enterprise (as well as everyone in the TNG writers' room) look really stupid.

The crystalline entity looks cool, even if it is obvious CG. Crystals, being generally low-polygon structures, have the advantage of looking fine with old-style CG.

If there's one problem with this episode, it's that, for all its notability, it's just... "there." The introduction of Lore—the closest thing Data has to family thus far—doesn't seem to have changed Data all that much; he pretty much goes back to his station at the end, seemingly having gained or lost nothing. This really feels like a one-off episode that's decent, but not necessarily great.

DS9 - "A Man Alone"

This is an Odo episode, and one that really doesn't do much with him. If anything, it establishes that he holds his own personal convictions above the law itself. A memorable moment in this episode has Odo and Sisko arguing about whether or not to follow Federation law, when Odo makes an extremely insightful comment: "Laws change, depending on who's making them. Cardassians one day, Federation the next. But justice is justice." If this episode succeeds in any one aspect, it's this one. We see that Odo is not merely a strict security chief, but a belief-driven man.

Other minor relationships are established here. Jake and Nog meet and become friends very quickly, much to Sisko's chagrin. To date, Jake has been nothing more than an annoyance in the show, and he doesn't get any better here. Nog is somewhat more entertaining.

Bashir's pursuit of Jadzia gets borderline-creepy in this episode. She seems ready to put the hammer down and tell him to stop, but he comes off as pathetically persistent. It's actually somewhat uncomfortable to watch.

There's one aspect of this episode that's particularly bothersome. Doctor Bashir accidentally grows a clone of someone, then that clone is apparently offscreen allowed to go his own way and live his own life. How is that possible? Does the clone retain all of his template's knowledge? If so, that would be rather troubling, since the template was a murderer. If the clone does not, in fact, contain all the memories and personality of the template, then is he simply a blank slate with no ability to function as an adult in Bajoran society? There doesn't seem to be a good answer to this one, and yet we're supposed to just gloss over this major point with happy faces. It's not enough to majorly bring the episode down, but it's concerning how little attention this detail was given.

"A Man Alone" is nice, but ultimately not too amazing. It's just another DS9 episode that has the characters doing very little that's actually exciting.

TNG - "The Big Goodbye"

Picard, Data, Beverly, and a redshirt go to the holodeck in order to act out a 1940s detective story. Once there, a glitch turns off the safety protocols, making the story life-threateningly real. When a villain in the program holds the crew hostage, Picard tricks him into stepping outside the holodeck and de-materializing.

With this episode, the holodeck can now do virtually anything it wants; it's basically a window into imagination. It's also nice to see some of Picard's fun side as he dives headfirst into the role of Dixon Hill, P.I.

At the end, we actually almost come to care for the holodeck characters. They're only made of photons and bits of data, yet, when programmed properly, appear to be self-aware. What are they, exactly? Are they people? Do they truly exist? We're only left with that brief question, then returned to the ship. These kinds of "big questions" are exactly the kind that Star Trek was created to answer, and it's great to see TNG delve into them a bit.

DS9 - "Past Prologue"

This episode is near-completely centered on Kira's loyalties.  Since she's the second-in-command of DS9, it makes sense to have such an early episode of the series deal with this subject. After all, the TNG era is about harmony, not strife.  From a storytelling standpoint, I'm not sure if I like that or not.

The story itself is well-told, though it could have been done a bit more dramatically.  In TNG, even the most unexciting of scenes could be made into extremely intense moments with the acting of Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, or Brent Spiner.  Here, however, we don't get anything anywhere near as deep.  It's all mostly surface-level, which makes it only "serviceable," not "great."

Bashir's youthful paranoia and naivete are very funny to watch; he's definitely one of the more likable characters on DS9 thus far.

Kira has a much shorter haircut.  It suits her better, I think.

Lursa and B'Etor (who would later become the infamous destroyers of the Enterprise-D) are very very low on my list of favorite characters, but it's still nice to see continuity between the Trek series.

As stated before, the main plot of this episode, that of Kira's divided loyalties, is well-done, but is not anything remarkable in terms of actual storytelling.

DS9 - "Emissary"

Is there a better way to start a series than with the epic battle of Wolf 359?  No.  Did it work?  Mostly.

The battle itself had great special effects work, with the notable exception of the way the ships maneuvered.  While I can buy the Voyager swiftly diving and banking into turns, the bulky Nebula- and Miranda-class ships should barely be able to move at all, let alone turn on a dime.  One very important thing for Trek battles is that the ships have to move realistically for their design; generally, the larger and/or wider a ship is, the less maneuverable.

There's a notable use of shaky-cam here as the Saratoga is rocked by weapons fire.  It's certainly not up to the shaky-cam standards of today (yes, there are standards), but it still works well at establishing the desperation and intensity of the scene.  However, Avery Brooks and his portrayal of Benjamin Sisko don't work so well.

Throughout the entire episode, Sisko comes across as insincere, inconsistent, and slightly creepy.

 

He looks like he's going to molest a small child.

At the "big emotional moment" of the prologue, when Sisko is forced to leave behind his dead wife's body, Avery Brooks overacts to the point of overshadowing Shatner himself.  It's uncomfortably cheesy.  Also, his portrayal is inconsistent, going back and forth from overly pleasant to suddenly dark.  While this is consistent with someone who's dealing with deep emotional issues, it doesn't quite seem real.  One minute Sisko acts as if Deep Space 9 is the greatest thing since inertial dampeners, and the next he's telling Picard how much he hates the job and wants to retire.

 

Even Picard is disgusted at Sisko's acting

Picard may be the best part of the entire episode.  Patrick Stewart does an amazing job here, showing Picard's more grim side.  He doesn't remind Sisko about the fact that Locutus and Picard are technically not the same person; he simply continues on with his job.

 Old (left) and New (right)

The new uniforms are nice; I wonder why they decided to change them for DS9 but not TNG?  They're much more uniform-like and less casual.  There's a great bit of consistency in this department, as the new characters arriving to the station wear the TNG-style jumpsuits, yet are wearing the new costumes after they (apparently) have time to change.

Jadzia Dax is extremely hot.

Julian Bashir is a very fun character, and immediately likable.

Kira Nerys is surprisingly also likable in her own odd way.  She seems to be one of the only original characters here that seems completely real and genuine.

Odo is an odd one.
His speech about his origins seems slightly forced. I would have liked an introduction to his character motivations in a manner that made a little more sense.  The CG effects for his liquid morphing are stellar for the time period, however.

O'Brien's goodbye scene with Picard was a very nice bit.  It's not often that we get to see Picard actually show his emotional attachments for his crewmembers, so this was a rare treat.  The music during the scene was excellent as well, blending the TNG theme straight into the DS9 theme as O'Brien beams from the Enterprise to DS9. Now that I think about it, however, wasn't the Enterprise docked?  Why did O'brien need to beam to a place he could have walked to?  Must be for the whole "the transporter chief is being transported away" irony factor.

Holycrapitsawormhole!!!

The alternate reality-inside-a-wormhole scenes have to be some of the weirdest in Trek history.  Sisko meets new noncorporeal alien life forms, and what does he do? Argue about geometry.

It doesn't even make sense; how could a species not understand the concepts of four-dimensional space, yet use those same concepts to communicate with Sisko?

At the very least, one interesting quote came out of the end of that absurd discussion: "It is the unknown that defines our existence."  This is the basic tenet of Trek: that humanity is defined by our desire to grow and learn beyond ourselves.  Still, this message could have been communicated better.

"Emissary" is a very good introduction to DS9; it just doesn't have a lot there to entertain us as an actual story.