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Star Trek The Next Generation Lamentations S7E19: Genesis
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- čas přidán 31. 01. 2021
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Lamentation? For the best episode of all of Star Trek????????????
Oh, Jessie you may want to tell Lore Runner to not watch, Galileo Seven, Devil in the Dark, the Man Trap, Where No Man Has Gone Before, Arena, Operation Annihilate, shit, you may have to tell him to not watch any of TOS season 1 because this is roughly 80% of their episodes. No wonder he is so mad on some of these live streams if just one episode leaves him this mad.
Better than Code of Honor? I think not.
@@maisiesummers42 Nothing beats Congo of Honour. Best frigging episode in all of Trek. Even better than watching Wesley fall on flowers, played on loop for 48 hours.
I’d love to see a retake of the Voyager ruminations
Mee too.
As would I
Me three. I remember watching the original ones. Would love to see Lore revisit them.
If you cover Voyager again, will we get a 3 hour Lamentation of _Threshold?_
Complete with random bleeps even if he isn't actually cursing.
When I was a teenager I thought this was a really cool episode. As an adult I thought it was a silly episode. But I've never thought of it as a bad episode.
The last time I was this early, Tasha Yar was still alive.
Knock Nock. Who's there? Not Tasha Yar.
I actually liked this episode as a kid. One of my favorites. I liked how they seemed to be against the odds and didnt mind mary sue data doing everything.
Agreed. This jumped the shark on TNG “bottle show” concepts. Gates did a great job directing. And Voyager took the cake on “what else can we do using the existing sets?”
If Alex Kurtzman sees this video we'll be getting a Discovery episode where all the characters are Michael Burnham.
Now remember, genesis does what nintendon’t.
I actually like this episode. Its well made, well acted, well directed, and batshit insane and throws logic clear out the airlock and unleashes a quantum torpedo barrage on it.
I think that its how wild the episode is, and the atmosphere of it, that makes me like it so much.
It's not top ten, twenty, or fifty category. But I still enjoy it.
I agree with this assessment. 'batshit insane'..
This episode is as close as TNG gets to a Spock's Brain for me.
I consider Spock's Brain far from the worst episode of TOS.
How to fix the episode: Instead of Data and Picard, it's Barkley and Roe. Now it's still a stupid episode, but it's an entertaining stupid episode. And embrace the stupidity. They immediately figure Data wouldn't be affected by a virus, so they go to his quarters, except he's not there. But there is a toaster in his chair. Don't even have Barkley or Roe acknowledge the toaster, because they understand the implications are so stupid that they do not want to deal with it. Just have the toaster on screen in Data's room and he's missing from the rest of the episode.
16:35 - MY EYES! THE GOGGLES DO _NOTHING!_
I actually liked this episode. Just imagine Doug Jones being on this episode. Even though I disagreed, you did a great job with the video. Thanks for your work.
Another plothole: Ogawa has a throwaway line that Crusher will need "reconstructive surgery" to properly recover... then I read on the wikia that she was actually put in stasis so the wounds wouldn't get worse. Neither of these details are mentioned again, and then at the end of the episode, Crusher appears again but is completely fine, without a single sign of prior injury... okay then. It's funny to think about how she would've described this experience to Wesley when he came to visit in the next episode. Also, we never got to see Geordi's transformation. Dumb episode, but the dark atmosphere and creature effects were well done.
The in universe explanation for this episode, is that they were testing the new "quantum reset" system, that would later be a standard feature on Voyager/Intrepid class.
I can give you my poll answer right now: YES! Would love you to re-cover Voyager. I suspect that the somewhat 'lax-ening' of your Lamentation criteria would mean that way more episodes than just Threshold would suffer that fate now.
Also, no I don't mind at ALL that this copped a Lamentation. When I think of Genesis I think "Eww, Spider-Reg. Dumb. Avoid."
I “like” the episode.... I mean, it’s not great. The whole premise is stupid as all hell, but everything aside from the script is excellent. Gate’s direction is really good, the acting is spot on, and makeup is great. But then again, I’m a weirdo that likes Threshold for the same reason. Everyone involved is putting their heart and soul in to the work, only for the script to be utter trash.
