NIGHTMARE ON ENTERPRISE! | TNG Violations Reaction & Review

C is where I would put this (6/10 on my scale). As I said in one of my recent comments, we're in the very long stretch of "meh" for this season.

This is like Day of the Dove where an alien critter gets recharged by the crew's emotions. But that TOS episode was fsr more conceptually creative.

Great direction though

As I scroll through the up comming episodes there are a few more meh episodes coming up, but some damn good ones to look forward to as well.

I am always fascinated by the various kinds telepathic practices (Vulcan Mind Meld, Betazoid passive telepathy, Ulian memory probes, etc.)

This episode is essentially an accidental commentary on "police investigating themselves".

About episodes with a half-dozen writing credits:

Yes, sometimes that can indicate a "too many cooks" situation. But also, TNG had a rather unique system of accepting story pitches from outside writers, which meant sometimes they were reusing years-old ideas, rewriting old scripts, or going "oh crap we have to credit John Q Scriptwriter on this because he also had a shuttlecraft turn inside-out in his story".

Apparently this trashy episode is better than Star Trek VI...

There are a lot of things that are done very well that I don't want to watch. American History X comes to mind. I would rate it very highly even though I NEVER want to watch it again.

Picard with hair looks like Dr. Smith

I miss when you guys used to show the episode previews before you got to the critique.

In Bev's memory scene, identifying Jack Crushers body, Jack died on a ship with Jean-Luc, the thing on his head would be some kind of healing patch. When Patrick Stewart was auditioning for TNG, everyone but Gene Roddenberry loved him, but Gene didn't want a bald captain, so they Air-Freighted Patrick Stewarts toupee from the UK, at great expense. Gene saw him with & without the toupee & agreed he looked better without it. Rosalind Chau popped in & out of star trek depending on her successful movie career (Colm Meaney did also). This unfortunately is one of many of a trope of Troi being psychically assaulted in a way that's disturbing like a sci-fi version of SA. Troi's training with Worf (even if it's klingon tai-chi) comes in handy. Re: Marina Sirtis & Denise Crosby swapping roles at the beginning of TNG. Another reason Marina Sirtis was initially wanted for Tasha Yarr was because that the inspiration for Tasha was Vasquez in Aliens & Marina Sirtis looked kind of similar to that actress (it's hard to imagine those actresses playing those other roles in TNG ).

Compare Season 5's "The seed of violence remains within us" to "We've evolved beyond violence" or whatever from Season 1. Thats why this show got better.

In Re: your grades -- _wow_... I gave it at least a B+, possibly a low A. I thought it was a solid story with a different approach to visuals/direction. (Context: for a show like TNG/any ST series to address the equivalent of rape the way they did was very edgy for the early 90s -- it was handled in a carefully crafted manner that drove home the sense of >cue title< violation that people who are raped/sexually assaulted so often (and correctly) feel, but in a manner that worked within the limits of network/syndicated television at that time.) Definitely a solid B+/A- for me. EDIT: vis-a-vis sexual violation of a woman being the "go-to", as it were -- yeah, this is unfortunately a go-to trope in that regard; however, I think in this particular case it was warranted and well-justified in context vs feeling trope-y or contrived. (Mild looong-in-the-future spoiler: Marina Sirtis will have an... opinion... about a far-future story (you won't be getting there for a number of real-life years at your current progression) that she feels where things were too "go-to trope-y" in that regard relative to ST, and in that particular case she refers to it was contrived, as it were... but in this particular episode it felt correct and fully justified as a narrative point.) EDIT pt 2: The patron takes having it majority at C or D (and 7% for E(?!) ) -- that's crazy. This was a well-handled episode on multiple levels. Not at all perfect -- it's far from an S in that regard -- but at least a solid B.

What about that crazy-ace hairdo on Lady Ulian? You could place small objects in between the braids for temporary storage.

Grading: I'm with Josh. Barely a B. Interesting concept, some pretty cool scenes and direction, but it just doesn't come together as a whole to rate any higher.

This was an episode that aired one afternoon while I was a preteen, and I was hoping to get a girl who I was visiting to like Star Trek, too. So we’re watching this, and that first Troi scene comes on, and she’s like “turn it off”. So, thanks trek. If you’re an adult, they don’t go too far, but for kids, this was a bit much. Some of those shots’s framing really opens the question of just exactly what it is you’re seeing, which makes it super uncomfortable to watch. So D from me just for that. And of course, it’s an “always skip” for rewatches, because who wants to watch that?
I knew y’all would hate this since you know whodunnit early. But keep in mind “Columbo” had been extremely popular only a few years before TNG, a murder mystery series which always shows you not only who dunnit but also how, and then you wonder how the detective will ever figure it out. That’s was the fun. So keep that in mind, this was a genre that was well appreciated at the time.

