Don’t let yourself get carried away by Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II Vol 7
Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II Vol 7 boldly goes further in season three when the going, finally, gets good.
Star Trek The Next Generation S3E02: The Ensigns Of Command
An early entry in the ‘Data must deal with a stubborn village and resolves the situation by tampering with or destroying the water supply’ TNG sub-genre, its title is taken from a poem by John Quincy Adams but if you’re not familiar with the source, it just comes off as one of those impressive-sounding but empty Trek episode titles. While the focus is on Data’s attempts to convince the colonists to vacate the irradiated planet before the rightful owners wipe them out, there’s more fun to be had in Picard’s dealings with the infuriatingly pedantic and bureaucratic Sheliak Corporate who have invoked their own version of Article 50 and demand immediate FederExit.
Star Trek The Next Generation S3E03: The Survivors
What starts out as a mystery eventually evolves into a poetic and poignant romantic tragedy as Picard puts his Dixon Hill skills to use unravelling the curious case of the elderly couple who survived a planetary extinction. It’s a small scale episode in some ways but beautifully formed with a rewarding twist in the tale even if that twist is the creation of yet another immortal omnipotent alien race of which Trek has littered the galaxy.
Star Trek The Next Generation S3E04: Who Watches The Watchers?
A story so good they’d later spin it out into a full-length feature film. A classic Trek morality tale and a classic Trek location – Vasquez Rocks! Once again, Picard pulls his old trick of beaming a primitive to the ship to prove he’s not really a god (it’s basically his version of Kirk’s ability to talk the hind isolinear chips off of any computer). The ethical trifecta of science versus superstition versus the Prime Directive gives the cast a meaty moral dilemma to chew on and a great guest cast bolster a serious and high quality episode.
Star Trek The Next Generation S3E05: The Bonding
Reminiscent of The Survivors a couple of episodes ago, this story deals with another tragic death, this time of a security officer on an away mission, leaving behind an orphaned son for whom Worf – as the leader of the away team – feels responsible. It deals with grief and loss in a curious way, hamstrung as it is by the still-present Gene Rodenberry’s oddly constrictive rules regarding humanity’s evolved sensibilities. When the dead officer mysteriously reappears, though, the crew must find a way to help the boy come to terms with his loss, despite the easy temptation of a life of denial thanks to well-meaning but guilt-ridden non-corporeal life forms.
Star Trek The Next Generation S3E06: Booby Trap
This episode marks the proper beginning of creepy incel Geordi as we see him strike out in his latest attempt to trap himself some boobies early in the episode. It’s a cringe-inducing start to an episode that sees Geordi settle into a pattern of in some questionable behaviour in respect of women in general that continues for the rest of the series. This time, in order to save the away team from an ancient energy-draining trap, Geordi recreates the designer of the Enterprise’s engines on the holodeck and then spends more time flirting with her than focussing on his work.
Star Trek The Next Generation S3E07: The Enemy
Geordi’s bad ‘luck’ with relationships continues as a literal blind date with an injured Romulan on a storm-ravaged planetoid goes as well as can be expected. Meanwhile aboard the Enterprise another Romulan is critically injured and only Worf can save his life with a transfusion but decides not to because of racism. Geordi’s storyline is an Enemy Mine survival trope that Star Trek would return to many times in the future, almost always with better results than this but there’s no denying the power of Worf’s dark refusal to do the right [Trek] thing.
Star Trek The Next Generation S3E08: The Price
Geordi deserves a break after the last two episodes so this time it’s Troi who gets saddled with a creepy romance as well as being fat-shamed by the Enterprise computer. Matt The Town That Cancelled Christmas McCoy plays arch-negotiator and sleazy wormhole salesman Devinoni Ral who catches Troi’s mind’s eye. The negotiations are dull and the love triangle between Troi, Riker and Ral never feels remotely interesting. The best thing this episode does is set up a superior Star Trek Voyager sequel episode.
Star Trek The Next Generation S3E09: The Vengeance Factor
Attempting to resolve a long-running societal schism, Picard convinces the ruler of Acamar III, Sovereign Marouk to seek reconciliation with The Gatherers, a self-imposed exiled faction of Acamarian society. But unknown to Sovereign Marouk, someone in her retinue has a blood feud with a rival Acamarian clan and will stop at nothing to avenge her family and not even Commander Riker’s redoubtable horniness can dissuade the would-be assassin from completing her task. Fair play to Riker, though, for looking to score while Beulah Balbricker’s onboard the Enterprise.