I am far less forgiving of movies for this, but honestly, the same thing applies to The Last Jedi. The script is absolutely terrible, but the quality of the direction, acting, visual effects etc, bring the film up to a watchable standard on first viewing, even if it falls completely apart the moment it ends and you start to think about it (at which point, *insert justified nerd rage here*).
Really, that’s all that can be said. The episode is 45 minutes of stupid, made watchable by the cast and crew, who for some reason, decided to work extra hard on those particular days.
I love unique ideas even if poorly executed for standalone projects or for projects that take place in worlds I have no emotional investment in but inconsistencies do bother me when I do have emotional investment in a fictional universe.
I've just learned to treat Star Trek episodes like this as not so much a historical acccount of events that occurred in this universe but more like folklore of the world we actually live in. The story/plot has some b-movie charm coupled with great performances and direction but I can definitely see why someone who is as emotionally invested in the TNG universe would be angered by this episode.
LM of the Coast, great considerations you present. While it's 'fun' schadenfreude to pile on disaster episodes, they still have good points, and professional artist who worked really hard on them.
The Riker middle-finger makes it worth a watch every now and again. lmao
My favourite part is 'Predator' Worf
YES
I recall liking this episode in my younger years. It has an interesting concept. I did feel disturbed that a member of the Enterprise crew in animal form killed that random bridge officer and would have to live with that fact afterward. But naturally it was never brought up.
This episode's premise is preposterous, but I think they did a fairly good job with it. I actually enjoyed it.
Agreed. Thoigh, it's sci fi so preposterous is the meal of the day. I was able to suspend my disbelief to watch this one.
The Barclay clone episode sounds much better. Heck, the episode is called “Genesis” the senior officers sitting around and playing Sonic the Hedgehog would have made a better episode.
I always felt that this was a fun episode. I would rather rewatch this or "casino royale" then to rewatch a significantly better episode like "I, Borg" or "Lessons".
This felt like a “the Star Trek crew just watched John Carpenter’s The Thing, and we need to have a horror feel (kind of like Conspiracy from season 1)”. The just go with it mentality is at 1000% here…
One thing i'd like to think is that the ship being disabled, with the doors closed and power off, was the last intelligent act by whoever was trying to solve the situation. I don't think it was Riker because he went stupid before the rest of them. But i think someone realized everyone was infected with something and the only way to keep them safe and contained before a rescue was to disable power and lock the doors so the crew in their feral state couldn't hurt each other.
Obviously force fields and security codes would have been 10x better. But the person themselves were already mentally enfeebled and perhaps could only understand how to perform a total system lockdown. It might have been something really simple and brute-force, like pulling a few key isolinear chips from the computer core. So they did that and thus protected the crew.
It was thus really easy to restore power and systems afterward. Just undo the lockdown.
I think your Voyager coverage still stands and their are other series that could be covered first before redoing such as The Expanse. This episode only works if you switch your mind off and sleep through it. It’s such a tease episode as it starts strong before going off to space Oz.
We know that Troi has access to Worf's quaters. She feeds Alexander's Beetle, when both men are away. Also, Worf is Security Chief, he has emergency override authority for the whole ship.
This is definitely TNG's version of "Spock's Brain" as far as I'm concerned - i.e. a guilty pleasure I can laugh at in a "so bad it's good" kind of way.
Is the story (and the science surrounding it) ludicrous? Well, yes. But, I don't watch Trek for a science lesson; I watch it to be entertained. They definitely succeeded there, though in completely unintentional ways. That's all I'll say about this one.
5/10
Lore, I have to say, you've never owned a Cat. If cat wants to get out it finds a way. Not even Data is fast enough to stop a determined Kitty🐱🐺😂 Also, there is at least one episode where Jordi can be seen returning Spot to Data, after she got out. I believe it's the episode where the Bulkhead around Data's quarters were damaged because of Kreger Waves. As I said, Determined Felines, find a way😁
The premise almost reaches Threshold levels of ridiculous. However, I did enjoy the weird sci-fi nonsense overall, and the monster designs and direction were really effective years ago as a kid in making this a memorable "horror" episode. I watched it again recently and it didn't have exactly the same effect, but it was mildly entertaining overall.
While the episode was ridiculous from a science perspective, it did have one very unique element that I liked. The horror atmosphere of the Enterprise when they came back from the shuttle trip. Yes, it devolved into crap once we saw the "de-evolved" crew. But in the first part, when they were wandering the deserted, spooky ship, that part was great and had some potential. Reminded me of survival horror. If they had had a less silly premise (like the ship being abandoned or something, and there being an actual threat rather than silliness), this could've been great.
