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Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II – Vol.2

Posted by The Craggus on August 15, 2019August 28, 2019

Here’s your weekly Omnibus Edition of Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II covering Season 1 episodes 8 to 14:

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#StarTrekTNG S1E08 - The Battle. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The Ferengi are back and acting completely differently from their first appearance. Their gift of a mind control night light provides an acting headache for Patrick Stewart as Picard is visited by some very old flames. The crew doesn’t mutiny this time despite their captain being compromised by alien mind control for the second time in as many weeks. Who’s in charge of security around here anyway? ⭐⭐⭐ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #thebattle #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration

A post shared by The Craggus (@thecraggus) on Aug 8, 2019 at 6:33am PDT

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#StarTrekTNG S1E09 - Hide and Q ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Q returns as a three-headed snake to see if absolute power corrupts absolutely. The episode writes Troi out before it even starts and Tasha Yar demonstrates her continued incompetence as security chief by having a tearful tantrum. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ It may nominally be about Riker becoming the god of terribly misjudged gifts (and it gets what ten-years-older Wil Wheaton will look like hilariously wrong) but the best bits are Picard and Q quoting Shakespeare at each other. John de Lancie is always worth at least 2 stars on his own. ⭐⭐⭐ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #hideandq #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration

A post shared by The Craggus (@thecraggus) on Aug 9, 2019 at 10:27am PDT

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#StarTrekTNG S1E10 - Haven ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ When confessing to her weirdly regressive pre-nup, Deanna calls Riker Bill for some reason. That and Lwaxana Troi's cougar-prowling the ship are the only things of note which make this forgettably dull premarital fable almost watchable. ⭐⭐ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #haven #mrhomn #thankyouforthedrinks #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration

A post shared by The Craggus (@thecraggus) on Aug 9, 2019 at 10:58pm PDT

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#StarTrekTNG S1E11 - The Big Goodbye. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Who'd have thought it would take ten episodes before we got our first Holodeck-goes-wrong story? Picard puts Shakespeare aside to Private Dick around with some pulp fiction. It's the beginning of a beautiful friendship (between the writers and the malfunctioning holodeck trope) and ends with Picard greeting an alien race based on the knights who no longer say 'ni!' ⭐⭐⭐ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #thebiggoodbye #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration #montypythonandtheholygrail

A post shared by The Craggus (@thecraggus) on Aug 11, 2019 at 9:52am PDT

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#StarTrekTNG S1E12 - Datalore ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Oh brother! While ‘just in the neighbourhood’ of Omicron Theta, the crew pop back to the planet where Data was discovered and in five minutes find a whole hidden laboratory missed by the official fully equipped survey team. Brent Spiner hams it up as his own evil twin without the need for a mirror universe goatee and Wesley gets ignored AGAIN. ⭐⭐⭐ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #datalore #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration

A post shared by The Craggus (@thecraggus) on Aug 12, 2019 at 6:34am PDT

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#StarTrekTNG S1E13 - Angel One ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Angel One tells #CodeofHonor to hold its beer, get in the kitchen and make it a goddamn sandwich as it baffles with an egregiously ham-fisted battle of the sexes. Riker gives us a hairy eyeful while the rest of the crew come down with a random and narratively unrelated dose of the ‘flu as the writers realise that can’t keep the flaccid gender-swapped power struggle plot up for the whole 44 minutes. 💩 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #angelone #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration

A post shared by The Craggus (@thecraggus) on Aug 13, 2019 at 7:22am PDT

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#StarTrekTNG S1E14 - 11001001 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Picard finds time for #atastydebrief and Riker douches it up by repeatedly misgendering the Binars while asking them to literally pimp out the Holodeck for him so his time off has a ‘happy ending’. Meanwhile, it turns out the Enterprise is really, really easy to steal from a starbase. Kirk and co certainly made a meal of it in #TheSearchForSpock. ⭐⭐ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #11001001 #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration

A post shared by The Craggus (@thecraggus) on Aug 14, 2019 at 7:58am PDT

Tune in next week for the next Omnibus or follow @TheCraggus on Instagram to get Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II directly in your feed. 🖖

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Setting up the ‘studio’ for tomorrow’s shoot. #filmmaking

#StarTrekTNG S5E09 - A Matter of Time ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ When the Enterprise detects a temporal disturbance followed by the appearance of a small space/ time capsule piloted by an eccentric scientist, for one brief moment a million geek fantasy cross-over wishes seem like they're about to be fulfilled. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Alas, this episode is no Gallifreyan gallimaufry but we do get an amusingly impudent turn from Matt Frewer as a supposedly time travelling historian intent on witnessing a pivotal Enterprise mission. And, for once, both the a and the b story here are interesting and successfully executed, dovetailing neatly in a finale which unfortunately adds Berlinghoff Rasmussen to the catalogue of TNG villains who never reappear. You know, the list we wish Lursa and B'Etor were on. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #amatteroftime #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration #mattfrewer

Littlest Craggling got this award at school today. For reading, rather than mathematical excellence but still, I think she’s earned the pleasure of eating a well-cooked meal. #Excellent #DoctorWho #Earthshock #Adric