This season has more stinkers than Season 4, but the bangers are some of the bangiest.

I despise this episode, it's on my list of episodes to skip

....classic.
skinny twisted mind-bender bitch-slapped by rugged primal warrior decades before "puny god" was meme material.

Worf after palm strike: "I was just saying hello."

This is one I didn't want to rewatch but found passable when I did. I had thought the dad was framing the son the whole time, but was disappointed that the twist I remembered wasn't what really happened.

im here for the credit song.... catJAM
Love you guys! This has been an awesome journey!

Oh yeah..... this episode 😶

What episode was Jim carrey in, and why have i never seen it? no star trek website or book mentions this.

Yup, there is a very noticeable lull in the middle of season 5. But once it's over, then it's just bangers for the rest of the season(save for 2 episodes). Including some of the best episodes of the series.

David Sage, the actor who plays Ptarmigan - Tarmin...stupid autocorrect... - was born on the exact same day and year as Patrick Stewart.

A lot of writers grew up watching Columbo and maybe they forgot why it's popular.

I do not like this episode.

Yep definitely the right score for this one.

Don't worry. There are some really great episodes left in this season.

My wife is Japanese, and she REMEMBERS EVERYTHING. BELIEVE. YOU. ME.

"Warp Factor Chaos! Engines Scream!"
I've loved all your theme music since I started watching in season 3, but this one is probably the catchiest one. Kudos to whoever does these for you.

Living these songs at the end. Is there a link?

Expecting to see both of you dozing off during the next ep

Based on your thoughts on already knowing who the bad guy is, you probably wouldn't like Columbo. But it's a great show

"Why do you have to be so nice?" is one of the creepiest sentences ever uttered on the show.

Matt Frewer (Rasmussen) was actually pretty well know in the 80s/90s, having him on TNG was a nod to him being Max Headroom, those who were around at the time appreciated that. Jim Carrey only became broadly known around 1994, three years after A Matter of Time.

I pity the fool who skips the second half. It's worth it just to hear that theme song.

Are you guys gonna jump onto DS9 when that show starts happening chronologically at the same time as TNG? That would be fun to see…

Season 5 was when TNG started to settle into a routine. As you've noticed, there are a lot of episodes where the plot is just average, but the acting and directing is strong. At this point, TNG started to bring in new writers. And here, having half a dozen credits on the script usually doesn't turn out well. There's a good set up, some very good individual scenes, decent character work. But as you noted, the audience is ahead of the main characters, so we fall back on the "Data and Geordi sit by the computer and figure out the plot" trope. I'd give this one a B-, mainly for the creative plot set up and direction of the memory scenes.

Characters should be challenged. Adversity builds strength. There's nothing worse than a character who doesn't earn their wisdom/strength on screen in some way. There's a reason why Picard's thousand-yard stare out his window (at the end of certain episodes) has the power to haunt us after all these years. Why Data's moments of humanity touch us. Why O'Brien's simple enjoyment of a game of darts can make us smile (wait for it, fellas)... because we know the shit they've been through. We've been through it with them.

Hitchcock would sometimes do movies where you know what it is from the start and the tension is a bit about will they figure it out before the bomb or whatever goes off. And they worked really well. But in TV I could see it maybe not working as well because it's not a singular event like a movie. I think maybe it might have been better, in this case, if they just foreshadowed it rather than directly show us.

I know some did indeed have upset about this episode because of the topic. But also I recall some found the way it dealt with it to be, if well intentioned, a bit like cheesy maybe? On dealing with this kind of thing in film or TV I've seen a range of views. I think I recall some victims finding it helpful to see a depiction of that kind of abuse. Maybe even aids processing it by making it at a distance. But some just find it retraumatizing and avoid it. (And some victims I'm pretty sure experience both. Moments where they are open to see how fiction deals with it and moments where it's just upsetting or not what they want that day.)

It was very interesting

NEVER invoke the TI-83 calculator... They are the single most powerful devices on the planet...

It's a well documented fact that google, is literally just an AI born within the complex framework of the networked remains of all TI-83s...

TI-83 is legion...

I agree the concept of this episode is what keeps from being a hard pass as we do get certain moments that are lore moments like Jack Crusher's death and how Picard was injured in it but was still there for Beverly. To me better execution would have done a great deal for the episode. I think using either guest stars without their mackup would have helped add a bit of mystery or even to change up the faces and only do the reveal of the up close shot of the eyes for the reveal and at the same time Troi discovers this Data and Geordi figure it out and they order security to get the culprit maybe. Showing your villain moments into the episode when it's supposed to be a mystery to me is a killer.

This is an E for me.