Ha, mentioning Rick Berman sexism.
At literally the second convention I ever attended, Marina Sirtis was a guest (February 2008) and I kind of smiled and asked her
"Did the writers have something against your driving or something?"
"What?"
I list off times where they crash the ship, and have a woman in the driver's seat.
"Oh, well, what can I say, they're just a bunch of sexist pigs!?"
I shrug, and say "It's Rick Berman."
She practically stands up from the table where she's doing autographs, and yells "EXACTLY!!!"
The guy who played Ensign Dern later went on to voice Dom Santiago in the Gears of War games.
They never said what Geordi turned into
I mean... The science in this episode is non-existant and it's not the greatest plot but I think this is a fairly solid episode. It's atmospheric, it has some semi-ok horror elements. I'm all for it.
Yes, Cover Voyager again man. Your thoughts are very much welcomed. (Even updated ones!)
Good episode, for me, probably the 2nd best of season 7 (after All Good Things). Easy to understand why others dislike it, though, given the plot contrivances. I like that they show things gradually deteriorating in the first half, then the scenes with Picard and Data are creepy and atmospheric. The transformations do seem to be magic, but so is warp speed.
With regards to Worf entering Troi's quarters, he does the same thing in Clues, using a security override. As to why the crew are slow to realise something's up, perhaps their decreasing intelligence accounts for this.
I looked up the premise, thinking 'hey, which one is that?', and when I read it...
Yeah, no, tear it apart, Lore.
I love this episode, it's only beat by Platos stepchildren from TOS. I would love a TNG spinoff with the crew in their animal forms going through space having crazy adventures.
I actually do enjoy this episode! If you don't take it too seriously and handwave the "science" well and truly away then it's quite a fun ride. I'm personally glad they went this way rather than with multiple Barclays which feels more of a re-tred of Fistful of Datas meets the Nth degree.
Genesis extremely flawed and takes too long to get moving but the section in the middle where Picard and Data find the ship adrift and have to navigate their way through a series of body horror incidents I think is an extremely effective use of Star Trek cross-genre writing and directing. Shame the episode didn't start there and do more of it and more or less launch the first act into the sea.
What can I say? At least it's fun if daft as a brush!
This episode kind of reminded me of that Rick & Morty episode with the Kreunbergs. Speaking of, you should do Rick & Morty that would be amazing!
Barclay was devolving into a spider, one would think that his intelligence would rapidly deteriorate, faster than Riker who only devolved into a proto-human. Even accepting their intron premise, the last human and spider common ancestor would have been something like a trilobyte and preceded the earliest arachnid ancestors by 100's of millions of years.
It would've been the ur-bilaterian, a small worm the size of a grain of rice
My thoughts on the "everyone turns into Barclay" concept is that it would have been somehow stupider, but I still would have preferred it because it would have been way funnier. Also I like Barclay so... more of him is good I guess?
I actually really enjoy the scene where they're arguing about the temperature on the bridge because it's so hilariously mundane. The senior officers on board the USS Enterprise in the 24th century, all moaning at each other about the thermostat. Always makes me laugh. Not a great sign when an episodes most redeeming qualities are moments of unintended comedy and cute kittens.
My personal story with this episode is that for many years, I misremembered it and thought that Worf was the one who turned into a spider. So for many years, I believed that Klingons evolved from spiders, in the same sense that humans evolved from primates. This belief went on the significantly influence and inform my entire headcanon understanding of why Klingons are the way they are; Having evolved from a predator that's all about hunting and devouring, it seemed to make so much sense at the time that a warrior race with an instinctual need for combat would have origins in spiders. I had visions in my head of the Klingon homeworld billions of years ago, being dominated by tribes of absolutely massive tarantulas, and I was utterly fascinated at the idea of these giant spiders eventually evolving into sentient humanoids. Then I rewatched the episode for the second time more recently and discovered it wasn't Worf who "deevolved" into a spider. It was... Barclay. The 100% purebred human. ...what??
Anyway this episode falls into the "not canon cause it's too stuped" category for me. At least it's occasionally funny.