#StarTrekTNG S5E08 - Unification, Part II ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Given it's the second part of a two-part story, it feels like bad planning (or desperation for the Spock reveal to be the cliffhanger) that this episode has to cram so much exposition in to bring the story to a close. Riker and crew are off visiting alien bars in scenes which feel lifted directly from Glen A Larson's Buck Rogers and meanwhile, our favourite blonde Romulan Sela is back with her latest wheeze being to attempt an invasion of Vulcan under the Federation's nose. After the Klingon civil war debacle, it's clear that blondes have more fun in the Romulan Empire too. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Nimoy is reliably good value as Spock and it's fun to see him interacting with his successor character of Data although it's between Stewart and Nimoy that the episode finds its best moments as they compare and contrast their connections to the recently deceased Sarek. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The worst thing this episode ends up doing, though, is opening the pandora's box which leads directly to the Kelvin universe. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #unificationpart2 #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration #romulans #leonardnimoy #stephenroot #spock #denisecrosby #sela #patrickstewart #brentspiner #kelvinverse

#StarTrekTNG S5E07 - Unification, Part I ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ RIP Gene Roddenberry, who died before this episode aired and to whom this and the second part are dedicated to. It's curiously fitting, then, that this episode sees the most significant cross-over to date of Rodenberry's original creation with its successor as Picard and Data are sent in Search of Spock...again. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ With Spock deciding to do a Luke Skywalker from The Force Awakens, much of the episode is spent padded out with Picard and Data enjoying the 'hospitality' of a Klingon ship commanded by K'Vada (Stephen Root) and cosplaying as Romulans in homage to "The Enterprise Incident". ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Again, TNG demonstrates why two-parters weren't really the series' forte as the episode consists mostly of set-up for the pay-offs of part two. Only the brief appearance of Sarek - and the news of his death - lend the episode much in the way of dramatic weight, unlike Riker's weak sauce detective story. ⭐⭐⭐ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #unificationpart1 #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration #stephenroot #leonardnimoy #spock #romulans #generoddenberry #marklenard #sarek

#StarTrekTNG S5E06 - The Game ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Don't hate the player, or the fact that Wesley's back. Once again, Riker's redoubtable randiness endangers the ship and crew as he's easily persuaded to try out a new game in the hope of getting some. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ And get some he does, get some mind control that is. Sent back to the Enterprise, Riker quickly encourages his friends to try out the latest craze and before long the Federation flagship is surprisingly easily on the brink of being taken over. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Thankfully, Wesley's powerful uncoolness means he remains aloof from the popular kids' craze and he's joined in this by the delightful Ensign Robin Lefler as the pair fight against a high concept sci-fi remix of Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ It's a fun episode, full of lovely character moments - Troi's love of chocolate really intensifies in this episode - and Lefler's another welcome return, getting much more to do this time than in her #Darmok debut although this would be her final onscreen appearance. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #thegame #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration #ashleyjudd #leflerslaws

#StarTrekTNG S5E05 - Disaster ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Having flirted with the trappings and tropes of the genre time and time again, Star Trek finally goes all-in on the Irwin Allen-isms and turns the Enterprise's tangle with a quantum filament into a Poseidon Adventure clone, with entertaining results. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Ensign Ro makes her second appearance, deliberately paired with Chief O'Brien to see how well the two characters worked together with an eye to their transfer to Deep Space Nine (although Ro turned out to be a no-go, d’oh!) and the cast and crew have great fun splitting up the regular characters and distributing them throughout the ship to deal with the various interlinked crises that have occurred. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Picard stuck in the turbolift with some kids is a particular highlight as is Worf becoming a midwife to Keiko's baby but everyone gets a fun moment in a fun-packed episode. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ It's a very different type of episode but thanks to that it feels fresh and, in amongst all the fun, it doesn't forget to move some characters forward in important ways, especially Troi. Oh, and Happy birthday, Molly O'Brien! ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #disaster #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration #colmmeaney #michelleforbes #marinasirtis #rosalindchao

#StarTrekTNG S5E04 - Silicon Avatar ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The episode might begin with old smoothy Riker making a dinner date with a would-be colonist but he ends up dining on ashes when the crystalline entity attacks. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ It turns out to be the same crystalline entity which attacked Omicron Theta, the colony world where Data was first discovered. As the Enterprise tracks the lifeform across space the crew are joined by Dr Marr, a xenologist who's made a lifelong study of the entity after her son was killed during the Omicron Theta attack. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ It's a solid if a little underwhelming episode but it succeeds thanks to its willingness to embrace a darker ending that you might be expecting from TNG. There's some good work by guest star Ellen Geer as she goes full-on Ahab in her quest to destroy a unique alien lifeform but it's hard to ignore that much of the regular cast pretty much just stand around and watch. ⭐⭐⭐ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #siliconavatar #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration #thecrystallineentity #omicrontheta

#StarTrekTNG S5E03 - Ensign Ro ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Coming aboard at a Space Doc', Ro Laren arrives on the Enterprise and she's not bashful about being grumpy. She's been put there by a sneezy Admiral who's planning to use Captain Picard and his crew to manoeuvre the Federation into siding with the Cardassians against the Bajorans. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Riker might be less than happy to have Ensign Ro onboard but she's just the kind of presence needed to help thwart the Cardassian's dopey plan when a visit to a sleepy colony of Bajoran refugees reveals the truth. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Although it hadn't yet been commissioned, this episode ended up inspiring a lot of Deep Space Nine. Michelle Forbes is a great addition to the cast, bringing a needed touch of friction to the snow-white do-gooders about the NCC-1701-D. It's not every show that can introduce a new alien race and two of the most significant supporting characters in TNG's storied history in one go. That's right, this episode also sees the debut of Mr Mot, Bolian barber. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #StarTrek #TheNextGeneration #ensignro #CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #StarTrekTheNextGeneration #michelleforbes #rolaren #mrmot #bajorans #bolians

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