It’s time for Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II Vol 21 – smoke ’em if you got ’em!

Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II Vol 21 continues with season seven sputtering along, only occasionally hitting the mark.

Star Trek The Next Generation S7E10: Inheritance

craggus' trek trek phase ii vol 21
trek score 4

It’s Data’s turn for the soap opera rinse as he discovers that despite feeling alone his whole life, the galaxy is unfeasibly littered with Soong-type androids, some of which are far superior to him. We’ve met his brother, his grandfather, his daughter and his father, so let’s find out how Data met his mother why don’t we? Unfortunately, its something of a flat, cliched affair with plenty of tired ’embarrassing mum’ sequences and while Data suspects something’s not quite right with his ‘mother’ early on, the audience isn’t really let in on his suspicions to preserve one of TNG’s most absurd twists.

Star Trek The Next Generation S7E11: Parallels

craggus' trek trek phase ii vol 21

It’s another epic Brannon Braga script as he indulges every fan theory ever and lets loose with the parallel universes trope, sending Worf on a quantum leaping crusade through a multiverse of alternative Next Generation realities. It’s a nice touch to bring Wesley back as a background detail and although it would also have been nice to see Tasha Yar again, its understandable they’d avoid re-treading Yesterday’s Enterprise. Full of clever touches, nice ideas and fascinating roads not taken, it’s also blessed with some fantastic effects work and memorable images as it canonically paves the way for the Kelvinverse. After the plummeting low of the previous episode this is a sudden, dizzying high in this absolute rollercoaster of a final season.

Star Trek The Next Generation S7E12: The Pegasus

craggus' trek trek phase ii vol 21
trek score 6

A decent if unspectacular TNG episode, and a piss-poor setting for the Star Trek Enterprise series finale this time the hidden revelation of the past is not a newly discovered family member but a dirty secret from earlier in Riker’s career. When the Enterprise is commandeered by Admiral Pressman (guest star Terry O’Quinn) to attempt salvage of the long-lost USS Pegasus, it quickly becomes clear that not only is there some kind of conspiracy in play but also that Captain Picard Day will have to be postponed. There’s an element of Raise the Titanic to the story of discovering and recovering a wrecked ship but the severity of the transgression committed by Riker makes it seem a little incredulous that he would be let off so lightly and that it would have so little impact on any of the episodes to follow.

Star Trek The Next Generation S7E13: Homeward

craggus' trek trek phase ii vol 21
trek score 4

Worf’s adoptive brother joins the secret family conveyer belt in this tedious and overly earnest prime directive/ holodeck-goes-wrong story which feels like we’ve seen this exact story a dozen times before. It touches on many of the themes which Star Trek Insurrection would revisit but isn’t anywhere near as action-packed as that and ends with a depressing note when Picard’s once potent ability to explain things to primitive natives deserts him and the poor soul commits suicide instead, unable to come to terms with the revelation that he was on a starship and could never return to his people.

Star Trek The Next Generation S7E14: Sub Rosa

craggus' trek trek phase ii vol 21
trek score 6

Dr Crusher’s eyes turn 50 shades of green in one of TNG’s weirdest episodes, one that also feels like a Season 3 Original Series throwback. When Beverly attends the funeral of her grandmother on the Brigadoon-like planet of Caldos IV, she notices an enigmatic and handsome stranger lurking in the shadows and its not long before Beverly finds out the stranger and her grandmother used to go bump in the night, thanks to some steamy journals. Dreadful accents haunt this ghastly ghost story of horny grandmas and more-than-just-scented candles but Jonathan Frakes’ assured direction and some gratuitously gothic production values provide solid entertainment. A somewhat unfairly polarising episode, it’s certainly more popular with the gothic romance crowd than with more traditional sci-fi enthusiasts but there’s no denying Gates McFadden gives a tremendous performance, whatever your feelings are towards the story itself.

Star Trek The Next Generation S7E15: Lower Decks

craggus' trek trek phase ii vol 21
trek score 6

Picking up from The First Duty, this is one of a handful of stories in season seven which suggested there was life in the old franchise yet – if maybe not the current crop of main characters. Focussed away from the main bridge crew, it tells the story of four young officers eagerly awaiting the outcome of the latest round of crew evaluations. Most notable amongst them is Ensign Sito, having graduated from Starfleet Academy and been posted to the Enterprise, a posting which is not a coincidence as we’ll learn. It’s an ultimately tragic episode which provides some pointed and occasionally poignant perspectives on our usual heroes although it’s clearly one of those episodes that should have featured Guinan and had to have a hastily written-in replacement character instead when Whoopi Goldberg wasn’t available for the entirety of season seven. Her absence doesn’t harm the episode too much, but it does leave it feeling a little unanchored as the whole of the drama falls onto the young ensigns’ shoulders.

Star Trek The Next Generation S7E16: Thine Own Self

craggus' trek trek phase ii vol 21
trek score 8

It may initially feel like a story that’s already been done a dozen times before, but thanks to smart direction, lovely production values and a great performance from Brent Spiner and the guest cast, it feels fresh and interesting. It’s almost a remake of The Ensigns Of Command but with improvements in both the A and the B plots. Data’s amnesiac residency in a primitive village is something of a homage to Frankenstein, replete with a finale involving alien pitchforks and it’s fun to see him have to ‘invent’ science in order to solve a deadly mystery. For once having the B-plot unrelated to the main narrative actually works and gives Troi some long overdue credibility as a Starfleet Officer as she faces the bridge command exam which, unlike the Kobayashi Maru, does have a solution.

Star Trek The Next Generation S7E17: Masks

craggus' trek trek phase ii vol 21
trek score 8

Packed full of prime, cheesy Star Trek goodness, Masks feels a bit like a pure blast of Original Series Trek nostalgia as the Enterprise encounters a rogue comet that contains an advanced alien archive. We all know Brent Spiner loves a multi-role episode and he absolutely knocks it out of the park in this one, creating four distinct and fascinating characters as Data finds himself compelled to participate in a ritualistic reenactment of an ancient civilisation. It’s not an action-packed episode but it’s joyously surreal, beautifully staged and endlessly, goofily, entertaining as we watch the Enterprise inexorably transformed into an ancient stone temple.


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