Yeah I do like this episode. I have fond memories of watching this as a teenager as it really creeped me out, and I was in a horrified mood for hours after I watch it, so I personally found it the most effective horror episode that Star Trek has ever done. Now granted you do have completely disregard all logic, and this became more apparent to me when I got older. But if you forget how nonsense the science is in this episode (and to be fair many TOS episodes are like this as well) and just go with it's actually an effective horror. The creep factor in this episode just really works for me, and it was masterfully written that way.
...to be fair, If you're the captain and you chose to go on a three day mission rather then stay on the ship that says something too. Both about Starfleet and about their vacationing options.
I think you need to look at this episode with a light heart. It evokes, in a silly way, the X-files to me. I could well see Picard wanting a three day shuttle expedition, to get the hell away for a few days. I'm sure he took a book or two. Funny as hell is Picard's even-keel reaction to the state of the ship. His reaction to finding Deanna Troi as something out of the Dosadi Experiment is so deadpan it made me laugh. Even as he turns into a frightened primate, he still acts the hero. Bravo. While Worf in heat will be remembered, my vote goes to Riker as caveman. This was one of the funniest episodes in the series, and shouldn't be picked apart for its plot flaws. It's not really meant to be that kind of episode.
In all fairness, if anyone on the ship (save perhaps the Captain) would be able to override (if not simply defeat) security, it should be Worf.
"WE ARE NOT POKEMON"
well not with that attitude
Yes, we absolutely want more Voyager ruminations. Ideally, do the first two seasons in a style resembling your more modern work, and then the last five seasons in an intentional emulation of your retro style. But if that's too much to ask, then just doing them all again would be great. I especially want you to actually discuss the episodes where you said "I have nothing to discuss", notably Coda (even though what you did *instead* of ruminating Coda was one of your best episodes ever).
I'd watch you redo the Voyager ruminations.
Nice job overall, you're really good at these. (You just got the Reading Rainbow song stuck in my head though. :P) I wonder if the episode would have been better if they'd taken the original premise and then said "hey, we're going to pull the 'holodeck gone wrong' card again and just be Pokemon" (I mean literally, license it or something - the Pokemon evolution thing is actually a really unique and ridiculous idea and it doesn't work to play straight but the Star Trek team seems to have an obsession with genetics). As for if I like this episode, I do not remember it AT ALL. I think (in retrospect) I probably was somewhat checked out by the end of season seven (honestly due to the Worf/Deanna thing - I wouldn't have minded it if they'd been together since season 1 but I don't like change in the couples dynamics in general). (One of these days I'll probably come up with something Star Trek related and not Vulcan related that you hate and I like but so far I've been with you!). The Spot being suddenly pregnant thing bugs me a LOT, way more than the declawing thing. Like, it would have actually made sense by the time of Star Trek that they'd have figured out a way to take care of cats' claws conveniently that doesn't hurt the cats, and then it would be just Data's choice whether or not to use it and that's fine. But, even if I apply the same rose colored logic. Let's say that they've solved the pet overpopulation problem (I bet they could even put "extra" pets in stasis until adopted), so that would mean it would be an acceptable choice to allow your cat to have kittens. That applies on planets, where the cycle can be observed. It would be cruel for Data to keep Spot on a starship, alone, as an indoor cat, and just let her go through heat all the time rather than getting her spayed. (And even if Data did it out of ignorance, you can't tell me there was ANYONE on the Enterprise willing to shelter an unneutered male cat! Sheesh.) The writers could've fixed that simply by having Data get a "kitten" (it could be a year old) as a playmate for Spot and then oops, the kitten is pregnant. So much more logical and Data could simply decide he and Spot couldn't deal and re-home the kitten at the end if they wanted to hit the reset. Anyway. I don't want to be the one who sidetracks all your comments into the tunnel vision on one stupid thing direction. I just don't have anything else to say! Re: Voyager - I actually don't want you to remake any of them, but I would love to see you promote that playlist (maybe have website links to all your Star Trek review lists using in show chronology rather than the chronology of the way you made them)? I hope this comes out right - I would really love to see you able to be legitimately proud of your early work as well as your current work. You have improved in a number of ways (you listed a lot of them!) and that matters. I still maintain that the core of what makes your work unique and valuable has existed all along. There's a lot I love in your Voyager series! I don't want to see you have to add a ton more to your schedule (I do get that would just be shows you couldn't review instead) and I also don't want to see something that matters to me as is accidentally removed. You're doing great. Really.
I enjoyed the episode. The premise is week and you can drive a star ship through the plot holes. Some humour in the beginning Riker doesn't like that Picard can get out dull duty and headed on a fishing trip.
I always kind of liked this for what it is. For me, it's right there with Janeway shooting macro-virus's in the face. It's a turn off your brain and have fun getting chased by monster Worf episode.
Have to say that personally I've always liked the concept for this episode. The very idea that humans could, not only evolve but also potentially de-evolve is really interesting idea story wise.
Child-me liked Worf being monster of the week when I originally saw it. It's the most effective he's been throughout TNG Star Trek.
Ouch, lol
Pretty cool he had it in for the woman took a bite out of Troi and went Cobra on Crusher , Yar lucky she wasn't there
It would be unimaginably painful to turn into the creatures they did in this episode and it would be unimaginably painful to revert back.
she turned me into a newt!!! ....i got better
You make really valid points, but I still enjoy this episode. I think I appreciate the acting and horror elements and also recognize the show had gone downhill at this point.
Maybe a good idea would be going over the Voyager highs and lows rather than doing every episodes again. You could do this series by series.
12 year-old me in 1994 was scared shitless by devolved Worf and liked the episode. 22 year-old me thought it was the dumbest thing ever in 2004. 32 year-old me liked it for the campiness in 2014. I'll let you know what happens next when it's 2024. I do note this was one of the points where Worf seriously started becoming the comic relief character for the TNG cast, which is not a good thing. It won't be long from now until it descends in to dad jokes like "do you remember how to fire phasers," LOL!
About Spot, I often wonder if he/she regularly dies, but each time the crew replace the cat before Data finds out, like a parent replaces a goldfish for a young kid. When the kid notices something is slightly different they come up with excuses. I can see Geordi being rushed to reprogram the computer library files to say that "domestic cats sometimes spontaneously change gender and colour for no known reason."
I love how the comments avoid talking about Genesis as much as possible, and instead show support for a redo of the Voyager ruminations. Says everything you need to know, you know?
I'm all for a Voyager re-do, only after you cover TOS and ENT. I'm really looking forward to hearing your insights about these two series in particular.
Lamentation? Hell no!!!! this is my favourite next to parralells.
The science is bad. The logic flawed. The plot has more holes than swiss cheese. But I forgive that. Its fun. Its creepy and atmospheric. I am generous I guess. D+ 1.5 of 5 stars. Fun wins out for me here. No disagreementnin your points. Just personal tastes. Never was into pokemon. After my time.
A disease turning everyone into Barclay would be pretty boring to me; I definitely like the "random animal" stuff. Also the self-diagnosis thing would happen again with Seven in Voyager.
I have to be honest here. I don't think this episode qualifies for lamentation. It's not a good episode, but a year before this came out I wrote a spec script for a tng "horror" episode and it was remarkably similar to this. That said the fact that this episode has the depth of plot of a story written by a 10 year old isn't something that works in its favor. But because of that I personally elevate this episode out of the no watch into the sometimes watch. The directing by McFadden is phenomenal in a way, because I remember a lot of people, myself included, being a bit put off by the fact that aside from Star Trek 2, (which I hadn't seen at this point) Star Trek had this tendency to visually portray space as this flat 2D board. This episode is the first time in tng we REALLY see that z axis when the enterprise is spinning adrift. That blew my mind as a kid. And I really enjoyed a lot of the episode, even if it was nonsense written by a 10 year old. There is a lot that needs to be forced in order to make this plot work. I also remember being extremely confused as to why Picard, Riker, and Ogawa were turning into monkeys but Barclay was a spider. I remember being convinced he wasn't actually human for a long time before I rewatched it and realized that it was just kind of random for him for whatever reason. I'm sure Spot was a lizard because someone on the crew had a pet iguana they wanted to put on screen.
Not a great episode, but memorable and it was actually a VHS episode for me along with Timescape. Even if it was nonsense. I don't think it qualifies for lamentation though. As you said yourself there is good in this episode, and it continues the little slice of life happenings that season 7 has started to throw in. Only about 3/4 of the episode is bad and then there are kittens.
Remember, human rights is a racist term for the humans only club. They turned all the aliens on the ship into humans then transferred them off so no one would ask questions. It's a Starfleet plot, only the Romulans can save us now.
Are we not men? We are Devo!
It's worth mentioning that the whole "send Picard and Data out on a shuttle for no reason" thing is so stupid even possibly-starting-to-be-cave-man Riker is questioning it on camera.
I really want to come up with an episode about crew members devolving which Lore would enjoy....
I think your earlier Voyager reviews were so raw and authentic that it would be diminishing returns to do them again....and I'd rather you tread new ground with Enterprise.
"fresh scent of pine' as used in this rant needs to become a new loreum.
Can never have too much Voyager.
Yeah it's a dumb episode with a dumb plot. But it had Barclay turn into a spider, Troi turn into a fish, and Riker turn into a caveman! And we can't forget acid spitting Worf melting Crusher's face. Awesome!
To be honest I'd enjoy you revisiting Voyager, but I'd love to see your takes on The Original Series first. It's such a very different show with a very different style of storytelling from a very different era of television that it arguably stands far apart from TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT. It'd be interesting to hear your takes on it. But that's just my opinion. 😊
As to this episode, I'm really glad you brought up the direction as a good point because it's easily the only thing about the episode that almost, *almost*, elevates it to competent where the script fails it. Gates was already a very experienced director in theater but hadn't done anything with camera before, and it's really noticable how she works her theater background into the episode: aside from working really well to get good performances from the actors, she also plays a lot of the scenes like theater. There's lots of single camera takes with no jump cuts and other things, so we see the actors playing off of each other in real-time without editing getting in the way, and that actually gives "Genesis" a feel that's totally unique in TNG. The last time I watched it I was bored to tears by the story but found the different style of directing quite captivating, and it does lead to us seeing our actors playing their roles with a little less 'in camera' acting. There are a few times where the camera is actually locked down and we simply see Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner walking about the sickbay set acting without the camera even following them around and it gives those scenes, again, a compellingly theatrical feeling, like we're sitting in an audience watching actors live on a stage.
I'd like to see you re-do the Voyager ruminations.
As for the episode, this is a good "homework episode" for me: something silly and uninteresting I can have on in the background while doing (or, now, grading) homework.
It appears that Spot, who is, secretly, the actual captain of the Enterprise, is the master-mistress of all MMO levels on board, and is able to enter or exit wherever s/he wishes. Any cat will agree with this fact.
Somehow, all the bizarre misreadings and contortions of physics in the franchise don't bother me. But, when they get biology so fundamentally wrong as in this episode (and The Chase, and of course Threshold), it really raises my hackles.
I admit it, I am the guy who likes this episode. Step1 though, Barclay's spider form was stupid. My biggest gripe was always in the end when Crusher calls it Barclay Protomorphosis Syndrome...but uh, this entire situation was entirely Crusher's fault. And they seem to be completely non-plussed about the number of people killed by this.
Yes, please do revisit Voyager, if only to give yourself the peace of mind of having a consistent quality of presentation across the Trek Ruminations.
A cast full of Barclay would be the far more engaging concept, but it would only work in an animated format.
Was Worf not already suffering symptoms during the triple-failure of the torpedo test?
Systems degradation was stated in episode to be due to the acid from Worf in the Jeffreys tubes. And not entirely unprecedented, thanks to the baryon sweep years before. But the artificial gravity being magically exempt is a major plot hole, since the attitude control had been lost and thus the inertial dampeners were clearly disabled.
And I really look forward to seeing how "Voyageritis" will impact the remake of those Ruminations, now that your motivation is not so much trying to convince people that it isn't as bad as TNG season 7...
I do like this episode especially if its your first time watching its pretty scary and will scare ya as a kid.
Lore, I always enjoy your videos. In this case, despite all the problems you've noted regarding this episode, I still like it. Always have. I've been a lifelong Trekker, and I've watched all the series and movies. In this case, I found so many aspects to be enjoyable--- the premise, the action, and the way the episode played out. In my head canon, I like to think there were things (not explained or understood) that allowed the events to play out. Maybe the region of space had some property to it that affected the mutations. If we accept the episodes as reality, then this is not unreasonable. Not often, but once in a while-- if the story is good enough, then the shortcomings don't bother me. If you can accept the reality of transporter technology as an everyday device, then anything is possible. As much as I like the logic and intelligence aspect to Trek, if it's entertaining enough, it can win me over-- even if the faults are numerous. I genuinely enjoy this episode, and I'm not ashamed to say so. Keep up the great work, Lore!
Worf is Security Chief. He has the ability to override everyone's quarters. So that's one nitpick that can be explained away.
he's really abusing that power here ;)
I just thought it was funny that they thought people were devolving especially Barcly into a spider that’s not even on our Ancrstry
Ehh? No. Granted, you'd have to go pretty far back to find our common ancestor, but it is _there._
www.wired.com/2010/05/origins-of-life-on-earth/
I absolutely love this episode; I fully acknowledge that it's ridiculous nonsense science, but the result is still awesome. I see this as in the same category as Timescape, Parallels, and the Naked Now; the first two are my two favorite episodes of TNG, and I still think Naked Now isn't bad, just as I think this one is fun in spite of its idiocy.
The science is atrocious, which I should hate, as a scientist. So is the mechanics of the plot. But something in the actual _execution_ of this episode makes up for that, and makes it an enjoyable watch, as numerous people have commented below. I think that should have saved it from Lamentation status.
I love this episode, it's interesting to see a super sci-fi episode not a topical star trek TNG episode I found this a interesting plot to make other episode ideas like terraforming a planet using a evolution in backwards to see how species evolved. This also should work on plants as well. This should be a RNA type virus not DNA based.
Hurray, I'm finally up to date with TNG. While I do consider this episode bad, I don't agree with lamentation, you even pointed out two good aspects which would not make this the worst of the worst. I also would like you to redo Voyager for two reasons: 1, I'd like to see your take on the episodes now that you have gotten better at this and 2, I can't wait to see you watch Threshold, Equinox, and Unimatrix Zero again.
The question I have is if we changed the premise so this was an alien biological weapon designed to turn the crew into docile creatures with the unintended exception of Worf which it turns into a dangerous creature. Would this episode work? We take out all the bad science and replace it with "an alien did it".
I know this episode has a lot of problems with it story, but it’s still fun and entertaining to watch. This is one of the season 7 episodes where the point is to just have fun making it.
Loved the episode
I'd see a redeux of the Voyager ruminations if anything to see how many lamentations there would be.
The choreography was good. Another touch was Nurse Ogawa's simian movement in the earlier scenes
Random animals is definitely better than A Fistful of Barclays.
I'd happily watch new Voyager ruminations, but TOS must be prioritised!
We are going to Genesis.
I wouldn't say Barclay's self diagnosis is s prediction. Hypochondriacs have been doing that long before the Internet. I remember my mother correlating real and imagines symptoms with entries in a one volume medical encyclopedia.
This episode is fun.
I am genuinely one of those people who both disagree with this being lamentation status, and I even enjoy this episode. Maybe it's because I recall season 7 being mostly pretty bad that this looks better by comparison. Dunno. I like it.
The major thing I like about it is the same reason I like Civil Defense (DS9). The turning a familiar and safe place into an unfamiliar and unsafe one. A lot of that goes to the directing, lighting, etc. But I think it worked.
The extreme whiplash between the last bunch of episodes of TNG (of mixed quality) to the incredible ending story arc of DS9 is eye opening. I guess you didn't do these with DS9s back to back because that would be a headache. All I can say is at least we have the great "All Good Things..." left. But DS9 is like one awesome episode after another. Thank you for your thoughts
I... enjoyed this episode. While being uncomfortably aware of how dumb and inconsistent it was. My intellect hates it, but the part of my brain that munches popcorn watching a lightshow... kinda dug it.
Am I the only one who liked this episode? Maybe I’m bias because I saw this as a kid and liked the horror aspect of it. This is one the episodes that stands out when I think of TNG. Of course they took some liberties with the plot, because it’s fiction. Even if you think it’s a regressive episode to Season 1, it was a good episode nonetheless. It has that “Aliens” sort of feel to it, imo.
Would have been interesting to see Barclay and Data go out in the shuttle to get the torpedo, only to return to find everyone is Barclay.
I suppose the teaser was just to presage the infection theme. All the things that happen are medical issues that are animal, viral or nature related. I thought the mutation makeup was a highlight, as were some of the movements the actors made. I'm a little surprised this achieved lamentation status given the few highlights there were were actually noteworthy, however the overall effect is important to consider too.